Warhammer 40k: Starting as a Rogue Trader

Chapter 173: The Fish Takes the Hook

Burns had been mining on this planet for a month. Every day on this world was a form of psychological torture. The augur arrays on the few armed transport ships in orbit were running at full power, 24/7. He knew very well that these few armed merchantmen could not withstand those Eldar Corsairs; all they could do was provide an early warning.

However, some people were in a relatively good mood. They thought that after so much time, the pirates would probably not attack this planet they had already raided. Once the two-month deadline was up, they could return to the Dynasty and receive a handsome reward.

But what was bound to come, eventually came.

A piercing alarm siren echoed throughout the camp. The small skeleton crew left on the transport ships stared in disbelief at their augur displays. By the time the Eldar Corsair warship appeared on the screen, it was already very close.

"By the Emperor, how did they bypass the augur's detection! It's the pirate warship! Quick! Start the engines!! Gun decks, open fire!"

But how could the maneuverability of these armed merchantmen compare to the Eldar fleet, which excelled in speed? This was to say nothing of the Mournful Memory, which had been further enhanced for speed. Using the Webway and the stealth equipment on their warship, by the time the human ships detected them, they were already within firing range.

These armed merchantmen didn't even have void shields. A single lance strike from the Mournful Memory was enough to tear one apart, and the cannon fire from the merchant ships could not break through the Eldar's shields. The warships that could not escape in time were turned into fragments, crashing down toward the planet's surface.

Burns looked up at the sky. Countless pieces of debris from the warships impacted the ground like a rain of fire.

"They're here... these xenos are really here! Quick, send a message to the Dynasty! Take up your weapons, everyone to your designated tactical positions, now!"

Burns himself took a portion of the soldiers and headed for the warehouse.

From the ground, they could even see the Eldar warship in orbit. And the ground forces of the Eldar Corsairs began to land. As the vanguard, the half-born of the warrior caste attacked with their splinter weapons. The strict caste system meant that these half-born could only serve as cannon fodder for the nobles.

Following them were the elite warriors led by Kalrusion, among them many fallen Eldar who had left Craftworld Kholor with him.

The Warp Spiders from Craftworld Kholor did not immediately join their fallen kin in the slaughter. Looking at their brethren who so excessively vented their emotions, using the suffering of souls to replenish themselves, they felt a certain disgust. If not for the orders of the Farseer Council, they would not be fighting alongside these fallen kin. Although the Dark Eldar would not casually attack their Craftworld brethren, there were always some extremists who would attack them, even abducting them back to Commorragh.

The landing Dark Eldar were met with strong resistance. However, to make the disguise of an ordinary construction team more convincing, most of the men were not equipped with combat suits. If there had truly been 10,000 elite soldiers in combat suits, without the support of a warship, this group of pirates might not have been able to win.

The resistance in the area where Burns was located was particularly weak. And what Burns had to do was make the enemy think that his position was the breakthrough point.

"Lord Burns, the pirates are coming this way!"

"Continue to contract the defensive line and lure them in!"

The servo-systems in his combat suit continuously relayed the battle situation, but from time to time, the tortured screams of his comrades would also come through. These Dark Eldar were torturing those who had lost the ability to resist.

Above the camp, Dark Eldar Ravager gunships circled. Whenever the attacking forces were held up, the Vortex Cannon mounted on them would fire. This weapon did not destroy the enemy with explosions and energy blasts like conventional energy weapons, but instead formed a pulse. This pulse could overload the electronic systems within a combat suit and even cause great damage to a biological being's nervous system. It was perfect for these pirates who needed to capture live prey.

Dynasty soldiers who had lost their ability to resist had their combat suits forcibly removed. Some who could no longer fight back were tortured on the spot, while others were taken away as slaves.

Kalrusion also joined the battle, brandishing his power sword. But watching Burns and the others continuously retreat and flee, Kalrusion became anxious. Given the current situation, the human fleet's reinforcements would arrive quickly. His ultimate goal was to capture slaves. If he let them get away, this raid would become meaningless.

"Brethren of Kholor! You wouldn't want to defy the will of your Farseers, would you? Don't think of yourselves as so noble that you can just stand by and watch my crew die! If you are unwilling to join the battle, then go back and tell Elara! The Swords of Twilight will terminate our cooperation with you!"

Faced with Kalrusion's threat, the Warp Spider warriors were forced into action. Compared to the ordinary Dark Eldar warriors, these heavily armored Warp Spiders even possessed a short-range teleportation ability, similar to that of the Ghosts.

Burns and his soldiers, seeing that the pirates had been successfully lured in, were preparing to disengage from the battlefield. After all, their mission was not to fight these Eldar Corsairs to the death. But before they could retreat, they saw the brilliant flash of psychic energy.

The enemies, who had been some distance away, suddenly appeared right beside them. Their orange and red armor was exceptionally conspicuous.

"Not Dark Eldar?!"

The surprise attack instantly claimed the lives of a dozen soldiers. Deadly Death Spinners fired at the surviving human soldiers. Razor-sharp monomolecular wire instantly tore the most threatening units into chunks of flesh and blood; their combat suits could not protect them. The Warp Spiders who had teleported next to them also brandished their power blades.

The combat suits might have compensated for humanity's disadvantage in ranged firepower, but these long-lived Eldar warriors, who had been immersed in their Paths for so long, were still too skilled. The armor-piercing capability of their power weapons was also astonishingly high; the durability of the combat suits was not enough to ignore such weapons.

As Burns's retreat was disrupted by these enemies who had suddenly joined the battle, the Dark Eldar surging from behind made escape completely hopeless.

"Don't kill them all! The combat level of these people is quite good. They might fetch a higher price in the fighting pits of Commorragh."

Kalrusion stopped his crew from killing all the survivors, but he found that his own crew and even his arrogant kin from Kholor were all standing still. He looked in the direction they were staring.

A huge, deep-blue crystal stood there.

As a former Craftworld Eldar, although Kalrusion no longer used psychic powers after his fall, his sensitivity to them was still sharp. The Dark Eldar weren't unable to use psionics; they refused to.

The crystal before them was constantly releasing psychic energy that was devoid of any negative emotions. None of them had ever seen such a creation. And next to the crystal lay a machine that seemed to be damaged and inactive—a Probe. The style of the two was very similar; it was obvious at a glance that there was some connection between them.

Kalrusion had the heavily wounded Burns dragged before him.

"Monkey! Tell me! What is this thing!" Kalrusion held a dagger to the neck of the heavily wounded Burns.

Burns spoke with difficulty. "This... this is a xenos... creation we dug up... I don't know what it is..."

Since he could no longer retreat, Burns decided to play the part to the end. The plan was to arouse the curiosity of these xenos and have them take it away.

Kalrusion felt as if he had found something incredible.

"Kalrusion! Kholor needs this creation. The Farseer Council will give you a sufficient price!" a Warp Spider Exarch said, walking up to Kalrusion.

"Fine... but for such an unknown creation, I will need a higher price!"

"The Farseer Council will negotiate with you."

As they explored the area further, they also found several Zerg eggs placed in cultivation tanks, as well as an SCV. Kalrusion ordered his crew to take these items as spoils of war. The Craftworld Eldar were not interested in these two things, but he remembered that the terrifying Haemonculi in Commorragh were always in need of the tissues and organs of various creatures. If this met their requirements, it could also earn Kalrusion a handsome reward.

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