Chapter 284 Invasion

As a large human settlement that has been cultivated in this area for a long time, the Freeport of Engili has achieved a considerable degree of self-sufficiency under almost impossible circumstances, relying on the oppression of tens of millions of people in the lower class and the transportation of goods from other areas of this universe by ships.

They mine materials from various asteroids, assist in transportation, and even replace the Empire's small artificial satellites, and the holy bones in them to provide correct subspace travel auxiliary positioning for people traveling on the border of the Empire.

Therefore, this behemoth in the void can rely on its huge commercial and armed capabilities to actually control the entire surrounding star system.

And this genius idea was born out of more than a thousand years of planning by the Imperial female admiral, Rode. Feng. Duo, and her "Feng" family, who once actually controlled the Freeport.

Therefore, she is a well-known celebrity, and it was the privateering bill she proposed that made the Freeport almost become the headquarters of pirates, and obtained armed forces far beyond other worlds, and continued to expand its advantages on this basis.

However, no matter how much glory and success they have, they cannot change their powerlessness in the face of the Red Pirates. Before the Sun Lord's revenge expedition began, the Admiral's solid defense made him a thorn in the eye of the Blackheart King.

In a battle that was almost a decisive battle, the flagship of the Engili Freeport was destroyed by the Blackheart King's vehicle. Rode. Feng. Duo was also on it to supervise the battle, so his whereabouts were unknown. Later, he was recorded as dead, and the "Feng" family was also ruled by the rough merchant dynasty of the wandering merchant Bandettar and became the staff of the Red Pirates.

The good things that were once born under the leadership of the Empire have dissipated in the current violence and oppression. This place used to be an outpost for the Empire's development, but now it is a place where the Red Pirates run wild.

Adventurers, free captains, mercenaries, wandering merchants, many romantic and violent concrete concepts have always had two sides, and if the core of the Freeport once ruled by the Admiral was a pioneer, then now it is a complete terrorist and violent machine.

Things always have two sides. The pioneer camp is it, and so is the violent pirate base. Under those complex surfaces, no one has changed one thing, that is, a free port does not actually have the Mandeville point pulled out by the magnetic field of the planet and the universe where the gravity is, because it is artificial, an iron ring in the void surrounded by metal.

However, this balance is very fragile and easy to break, which is why the free port focuses on expansion this time. He, the owner of this port, wants a pirate empire similar to the whirlpool and can challenge the empire.

"Those old Feng family?" Ailanbaier was quite surprised about this family. If the nobles who once existed in ancient Terra were really behind this, then they were almost as old as the emperor. However, in view of the great changes in human civilization at the end of the dark forty thousand years, he believed that this behemoth that almost controlled Pangia was actually a "fraudster".

"The little guy of the Wanderer class." The captain spoke with a relaxed tone.

"Cold trade economic man..." Alan Baier nodded, and then translated it in his mind as "smuggler" or "smuggler agent", but only focused on alien goods.

The captain replied. "But that will bring many deaths."

"It will be exposed, forget it, their reconnaissance distance is not far, and we are at the top of it." Alan Baier asked. "Can we get close and then launch a boarding assault ship?"

But doubts soon came. This is not a reasonable route. This area is neither the closest nor the safest, but it is the most hidden. The charter captain will definitely not choose this place. Those people are restricted by the empire to ensure the stability of commercial transportation and taxation.

He asked a noble question that he usually didn't like to talk about. The captain always regarded himself as a member of the navy or a simple captain. Alan Baier did not ask him about his family, but he only answered his name at most and never mentioned his surname.

But the name Alan Baier is really famous, and she immediately answered smartly. "You misunderstood. I am not a legitimate businessman. What I said just now was just a last resort. If I knew that I was meeting the great Lord of the Sun, the King of Skadi, I would definitely not have said such a tongue-dropping statement."

After Alan Bair finished speaking, the captain just put his head back to his work position, and then answered coldly, or even indifferently. "Yeah, it will be like that eventually, just a bunch of stupid guys."

