Chapter 206 Krieg's Reinforcements and the Storm Further Away

War is an eternal topic, and it is also a topic that every citizen of the Empire in the post-Emperor era cannot escape from from birth to death.

It is like a bell that keeps ringing, giving different people in the same star zone and galaxy completely different feelings according to the distance.

Orpheus is the same, without any exception.

For the people living in Amara, the capital world of the star zone ruling center:

War is the tension from the distant other side; it is the occasional fluctuation of prices in the trading market; it is the administrative order of overtime and adjustment of holidays that is occasionally notified by the work unit; it is the after-dinner talk in the neighboring star zone that is close at hand but far away.

But for this group of lucky people, war does not mean bloodshed and death.

Different people have different fates. The citizens of the Empire living on the edge of the star zone do not have such luck.

For them, war is another kind of feeling from the spot:

It is the panic of being in danger from day to day; it is the bad news of the fall of the city where relatives and friends live far away; it is the embarrassment of not being able to guarantee food and fresh water; it is the death that is everywhere but follows like a shadow.

Katyn, the northern theater of the Orpheus sector, is also the galaxy capital world of the northern fleet of the sector against the Chaos defense line. It is shrouded in such an atmosphere.

The Northern Fleet, led by Admiral Ernest Joseph, a high-ranking general of the Orpheus Fleet of the Imperial Navy, is relying on the defense system of this galaxy to maintain a balance with the Chaos Fleet with difficulty.

In 754.M39 of the Imperial Calendar, several decades have passed since the tragic Corridor War of the Imperial Fleet.

Today's Northern Fleet and the Katyn galaxy defense line they are stationed in are no longer the same as before.

After receiving limited support from the Empire, the size of the fleet has barely reached the minimum defense standard.

Although it still does not have the ability to actively seek combat, it has improved a lot compared to the initial days when it was difficult to maintain the defense of the galaxy with three surprises a day.

In the dome hall of the Holy Word battleship, the flagship of the Orpheus Northern Fleet, on the orbit of the Katyn capital world.

Vice Admiral Ernest Joseph was holding his admiral's scepter, standing under the star map in front of him for a long time, lost in the long thinking of this long chess game.

This was a normal life in his life in the past ten years, and it was also a microcosm of the life of the soldiers in the northern theater represented by him.

The war here has lasted for decades, and there is no hope of ending.

Against the backdrop of the short average life expectancy of ordinary citizens in the empire, this resistance to chaos and aliens will surely occupy the memories of several generations.

Since taking over the defense here, this noble-born, 150-year-old general has never had a complete sleep.

The initial war started from the edge of the Hassan sector and spread to the entire sector in a very short time.

The orcs' offensive came so fiercely and suddenly that the Orpheus fleet could not even complete the assembly, and watched its neighbors, who were also Orpheus's actual allies, fall completely.

As the central star district of the five major star districts established at the same time, after losing the Hassan star district as a strategic depth, the next war will inevitably burn towards the Orpheus mainland.

But the star district has no power to stop the orcs' attack.

Because Orpheus, which has never been in a war crisis, has provided additional supplies to the outside world for three thousand years to support other wars in the Storm Star Region.

The senior generals of the star district's defense force have proposed the maintenance and maintenance of the fleet and the rectification of surrounding defenses more than once.

But under the huge economic pressure, the Orpheus family, which dominates the power of the star district, finally chose to give up.

The bitter fruit of this inaction, after hundreds of years of delay, was finally tasted by their descendants.

When the war boss of the Hassan star district led the overwhelming orc fleet and rushed to the star district with an unstoppable offensive.

The governor of this star district could only watch his fleet, which was less than half of the establishment, helpless.

Yes, in the Imperial Navy's setting for large star zone defense fleets, a full complement of more than 20 medium and large ships, including at least five battleships, is the size that Orpheus should have.

But at that time, the number of warships that met the standard in Orpheus was only 12, of which there were only three battleships.

Even so, one-third of the ships that lost their maneuverability and could only serve as artillery in orbit were excluded...

