Chapter 2167 It’s hard to give full credit
The empire suffered heavy losses, and the Red Pirates must have had a hard time. According to preliminary statistics, at least 32 of their capital ships were sunk, 8 more were captured, and 3 more were Abandoned, more than 200 small and medium-sized ships were sunk, some of which were difficult to confirm because their models were too small. Another 41 were captured. More than 1,200 flying Demon Engines and Chaos fighters of various types were shot down. In terms of Space Marines, only There are more than 2,800 confirmed corpses in Crucible of Savagery and Moon of Destruction. The actual number of kills is likely to exceed 4,000! Taking into account the corpses found on other battlefields, the number of Red Pirates killed in this battle is very likely to reach more than 10,000!
It took three months just to clean up the battlefield. The Mechanicus and the Navy alone dispatched more than 600 tugboats and barges of various sizes to work day and night.
After the battle, Soshyan summoned all the senior commanders and chapter masters, confessed his mistake to everyone, and admitted that he was indeed fooled by Huron's last hat trick, too. Because I was a little arrogant because I had the chance to win at that time, but everyone thought that this was nothing to apologize for. Helbrecht said very bluntly that there is never a person who has no plan on the battlefield, and you cannot deny the other 99% just because of 1%. achievements.
Although the Mantis Warriors did not capture Huron in the end, they also believe that this is not entirely Soshyan's fault. The battlefield is unpredictable, especially naval battles, where there is no absolute strength gap between the two sides. Next, a party determined to run is usually difficult to stop, and he has done his best.
Lysander asked Soshyan not to take this matter too seriously. He had already created the most glorious victory for the empire in thousands of years, and overall his flaws were not concealed.
With everyone's support, Soshiyang calmed down and immediately commanded the army to sweep away the remaining areas of the Red Pirates. As he expected, the Red Pirates basically withdrew. In this way, in a Months later, the entire Maelstrom was completely back under the control of the Empire, and the Red Pirates completely shrank back into the depths of the Maelstrom.
Just when Soshyan was about to concentrate his efforts on a quick raid on New Badab deep in the maelstrom, an accident happened.
A warp storm suddenly descended upon the Maelstrom.
Although the Maelstrom itself is a subspace rift, there are not many cases where storms occur. Just when Soshyan was planning an attack, a storm enveloped the area around the center of the Maelstrom, making all military operations It all became a dream. Due to the loss of Occam's intelligence support, Soshyan had no way of knowing whether the storm was caused by Huron or some other reason.
However, after the man-eating shark fleet rushed out from the depths of the maelstrom, combined with some of the "deployments" Occam had said, Soshyan finally knew what happened inside.
It’s quite complicated to say. After Valtex, who had lost the Blackstone Fortress, led his people back to New Badab, they found a secret force of more than a thousand people arranged by Judah in advance, but before waiting He comprehensively reorganized the planetary defense, and some of the red pirates who stayed in New Badab suddenly rebelled. Then Garmozejie joined forces with the blood snake monsters and several war gangs who did not intend to obey Huron to launch a joint attack. The fleet passed through the unactivated orbital defense. facilities, heading straight towards the Palace of Thorns, the core of New Badab.
The two sides fought fiercely around the Palace of Thorns. Garmozej even raised the banner that Huron was dead, Vartex wanted to seize the opportunity, and he came to deal with it in the name of Abaddon. situation.
His slogan was very clever, and it did scare some of the remaining Red Pirates on New Badab, causing some people to sit on the sidelines.
Just when the balance of victory was tilting towards Garmo Zejie, the fleet of man-eating sharks suddenly rushed out, first paralyzing the orbital defense station, and then surrounding the Palace of Thorns facing New Badab. After a sudden bombardment, Tiberus personally led the team to land, but the target was the Red Pirates' arsenal. The two sides who were still fighting were caught off guard by the sudden appearance of a third party. There were even rumors that the empire's army had arrived. , the entire planet fell into chaos and was completely unable to organize an effective defense.
After robbing the planet fiercely, the Man-Eating Shark planned to launch a whirlwind torpedo on the planet, and then a fleet of Word Bearers suddenly arrived. Tiberus had to lead the team to retreat, but he still did not give up destroying the new planet. Badab until Huron's return.
Tiberus originally thought that the Word Bearers would capture New Badab, but that did not happen. Instead, Garmozejie and others hurriedly evacuated, and Huron returned to the Palace of Thorns safely, and then It's the subspace storm coming.
The Man-Eating Shark Fleet once fought with the fleeing Garmo Zejie and others, killing each other. As for what happened to the Word Bearers and the Red Pirates after that, they did not know, but the Pale Wanderer It is believed that this storm was caused by the Word Bearers, because it is not easy to set off a subspace storm. This often requires "borrowing", that is, relying on the power of the evil gods of destruction. According to Occam's past statement, There are many wizards among the Red Pirates, but not many are proficient in demonology.
Although the Red Pirates also surrounded Angstrom with a subspace storm, the scale was very small, so it can be basically judged that this huge storm came from the hands of the Word Bearers. As for whether the Word Bearers want to help Huron or harm Huron, it's hard to say.
This news made Soshyan both happy and annoyed. The happy thing is that after this round, Huron will undoubtedly be severely weakened and will not be able to return to its grand glory in a few decades. The annoying thing is that now is the best time to eliminate the opponent. But the damn subspace storm showed no sign of dissipating.
After briefly informing Soshiyan of the situation, the shark fleet left as inexplicably as they came.
Seeing that he would not be able to break into the maelstrom for a while, Soshyan could only arrange four battle groups, namely the Mantis Warriors, the White Templars, the Lamenters, and the Flesh Tearers, to guard the front line of Lamptan, closely Monitor the depths of the maelstrom to prevent enemies from escaping, and report as soon as the storm dissipates.
After that, he led the main force back to the Sagan system. After all, the war was over in a sense, but there were still many things to deal with after the war.
After returning to Sagan Prime, all kinds of praises and praises came one after another, but Soshyan was not in the mood to argue with those nobles and imperial bureaucrats now. Apart from Huron, he was the second Worry is Veronica's case.
However, there was no news from Veronica, so Soshyan could only carry out preliminary post-war arrangements, such as the specific statistics and pensions of the dead, the delivery and distribution of newly recovered worlds, and the customization of expedition medals, etc. .
However, fortunately, the main planet of Sagan already has a very complete logistics and administrative system. Most of the specific content does not require Soshyan to personally intervene. After declining all banquets and invitations, he returned to Sagan A temporary residence on the main star, because there he can boldly use the psychic props given to him by Veronica to communicate with the other party.
However, as soon as he walked into the door of the Shouyan Hall of Qingpeng Manor, Soshiyang, who was wearing a robe, felt a breeze blowing on his face, and then a delicate body fell into his arms.
“Hee hee, isn’t it surprising?”
Looking down at Veronica, who was wearing regular clothes and had long hair shawl, with a smile like a flower, Soshiyang was silent for a moment, then picked her up and held her tightly. Hold her tightly in your arms.
"Huh? What's wrong?"
Veronica noticed that something was wrong with Soshyan's mood, and then reached out and touched his face.
Soshiyang didn’t say anything, just closed his eyes and seemed to feel this rare peace. Veronica said nothing more and rested her head on his shoulder. The two of them were so quiet that they only had each other. The sound of breathing and heartbeat.
(End of this chapter)