The Bizarre Adventures of Cloud Hammer

"Go, why not? We haven't seen bean sprouts yet."

Brother Ou made the decision. He wanted to see if Douya was as ugly as the official GW drawing said, and to have an "intimate" contact with Douya.

Chapter 49 The period of rebellion has arrived

The Blue Silver Sword rushed all the way to the vicinity of the signal source. In the picture provided by Gloria, a Mechanicus ship with a gear-shaped semi-mechanical skull emblem on its hull was surrounded by several Eldar pirates' wraithbone warships.

Let me continue here by talking about the Eldar. Before the birth of Slaanesh, some prophets in the Eldar Empire predicted the coming disaster, so more and more exiles, Craft Worlds and Eldar who still had sanity fled the heart of the Eldar Empire. The departure of these individuals who represented rationality, prudence and restraint accelerated the degeneration of the rest of the Eldar civilization to some extent. After the birth of Slaanesh and the crushing of the Eldar Empire, most of these fugitives became the Savage Eldar and Ark Eldar of today.

Let’s put the Savage Eldar aside for now and just talk about the Ark Eldar, because most of the Eldar pirates come from the Ark Eldar.

The Ark Eldar are currently the most important Eldar group. They drift in the galaxy on huge Eldar Arks and have established the "Way" system to control their lifestyle and emotions in order to avoid Slaanesh's eternal pursuit.

Each Eldar pursues a desired path, but all paths require self-discipline and asceticism. However, not all young people embrace this lifestyle, so they choose the 'Path of Exile,' the thrilling yet less thrilling life of Eldar pirates. This is commonly known as the rebellious phase. (Everene, leader of the Death Army and Lady Regent of the Empire, was once an Eldar pirate.)

Back to the Wraithbone Warships, which is the general name for the Eldar spacecraft. Compared to Imperial warships, Eldar warships lack the heavy armor, heavy hulls, and towering towers of Imperial warships. Instead, they are equipped with long masts supporting sail-like solar collectors. Their ships also have a smoother shape, usually with a curved, almost oval hull, and a more "organic" appearance.

While most Eldar warships lack the defensive capabilities of Imperial warships of the same tier, their superior firepower, maneuverability, and concealment more than make up for their defensive shortcomings. This design was based on the fact that the Eldar's former opponents were the Necrons. Gauss weaponry meant that no matter how thick their armor was, it was still a matter of time before they died. It was better to sacrifice defensive capabilities in favor of firepower and maneuverability. Both sides would be doomed to failure after just a few hits, and as long as they weren't hit, the enemy would be the last to die. (The firepower of Eldar warships was quite formidable; 3-4 frigates could deliver a broadside equivalent to that of a battleship.)

In addition to their inherent firepower and maneuverability, Eldar warships are able to enter and exit the Webway of their region at will, allowing them to quickly and safely appear anywhere they choose. This allows Eldar pirates to attack without warning and then slip away as quickly as they arrived.

Simply put, the Eldar warships like to fight guerrilla warfare. Their mobility and concealment fully support their ability to escape in one strike. They never engage in head-on combat with Imperial warships. Many times, Imperial warships are slowly worn down in this way.

"Isn't this the Mechanicus's ship? Where's the escort fleet?" Ap called Ou Ge and Luo Chen over, puzzled. "Ou Ge, Luo Chen, do you recognize the Eldar warships?"

"I don't know." Luochen didn't know. For Yunchui, it was already a blessing that he could remember the Imperial warships clearly. Besides, he was not that interested in the Eldar. As for the Eldar warships he knew... did the Ark World count?

"Let me see, it looks like those two are frigates, the slender one should be the Veratrum/False Rose class, and the other one looks like the Aurora class light cruiser." Brother Ou said after careful observation.

"No, Brother Ou, you really knew that? No wonder there are so many bean sprouts in the armory, it turns out it's you."

