After solving the cannibal leader, Talos turned around and watched Sabourin rescue the people in the cage one by one. Men and women greeted these huge angels with tears. Some were happy because they survived, while others cried because of the pale remains.
.
Little Donovan was reunited with his sister, who was only a girl of twelve or thirteen years old. There were unhealed wounds on her shoulders and thighs that had worsened and leaked pus.
But her situation is even better. Some people have been "enjoyed" in advance. The cannibals first cut off their hands or legs to enjoy, but did not kill them immediately for the sake of the freshness of the food. But these
People can't live long because of excessive blood loss.
Afterwards, under the leadership of Donovan, Talos and others came to the only "peaceful" place in this area, a refugee camp.
This is a camp hidden in a neighborhood church. Perhaps at the most desperate moment, these abandoned people tried to ask for help from the Lord of Mankind and received its assistance, but the Emperor's icon was only silent -
There will always be silence.
But although He was speechless, a messenger spoke on his behalf.
The priests claim that they are, the law enforcers also claim that they are, and the hive rulers also repeatedly emphasize that they are.
But everyone knows that there is only one person who can completely speak for the Emperor, and that is His Angel of Death.
When Talos walked into this dilapidated refugee camp, he felt the silence of expectation. The only light source here was the almost burned out small candles. Many pairs of eyes looked at him from the shadows, and the sound of breathing echoed in his ears.
, and the dying people moaned softly, and then——
He smelled a bit of corpse stench, and judging from the bones in the corner, it was obvious that the people here did not simply rely on scavenging to survive. It could only be said that it had reached this point, and maintaining the most basic civilization had become a luxury.
At this time, Sablin suddenly left the queue. He walked straight to the side of the church vestibule, in front of a dilapidated tent shrouded in darkness. When he opened the rag-like curtain, he saw a man in ragged clothes.
A haggard woman with shriveled breasts was holding a baby that was covered in purple. The woman cut her hand and let the blood drip on the baby's lips. The chapped lips were still humming an unknown nursery rhyme.
The woman didn't seem to pay attention to the giant's awareness. Sablin squatted down and whispered:
"He is already dead. Stop, otherwise you will die too."
The woman hugged the dead baby tightly as if she was electrocuted, dragged her body backward with difficulty, and looked at the giant approaching in horror.
Sabourin took off his helmet, his dark eyes shining particularly brightly in the darkness, and he stretched out his hand towards the woman.
"You've been saved and you won't—"
The woman suddenly screamed, stood up against the wall, and limped towards the distance. However, she fell to the ground due to weakness after taking only a few steps. Even so, she held the dead baby tightly to her chest and curled up into a ball.
The group let out heart-rending wails.
"ah----!"
Sabourin suddenly roared and slammed his fist on the ground, causing cracks to appear on the entire marble floor, scaring the refugees into hiding in the darkness.
He turned his head and looked at the statue of the emperor towering in the huge niche of the church, where the candlelight was the brightest. He could see that around the pulpit in front of the statue, there were some food piled up, ranging from ration bars to moldy bread.
, to name a few.
Sabourin, who was known for his calmness and calmness, seemed to go berserk. He walked up to the pulpit, kicked it over, then grabbed a handful of food and raised it in the air.
"I would rather starve to death! Do you all want to give your life-saving things to a stone? Ah! It's just a stone!"
Suddenly, there was a commotion in the shadows, and a faint light came from a distance. He could see that they were escorting a bearded priest, and his fanatical moans echoed in the church.
"Long live!"
the old priest shouted almost deliriously.
"Hail to the Angel of the God-Emperor!"
In the last few steps, he insisted on walking by himself, staggering and kneeling as hard as he could in front of him, his eyes flashing with tears of joy, as if the torture and pain during this period had finally paid off.
"Thank you God Emperor! Praise God Emperor! We have passed these tests! We have been saved!"
Sabourin looked down at each other. Everyone was in ragged clothes and looked disgraced, but the priest was still quite bright and showed no signs of hunger.
He smiled, showing his pale teeth, like a midnight ghost.
"It seems that you are very full and still have the strength to kneel down and worship."
"Well--"
The pastor was stunned for a moment, raised his head slightly, saw the food Sablin held in his fist, and then whispered:
"Then that is a symbol of the believer's piety, and it is for the God-Emperor."
Sablin lifted the other person up.
"I guess the Emperor must really want to hear your screams at this time."
Here, a hand held his wrist.
"That's enough. Killing him won't quell your anger, let alone be of any use. Don't let anger swallow up your reason."
The strength of his hand was so strong that he pressed down Sabourin's arm. When he saw it was Kassati, he let go of his hand and let the priest fall.
"stand up."
Talos's voice was calm, with a force that could not be resisted. The priest seemed to be immobilized by an invisible force, and then slowly stood up.
"Tell me the truth, what happened."
Soon, a shocking fact came out from the pastor's trembling lips.
The thing is simple. Since Angstrom is under siege, the surrounding countries rely on the Forge World to provide promethium (as mentioned earlier, the Goliath-class factory ship is the main means of providing promethium for the hive city). The hive city immediately encountered an energy crisis, but if it was just this, it would not be a terrible disaster. But the problem lies in that before this, the food supply of the entire maelstrom was already highly tense, and Angstrom was not only a giant The largest promethium producer in Maelstrom is also the largest manufacturer of synthetic food in Maelstrom. Although the overall production ratio does not seem to be high, the trade ratio is extremely high.
Although other hive cities also have their own food production and processing industries and promethium refining industries, overall they are basically barely self-sufficient. In other words, even if there is a few percent fluctuation in the trade market, there will be immediate feedback. , at the same time, the hive city must also bear another obligation——
War tax for expeditionary forces.
This is an extremely huge expense. Due to the continuation of the war, the previous recruitment plan has been expanded three times, reaching a scale of two billion. The food, clothing and clothing of these soldiers must be borne by the world of the maelstrom, and there are a large number of For logistics personnel serving the expeditionary force, half a year after the issuance of military tickets, its scope has far exceeded the original limited range. When Reza's materials cannot be supplied in time, the logistics department of the expeditionary force will use various means to force Large numbers of nobles and hive rulers were forced to hand over much of their wealth to support the expedition, which was immediately passed on to the common people.
For example, this hive city levied nine rounds of war taxes in one year.
This made the hive capital become more tense than ever. When food prices rose to an unacceptable level, riots broke out, and some even began to attack promethium storage plants and food processing plants, which further gave birth to a terrible disaster - the famine.