Warhammer Inquisitor Chapter 403

  Chapter 403 Expedition Road: Lord of Gold

The Fortress World Headquarters is crowded with people, and the command center of the entire planet is gathered here. That line of defense advances, that line of defense retreats, abandons the defense or launches a counterattack at any cost. The fate of the entire planet is determined here every moment. With a flick of your fingers, you can write a new chapter for the fate of tens of thousands, or even millions of people, or it may be the end of the full stop.

So when the defense war started, it has been very busy here. Hundreds of officers and staff members have been working here day and night. New orders are issued.

Surrounding the rotunda is a step-like work area. Every thinker terminal is full of operators. Officers are running back and forth from one area to another. The servo skulls leap over the head quickly, just like a story. Like the flock of crows passing information in the middle of the world, they shuttled endlessly.

Amidst the sound of keyboard tapping and chatting all around, the sound of huge explosions outside the window constantly evokes the firelight shining here, and the burning star port shines the dazzling firelight through the window into the huge circular space of the headquarters, exploding The vibration and the simultaneous firing of tens of millions of orbital weapons, mixed with the noisy noise here, made everything chaotic.

But suddenly, all these noises stopped instantly, and with the bang opening of the huge automatic door beside the headquarters, everything here suddenly quieted down, all the noises disappeared, and all the hustle and bustle followed that The huge footsteps behind the door stopped.

It was an extremely heavy golden power armor foot. It stepped into the headquarters suddenly, and with its thick and dull stepping sound, it pressed the pause button for all the sounds here. The surrounding people on the steps and the ground Everyone raised their heads and looked at the golden giant who strode in from the door.

He was walking under the tall dome of the command headquarters, and the flickering firelight outside the window was still shining on him, shining the golden power armor on his body, surrounded by the huge tactical round table in the center of the command headquarters, wearing general uniforms The commander-in-chief raised his head, and he watched the golden giant who was walking quickly picked up the military cap on the table.

The commander-in-chief put on his general hat, quickly sorted out his military uniform, stood at attention by the table and saluted the approaching giant, "The commander-in-chief of the Fortress World Defense Force, and the commander of the 6th Army of Cadia, Germany Lake salutes you, Supreme Marshal!"

Drake saluted loudly, and the staff officers on both sides of his table also stood at attention and saluted Vito who was coming. A long shadow was drawn behind them. .

  The three Astartes Chapter Masters standing beside them knelt down on one knee to pay tribute to Vito, and the tall giant knelt on the ground and made a heavy bang.

  All the people at the table knelt on the ground amidst the sound of the Astartes kneeling, as if it was a signal, they involuntarily knelt on the ground on one knee.

The standing Drake looked at the giant approaching with his body stretched straight. He looked down at himself, with a burning golden halo faintly flickering behind his head, revealing a kind of absolute authority all the time. Any words that need to be said are enough to let everyone present know who is the absolute leader here.

Drake looked up at the burly giant in front of him, and he also looked down at himself. After a while, the golden giant raised a hand to signal to everyone around him, "Everyone, please rise up, we are facing a war, and there is no time to waste These honors are on."

Vito's voice seemed to be an order, and everyone present stood up immediately. They surrounded the table and looked at the burly giant standing in front of them. The three Astartes battle captains slowly got up and stood up. After the meeting, they all nodded to Vito in unison, and the latter also silently responded to them, and then looked at Drake in front of him.

"Let me introduce to you, this is Judge Lilith, my accompanying entourage and most trusted friend." Vito turned sideways and raised his iron fist to signal Lilith who was beside him, who smiled and smiled at everyone with his hands behind his back. Nodding slightly, her charming smile made several young staff officers present at a loss.

But soon they regained their composure under the advice of the people beside them. Vito smiled slightly at them, and then raised the power claw on the other side to signal Iyana on the other side. Holding the scepter, with the other hand, he raised the red hair next to the pointed ear and pinned it behind the ear, revealing the sharp Eldar ear.

All the people present looked at that sharp ear, especially the local bishop of the state religion, who almost instinctively showed disgust, and the rest of the people were not much better. The hostility on their faces hardly needed any keen observation skills I can tell.