"What's the matter? I'm also a quasi-Hammer Master who has one foot in the Cloud Hammer. It's normal for me to know more than you. Besides, I'm an Ultramarines, so what's wrong with knowing more about Bean Sprouts?"

As a Smurf, Ogo naturally has to learn from Robert Guilliman. Not to mention attacking the Eldar Webway, he at least has to have a general understanding of the Eldar.

All three of them could tell that this lone Imperial warship, stripped of its Mechanicus skin, was a modified Lunar-class cruiser, the same one jokingly called the Titanium Lord's lifelong enemy. (Don't take it seriously; the Titanium Lord could already defeat a Lunar-class cruiser by now.)

This Mechanicus Luna-class ship had a lot of damage and its engine seemed to have stopped working. The Eldar pirates did not destroy it directly, probably because they wanted to obtain the things inside this Mechanicus warship.

"Gloria, scan."

"Completed. There was a battle inside the Moon Level, and there are survivors."

"Prepare for a void battle. Wait until you are close enough to destroy the enemy ship with a single salvo of fire, then remove the stealth mode. Don't give Douya a chance to react." Brother Ou began to give orders.

"Does the hull need to be changed?"

Gloria asked this question because, although the Battle Barge is the size of a battleship, as its name suggests, it is actually a Space Marine 'armed transport'. Its powerful armor and armament are designed primarily for planetary attacks and ship-to-ship boarding operations. In ship-to-ship combat, it can only exert the combat power of a cruiser. Lacking the long-range firepower of a large capital ship or the maneuverability of a light cruiser, the Battle Barge usually relies on its heavy armor to approach the enemy and launch devastating boarding attacks.

This tactic works well against most enemies, but the Eldar are not one of them. Facing highly maneuverable ships like Eldar warships, it is difficult for the Battle Barges to get close enough for the Space Marines to board the enemy ships, and the various weapons carried by them also have difficulty directly hitting the Eldar warships.

"No need. Our goal isn't to destroy all of these Bean Sprout pirates. We just need to force them away. Besides, using other ships would easily arouse suspicion."

Since the Great Crusade, with the exception of a few founding regiments and chapters, the highest specification ship possessed by an Astartes Chapter was the Battle Barge. This was also a method used by the Imperium to restrict the Astartes, in order to prevent them from possessing powerful space firepower.

As long as we can destroy an Eldar warship first, preferably a Dawn Goddess light cruiser, we can easily defeat the other two frigates with the battle barge's void shield and armor. What's more, Gloria is not a battle barge in terms of defensive performance.

The battle plan was decided. After the battle between the battle barge and the Eldar warship started, Luochen would directly use psychic energy to teleport Apu, Xianyu, Eryu and a small team to the interior of the Moon Level, and at the same time, see if there were any good things in the Oil Man's ship while providing support.

"Not wearing the Terminator this time?" Er Yu asked.

"Bean Sprouts are all highly agile and aggressive assassins and lightly armed fighters. If you want to fight them, you can't wear heavy armor like the Terminator."

Apu answered Eryu's question. In fact, with their strength, it doesn't matter what kind of armor they wear. The Bean Sprout Pirates do not have equal combat power with them, but to be on the safe side it is better to wear precision power armor, which has good defense and better flexibility.

"Don't be in a hurry for now. I need to see if there are any Bean Sprout psychics, so that I won't interfere and send you to some strange place." Luochen began to spread his psychic energy. He checked the Mechanicus Moon-class and Eldar warships and did not find any overly strong psychic fluctuations.

Until now, the Eldar pirates had not noticed that a battle barge had come to their side, and the bombardment cannons and light spears were aimed at the Aurora-class light cruiser.

"Load the shells, charge the spear, and fire!"

The moment the Blue Silver Sword was no longer concealed, the firepower that had been prepared long ago directly bombarded the Dawn Goddess-class light cruiser. The thin-skinned Eldar warship could not withstand such firepower and directly turned into fireworks in space.

