Chapter 178 Clay Artist

The tentacles of the insect swarm continue to spread in the thin starlight of the far eastern frontier.

Represented by Favna and Orokkol, some important planets that were first brought under the control of the Order of Truth 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 intelligently controlled servitors and giant battle body construction teams, the reconstruction progress of planets such as Favna is still far from 'efficient'."

In the main control room of the Colossus of the Ring of Destruction, Gray Wind sat on the table in front of Russell very nonchalantly and reported to him the current situation in the Far Eastern Frontier:

"The 13 expedition fleets took away most of the important officials and technical personnel in the Far East. Musbell and other Forge World Mechanicus emptied all the industrial production capacity and important resources of the entire planet, driving the Mechanical Ark and The forging fleet ran along the curvature created by the Valkyrie without looking back. "

Russell smiled, looked up at Gray Feng's plump breasts that were 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 into a piece of white paper, the original The nobles and bureaucrats defected to me with their pedantic and corrupt leadership... In that case, I would be in trouble. "

Gray Feng nodded thoughtfully: "That's right."

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

"That's right." Russell suddenly remembered something and poked Hui Feng's soft chest with an index finger: "A little man under 1.5 meters will not have breasts as big as grapefruits, and they will not sag naturally at all. No, it’s too fake.”

This kind of breasts can only exist in the second dimension, and the real human body is not like this.

"That's not what you said when you were dozing off against me." Gray Feng looked at Russell like he was looking at a big pig's hooves.

"I couldn't see the overall proportions at that time..." Russell felt guilty.

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

"It's much better, but it's still a bit uncoordinated...can't it be made a little smaller?" Russell asked.

If the subordinates of the Order of Truth saw Gray Wind following him like this, Russell didn't dare to think about what the star flicker would look like.

"I don't want to." Hui Feng put his hands on his hips, held his head high, and looked very proud.

"Okay." Russell gave up. Since it is willing to do this, it cannot forcefully interfere with Gray Wind's wishes for the sake of its own image.

Besides, he does like big ones.

Gray Wind was then satisfied and showed a victorious smile, and continued: "Although the expedition fleet took away many people, not all capable people left the Far East. The Forging Sage of the urban planet Embra: Spangler He stayed in Falla with his followers and declared that he would break away from the jurisdiction of Mars and submit himself to the Marshal. "

"He... is right. Spangler has invested a lot of effort in the construction of the ideal city." Russell nodded: "It is a good thing that he is willing to join us. Although the Mechanicus is superstitious, the academic and technical priests There is no doubt about the technical level. Recruiting a small group of engine oil guys can somewhat alleviate our shortage of manpower..."

"As for the shortage of resources, it will be solved soon. Counter-Entropy just reported to me not long ago that the material decompressor in the Tranquil Black Domain will be completed soon."

Once the matter decompressor comes online, he can start construction with the inexhaustible raw materials in the black hole.

Seeing Russell lowering his eyes and thinking seriously, Gray Feng couldn't help but raised his eyebrows and smiled. Rather than fighting a life-and-death war with Chaos and aliens, it would be more happy to plan future development with the Marshal.

Gray Wind prefers construction to destruction.

On the main star of Favna in the Astoria sector, the reconstruction of the hive industrial area is still progressing slowly, and the scarlet tentacles of the insect swarm are also extending farther into the deep space holding the Ring of Destruction.

While the rear is short of manpower, planets are still being taken back one after another on the front. This embarrassing situation will continue for a long, long time.

While Russell was concentrating on integrating the Far Eastern frontier, an expedition fleet completed the first stage of its voyage.

The 13th Expedition Fleet, led by Captain Eliwood of the Blue Blood Noble Chapter, sailed out of the Far East region across the vast star sea through warp speed, and arrived at the first stop of the expedition:

"Vidal" sector.

The Vidal Sector is located on the eastern edge of the Ultramarine Sector and is one of the Imperial Sectors closest to the Far Eastern Frontier.

But the distance is only a secondary reason why Chapter Captain Eliwood chose the Vidal sector as the first location of the 13th Expedition Fleet. The main reason is that there are two foundries affiliated with the Adeptus Mechanicus in the sector. world:

Antax

Hypnoth

The two forge 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 Sisters of the "Lady Martyrs" of the state religion. This holy planet is called "Holy 101". Place".

At the call of the Emperor's cause, it is believed that the Sisters of the Sisters of the Martyred Lady will not hesitate to assist the expeditionary fleet.

Entering the Vidal Sector, the curvature bubble created by the Valkyrie-class battleship "The Heroine" gradually dissipated. 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 throughout the journey. This kind of early visit without passing through Mandeville Point always needs to be greeted in advance, so as not to be mistaken for an alien or Chaos fleet by the local galaxy defense force.

After all, the Valkyrie-class battleship is too conspicuous. She is different from any known Imperial warship and lacks a large number of superstitious decorations commonly used in the Human Empire. The state priests and technical priests in the fleet are struggling every day to argue whether to brand the Imperial Holy Emblem on the Heroine or the gear skull representing the God of All Machines.

——In the end, only the flag of the Blue Blood Nobles was hung.

