War is an eternal topic, and it is also a topic that every Imperial citizen in the post-Imperial era cannot escape from from birth to death.
It is like a bell that is constantly ringing. Depending on the distance, it gives completely different feelings to different people even in the same star region or galaxy.
The same goes for Orpheus, without any exception.
To the people of Amara, the capital world at the center of the sector:
War is the tension coming from the other side; it is the occasional price fluctuations in the trading market; it is the occasional administrative orders for overtime and rest days that are notified to the work unit; it is the rice in the next star district that is close at hand but far away. Talk later.
But for this group of lucky people, war does not mean bloodshed and death.
Different people have different fates, and the citizens of the Empire who live on the edge of the star sector do not have such luck.
War is a different experience for them:
It is the panic of precarious life; it is the bad news of the fall of the city where relatives and friends live in the distance; it is the embarrassment of being unable to guarantee food and fresh water; it is the ubiquitous but always following death.
Katyn, the northern theater of the Orpheus sector and the capital world of the sector's Northern Fleet's defense line against Chaos, is shrouded in such an atmosphere.
The Northern Fleet, headed by Vice Admiral Ernest Joseph, the senior general of the Orps Fleet of the Imperial Navy, relies on the defense system of this galaxy to maintain a balance with the Chaos Fleet with difficulty.
In Imperial Calendar 39, decades have passed since the tragic Battle of the Corridor by the Imperial Fleet.
Today's Northern Fleet and the defense line of the Katyn system where they are stationed are no longer what they used to be.
After receiving limited support from the empire, the size of the fleet has barely reached the minimum defense standards.
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 orbit of the capital world of Katyn, in the dome hall of the battleship Holy Words, the flagship of the Orpheus Northern Fleet.
Lieutenant General Ernest Joseph was holding his admiral's scepter, standing under the star map in front of him for a long time, and was caught up in the long test of this long chess game.
This is the normal state of his life in the past ten years, and it is also a microcosm of the life of the soldiers in the northern theater represented by him.
The war has been going on here for decades, with no end in sight.
Against the backdrop of the short life expectancy of ordinary citizens of the Empire, this resistance to Chaos and the aliens will surely fill the memories of generations.
Ever since he took over the defense here, this noble-born, only 150-year-old general has never had a complete sleep.
The initial flames of war broke out from the edge of the Hassan sector and spread to the entire sector in a very short period of time.
The orc offensive came so violently and suddenly that the Orpheus fleet could not even complete its assembly, but watched helplessly as its neighbor and Orpheus's de facto ally fell completely.
As the central sector of the five major sectors established at the same time, after losing the strategic depth of the Hassan sector, the next war will inevitably burn towards the Orps mainland.
But the star zone has no power to stop the orcs from attacking.
Because there has been no war crisis, Orpheus itself has been providing additional supplies for three thousand years to support other wars in the Storm Star Territory.
The senior generals of the sector defense force have proposed the upkeep and maintenance of the fleet and the rectification of surrounding defenses more than once.
However, under huge economic pressure, the Orps family, which dominated the star sector, finally chose to give up.
The bitter consequences of this inaction were finally tasted by their descendants, after hundreds of years of delay.
When the war BOSS in the Hassan sector led an overwhelming orc fleet and launched an unstoppable offensive towards the mainland of the sector.
The current district governor could only look at his own fleet, which was less than half the number, and was helpless.
Yes, in the Imperial Navy's setting for a large sector defense fleet, a full complement of more than 20 medium and large ships, including a minimum of five battleships, is the size Orps should have.
But at that time, the number of Orps' battleships that met the standard was only 12, of which there were only three battleships.
For this reason, we must also exclude one-third of the abandoned ships that have lost the ability to maneuver and can only be used as forts on orbit...
Needless to say, there was no need to say much about the war that followed. The Orps fleet, which fought and retreated, maximized its limited force for decades.
