The Astartes Family's Notebook

With over thirty ships, each carrying more than ten thousand people, the normal operation and maintenance of the armed merchant ships was not affected in the slightest.

Human lives in the empire are truly worthless.

But for Motor Sich, these manpower resources were a lifesaver.

Look at that ferocious face, look at that ruthless heart. From armed sailors to indentured laborers, who hasn't seen blood and whose hands haven't been stained with lives?

Although the orbital elevator tower was destroyed, how could those who travel in the real universe not bring their own Averus barges? The Sixth Company Commander was transferred back from Nest Two by Motor Sich to be in charge of inspecting the goods ordered by the former governor.

There's no other meaning to it; the main purpose is to check which ones should be sent directly to the Victory Balance, which ones should be sent to the Second Nest City, and which ones should be sent directly to the front lines.

The armed merchant ship Motor Sich of the Imperial Charter fleet didn't care, but the twenty-odd Averus barges really had to be temporarily detained.

These imperial thousand-ton kings are precisely the vital transport capacity that the Astartes desperately need.

The addition of more than seventy corps greatly alleviated the shortage of soldiers needed to fill the gaps in the attack on the No. 1 nest city.

For these armed sailors and indentured laborers, stepping onto the ground again might make them dizzy, but the hive city environment was all too familiar.

There was no fundamental difference between the interior of the hive city and the living deck of a merchant ship.

Moreover, it's inevitable for freight carriers to smuggle goods. The Sixth Company Commander and his men easily obtained enough smuggled weapons to arm more than 100,000 people with just a casual inspection.

Things seem to be getting better.

However, Katz was starting to lose his composure.

Those contract slaves with the Heavenly Mark on their foreheads must be gene stealers, right? They must be gene stealers, right?

Those ragged yet cruel and bloodthirsty people are probably members of the Death Worship Cult, right? They must be followers of the God Emperor, right?

Why are there so many illegal psionicists in the Imperial Charter fleet?

Why are there so many smuggled military supplies on armed merchant ships?

Originally, Desolation Wings and the Raptor Legion were there to take down the Shadow of Death, a Nurgle faction. But somehow, the battle turned into a chaotic free-for-all.

Could it be that the Eldar's Webgate is actually hidden on the surface of the planet?

Didn't Motor Sich know that these people had problems?

This Astartes isn't blind.

But a lack of manpower is a lack of manpower, and Skord's PDF skills are still lacking.

Even the armed sailors and indentured laborers who had just landed and were not yet fully organized were more capable than these weaklings.

It's truly a case of "it's hard to explain in a few words."

Especially those “suspected” gene-stealers with “slight physical mutations”—they were truly loyal. To pledge allegiance to the Emperor and to obtain the residency rights promised by the Skold government, they almost became martyrs on the very first day.

What's most bizarre is that these temporary soldiers, who are full of "faith," all possess extremely strong "physical qualities." They can easily contract the Nurgle's plague if they're not careful. When these guys get into a frenzy, they dare to fight the Nurgle cultists of Hive One without even wearing gas masks.

Kaz thought it over and over, organized his thoughts, and reported his findings to Motor Sich.

Then Motor Sich remained silent for a long time before finally deciding to gather all the captains of these merchant fleets on the Victory Balance for a meeting.

How could the captains not know the situation on their own ships?

But what can you do even if you know? A regular sailor who graduates from the Imperial Naval Academy is so expensive, and you still have to pay for five social insurances and one housing fund.

Therefore, apart from the necessary technical positions, most indentured laborers were forced onto ships using less-than-respectable methods.

Purgatory Galaxy is a huge makeshift operation; it's a miracle they can even make some money. A captain with high moral standards would have gone bankrupt long ago.

Faced with the threats and inducements of Captain Astartes, the captains had no choice but to comply.

In any case, the Empire's three redundancy principle was implemented very well. The captains were happy to provide another batch of manpower, using the goods ordered by the previous governor as subsidies.

Motor Sich's idea was clear: sending these potential dangers to Hive One to fight the Nurgle cultists was a way of making the best use of them.

Although it's hard to keep your face from feeling tight, the results are actually quite good.

Once again, I'm criticizing the locals in Skord; these PDFs are really no good.

The temporary conscripts from the armed merchant fleet were not even given any formal training. They were simply divided into two regiments based on the basic principle of splitting those who enlisted on the same ship into two. The officers were chosen by themselves, and the organization was determined by themselves. Apart from ensuring command through supplies, the Astartes were completely hands-off.

