“God-Emperor above! God-Emperor above! Ah——! Hum, hum——ah——!”

“Ahh! The Divine Emperor!!”

As time went by, more and more residents of the hive city woke up from the nano-disaster, and screams began to be heard one after another in the devastation, which in a sense gave some life to this dead world.

When the hive city spires collapsed in the war, the people of the empire, exposed in the ruins in broad daylight, struggled and twisted like maggots revealed after the stones were lifted up, trying their best to squeeze back into the dark and narrow cracks to gain a slight sense of security.

The empty environment, the sky I had never seen before, the body in an unfamiliar state, all of this was so terrifying.

Only a few resistance soldiers with better mental states were able to retain a little rationality in the fear and notice the milky white light that kept appearing in the suburbs of the hive.

That was the light from the teleportation beacon.

Giant humanoid machines over a hundred meters tall walked out of the light and walked towards the collapsed ruins in groups, causing screams and wails to rise one after another.

Many residents who had been hiding in the cracks crawled out from the dark corners and fled desperately using their hands and feet. Others were so frightened that their legs went limp and they could not stand up, so they sat there in despair, praying for the Emperor’s blessing while digging the ground with their hands. Their fingers were constantly worn out by the hard sand and bleeding, and were constantly repaired and healed by the nanorobots implanted in their bodies, and this cycle repeated.

“Can such a person really help the leader’s cause…”

On the shoulder platform of a Cyberlux war body, Lystia and several fellow Truth Monks looked with some distress at the people below who were either crying or hysterical.

“The common people in the hive generally lack education and knowledge. They may have mistaken the Cybertron war body for the orcs’ King Kong.” A monk said, “Except for the Imperial Titan, this is the closest thing in form.”

“That’s true, but these warriors don’t have any weapons.” Lysitia said helplessly.

The Cybertron warframes they brought had their two-handed main weapons removed, and their plasma destroyers and laser matrices replaced with oversized melt saws and hydraulic claws for transportation, cranes and other equipment.

In short, this is a Titan construction team that is here to carry out post-disaster reconstruction. Except for the diplomat Lystia, everyone else in the team is a civil engineer.

“In fact, hydraulic claws and thermal saws are also lethal weapons.” An old man muttered.

The Titan construction team advanced along the main road in the suburbs of the hive city while clearing the debris of buildings. After successfully inciting a beating from the remaining resistance forces, they successfully found someone to communicate with.

Baroness Henriette, who had just woken up and was still in a daze, accepted the meeting request from the Truth Order construction team surrounded by a dozen guards. They had no other choice.

As the second daughter of the Duke of Farner, Henriette was quite familiar with the Order of Truth. Her brother bought a finely crafted power sword produced in the Falla Space City from the black market as her 16-year-old gift.

I don’t know which resistance soldier’s body the sword is on now.

“It’s my honor to meet you, Madam Diplomat. Were you the ones who drove away… and destroyed the orcs of Farner?” Henriette asked cautiously.

“Yes.” Lysitia responded generously.

She handed Henriette a paper agreement with the official seals of the Imperial Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of the Interior and the signatures of several star governors, and then said:

“This is the handover agreement signed between our leader and the Human Empire. Here – your father, Duke Fafner’s signature and biometric identification code are also on it. In the name of the Star Bullet, the Fafner Galaxy is from this moment on the legal territory under the jurisdiction and management of the Order of Truth.”

Henriette blinked and looked at Lysitia’s enthusiasm. She was embarrassed to say that she didn’t know the biometric code of Duke Farner.

Lysitia didn’t notice the Baroness’s embarrassment at all. She placed one hand on her chest and said emotionally, “Welcome to embrace the truth. Whether you are willing or not, the truth will embrace you.”

Chapter 178 Clay Artist

The tentacles of the swarm continued to spread in the thin starlight of the Far Eastern frontier.

Some important planets that were first brought under the control of the Order of Truth, represented by Fafnir and Orokkol, have begun to organize large-scale reconstruction and reproduction.

“However, despite the 007 work of the monks of the Order of Truth and the help of a large number of intelligent robot servants and giant war body construction teams, the reconstruction progress of planets such as Fafner is still far from ‘efficient’.”

In the control room of the Ring of Doom Colossus, Grey Wind sat on the table in front of Russell and reported to him the current situation of the Far East Frontier:

The expeditionary fleet took away most of the important officials and technicians in the Far East. The Mechanic Orders of the Forge World, such as Musbell, emptied all the industrial capacity and important resources of the entire planet, drove the Mechanical Ark and the Forge Fleet, and ran away without looking back, riding on the curvature bubbles created by the Valkyries. “

Russell smiled, looked up at Gray Wind’s full chest that was shaking like jelly, and said, “The lack of management personnel is indeed a troublesome thing, but from another perspective, if the Far East region had not been cleaned up like a blank sheet of paper, the original nobles and bureaucrats would have come to me with their pedantic and corrupt leadership teams… In that case, I would have been in a state of panic.”