But Irina just smiled, and then stood beside Vito with her hands behind her back, slightly nodded to him as a sign of please, and Vito also looked at her and smiled slightly at the corner of his mouth, then raised his head majesticly Looking at the top leaders of the local planet present.

"This is Iyana, the prophet and representative of the Eldar. I believe Admiral Speyer has told you before that we have formed an alliance with the Eldar. I hope that the Admiral has convinced you for me. Because I don't want to waste time on this issue."

Vito stared at Drake in front of him with majestic eyes, and the latter spoke nervously and cautiously, but he could not be blamed for this, after all, whoever stood in front of a **** in the eyes of an empire for the first time would not feel nervous Woolen cloth?

   "Yes, my lord, Admiral Speyer has informed us, although... some of us do have doubts about this, but we will obey the order."

Vito stared at Drake in front of him, then raised his head slightly to look at the other people in front of him, his eyes scanned them, and said in a low voice, "I hope that the commander-in-chief can say what you just said on behalf of you, Right, my lord bishop."

The bishop who was directly hostile to Iyana just now was stunned. He watched Vito turn around in a hurry and nodded repeatedly, "Of course, my lord, in the name of the emperor! My church and I obey your orders." All orders."

   "I believe you will, so now, let's start the meeting, Tech Priest, and connect to the holographic image signal. Admiral Speyer and Captain Reina will participate in the meeting remotely on their own ship."

As Vito spoke, he slightly raised his hand to the priest of the Mechanicus at the table, who immediately nodded in response, and then a slender and curved active data cable protruded from his armpit and inserted it into the tactical round table, and soon it was removed from the table. The upper hand fired two holographic projection beams, and quickly outlined the images of the two captains at the table.

Speyer and Reina stood at the table on the left and right sides of Vito. They turned their heads and nodded to Vito at the table. The latter also nodded slightly and then looked at the table again. The iron fist on one side signaled, "Let Admiral Speyer introduce the peripheral situation first, Admiral."

"Of order, Marshal." Speyer nodded affirmatively and turned to the people at the table. Everyone, especially the three chapter leaders, looked over immediately. The general faced the tactical map with their hands pressed in front of them. on the table.

"The Gothic fleet has intercepted and repelled the Chaos support fleet on the periphery, and the Eldar fleet has wiped out another Chaos ground reinforcement fleet that came from the outer storm of the galaxy, so in the short term, they should not be able to fight back in the front. Come to support."

"But this is only temporary. The Chaos army is endless. As long as the battle situation on this planet is not won, they will definitely continue to come here, so the key to victory lies in the fortress world." Speyer said, shaking his hands Raising his fist, he said as he knocked on the table in front of him. Through the sound transmission of the holographic image, the sound of him knocking on the physical tactical table on the bridge also echoed here.

  Vito nodded slightly, then looked up at Commander-in-Chief Drake, "The admiral is right, the key to victory lies on the ground, tell me the current situation in Fortress World, briefly, Commander-in-Chief."

"Yes, my lord." Drake said and waved to the mechanical priest beside him, who nodded immediately. After the mechanical arm was operated on the tactical table, the hologram of the fortress world was quickly projected on the tactical map On the map, countless warring light spots flickered on the rotating sphere, layer by layer, from the ground to the orbit.

"As far as the current situation is concerned, Chaos has occupied the eastern half of the planet. They attacked and seized the starport on the eastern half, and forced the defense forces to retreat through orbital bombing. made a deadly charge, piercing our line while the guards were retreating, away from the defensive positions."

Drake raised his hand and waved it in front of him, his face was illuminated by the holographic image of the planet suspended in front of him, "The situation was very critical at one point, when the Chaos Space Marines were most dangerous, they almost attacked near the orbital elevator in the Western Hemisphere , but they were eventually wiped out, thanks to the assistance and help of the Fire Angels and Star Rangers."

As Drake said, he stood up and gestured to the two chapter leaders behind him. The chapter leader Harlan Stark of the Fire Angel and the chapter leader Tualatin Valk of the Star Ranger all nodded to Vito. Especially Captain Stark, he said as he stepped forward and clenched his iron fist.

"Our battle group, after the curator of the think tank received the enlightenment from the emperor, he led the whole group to come here. In the name of the holy emperor, we will be here with thousands of mortal soldiers to defeat the emperor. Enemy, defend this sacred planet in his name."