Despite using them entirely as cannon fodder, the battle lines advanced exceptionally rapidly.

The big-headed eagles were still getting used to it, but the fourth company felt great.

Treating these people as professional soldiers is clearly inappropriate; treating them like large-scale urban gangs is much more appropriate.

Out-of-town gangs are coming to Nest No. 1 and trying to take over their territory!

Doesn't the legitimate government of Skord, the second hive city, have any objections?

No, the head of the Ministry of Justice is only thinking about finishing this battle as soon as possible and then taking sleeping pills to die. The acting female governor is just a rubber stamp. The old guard has placed all their hopes for the restoration of the planet on the Emperor's angels. No objections, if the angels think it's suitable, then it's suitable.

We're not familiar with any of these "Number One Nests," so feel free to blow them up if you think it's appropriate.

The local men of Skord had long since reached a consensus: the planetary capital would become the second hive city, while the first hive city had become a liability and could be disposed of at will.

If the Shadow of Death faction hadn't been entrenched deep within the city, Motor Sich would have actually had this idea.

Urban warfare is too exhausting; it would be better to just blow up this nest and be done with it.

But that won't work. The Chaos traitors are still digging downwards. Their thinking is similar to that of the loyalists in Astartes: this damned planet is too troublesome, it's better to just blow it up and be done with it.

It's no wonder that Astartes, trained by the same holy book, all have similar ideas and can't counter each other's moves.

Given the Empire's significant actions, the Death Shadow War Gang should logically respond in some way.

Sorry, no.

The fanatical Nurgle followers have been purged. The remaining Chaos Astartes, though still using the Nurgle name, are essentially in a state of stagnation. They think, "You loyalists can do whatever you want. We're just here to work for Abaddon. Do whatever you want, just don't interfere with the Warband brothers' work."

The false imperial truth: human supremacy.

The true imperial truth: If you don't want to win, you won't lose.

The Shadow of Death faction, adhering to the principle of never taking the initiative and never being alone, retreated deep into the city's lair, leaving even the loyalists in despair.

The bait tactics failed to work, the Shadow of Death didn't catch them, the ambush tactics failed to work, and the Chaos Warfare didn't fool them. These stinking cans of filth slowly retreated block by block, and for them, Hive One was no longer a strategically important location.

With their intention to wage all-out street fighting, the Shadow of Death will not engage in a direct confrontation with the loyalist Astartes until the last Nurgle walker falls.

Motor Sich was thoroughly fed up with the situation, but there was nothing he could do.

why?

Since the Chaos Traitors' goal is to destroy the entire planet, what if they just send a few armed merchant ships down and the Void Shield explodes, destroying Nest One along with it, and even Skord in the process?

So it turns out that all the scheming of the traitors in Chaos is no match for the quick thinking of the loyalists?

My goodness!

No, no, that won't do!

Although the empire's territory is vast and its jurisdiction covers many parts of the world, none of them are superfluous.

Moreover, Skord's value is far from being fully exploited.

Despite three thousand years of continuous mining, the shallow continental shelf has been riddled with holes, but there are still many rare and valuable minerals inside the Earth's crust.

Even if you're going to blow up Skord, you should at least find a replacement first, otherwise you'll just be letting the Mechanicus benefit for nothing.

After all, the Void Mining Ship, a high-tech special-purpose vessel, is almost monopolized by the tech enthusiasts. Today, Motor Sich dares to sign an extermination order and blow up Skord, and tomorrow the Mechanicus will dare to come and reclaim the planet's debris, happily extracting the remaining value while simultaneously smearing the Wasteland Wings.

Serving the Emperor requires proper methods. If the Holy Terra judges the extermination order of the Mad Sich to be unreasonable and unnecessary, the entire Desolwing, along with the Raptor Chapter, will suffer the consequences.

So seeing how the battle for Nest One had turned out, Motor Sich had figured it out.

It's time to give our comrades in arms some benefits.

Does that old scoundrel Leorus really think he can stay out of this?

Despite being the commander of the Astartes Company, it was still a very troublesome matter for Motor Sich to directly contact the sector government.

To handle official business strictly means to shirk responsibility and pass the buck.

In such situations, if a highly experienced and well-connected judge intervenes, many difficult matters become much easier to handle.

This time, it wasn't the old scoundrel Leothers who came; he was still busy with his important star system meeting in Garland Gordon, nor was it his good disciple Odachi.

It was Vinava who arrived, the female judge who had connected with Leothos through Odachi in Anwizland.

