The Astartes Family's Notebook

The root of the problem lies not in the world of Sabat, nor in Sidrafur, but in the Holy Terra, in the Royal Palace of the Great Newa.

To be honest, the problem in the Sabat world is not simply a problem within the Sabat realms; it is merely a prelude to a systemic collapse caused by the combined effects of internal and external forces.

Calling the High Lords insects is one thing, but saying they're just occupying positions without doing any work is a bit much.

The establishment of the Great Vortex Watchers was itself a valuable attempt by Holy Terra to control the collapse of the situation.

But it takes time.

Before the Warp Migration incident, Katz had already heard rumors that the Ministry of Internal Affairs was leading a campaign to create an Astartes Watch Alliance targeting the Maelstrom, with twenty Astartes Grand Guardian Chapters that were comparable to the Eye of Terror.

At the time, there were only rumors circulating, and Kaz didn't know the specifics. He just listened and didn't take it seriously.

However, a century later, when Kars looked back at the Warband archives and consulted the relevant materials, he truly gained a new understanding of the Empire's internal strife.

We didn't realize it at the time, but the Ministry of the Interior was in charge?

Xiuer, you're really something!

First, it should be noted that the Great Vortex does not cover the entire central region of the Milky Way.

In fact, the Great Vortex specifically refers to an ancient subspace rift located in the lower right part of the galactic center on the star map.

In any case, according to the Empire, the Great Vortex existed even before the Eye of Terror appeared.

The so-called Great Vortex Zone usually refers to the region within the Empire's territory that is connected to it, including both physical connections in the real universe and connections through warp travel.

The Imperial Ministry of Internal Affairs used a rather lengthy and formal name for it.

"Maelstrom Adjacent Autonomous Imperial Resource Extraction Zone Grid 004-357".

The central region of the Milky Way is too harsh for human habitation. Although nearly half of the Milky Way's mass is located in the central region, the human empire mainly regards it as an important resource-producing area and has not carried out large-scale effective colonization.

Moreover, due to the frequent astronomical disasters in the real universe, as well as the even more frequent warp energy disasters, traditional star maps are meaningless in the Galactic Center. The Empire's development of the Galactic Center adopts a rather traditional colonial approach—building fortifications all the way there.

This method of development greatly interested Holy Terra.

After all, the solar system is right next door.

Kars is clearly a berserker who is even more naturally bloodthirsty than Draven, but he has long been accustomed to analyzing problems using a methodology of gains and losses.

From the perspective of the beneficiaries, it is not hard to see that, given the tight control that the entire high command of the Human Empire has over the Astartes Chapter, the fact that they would actively create a Brotherhood-like alliance of the Vortex Watchers suggests that the interests of the Solar System in the Galactic Center are probably immeasurable.

This also explains why the Rust Belt could not become great again.

Because compared to the Solar System, the Rust Belt in the Storm System was actually the base of advance exploration that humanity chose for the Galactic Center during the Golden Age.

Can you be more awesome than our ancestors?

This would be considered blatant nitpicking in any other context, but in the Warhammer universe...

Look at the battle report, look at the battle report.

The saying goes, "Many lice are no cause for worry, and many debts are no burden."

The entire world of Sabat is in dire need of help, and even if Kaz breaks up his entire company into tactical squads, he still can't save them.

Moreover, the empire has long since reached a tacit understanding: the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Where are our teammates? Help us! Help us quickly!

So after receiving the official confirmation from the Deathwatch office in Balhout, Katz immediately chased after the Epsilon brothers in the direction they had gone on their mission.

While you're at it, take care of any minor troubles you encounter on the way.

What deserves special mention among these routine patrol missions is the hunting operation against a certain psionic beast.

In the Warhammer universe, psionic power is not a privilege of humans, nor is it exclusive to humanoid creatures. In fact, many powerful psionic beings have rather unique appearances.

Some of these unique psionic creatures originated from the warp, while others are native species of the real universe.

The former is easier to deal with; it's a warp spirit, so just follow the normal process of a chaos invasion.

