The Emperor’s Angel of Death

Following the instructions of the Inquisition's texts, the Rangers traveled to the designated 'uninhabited' world and discovered a barbaric kingdom, but it was more than just a barbaric kingdom. This maiden world contained several enormous Webway Gates, most of which were sealed. Only one remained functional, and according to the local inhabitants, this gate led to a powerful Craftworld named Iyanden!

Evidently, the attack on the human colony fleet was Iyanden's attempt to ensure that this Webway Gate remained undiscovered by humanity. However, the locals also stated that Iyanden personnel and ships had not emerged from it for many, many years.

Due to its location in a remote corner of the galaxy and the lack of contact with other Craftworlds for many years, this kingdom, called Sotar, was extremely isolated. Its inhabitants were also highly distrustful and dismissive of outsiders. Although they did not drive the Rangers away, they made it clear that they had no interest in any Eternal Court and simply wanted to live undisturbed.

With numerous matters on his plate, Solzhenitsyn did not have the time to handle this personally. After listening to Salania's report, he instructed that envoys be dispatched to slowly engage with the locals, bringing gifts and informing them of the events unfolding in Orpheus, warning them of potential dangers. Of course, the Rapid Response Fleet would also need to patrol the area regularly to ensure its security against Necron attacks.

After dealing with these matters, Solzhenitsyn immediately rushed back to Amara. The intelligence Lana provided was quite useful, as it at least gave him an understanding of the enemy's tactics, bolstering his confidence and allowing for adjustments to military deployments.

However, upon returning to Amara, he immediately received unexpected news – a company from the Marauder Chapter had arrived.

These were old friends, one of the White Scars successor Chapters that participated in the fighting within the Maelstrom, and the parent Chapter of the Mantis Warriors. Furthermore, the leader this time was Captain Julio, whom Solzhenitsyn knew well.

Solzhenitsyn immediately met with Julio. After ten years apart, their reunion was quite emotional, filled with warm greetings. Julio then informed Solzhenitsyn that the Chapter was currently assisting local systems in a war against Orks in the Tempestus Sector, near the Eye of Terror. However, after receiving the High Lords' request for aid, they dispatched a company here, with Julio leading the force due to his familiarity with Solzhenitsyn.

Although a single company of Space Marines could only have a limited impact on the overall war effort, it was better than nothing. Solzhenitsyn expressed his sincere gratitude for their willingness to provide reinforcements despite their own stretched resources.

He then threw himself into the intense and ongoing preparations for war.

Lana's intelligence corroborated Solzhenitsyn's earlier predictions: the enemy would likely target the main world of Amara first, bombarding it before deploying large numbers of infantry, then turn to confront the human fleet, using their speed advantage to achieve a swift victory. Therefore, he needed to further strengthen Amara's orbital defenses, increase the planet's surface-based void shields and other protective facilities, and construct sufficiently strong underground bunkers. The fleet deployment would remain unchanged.

During this time, a minor disturbance occurred within the Spiders of Ghaul from Necromunda due to issues with their rations. Fortunately, it was handled promptly and quickly quelled. However, Solzhenitsyn became curious about this regiment from the famous Imperial Fists recruiting world. Their equipment was quite good, even better than the Krieg Death Korps, especially their infantry support weapons. Their company-level support firepower was among the best Solzhenitsyn had seen in the Astra Militarum, and many of their equipment pieces were unfamiliar to him.

Moreover, they were quite unique within the entire Necromundan contingent. The Necromundan task force deployed to Orpheus consisted of twelve regiments, nearly 600,000 men. Except for the Spiders of Ghaul, the equipment of the other regiments was similar to that of the standard Astra Militarum, with only minor differences in personal gear. This regiment, however, was exceptionally distinct.

After further investigation, Solzhenitsyn learned that the Necromunda Spiders of Ghaul were a very unique type of 'expedient levy' within the Departmento Munitorum's structure. This type of formation was often used to recruit soldiers from hive gangs with high levels of civilization and inherent organization. The recruited gangs were allowed to use their own equipment, only needing to add the insignia of the Astra Militarum. In other words, they were essentially 'militia' – using their own weapons, equipment, and organizational structure, albeit with the addition of Imperial functionaries such as Commissars and Chaplains.

Furthermore, there was another interesting fact: the entire Necromunda Spiders of Ghaul regiment was drawn from a single family on that world, the Van Saar family. Solzhenitsyn, not fully understanding the situation there, initially thought this was Necromunda's ruling family, but the Spiders of Ghaul's supreme Commissar cleared up his confusion.

It turned out that the Van Saar family was not the ruling family of Necromunda, but they possessed a technological empire that monopolized the planet, controlling most of Necromunda's key facilities involving complex technologies, as well as most of the power generation facilities for electricity, promethium, and so on. They also had massive factories and top-tier tech-workshops. Nobles would spend vast sums to purchase various technological products from the Van Saar family, such as the famous Huntsman armor, which was mostly produced in their workshops. Even many hive cities required the Van Saar family's technical support and maintenance for their basic operations. In a sense, they replaced the Adeptus Mechanicus' functions on Necromunda.

Therefore, on Necromunda, although everyone was under the Emperor's rule and naturally accepted the Machine God's dogmas from the Adeptus Mechanicus to keep their factories and production lines running, when the Mechanicus' dogmas failed and the proud Tech-priests of the Mechanicus were unavailable, the factory owners would naturally turn to the Van Saar family, who were not far away.

In this unique atmosphere, the Van Saar family also possessed a high degree of organization and discipline that many hive gangs lacked, thus attracting the attention of the Departmento Munitorum and becoming a highly unique expedient levy. The spider marking of the Spiders of Ghaul was said to originate from the Van Saar family's heraldry, but direct members of the Van Saar family rarely left Necromunda. Those who joined the army were mostly members of subordinate gangs and the Ogre-Mek of the collateral lines - a unique warrior class within the Van Saar family known for their technological prowess.

With a strong sense of curiosity, Solzhenitsyn inspected some of the Necromunda Spiders of Ghaul's unique equipment.

First, their rifles were very different from the Mars MKIII short-barreled lasguns most commonly used by the Astra Militarum. In addition to being longer, they could even mount under-slung Eradicator flamers, which was quite interesting. Solzhenitsyn also saw a unique compact lasgun in the Spiders of Ghaul's veteran companies.