Chapter 280 The Rise of the Primarch: Route to Terra

Cole looked down at the fleet of Ronin Merchants outside the window. They all came up, and the rest of them were also moored around the Infinite Frontier. The Mechanicus's comprehensive repair ship carried by the Mars-class battlecruiser had been released from the belly, and the Mechanicus's pride of exploration and research and development was repairing the damaged parts of those armed merchant ships.

The long mechanical arm extending from the exploration ship was welding and cutting quickly. A piece of corridor side armor that had been completely unusable due to an internal explosion was removed. The armor plate that fell off the ship was suspended in the vacuum weakly, and was slowly pushed away and drifted into the universe.

It may float as space junk for many years, and may eventually hit a sun, or fall on a planet. If you are lucky, it may be worshipped as a treasure by the residents of a backward and primitive wild world.

After all, these armors from the Imperial shipyards are not very common in those worlds. If you use them to make a few swords and axes, you can definitely become a hero in those worlds where people still use stones, sticks or high-end scrap metal to fight each other. Maybe those barbarians will give those weapons some ridiculous names.

Cole is sometimes curious about why the Empire maintains so many barbarian worlds. They are almost completely unable to provide any effective resources. The feudal world can at least produce a few knight families or contribute some food, but the only resource of the barbarian world is manpower. Even so, those barbarians who are brave and aggressive and don’t even understand Low Gothic are difficult to obey the command of the army. They are almost a group of problem soldiers.

But well, this may not be what Cole should care about. He is just a captain. These profound and profound issues that determine the great future of the empire should be left to the high lords or other people who should worry about them.

Cole's eyes reviewed the repairs of the armed merchant ships. It seemed that the work of the mechanical priests was progressing smoothly. Now most of the holes and severely damaged armor had been effectively replaced. Although it was difficult to use as real armor, you couldn't have too high expectations for the armor made in the shipboard foundry on the Infinite Frontier, right?

But no matter what, it would be okay to let these unlucky guys sail to the next world with an Imperial starport and garrisons, probably, if the Emperor blesses, although Cole didn't know whether these guys who stole the equipment of the Astra Militarum could be "blessed by the Emperor" when they fell to the ground.

"Don't move, you are arrested." A guy behind him said, suppressing his voice and trying to pretend to be a serious tone of the Ministry of Justice judge. The round muzzle of some kind of gun in his hand stared at the back of Cole's head, which made the captain's head bury a little.

"Vito, if anyone needs to be arrested, they are on the other side. You can go over to the pier and detain them." Cole said helplessly, but the people behind him laughed and moved their guns away. Vito walked to Cole with the laser gun and looked at the fleet outside from the large French window with him.

The red maintenance ship was igniting welding flames in its superstructure. The dazzling light shone on their faces and also illuminated the shiny and brand new Imperial Sky Eagle logo on the side of the dark green laser gun, and there was also a line of identification code below it.

"Aren't you going to shoot these guys? They seem to have stolen the newly manufactured, brand new, and unworn equipment of the Astra Militarum, and then sent it to the Astra Militarum. I don't think it's optimistic."

"Yes, that's right. It's probably some junk. Who knows how many years of antiques have been lying in the warehouse. They are used to make up for the equipment that disappeared from the transportation list. Ah, I hope the Emperor will bless the big guys with those guns. When they aim at the enemy and pull the trigger, they won't blow themselves up first."

Vito said while carrying a laser gun. Cole glanced at him, and then looked at the Mayflower, which was closest to the Infinite Frontier. The bridge of the armed merchant ship could be observed at a glance. Cole was sure that those shameful merchants were there now. As long as Vito wanted, he could wipe them out at any time.

"We have got the equipment and seized the stuff. Are you really going to let them go?" Cole said with a little confusion and even some reproach. His tone was well disguised. You couldn't tell from the surface that he was blaming you. This was the language art that a standard and qualified imperial noble needed to learn.

But Vito knew. He could tell. He and Cole had been together for many years. He knew when he was openly criticizing him and sometimes he was secretly mocking him.

"What's the point of shooting them? The greedy star port manager of the Forge World will definitely sell it to the next businessman. There are idiots who take risks wherever there is money to be made. And I can guarantee that there are many such idiots in the whole empire."

Humph, the imperial bureaucracy, what else do you expect? Greedy governors, corrupt officials and military officials who don't care about the lives of frontline soldiers, who always sit in the office to review documents and brag in pamphlets, they prefer the shiny imperial sky eagle coins.

Those who have never been to the battlefield, have never seen bloody fights, and have never faced the horrible enemies that the Astra Militarum have to deal with will never understand that they secretly sell these weapons in exchange for their own wealth and glory, but the end result may be that Chaos attacks you and sacrifices your blood, or the Tyranid swarm cuts you into pieces and eats you, or the greenskins rush up and chop you into meat paste, and in the end you lose both your life and your wealth.

But this is not something that Vito, and Cole can solve, at least not here. Believe me, many problems in the empire cannot be solved by simply shooting a few people. Even if you kill all the nobles on the entire planet, this huge empire will not be able to solve it. There will always be someone to fill their ecological niche.

