The Emperor’s Angel of Death

Dragon Knight Yvaine maneuvered his Venom Dragon 'Deathclaw' out of the ship in an elegant gliding motion, leaving the artificial gravity field and flying into a wide entrance.

There were no docks here, only towers and palaces, with high-sailed, wide-winged ships floating in the vacuum, orbiting a spherical star cluster suspended in the void, while many Spiritbone turrets slowly rotated around them, the center being a massive fortress composed of numerous spires, some connected by sealed corridors, with various turrets spreading like fungi in between.

The surface of the Spire Sanctuary had four massive entrances, the brightly lit interior faintly visible through the gaps, and a number of ships were entering and exiting from there.

This ancient stronghold, called Dragon's Nest, was about the size of a regular satellite, drifting in the outer reaches of an unnamed star system, leisurely orbiting a dying star, long solar banners extending from the surface of the Sanctuary into the aether, capturing particles from the solar wind, a typical Eldar energy device often accompanied by a psychic energy hum, almost imperceptible in the silent void.

The collected energy would pass through a crude, modified Infinity Circuit—a product of the Craftworld's soul stone technology and the Commorrites' engineering, sufficient to maintain a weak protective field to resist demonic incursions, allowing the pirates within to stay away from the undivided gaze of 'He Who Thirsts'.

Yvaine was not alone; behind him followed eighteen knights riding similar winged dragons, all of which had been professionally bred by the Drukhari to be larger, fiercer, and stronger, capable of flying in the vacuum, their emerald-raised scales able to withstand various lasers and crystal weapons, and escorted by the dragons was a golden skimmer, on which stood Golden Guardians and several Eternal Handmaidens, the handmaidens wearing ornate armor, golden crowns, and white cloaks, holding banners—they were messengers of the Eternal Queen, there to convey the Queen's will.

They had arrived aboard a ship, a small ship, fast and stealthy, but even so, it had been attacked by the Black Heart Kabal fleet when approaching Dragon's Nest, but because they were already very close to Dragon's Nest at the time, it seemed that these Commorrite residents did not really intend to fall out with the Void Dragon Corsairs, and ultimately did not continue the pursuit.

The reason the Royal Court sent a second envoy was simple.

According to Kelis Canelli's report, the internal conflict within the Void Dragon Corsairs had reached a critical point. It turned out that Princess Salania still wanted to solve the problem herself without relying on the power of the Royal Court, and preserve the foundation her father had passed on to her, so she secretly sent people to contact Vect, hoping that he could stop, willing to pay for peace, and guaranteeing that the Void Dragons would remain completely neutral in the future.

But who was Vect?

Salania's actions exposed her weakness and ability. Vect directly "increased the dose." Shortly after Salania sent an envoy, several old subordinates of the Void Dragon Corsairs loyal to Salania were assassinated.

The angry Salania immediately found the assassins, who were also several elders in the group, and then killed them, but due to insufficient preparation, two of them escaped and took away more than a dozen ships, joining the Black Heart Kabal fleet.

But this did not solve the problem, but made the contradiction completely public. Some pirates chose to leave because they did not want to be involved in the struggle between the Royal Court and Commorragh. The Black Heart Kabal did not make things difficult for them. Some pirates who were not in Dragon's Nest but were active outside also announced their departure from the Void Dragons, resulting in nearly three hundred captains leaving this ancient Eldar pirate organization in just ten days.

This was Vect's biggest conspiracy. As the largest pirate group today, most of the Void Dragon's captains are generally active outside, but if a war breaks out directly, these captains are very likely to return to defend their organization.

So he chose to first divide the peripheral forces of the Void Dragon Corsairs, causing the pirates active outside to choose to stand by or leave, and then dealing with the Void Dragon Corsairs headquarters would be much easier.

Due to this series of bad decisions, Salania's prestige within the pirate group has plummeted, and more and more people doubt her ability. Some people have publicly stated that they hope she can abdicate and let someone more capable lead the pirate group out of the predicament.

Of course, no one has shouted the slogan of surrendering to Vect so far, which is also the smartest thing about Vect.

He has never stated that he wants to occupy the Void Dragon Corsairs. Instead, he has played the "slogan of freedom," claiming that the Eldar are a free race, with the freedom to live according to their preferences, the freedom to sail among the stars, and the freedom to plunder lower races. The Eternal Royal Court wants to deprive them of these freedoms and is completely a dictatorial and evil regime. His dispatch of troops this time is actually to defend the "free pirates."

Although packaging himself as a "freedom fighter" is indeed a bit ridiculous for Vect, what the pirates need is this attitude. They do not want to be involved in political struggles, but they do not want to be included in the "law." Many people broke away from the Craftworld in pursuit of freedom, although the Royal Court also claimed that there would not be very strict precepts, but it is also a fact that armed plundering of non-hostile races is prohibited.

In this case, Salania's situation has become very difficult, so the only thing she can do is to hug the Royal Court's thigh, hoping to stabilize the situation and then plan for the future. The situation can be said to be changing rapidly.

However, Kelis Canelli's previous visit only represented the Privy Council, and the authority was not enough. After making deployments, Sozyan sent another envoy team based on the situation. This time, it will directly convey the meaning of the Royal Court and give Salania a "platform."

But the real mission is to stabilize the Void Dragon Corsairs.

After all, it is never they who decide their fate, but the battle that is about to happen.

After some time, the envoy team entered the Dragon's Nest. During this time, Yvaine carefully observed the surrounding environment. Occasionally, a few small boats flew through the void, but most of the Eldar here, like them, either rode single shuttles or glided in gravity suits.

After entering this area, as long as you look up, you can see cruisers, frigates, and other floating ships parked near the spires. Because Eldar pirates tend to operate in warbands, with numbers ranging from single digits to fifty or sixty, they tend to use micro-small ships, such as Lily-class and Aconite-class ships, which may be about the size of patrol ships in the Empire in terms of tonnage, or smaller Hunter-class ships, which are micro-ships only two to three hundred meters long, very fast, not very powerful, and can be driven by only a few people, and can even perform boarding missions. They are the most commonly used weapons for pirate warbands to attack merchant fleets and are the main force of the Void Dragon Corsairs' huge fleet.

Of course, the pirates do have large ships, such as the giant ship that Yvaine saw that was as large as the surrounding buildings.