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Chapter 211: Food in Hand and a Sea of Chaos Warships
🕑 Added 2025-08-09 15:12:16 +0000 UTCChapter 211: Food in Hand and a Sea of Chaos Warships
Cadia.
Kasr Kraf, the outer defenses.
A Custodian walked upon this land ravaged by the fires of war. In the past, when the Emperor still walked among men, the Custodes would accompany Him at His side. Although different Custodians had slightly different attitudes toward civilians, they were still considered the most just of beings.
At this moment, Dius, accompanied by Creed, was walking between the various defensive positions. The appearance of the Custodes had boosted the morale of all the soldiers by several levels. The people saluted the Custodian and the Lord Castellan who led them.
At this moment, they were eating canned mushrooms. A company could even be allocated a small amount of vegetables and fruits. Thrown into a pot and cooked together, everyone could get a mouthful of hot soup. Although the amount was small, the enjoyment it brought to their taste buds eased the soldiers' tense emotions.
In war, good food has always been a good way to boost morale and stabilize the army. After all, people need to satisfy their appetites. Even the Astartes needed to, let alone these mortals.
Since Cadia had fallen into crisis, living supplies had become increasingly scarce. What the transport ships could carry depended entirely on which ones were lucky enough not to be destroyed. The surrounding agri-worlds had also largely fallen. Cadia's own reserve supplies were all emergency food, and they were being consumed at an extremely fast rate. In some places, there had even been conflicts between the local Cadian regiments and the reinforcing troops from other planets over food supplies.
Creed did not allow such things to happen. The ringleaders were executed, and the participants were organized into penal squads. He did not want internal turmoil to occur on Cadia before the enemy had even arrived. Although the Cadians could endure, who would mind eating some normal human food?
Among the supplies transported by Lucan were many canned mushrooms and a small amount of fresh fruits and vegetables.
Even on Cadia, there were still gangs. They hoarded supplies in peacetime. Even the Death Korps of Krieg would need to negotiate with them to find the location of their hidden supply depots. Even on Cadia, the dark side of human nature still existed. Human nature and desire were the best entry points for Chaos to exploit humanity. There were far too few people who could truly hold fast to their faith and their principles. Behind these gangs, there were also the machinations of heretical cults.
And with Lucan's material support, Creed could finally vent his past frustrations. Without having to worry about those supplies, he directly executed all these gang members.
The supplies brought by Lucan had indeed served their purpose. It let the soldiers of Cadia know that the Imperium's supply lines to Cadia had not been cut. If they could transport food, then they could transport more war materials and soldiers to fight against Chaos with them.
"Lord Dius, how did you manage to cross that warp storm? Who is that Rogue Trader?"
"That is a secret of the Imperium, Creed. You only need to know that more supplies and soldiers will be coming to Cadia. Your only mission is to hold Cadia with your lives."
At this time, two heavy cruisers, a Retribution-class battleship, and two frigate squadrons from the Agripinaa Sector had also entered Cadia, punching through the warp storm by sheer force of their mass. Although they had suffered severe damage, SCVs immediately joined the repair work. This greatly enhanced Cadia's fleet defense capabilities.
"This has always been our duty. Cadia stands. We will practice our loyalty and faith with our lives to protect this land."
Creed was full of confidence at this moment. It had been a long time since a smile had appeared on his face. The surrounding soldiers, seeing the smile of the Lord Castellan who led them, also became more confident about the upcoming battle.
"Lord Castellan! This time, we will definitely be able to drive out those Chaos forces just like before! With you, we will not lose! Cadia stands!"
Creed looked at the Cadian soldier who was shouting at him with his entrenching tool raised high. The other party looked to be only twelve or thirteen years old. Even on Cadia, where every child received strict military training from a young age, under normal circumstances, a Cadian who was still a child would not be thrown into a battlefield of this intensity. At most, they would serve as Whiteshields, transporting ammunition and supplies on the battlefield to get a feel for the war. But the situation Cadia was facing at this moment was such that as long as you could still move, regardless of gender or age, you would step onto the battlefield. On Cadia, the concept of a "civilian" did not exist.
"We will. We will once again defend the glory of Cadia, just as we have in the past."
Although the combat suits could not meet the needs of all the soldiers on Cadia at this moment, the elite and key positions had already been equipped. A portion was also sent to support the navy in orbit. And some of the Barracks established by the tech-priests on Cadia itself had also begun to operate. However, Cadia was not a resource planet. Without the vast logistical supply of the Imperium, the protective performance of the combat suits produced by the Barracks was much worse. But it was still not something that flak armor and carapace armor could compare to.
Now, if those traitors dared to set foot on the surface of this planet again, he would make them feel the wrath of Cadia and avenge the Cadians who had already been sacrificed.
Besides Dius, the other two Custodes were assisting the Cadians in setting up defenses, but Dius's own mind was not on Cadia. He looked up at the sky. He hoped that the Custodian who had returned to Terra to report to the Captain-General, Trajann, could arrive quickly. Cadia needed more strength.
At this moment, a voice came from Creed's comms. A communications officer in the Kasr was requesting him to return immediately.
When Creed looked at the holographic projection before him, his brow furrowed tightly once again.
According to the intelligence received, the Chaos fleet had abandoned its siege of the industrial world of Kaelas, where there were a large number of industrial facilities and promethium refineries. Even for Chaos, this was an equally important strategic objective. Chaos also needed these resources. Chaos had even abandoned its attack on the fortress planet of Fornax, withdrawing all the Chaos rebels from it.
On these two planets, there were a large number of Astartes and Imperial garrisons, and even those mysterious, silver-armored Astartes who were unwilling to reveal their Chapter name. By ignoring these forces, wasn't Chaos afraid of being attacked from both front and rear?
"Abnormal... too abnormal."
Creed could not understand the actions of the Chaos fleet for a moment. They could have conquered and sacrificed these planets, created more war machines, and obtained more power from the Chaos Gods. But they had just given them up.
Moreover, the scale of the Chaos fleet was even larger than had been previously discovered. The Chaos fleets that should have been in other sectors, intercepting Imperial support forces, had also directly abandoned their attacks on Imperial worlds and instead converged in the Cadian Sector.
Everything indicated that Chaos wanted to conquer Cadia at the fastest speed possible.
Excluding Abaddon's Blackstone Fortresses and his original flagship, the Vengeful Spirit, Abaddon's conventional fleet alone had 7 battleships, 13 heavy cruisers, and 23 light cruiser squadrons, not to mention the number of frigates. And this did not even count the other Chaos fleets participating in the war, whose numbers were no less than Abaddon's direct command.
The Chaos fleet seemed to fill the entire void before the Imperial forces. If Lucan had seen this with his own eyes, he would have been glad that he had not been arrogant enough to throw his own Dynasty's fleet into such a battlefield. Without deploying the Spear of Adun, the disparity in size between the two sides was too great.
"Sound the alarm! Get every soldier ready! Have the warships in the docks launch and intercept the enemy as much as possible! They will definitely try to destroy Cadia's planetary shield system! Have the soldiers who have changed into combat suits assemble at important strategic locations! The shield generators! The lasgun battery factories! The cathedrals! The artillery positions! Tell the commanders of those Astartes that when Chaos conducts its orbital drop, Cadia will need them to also fully commit to the battle! Raise the planetary shields! All ground-based firepower, prepare to fire! Support the friendly fleets in orbit!"
Countless orders were issued from the Kasr.
And Abaddon was also constantly mobilizing his troops, a massive number of mortal Chaos rebels, one Chaos warband after another.
Abaddon had finally followed the orders of the Four Gods and accelerated his progress.
