Of all the 13 Terra Expeditionary Forces, the largest fleet was the 1st Expeditionary Fleet, led by the Emperor's prophetess Alexei herself, including the mysterious Bramilmond. The second is the 13th Expeditionary Fleet, where the blue-blooded noble warband is located, and the heirs of the Ultramarines have always had a great career.

Excluding these two, the 6th Expeditionary Fleet, commanded by Promelia, is now the most luxurious expeditionary force.

These include the Fire of Repentance, the Oracle of Truth, Unfinished Business, The Truth of Intolerance, Lady Jealousy, and the Ark of Bliss...... and the dismantled and rebuilt "Omeniedes", a number of powerful warships that could serve as flagships in a regular Imperial fleet were incorporated into the 6th Expeditionary Force, and together with a large number of light cruisers and destroyers, they guarded the Valkyrie-class battleships called "Vicious Woman".

It is no wonder that Governor Badab is so nervous that such a terrifying fleet force has appeared out of thin air almost out of thin air under the noses of the Badab system defenses.

After a short exchange, Vice Admiral Oguma informed the diplomatic envoy sent by Badab of the intention of his delegation, and showed the other party the authorization document jointly granted by the various departments of the Espernes Star Sector, and finally eased the tense atmosphere.

It was that the diplomat's steps when he left were a little hurried for some reason, as if he was afraid that he would be late to get off the ship.

Two days later, the 6th Expeditionary Fleet was granted permission to anchor in the Starport of Badab, and as commander, Promelia was invited to travel to the main planet of Badab with Macbeth, the Forge Sage, to meet with the local governor.

The Starclaw Warband stationed in the Badab system was founded in the 35th millennium, but Ruft Huron, who was later known as the Tyrant of Badab, was not born at this time. As a result, Badab is still under the authority of its planetary governor.

Adjacent to the maelstrom, Badab has never been a place with simple folk customs, and the indecisive governor of the planet does not have the iron fist of the "black-hearted king" of later generations, so the security situation here can be imagined.

As soon as the transport planes of the 6th Expeditionary Fleet approached the orbit of Badab, Promelia's innate psionic energy sensed the crime and violence that permeated every inch of the planet's surface. The last time I felt this way was in Mirafa.

That's not a good start. Promelia murmured in her heart.

"I don't want to hide it, but I don't really know why you're staying here."

Sure enough, after greeting each other with Promelia and the Casting Sage Macbeth, the Governor of Badab expressed his intention to expel the guests without tact: "Whether it is a pilgrimage to Terra, or death in the maelstrom... Treasure hunting, since you claim to be just passing by – it's best to get there quickly. ”

Governor Badab's meaning couldn't have been more obvious, and the shock of the 6th Expeditionary Fleet's sheer strength and Valkyrie's might turned into unease and anxiety written directly on his face, and he wanted to send off this group of unwelcome guests as soon as possible, even if it was not too great a price.

It's okay to be robbed.

Promelia was not surprised by this: "We don't plan to stay in Badab for too long, in the name of the Bullet Star, we will complete the preparation as soon as possible and enter the maelstrom to find a treasure requested by the leader." ”

What is a Star Bullet...... But as long as you are willing to go, you are willing to go.

Governor Badab was afraid that they would stay here and not leave, this group of men and ships were more than himself, the flagship was bigger than himself, and the cannon was thicker than himself, and if such a group of big and thick fellows wanted to stay here temporarily, he felt that his ass might not be too safe. Maybe one day he will be kicked off the throne of the governor.

The overjoyed governor immediately and amicably offered to provide logistical supplies for the expeditionary fleet so that they could leave Badab as soon as possible.

Promelia smiled knowingly, "There's no need to be in such a hurry, we'll leave as soon as possible, but in addition to entering the maelstrom to find a certain treasure, the leader has given me another task." ”

As soon as these words came out, Governor Badab's heart that had just been put down hung again: "...... What task? ”

Promelia smiled without saying a word, and the Foundry Sage "Macbeth", who had been staying by her side, stepped forward, and a mechanical arm with fine threads reached out to the table, revealing a holographic projection in front of her.

