In the third month of his stay in Tovack, Soshyan received a message from the distant Badab sector. After a brutal half-year siege, the expeditionary force finally broke through the siege of Badab.
The last underground stronghold of the Red Pirate garrison, just as Soshyan expected, Honso finally chose to escape.
Marshal Helbrecht of the Black Templars originally planned to complete the operation in two months, but in the end it turned into a bloody tug-of-war, which also made the already fragile Badab Prime almost drowned in the blood of both the enemy and ourselves.
, but even so, a world that will no longer be colonized in the future is still important to the empire.
First, it represented the empire's resumption of order in the Badab sector and the destruction of the pirate strongholds that had long plagued the Maelstrom route, thus wiping out a century of Huron's efforts.
Secondly, as the core of the Badab sector, Badab Prime's role in controlling the maelstrom channels and trade routes has far exceeded its role as a residential planet. It only needs to restore its orbital facilities, so its superior location determines
It will still prosper again soon.
Finally, and most importantly, it is its symbolic significance, because when the high lord awarded Soshyan the position of commander-in-chief of the expeditionary force, the core operational goal he set was the Badab sector, which meant restoring the empire's presence in Badab.
The dominance of the Bu Sector means that the most basic victory of this expedition has been achieved. Regardless of whether the Hurons can be eliminated in the end, Soshyan can already handle it, and the expeditionary force can openly claim to have achieved a decisive victory.
For the Maelstrom soldiers and civilians who have been dragged down by the expedition and are full of complaints, this is definitely a shot in the arm, because they can see the dawn of victory.
Of course, the price of victory was very heavy. The death of more than 24 million soldiers made the Siege of Badab the battle with the heaviest casualties in the Maelstrom Expedition. Correspondingly, the empire also annihilated more than 100 million soldiers.
Chaos servants (including servitors) and countless subspace demons. (If you are interested, you can make a separate extra chapter about the siege of Badab in the future. I personally prefer to write about the details of the offensive and defensive battles)
But no matter what, this is a great victory. It is not only the victory of the Empire against the heretics, but also the bodies of the Iron Warriors that can be found in this battle exceed 500, so it can be regarded as another victory of the Imperial Fist against its old enemy.
The victory is worthy of special mention.
With a stroke of his pen, Soshyan personally inscribed a commendation notice for the siege troops in the Badab war area.
However, there were some dissonant notes in the victory song. Malakin seemed to have a serious conflict with Herbrecht. In a private letter to Soshyan, Malakin accused Herbrecht of
Bretchett was a "cold-blooded butcher" who wasted a large number of soldiers' lives in an almost profligate manner. Due to his "impatient" and "reckless" strategies, many avoidable sacrifices were caused.
The Chapter Master of the Tianshi Chapter also had some criticisms of Helbrecht. Although they were both sons of Dorne, he said that Helbrecht was more like a "cruel war blacksmith" and "a close match" with Honso. This
The accusation is in a sense more serious than Malazin's, meaning that he is as cold as a heretic.
Helbrecht did not make any excuses or complaints in the battle report. He always only talked about numbers and progress, which was very consistent with Soshyan's impression of him.
Regarding these, Soshyan, from the standpoint of the commander-in-chief of his expedition, has no reason to blame Herbrecht, because the other side has won and ensured that the Fourth Army will no longer have the opportunity to intervene in this war unless
They were willing to assist the Red Pirates, not Honso.
Soshyan's choice was to transfer Malakin to the direction of Arash, and let the battle group in the Badab war zone clean up the situation as soon as possible and go to the Mag star cluster to assemble.
Because the decisive battle may be coming soon.
According to Occam's latest intelligence, Soshyan finally knows what Huron's shrinking power is doing.
He is trying to take control of a mysterious hulk he just acquired.
The origin of this hulk is very secret from Huron, and even Ockham can't figure it out, but it is very different from those ordinary hulks. It seems to have all the functions that a normal warship should have, and after getting this hulk,
Behind the ship, the number of demon engines in the Huron army increased rapidly and had at least doubled in size.
According to Occam's description, if this ruined ship really moves, the empire may need to dispatch the Queen of Glory or several battleships to fight it.
However, it seems that the ship is not yet completely under control. Ockham knows through the informant network that has been established within the Red Pirates that Huron has temporarily organized a skull feast. The location is that mysterious hulk, and the reward is the winner.
You will receive the title of commander of the hulk called the Savage Crucible.
But in fact, he wants to send some disobedient people to the hulk, because it is filled with all kinds of terrifying aliens and subspace creations. However, under this huge temptation, many ambitious Chaos Space Marines still choose
Get involved.
However, the result is probably that there is no return, and Huron probably will not keep his promise, although he never breaks his promise.
Soshyan attached great importance to this, not only because of this mysterious hulk, but also because this incident represented a new force supporting Huron.
In addition, Huron seems to have noticed something, and once again strengthened the defense of Blackstone Fortress. Now there are at least 3,000 Chaos Space Marines stationed there and a large number of attached mortal soldiers. Combined with the solidity of Blackstone Fortress itself, it is a very difficult thing to crack.
of hard bones.
Soshyan also chatted with Veronica about this matter, but Veronica was not too worried about it. More than three thousand Chaos Space Marines seemed like a lot, but they knew nothing about the structure of the Blackstone Fortress.
, there is no need to eliminate them all on the spot, as long as she lures them away and controls the Blackstone Fortress, she can activate the internal defense mechanism and strangle them all in the Blackstone Fortress.
Soshiyang thought about it, and it seemed to be the same. After all, the goal was to seize the Blackstone Fortress. As for the enemies inside, there was plenty of time to take care of them.
After knowing that Huron was preparing for a decisive battle, Soshyan also decided to speed up. At this time, the Red Pirate stronghold of the Magog Star Cluster had basically been swept away by the Dark Angels, so he sent the Flesh Tearers to assist the White Scars and their sub-groups in eliminating the bloody
Red pirate stronghold in the Skull Galaxy.
As an important mining area of the Maelstrom, the Bloody Skull Galaxy has a large number of mineral worlds. Those worlds are characterized by desolation and have a large number of underground mines. In a sense, they are independent fortresses. It is very troublesome to defeat them one by one, but it is impossible not to defeat them.
, on the one hand, the foundry world is in urgent need of raw material supply, on the other hand
Not long after Soshyan signed the agreement with the Shortmen Alliance, they supplied the goods on time and also provided mercenaries.
Naturally, it is difficult to go back on the mining rights promised to others.