Needless to say, the subsequent wars, the Orpheus fleet, which fought and retreated, exerted its limited forces to the extreme in decades.

They relied on the defense system of the border galaxy and the unity of the local military and civilians to barely resist the endless number of orcs and the exponentially increasing invasion intensity.

But at this time, in the ruins of the Leyak star zone, which was completely opposite to the Hassan star zone, news of the appearance of the Chaos Fleet came.

Although the Storm Star Zone did not pay attention to the threat here at that time, there were many visionaries in the military command and the navy.

With their efforts, the Storm Sector authorities symbolically dispatched three cruisers from the Sector Grand Fleet to provide support.

However, the situation of being attacked from both sides still made the Sector unable to continue.

The main force of the Sector Fleet could only run repeatedly and in vain between two completely opposite war zones.

Coupled with the premeditated corruption and infiltration of Chaos, it eventually led to the tragedy of the famous "Corridor Naval Battle".

Ernest Joseph's promotion from rear admiral of a battleship to vice admiral was accomplished under such a precarious background.

If he had a choice, he would rather not give up this position that symbolized glory and power in exchange for a relatively stable ending in the second half of his life.

But fate is so cruel, and he, who has been in the army for generations, cannot retreat at the critical moment of the empire's survival.

The military situation was so intense that from the moment he was promoted to lieutenant general to when he was ordered to take over full political power in the northern theater, there were only a few minutes required for the ceremony;

The war was raging. It took him the longest fifteen years of his life to go from the embarrassment of only three warships when he accepted the Northern Fleet to now that the fleet has more than doubled and is able to resist the invasion of Chaos.

Today, Lieutenant General Joseph is much older than his actual age. The life-extending surgery originally scheduled for 50 years may have to be carried out in advance.

But the price is worth it. The stable defense situation in the northern theater has given the entire sector a rare respite.

Under his leadership, the Northern Fleet, relying on the fortress defense system of the Katyn galaxy, achieved brilliant results.

With less than one-half the number of enemy ships, they have repelled several waves of attacks by the Chaos fleet, winning nearly half a year of peace for the entire northern theater.

During this period, more labor and engineering materials were continuously gathered from the rear, and then a new defense system was built behind Kating.

The originally undefendable and smooth strategic void behind the Katyn Galaxy finally had a glimmer of room for error as the Northern Fleet defended it at all costs.

But the enemy would not do nothing. The recent frontal situation was too calm, so calm that Joseph instinctively felt something strange.

In his eyes, this was not so much a respite from the enemy's long-term attack. Joseph preferred to believe that a larger offensive was being brewed.

The information from the Tribunal also confirmed some of his conjectures:

In the lost forge world of Nazreim, a new and unknown model of huge warship is being built.

The specific information about that kind of battleship has not yet been obtained, but Joseph can imagine its brutality just from the picture of it lying in the berth with a main gun that is almost as long as the keel!

What is this?

A battleship equipped with huge cannons?

Or is it a giant cannon equipped with a battleship engine?

But no matter what, when this battleship is completed and carries the destructive heavy artillery to the Katyn defense front line, the pattern of war will be permanently rewritten!

A heavy-duty warship purely designed to attack the permanent defense system!

Under the threat of this new sword, Katin and the new defense behind it are meaningless.

You must take the initiative!

The admiral's scepter made of pure gold banged heavily on the table, frightening the staff working beside him and also attracting the attention of the entire hall to focus on him.

It must be destroyed before it reaches the battlefield!

This was the final conclusion that Joseph came to, and it was also the biggest reason for the death wish in his eyes.

"Whatever the cost!"

These two words were used as a conclusion at the corner of his mouth, and finally turned into words and spit out, which shocked the young staff officer beside him.

He did not dare to ask the commander in front of him where his words came from, but he could smell the endless blood in these two words.

The Katyn Fortress under the starry sky was still calm when it opened, but Joseph knew that the pace of war had arrived.

Different from the increasingly tense atmosphere here, there is a greater force moving forward in the subspace from Krieg to Orps, passing through Chiros.