The latter is the real problem. If you're not careful, it might evolve into an Alpha-level creature. Just think of the Chicken God in Skyrim, and the Guardian Hound of Stormwind. It's incredibly troublesome.

How could Kaz, floating in the sky in his boat, possibly discover any strange things on the planet's surface?

However, Epsilon's message caught Katz's attention.

Deathwatch is not some mindless hack-and-slash butcher organization; every veteran Deathwatch member is an indispensable alien hunting master for the Empire.

Kill if you can, retreat if you can't win. Unless the situation is extremely difficult, such as when the alien psionic race's ritual to summon a warp god has reached a critical moment, Deathwatch will not, in principle, carry out low-success-rate hunts.

Epsilon personally went down to investigate this planet and then made his judgment.

[This area is heavily fortified. Brothers in the battle group passing by should proceed with caution. It is recommended to have a full squad equipped with heavy firepower as a prerequisite for the raid.]

It must be said that this approach, similar to placing signs in a minefield, is scientific and rational.

If you can't beat them, you can't beat them. Even with a 30% chance of winning, Deathwatch went in himself, but he didn't even have a 0.37% success rate. Do you think you're Oliveira?

The most coincidental thing is that Kaz meets all the conditions listed by Epsilon. Doesn't that give the impression that he was appointed by the emperor?

The Imperial Icon is really not good for fighting in the Void Sea, but when it comes to firepower, especially ground attack firepower, the Fairy Mech Soul has never been afraid of anyone.

If ground-attack bombardments don't work, just lift the stern and use the bow-mounted Nova Gun to bombard them. Eight squadrons of Starhawk bombers and Fury interceptors can bring unexpected surprises to the enemy.

These mere pests are nothing to me...

What the hell is this?!

Kaz thought he had been cautious enough, but when he actually led the kick-down squad to the nest of the psionic monsters, he understood why the Epsilon brothers had stopped going it alone.

The physical rules of the real universe have already begun to distort.

Is this a problem that heavy firepower can solve?

"withdraw."

Without the slightest impulse to be a stubborn fool, Kaz led the charge in the opposite direction.

"How come the bird divination instrument couldn't even detect this level of subspace anomaly?"

"Because the prescription is all normal."

"Space itself is distorted, and you're telling me everything is normal?"

"Kaz, don't take it out on me. Spatial distortion is a matter of space itself. The readings from the bird divination device are normal."

Wow, this is rare. Even retired senior cadre UR-039 is starting to get interested.

Draven isn't a technically skilled Astartes; Katz can't compete with him at all.

"Jon, what do you think?"

Samar actually called my name correctly!

While flattered, the genuine technical sergeant frowned deeply.

In fact, Qiong En felt intense discomfort after entering the abnormal psionic environment.

"Sar... Company Commander, I personally feel that it's not the distortion of reality by warp forces. It's more like... more like that thing's ability is to distort space, creating a trap."

Sorry, our Desolation Wings Chapter lacks a think tank and cannot understand your abstract language at all.

I finally managed to get Gavaro into the Eighth Company, but then Kars went missing, and Gavaro was also pulled away by the chapter.

Oh, Amaterasu, how did you end up being a Chaos Wizard...?

During Katz's brief Astartes career, he discovered that the more he relied on psionic powers, the more likely he was to crash and burn because of them.

This law applies to humans, and equally to all psionic life forms.

After several attempts, the Astartes discovered that this thing was just difficult to kill. Any malicious intent would be deflected by its psionic field, and bombs and even sword strikes could not cause effective damage.

Wow, it's immune to both melee and ranged damage, isn't that invincible?

So, should we eat foods that cause environmental damage?

Throughout his many years in the entertainment industry, Kawhi Leonard has always been known for his willingness to listen to advice and his refusal to be stubborn. He has been compliant with good advice most of the time.

So, for this unfortunate psionic contraption, they urgently purchased 500,000 tons of high-promethium fuel with added adhesive from a neighboring galaxy.

Enough said, let's get started.

Oh, so you were taking indiscriminate AOE damage.

If it's delicious, then eat more. I was so touched I cried. What a little glutton!

