Chapter 113: Renegade Warband and the Deathwatch

Chapter 113: Renegade Warband and the Deathwatch

A force of nearly a company of the Skulltakers warband had arrived on the surface. Led by their Warband Lord, they approached Wolteng.

They barbarically killed anyone who blocked their path and began to occupy key positions in the palace.

The one leading them was the Warband Lord himself, Gaerns Skulltaker.

Several skulls hung from his waist; these were all from Astartes he had killed.

"Mortal, kneel before the messenger of the Blood God! Surrender this planet! You are not worthy of the Blood God's favor."

The pauldrons of this group of Astartes were painted with the warband's insignia using ground-up skulls. However, their power armor, cobbled together from various patterns, showed that this warband was not faring well.

Many components of their power armor had obvious bullet marks and traces of being struck by blades and axes. Even the boltguns in their hands appeared very old.

And this was indeed the case. The remaining numbers of this warband were not large. They did not have the manpower restrictions of a loyalist Chapter, but they had also lost the supply lines of the Imperium.

In the Warp, they wantonly absorbed other warbands and seized their supplies.

But the resources plundered from one poor group by another were not enough to sustain the entire warband's operations.

They didn't even have the ability to replace some damaged components of their power armor.

Constant fighting with other warbands in the Warp had caused them heavy losses. This forced them to come to this world to replenish their manpower, not only to try and select qualified new blood for the warband, but also to recruit many mortal Chaos traitors.

The entire planet was also an unimaginable treasure; the output here could be traded with the Dark Mechanicum hereteks for many good things.

Wolteng's actions were an unexpected delight for the Skulltakers; it had saved them a lot of effort.

And with the arrival of this group of Astartes, those former guards of the Winterscale Dynasty also gathered around Wolteng.

They too had been blessed by Khorne and had become even stronger.

Clearly, Wolteng had no intention of handing over the fruits of his decades of accumulation.

And these renegade Astartes also raised the boltguns in their hands. Wolteng and his followers also drew their weapons. A large number of mortal Khornate cultists also swarmed towards them.

Completely consumed by the desire for battle, they would dare to fight even Astartes.

The Bloodletters within this palace watched all this with great interest. Although it was Wolteng who had summoned them to this world, they would not obey his commands.

But they also would not help those Skulltakers.

No matter who the two sides of the battle were, as long as there was blood and skulls, it was what they wanted to see.

And just as a Chaos civil war was about to erupt, both Wolteng and Gaerns halted their actions.

They had both received a message from orbit.

Scyvilla, leading his fleet, was breaking through the Mandeville Point and entering this star system.

The severity of the Chaos corruption in the system had also made the surrounding Warp unstable. During the process of entering the system, there were even minor leaks of Warp corruption within the warships.

This caused the crew in several compartments to mutate, causing some commotion.

Aboard the Kourda Dynasty's flagship, the Ruthless Flame, Scyvilla watched the fleet jump into the system.

The Ruthless Flame, a heavy cruiser a full five kilometers in length, was like a behemoth. From its completion to the present, this warship had served for several thousand years and had been through countless masters. It had been modified into its current state by the Kourda Dynasty at the cost of trillions of Thrones.

But soon, he discovered a serious problem.

The gaping maw in the void above the planet already signified that this planet had completely fallen.

"It's already on the verge of being transformed into a daemon world… how could it be so fast!"

He knew very well how difficult it would be to attack this planet, and the losses would be unimaginable.

But if he were to just watch this planet be devoured, this important world sacrificed, then this star system would become a bridge linking the Warp and reality.

At that time, an endless stream of daemons and even traitors could more easily reach the material universe from here.

The sacrifices then would be even greater.

"Aspice, order the fleet to attack! Before it's too late! For the God-Emperor! For the Imperium!"

And looking at the planet before her, Aspice was also filled with an unprecedented fanaticism.

A combined fleet composed of the Imperial Navy, Rogue Traders, and even a portion of the Adeptus Mechanicus, a full 60 warships of various classes, pounced on this fallen planet.

However, as they approached the planet, they discovered the severity of the problem. It wasn't just the fleet that originally belonged to Winterscale.

The fleet belonging to the Chaos warband also presented an unprecedented challenge to the Imperial fleet.

However, relying on their numerical superiority, they still repulsed them and successfully approached the planet's orbit.

The brutal battle caused both sides to lose over twenty warships. A large number of crewmen were turned into cosmic dust.

And those Chaos warships, after releasing a large number of drop pods towards the surface, no longer lingered in battle and began to retreat.

They also knew that against a fleet of this scale, they had no chance of victory.

However, although the ground defense facilities had already been destroyed, allowing the Imperial fleet not to worry about fire from the ground, the Warp energy on the planet had already begun to change the nearby physical laws, turning Scyvilla's idea of resolving the battle with an orbital strike into a delusion.

Lance beams were twisted before they even reached the ground.

Macro-cannon shells, and even the cyclone torpedoes for carrying out an Exterminatus, had their internal structures altered by the power of the Warp before they reached the ground, losing their original function.

Exterminatus was ineffective on such worlds.

Even the Auger Arrays on the warships could not lock onto targets.

And the source of all this was that massive skull mound at the tip of the hive city.

"Lord Inquisitor! Allow me to lead my Dynasty Guard in a ground assault! My soldiers and I will use our lives to fulfill our loyalty to the God-Emperor!" Aspice said, full of confidence.

This time, she had brought the most elite soldiers of her Dynasty, among them many pilgrims from the Ecclesiarchy. The madness of these fanatics was no less than that of those heretics.

And the Mechanicus had also brought a large number of troops. If one were to ask which force in the Imperium had the finest equipment, it would definitely be the Skitarii of the Mechanicus! The Mechanicus would first provide them with all the good things they had tucked away.

"Go then, Aspice! I will also go with you!"

After Scyvilla finished speaking, a Kill-company, a total of 30 Astartes clad in black armor from the Deathwatch, silently walked to the side.

The one leading them was the captain of this Watch Company, Howles.

The number of Astartes in a Deathwatch company depended entirely on the situation in the local sector.

Although these Deathwatch were specialized in combat against various xenos, this was not their only duty.

They were originally members from different Chapters. Some might have been "troublemakers" from their Chapters deliberately thrown in, while others were sent for "advanced training."

In the Deathwatch, they would cast aside their original identities and join this new Chapter for long-term service.

A very small number might remain in the Deathwatch permanently, but most would still return to their original Chapters after their term of service ended.

However, not many could survive to return, but those who did survive their term of service would mostly be entrusted with important responsibilities upon returning to their home Chapters.

In this Chapter, you could even find some Astartes from traitor legions.

They had completely erased the insignia of their parent legions, atoning for their sins under the designation of "Blackshields."

This also made the fighting style of the Deathwatch full of diversity.

These Astartes were also the only Space Marine Chapter that Scyvilla could mobilize.

So Scyvilla's support for this Deathwatch company was more than adequate.

Brand-new power armor and bolt weapons.

Not to mention various weapons and ammunition; the main principle was an abundant supply. Some other Chapters might even get jealous if they saw it.

And the melee weapons they used were not chain weapons or power swords, but phase weapons from the Necrons.

At least in theory, there was nothing that this type of phase weapon couldn't cut through.

As long as they didn't encounter the Necrons, these weapons were divine artifacts. But when these captured Necron weapons encountered their original owners, they could even be directly locked down by those Tomb Technomancers and rendered useless scrap metal.

"My battle-brothers and I will assist you, Lady Aspice!"

(End of Chapter)

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