In the cabin of the Forge 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 Forge Generals to support their cause, how to evade the Mechanicus's search for the Valkyrie of the Forge of the Heroine, how to balance the interests of several local families in the process of building the stargate... Eliwood has made perfect and sufficient preparations for all kinds of tedious official duties that can make Russell complain.

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

Unfortunately, his preparations seem to be useless. The chief think tank of the Blue Blood Nobles Chapter, "Senerio", knocked on the door of the office and brought a horrifying bad news.

"We didn't get any response to the astropathic communication, Frey." Chief Librarian Senerio addressed the warband leader by his last name: "What I saw when I was meditating was a dead silence, and no sound could be heard in the sea of ​​souls, as if it were a silent desert."

"...Is the subspace signal of Antax blocked? Or?" Eliwood pondered.

As far as he knew, some ancient creations from the dark age of technology could achieve similar subspace silence effects on an astronomical scale.

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

Looking at the serious expression of the Chief Librarian, Eliwood realized the seriousness of the problem.

Senerio was not a very serious person, and his usual style was quite unruly, which made him out of place in the disciplined blue-blooded noble warband. If it weren't for his real high-level psychic attainments, no one would support him as the chief librarian of the warband.

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

"What kind of voice did you hear, Señorio?" Eliwood asked.

"To be precise, it was not me, but the 'Hall of Heroes'."

Señorio said: "Several warships including the Valkyrie of the Hall of Heroes and some large equipment have heard the gentle voice from the warp. A certain existence in the warp is calling for the machine soul, calling for the Hall 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 with the Librarian to the cabin.

As he walked, new situations were constantly transmitted to the Chapter Master's ears through the communication channel built into the helmet:

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

"According to the biological sage, Her Excellency Igranu, she has seen two ships of similar structure in the flare star system on the Far Eastern Frontier. The fleet wandering around Antax is likely to belong to an ancient alien race called "Necromancer" by the Star Bomb!"

"The Star Language still has not received any response... The call heard by the Palace Heroine is getting deeper and deeper."

Every time a new information is reported, the Chapter Master's mood becomes heavier. Everything that happened near Antax is so weird that it makes his back cold.

The Star Language that has not been responded to, the dead sea of ​​souls, the Necromancer fleet wandering around the forging world, and... the call heard by the machine soul.

The first stop of the expedition is such a scene. What happened here?

Now, Eliwood was faced with a difficult decision:

Should he bypass the Forge World of Antax for the sake of the expeditionary force's safety and go directly to the next scheduled stopover point regardless of the strange situation here.

Or should he bite the bullet and go forward to try to figure out the source of this strange situation?

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

"A strange signal tried to access our communication channel. The patrol fleet around Antax stopped moving. The Necrons have discovered us!"

"..." After a moment of silence, Eliwood ordered the communication to be cut off, but allowed the analysis of the information sent by the Necron.

The coded form of the message sent by the Necrons was unheard of in the human empire, but strangely, the battleship machine soul of the Heroine translated it in less than a millisecond after browsing those strange symbols that were messy but full of beauty. Standard High Gothic.

This worries the tech-priests in the cabin even more.

"The senders of the message claimed to be the people of the 'former Sotec Dynasty'. They claimed that they were reborn due to true divine grace and became truly free people with souls. The free Necron will unite to overthrow The brutal 'Storm King' Imotek has allowed more compatriots to gain freedom and souls..."

What a mess...

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

Igrenu told the Chapter Master everything he knew without hesitation:

"The Necron is a humanoid machine controlled by data logic. Except for a few high-level units, the vast majority of low-level individuals only have the lowest basic intelligence. Lord Star Bomber seems to be quite dissatisfied with the ancient existence of the Necron. I understand that the Truth Society has a large amount of relevant information, and I have borrowed some at a cost. "

"The civilization of the Necron is composed of multiple independent 'dynasties'. The supreme king who rules all dynasties is called the 'Silent King', and the title of the ruler of a single dynasty is the 'Father King'."

"Storm King Imotek should be the king of the Necron dynasty named Sotek."

Eliwood listened carefully to the story of the biological sage Igrenu. After receiving this information, some of the doubts in his heart gradually became clear.

Under the influence of some kind of "divine grace", the low-level Necron who were originally low-intelligence and self-aware gained clear self-awareness. They claimed that they were free people with "souls" and intended to unite to overthrow the Sautec dynasty. The Storm King's rule allowed other Necron souls and freedom.

"But what happened to the call heard by the battleship machine soul of the Heroine? Why was the Forge World of Antax so silent, and not a single astrological message could be answered?"

Igrenu thought for a while and tried to say: "Perhaps, the so-called 'soul' given to the Necrons by 'divine grace' has some kind of similar connection with the machine soul?"

The older, more complex and larger the machine, the more likely it is that a machine soul will be born. This is one of the common senses of the Mechanicus Order. If you want to ask where the human empire has the most dense machine souls, there is no doubt that it is the forging worlds. .

Eliwood nodded, he also thought this was very possible.

"I tried to translate the Necron's name for the 'divine grace' that bestows their souls. It's very interesting. At least to me, it doesn't look like the name of a god." Igrenu continued:

"That existence is called - Clay Artist."