Chapter 212: The Sisters of Our Martyred Lady
However, looking at the Imperial warships in the distance, Abaddon's expression was not so good. He could clearly see that some of the Imperial warships he had heavily damaged, although they had escaped, had somehow been repaired in a short period of time? But now, these warships looked as if they had never been in any war at all.
And the number of ships in the fleet also exceeded his original estimate.
"The surrounding sectors still have the strength to support Cadia?! Even if they forced their way through the warp storm, they shouldn't have been without losses."
He also found that the Imperial warships were taking the initiative to attack. The followers of the False Emperor, who had once been so wary of boarding actions, were now actively initiating them. If it were those loyalist Astartes, it would be one thing, but the ones boarding were actually mortals. What he found most unacceptable was that his mortal rebels, who had received the blessings of Chaos, were being suppressed by them!
What was the point of the blessings then? Were they blessed for nothing?
The encounter between his vanguard and the Imperial warships had already resulted in several ships being completely disabled by the boarding Imperial mortals!
These boarding parties were the Imperial armies that had been re-equipped with combat suits. These Imperial armies were carrying out suicide attacks. The moment they boarded a Chaos warship, their fate was already sealed. The disadvantage in the size of the Imperial fleet compared to the Chaos fleet meant they had no chance of returning. All they could do was to rely on the equipment they had been given to inflict as much damage as possible on the enemy and disable the Chaos warships. And they had indeed achieved their goal.
They were using human lives to make up for the disadvantage in the number of warships.
The mortal followers of Chaos, in the narrow corridors of a warship, were simply no match for the loyalist soldiers who had been re-equipped with combat suits. Plasma engines were detonated, gun decks were destroyed, and a series of internal explosions caused these Chaos warships to lose their ability to move.
"Ezekyle, take your troops and deal with those boarding soldiers of the False Emperor. Execute the commanders on those few warships. My Legion has no need for such trash. Use their blood and skulls to gain more of the Blood God's blessings."
"For you, Warmaster, and for the Lord of Blood!"
Watching Ezekyle leave, Abaddon's eyes held a trace of contempt. In his eyes, this Chosen of his was a bit too focused on ascending to daemonhood, to the point where he had almost completely become a slave to Khorne.
Having received his orders, Ezekyle was already eager to go. He had been pursuing ascension to a daemon for a long time. No matter how much effort he had made in the past, he had never received the reward he wanted most. But now, Khorne had suddenly and generously bestowed his blessing upon him. He could feel that he was not far from becoming a daemon!
The voice of the great Blood God echoed in his mind. As long as he could offer enough skulls in the upcoming battle, he would have a chance to completely ascend.
Chaos Sorcerers directly teleported one Chaos Astartes after another, all followers of the Blood God, onto those warships. The generous blessings from the Four Gods had made these renegade Astartes even stronger. The Crimson Hands, clad in scarlet power armor, appeared within the disabled warships.
In their eyes, both the Chaos serfs and the humans of the Imperium were targets for their slaughter. And the greatest threat was the daemons summoned by the Chaos Sorcerers. The blood, skulls, and souls of the dead became sacrifices. One Bloodletter after another tore through the bodies of the victims and crawled out from within.
But the tactical objective of the Imperial side to delay the enemy had already been achieved. They had blown up the warships' engines, shields, and weapon systems. It was now impossible for these warships to re-enter the battle in a short period of time. The Imperial soldiers trapped on the warships also shouted the Emperor's name and fought to their last moment.
Ezekyle walked through a chamber on the blood-soaked gun deck of a warship. The last squad of Imperial soldiers in combat suits who had boarded the ship were making their last stand here. But in the end, they were slaughtered by the influx of Khornate daemons and the renegades led by Ezekyle.
The mortal traitor commander on the warship knelt to the side, trembling. He watched as these Chaos Astartes twisted the heads off his officers, one by one. Now, their heads were piled together. Their eyes were still filled with disbelief. They could not understand why they had been killed by their allies.