It is also the existence of those fortresses that ensures that Freeport can always carry out supplies, distribution, and logistics at a low cost. In this dark 40th millennium, the longer the journey, the greater the risk. In the absence of Mandeville Point as a transportation core, the normal voyage of nearly several months is very risky.

"Compared to this, do we have a plan to break through the fortress defense?"

The other side also changed his attitude immediately, but he was actually very polite. After all, as long as a normal person knows that those who can drive an imperial cruiser around must not be provoked.

Behind this system that seemed extremely advanced in the dark forty thousand years were asteroid fortresses that were like shrunken weak empires, highly autonomous and independent, controlled by various people, and what enslaved them was not N'jili, but something called profit.

But it was not a commercial route, but was built only to accommodate adventurers and as mid-way supplies.

Alan Bair shook his head. "Other than projecting the landing ship, I don't have much choice. I originally wanted to rely on the powerful deployment capabilities of the Space Marines to occupy the area, and then smash down the Imperial Guard to stabilize it, but now it has been completely disrupted due to the subspace storm."

Then the good news came as expected. It didn't take long to wait. The soldiers of the Imperial Guard were like flames burning the enemies like sawdust. But more often than not, those people just threw away their helmets when they saw the members of the Imperial Guard. A, automatic guns are scattered all over the floor.

In just a few hours, this merchant ship completely became the property of the Imperial Guard. According to reports, the interior of this ship was even narrower, with most of its space used in warehouses. Typical commercial transformation, even the interior The crews were not at full strength, just barely provisioned and staffed for the journey, which would explain why they were so slow to respond to the Imperial Guard's approach.

Alan Bayer just subconsciously opened his tactical tablet and called up the information storage library on the Nexus battleship, or the Thinker array, because he had never understood civilian battleships, and in this situation, he had to be vigilant and understand those things.

Therefore, he hardly wears rose-tinted glasses. "Pirates, the power used by the Feng family, how should I say, the foundation determines the upper level. When they use pirates to complete their own power ambitions, I no longer think they can get rid of this curse."

"It's very simple." The captain lowered the hull without hesitation. Under the operation of mobilizing thousands of people, the huge hull slowly approached diagonally downwards, but this "slowness" was actually for the huge universe. explain.

The voice transmitted through the radio sounded young and sharp, and he quickly realized that the person on the other side should be a woman, and of course it was not ruled out that it was a sissy pervert from Slaanesh.

Under such circumstances, Alan Bayer, who was gradually approaching the first asteroid fortress, was on the bridge, looking at the endless void, and his thoughts were disturbed by the captain's words. "What do you think of Freeport's Admiral?"

The entire bridge now only has the low breathing of the engine, buzzing, buzzing, and only the sound of the calculations of the Thinker array, beep, beep, chaotic and full of order, silent and extremely noisy, in the void far away from the stars, human beings The eyes are no longer of practical use and the senses are reduced to nothingness.

Although inconspicuous, it is very reliable. In addition, it is equipped with small weapons to fend off pirates and enable those unlucky ones to escape unscathed in many skirmishes. Its smaller body allows it to be more maneuverable and more capable. Moving around in transportation.

In the case of a benchmark, the speed of the poor Wanderer ship is simply like the tortoise in the tortoise and the hare race, and the call of the tortoise surpassing the hare is impossible to occur in reality.

Therefore, this is a highly centralized but fragmented system. Those asteroids rely on profits and the reputation brought by the protection of free ports to plunder wealth. Free ports rely on strong control to maintain centralized power. The final oppression and plunder will always be the several nearby ones. Poor world in the star system.

In other words, those asteroid fortresses simultaneously represent an extension of the entire free port. They simultaneously serve as blood vessels and limbs, using their firepower to escort various ships while providing pirates with a stronghold to threaten other worlds in the star system.

the captain asked. "Do you want to communicate with them?"

Sublight speed is not considered fast in this universe. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is just crawling. The absence of the Mandeville point is both a curse and a gift, because it can effectively hinder the enemy's progress. In the dark and boundless universe, the silence of navigation is stretched for a long time. , and a few more hours passed that felt like days, barring the boredom and the suffocating silence.

