Warhammer, but Emperor's Chosen

His face was so gloomy that water could drip out of it, because he hadn't looked better since yesterday.

Although his warriors have been winning victory after victory, the news they receive is getting worse and worse, just like now -

"It is estimated that these aliens, gene stealers, have footprints all over at least one-third of the area of ​​the Underhive. The exact number cannot be calculated, but there are at least tens of millions, or even more!

"Although the aliens' weapons were very simple, almost all of them were fearless. The aliens launched thousands of attacks in all directions within one day, leaving behind millions of corpses.

"They should want to seize the elevator and go to the middle nest or even the upper nest, but I don't know their specific purpose yet."

Andal briefly introduced the current situation, and finally looked at Noah who was wearing full body armor. After all, no one here knew the habits of these aliens better than him.

Noah thought for a moment and spoke cautiously:

"They should be trying to hide in the Middle Nest and wait for an opportunity to board a spaceship and leave the planet. The nature of Genestealers makes them eager to expand their population and spread their infection among the stars. Of course, it is also possible that they simply misjudged your strength and mistakenly thought they could be driven back to the Middle Nest, or they were just feinting to cover up other purposes.

"The only advice I can give is to never underestimate the cunningness of the aliens!"

In fact, this was not the first time that humans had fought against Genestealers. More than 700 years ago, the Blood Angels had encountered Genestealers on a spaceship and suffered heavy losses, with more than 950 Astartes killed and only a few survivors. The Blood Angels were almost wiped out.

It was also at that time that the current Chapter Master Dante was ordered to take over the position of Chapter Master in an emergency.

But even though humans have encountered gene stealers long ago, they clearly have no systematic awareness of the dangers of these alien creatures.

Even the Blood Angels, who were facing the crisis of extermination, probably only regarded the Genestealers as a dangerous alien - this was not surprising. The aliens in the galaxy were always strange and bizarre, and it was inevitable that there would be some extremely harmful aliens, just like those who were exterminated in the Great Crusade.

Furthermore, the Blood Angels' several encounters with Genestealers were on space hulks, making it easier to associate Genestealers with the Warp rather than the vanguard of aliens from outside the galaxy.

Huron asked bluntly:

"How long will it take to completely wipe them out?"

"It's hard."

Andal replied, "The terrain of the Underhive is too complex. Even if we put all our troops into the Underhive area, it will be difficult to eliminate all the contaminated people in a short period of time. Unless we give up screening and completely eliminate all the population of the Underhive."

"Then do it!"

A Space Marine roared angrily, "Kill all these bastards!"

Huron looked up and saw his captain, Kanak Comdus. This morning, when they were clearing out the Genestealers, a Terminator squad was ambushed by the aliens.

Although they killed hundreds of Genestealers, one Battle-Brother was killed and several others were seriously injured.

Just as Noah said, the claws of these aliens could easily tear through their power armor.

Although their grenade launchers can also easily kill these aliens, in the narrow and dark environment, once these aliens use their numerical advantage and their firepower to get close, even the Space Marines can be easily killed if they are not careful.

Huron calmly analyzed:

"Calm down, Brother Canak, you and I both know this is unrealistic. It is almost impossible to completely kill all the people in the Underhive. Unless an extermination order is issued to this planet, the complex environment of the Underhive will always provide cover for a small number of people, and there will always be aliens that survive!"

Although the contact time is still short, everyone understands that it will take a long time to completely eliminate the aliens.

Although they successfully killed millions of aliens in one day, this was under the premise that the aliens took the initiative to attack. Since the aliens realized that they could not seize the elevator from them in a short time, these aliens rarely took the initiative to attack them, but began to use the complex environment of the bottom nest to hide themselves.

Clearly, they changed their strategy.

Instead of thinking about repelling them quickly, they had to hide themselves as much as possible and lurk on this planet. As long as even one Genestealer survived and there were enough people in the bottom nest, they would continue to spread the infection and would sooner or later recover to the current scale, or even larger than it is now!

Captain Greg gradually fell silent, but he was still gritting his teeth.

