The Emperor’s Angel of Death

Although Sotha would try to be gentle and generous in front of his "own people", it was unacceptable if his kindness was seen as weakness and they tried to take advantage of him, even if they were quasi-allies.

More importantly, Sotha knew that excessive reliance on one side's power would inevitably lead to being controlled by others. Cooperation was important, but having his own capabilities and bargaining chips was even more crucial.

Therefore, Sotha decided to leave out the short ones this time.

After reviewing the rough information and intelligence about the Rogue Trader dynasties in the two star sectors submitted by Occam, Sotha selected five of them and sent official letters in the name of the Orpheus Expeditionary Force Headquarters, inviting them to send representatives to discuss some specific details regarding the expeditionary force's logistics and transportation business.

Sotha knew they would definitely not refuse, because anyone with eyes could see that this would be a very profitable deal. As long as anything related to military affairs was handled well, a tenfold profit was a light matter.

Of course, there were also examples of losing everything, but few merchants lacked confidence in their skills.

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Sure enough, in less than half a month, all five responded, stating that they would send the most important representatives of their families to attend the meeting.

While waiting for the Rogue Traders to arrive, Sotha briefly entered a period of leisure. The warriors had all gone to various star systems to carry out supervision missions, including Talos, who had gone to Decapolis, the economic center, to oversee and ensure that Sotha's series of policies could be promoted. At the same time, new recruits would be enlisted here. The Eleventh Company had already screened a batch of boys on Amara Prime, but they were still under observation, and it was uncertain how many would actually be able to accept the transformation.

In this situation, Sotha temporarily handed over the affairs of Amara to Sol and returned to Helos.

On the one hand, it was to accompany Veronica, after all, he had been busy with military affairs for a long time and had not taken care of his wife. On the other hand, it was to sort out the situation in Helos, break down and deal with various problems one by one, and increase the influence of the Royal Court here.

From the bottom of his heart, Sotha was indeed feeling a bit overwhelmed by the heavy military and political affairs, because the Chapter had no foundation at all in Orpheus. He had to do everything himself, and then those people especially liked to bother him with all kinds of trivial matters, such as a certain planet requesting to build a magnificent statue for him, or several planetary governors within a certain star system accusing each other of encroaching on their rights, etc.

Although there were many trivial matters in the Royal Court, there was a complete team here, a mature administrative system, and, crucially, many capable ministers. Only the most important things would truly appear before Sotha.

"The report from the Ummidia Ark is still like this, runes shrouded in strange shadows, eerie sounds echoing in the spirit bone shrine, my god, is this a riddle or a statement of facts?"

In the hazy mist, Sotha, half-soaked in the spring water, frowned as he looked at the spirit bone scroll in his hand.

This place was a unique volcanic hot spring in the towering sacred snow peaks of Helos, and also the temporary location of the Queen's Palace. The Eternal Phoenix used her powerful psychic powers to create a small palace made of plants and rocks, without a trace of coldness, on a snow mountain within a day. Veronica temporarily resided here, occasionally holding ceremonies or receiving female representatives from various city-states and clans, as well as young girls aspiring to become handmaidens of the Eternal Queen.

Just as Sotha was sighing, the water surface suddenly bubbled, and then Veronica emerged from the water like a lotus, her wet hair fluttering in the breeze, scattering crystal water droplets, instantly changing from wet to dry, and automatically coiling around Veronica's head as if it had a life of its own.

"Look at you, busy outside, still busy at home, it's like living is just about being busy."

Veronica, her fair skin glowing with a faint pink, leaned against Sotha's arm, then rubbed his furrowed brow with her fingers.

"The day you came back, you were still sulking, saying you wouldn't care about anything anymore. I said you definitely couldn't help it, right?"

"Alas, I can't really ignore it, can I? Look at this..."

Sotha shook the spirit bone scroll in his hand, and the words immediately slid off it like tadpoles and gathered in mid-air.

Veronica looked at it and said with some doubt:

"What's wrong with Ummidia? Is it under attack?"

"They didn't say they were under attack, they just wrote this pile of incomprehensible words. The Star Disaster's annotation is that Ummidia 'might' encounter trouble. God, if all national affairs were decided by 'might', I think the Royal Court would end up even worse than the Empire."

"Tsk, look at you, saying angry words again. If you're not satisfied, let them figure it out. You're the monarch, they're supposed to satisfy you, not you to accommodate them."

"Alas, I get a headache just looking at these things now. There are things happening here and there. Where is Ummidia again? The Ultima Segmentum, it seems, or the easternmost edge of the Ultima Segmentum. I've reminded them several times to move appropriately towards the Royal Court, but they just like to stay in that remote corner..."

Veronica, who was very familiar with Sotha, had already heard something, so she said softly:

"Husband, you've guessed the trouble Ummidia might encounter, but that trouble is the one you least want to encounter... It wouldn't be Tyranids, would it?"

Sotha rubbed his forehead with his hand.

"If it were a warning of an attack from Chaos, that would be fine, even the Necrons would be nothing, but their location... if it's really Tyranids, that would be a big trouble, not just for Ummidia. There are many maiden worlds in that direction, and the pressure to defend them would be very high."

"The eastern Ultima Segmentum... Speaking of which, Iyanden seems to be active in that area as well. That Craftworld is very powerful, a common Tyranid fleet should be okay, right?"

"Alas, I can only pray that this is a 'common' Tyranid fleet. How many of these damn things are there? Are they really surrounding the galaxy? In any case, we can only let Ummidia avoid it first. Madam, can you bring up the star chart?"

Veronica simply raised her hand, and several golden spheres flew from a distance, then projected a vast star chart above the hot spring.

Sotha's eyes wandered over it for a moment, then he nodded and said:

"The best route should be westward, towards the center of the galaxy. If possible, pass through the Maelstrom. Even if they don't come to the Royal Court, they can maneuver in the area of the Ultima Segmentum towards the Storm Wardens."

"But that's the core area of the human Imperium, wouldn't there be risks?"

"There are risks, but we can find ways to avoid them. It's better than sitting and waiting for the enemy to come to their door in that remote location."

"What about those maiden worlds?"

"Try to transfer them as much as possible. Didn't Master Calexus Tau say that there is already a way to transfer the world spirits? If it really doesn't work, just change places, that's all we can do. It depends on the situation, maybe this enemy isn't so bad?"