Warhammer: The 11th Primarch - The Black Emperor Chapter 711 - 710: Nareth's Idea of the Best Recruiting Sour

In the third layer of the Kingdom of Disorder, Nareth set down the Dice of Prophecy.

He then encoded the star chart, just divined and pointing to a new fragnt of Be'lakor's relic, onto a data-crystal.

After completing the encoding, he turned the gleaming crystal, his eyes deep.

"It's in the Antimar Subsector? Not the Koronus Expanse, nor the neighboring Calixis Sector."

"No rush, then."

Receiving reports from the Serpent's Cradle and the Fourth Chapter stationed on Sondheim VIII, he thought of the new trace of Be'lakor's relic recently discovered by Arsena Dunn from the Hrud's mycelium books.

The information was too vague to pinpoint, only indicating it was in the Segntum Obscurus.

He thought perhaps his taking of the Blade of Shadows had caused a change. He imdiately used the cooled Dice of Prophecy to divine, only to find it was not in that region.

"The Antimar Subsector."

He repeated the region, his mind flashing to a feral world.

"Vessor."

Vessor was a world he had long wanted to conquer.

Without considering loyalty, or more precisely, loyalty based on wealth, the Vessorines were his idea of the best recruiting source.

Especially with Chaos on the rise.

He had not acted before, lacking confidence in subduing them.

After all, the Imperial Departnto Munitorum, already established and with growing power, had tried everything and failed.

But now, as a "ntor of Disorder," with "Majesty" and the sowhat improved "Corrosion," he should be able to subdue a significant portion of the Vessorines.

The contracts made in the second shadow layer could compel the rest, those with steadfast will.

"A 'Shadow Contract' is still a rcenary contract."

He decided: "After the Qah, I will go to the Antimar Subsector, subdue the Vessorines, and find the newly divined Be'lakor fragnt."

He then thought of the anomaly that had blazed from the northeast to the southeast of the future Koronus Expanse, occurring just before the Dionysian Spear returned to him.

"Could it have been caused by the Emperor's clash with Ouroboros when retrieving the spear?"

"He personally attended the war council that day. Did he send a psychic projection, or a clone?"

"Hmm, regardless, thank you for helping get it for free."

With this thought, he stepped back to reality.

He quickly walked to the bridge and handed the data-crystal to Librarian ron, newly promoted to Codicier.

Among the Honor Guard he had selected this ti, the largest number were the black-armored Carcharodons, followed by the forr Faceless of the Tenth Chapter.

He was surprised that Sasebo Tezuka was not among them, though ron was still selected and perford well.

He had already made him into a "Mystery Pryer."

ron took the crystal and walked to his console to read and back up the information.

"My Lord." Arsena bowed to the Black Emperor, then raised his control rod.

The hololithic strategic table's projection rapidly enlarged. Void ships were marked with red runes.

"Auspex has scanned the entire system. No xenos ships detected."

"The keel tags of all seventy-four ships in the Wolf system are Imperial."

"Notably, twenty-nine are registered to activity zones, the nearest of which is fifteen light-years away."

He thought of the Qah, the main ingredient for "Dream Stealer." Recalling the Blasphemy Slate's image of them as a mass of flowing fire, he speculated.

'No ships of their own.'

'They parasitize human ships, even crews, to travel to other human colonies?'

As he thought, Arsena continued.

"The Master of Vox broadcast on all channels. Received replies from twelve ships."

"They replied in Gothic, claiming no xenos attack in the system."

"But when we asked them to dock in different quadrants, they did not reply."

'The xenos have taken control of the ships.' He stared at the ships marked with red runes in the upper quadrant.

'If the Qah's "Dream Stealers" steal human thoughts, mories, or dreams, they probably don't gain skills like doppelgangers do after drinking blood.'

With this thought, he raised his right hand and quickly traced two arcs on either side of the slow-rotating upper quadrant, bordering the left and right quadrants.

"Dispatch destroyers to harass from both flanks, draw their fire."

"As you command." A signals adjutant imdiately sank his mind into the data ocean of the Simulus Chamber.

The Tenth Chapter's Thorn, a Hunter-class destroyer inherited from the data-deleted Legion, repainted, its modified Punishnt-class reactor ignited.

On its bridge, Sasebo Tezuka glanced gloomily at Teresoldi beside him and Ordonez slouched in his seat.

The image of them, mouths stained with blood, on the Likho Fishn's bowl-shaped ship, flashed through his mind.

"Ordonez, relay orders."

"Turn to 5-7-6, incline four."

"Our mission is to lure the enemy."

The three destroyers under his command arced like arrows, shooting towards the target fleet in the upper quadrant.

He had forfeited the chance to join the Father's Honor Guard out of concern for his squad mbers, but had been promoted to adjutant for his achievents and a command vacancy.

Teresoldi, uneasy under the adjutant's gaze, looked at the screen.

"They're firing without plan, as chaotic as Orks."

As he spoke, a thought flashed through his mind.

'Are Orks tasty?'

'What do they taste like? Green mushroom soup?'

He suppressed an instinctive throat movent, imagining another potential food.

'Are the Qah tasty?'

'Grilled steak?'

"Father is exhausting their ammunition." Sasebo ordered Ordonez.

"Pull up the enemy's hit-to-fire ratio."

Ordonez glanced at the data, surprised.

"Their damage assessnt is far below average. Their hit rate is only 6.3% of shots fired."

"They're even firing while turning, without locking onto targets."

He watched the rain of fire, the churning torpedoes, like children wildly firing a machine gun.

"Adjust course. Keep cutting in at an angle, make them turn, waste more ammunition."

"Adjutant, we have a chance to assault the target ships." Teresoldi's eyes lit up.

Though the Hunter-class destroyers had no boarding torpedoes, they carried Shadow-pattern Stormbirds, which could assault at close range if the enemy's self-defense cannons were down.

The Shadow-pattern Stormbird was much smaller than the Warhawk, widely used by other Legions since the early Great Crusade and capable of carrying one hundred Astartes.

It was also smaller than the Sokar-pattern Stormbird, experintally fielded and favored by the World Eaters and Space Wolves.

The Sokar could carry fifty Astartes or five Dreadnoughts of various patterns, plus a Rhino.

The Shadow-pattern could only carry ten Shadows of Order and one Vostroya-pattern Rhino. Part of its space was taken up by a quantum field repulsor.

Based on information from the techno-baron Donne, the Shadow-pattern was unique to Shadows of Order.

Besides Shadows of Order's Techmarines, who had mastered the quantum field repulsor from Donne's complete information, only the artisans of Forge World Kiavahr possessed this technology, using it on the Raven Guard's aircraft.

'You want to eat the Qah.' Sasebo's eyes flickered. "If there's an opportunity, I will give the order."

He hoped to gain achievents, to again earn a place in the Honor Guard.

"Load twelve Devastator missiles. Remove the Rhino."

Teresoldi's eyes lit up. Replacing the Rhino, unsuitable for tight ship spaces, with missiles ant the adjutant agreed to his suggestion.

....

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