Therefore, Alan Bayer didn't understand why this little guy sailed here, but he already had a rough idea of ​​the answer in his heart.

But his words were soon fulfilled. Jump gangs filled with elite Imperial Guards were launched from the flames. Bright firelight flashed. In an instant, heavy engineering drills were used to break open the fragile hull. Dozens of transport assault ships were launched from the ship. Breakthroughs were made from the beginning, warehouse, and tail. Due to the lack of artillery fire, those people could only watch them take action, and did not dare or be able to resist.

"Not red, not the Adeptus Mechanicus or an enemy, nor green, a friendly friend of the Empire." As a commander, Alan Bair could get closer and observe, and he thought for a moment. "A civilian ship?"

"The Red Pirates are just unexpected external forces. It would be the same without them. One day this free port will be overwhelmed by a mixed force, because its strength is based on unstable external force. It may be a certain merchant dynasty, or it may be It’s a powerful pirate group, or an alien invasion, including the current situation, heresy.”

Nowadays, only the powerful psychic powers of the navigator and the astropath can guide the ship forward. Eyes or words in the traditional sense are no longer effective. Therefore, unlike the ground war, the battle on the battleship is quite fragmented. That is impossible. A war detected by the naked eye, abrupt and empty.

The Vagabond Class Merchant Trader is a very common cargo ship model in the Empire's merchant fleet. It has a wide range of uses and can transport a variety of goods and even people, which makes them very popular among poor charter captains.

It may be a translation problem, or it may be a taboo name seen in the ancient monument, but this "Feng" did bring him back to the past, a very distant past, so distant that he could no longer remember it. Maybe he also commented on the many stories of this family in ancient Terra in a passerby's tone, but now, except for the names of several major countries and the two wars, he can't remember other historical details.

She emphasized again that this guaranteed that every sentence she said next was true. "I am a cold trade economic person, transporting a batch of medicines, and I am very familiar with the next fortress and the situation in this area. It must be useful, very useful!"

At this moment, Alan Baier just continued to look at the void. Those things were not important to this huge universe. Except for gunpowder, death, war, and sacrifice, there was nothing important in this world. He just watched the giant ship slowly move forward.

Just like that weird sense of separation, the rapid roar with that annoying noise appeared in the black universe as always. There was no flickering fire or huge enemy ships, just a small dot of faint yellow light focused on the dark green holographic divination display.

Technical specifications: 2 km vertically, 0.4 km horizontally; weight 8 million tons; crew of about 18,000 people; gravitational acceleration 2.1g.

Afterwards, Alanbair asked to speak to the captain or the person in charge, and the person he spoke to was also very interesting. She claimed to be the captain of the Imperial Charter who was transporting medicine and could pay enough tolls. She once again emphasized that she did not disobey the wishes of Lord Bandettar, but the line was blocked and she had to change the route.

In contrast, Alanbair shouted loudly. "I am the War Lord of the Astra Militarum, Elanbair, the commander of the 4th Infantry Regiment of Skadi, and the Governor of the Skadi Planet. And you, as a charter captain, are actually helping the evil!"

After several rapid accelerations, the little thing was first seen in the naked eye. It was a monster like a giant organ, floating in the void like a church organ, with blue flames at the stern and the only two small macro cannons at the bow as weapons. The captain couldn't help but say that he could hardly imagine what it felt like to only be able to shoot the enemy with frontal cannons.

And soon, he got the answer.

The trade route from the edge of the nearest star system to the free port is composed of countless small ships transported by the diligent fortresses all the time.

He was a little amused, but asked again. "What exactly are you transporting?"

The woman hesitated, then answered. "Alluvial tincture"

Elanbair didn't feel surprised. Obviously, men need this thing at any time, and in the words of the ancient Terra, it is a strong aphrodisiac made by the Eldar.

But compared to her small business, Ailanbaier is now more concerned about how many soldiers and equipment her small boat can transport... because he wants to use smuggling methods to bring the soldiers in!