"Where's the alien's body?" Huron asked.

"it's here."

Andal lifted a piece of cloth in the corner of the command center. The huge room was filled with a large number of cylindrical tempered glass tubes soaked in liquid, in which were soaked gene stealers with four arms and hard shells.

Andal explained:

“It’s hard for us to catch them alive.”

"It's ok."

Huron didn't care whether there were any survivors. He watched the alien crashing into the huge 'bottle' with an expression of disgust even more than before.

"Huron Chapter Master,"

Noah spoke up, "I think you realize how dangerous these xenos are. As I said before, I must get to Macragge as soon as possible."

“Why?” Huron asked. “If, as you say, these xenos have infiltrated every world in the Imperium, then why was it necessary to notify the Ultramarines separately?”

"..."

Noah was silent for a moment, then said in a serious tone, "Because the aliens you saw are only the vanguard of the Zerg. The real main force is still roaming outside the Milky Way, but they are now approaching Macragge!"

"How many?" Huron frowned.

"Hundreds of millions, but..."

Huron interrupted him, speaking in a low voice:

"I'm asking about the size of the fleet!"

Noah emphasized seriously:

"I'm talking about the size of the fleet, hundreds of millions!"

Huron's face darkened again. All the fleets under his command only had dozens of battleships. Even if the destroyers and frigates were included, there were less than three hundred warships in total. It was hard to say whether the total number of warships in the entire empire was 100 million. And you told me that the Zerg's fleet was worth hundreds of millions?

If someone else told him that the aliens had hundreds of millions of warships, Huron would definitely sneer and think that the other party was exaggerating. But Huron had witnessed the terrifying infection speed and huge number of Genestealers with his own eyes, and now he couldn't help but believe it!

Chapter 15 Win-Win = I Win Twice

Badab, the House of Thorns.

Back in the meeting room of the fortress monastery, Noah thought for a moment and then spoke:

"Captain Huron, I would like to set off now if possible."

"I'm afraid not for now."

Huron shook his head and explained:

"I will have the Astro-Speaking Choir send a psychic message to Macragge. If nothing goes wrong they should be warned within a standard month."

Huron's explanation did not let Noah down his guard. He said in a deep voice:

"Captain Huron, you should know that astropathic communication is not reliable. I also have astropaths on my ship. If this method is effective, I will not choose to take the risk of crossing a subspace channel that has not been used for tens of thousands of years and has not been verified for safety!"

The Empire's star communication is much faster than subspace travel. It takes only a moment to leave a star system, several hours to cross a sub-star region, and only a few days to cross a star region. If the signal is strong enough, it only takes a few weeks to transmit across star regions.

Huron had not lied when he said Macragge would be warned by psychic communication within a month.

however--

All of this is based on the premise that Macragge can receive their psychic communications!

Just as accidents often occur in warp navigation, astropathic communication is also unreliable, because astropathic communication is also highly dependent on the warp. Its essence is that astropaths draw psychic energy from the warp and project various symbols or iconic images into the distant void.

In order to prevent psychic signals from being intercepted or even tampered with by the enemies of the Empire, astropaths usually perform extremely complex encryption to ensure that even if they are intercepted by the enemies of the Empire, they will not be able to decipher them in a short time.

But this complexity also exists for the Empire's astropaths.

Some messages require weeks of poring over tomes on divination and symbolism to fully translate, and only the most skilled astropaths can do it word for word on their own.

That is to say, even if everything goes well, it will probably take two months for the Ultramarines to receive and translate this astropathic signal. Even if it is translated, its content will only be very vague information.

of course.

If the astropath's psychic power is strong enough, and they have a good enough understanding with the astropath on the receiving end, they can even communicate with psychic projections across hundreds of light years with low latency. However, this communication method is very difficult and can only be done by the best astropaths. It is also very harmful to the astropaths themselves and cannot be maintained for a long time.

Badab is too far away from Macragge, and the Astral Claws and the Ultramarines have rarely had any contact in thousands of years. It is somewhat wishful thinking to expect them to have such a psychic.