Filled with pain and despair, and perhaps also resentment and grievance, the dying cries of the psionic creature finally tore through the veil of reality.

A subspace rift appeared on the planet.

Most people would probably just throw up their hands and say "Oh no," realizing they'd messed up.

Our Company Commander Kaz Samar is no longer the psychic novice he once was. Although he can't use psychic power himself, he knows exactly how to close warp rifts.

"Draven, take note. When you encounter this situation, the first thing to do is to determine whether it is an inward-oriented fracture or an outward-oriented fracture."

"What do you mean?"

"The subspace not only devours resources from the real world, but it also spews things out."

Kaz needs to carefully organize his thoughts, filtering them in his own mind first, and using the most accessible methods to avoid key words, so that he can harmlessly teach his comrades about warp space. Otherwise, it wouldn't be teaching and imparting knowledge, it would be poisoning them.

"It's hard to explain in detail, but you'll understand after experiencing it a few times. If the subspace rift is absorbing matter inwards, it's likely to be less threatening. Just have the brothers guard the perimeter and see if the rift heals on its own. If it's spitting out chaotic energy, then the situation is not so optimistic. This rift is unlikely to be directly connected to the subspace; it's more likely to contain a small or even medium-sized pocket dimension."

"In such a situation, we need to send people in to destroy the core that maintains the stability of the dimensional plane."

"Kaz, what kind of situation are we in right now?"

"Draven, the head and neck pads are for you to use, not accessories. Didn't you see the air turbulence caused by the thermal collapse?"

"Oh, it's the second one."

"So, my dear company adjutant, aren't you going to get the tactical squad ready for their re-equipment and wait for dinner?"

"Just get to the point. Why are you so aggressive towards gender? And why has your temper gotten worse since you came back?"

Of course! When I was in the war gang, I was so angry at that disorganized bunch. When I got back to my unit, I had to face a bunch of newbies. How could I not be angry?

That's what they say, but to be fair, the basic skills of the new recruits in the company are very solid, and the combat team still has a lot of lessons to learn in this regard.

However, when it comes to "spirituality," new recruits who have experienced the life of a warrior are much better than those who grew up in the Holy Scriptures.

Any matter relating to the chaotic forces of the warp is an urgent matter that requires high attention.

Kaz didn't do any fancy tricks like selecting forwards; the whole company was in position, ready to fight!

Amaterasu really taught us a lot; the Chaos tidbits he shared with Kars during the Stick of Truth era were invaluable treasures.

One dared to teach and the other dared to learn; Kars, without the support of the Chapter's intelligence, led his entire company into the warp rift.

If the warband leader Saladin finds out, he'll definitely get a major demerit, and in more serious cases, he might even lose his company commander position to Kaz.

But once you're at Astartes, everything boils down to results.

Kaz stepped in and settled things. As I said before, the victor should not be blamed.

There are no kind souls in the warp, and life isn't easy for psionic beings either. They not only have to guard against attacks from humans in the real universe, but also in the High Heavens, they have to guard against passing destructive beings who might grab them as human medicine and refine them instantly.

Therefore, there were no other evil spirits in the void formed by its death.

Katz moved in and out quickly, destroying anything that looked like a core component.

Then, several hours later, the subspace rift was once again concealed by the veil of reality.

Abbreviation: self-healing.

"Company commander, something still feels off. It's like... this place is collapsing, not like the kind of collapse where the ground is sinking, but... the space itself is sinking inward."

Choon carefully crafted his words on the private channel, describing his feelings to Katz.

Kaz turned his head and glanced at him, but could do nothing more than answer "I understand".

This is the current state of the Empire, this is the daily life of Astartes.

It's all broken and tattered, so we just patch it up and fix it, robbing Peter to pay Paul. What else can we do?

At least on the surface, Katz dealt with the big trouble that was marked as a high-threat target by Deathwatch in just a few days, an efficiency that no one could fault.

As for what will happen in the future, who can say for sure?

"Let's go, we've been delayed for so long, it's time to get back to work."

Hey Epsilon, I've arrived in the world of Sabat, where the hell are you?

Chapter 484 Arms Dealer