The Emperor’s Angel of Death

Chapter 3186: The Crisis of Arathimos

Unknowingly, time flew by, and it was already 986.M41, only a dozen years away from the turn of the century. Solzhenitsyn thought that the Storm Territory should be peaceful for a while, but obviously, the galaxy is rarely peaceful, and this peaceful day was soon broken.

The news came from a nearby forge world, Arathimos, also known as the Spiderweb Star.

Although this forge world is very close to the Nason Star System, Solzhenitsyn has not paid much attention to it, because it is indeed not large in scale. Originally, it was a very large world with an ancient history, and a mechanical empire was established long before the Great Expedition.

When the Expeditionary Fleet came here, Arathimos demanded that they respect their sovereignty, and the Empire chose to send a legion to directly conquer it.

This battle cost the Forge Empire more than three-quarters of its strength, forcing Arathimos to submit to the Empire. The Forge Empire became dust in history, and the Forge World Arathimos was born.

After that, due to its unique laser equipment production technology, Arathimos was quickly favored by the Custodes, which made its status soar, but its relationship with Mars was still quite tense, and it became part of the Iron Belt.

After the outbreak of the Great Rebellion, the Iron Belt was torn apart by internal divisions, and Arathimos also broke out in civil war in the divisions. The rebel faction first occupied the planet, and then was crushed by the loyal Titan Legion Hunter Legion, but the entire forge world was already devastated and never recovered. The Hunter Legion also declined from the former second-level legion to the third-level last-rate legion, and there have been few major actions and honors in the following 10,000 years.

But not long ago, they encountered trouble. A group of Greenskins who had fled from the Pacific Star Territory launched an invasion. Although the Arathimos Forge World resisted with all its strength, the two satellites fell one after another. Now, what's worse is that after losing the satellites, the Greenskins have a base for attacking the planet, and they can directly put the war machines they pieced together with wreckage and ruins onto the surface of the planet, which puts great pressure on the Ecclesiarchy and the Titan Legion.

And because the planet is located in a remote area, calling Terra is definitely too late. Calling the surrounding Imperial Guard and Imperial Navy, I don't know when they will arrive. In this case, they first thought of the Star Knights.

But what's amazing is that the distress signal was not sent directly to the chapter, but passed to Solzhenitsyn through Bangura.

At this point, Bangura didn't hide it anymore. In fact, he had been tinkering with a "New Iron Belt" plan.

That is to unite the forge worlds of Ulan Huda, Arathimos, Zhao-Akada, and Ekvoria, share technology, complement resources, form a complete industrial and trade chain, and maximize the use of the resources of each star system on the chain. In the future, they can even consider bringing Gryia and Atar-Median on board, and build a large number of resource stations, intelligence stations, and space stations within the Iron Belt.

Solzhenitsyn couldn't believe the power generated by such a large-scale forging and production belt.

Even saying something rebellious, this can completely form a new empire!

So Bangura started hooking up with Arathimos a long time ago. The forge world, which had been marginalized after the Great Rebellion and could not get any help and attention from the Empire, and whose political and economic status had almost been lost, would be lying if they said they didn't have any resentment. They once turned their home into ruins for loyalty, but all they got was ruins. Who wouldn't have something to say in their heart?

More importantly, Bangura promised to give them the opportunity to revive their former glory. This plan is not only in Ulan Huda, but also in the hands of the vast resources and military power of...

Lord Nason Governor.

Arathimos certainly wouldn't start wearing the same pants as a suspicious forge world from the beginning. The contact and testing between the two sides lasted for several years. Of course, because Solzhenitsyn was always busy with the front-line war, he didn't know about these, or Bangura rarely notified him when he launched these diplomatic activities.

Of course, the Forge Director of Arathimos saw the prosperity of the Nason Star System, and he knew the reputation of the Star Knights and the reputation of Solzhenitsyn very well. He even heard about the mysterious auction, but the Star Knights had never actively contacted the Arathimos Forge World, which easily gave people the feeling that Solzhenitsyn might be underestimating it.

In fact, it was almost the same. It wasn't underestimation, Solzhenitsyn just didn't pay attention to it.

Considering Solzhenitsyn's attitude and its own strength, Arathimos's response to Bangura's contact has always remained at a relatively superficial stage. The two sides conducted some technical exchanges, and Ulan Huda also provided them with some production lines to meet the increasingly severe production requirements - although it has declined, the Empire, or rather Mars, has not reduced its order requirements at all. The huge production tasks have always been pressing Arathimos so hard that they have not been able to manufacture a new Titan since the Great Rebellion, and can only do their best to maintain the existing Titans, repairing and patching them up to make ends meet.

In other words, the two sides actually lacked an opportunity to "meet", and this Greenskin invasion was a good opportunity.

Although Solzhenitsyn didn't like Bangura's presumptuous attitude, as if he was eager to secede, his proposal was indeed very attractive. After all, the forge worlds in the Storm Territory were too weak. If faced with a high-intensity war, it would not be enough to rely on only three main forge worlds. If the Tyranids were larger, the entire territory might be bitten through.

Moreover, Greenskins are a small problem at first, but if given some nutrients, they will become a big problem. Solzhenitsyn doesn't want a Greenskin empire to appear near his home, that would be very disgusting. Some chapters have been entangled with the Greenskins near their home for hundreds or even thousands of years because they didn't handle the Greenskin threat near their home well - yes, that's the Crimson Fists.

However, Solzhenitsyn is also very short of troops at the moment. Almost all the companies of the Star Knights have been sent out, and the White Templars are almost the same. All he can use are his own first and eleventh companies, as well as the 389 recruits who were successfully transformed last year, Luko's Saborn troops of 218 warriors and 100 recruits (the total number of recruits is 489), and the White Templars only have a first and fourth company left, as well as half a tenth company, which is 251 recruits (the total number of recruits is 481).

After carefully calculating for a while, Solzhenitsyn asked the two chapters to each leave 200 veterans to guard their homes, and all the remaining recruits were dispatched. This time, it was also used as a practical training. He wasn't very worried that there would be any problems in fighting this group of Greenskins. After all, with him personally present, there wouldn't be any major problems. On the contrary, he was more worried about those companies that were sent out, but there was no way. The warriors always have to be trained, and they always have to grow. Casualties are unavoidable.

After a simple preparation, Solzhenitsyn assembled his troops, took some of the fleet, and headed towards Arathimos with the Randall as the flagship (the Eternal Loyalty remained in the Archdiocese as Ustad's flagship).