"It must be so, Captain, thank you for your help, and yours, Captain Valdin." Vito nodded slightly to Captain Stark, and then turned to the silent Valdin beside him. Long nodded in salute, and the latter nodded affirmatively to Vito with folded arms.

Vito then looked back at Drake, nodded to him for him to continue, the commander-in-chief also cleared his throat and continued pointing to the map in front of him, "With the help of the two Astartes battle groups, we Barely stabilized the position on the ground, and now the various regiments of the defense army are on the surface, relying on several defensive fortresses for defense, the attack of Chaos is still fierce, but they continue to guard the position."

Behind that simple sentence "Still defending the position" are the corpses of thousands of imperial soldiers. Behind the simple sentence, there is a scene that cannot be described in any words. Countless soldiers died shoulder to shoulder, just to delay for a moment. It's just time, so they can say here, "the position is still guarding".

"But in orbit, the situation is not so optimistic." Drake said, raising his hand to indicate a huge orbital starport orbiting the planet on the extraterrestrial orbit of the planet. Most starports ever were bigger, perhaps only comparable to those of Terra and Mars.

Vito looked at the huge star port, which used to be able to dock a fairly large fleet and almost provide a correction and maintenance base for the fleet of the entire star field, but now, it is shrouded in a dim red half.

Those were long and thin red blood vessels, they meandered and extended along the entire interior of the huge star port, converging into a long tentacle piercing forward, sweeping from both sides of the planet, heading towards Vito At the current headquarters position on the back of the planet, it seems that no one can stop the penetration of the tentacles.

"At the beginning of the Black Crusade, basically all the fleets stationed here left and went to the home planet of Cadia for support, so we lost part of the control of the orbit on the east side of the planet before the Gothic fleet arrived, and Chaos also Seized this opportunity to expand the results."

As Drake said, he raised his hand and waved helplessly in front of him. He sighed and looked at the long red waves that swept across most of the star port, "Bless the benevolent Emperor, the Astartes are because of With the intense battle on the ground and the inability to escape, and the lack of Space Marine support in orbit, Chaos is advancing rapidly along the corridors."

Vito stood on the table, looked at the holographic map in front of him and frowned slightly. He raised his finger and pointed to the space of the planet in front of him. It was different from the chaos on the ground and in orbit. It was extremely clean, and there was no light spot of battle at all. .

   "I noticed that there seems to be no combat, transportation or airborne in the sky of the planet. Are aircrafts unusable here?" Vito looked at Drake and asked, who also turned his head and nodded.

He raised his hand to Speyer on the opposite side, "Yes, the gravity well of our planet is so strong that no shuttle or fighter plane can fly in the planet's atmosphere. Once a warship approaches the planet's low-earth orbit It will also be bound by gravity and then crash, and the transportation between the orbit and the surface is all connected by orbital elevators, so the star port is built at a position far away from the range of gravity, and therefore its diameter is larger."

Speyer, who was standing on the side, also nodded approvingly. He turned his head to look at Vito who was on the side and nodded slightly. The latter also looked over, "Because of this, the ground defenders can Persisting here for so long without the right to control the universe, the Chaos Fleet cannot approach the low-Earth orbit for bombing because of the strong gravity of the surface."

"That's why they chose to capture the outer orbit first. After occupying the orbit, they used the orbital defense artillery on it to turn the muzzle and fire at the surface of the planet for precise bombing. Because of the gravity of the planet, the anti-aircraft artillery of the surface guards It's useless at all, the shells can't hit high enough to stop the bombing overhead."

Drake turned his eyes to look at the holographic star map in front of him and raised his hand. He looked at the red occupied area on the east side and sighed annoyedly, "So we were kicked out, and Chaos is still moving along the star map." Keep going, and if we can't stop them, by the time they've taken the tracks to the west, we're all doomed."

"No need to worry, Commander-in-Chief, I have already ordered the Shark Squad and the Sun Auxiliary Army to launch an attack. They have already landed in Starport to meet Chaos. If I am not mistaken, they should have blocked the attack." Vito said. Look at Reina.