This holographic projection was recorded in Falla, with one of Falla's most famous landmarks, the "Guiding Man" icon at the center.

Under the suspicious and cautious gaze of the governor of Badab, Promelia motioned with her eyes to Macbeth to mark the focus of the projection, and then the human emperor dressed as a scholar was quickly enlarged, and the "lantern" on the left hand of the icon occupied the whole frame.

Megastructure: L-Stargate.

"As you can see, it's a stargate."

"A stargate capable of real-time teleportation across galaxies."

"A stargate that can teleport across galaxies without resorting to subspace."

Governor Badab's cowardice and snobbery made Promelia lose patience with his use of honorifics, and she explained to those in front of her the nature of the L-Gate and the fact that the network of stargates in the Far Eastern Frontier had been laid out in as concise a sentence as possible.

Then came her third mission: "Commissioned by the Emperor, we will stop in the important galaxies that we pass through on our expedition to Terra, and help build the L-Stargate in order to complete the galaxy-scale stargate network as soon as possible after finally arriving in Terra." ”

"And Badab is the first stop of the 6th Expeditionary Fleet, and we will build a stargate here to prepare for the future when the Terra government will directly govern this place." Promelia said as she looked into the eyes of Governor Badab.

Governor Badab's eyes changed rapidly, thoughts racing through his mind, and Promelia's brief account of the L-Stargate was munched back and forth in his mind, and he quickly understood what it meant.

Even though his personality is indecisive and self-serving and pedantic, he is a planetary governor who has received a full elite education, and he has all the knowledge and qualities needed to rule a planet - except for kindness.

After a brief reflection, Governor Badab made his own judgment about the L-Star Gate.

That is: having the 6th Expeditionary Fleet build the L-Star Gate here would do more harm than good to him.

Badab didn't say a word from beginning to end, only the slight change in his eyes, but the powerful psionic energy had already made Promelia sense his mood fluctuations.

"It seems that this governor will not support us in building the Stargate here......" Promelia said silently in her heart.

"The Badab system is a strategic place to watch the maelstrom, and it can even be said to be a weakened version of Kadia. It would undoubtedly be of great benefit to the Human Empire if the Terra government could be brought under direct control through the Stargate Network - but not for Governor Badab. ”

"Due to the uncertainty of subspace navigation, the military presence of the Human Empire at such border outposts is seriously insufficient, and it can only be said that it is better than nothing. A magistrate with military power like Governor Badab is effectively equivalent to the Emperor of the Earth, and the actual power of the Governor of the planet is infinitely close to infinity, and he can do whatever he wants far from Terra's control. ”

"But if the stargate is connected, the direct jurisdiction from the Terra government will inevitably greatly weaken the power of the local magnates, and it is not impossible that they will be directly purged in the name of trying past crimes...... This is not only a struggle for power, but also a zero-sum game of life and death. ”

After clarifying Badab's role in the Human Empire and putting the Governor of the planet in his position, it is easy to see that it is impossible to gain the support of the local magnates in the construction of the Star Gate.

"Thank you for your kindness, but the construction of the Star Gate is a very huge project, and the manpower and material resources required are by no means small, and the construction period will be ten years. In my opinion, instead of delaying your precious time in Badab, you should seize the opportunity to continue the expedition and send the STC of Stargate to Terra. ”

With a polite smile on his face, Governor Badab said, "The Kidrinde family has been in control of the Badab Watch Maelstrom for a thousand years, and even if they don't get through the Star Gate for a while, they won't fall like this. However, if the expedition to Terra is not rushed, I am afraid that many unpleasant variables will arise. ”

This is no longer a hint, but an explicit. Governor Badab almost wrote on his face, "Your fleet is docked in my starport, don't think about leaving now if you don't leave."

It is a matter of family status and his own power and life, even a coward like him has been forced out of the consciousness of fighting to the death.