A large mixed fleet composed of seven strike cruisers built by the Krieg Industrial System and the Fire Eagle Chapter's own Raptor King Star Fortress are rushing towards Orps in a silent but oppressive manner.

The Hammer of Order, the Shield of Order, the Spear of Order, and the Sword of Order are four first-generation products of the Krieg Shipyard named after Order;

Plus three second-generation cruisers: Daybreak Light, Dawnfire, and Blood Rebirth;

A total of seven large patrol ships surrounded the King of Raptors in the posture of stars over the moon, carrying 3,500 Astartes warriors among them, coming from afar in a standard marching array.

The subspace fluctuations caused by such a huge fleet are almost comparable to half of the sector's great fleet.

What is even more frightening to those in the know is the Astartes Chapter logo that these battleships all carry.

This is composed of four battle groups, with at least one complete battle group and ten companies advancing in armed force.

Dozens of planets and hundreds of astropaths in the Chilos sector were all shocked by the majesty of the fleet.

They fell into an unspeakable silence that could not be calmed down until the fleet's tail flame had disappeared for a long time.

The meaning of such a neat action is self-evident.

This situation immediately aroused high vigilance among the entire Storm Star Territory authorities, including the Tribunal.

The Astartes warriors are not only the sharpest swords of the Empire, but also the deepest nightmare of the Empire.

The Empire's attitude towards them is so ambivalent simply because the Empire has never truly achieved complete control over these superhuman warriors.

Without control and obedience, there is no trust and support.

This is also the significance of Guilliman’s setting of the Codex Astartes:

A self-restraint that you know and I know; a shackles of self-imprisonment with the tacit understanding of both parties.

That's all.

He knew clearly that a group based purely on force would not be able to maintain itself for a long time and would sooner or later fall into a dead end of self-destruction.

Therefore, an imperial government composed purely of Astartes was a completely unfeasible path.

The reverse was also true. Although the Astartes Legion existed, it could neither be trusted nor used properly.

A government that could not control the Astartes was also a dead end.

The Empire and the Astartes must try to rebuild trust between each other, especially in the turbulent millennium just after the Great Heresy.

Neither of them could bear more losses.

But now, this fragile balance has been openly broken.

The Empire can paralyze itself and accept that individual founding chapters reject the "Holy Code" for various reasons, because that proves that they at least have the desire to explain and the need to be trusted.

But the Empire cannot accept the blatant union of a group of second-generation or even third-generation Astartes chapters, because that means that the sequence of the Empire's highest military force is out of their control.

This is more terrible than the complete fall of Orpheus itself.

The journey of the Astartes fleet from Krieg is still going on.

But before they really reach their goal, the impact of their existence has spread far away like ripples.

Like the Terra Council that received an urgent notice further away, the Storm Segment Region is destined to have countless people unable to sleep tonight because of their existence.

This is an extraordinary night, because countless pairs of eyes are roaming between Terra and them.

Everyone is waiting for the final result of the High Lords Council after dawn.

Because that means the Empire's view of them and some more essential logic hidden behind them.

Compromise or confrontation.

These are two diametrically opposed options that the High Lords Council is about to make.

The former means the end of the era of mortal rule, and the old force group will continue Horus's will and completely lead the Empire to an out-of-control chariot composed of military rule;

The latter means the tragic end of this fleet, and the High Lords Council must deal with them with the most severe means to declare the firm position of the mortals represented by the High Lords.

Only in this way can we deter those who come later and maintain the legal rationality of the unity of the Empire.

A huge political storm is about to form.

As the initiator of this storm and the possible direct victim.

The warriors in the distant fleet are still kept in the dark and have no idea what happened on Terra.

One update, there should be two more, please vote.

Also: I won the prize.

Continuing from what I said last time about my neighbor being taken away, I received a call from the local prevention and control department at noon today, and I have been officially included in the list of close contacts.

I am now at home, waiting for the community to seal my door.

Fortunately, I am in home quarantine, so my updates are not affected for the time being.