The Emperor’s Angel of Death

Actually, Sol was quite concerned about Krieg, because this fortress world was not too far from the Nesen star system, located in the Storm Region close to the Solar Region. However, as one of the key fortress worlds of the Departmento Munitorum, it was difficult for other forces and departments to intervene.

After a brief chat with Marshal Karis Venner, Sol learned that they had also been hastily transferred from their homeworld. Most of them were newly formed units, originally intended to be sent to the Obscurus Sector, but after the Orpheus incident, they were suddenly transferred here.

The most crucial point was that the Departmento Munitorum did not specify who they were responsible to when they came. Normally, it would be the sector governor, but now that Sol was here, according to the general rules of Imperial command, Sol, as the Chapter Master of the Adeptus Astartes and holding the position of Lord Commander, could take over command.

Sol admired this aspect of the Krieg Guard the most. Their senior officers would not pursue glory or command, but would prioritize finding a higher-level commander and obey their orders.

Since that was the case, Sol took it upon himself and immediately ordered the Krieg Death Korps to set off with him for the main world of Amara.

Ding dong~

With the alarm clock ringing again, Orpheus Governor Garibren Lang raised his eyes from the piles of parchment and data slates. The documents, like small mountains, occupied the huge solid wood desk in front of him. Each document was urgent, and each decision needed to be made immediately. All of this was just part of the work he had to complete in the next hour.

Although it was early, any brief laziness was considered a sin—even though he knew it would cost him later.

The governor at this time was no longer as graceful as he used to be. From the oil painting hanging on the wall, it could be seen that he used to be very rich and full of vitality, but now he looked like a withered old man, his hair disheveled, his face sometimes ferocious, sometimes haggard, sometimes angry. Long-term emotional fluctuations had made him a little neurotic.

Finally, he forced himself to take a slight breath and got up to walk to the window of the room.

The Governor's Palace was located on the tower of the New Vasburg Hive, which was also the largest ecological complex on the planet. From his office, he could easily see over the spire of the hive, and on this clear day, he could have a panoramic view of the hive's landscape stretching for dozens of kilometers, although most of the time, only the depressing industrial gray came into view.

Amara was the heart of Orpheus, with a huge population and several huge hive cities, and it also accommodated tens of billions of lives.

He used to be in his palace, confident that he could control everything in the sector. All the court intrigues, coups, and riots were insignificant to him, let alone threaten him.

But now, in his office, he couldn't feel a sense of security.

The sky was unusually clear today, and the deep and surprisingly blue was as fiery as fire. Because the governor's spire was above the clouds, he could enjoy the expensive sunshine. As the haggard, mad-like governor stared at the sky, the last wisp of cloud vanished like burning paper, and the blue became even more dazzling.

Although he did not look directly at the sun, the color had begun to make him uncomfortable, and he could not help but squint his eyes and shield them with his hand.

"Emperor on Earth, save us."

As the light shone on his face, the governor couldn't help but mutter to himself, and tears even began to fall from the corners of his eyes.

He was too painful, too tired, and too desperate.

For a hundred days, or less than a hundred standard Terra days, the foundation entrusted to him by his ancestors, the territory entrusted to him by the God-Emperor, was ravaged and trampled into a sea of blood by terrible alien enemies.

As the Empire's border fortress in the Storm Region, Orpheus had endured nearly four thousand years of Chaos invasions, Greenskin rampages, Eldar raids, and civil war destruction, but it still stood tall and even burst with vitality. The ruling family's governors had always attached great importance to development. Orpheus was remote, but it was actually a relatively prosperous area in the Storm Region, with 3 sub-sectors (Capital District, Drusilla, Druvia), 11 minor administrative districts, 7 extraterritorial blocks, 26 large hive worlds, 121 small agricultural worlds, mining worlds, and new colonies, with hundreds of millions of soldiers, and possessing a considerable level of industrial power. It once paid 39 million tithes to the Empire, and was also one of the ten key human tithe source areas in the Storm Region. No planetary governor would believe that this sector would be defeated in less than a hundred standard days, many worlds would fall, and countless subjects of the Emperor would be massacred. It should be known that Orpheus itself was semi-fortified, and many worlds had built solid fortresses and powerful orbital defense facilities.

In these years, the Orpheus Sector, like many other sectors in the entire Storm Region, was attacked by a sudden surge of warp storms and other cosmic disasters. This situation caused a sharp increase in the number of ships missing in the warp in the region, and even originally stable main routes experienced many accidents. Along with these phenomena, there were also various natural or unnatural disasters throughout the sector, and at the same time, cult activities increased to the highest peak since the end of the Age of Apostasy.

On many worlds, latent psykers and psyker-sensitive people reported encountering the same nightmare again and again, such as dead cities and rising darkness, and pale bodies walking in the dust of the death world. The information about the popularity of this nightmare was ruthlessly suppressed, but the Ordo Xenos did increase the number of inquisitors in the sector, although it only increased from six to ten.

The direct problem brought about by the obstructed routes was that the various worlds in the Orpheus Sector became more isolated during this period, and the control of the sector by the rulers of Amara was also weakening. Fortunately, with the vigilance of the Orpheus Fleet and the Angels Resplendent Chapter, the Empire's rule could be maintained. They risked their lives in the warp and successfully thwarted many rebellions and pirate conclusions.

Garibren Lang also succeeded to the throne against this background of an approaching storm. He always remembered his father's dying teachings, to remember his responsibility to the Empire, and to preserve the family's honor and foundation. Originally, he thought that these chaos could be survived as long as they persisted for a period of time, but he did not expect that these were just omens before the darkness descended.

When he received the news that the sector was under attack, he was stunned. Where did the enemy come from, what were they, he and his subordinates had no idea, and the planetary governors under him and the generals stationed in various places just kept requesting support, but these requests for help were soon drowned in darkness.