Chapter 1961 The Crisis Emerged
After solving the cannibal leader, Talos turned around and watched Sabourin rescue the people in the cage one by one. Men and women greeted these huge angels with tears. Some were happy because they survived, while others cried because of their pale remains.
Little Donovan was reunited with his sister, who was only a girl of twelve or thirteen years old. There were still unhealed wounds on her shoulders and thighs that had worsened and leaked pus.
But her situation is even better. Some people have been "enjoyed" in advance. The cannibals first cut off their hands or legs to enjoy, but did not immediately cut off their hands or legs for the sake of the freshness of the food. They killed them, but these people couldn't live long because of excessive blood loss.
Afterwards, under the leadership of Donovan, Talos and others came to the only "peaceful" place in this area, a refugee camp.
This is a camp hidden in a neighborhood church. Perhaps at the most desperate moment, these abandoned people tried to ask for help from the Lord of Mankind and received its assistance, but the Emperor's icon was only silent——
There will always be silence.
Although He was speechless, a messenger spoke on his behalf.
The priests claim that they are, the law enforcers also claim that they are, and the rulers of the hive also repeatedly emphasize that they are.
But everyone knows that there is only one person who can completely speak for the Emperor, and that is His Angel of Death.
When Talos walked into this dilapidated refugee camp, he felt the silence of expectation. The only light source here was the almost burned out small candles. Many pairs of eyes looked at him from the shadows, and the sound of breathing echoed in his ears. , and the dying moaned in a low voice, and then——
He smelled a bit of corpse odor. Judging from the white bones in the corner, it was obvious that the people here did not simply rely on scavenging to survive. , maintaining the most basic civilization has become a luxury.
At this time, Sablin suddenly left the queue. He walked straight to the side of the church vestibule, in front of a dilapidated tent shrouded in darkness. When he opened the rag-like curtain, he saw A woman in ragged clothes, with a withered figure and a shriveled chest was holding a baby that was covered in purple. The woman cut her hand and let the blood drip on the baby's lips. The chapped lips were still humming softly. Playing an unknown nursery rhyme.
The woman didn't seem to notice the giant. Sablin squatted down and whispered:
"He is dead, stop, otherwise you will die too. ”
The woman hugged the dead baby tightly as if she was electrocuted, dragged her body backwards with difficulty, and looked at the giant approaching in horror.
Sablin took off his helmet, his dark eyes shining particularly brightly in the darkness, and he stretched out his hand towards the woman.
“I have been saved and will never again——”
The woman suddenly screamed, stood up against the wall, limped and ran towards the distance, but within a few steps she died. She fell to the ground due to weakness, but even then she held the dead baby tightly to her chest, curled up into a ball and let out heart-breaking sobs.
“Ah————!”
Sabourin suddenly roared and slammed his fist on the ground, causing cracks to appear on the entire marble floor, scaring the refugees into hiding in the darkness.
He turned his head and looked at the statue of the emperor towering in the huge niche of the church, where the candlelight was the brightest. He could see some food piled around the pulpit in front of the statue. Rations ranged from stick rations to moldy bread.
Sablin, who was known for his calmness and calmness, seemed to go berserk. He walked up to the lectern and kicked it over. Then he grabbed a handful of food and raised it in the air.
"I would rather starve to death! Are you all going to give your life-saving things to a stone! Ah! It's just a stone!"
Suddenly, there was a commotion in the shadows, a faint The lights came from afar, and he could see that they were escorting a bearded priest, whose feverish moans echoed through the church.
"Long live!"
The old priest shouted almost deliriously.
"Hail to the angel of the God Emperor!" In the last few steps, he insisted on walking by himself, staggering and kneeling as hard as he could in front of him, his eyes flashing with tears of joy, as if he had been tortured and painful during this period. It finally paid off.
"Thank the God Emperor! Praise the God Emperor! We have passed these tests! We have been saved!"
Sabourin looked down at each other. Everyone was in ragged clothes and looked disgraced, but the priest was still quite bright and showed no signs of hunger.
He smiled, showing his pale teeth, like a midnight ghost.
"It seems that you have eaten very much, and you still have the strength to kneel down"
"Uh-"
The pastor was stunned for a moment, raised his head slightly, and saw Sa Brin held the food in his fist, and then whispered:
"That is a symbol of the believer's piety, and it is for the God-Emperor."
Sablin lifted the other party up.
"I guess the emperor must really want to hear your scream at this time."
This is when a hand held his wrist.
"That's enough. Killing him won't quell your anger, and it won't be of any use. Don't let anger swallow up your reason."
The strength of his hand was very strong, and he pressed Sablin's arm down hard. When he saw that it was Cassati, he let go of his hand and let the priest fall.
“Get up.”
Talos’s voice was calm, with a power that could not be resisted. The priest seemed to be immobilized by an invisible force, and then slowly stood up.
"Tell me, the truth, what happened."
Soon, a shocking fact spat out from the pastor's trembling lips.
The thing is simple. Since Angstrom is under siege, the surrounding countries rely on the Forge World to provide promethium (as mentioned earlier, the Goliath-class factory ship is the main means of providing promethium for the hive city). The hive capital immediately encountered an energy crisis, but if it was just this, it would not be a terrible disaster. But the problem is that before this, the food supply of the entire maelstrom was already highly tense, and Angstrom was not only the big one. The largest promethium producer in the Maelstrom is also the largest synthetic food manufacturer in the Maelstrom. Although the overall production ratio does not seem to be high, the trade ratio is extremely high.
Although other hive cities also have their own food production and processing industries and promethium refining industries, in general they are basically maintaining a barely self-sufficient situation. In other words, even if there is a few percentage points in the trade market Fluctuations will immediately produce feedback. At the same time, the hive must also bear another obligation-
The war tax of the expeditionary force.
This is an extremely huge expenditure. Due to the continuation of the war, the previous conscription plan has been expanded three times, reaching a scale of two billion. The food, clothing and clothing of these soldiers must be provided by the world of the maelstrom. There are also a large number of logistics personnel serving the expeditionary force. Half a year after the issuance of the military stamps, its scope has far exceeded the original limited range. When Reza's materials cannot be supplied in time, the logistics department of the expeditionary force will Various means will be used to force a large number of nobles and hive rulers to hand over much of their wealth to support the expedition, and these will immediately be passed on to the common people.
For example, this hive city levied nine rounds of war taxes in one year.
This made the hive capital unprecedentedly tense. When food prices rose to an unacceptable level, riots broke out, and some even began to attack promethium storage plants and food processing plants, which further gave birth to a terrible disaster - famine. occur.
(End of this chapter)