"It's finally like something." Faced with the threat of the governor of Badab, Promelia did not get angry but laughed: "If I continue like this, I will think that you are a little girl in men's clothes, but who gave you the courage to speak to me in such a tone?" - Claws of the Starry Sky? ”

"You ......" the grimace in Governor Badab's eyes suddenly turned into astonishment, but this trace of astonishment quickly dissipated: "As a watchman stationed in the maelstrom, the entire Starry Sky Claw Warband is out to defend their home world from hostile outsiders, what's wrong with that?" ”

"There's nothing wrong with that." Promelia smiled, "But there's a small mistake that needs to be corrected – you're the one who came." ”

As the psionic director's voice fell, Governor Badab subconsciously wanted to call his personal guard in, and the door to the parlor was pushed open in time as he expected. But when the door opened, it was not the heavily armed personal guard of the governor of Badab who appeared outside the door, but a humanoid combat machine more than three meters tall.

"This, this is ......" Governor Badab was somewhat incoherent.

"Knight of the Night." Casting Sage Macbeth said truthfully in his voice mixed with an electronic hum, "A specialized unit against Chaos, a class anti-psionic class - the Night Knight. ”

Outside the door, the humanoid war machine held a shield in its left hand and a platinum greatsword wrapped around a dismantling force field in its right, the body of which was engraved with dense and regular psychic theory formulas.

Seiko's Zero Element armor takes on a gorgeous white gold color in the sun, the golden ratio of the human body curves and the cold and tough mechanical lines present a different artistic beauty, the tall body is like a demigod, and its broad back extends from the left and right sides of each other's symmetrical pulse cannon arrays, like a pair of unfolded mechanical wings, like a mythical angel descending into the world.

However, the moment she saw this mechanical angel, Promelia couldn't help but show a look of disgust.

- The wearers of the Scholar Mobile Armor are all untouchable, and these soulless aliens will make ordinary people involuntarily uncomfortable and disgusted, while the psykers are more sensitive to this, even if they only meet the untouchable from a distance, they will cause both psychological and physical serious discomfort at the same time.

Promelia endured the intense nausea in her heart, and tried to calm her demeanor as calmly as possible.

Governor Badab was completely oblivious to the psionic director's gaffe, as on the left and right sides of the Night Knight, several Space Marines dressed in steel-colored power armor and armed with blasters and power swords stepped out.

He was all too familiar with the Warband logo on the armor livery and shoulder armor, which was the Warband of the Watch Warband: Claws of the Stars, stationed in the Badab system.

"Badab is the home world of Starclaw, so the warriors of Starclaw should be defending themselves against external threats together with their homeland - the idea is good, but the reality is far from that simple."

Promelia smiled as the Night Knight and the five Starry Claw warriors entered the parlor together, and tried to steady her voice, saying:

"You just want to hold on to the power of Badab, but you ignore one of the most important issues: the Space Marines never care who is the governor of the planet, they only fight for the God Emperor."

"The passage of the L-Star Gate will weaken your power, but it will greatly reduce the pressure on the Imperial forces to assist in defense, and the problem of logistics and transportation efficiency that has plagued the Empire for many years will also be solved, which is what the Starry Sky Claw that watches over the maelstrom needs most."

"Your interests have never been the same, and your positions are not the same, how can you get the Claws of the Starry Sky to give up the L-Star Gate to defend your poor power?"

Looking at Promelia's cold and gorgeous face, Governor Badab realized that the expeditionary fleet had met with the Starclaw Warband long before meeting with him, and this group of large and thick outsiders had used some bargaining chips to turn against the Warbracket Claw's warriors, and joined them against the lords of the Warband's homeland world!

"If you can honestly cooperate with our work from the beginning, we may be able to sit on the governor's throne for a while longer, but it's a pity." Promelia sighed.

