The Emperor’s Angel of Death

Compared to Vashtorr's reinforcements, the reforms in the Pusth班 were revolutionary. Shields were to be withdrawn from combat and used only for ceremonial purposes. The Hellfire Spear could be retained, as the warriors rated this equipment highly. Simultaneously, in response to the Pusth班's somewhat cumbersome organization, Saul Tarvitz decided to modify the structure, deploying a large number of Mechanicum's Archeopter and Dragon-wing soldiers as supplementary forces, making it a more flexible but also more ferocious all-around assault force, like the Tau Hunter Cadre.

However, these were all just ideas, and their concrete implementation would require a great deal of work. After all, the forces were still in the mass conscription phase. Nathan's side already had about 1.2 million new recruits in the Chapter auxiliary forces. Their equipment and training needed to be addressed, each requiring massive resources. The vast planetary defense force and expeditionary force being assembled in the Nathan system were also enormous money pits. This was why Saul Tarvitz sometimes felt weary of administrative affairs—humans are just too troublesome. Eating, drinking, defecating, marrying, and dying are insignificant matters for one person, but for hundreds of billions of people, they are immovable mountains.

In comparison, the Aeldari society, which didn't worry about food and drink and could even manufacture things out of thin air, was much less troublesome. Of course, it might also be that the Craftworld hasn't developed to the point where it could cause Saul Tarvitz any headaches.

He had also considered merging the Nathan system's expeditionary force with the Chapter auxiliary forces, but after careful consideration, he felt it was inappropriate. The expeditionary force had a fixed term of service, while the Chapter auxiliary forces served for life, even their descendants. Putting the two in the same organization would not only be difficult to manage but might also cause some trouble.

In addition to conceiving reforms for the auxiliary forces, Saul Tarvitz also had to plan the layout of Ekholior.

Regarding the war with the Necrons, reporting it was out of the question. There were too many things that couldn't be said, and trying to push it to Mars and Terra would only cause trouble. The best way was to pretend it didn't happen. Therefore, the reconstruction of the forge world would have to rely on himself. Fortunately, with Ulan Had's help, it should be relatively fast. However, considering that the remnants of the Ryssa Dynasty were not yet cleared and that the forge world had been exposed to the Necron dynasties, Saul Tarvitz believed that its defenses must be strengthened. At the very least, there should be a solid orbital fortress to resist potential threats. But building a fortress spaceport was not something that could be done overnight. There were so many auxiliary facilities, and Ekholior's orbital facilities had been battered to pieces. Recovery alone would take a long time.

The most direct way was to 'acquire' a Ramilies starfort as the forge world's orbital space barrier, but these were not just rock fragments scattered in space. There were only a few in the entire Storm's Reach, and they were all deployed in the most important strategic locations. The only one controlled by the Astartes was Victory Unmarred, the headquarters of the Covenant of Sorrow.

Realizing that this problem could not be solved in the short term, Saul Tarvitz could only allocate more resources to Ekholior in the future to accelerate its recovery and increase its combat readiness.

At the same time, the forge world's future positioning had to be changed. Its production direction would shift to combat robots, large ground vehicles, and many unique weapons exclusive to the Unbowed Legiones Astartes faction, including plasma weapons. Ulan Had would also transfer the technology of Project 520 to the forge world. Ekholior would grow into a large forge world focused on advanced military equipment.

To this end, it also needed to develop the resources of the surrounding star systems, which would also require a large initial investment, including various heavy deep-space mining equipment, transport ships, and factory ships. In addition, the forge world also had to have its own trade import and export routes to ensure the input of some rare resources and manpower, forming its own production cycle system rather than simply relying on Ulan Had's blood transfusion to maintain it.

To do this, it was necessary to open up the path to the Orpheus Sector. Ekholior had never had a good relationship with that sector. On the one hand, the Orpheus Sector had independent Mechanicum forces. The wealthy Maelstrom system had a small forge world, Maelstrom III. Although the forge world was born in M36, it was a relatively young forge world, but it was enough to handle many mechanical and equipment trades in the local sector and nearby sectors. On the other hand, the Orpheus Sector itself had a certain production capacity and was not very dependent on Ekholior's production and supply.

But the most critical factor was political. Ekholior used to have a close trading partner, the hive world Decapolis. The world could be said to be the economic center of Orpheus. Its economic volume and population surpassed any other world in the sector, including Amara, the capital world of Orpheus.

However, due to tradition and custom, the military and administrative power of the sector resided in its ancient capital world, held by the noble families who ruled Amara. Decapolis had to remain in the shadow of Amara and bear an increasingly heavy tithe. The anger of Decapolis' nobles and business tycoons at this situation increased, and jealousy and fierce competition led to the creation of conspiracies. They plotted a series of conspiracies to weaken the sector's capital and destabilize it, with the long-term goal of forcing a 'relocation of the capital' through turmoil, thereby seizing the core political position of the Orpheus Sector.

Unfortunately, the plan was discovered by the Inquisition when interrogating captured members of a psychic cult. Even worse, the Inquisition found physical evidence—the heavy weapons in the hands of those cultists came from the foundries on Decapolis. But some also claimed that this was a frame-up by the nobles of Amara.

Regardless of the truth, the nobles of Amara were the victors. The Inquisition went to the hive world and launched a sweep and enforcement operation, executing a series of systematic purges and trials that lasted for nine years. A large number of the original dignitaries of Decapolis were raided and exterminated, and all their property fell into the hands of the nobles of Amara. What was worse was that, although Ekholior had not been involved in these political struggles, it was regarded as an 'unwelcome external force of conspiracy' by the nobles of Amara because several of its major partners were implicated. This was the fundamental reason why their request for assistance was not answered during the Genestealer uprising.

However, Saul Tarvitz could not personally intervene in this matter, as his presence here was an inconvenient thing to explain. But he did have a roundabout solution.

The resident Chapter of the Orpheus Sector was the Wraith Angels Chapter. The Chapter and the Minotaurs Chapter came from the Ultramarines lineage, and the two sides had a history of cooperation. After Arash finished his term as Chapter Master of the Covenant of Sorrow, Saul Tarvitz took over the position. If he could use the relationship with the Minotaurs to invite representatives of the Wraith Angels to the Covenant of Sorrow, Saul Tarvitz was confident that he could persuade them to help.

As the guardians of the Orpheus Sector, the words of the Wraith Angels would definitely be useful. Their mediation should at least allow the nobles of Amara to remove Ekholior from the 'blacklist', so that the forge world could continue to 'recover blood'.