Chapitre 40: Victory and New Sights
By the time that Baldur arrived at Sabes' location, she had already slain the Greater Daemon and banished all the lesser ones. It was only a few cultists that remained alive, as she was using them to navigate through the library that they had created.
Baldur walked around and picked up the various books while also looking over the shoulders of the Witches who were going through the computers. After looking through them all, Baldur was able to tell that both locations were related, with this probably being the information depository that many of the cultists studied from.
The amount of information in this location was 3 times greater than what was at the main location but the information that Baldur was able to gather from the main base was definitely more important.
'So if this was connected to the main one and also the library, then that Slaanesh location must be something like a brothel or whorehouse,' Baldur thought as he helped organize the gathered information aboard the ships, no longer worried about the others.
Even if Sabes was able to take out a Great Daemon, he was worried about the others. For Sabes was skilled in the Lore of Light as well as Metal. That meant that her talent was in direct combat and fighting Daemons.
Kirk, on the other hand, used the Lore of Life and Beasts. Both were very weak compared to the other specialities, more skilled in support or non-combat roles. Even then, he was still powerful enough to be given a position among Baldur's Honor Guard, as his skills with using his spells were strong to the point where he could fight those from other, more powerful disciplines easily.
He skills were enough to handle the lesser daemons that were there and even if there was a Greater Daemon, he knew that Kirk could handle it with his skills.
So when everything was gathered, Baldur ordered them to fly back up to the ship and then fly over to the remaining fleet over the pleasure palace.
Baldur flew directly to the palace and saw his Grey Knights standing outside with a stack of information around them while they were loading them into the ships.
Baldur landed next to them and greeted Kirk who had a few marks on his armor.
"A Greater Daemon was here too?" Baldur asked
"Hmm," Kirk responded while rubbing the cuts on his armor, feeling some shame. "Apologies, Lord Primarch. I let my guard down during the battle," the Grey Knight bowed his head to apologize but Baldur stopped him using his mind.
"Do not apologize," Baldur reprimanded him. "You defeated the enemies and did not lose any of your brothers. You have brought honor to me and the Grey Knights so do not dishonor yourself."
Kirk nodded as he raised his head to look at his Primarch directly, tears beginning to form in the corner of his eyes. The shame he felt from allowing the Keeper of Secrets to harm the armor that his Primarch has blessed him with turned into fervor for his Primarch, as the man silently swore to never allow a Daemon to touch the armor of his Legion again.
Once they were loaded up, they also went back to their ship while Baldur flew back toward the main fortress to pick up his ship. When he rejoined his fleet, the planet performed Exterminatus on the planet by performing an orbital bombardment with their macrocannons before unleashing a pull payload of torpedoes into a single location until they reached the core of the planet. All those that remained on the planet were killed in a matter of minutes, not even knowing how their world had ended.
Once the planet was destroyed, Baldur's fleet traveled to meet up with the rest of the 1st Fleet, going from planet to planet and assisting the destruction of the civilizations' defense and will.
The campaign in the system was the largest battle that Baldur's fleet had taken part in so far, causing hundreds of thousands of casualties among the Imperial Army. Baldur's forces had them at the forefront and taking on the most daunting positions, while his elites would strike from elsewhere.
This method was known as the hammer and anvil method and was very effective, though costly to the force that acted as the anvil that held the enemy in place. Still, the Imperial Army held no resentment toward Baldur's commanders for using such a method.
The Grey Knights and Knights simply moved much faster and hit harder while being a smaller force. Having them act as the hammer was simply the most logical step.
This tactic also ensured that battles ended much faster and with few casualties than siege battles or constant hit-and-run tactics.
So even if the soldiers were used to take the brunt of the damage, they did so without question. For every one of them that died, at least 100 of the enemy would be killed.
Each of the different commanders had their own experiences but all the battles helped them grow with none commanding such large forces before. The one who benefitted the most from them all was Spencer as this was his first ground-based campaign that he was allowed to organize.
With this campaign finished, Baldur left a few hundred thousand Imperial soldiers to stay on the worlds and keep the peace while planetary governors began making their way toward it in order to reform the world they were put in command of.
Baldur had little interest in whether the worlds would remain in compliance or not, he simply did as much work as he could by disabling the current regimes and their military power. Anything that happened afterward would be the responsibility of the next person.
With his work done, Baldur opened a portal to the Warp, before he and his fleet entered, ready to journey to the next stop on their location. He was still in the dark zone so whatever his forces had to deal with next but they were in for a large shock.
For when they exited the Warp, the 1st Fleet was greeted by the sight of a massive ship, dwarfing even the Invictus. It was the size of a small moon in length with various glowing orbs along the the perimeter of it. Dozens of ships surrounded the massive ship, each one comparable to the Invictus in size with many smaller ones also orbiting it.
Though he had never seen one in person, Baldur had seen drawings and images of one that Eldrad have given him during his lessons with older xenos.
"A Craftworld," Baldur spoke in a whisper but everyone in the bridge heard him as all were silent when facing the magnificent sight.
"So this is what the old man was talking about," Selene remarked, amazed by the sight as well. She could feel the staff in her hand vibrate and heard a hum in her mind as it was attracted to the large amount of Wraithbone that the Craftworld and various other ships were made out of.
"Order the other ships to not open fire," Baldur told Spencer, not wanting to make enemies out of the Aeldari
Although the Aeldari were a single species, they were not one unified group unless it came to fighting off outsiders. Even if he was friendly with the Aeldari of Ulthwé, it did not mean that the ones before him would see him in a favorable light or even knew of his existence.
Baldur would have to tread carefully if he wanted to form an alliance with them or at least a non-aggression pact.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone