Their conversation ended on a sour note.
Winnie was still worried that Emrys, with his ever-expanding power, would follow in Vandire's footsteps and become the culprit who would once again split the Imperium.
Her concerns were not unfounded.
Emrys was abducted into the Warp at birth, disappearing for a whole year. No one knew how he returned, and his background was shrouded in deep mystery.
Moreover, judging by the four Chaos Gods' deliberately permissive attitude towards Emrys, he clearly held an important mission. This was also a crucial factor for the one on the Golden Throne, who did not hesitate to repeatedly display 'miracles' to protect Emrys.
She was a Living Saint, but she still didn't know the truth behind Emrys' mystery.
Winnie only hoped that Emrys could be safe and sound, preferably far away from the devils and monsters of the Warp, including the one on the Golden Throne.
The longer she interacted with the Emperor, the more she understood that the 'one' now sitting on the Golden Throne was no longer the Emperor who once walked among men, but a cold Sun, filled with ten thousand years of human suffering, hope, wailing, and despair!
The result of getting too close to the Sun was to be burned to ashes.
But what about Emrys?
He knew that blindly expanding military power would only invite problems from the Warp and the Imperium, but he had no choice.
Next, the Lion would soon awaken, Robert Guilliman's Indomitus Crusade would spread war to the dark side of the Imperium, Abaddon, the Commander of the black Crusade, and the Warp demigod Vashtorr had secretly conspired to search for the creations of the Old Ones, the Silent King of the Necrons had returned, the Eldar were stirring, the tendrils of the Tyranids were about to reach into the galaxy, the Orks had begun an unprecedented conquest amidst the Waaagh! of Gork and Mork, and there were also the rising Tau Imperium warships on the frontier!
What's more, there was also the prophecy that in the 43rd Millennium, the Emperor would rise from the Golden Throne and become the fifth Dark King to ascend to godhood, bringing destruction to the entire universe.
Emrys could not confide these things.
He could only keep them all in his heart, and before that dark and desperate future came to pass, he would expand his strength as much as possible, to find that faint, slim hope for humanity and for those around him.
Winnie felt he had changed, but in reality—Emrys knew very well that he had never changed from beginning to end; he was just forced to integrate into this foul-smelling 'cesspool'.
"Space fluctuations detected. A large fleet of warships is jumping. target is on the port side of the Ishimura, 100 kilometers away."
Just as Emrys was distraught, the servo-skull issued a warning, simultaneously projecting an image.
"They're here so fast?"
Upon hearing this news, Emrys immediately discarded his extraneous thoughts and focused intently on the image of a hundred shuttle-shaped warships that suddenly jumped out of the starry sky.
These shuttle-shaped warships were not large, only tens of meters in size, still within the normal range, far from the mobile cathedrals that could fly through the sky and burrow through the Earth in the Warhammer Universe.
Then, these warships lined up in front of the Ishimura, pointing their dark, cavernous muzzles at them.
"God damn, they don't say a word and just want to open fire?" Emrys couldn't help but raise his eyebrows as he watched their actions.
It must be said, the CEC was quite decisive.
Once they discovered an existence that could threaten them, they even skipped the final negotiations, striving to destroy the entire Ishimura, including the survivors on board, in the fastest, most convenient, and most efficient way.
In the space age, the CEC had already mastered the use of energy weapons, and a distance of one hundred kilometers was naturally nothing.
In an instant, several beams of high-density energy illuminated the dark starry sky, trailing dazzling trajectories, and directly blasted towards the Ishimura.
The energy fluctuations contained in these beams caused the space along the strike trajectory to distort!
Boom—!
In the silent universe, the huge world cracker Ishimura, moored above S.H.I.E.L.D. VI, was engulfed in a dazzling light.
The diameter of that ball of light reached several hundred meters!
Looking from their perspective, it was like a newborn Sun, emitting scorching, dazzling light, and even the air currents dispersed some of the clouds on S.H.I.E.L.D. V, revealing the blood-red, barren surface.
"It's over."
The Commander of the CEC fleet adjusted his cap, and a hint of contemptuous sneer appeared on his rigid face.
"I really don't know what the higher-ups were thinking, to deal with a few rebels, it's worth mobilizing ten frigates at the same time."
He naturally couldn't understand the action of mobilizing ten frigates at once, even at the cost of falling out with the United Government, just to wipe out a mere group of rebels.
Given the increasingly apparent conflict between the CEC and the United Government, suddenly deploying such a large fleet could easily irritate the United Government's nerves. What if it really led to war?
As Commander, he naturally did not wish to see war; even a false peace was peace, always better than rivers of blood.
"I hope this time, the higher-ups have already figured out how to appease the United Government." The Commander rubbed his temples, feeling a little worried, never taking the Ishimura seriously from beginning to end.
After all, no matter how big the Ishimura was, it was just a world cracker used for mining, and they were proper, well-trained space elites. Wiping out a few rebels was easy, wasn't it?
However, just as the Commander was about to order the fleet to return, he heard the observer exclaim.
"They—are still there!"
What?!
The Commander paused slightly, then turned to look at the starry sky outside the bridge. He saw that after the hot, dazzling light dissipated, the Ishimura was still completely intact and unharmed, appearing before their eyes.
"This, this is impossible!" The Commander exclaimed, his eyes wide.
"This is the latest energy cracking beam, its power is several times stronger than the Ishimura. How could it still be there?"
"They, they seem to have a large energy shield."
One of them stared blankly at the remotely detected data, his face showing shock.
"Extremely high intensity, we can't break through it at all!"
"Is this a damn rebel?!"
The Commander was already cursing the higher-ups in his heart for concealing such important intelligence from them.
He had also seen clearly that this was not a rebel at all; it was clearly the Earth United Government!
Besides the United Government, who else could develop an energy shield capable of resisting a cracking cannon?
No wonder the higher-ups had mobilized ten surrounding warships to encircle and suppress them in one go; it turns out they had already completely fallen out with the United Government and started a war!
The view returned to the Ishimura.
"Heh, good thing I thought one step ahead." In the Ishimura's captain's cabin, Emrys wore a relaxed and comfortable smile, turning to look at the fluctuating data on one side.
Considering the CEC's determination to kill, he specifically moved the fortress-grade energy shield from his private space and installed it on the Ishimura.
The previous round of attack only caused the shield's energy value to drop by about 0.1%.
This was a fortress-grade energy shield, usually used in large hive cities. If it weren't for the Transformers' spatial compression technology, an energy shield factory alone would be larger than the entire Ishimura.
With this thing, not even a Titan could do anything to it. In fact, if you really calculated it, it could even withstand several hits from the Navy's macro cannons and lances, let alone the 'backward' CEC?
"They're done attacking, it's our turn now."
Emrys glanced at Olsen, the Chapter Master of the Dark Angel, and nodded.
"Then I'll leave it to you, Chapter Master Olsen."