The empire suffered heavy losses, and the Red Pirates were certainly not having a good time. According to preliminary statistics, at least 32 of their capital ships were sunk, 8 more were captured, and 3 were abandoned. More than 200 small and medium-sized ships were destroyed.
Some were sunk, some were too small to confirm, and another 41 were captured. More than 1,200 flying Demon Engines and Chaos fighters of various types were shot down. In terms of Space Marines, there were more than 2,800 on Crucible of Savagery and Moon of Destruction alone.
The actual number of confirmed corpses and kills is likely to exceed 4,000! Taking into account the corpses found on other battlefields, the number of Red Pirates annihilated in this battle is very likely to reach more than 10,000!
Just to clean up the battlefield, it took a full three months. The Mechanicus and the Navy alone dispatched more than 600 large and small tugs and barges working day and night.
After the battle, Soshyan summoned all senior commanders and chapter leaders, confessed his mistakes to everyone, and admitted that he was indeed fooled by Huron's last hat trick, and it was also because he was a little confident that he had the chance to win at the time.
It's a big deal, but everyone thinks this is nothing to apologize for. Helbrecht said very bluntly that there is no one who has perfect strategies on the battlefield, and you cannot deny the other 99% of achievements just because of 1%.
Although the Mantis Warriors did not capture Huron in the end, they also believed that this was not entirely Soshyan's fault. The battlefield was inherently unpredictable, especially naval battles. When there was no absolute strength gap between the two sides, one side was determined to run away.
It's usually hard to stop, he did his best.
Lysander told Soshyan not to take this matter too seriously. He had already achieved the most glorious victory for the empire in thousands of years, but overall it was still flawed.
With everyone's support, Soshyan calmed down and immediately commanded the army to sweep away the remaining areas of the Red Pirates. As he expected, the Red Pirates basically withdrew. In this way, a month later, the entire maelstrom
Completely back under the control of the empire, the Red Pirates completely retreated into the depths of the maelstrom.
Just when Soshyan was about to concentrate his forces and launch a quick raid on New Badab deep in the maelstrom, an accident happened.
A warp storm suddenly descended upon the Maelstrom.
Although the maelstrom itself is a subspace rift, there are not many storms. Just when Soshyan was planning an attack, a storm enveloped the area around the center of the maelstrom, making all military operations a dream.
Without Occam's intelligence support, Soshyan could not know whether the storm was caused by Huron or some other reason.
However, after the man-eating shark fleet rushed out from the depths of the maelstrom, combined with some of the "deployments" Occam had said, Soshyan finally knew what happened inside.
It's quite complicated to say. After Valtex, who had lost the Blackstone Fortress, rushed back to New Badab with his people, he found a secret force of more than a thousand people arranged by Judah in advance, but before he could fully rectify the planet's defense,
Some of the red pirates who stayed in New Badab suddenly rebelled. Then Galmozejie joined forces with the Blood Snake Demon and several war gangs who did not intend to obey Huron. The fleet passed through the unactivated orbital defense facilities and headed towards New Badab.
The core of Dabu, the Palace of Thorns.
The two sides fought fiercely around the Palace of Thorns, and Garmozej even raised the banner that Huron was dead, Vartex wanted to seize the opportunity, and he came to clean up the situation in the name of Abaddon.
His slogan was very clever, and it did scare some of the remaining Red Pirates on New Badab, causing some people to sit on the sidelines.
Just when the balance of victory was tilting towards Garmo Zejie, the fleet of man-eating sharks suddenly rushed out, first paralyzing the orbital defense station, and then bombarding the surroundings of the Palace of Thorns in New Badab.
Then Tiberus personally led the team to land, but the target was the Red Pirates' arsenal. The two sides still fighting were caught off guard by the sudden appearance of a third party. There were even rumors that the empire's army had arrived, and the entire planet fell into chaos.
It was chaotic and completely unable to organize an effective defense.
After robbing the planet fiercely, the Man-Eating Shark planned to launch a cyclone torpedo on the planet, and then a fleet of Word Bearers suddenly arrived. Tiberus had to lead the team to retreat, but he still did not give up destroying the new planet.
Badab until Huron's return.
Tiberus originally thought that the Word Bearers would capture New Badab, but that did not happen. Instead, Garmozejie and others hurriedly evacuated, and Huron returned to the Palace of Thorns safely, and then the Warp Storm came.
The Man-Eating Shark Fleet once fought with the fleeing Garmo Zejie and others, killing each other. As for what happened to the Word Bearers and the Red Pirates after that, they did not know, but the Pale Wanderer believed that this storm was
Caused by the Word Bearers, because setting off a subspace storm is not easy. This often requires "borrowing", that is, relying on the power of the evil gods of destruction. And according to Occam's past statement, there are many wizards among the Red Pirates.
, but not many are proficient in demonology.
Although the Red Corsairs also used a subspace storm to surround Angstrom, the scale was very small, so it can be basically judged that this huge storm came from the hands of the Word Bearers.
As for whether the Word Bearers want to help Huron or harm Huron, it's hard to say.
This news made Soshyan both happy and annoyed. The happy thing was that after this round, Huron would undoubtedly be severely weakened and would not be able to return to its glory days in a few decades. The sad thing was that now was the best time to eliminate the opponent.
But the damn subspace storm showed no sign of dissipating.
After briefly informing Soshyan of the situation, the shark fleet left as inexplicably as when they came.
Seeing that he would not be able to break into the maelstrom for a while, Soshiyang could only arrange for the four battle groups of Mantis Warriors, White Templar, Lamenters, and Flesh Tearers to guard the front line of Lamptan and closely monitor the depths of the maelstrom.
Prevent enemies from escaping from inside, and report immediately once the storm dissipates.
After that, he led the main force back to the Sagan system. After all, the war was over in a sense, but there were still many things to deal with after the war.
After returning to Sagan Prime, all kinds of praises and praises came one after another, but Soshyan was not in the mood to argue with the nobles and imperial bureaucrats now. Besides Huron, his second worry was Veronica.
Case.
However, there was no news from Veronica, so Soshyan could only carry out preliminary post-war arrangements, such as the specific statistics and pensions of the dead, the delivery and distribution of newly recovered worlds, and the customization of expedition medals, etc.
.
Fortunately, Sagan Prime already has a very complete logistics and administrative system. Most of the specific content does not require Soshyan's personal intervention. After declining all banquets and invitations, he returned to his temporary residence on Sagan Prime, because
There he can boldly use the psychic props given to him by Veronica to contact the other party.
However, as soon as he walked into the door of the Shouyan Hall of Qingpeng Manor, Soshiyang, who was wearing a robe, felt a breeze blowing on his face, and then a delicate body fell into his arms.
"Hehe, isn't it surprising?"
Looking down at Veronica, who was dressed in regular clothes with long hair shawl and a smile as bright as a flower, Soshyan was silent for a moment, then picked her up and held her tightly in his arms.
"Huh? What's wrong?"
Veronica noticed that something was wrong with Soshyan's mood, and immediately reached out and touched his face.
Soshiyang didn't say anything, but closed his eyes and seemed to feel this rare peace. Veronica didn't say anything anymore and rested her head on his shoulder. The only sound between them was the sound of each other's breathing and heartbeat.