Soshyan was mentally and operationally prepared for the Hurons to send a fleet to attack Nessen IV.
The fact that the Ascetic Chapter did not join the expedition is the best proof and guarantee.
But the only thing Soshyan could not have imagined was that while the Ascetic fleet and the Red Pirates' detachment were fighting fiercely at the edge of the Naisen system, an unexpected force avoided the detection of the Ascetic battle group and went straight to Naisen.
Planet Mori 4.
They are the renegade Soul Drinkers led by Sarpedon!
Although they only had two light cruisers, they had one hundred and twenty battle-hardened veterans. Soshyan's expedition had completely hollowed out the planet's defenses, so when the renegade Soul Drinkers attacked the planet's orbital station
When launching a surprise attack, the defenders have almost no time to react.
The orbital station only lasted two hours before it fell, and tens of thousands of people were killed.
The first thing that happened next was that the renegade Soul Drinkers took away two cruisers that were nearly completed, and then destroyed the remaining battleships still under construction in the dockyard.
One-third of the entire orbital station was destroyed in this sabotage!
Four hours after the assault on the orbital station, the renegade Soul Drinkers launched a raid on the planet's surface, and their target was the Astral Knight's monastic fortress.
But to the surprise of the traitors, the fortress was not as empty as they imagined. After all, Lord Magyar was mature and prudent. He arranged two teams of soldiers to station in the monastery fortress, and Soshyan left behind before leaving.
Knight Titan Scorpion Stinger.
As soon as the battle group's auxiliary troops were attacked in orbit, they organized and retreated into the fortress, and quickly organized a tight defense.
After two tentative attacks, the traitors realized that they could not take the monastery fortress with their current strength, so they turned their attention to the recruitment site of the Astral Knights - Soames Noble Academy.
In a total of ten hours since the fall of the orbital station, the traitors launched a frenzied attack on the academy and the hive. They almost went crazy destroying everything in sight and killing anyone alive.
They turned all their guilt into an unbridled hatred of the Astral Knights.
Under this circumstance, they even planned to plunder the Astral Knights' reserve resources, which were the new batch of "graduates" of the Noble Academy.
But Sarpedon's evil plan ultimately failed due to the dean's desperate counterattack.
But according to the intelligence, Sarpedon was not dead, he just suffered some injuries. After realizing that he had been severely tricked by a mortal for a while, he almost went crazy and killed everyone who could be seen in the Soames Noble Academy.
All living people, and then used an orbital bombardment to destroy four-fifths of the academy.
It wasn't until the Ascetic Chapter defeated the Red Pirates' detachment and turned back that the Renegades hurriedly withdrew from the battlefield.
Not only did they wreak havoc when they left, they also plundered many planet residents as slaves and brought them to their ship.
When Soshyan knew all this, he almost went crazy. He raged in the medical cabin for several minutes and then gradually calmed down. Valier was almost beaten by him in the meantime.
After confirming that there was no problem with his body, Soshyan immediately decided to return to the planet surface.
"Damn..."
Standing in the Thunderhawk's cabin, looking at the scene outside the window, Soshyan could hardly believe his eyes.
The originally magnificent orbital station has now become a pile of floating metal garbage. The huge structure has been torn apart, and the beautiful geometry has been fragmented. The former orbital ecosystem no longer exists, leaving only a few shiny chips.
There are flashing red warning lights everywhere, and various small lifeboats are moving among the ruins, salvaging possible survivors.
Soshyan even saw many frozen corpses floating in the void.
The Chapter Master of the Astral Knights gritted his teeth and clenched his fists so tightly that he almost cracked his gauntlet.
The Thunder Eagle circled for more than ten minutes before finding a suitable landing spot.
This is one of the few places in the orbital station where the structure is still intact. When Soshyan walked out of the cabin, he heard a cry.
This place has become a refugee camp. Many people who have narrowly escaped death gathered around the huge tarmac. Many people noticed the appearance of the imperial heroes, but their eyes no longer had the brilliance of the past.
Soshyan followed the sound and saw a pair of young parents sobbing loudly among a pile of scattered garbage.
A man hugged his daughter's body tightly and pulled her light, lifeless body close to his bony chest.
Less than an hour ago, blood still left marks on the girl's lips and face, where she had just swallowed her last breath of moisture.
Her eyes, darkened by the eternal darkness, stared helplessly at the gathering crowd.
She was missing both legs, having lost them when a crazed traitor cut them off with a chainsword while trying to massacre a crowd.
The roaring blades claimed many lives before the Chaos Space Marines finally departed.
Her father held her remains and howled his grief.
The witnesses began to whisper softly, murmuring curses in the words of silence, murmuring ominous omens, and crooning dark omens.
On the girl's chest, a pendant medal belonging to Orbital Children's School flashed in the dim light,
Her father held the stump of the ten-year-old girl's broken arm and whined at the walls of the surrounding ship of silence.
"This place is cursed! She was taken from us!"
More humans gathered in the darkness, their wide eyes all wet with tears. Each of them shared the same thoughts and fears as their tragic father.
Soshyan took a step forward, wanting to walk over and say something.
But his left foot hung in the air for a second, then he retracted it, and then silently returned to the cabin.
The Thunderhawk takes off again.
Half an hour later, Soshyan stood in the middle of the dilapidated square, facing a terrifying scene.
The once peaceful and elegant academy is now in devastation. There is almost no building over two meters high, gardens, fountains, training grounds... All of these have disappeared. The once neat masonry floors have become
Broken puzzle pieces covered with ashes and dust.
In addition to these, many huge craters ranging in size from 20 to 50 meters can be seen throughout the academy, which are the results of orbital bombing.
Until Soshyan landed, the gunpowder smoke has not cleared even now. The collapsed buildings are still emitting thick smoke. Many people are rummaging through the ruins, looking for the lucky ones, and more people are struggling to drag the black corpses.
bag.
No one spoke, it was like a black and white pantomime.
But none of this compares to what Soshyan saw in front of him.
He was familiar with this square. The candidates gathered here, but now the original appearance was no longer visible. In the center of the square, there was a huge pit with a diameter of more than a hundred meters and a depth of more than five meters.
As for what caused this trap, there are reports that it was a counterattack by an old dean before he died.
Soshyan also wants to believe this.
But now, this pit is not empty. Countless corpses are piled together like timber piles. The traitors peeled off their skins and dumped them here.
When looking at them, Soshyan's heart was filled with anger and guilt. These were all people who died because of him.
The statue that once stood in the center of the square as a gift to the Emperor now only remains, and no one can guess what it once looked like.
The statue has no head, arms and legs. It is covered with barbed wire and splashed with bright red paint. The traitor wrote a sentence with the same red paint on the base of the statue -
【This is just the beginning】
Soshiyang felt that his chest was about to explode. He kept taking deep breaths to suppress his urge to kill something.
He has never been so angry.
Just this time, a roar came from above. Soshyan raised his head and saw a Thunder Eagle landing. The Thunder Eagle had the standard of the Ascetic Chapter.
After landing, Mazar walked out of the cabin and felt ashamed.
"I'm very sorry...Brother Soshyan, I failed to protect your home planet."
Mazhar's voice was very sincere, and Soshyan shook his head with a wry smile.
"I don't care about your business, it's me——"
He glanced at the dazzling red letters again.
"——If I could have killed him back then, nothing would have happened now. It was me who failed to protect them, and I failed them..."