The Emperor’s Angel of Death

Just as the two company commanders were speechless with shock at the grim situation depicted by Talos, a voice suddenly came from a brass loudspeaker hanging on a pillar.

"Chapter Master! Admiral Georg Carrus, Supreme Commander of the Orpheus Sector Fleet, wishes to have a video communication with you!"

"Connect it."

When the projection device was activated, the air in front of Sotha turned into a ripple of water, and then projected a man in a naval admiral's uniform, who gave a standard Aquila salute.

"Greetings to you, Chapter Master Sotha Aleksey!"

"Greetings to you as well, Admiral Georg Carrus."

After a brief greeting, the admiral immediately explained his purpose.

"You and your chapter are the first Astartes chapter to come to the aid of Orpheus. After the sacrifice of the Soul Drinkers, your arrival has brought hope to everyone, but with no disrespect intended, we have scanned a ship in your fleet that is not in the Imperial ship registry? Its size is also so astonishing, may I ask..."

"It is an Abyss-class, a warship converted from salvaged wrecks. I will have the keel identification code sent over."

"Is that so... I... I have a request."

"Please speak."

"May I be allowed to board the ship and see it for myself?"

Even through the blurred projection, Sotha could still feel the hesitation and desire of the other party. This fleet commander must be a ship lover, and he couldn't help but be restless when he saw such an unfamiliar and enormous ship.

So he nodded.

"You may, but Garribalen is still waiting for us, so the time must be controlled a bit."

"Half an hour, please give me just half an hour!"

Subsequently, the admiral brought a large group of naval officers to the Randaal, and while being shocked by the scale of this magnificent giant ship, they were also amazed by its internal structure and various parameters. Although some of the weapons were not standard Imperial weapons, Sotha brushed it off with a sentence of "experimental equipment from the Mechanicum," and of course, the area in charge of the Hearthkin was not open.

For the Orpheus naval officers, who were located in a remote area, they had never been exposed to this level of warship, so the most frequently asked question was - which is bigger, the Abyss-class or the Gloriana-class?

Sotha's answer was that, on average, the Abyss-class was larger, but there were also size differences between the Gloriana-class, so it was impossible to generalize.

Taking this opportunity, Sotha also roughly understood the strength of the Orpheus fleet.

It could only be said that it was okay, but the ships were generally old, and many had been in service for far too long.

For example, their battleships were basically Retribution-class and Emperor-class, with a total of 3 ships, of which only 1 Emperor-class was undergoing temporary repairs, while the flagship, the Alaric Overlord, was an Apocalypse-class battleship, also a legacy left by Saint Marduk.

In addition to the 4 battleships, the Orpheus fleet also had 29 cruisers of various types and 195 smaller ships. Before the outbreak of the Bloody Hundred Days, they actually had 35 cruisers and 234 smaller ships. In just a hundred days, the entire Orpheus fleet lost 6 cruisers and 41 smaller ships.

Even with such losses, the scale still looked quite large, but when Sotha carefully inquired about their combat readiness, the admiral seemed a little unnatural. Although he said everything was fine, he couldn't fool Sotha.

After leaving Amara III, the fleet sailed all the way to Amara Prime, and soon approached the target.

As the capital, Amara Prime was naturally the most heavily protected. In addition to a series of orbital weapon platform facilities, it also had two large combat space stations, or rather two small fortresses, guarding the planet's high orbit. They were named Sentinel One and Sentinel Two, each a monstrous firepower machine. To the naked eye, the huge metal structure in the shape of a spinning top was covered with dense laser arrays and missile launchers, as well as multiple void shield generators.

Based on the scanning results, Father Sunar, who was on duty on the bridge, roughly estimated that the firepower of these combat space stations was roughly equivalent to a cruiser squadron. Combined, even a battleship would have to avoid their edge.

"Not enough, far from enough."

Sotha shook his head at this.

"If the Necrons are really determined to raid Amara Prime, these two combat space stations will definitely not last more than twenty minutes."

He walked to the Cogitator platform, examined it carefully for a while, and continued:

"The defense problem is too big. They are all relying on fixed weapons to block the enemy, but with the flexibility of Necron ships, it is easy to drill into the unfavorable firing positions of fixed weapons. I don't see any fighter platforms, not a single one, but this is precisely the weapon to block the Necrons. They have few ships and few fighters, and although the performance is good, the quantity is the only thing they can't make up for. A large number of fighters can effectively delay the Necron attack. Their firepower density is not enough to quickly clear large areas of aircraft, and the melta missiles carried by the bombers are still a threat to them, and they are easier to approach than warships."

Talos suddenly laughed:

"You can't expect everyone to know as much about Necrons as you do."

Sotha nodded, and retracted his gaze from the Cogitator screen.

"Yes, so that's the biggest problem. Orpheus still has the strength, but knows nothing about the enemy, except what it is."

"This battle will be difficult."

Talos's words made Sotha realize something. He walked to his side, lowered his head and said softly:

"Brother, what did you see?"

"Corpses, countless corpses, human, metal, and a dark green moon covering the sky, surrounded by black stars."

Talos's description was very abstract. Sotha frowned and thought for a while, then said with some hesitation:

"The Necrons' warships are crescent-shaped... The dark green moon wouldn't be that Tomb Ship, would it?"

Talos shrugged.

"I don't know about that, but I saw two strange moons."

Sotha walked aside with his hands behind his back. He didn't necessarily believe the words of the Eldar Seer, but he trusted Talos's premonitions. After pondering for a while, he believed that the strange moon Talos saw was the Necron Tomb Ship, or perhaps even worse...

For example, the World Engine...

If they really deployed this thing, then even the Randaal might not be able to stop it, but even if it was a Tomb Ship, Sotha felt that this battle would be difficult if two came at once. Don't look at the fact that there are many Imperial ships, but not many are useful. If it hadn't been for the use of the Dynasty's ships in the last battle, it would have been a sweep by the opponent.

"Chapter Master, Amara has sent a request to dock!"

The communication from the bridge interrupted Sotha's thoughts. He turned around and said:

"Reply, permission to enter the port."

"Yes!"

Soon, the huge fleet entered the port area in the orbit of Amara Prime. As soon as they entered, a large group of sector military and political dignitaries were waiting. Representing the Governor was a Prime Minister, and the local Ecclesiarch was also present. After a brief exchange of greetings, Sotha took the Governor's private shuttle to the surface of the planet.