They relied on the defense system of the border system and the unity of the local military and civilians to barely resist the endless numbers and exponentially increasing intensity of the orcs' invasion.
But at this moment, news of the appearance of the Chaos Fleet actually came from the ruins of the Lyak Sector, which was completely opposite to the Hassan Sector.
Although the Storm Star Territory did not pay much attention to the threat here at that time, there were many far-sighted people in the military headquarters and navy.
Thanks to their efforts, the Storm Star Territory authorities symbolically dispatched three cruise ships from the Star Territory Fleet to support.
However, the situation of being attacked from both sides still makes the Star Zone unsustainable.
The main force of the sector fleet could only run repeatedly 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 "Battle of the Corridor".
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 when the empire's survival is critical.
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 the fact that the fleet has more than doubled and is now 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 construction materials were continuously gathered from the rear, and then a new defense system was built behind Kating.
The strategic void behind the Katyn Galaxy, which was originally undefendable and smooth, finally had a glimmer of room for error amid the Northern Fleet's desperate defense 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 part of his conjectures:
In the lost forge world of Nazlem, a new and unknown type 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 its main gun 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 desire to die 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 war was coming.
Different from the increasingly tense atmosphere here, there is a greater force moving forward in the subspace from Krieg to Orps, passing through Chilos.
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 a large fleet in the sector.
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 neat actions is self-evident.
This situation immediately aroused high vigilance among the entire Storm Star Territory authorities, including the Tribunal.
The Astartes warriors are both the Empire's sharpest swords and their deepest nightmare.
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 clearly knew that a group purely based on force would not be able to sustain itself for a long time and would sooner or later fall into self-destruction.
Therefore, an imperial government composed purely of Astartes is completely unfeasible.
The opposite is also true. The Legiones Astartes clearly exist, but they can neither be trusted nor make good use of them.
A government completely unable to control the Astartes is also a dead end.
The Imperium and the Astartes must try to re-establish trust between themselves, especially in the turbulent millennia immediately following the Heresy.
No matter which side they belong to, they can no longer bear any more losses.
But now, this fragile balance has been blatantly broken.
The empire can paralyze itself and accept individual founding war groups rejecting the "Holy Code" for various reasons, because it proves that they at least still have the desire to explain and the need to be trusted.
But the Empire cannot accept the blatant alliance of a group of second- and even third-generation Astartes Chapters, because that means that the highest order of the Empire's military force is leaving their control.
This is something even more terrifying than the complete fall of Orps itself.
The journey of the Astartes fleet from Krieg continues.
But before they actually achieve their goal, the impact of their existence has already spread like ripples to the distance.
In the Storm Star Territory, as well as the Terran Council that received emergency notification further away, countless people are destined to be unable to sleep tonight because of their presence.
This was an extraordinary night, because there were countless pairs of eyes wandering between Terra and them.
Everyone is waiting for the final results of the High Lords Council after dawn.
Because that means the empire's view of them, and some more essential logic hidden behind it.
Compromise or confrontation.
They are two completely opposite options that the High Lords Council is about to make.
The former means the end of the era of mortal rule. The old armed groups will continue Horus's last wish and completely lead the empire to an out-of-control chariot composed of military rule;
The latter means the tragic end of this fleet. The High Lords Council must use the most severe means to deal with them to declare the firm position of the mortals represented by the High Lords.
Only in this way can we frighten those who come after us and maintain the legal rationality of the unified empire.
A huge political storm is about to arise.
And as the initiator of this storm, and the possible direct victim.
The soldiers in the distant fleet were still kept in the dark and had no idea what was happening on Terra.
First update, there should be a second update, please vote.
Another: I won the lottery.
Continuing from the last chapter, I mentioned that my next-door neighbor was taken away. Today at noon, I received a call from the local prevention and control department. I have been officially included in the stimulus contact list.
I am now at home, waiting for the community to come and put a seal on my door.
Fortunately, I am quarantined at home, so my updates will not be affected for the time being.
(End of chapter)