Gray Wind nodded thoughtfully: “That’s true.”

It doesn’t like dealing with the bureaucracy of the human empire.

“Right.” Russell suddenly remembered something and poked Huifeng’s soft chest with his index finger: “A short person who is less than 1 meters tall can’t have breasts as big as grapefruits, and there is no natural droop at all. This is too fake.”

This kind of breasts can only exist in the two-dimensional world; the real human body is not like this.

“That’s not what you said when you dozed off leaning against me.” Grey Wind looked at Russell as if he were a pig’s hoof.

“I couldn’t see the overall proportion at that time…” Russell felt a little guilty.

Gray Wind silently adjusted his height to be only one head shorter than Russell, about 168 cm, then jumped off the table and stood in front of Russell and turned around: “Is this okay?”

“It’s much better now, but it’s still a bit too big… Can’t it be a little smaller?” Russell asked.

Russell didn’t dare to think about what the image of the Star Bullet would become if the subordinates of the Order of Truth saw Gray Wind following him like this.

“No way.” Huifeng put his hands on his hips, head held high and chest puffed out, trembling with a very proud look.

“Okay.” Russell gave up. Since it wanted to do this, he couldn’t force Gray Wind to do this just for his own image.

Besides, he really likes big ones.

Gray Wind then smiled contentedly and continued, “Although the expeditionary fleet took many people away, not all capable people left the Far East. The forging sage of the city planet Embla, Spangler, stayed in Faya with his followers, declaring that he would break away from the jurisdiction of Mars and submit to the Marshal.”

“He… That’s right. Spangler has invested a lot of effort in the construction of Ideal City.” Russell nodded and said, “It’s a good thing that he is willing to join us. Although the Mechanicus is superstitious, the academic and technical level of the technical priests is unquestionable. Recruiting a small group of oil men can somewhat alleviate our shortage of manpower…”

“As for the shortage of resources, it will be solved soon. Anti-Entropy just reported to me not long ago that the matter decompressor in the Quiet Black Domain will be completed soon.”

Once the matter decompressor is online, he can start large-scale construction with the inexhaustible raw materials in the black hole.

Looking at Russell’s serious expression as he lowered his eyes, Gray Wind couldn’t help but raise his eyebrows and smile. Compared to the life-and-death war with Chaos and Aliens, it would be happier to plan future development with the Marshal now.

Grey Wind prefers construction to destruction.

On the main star of Fafnir in the Astoria sector, the reconstruction of the hive industrial zone is still progressing slowly, and the scarlet tentacles of the Zerg are also carrying the Ring of Destruction into deeper space.

While there is a shortage of manpower in the rear, planets are still being taken back on the front line. This embarrassing situation will continue for a very, very long time.

While Russell was concentrating on integrating the Far East frontier, an expeditionary fleet completed the first phase of its voyage.

The 13th Expeditionary Fleet, led by the Blue Blood Noble Chapter Captain Eliwood, sailed out of the Far East at warp speed, crossed the vast sea of ​​stars, and arrived at the first stop of the expedition:

“Vidal” sector.

The Vidal Sector is located on the eastern edge of the Ultima Segmentum and is one of the closest Imperial sectors to the Far Eastern Frontier region.

But distance is only a secondary reason why Chapter Master Eliwood chose the Vidal Sector as the first stop for the 13th Expeditionary Fleet. The main reason is that there are two Forge Worlds belonging to the Mechanicus in the sector:

Antaks

Hypnos

The two forging worlds can provide a large amount of equipment, personnel, and resource supplies for the expedition fleet. In addition, the Vidal sector is also the location of the fortress monastery of the “Ladies of Martyrdom” nuns of the state religion. The holy planet is called “Sanctuary No. 101”.

At the call of the Emperor’s cause, the sisters of the Order of Our Lady of Martyrdom will not hesitate to lend their aid to the expeditionary fleet.

Entering the Vidal Sector, the curvature bubble created by the Valkyrie-class battleship “The Heroine” gradually dissipated, and the 13th Expeditionary Fleet exited the warp speed and gradually approached the core forge world of the Vidal Sector, the star system where Antax was located, at sub-light speed. The astropaths in the fleet also began to actively try to contact the local astropathic office to notify the arrival of the expeditionary fleet.

Because of the fear of Chaos obstruction, the 13th Expeditionary Fleet did not use the subspace engine, but sailed here at warp speed. This kind of early visit without passing through Mandeville Point always needs to be notified in advance, so as not to be mistaken for aliens or Chaos fleets by the local galaxy defense forces.

After all, the Valkyrie-class battleship was too conspicuous. It was different from any known Imperial warship and lacked a lot of superstitious decorations that were common in the human Empire. Every day, the state church priests and technical priests in the fleet argued over whether to brand the Imperial holy emblem or the gear skull representing the God of All Machines on the female heroes.