Reina looked at Vito and looked around at the people at the table, then raised a finger and pointed to the orbits on both sides of the planet, "The Shark Corps is starting to counterattack after stabilizing the front line from the west side centered on our position. , the Sun Auxiliary Army is counterattacking from the east, they are advancing along the orbital corridor, the combined fleet of the Eldar and the Empire is also launching a counterattack in space, and we have also repelled the Chaos fleet attack."

As soon as this remark came out, people around the round table began to discuss in whispers, many people showed joyful smiles, and even the two burly battle captains nodded approvingly, Vito looked at the holographic projected Smiling at both ends, he deliberately arranged for Peter and Tiberos to attack from both sides. Considering their displeasure at meeting each other for the first time, it is obviously inappropriate for them to act together.

So Vito let them attack separately and have a match, a competitive and healthy match, in the middle of the other end of the ring to see who gets there first, it will let them know each other, and respect, and the only thing that will be there The only unpleasant thing in this game is Chaos, so I guess there is no harm.

   But when Vito smiled, he also noticed that in the pleasant atmosphere of the hall, there was only one person, he didn't smile, and stood there with a cold face.

He stood there silently, with the helmet tucked under his armpit, Vito raised his head and looked over, he looked at the leader of the Wailers, who was full of melancholy, "Malarkin, you Why are you so sad?"

  The handsome Chapter Master Malakin with long blond hair raised his head. He looked at Vito and lowered his head in shame, "I have no words to face you, my lord, and I have no words to face the Emperor."

   "Why? Captain." Vito slowly stood up and raised his power claw and asked, while Malakin sighed long.

   "We were ordered to defend the temple where the key relic was, but we failed to hold it. The traitors of the Iron Warriors pushed us out. Many brothers died there, and we fell."

Malakin sighed long and sadly, his face was full of shame and resentment, "My brothers and I have failed the Emperor's trust, and what's more shameful, I can't even organize a decent counterattack .”

"It's not your fault, brother, the number of Weepers is small, and you have to support the battles in various places. You have no way to mobilize your strength to counterattack. I believe the emperor will understand." Captain Stark raised his hand said the hand to Malakin.

Valdin next to him also immediately reconsidered, and he stepped forward and clenched his fists, "He is right, brother, you may have lost the temple, but we will take him back! And I believe that in the near future Within a short time, we will drive those traitors out of this planet!"

"But I'm still ashamed of the Emperor, I'm ashamed of the Primarch, and I'm ashamed of the blood of Sanguinius." Malakin still said melancholy, and Vito could almost see his pain directly from his face. Thor immediately looked at Drake who was on the side.

   "How long has the temple been lost?" "Not long, my lord, it was just lost today." "Very well, Yiyangna, do you think Hong Suo has captured the artifact?"

As Vito said, he turned his head and looked at Iyana behind him. The latter shrugged slightly, and said in the proficient Gothic language that surprised everyone present, "No, he probably hasn't, if I come from the ark If you read correctly in the database and information, the artifact is buried deep in the ground of the temple, and Hong Suo must not be able to open the secret passage of the temple, so he can only do it hard and get through physically."

   "There is a thick layer of granite between the ground of the temple and the sanctuary. It will take a lot of time to penetrate it, so I guess he is still struggling to make a hole."

The two chapter leaders looked at each other in surprise. They had never seen such a simple Eldar. I mean, there were no riddles, no descriptions and metaphors going around, just two simple sentences to clarify Everything, moreover, sounded like a human talking, and if they closed their eyes they certainly wouldn't think the person standing before them was an Eldar.

"Then we still have time, we will take back the temple." Vito propped himself up on the holographic map in front of him, and Drake beside him frowned slightly, and he looked at Vito with his hands behind his back. .

"I don't want to disturb you, my lord, but the temple is in the orbital bombing zone controlled by the enemy. In front of it is a large endless plain. All bunkers on it have been evacuated or destroyed. Chaos can bombard the entire area. It is a death killing field, which is why several counterattacks by the Wailers failed."

  Vito slightly raised his head and glanced at Derek, then he raised his eyes to look at the holographic map in front of him and was silent for a moment, "I will figure out a way, but before that."

  Vito raised his eyes and looked at Malakin, who was still looking melancholy in the jubilant crowd, and the latter also raised his head to meet Vito's eyes.

   "Malarkin, come with me, we need to talk."

  (end of this chapter)

Chapter end