As a special talent granted amnesty by the empire after successfully killing officials and rebelling, Vinava's methods are top-notch.

However, Vinawa is well aware of her lack of connections, so she won't miss the opportunity to get close to someone like Leothos, a senior figure in Holy Terra.

Despite his previously formidable reputation, the Malice Warrior was rendered useless by the Star Ghost during the Astartes Civil War.

Now that she has the opportunity to connect with Desolate Wings, she is very happy to serve Motor Sich.

It was only then that Katz learned what Company Commander Motor Sich had been preparing for during the three years of voyage preparation.

The cunning and shrewd Fourth Company Commander of the Wasteland never imagined that he could conquer a world that might have been occupied by Chaos traitors with just three companies of Astartes and two IG legions.

The reinforcements had already set out before the loyalist Astartes arrived.

Chapter 126 Muddy Road Oil

Don't say anything that would demoralize people, like a disastrous retreat; this is called a counter-offensive.

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The Empire always manages to give Kaz a little shock in some unexpected way.

He had always thought that the Averus barge and the Averus shuttle might have been invented and manufactured by the ancient mechanical engineer Averus, hence the name, just as the names of the Astartes were inherited from the genetic engineering master Astartes of the Holy Terra.

However, things are not that simple.

The Averus shuttle is an Imperial standard shuttle that can be mass-produced in almost all forge worlds. Unlike high-end products like the Eagle shuttle, the Averus shuttle is nicknamed "Little Pig." For the Infinite and Storm Legion, its status is equivalent to that of the Thunderhawk gunship to the Astartes.

What about the Averus barge?

Haha, the Empire doesn't actually have such a standard piece of equipment.

The so-called Averus barge is a barge converted from the aircraft engine of the Averus shuttle, a typical example of military equipment converted for civilian use.

Compared to the engines of other Imperial standard fighter planes, the Averus's engine was the most powerful and had the highest thrust-to-weight ratio. After all, two of these engines were enough to propel the Averus shuttle, which weighed fifteen tons and had a theoretical payload of twenty tons, out of the atmosphere, demonstrating its superiority.

It's important to understand that the Empire's triple redundancy principle is ubiquitous, and theoretical load is essentially a disclaimer. The Astronautical Army has been using the Averus shuttle to transport Leman Rustank for thousands of years.

So, by changing the hull and adding more than twenty Averus-type engines, an Averus barge makes its dazzling debut.

"That doesn't make sense. If that's the case, the Averus barges aren't standard Imperial equipment, so how come they all look the same?"

"It's just consistent in the Pacific Star Region; other star regions don't use this ship hull design."

"what?"

"The matter of mechanical education is a long story."

Ingus had limited knowledge of the matter and could only answer some of Katz's questions.

That is, although the tech enthusiasts are very strict about copyright, the internal technical factional struggles within the Mechanics Cult are equally brutal.

The Empire has a variety of large barges ranging from 30,000 to 500,000 tons, but the production capacity of these large barges is almost monopolized by the Foundry World. Even if some industrial worlds obtain technology licenses from the Cult of Mechanics, they cannot produce enough for their own use, let alone export them in large quantities.

Therefore, worlds with a strong need for interstellar trade will try to build orbital elevator towers to solve the last ten kilometers from the Earth's surface to geostationary orbit.

Furthermore, locking cargo barges that can break free from the gravitational pull of a planet using their own power can effectively control smuggling and increase tax revenue, so why not?

Therefore, the large barges produced by the Mechanics Order are generally used by the Imperial Navy and are not sold to foreign parties in principle.

The planetary governor has a need: he requests the Mechanical Cult to help him repair space elevators and large hive cities.

Just like Skord's current situation, if the Charter merchant fleet wants to unload its cargo, it can only use the Averus barges to transport it back and forth to the top of the second nest city, carrying several thousand tons at a time.

Don't underestimate those few thousand meters of flight distance saved; they all add up to money.

"So how did the Averus barges in the Pacific Sector achieve a uniform design?"

Kaz realized that Ingus had gone off-topic, so he quickly steered the conversation back on track.

"It was Huangquan No. 8 Casting World that did it."

Is Huangquan No. 8 forging the world?

"In order to sabotage Mars, Huangquan-8 was specially designed with a hull optimized for the Averus-type power engine and the blueprints were made open source."

"Is the world forged by Huangquan No. 8 located in the Taiping Starfield?"

"No one knows the exact location of the world forged by Huangquan No. 8, but Huangquan No. 6 is indeed in the Taiping Starfield."