"I can understand what you are saying, but it makes me uncomfortable to let these bastards leave. We have to at least make them pay something." Cole frowned and said a little annoyed. As the captain of the Imperial Navy, he couldn't tolerate it. This kind of betrayal was tolerated, and Vito certainly knew this. He smiled evilly and tapped himself on the shoulder with his laser gun.

"Well, how should I put it? We let them go here, but when they go to the next imperial world, they may be invited by the local legal department to have tea, learn about their situation, and then let them go in the name of the emperor. Pay a small price."

Shoot? Torture? Or will he be thrown into a judgment world to do hard labor for life? Well, in short, the legal department has many tricks, and there will always be a method that suits you.

Cole raised his eyebrows slightly and looked at Vito. Only then did he realize that Vito was holding a data board in his hand. He shook the board and smiled, "I just said that I would not execute them. I keep my promise, but I didn’t say that I would not ask the Astropath to report their questions and list to the legal department of this system according to the law.”

Vito chuckled and handed the data plate in his hand to Cole, who also took it and looked at the data information. He looked at the list on it. Indeed, there was enough equipment for two regiments.

"Two standard Astral Legion light and heavy weapons, and a battalion of armored vehicles and tanks. This purchase is bigger than I thought. I guess when the Ministry of Justice sees this information, the reaction will be bigger than I thought. ”

Cole said, sliding the data information on it, "And you took all these down, I guess you have other uses, right?" "Of course, instead of letting these things go to a feudal world to strengthen the locals and hurt each other, Instead of having them serve the Emperor for the same purpose they were created for."

"Besides, it's impossible to send these weapons and equipment back to the Astra Militarum, so we'll just accept them." Vito said with his hands on his hips. He looked at the armed merchant ships outside, imagining what those guys would be like when the time came. The expression, I bet it was interesting, the expression of surprise.

Cole was also amused by Vito, which was quite in line with his style. According to his habit, he probably added some extra details to the message. Then he very considerately stamped the seal of the Tribunal at the end and instructed the Legal Department. Work hard, ha, these unlucky guys have suffered a lot.

But Cole's smile soon stopped. His smile gradually weakened and eventually disappeared completely. He frowned as he looked at the navigation data on it, "The intensity of the subspace storm is greater than I imagined. Emperor My God, they are so lucky to be able to open it.”

In front of Cole, there were data records of the merchant fleet passing through the subspace channel outside Macragge. The storm could no longer be described as strong. It was simply a sea of ​​death. No ship could escape from it alive. Sailing through it, and what's worse is that the death zone is blocking the only route to Terra.

"Based on the data and intensity, it is estimated that the scope of the storm should have affected the entire eastern galaxy, and all navigation will be blocked. The fleets still in the subspace can only pray for the emperor's blessing. Can they be like these three lucky guys? Same thing, it jumped out at the end.”

Vito looked at the dark Milky Way outside the window, his eyes looking at the dimmed starlight. Those stars seemed to be covered with a veil and disappeared into the dark night.

Cole thought hard about the solution. He wouldn't say anything. Let's just give up and return to Macragge. No one would blame us or anything. He knew they had to go to Terra. The Emperor was in trouble and they had to rush. Go to the throne world, no matter what is in front of you.

The captain came up with several methods based on his rich sailing experience and experience. He tapped the star map on the data board in his hand, "If we want to avoid these storms, we can only jump through short-distance subspace and destroy the cover after the storm." Jump out in front of the shield, then jump in after charging, and progress in this cycle, but the speed will be very slow, very slow.”

"Is there any option B?" Vito asked. Cole sighed and put down the data pad, stroking his hair.

"Detour, the southern part of Ultramar is close to the Large Magellanic Wormhole in the Storm Galaxy. Generally speaking, you can rely on your own star mass to stabilize the wormhole jump point and connect it to the Columbus Wormhole at the other end, allowing the fleet to have a stable It is a transmission route that will not be disturbed by subspace, so it is also one of the most important strategic points of the Imperial Navy. "

"What are the shortcomings? There is no perfect plan, Cole." Vito said calmly. Cole sighed deeply, shrugged slightly and pointed to the depths of the distant galaxy.

"To get to the Great Magellan, we have to take a detour around the entire southern part of the Extreme Star Field before we can reach the Great Magellan. It would take tens of thousands of light years. The voyage would take a very long time and may last one or two years, and now There is also subspace interference, which is even more unpredictable. "

You wouldn't want to say that you were going to rescue Terra, but when you arrived, Terra had fallen for eighty years, and you just jumped out, right? Although the Imperial Navy was always late, it was not good to be so late at this juncture, when the Emperor had already been reduced to powder.

"Do you have option C?" Vito turned his head and looked at Cole and asked. The latter shook his head and sighed in distress, "No, damn it, we have to think of a way."

"In that case, let's use my plan C." Vito said and handed the laser gun to Cole. After taking the laser gun, the latter looked at Vito in confusion. He had turned and left, walking away.

"What plan? What plan C? What are you going to do?" Cole shouted at Vito's back, and the latter waved his hand and walked to the far end.

"Find help."