Therefore, if you want to warn the Ultramarines, you can't just use astropathic communication, you must rush over in person through the subspace channel. This may be much slower, but the information transmitted will be more complete.

Huron noticed that Noah was already somewhat dissatisfied, and patiently explained:

"Of course, Lord Noah, I understand your urgency, and I also know that astropathic communication is unreliable. But I think you must have misunderstood me. I am not trying to stop you from going to Macragge. On the contrary, I just need some time to gather the troops!"

"Assemble the troops?"

Noah looked surprised.

"Yes."

Huron nodded slightly. "In fact, I have already sent astropathic communications to the Mantis Warriors and the Lamenters. If nothing goes wrong, they should have assembled their fleet and rushed to the Badab system. In addition, the warriors of the Star Claws are also on their way back to Badab..."

"That is to say..."

Noah's tone softened slightly.

"Yes."

Huron smiled, "I will lead the fleet to Macragge with you, along with reinforcements from three Space Marine Chapters!"

After a brief pause, Huron added:

"In fact, the Ultramarines are the parent group of the Astral Claws."

"how much time is required?"

"Within a week."

Noah was silent for a moment, then said in a deep voice:

"If you're not ready in a week, I won't wait for you!"

"Of course!"

Huron said with a serious expression, "If the reinforcements don't arrive in Badab in a week, I won't wait for them!"

Noah glanced at Huron, and he could see that Huron was determined to go to Macragge with him.

As for the reason, it's not hard to guess.

Huron was not a filial son, and he was definitely not in a hurry to rescue Macragge because he was worried about the safety of the mother group. Otherwise, he should have let Noah go to Macragge first, and he would have gathered the troops and followed, instead of insisting on keeping Noah and waiting for him to set out with him a week later.

After all, Huron's purpose was actually very pure. He had no bad intentions. He just wanted the Extreme Warriors to owe him a favor.

There may be concerns about the parent group, but they are certainly not as pure as the actual benefits.

Noah certainly could see Huron's little trick, but he didn't point it out, because this was exactly what he wanted.

In the entire galaxy, there are very few Space Marines stationed in the same star region, and the Maelstrom is one of them. The reason why Noah chose the Maelstrom as a transit station is because there are three Space Marines stationed here!

Huron wanted to go to Macragge with Noah, or rather hoped to arrive at Macragge with Noah, because he wanted to leave the impression on the Ultramarines that "the Astral Claws would rush to support with all their belongings as soon as they received the warning."

As for Noah, he is the same as Huron - can the impression left on the Ultramarines by the Rogue Trader going to Macragge to warn and the Rogue Trader bringing three regiments to Macragge's rescue despite the dangers be the same?

The former would at most make the Ultramarines grateful and owe him a favor. But the latter was different. While the Ultramarines owed him a favor, they would also owe favors to the three chapters: the Astral Claws, the Lamenters, and the Mantis Warriors.

And thanks to the favors owed to them by the Ultramarines, these three chapters will owe favors to Noah.

Because it was Noah who came to the Maelstrom and informed them of the crisis on Macragge, they had the opportunity to gain favor from the Ultramarines.

In other words.

The former is at most a one-way favor from the Ultramarines to him personally, and can only ask the Ultramarines to take action once at most.

But the latter can turn one favor into seven, and four of them are owed to Noah by four Space Marine Chapters. He can ask these four Space Marine Chapters to take action once each!

As for the Extreme Marines, although they will increase the favor they owe from one to four, they will not only not care about it, but will be grateful instead - others have come thousands of miles away and taken huge risks to support you, it would be impolite if you still care about it!

so.

Although Noah and Huron were calculating against each other, the result of this calculation would be a win-win situation - Noah won twice.

Chapter 16: The Guardian of the Great Vortex

Dominar Hive, Palace of Thorns.

Noah stood in front of the large French window of a luxurious palace, bathing in the sunlight from the sky, and looking at the spire of the nest city in the distance.

Although rather monotonous, those spires are one of the few 'sceneries' on this planet.

Noah shook his glass and said in a leisurely tone:

"Why don't you ask me why I know so much?"