The followers of Chaos collected the blood and skulls. These could all be used as fuel to drive the daemon engines of Khorne.
However, Ezekyle felt no joy of victory at this moment. The humans before him had actually held out for a long time against the charge of the Bloodletters. Even after he had joined with his Astartes, with the performance of their combat suits, they had managed to take down two Chaos Space Marines in mutual-destruction attacks. The traitors, unfamiliar with the performance of the combat suits, had been melted into slag by point-blank melta fire. Although the reaction and combat skills of the ordinary humans in combat suits were still far inferior to the Astartes, the thick plasteel allowed them to withstand the attacks of the World Eaters and get close to them. The Khornate traitors, fanatically obsessed with close combat, had been killed by their own obsession.
To suffer such a loss ratio against mortals was simply a disgrace...
He furiously tore apart the bodies of the already dead Imperial soldiers.
"Blood... Blood... Blood!!" Ezekyle craved more battle. He immediately led his troops to the next warship.
After familiarizing themselves with the performance of these combat suits, the Chaos forces became more careful in their counter-boarding actions. The tactical objectives that the Imperial boarding parties could achieve became fewer and fewer. Inside the blasphemous Chaos warships, the enemy was not just the followers of Chaos, but the warship itself.
A brutal fleet battle took place in the void. And a portion of the Chaos fleet's fast-attack ships also broke through the fleet's blockade, withstanding the fire. They swooped over Cadia. Drop pods and troop transports descended toward the planet like rain. The ground-based firepower destroyed these landing forces, but many Chaos troops still reached the ground.
On the surface of Cadia, in the largest Ecclesiarchy shrine, the Shrine of Saint Monica, sturdy and heavy walls surrounded the fortress. The soldiers of Cadia looked up at the one landing pod after another that was rapidly descending. The ground-based firepower crisscrossed, destroying these vehicles full of Chaos traitors. At this moment, their eyes no longer held fear, but a kind of eagerness.
The shoulder pauldrons of their combat suits had been inscribed by them with the designation of their respective units. The Cadian Interior Guard, the Cadian Youth Army, the Cadian Shock Troops—soldiers from different Cadian units stood fast here together.
From the Order of Our Martyred Lady, Canoness Eleanor tightly gripped the power sword in her hand. The holy relics that had been enshrined in the great cathedral had also been taken down to be used as weapons. Behind her were the Battle-Sisters, who were already prepared for battle. The scriptures, filled with prayers to the Emperor, that had been enshrined in the shrine had also been torn out and made into Purity Seals, attached to the Sisters' unique power armor. They had not changed into the combat suits provided by Lucan, but were still using their own original equipment.
"Genevieve, are you ready?"
"The Sisters are already impatient, Eleanor. You've finally stopped hiding in the church, chanting prayers. We grew up together. I prefer the you who fights on the front lines. I hope you haven't forgotten how to use a jump pack and the weapon in your hand. If you have, I can help you load your boltgun."
"Genevieve, we were just fighting in different places. The prayers of the choir can better protect this cathedral from being tainted by the power of Chaos. But today, I am not needed there! We are enough to kill those traitors outside the holy shrine! For the Emperor! Sisters! Today, the Emperor's Custodes are with us!"
The Sisters all looked at Dius, who was also on the walls of the shrine. And Dius also nodded at the Sisters. He gripped his spear with both hands. Although the Custodes no longer operated on a large scale in the Imperium, Dius's combat training had never slacked. In places others could not see, the Custodes still protected the Imperium and faced those terrifying enemies.
The choir in the shrine, led by a fanatical bishop, began to chant prayers. They held edicts and scriptures filled with hymns, reciting their prayers to the God-Emperor in a loud voice. The entire shrine seemed to be protected by the power of the Emperor. The bishop, who was originally old and his body even a little withered, now seemed to be full of vitality again. His hoarse shouts even drowned out the chorus of the choir.
"For the Emperor! Sisters, let us practice our faith through action, and let these traitors know what the Emperor's wrath is!"
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