novelHome #1995 - The whole family is wiped out
#1995 - The whole family is wiped out
The news of Soshyan's iron-fisted "subjugation" of the Minotaurs Chapter and his warning to the emissaries of Terra quickly spread throughout the upper echelons of Sagan. Those nobles and bureaucrats who had previously tried to use the emissaries' authority to recover their "losses" immediately realized who was truly in charge here. They swiftly reversed the policy changes they had made and loudly proclaimed the great achievements of the Expeditionary Force and the great victory led by Soshyan.
They were just short of hugging his legs and calling him 'father'—mainly because everyone knew that Astartes didn't go for that sort of thing, or else someone would have definitely done it.
But things wouldn't end there. Soshyan still set about making some "optimizations" to the rear.
First was the issue of the Hoyland family. Not only had Soshyan caught them red-handed in secret deals with the Red Corsairs, but after the Inquisition's tireless efforts during this period, even at the cost of some personnel, they had also uncovered some problems with this ancient merchant family.
The main issue was Ernst Marre Hoyland. After a series of investigations by the Ordo Hereticus, they uncovered a horrifying truth: this old man had lived for a full four hundred and ninety years under different names!
This explained how the Hoyland family had been able to dominate the Maelstrom trade routes for so long. Their patriarch only changed in name; in reality, it had been the same person for nearly five centuries. And a non-modified human and non-psyker, regardless of what life-extension methods they used, could not possibly live that long under normal circumstances.
The situation was therefore obvious. Ernst Marre Hoyland had either relied on illegal technology, even xenos technology, or had come into contact with evil witchcraft.
But dealing with this merchant family was quite tricky. They possessed 16 merchant cruisers, 3 "retired" battleships, and a vast number of smaller vessels and armed transports. Their fleet strength was second to none in the entire Maelstrom region. Furthermore, after the Expedition, the family's main members had mostly stayed in their old nest, Saint's Point in the Klemant Drift. Ernst Marre Hoyland had not even stepped out of his house for several years, clearly indicating that they might flee at the slightest sign of trouble from the Imperium, perhaps even joining the Red Corsairs. With their immense wealth and connections, it would be difficult for any Imperial military or capture operation to remain hidden from them.
Even the Inquisition had differing opinions on this matter, but most favored dealing with it after the war.
But Soshyan was unwilling to wait that long.
Thus, a shocking event erupted when no one expected it.
An Eldar fleet of unknown origin suddenly appeared and attacked Saint's Point. They approached the system undetected by any detection equipment and used their powerful warships to destroy the Hoyland family's orbital defense facilities on Saint's Point almost instantly. Then, a large number of Eldar troops poured into the hive spires where the merchant family was located, massacring the family's personnel and guards, who were unable to resist the powerful, swift xenos wielding heavy weapons.
In less than an hour after the attack began, nearly a million people had been killed. The Hoyland family members, regardless of gender or age, were all slaughtered, until only three children survived.
The once illustrious Hoyland family was completely wiped out in this way!
When the surrounding Imperial fleets and the Ordo Xenos inquisitors hurriedly arrived, they saw only a large amount of wreckage surrounding the planet and some warships that had not been destroyed. Of the Hoyland family's former grand fleet, excluding those still operating outside, only 3 of the 7 merchant cruisers defending their home remained, and only 1 battleship. The rest were all destroyed, and the Eldar had long since disappeared without a trace.
When the Imperial forces cautiously entered the hive spires, they saw only corpses everywhere. The walls were covered with the word "Revenge" written in xenos script. There were almost no living people in the family's territory. The only things moving were servitors. The search team found only three surviving children in a small house, confirmed to be the last of the Hoyland family's bloodline.
The planet's defense forces only reacted three hours after the attack occurred, but by the time they slowly arrived at the scene, the Imperial reinforcements had been there for a long time.
Afterwards, the Ordo Xenos inquisitors discovered a huge secret space beneath the Hoyland family's territory. It was filled with blasphemous daemonic decorations and a large number of sacrificial victims. Many direct members of the Hoyland family were lying dead here. Obviously, this was their last refuge, but it had not been able to protect them. The Eldar had torn them apart with shuriken and blades.
Deep within this space was a huge altar surrounded by a large amount of blood. Ernst Marre Hoyland, the patriarch of the Hoyland family, was torn apart by five horses. His limbs and torso were nailed to the altar with five spears, and he had a letter he had written to Huron but not yet sent in his mouth. The content was very shocking.
He had realized that Soshyan was preparing to deal with him, so he planned to transfer the family's wealth and forces to the Bleeding Gash before the other party took action. Afterwards, he would wholeheartedly serve the Red Corsairs and was willing to provide some secret information that he had spent a lot of money collecting, which seemed to be related to Soshyan, but the latter part had been destroyed.
When others were inventorying the Hoyland family's warehouses, they discovered that the Eldar had only plundered some items, mainly soulstones and other things related to the Eldar, and had not taken any other wealth or treasures. Therefore, most people believed that this was an act of revenge. The Hoyland family had angered the other party by engaging in the illegal trade of xenos weapons for a long time, which ultimately led to a bloody and cruel retaliation. This kind of thing was not unprecedented in the Imperium.
The Eldar are not usually a priority enemy of the Imperium, and rarely attack the Imperium without reason. Therefore, the Imperium prohibits all transactions and research related to soulstones in order to reduce trouble.
According to the secret accounts found, the Hoyland family began smuggling Eldar soulstones on a large scale after Huron's defection, ranging from hundreds to thousands at a time, and their destinations were unknown. It should be known that the Imperium strictly prohibits the transaction of this item, and even the Inquisition must not easily contact it. Therefore, there is clearly only one type of "customer" who needs so many soulstones - Chaos traitors.
The Inquisition judged that the large number of soulstones smuggled by the Hoyland family must have flowed to the Red Corsairs for use by their evil sorcerers. After all, soulstones are materials needed for many forbidden Chaos rituals and are also important items for pleasing Slaanesh daemons.
After further investigation, the Inquisition discovered that Ernst Marre Hoyland had established contact with Huron as early as when he became the Chapter Master of the Star Phantoms. The Hoyland family contributed a lot to the Star Phantoms' subsequent "growth and strength", and it was through cooperation with Huron that the Hoyland family began to overwhelm the Klemont family and become the hegemon of the Maelstrom region's trade routes.
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