The Emperor’s Angel of Death

Chapter 3126: The Mystery of the Sacred Vulture

"The Defender Network? Chapter Master, what is that?"

Oscar caught an unfamiliar term in Sochoyan's words, and boldly asked about it. Sochoyan explained it in detail to everyone.

The so-called Defender Swarm Network was a defense plan proposed long ago but never implemented. Since the Defender fighters had a short range, it was difficult to cover the entire star system and could only defend key planets. Therefore, when the Defender fighters began to be built, Sochoyan had a bold idea: to build a large number of air stations in the star system. These air stations would be based on relatively fixed asteroids, hollowing them out to build hangars, command centers, and other facilities. They didn't need to be too large, just enough to accommodate a thousand fighters at a time. The distance between them would be about half the maximum range of the Defender fighters, which would ensure that the swarm's range of action would be expanded, and they could even intercept enemies at the edge of the star system.

The only problem was that the amount of engineering required was relatively large. According to the Mechanicus, nearly 2,000 air stations would be needed throughout the Nasan star system to complete this network.

After weighing the pros and cons, Sochoyan further modified the plan, abandoning the use of natural celestial bodies and instead using "containers" as air stations!

Of course, these containers were not real transport containers, but a code name. Their shape did resemble containers, being huge cuboids. Their structure was simple to the point of being rudimentary, consisting of a storage depot, launch platform, supply station, and control center. They had no engines and almost no defensive weapons. Movement and deployment required transport ships to tow them.

The disadvantages were almost comprehensive, but there was only one advantage—

They were cheap and easy to manufacture. With the industrial capacity of the Nasan star system, a large number of them could be built in a short amount of time.

However, this plan had not been finalized because Sochoyan was also considering whether such a tight defense network was necessary. But this attack made him determined.

"Also, have you noticed that the shape of the guerrilla ships is very different from that of the Imperial ships?"

The company commanders all nodded after hearing this.

"We've noticed. Is there any deeper meaning?"

"This is the ingenuity of the designer. The reason it's designed to be flat is to make it easy to fit into the cargo hold of a large ship. Its width and weight have been carefully calculated, and it can be completely stuffed into the flight deck of an Emperor-class battleship. A large anti-gravity plate can be temporarily installed on its bottom, which means it can actually be carried by an Emperor-class for warp travel, although it can't carry many."

The surrounding company commanders were amazed when they heard this.

Afterwards, Sochoyan went to check a warship belonging to the Third Legion that had been captured in the last naval battle, the Retribution-class battleship 'Lure'.

This ship lost control after its bridge was completely destroyed. Afterwards, Luke had it towed to a satellite of Nasan VI for safety, and then Elena controlled the Avista to approach the derelict ship and release the Sacred Vultures.

Luke didn't know the specific process, including how many Sacred Vultures Elena released. Elena just said hello to him. At the time, he didn't even know what Sacred Vultures were.

About 10 hours later, Elena told Luke that the inside of the ship was cleaned up, but it was best to wait for Sochoyan to come back before dealing with it. At that time, Luke was in a hurry to go to the Grand Diocese to provide support, so he didn't check it.

Therefore, when Sochoyan boarded this huge warship, the first thing he felt was cold.

Although there were many breaches in the ship, most of the internal structure was intact. When the gate was opened, a chilling sensation swept over him, even colder than the void outside.

Walking deep into the ship, in addition to the Third Legion's indispensable blasphemous and twisted decorations, there were various ugly and nauseating servants, such as girls whose bodies were forcibly stitched together with three legs and five hands, and human centipedes more than ten meters long stitched together with the bodies of men, women, old and young, showing how deep the depravity of this once Emperor-named army was.

But these had all become corpses, frozen and stiff corpses, which would shatter at the slightest touch.

The warriors who followed Sochoyan all the way were surprised by all this, whispering and guessing what killed them.

After walking for a long time, they saw Chaos Space Marines for the first time. Several corpses wearing blasphemous armor were piled in the corner of a hellish torture chamber, as if they were mice chased by cats, huddled together with nowhere to escape.

When Sochoyan used his foot to turn their bodies to face him, he saw that their highly mutated heads were a strange gray-brown color, their mouths wide open, as if they were still screaming before they died. There was a deep scratch on the front of the armor, as if it had been scratched open by some kind of beast.

In addition, Sochoyan also saw signs of ablation on their armor, but only limited to a small area, as if something had spontaneously combusted.

Staring at these corpses, a scene appeared in his mind. The symbols of worshiping evil gods on the Chaos Space Marines suddenly burned, and at the same time they began to scream in pain, then ran desperately, but something chased after them.

In the end, they fled here, turned around and tried to resist, but were knocked away, and could only squeeze together back to back, waving their weapons in vain.

Then they fell, pressing against each other.

The heat of their bodies was drawn away, their souls were devoured, and even their gods could not save them.

". . . So this is the Sacred Vulture."

Sochoyan nodded thoughtfully. He had never used this thing once, partly because he couldn't use it, and partly because Elena said that they couldn't be deployed away from the Avista, otherwise accidents would happen.

But he always remembered that sentence, the Sacred Vultures were prepared by Xerxes for the "Primarchs".

But later, as time went on, Sochoyan gradually became suspicious of this sentence. With Xerxes's personality, he shouldn't secretly plot against his brothers.

Unless—

Unless he knew the Primarchs would rebel?

Then it would make sense if these Sacred Vultures were prepared for the rebellious Primarchs.

Wait—

Sochoyan suddenly remembered that there were a total of nine Sacred Vultures, which was exactly the same as the number of rebellious Primarchs!

No, it is rumored that Alpha is a twin Primarch.

Or rather, one of the Alphas did not rebel.

If that's the case, then why didn't Xerxes stop it? And why didn't the Emperor use the Sacred Vultures?

Did Xerxes never tell the Emperor about this?

What's the reason?

Also, what exactly can the Sacred Vultures use to deal with the rebellious Primarchs? And why does the number have to match the number of rebels?

Various questions came one after another, suddenly making Sochoyan realize that Xerxes was by no means as simple as a mere victim, he seemed to be planning something as well.

Is everything also a disguise?

Would he know what I am thinking in my heart at this moment?

Would he explain?