301: What is Chapter 302?

In the space of the Yuanwang Star System.

A dark purple rift was suddenly torn open in the void.

Accompanied by the rampage of Warp lightning, massive warships with grim shapes and outer armor covered in Warp biological attachments drilled out of the rift one after another, plunging headfirst into realspace.

The Ashen Claws fleet.

On the flagship bridge, accompanied by a heavy roar, the thick metal protective floodgates slowly retracted to both sides.

Captain Katz stood before the command platform, his gaze passing through the huge panoramic porthole and casting toward the star system before him.

"What a beautiful place..."

Katz let out a heartfelt exclamation.

Within the Yuanwang Star System, several huge habitable planets presented a charming interlacing of blue and green.

That was the luster of oceans and vegetation.

What made him even more excited was that, through the warship's long-range viewer, he could clearly see that suspended in the near-Earth orbit of almost every planet were massive metal spaceports.

Bloated and unarmed civilian merchant ships, like diligent ants, shuttled and unloaded cargo between various planets along fixed routes.

There was no formed Imperial Guard fleet.

There was no battle-ready Space Marine strike cruiser.

There were only countless supplies, wealth, and population.

Without any staff report, Katz could judge by his hundreds of years of raiding experience that this was a wealthy and sparsely defended industrial-agricultural composite star system.

"Hahaha!"

Katz's long-suppressed depression was swept away, and he couldn't help laughing out loud.

"I was suffocating to death! Escaping from that ghost-like Black Rock Planet, we finally bumped into a good place!"

He suddenly turned around and roared at the crew on the bridge:

"Tell the brothers, prepare the boarding torpedos and landing craft! Later we'll have a good plunder! Detain all those merchant ships, and empty out all the supplies on the spaceports!"

The renegades on the bridge also burst into a burst of fanatical cheers.

However.

Just as Katz drew the Chainsword from his waist, preparing to deliver a pre-battle mobilization speech.

From the communication sound array system on the side, the voice of the accompanying Librarian suddenly came over.

That voice did not have the slightest joy of encountering prey, but instead carried a kind of tension.

"Captain..."

Katz frowned, feeling somewhat impatient:

"What's wrong? What was detected? Could it be that this place still has the sector governor's escort fleet?"

"There is no escort fleet..."

The Librarian swallowed a mouthful of saliva, staring at the psychic detection array before him,

"But... we seem to have been locked onto by orbital firepower."

"Locked on is locked on."

Katz let out an indifferent cold snort, inserting the Chainsword back into its scabbard,

"For such a remote and wealthy star system, building a few orbital defense platforms is very normal, just dozens of anti-aircraft artillery pieces, and it's not like we haven't fought them before. Keep the Void Shield on and just trample right over!"

"Captain... it's not dozens."

"The array displays... it's nearly a thousand large-caliber Macro Cannons, plus hundreds of plasma guns, and some orbital weapons we don't recognize. Just in that past second, they all completed charging and locking."

The smile on Katz's face instantly froze.

He suspected that his ears had problems.

"How... how many?!"

Katz froze in place, his brain experiencing a brief blankness.

Nearly a thousand large-caliber Macro Cannons,

this is called sparsely defended?

This firepower configuration, even if directly compared to an Astartes Chapter's armed homeworld, was not inferior at all.

Katz now just wanted to twist off the neck of Shadow Captain Nehart.

If it weren't for that lackey of the False Emperor swearing up and down that the Yuanwang Star System was a fat piece of meat dripping with wealth, he would never have driven his fleet to this ghost place.

Before Katz could recover from his shock,

the Librarian's tight voice sounded once more.

"Lord, an unidentified spaceship has been detected, with astonishing speed, approaching us. Should we fire and intercept?"

"Don't! Don't fire!"

Katz suddenly snapped back to his senses, strode to the front of the command platform and roared,

"Shut all the gun ports for me! Let's see what they have to say. You, come to the main bridge immediately!"

As a renegade chapter wandering on the galactic fringe year round, the Ashen Claws were able to survive to this day by relying on a set of survival wisdom carved into their bones.

Raiders in this region all understood one truth: if a hard battle could be avoided, never touch it.

A moment later, the Librarian hurried to the bridge.

The two stood before the huge panoramic viewport.

"Magnify the image," Katz ordered.

The screen flickered.

In the deep starry sky, the outline of that unidentified spaceship gradually became clear.

The spaceship was not large, with a length of about two hundred meters.

Its entire body presented a flawless golden-yellow luster.

The hull lines were smooth and sleek, naturally formed.

There were no exposed Macro Cannon barrels, nor the iconic, complicated and bloated ram and carvings like a Gothic church found on Imperial ships.

Its shape was incompatible with the aesthetics of the Imperium of Man of this era.

Katz's brow was tightly locked, his hand unconsciously pressing on the Chainsword hilt at his waist:

"What kind of alien spaceship is this? Aeldari? Or T'au?"

The Librarian stared at the data panel, pondered for a moment, and shook his head.

"No, My Lord, its basic architecture and energy circuit logic still belong to the category of humanity, but it is not a product of the Adeptus Mechanicus."

The Librarian took a deep breath, his tone certain, "This is the human spaceship styling from the Dark Age of Technology."