A mechanical arm beside the psionic director swept by, and then quickly retracted, and the casting sage Macbeth simply screwed the neck of the supreme ruler of the planet, and the dripping blood stained the expensive goose down carpet under his feet, and a skull rolled off.

I'm afraid that Governor Badab will not be able to imagine how convincing the "expedition to Terra and the meeting of the God Emperor" is for the Astarte monks.

Promelia rose from her seat and walked out of the parlour with light and graceful steps, the hallway outside the door filled with gunsmoke, mottled craters and dried blood, and the sky was black. If she hadn't used her spiritual energy to block the entire parlor from the outside world, such a fierce battle would have been noticed by the Governor of Badab inside.

In orbit, the fleet of Starclaw is parachuting into its home planet to sweep away the remnants of Governor Badab. The Forge Sage approached a Starclaw warrior who had just taken off his helmet and handed them a copy of the L-Stargate construction template - using his original two hands, not the mechanical arm.

"The task of building the L-Star Gate is entrusted to you, and we will leave Badab as soon as possible and enter the Matrodge." The Forge Sage said, "Our battle inside will inevitably cause a large number of alien pirates to flee the maelstrom, and we need to take precautions. ”

"With your generous equipment support, Starclaw has the confidence to destroy all enemies of the empire that escape." The Starry Sky Claw Warrior, who took the disk, said solemnly.

In addition to the L-Stargate construction template, the 6th Expeditionary Fleet also provided a large amount of munitions support for Startalc, including 30 Dawn Terminator armor and 10 Scholar I mobile armor.

Among them, the "Dawn" Terminator armor was produced by Inverse Entropy from the Dark Ages drawings stored in its database, and was originally intended for the Death Stalker, but the Death Stalker was gone. The extra Scholar-type mobile armor was due to the fact that the production capacity was not controlled at the time of production, and the Order of Truth simply couldn't find so many untouchable people to wear, so it didn't hurt to give a few to your own partners.

Promelia and the Forge Magee didn't stay long on Badab, they quickly left, leaving the endless flames of war waiting to subside in the nest beneath their feet.

40.

In the year 002 of the 40th millennium, the Starclaw Warband, with the assistance of the 6th Expeditionary Fleet of the Terra Expedition, killed the Governor of Badab and seized power.

In the same year, the expeditionary fleet set sail from Badab and plunged deep into the maelstrom.

On the way to the Maelstrom border, Promelia joins Vice Admiral Ogumar, Forge Sage Macbeth, and Inquisitor Camus over the next issues.

"Badab's is by no means alone in the Empire, and there are too many power-hungry local magnates who don't want to be governed by Terra, let alone see the Stargate network—that would greatly strengthen Terra's centralization." Camus said in a resolute tone:

"We will encounter similar problems in the galaxies we pass through in the future, and only by cutting through the mess quickly can we minimize the loss, and this treatment of Badab is a good reference."

"But the vast majority of the population of the empire are illiterate commoners, and they have nothing but simple faith in the emperor and their own flesh and blood." Oguma shook his head and said:

"Blind purge of the nobility will only result in the empire running out of talent. Although somewhat unpleasant, we have to admit that the higher educated local aristocracy was always an important source of talent for the empire, and the vast majority of the existing ruling and administrative classes were of aristocratic origin, and they were the mainstay of the empire. ”

It's good to purge a badab, it's too much to do, and before the expeditionary fleet arrives in Terra, the human empire will be torn apart.

"Okay, what we encounter will happen to other expeditionary fleets sooner or later, let's see how they deal with it." Promelia smiled, "For now, let's focus on the task at hand. ”

That is, to find the treasure located in the depths of the Maelstrom for the Starballer.

Macbeth's prosthetic eye spun around and asked, "I agree, but should you also tell us what the treasure the Marble is looking for now that you are about to enter the maelstrom?" ”

Camus and Okumar nodded, and that was exactly what they wanted to know.

"Of course, it's time to be honest."

Promelia smiled brightly and said:

"The treasure that the leader needs is called: The Organic Canon."

(End of chapter)