The Eldar pirates were frightened by this sudden attack. How could an enemy warship appear so close? And their warship's sensors didn't even react.

"Get ready, I'm going to send you over." Luochen's teleportation spell was also ready. A flash of white light teleported Apu and the other two and the team over.

After the Aurora-class light cruiser was destroyed, the other two frigates chose to escape directly. The battle barges were even close to them. Who knows if there were other warships lying in ambush.

These Bean Sprout Pirates ran away quickly and sold out their companions on the Mechanicus Moon Class. But for pirates who live on the edge of a knife, the lives of their companions are more important than their own.

Today, Berani has been thinking that it was because he was not serious enough in the ceremony some time ago and was discovered by Om Messiah, which led to his being particularly unlucky these days. Not only was he unlucky, but his mentor was also unlucky.

Originally, he and his mentor followed the fleet back to the Forge World, but accidentally encountered a warp storm on the way. After finally leaving the warp, they were separated from the fleet and coincidentally ran into Eldar pirates.

A lone Moon-class ship was simply unable to withstand the attacks of the Eldar pirates, and after their engines were destroyed, they were lambs to be slaughtered.

But unexpectedly, these damn aliens did not destroy the battleship directly, but boarded the ship to steal things. This made Belainy laugh in anger. They really did not take the Mechanicus seriously. Although he and the mentor did not bring too many Crusaders this time, the existing firepower was enough to kill these ungrateful aliens more than a dozen times.

Want to steal things from the followers of Om Messiah?

"[intense binary expletive]."

Belaini was ready to activate the battleship's self-destruct system. No one could take anything on the ship. Before the countdown ended, he would take the Skitarii to fight those Eldar. At least he could take away some more damn aliens before going to meet Om Messiah.

"Teacher, it seems that our relationship as master and disciple will really end here today."

Berlani put his hand on the confirm button. Just as he was about to press it, a fierce fire lit up outside the porthole. The alien cruiser that destroyed the engine of his battleship was directly destroyed by a round of artillery fire.

"Reinforcements? When will they arrive?" Although Berlani sent out a distress signal, he did not expect the support to arrive in time, and the warship's auspicious instrument did not detect any signal from friendly forces.

He looked out the porthole and saw a battle barge belonging to Astartes appearing not far away. The other two alien guards ran away when they saw the battle barge.

"Astartes?"

Beline was confused at first. How could a battle barge reach this distance silently?

But soon the doubts in his heart were replaced by excitement. Astarte was here, and he didn't have to go to see Om Messiah.

"Contact the other party quickly and ask which regiment it is. Let the Crusaders go out and purify all the aliens that have set foot on the warship!" Berani finally breathed a sigh of relief. At least he didn't have to tell the teacher the worst news.

In the Moon Level of the Mechanicus, Apu was directly teleported by Luochen to a location near the battleship's storage room. There was no "Astartes" teleported with him, and no one knew how Luochen's teleportation was distributed.

As soon as he landed, Apu bumped into the Eldar pirates who were searching for him. They were covered in armor and helmets, so their appearance could not be seen.

"What are these bean sprout pirates called? Forget it, just kill them directly." Apu also had only a vague understanding of the Eldar. He only knew the most famous events and major events. These Eldar warriors wearing void armor were called Void Plunderers. They were the main force and basic units of the Eldar pirates.

The Eldar pirates seemed unaware that their teammates had escaped. They looked at Apu who suddenly appeared and said something, which translated to - where did the genetically modified monkey come from?

Monkey is a derogatory term used by the Eldar to refer to humans. In their eyes, humans are no more than uncivilized apes. (It is actually a homophone of mon-keigh, meaning more like barbarian.)

"Monkey, right? The Great Sage is also a monkey. Today I'll show you bean sprouts what a monkey god is!"