The corners of Katz's eyes jumped violently.

"Dark Age?" he muttered in a low voice, "It seems these fellows have dug up some incredible good stuff here."

At this time, the monitor-in-charge of the Cogitator turned his head.

"My Lord, the other party has sent a communication request with a holographic visual band."

"Put it through." Katz tidied up the Power Armor on his body.

The next moment.

The green fluorescent projector in the center of the bridge hummed.

A clear three-dimensional image was projected in mid-air.

In the image was a mortal man with a youthful face.

Black hair, black eyes.

Compared to ordinary mortals of the Imperium of Man, his figure was much taller and more well-proportioned.

Most eye-catching was the guard beside him.

That was a towering metal robot with smooth armor, no exposed gears, and no incensed pipes.

At a glance, it was definitely not a product of the Mars Adeptus Mechanicus.

Behind the man hung two huge flags.

On the left was the two-headed eagle emblem representing the Imperium of Man.

On the right was an unfamiliar flag with a bright red background and a burning golden torch.

Katz glanced at the Librarian beside him.

The Librarian shook his head slightly.

Obviously, even the knowledgeable Chapter Librarian could not figure out the background of these people.

In the image, that black-haired man spoke calmly.

"State your purpose."

The voice was steady, without any emotional fluctuations audible.

There was no awe toward Space Marines, nor panic in the face of a massive fleet.

Katz calculated rapidly in his mind.

He wanted to figure out the other party's background, but as an Astartes, he didn't want to lower his posture too much.

"I need to speak directly with your highest leader," Katz said in a deep voice.

On the other end of the communication, the man's gaze remained calm.

"I am."

"I'll ask once more, and this is the last time: state your purpose."

Katz fell silent.

Pointed at the head by a thousand orbital cannons, he didn't even have the qualification to talk tough. He hesitated for a moment and decided to stabilize the situation first.

"We are an Astartes chapter that accidentally strayed into this sector," Katz said slowly, "No malice."

Almost the moment his voice fell, the other party immediately followed up.

"Which chapter?"

Katz's brow twisted together heavily.

Something was wrong.

Generally speaking, Astartes possessed transcendent status and military power in the Imperium.

Even the sector governor had to be polite when facing Space Marines.

Ordinary mortals would definitely not dare to talk to him in this tone, as if interrogating a prisoner.

That is to say, the man opposite who claimed to be the leader had absolute confidence to fight against Space Marines, and even was sure of annihilating an entire Astartes company.

Katz was certain that he had run into a truly tough nut to crack.

Let alone plundering supplies, whether he could drive the fleet away intact today was an unknown.

But coins always had two sides.

If this faction possessed such high autonomy and terrifying firepower, then the other party was most likely not bound by official Imperial dogmas.

If they could establish a safe fencing point here and obtain stable material supplies, it might not be a bad thing for the Ashen Claws.

Thinking of this, Katz put away his high posture.

"We are a chapter outside the Imperial system."

This sentence was spoken ambiguously.

He didn't lie, but also concealed the identity of renegades, depending entirely on how the other party understood it.

On the other end of the image, Lin Li fell silent for a moment.

"Ashen Claws?"

The simple four words made Katz's expressionless face hide a heart that suddenly missed a beat.

He did not show too much surprise.

There were not many Astartes chapters active in this remote sector; apart from their renegade chapter, only Carcharodons and Death Spectres occasionally appeared.

But the other party being able to guess it in one breath could only explain two things.

First, this man's intelligence network was extremely large.

Second, he was definitely not a fanatic loyal to Imperial dogma.

Otherwise, the moment he heard "outside the system", those thousand Macro Cannons would have already fired.

Katz neither denied nor confirmed.

He went with the flow and tentatively threw out a bait:

"Perhaps we can conduct some private trade."

In the image, Lin Li's mouth raised slightly, revealing a meaningful smile.

"Welcome, let's talk face-to-face."

The image instantly cut off.

Katz let out a long breath.

He turned to look at the Librarian and issued an order.

"You, go pick a few veterans with the best skills, come with me, and go down to sound out their background."

Half an hour later.

A battle-scarred Thunderhawk gunship sailed out of the flagship hangar, closely following behind that golden spaceship, heading toward the interior of the star system.

However, to Katz's surprise,

the spaceship did not lead them toward those few habitable main planets.

Instead, it flew straight to the edge of the star system, arriving in the satellite orbit of a huge gas giant planet.

The gunship passed through the satellite's atmosphere and landed smoothly on a vast open-air starport platform.

The hatch opened.

Katz led several veterans, holding Bolters, maintaining a high degree of tactical vigilance, and slowly walked down the boarding ramp.

As soon as he stepped onto the metal ground, Katz froze.

There were no pungent industrial waste gases, no acid rain and smog blocking the sky.

The breeze blowing against his face even carried a hint of plant freshness.

He looked around.

This satellite's ecological recycling system was outrageously perfect.

The exterior walls of the distant city buildings were spotless, and the streets were wide and clean.

There were no rat holes crammed with mutants and sewage like the Imperial Hive City, nor were there starving refugees visible everywhere.

In today's Imperium of Man, this was a picture that was utterly unimaginable.