——In the end, they just hung the flag of the Blue Blood Nobles Regiment.

In the cabin of the Heroine, Chapter Master Eliwood was thinking about the next negotiations with the Forge World Antax in his private office.

Including how to convince the local forging generals to support their cause, how to fend off the Mechanicus’s quest for the Valkyrie of the Heroine, how to balance the interests of several local families in the process of building the stargate… Eliwood made complete and sufficient preparations for all the tedious official duties that would make Russell complain.

As the offspring of Robert Guilliman, internal affairs management and diplomatic negotiations have always been the specialties of the Ultramarines, and Eliwood is the best among them.

It’s a pity that his preparations seemed to be useless. The chief think tank “Senerio” of the Blue Blood Noble Corps knocked on the door of the office and brought a horrifying bad news.

“We received no response to the astronomical communication we sent out, Freyr.” Chief Librarian Senelio addressed the battle captain by his last name: “What I saw during meditation was a dead silence. No sound could be heard in the sea of ​​souls. It was like a silent desert.”

Is the subspace signal of Antax blocked? Or is it?” Eliwood pondered.

As far as he knew, there were some ancient creations from the Dark Ages of Technology that could achieve similar effects of Warp Silence on an astronomical scale.

“There are some possibilities, but probably not.” Senelio shook his head and denied: “The astropathic communication was dead silent, but when I was meditating devoutly, I heard some… different sounds.”

Looking at the serious expression of the Chief Think Tank Director, Eliwood realized the seriousness of the problem.

Senelio was not a very serious person, and his usual style was quite unruly, which made him out of place in the disciplined Blue Blood Nobles Chapter. If it weren’t for his high-level psychic attainments, no one would support him as the Chief Librarian of the Chapter.

Even the cynical Chief Librarian had put away his usual lax look and became serious, which meant that the current situation had become extremely serious. You know, even when the heretic rebellion broke out in the Trodrom system and the former head of the Blue Blood Nobles was assassinated by the Dark Eldar, he had never been so serious.

“What sound did you hear, Senerio?” Eliwood asked.

“To be precise, it’s not me, but the ‘female hero of the palace’.”

Senelio said: “Several warships including the Valkyrie of the Palace of Heroes and some large equipment have heard the gentle voice from the warp. A certain existence in the warp is calling the machine soul, calling the Palace of Heroes to come to Him and gain true freedom.”

“!– Let’s go.” Eliwood made a prompt decision, put on his helmet, and walked out of the office and into the cabin with the chief think tank.

As he walked, new information was constantly transmitted to the captain’s ears through the communication channel built into the helmet:

“Report! Tachyon sensors have detected multiple unidentified flight signals in the airspace around the forge world Antax! A fleet is patrolling around the world, but the appearance and configuration of each ship is very different from the Imperial style!”

“According to the biological sage Lord Igranu, she has seen two ships of similar structure in the Flare Star System in the Far Eastern Frontier. The fleet hovering around Antax is likely to belong to an ancient alien race called ‘Necrons’ by the Star-Bombards!”

“Xingyu still hasn’t received any response… The call that the Palace Heroine heard is getting deeper and deeper.”

Every time a new piece of information was reported, the captain’s mood became heavier. Everything that happened near Antaks was so strange that it sent chills down his spine.

The unanswered star voice, the dead sea of ​​souls, the Necron fleet hovering around the forge world, and… the call heard by the machine soul.

This is the scene at the first stop of the expedition. What exactly happened here?

Now, Eliwood faces a difficult decision:

For the sake of the expeditionary force’s safety, they bypassed the Antax Forge World and headed directly to the next scheduled destination, ignoring the strange situation here.

Or should I just go forward and try to figure out the source of this strange situation?

This decision was undoubtedly very difficult, but soon someone made the decision for Eliwood.

“A strange signal is trying to access our communication channel. The patrol fleet around Antax has stopped moving. The Necrons have discovered us!”

After a moment’s silence, Eliwood ordered the communications to be cut off, but allowed the information sent by the Necrons to be analyzed.

The encoding form of the information sent by the Necrons was unheard of in the human empire, but strangely, the machine spirit of the battleship Hercules translated it into standard High Gothic in less than a millisecond after browsing those messy yet beautiful strange symbols.

This made the technical priests in the cabin even more worried.

“The sender of the message claims to be the people of the ‘Former Sotek Dynasty’. They claim that they have been reborn because of the true grace of God and have become free people with true souls. The free Necrons will unite to overthrow the brutal ‘Storm King’ Imotek, so that more compatriots can gain freedom and souls…”

What a mess…

Not long after, Eliwood met the biological sage Igranu and asked her for help, hoping to get more detailed information about the Necrons.