Apu picked up the bolt pistol and opened fire first, but the pirates dodged all of his consecutive shots.

The physical strength of the Eldar far exceeds that of ordinary humans. Aspect warriors who practice the warrior path can be compared to Astartes, and are even more agile and fast than most Astartes.

Apu didn't expect the bomb to hit Douya. His goal was to gain the initiative and take the opportunity to close the distance between him and Douya.

Apu also dodged the Eldar pirate's counterattack. Apu didn't dare to use his armor to block Douya's long-range weapon. In his rare impression of Douya, Douya's weapons at least had the power of explosive bombs.

The distance between Apu and the Eldar pirates was already quite close. The nearest Eldar pirate was about to get close to Apu, but when Apu took out the chainsaw sword on his waist, the Eldar pirates were stunned.

In less than a second, Apu killed the nearest Eldar pirate.

"Tell me, where did you get your weapon, monkey!" The remaining Eldar pirates looked at the Bite Blade in Apu's hand. This unique chainsaw sword was the weapon used by the Ark Eldar.

"You mean this? Of course it was picked up from the alien corpse, and there were relics."

Apu deliberately used words to provoke the Eldar pirates. It seemed that these guys were all from the Ark Eldar. He deliberately took a bean sprout chainsaw sword and it turned out to be the right thing to do.

Apoo used taunt, and it was incredibly effective! The remaining Eldar pirates charged forward.

"Damn monkey!"

[Image: Eldar Pseudo-Rose Frigate 1]

【Image: Fake Rose 2】

[Image: Eldar Aurora Light Cruiser 1]

[Image: Aurora Light Cruiser 2]

[Image: Eldar Pirate Void Reaver]

(Different pirate fleets have different paint schemes)

[Image: Void Reaver 2]

Chapter 50: The Destitute Sage of Mars

These scattered bean sprout pirates were no match for Apu at all. Their agile movements were not worth mentioning in Apu's eyes. Just as they were about to dodge, Apu caught them in position and took them away with a single blow.

After dealing with these Bean Sprout Pirates, Apu looked at the Bite Blade in his hand. Bean Sprout's weapons were indeed better than those of the Empire.

The Gnawing Blade is a two-handed, long-bladed chainsword used by the Ark Eldar. Compared to the clunky and noisy chainswords of the Imperium of Man, the Gnawing Blade is quiet and deadly, typically wielded by the Eldar warrior unit known as the Assault Scorpion Exarch. (It's described as a two-handed chainsword, but both official illustrations and animations show it as one-handed, and it's used by more than just the Exarch.)

In an episode of the GW official cheap animation "Warhammer and Bolt" that Apu watched, the Assault Scorpion Bishop used this thing to kill the Primaris Smurfs as easily as cutting melons and vegetables. The protection of the Mk10 Power Armor is almost nothing. (In fact, the Bishop is stronger)

Apu searched the bodies of these Eldar pirates. These weapons were not of much interest to Apu. He mainly wanted to see if he could find some "relics".

"It really exists." Apu took out a gorgeous gem from one of the corpses. This was the "relics" of the elves - the soul stone.

Soulstones are containers used by the Eldar to protect their souls from being devoured by Slaanesh. This unique crystal is said to be made from the tears of Aisha, the Eldar goddess of life. Now it can only be mined in the Eldar core world at the center of the Eye of Terror - the world of Laoji. As long as the soulstone is on hand, after the Eldar die, their souls will be absorbed into the soulstone instead of entering the warp.

The main reason why the Eldar need soul stones to protect their souls is because of Slaanesh.

The birth of Slaanesh not only destroyed the Eldar Empire and the Eldar Gods, but also destroyed the Eldar race. If humans are currently in their sunset, then the Eldar are lying in their coffins, and the only thing left is to close the lid and fill it with soil.

As the evil god created by the Eldar with the combined strength of his entire race, Slaanesh is by definition the racial god of the Eldar. When a human dies, their soul may not necessarily return to the Golden Throne, but when an Eldar dies, their soul will definitely return to Slaanesh.

The souls of most of the Eldar were devoured shortly after the birth of Slaanesh, and those Eldar who escaped early and survived would be hunted down endlessly by Slaanesh.

In order to prevent their souls from being tortured and devoured by Slaanesh after death, the surviving Eldar are trying every possible way to preserve their souls. The method used by the Savage Eldar and the Ark Eldar is to wear soul stones.

The use of soul stones is not just to preserve souls. After being filled with bean sprout souls, soul stones are also high-quality equipment materials. For example, Death Watch likes to embed soul stones on shields to enhance combat effectiveness.

Even if they are not used to make equipment, soul stones are still worth a fortune as collectibles in the empire. Many wandering merchants like to sell soul stones to imperial nobles or to mechanics who study alien creations to make a fortune.

"Gloria, does this thing work for you?"

The soul stone is useless to the people of Yunchui. At most, it can be used as a decoration to attract Douya's hatred.

"Soul Stone? Let me think...it's useless."

Gloria thought about it and realized that there was not much use for the soul stones for everyone, and they had no shortage of good equipment, so the attributes added by the soul stones were better than nothing.

But Gloria didn't tell the whole story. She could extract the soul from the soul stone and burn it as fuel, but the soul of a bean sprout is not even worth a drop of water in a cup, and she didn't want to do that.

"Can we put it on the boat? It would be a shame to lose it."

"That's no problem. Soul stones have the function of separating the subspace. But why do you keep them?"

"We're in the Extreme Star Region now, so we can just throw the white bean sprouts to them when we meet them."

There are a considerable number of Eldar Craft Worlds in the Ultima Segmentum. Many famous Eldar Arks are active in the Ultima Segmentum, such as Alaitok and Iyanden. The Regent Princess's hometown, Bjetan, also travels back and forth on the border between the Ultima Segmentum and the Tempest Segmentum.

"I think if we do this, we'll have more and more soul stones."

"Yeah, then leave it to the oil guy on this boat."

Apu threw the soul stone next to the corpse and contacted Xianyu and Eryu in the channel:

"Hey, hey, how's it going over there?"

"I just chopped down a few bean sprouts. I don't think they are that strong." Xianyu led half of the Astartes team and before they could exert much effort, all the bean sprouts fell down.

"We have a bit too many people on our side, but we have reinforcements to help us. By the way, what are these mechanical modified humans? It seems that their firepower is quite strong." Eryu was still fighting fiercely with the Douya Pirates.

"Mechanical cyborgs? Oh, they're the Skitarii of the Oil Man. It's normal that they have such strong firepower. After all, the Oil Man keeps all the good stuff for himself."

As one of the two-headed eagles of the Empire, the Mechanicus do not need to provide human resources to the Empire, and are allowed to recruit, train and equip their own troops. This force is the Skitarii, the Mechanicus's own head.

As the private armed forces of the Adeptus Mechanicus, the Skitarii can obtain the top equipment allowed by the Imperial industry and technological capabilities. It is much better than the "junk" of the Imperial Guard. The powerful units among them are all super killing machines, and are no less powerful than the Astartes. If the Adeptus Mechanicus spends some more money, it will be easy for them to surpass the Astartes.

The Mechanicus themselves are no pushovers either. Every senior member of the Mechanicus possesses unique skills, and you never know what they can pull out from under their red robes.

The presence of Skitarii on a Mechanicus Luna-class ship suggests that there must be a high-level technical priest of the sage level.

"You two take a break. I want to see what goodies the oil man has brought."

Apu placed a servo skull on the control panel of the battleship warehouse, which was installed with a small cracking program that Gloria had casually made up. The security of the Oil Man's warehouse was breached in a short time.

But shouldn't Luochen, who likes Blood Crow, be the one to break into houses and pick locks?