Chapter 439, I am not the executioner

Chapter 439, I am not the executioner

In the void, on the Intermezzo, Du Shiliang stared at the fireball that was getting farther and farther in the universe.

His face was expressionless, like a cold general.

But his hands still tremble unconsciously.

At this moment, two days have passed since the Intermezzo dropped the sky-burning torpedo on the surface of Temir 2. The flames burning all over the world became more and more intense before their eyes.

After completing the delivery mission, the combined fleet observed the vicinity of Temir 2 for a day. They left only after seeing that the entire planet was indeed ignited by the 'Sky-burning Torpedo' and the extermination order was effectively implemented.

He dropped the sky-burning torpedo.

In fact, he wasn't even sure he had the authority to issue an extermination order.

At first, he didn't expect that he would have to shoulder this kind of responsibility.

He and his war staff, which included part of the Alliance Army staff, assessed the situation aboard Temir 2.

There were nearly 500 million orcs up there, and at least 2 billion other greenskins - mainly grunts.

Doesn't Du Shiliang know that there are many survivors on the surface?

But it is a pity that these 200 million people, tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of them, are gathered together to death and scattered all over the world, and there is no way to save them.

The price/performance ratio is too low.

As for rescuing people... the same principle applies.

But if you have to invest a lot of power in order to occupy the planet, the gain will outweigh the loss.

If they gather in one place, it will be easy to say. They will provide strong cover with orbital firepower, put the troops on the ground, establish a protective circle, and guard for a month. During this period, try to transport the population from the ground to the ship and evacuate it. When it is almost done, the troops will be removed. Once withdrawn, launch the sky-burning torpedoes...

Even if 95% of the people are massacred, the remaining 5% still represents a population of more than million.

Of course he knew.

If you have a chance to occupy it, then occupy it. Put a small force there to act as a nail and press it down there. When the greenskins come back again, it will become an obstacle to the orcs' attack. For the human side, it is also a position that can be used. Last but not least, it is also an early warning post.

If this can be done, of course everyone will be happy.

This will mention their war goal of taking the initiative to attack the Jinguan star area this time, namely:
On the premise of ensuring the safety of the fleet, 1. Attack the effective force of the Iron-toothed Orcs. 2. Evacuate imperial troops and civilians from occupied areas. 3. Occupy the planet and build advanced defensive positions.

The most important thing is to attack the effective forces and to evacuate the empire's soldiers and civilians. Which one takes priority depends on the battlefield situation.

Mainly because even if you occupy it, you may not be able to hold it.

In this case, the hope of a quick victory in the ground battle is even smaller.

Even the Star Territory government itself may not have this kind of thing. At most, the Tribunal in the Star Territory has one or two rounds.

This is not the case with attacking effective forces and evacuating imperial soldiers and civilians. This is a serious matter of weakening the enemy and strengthening one's own side.

I don't know how long it will take to gather and evacuate them one by one.

The purpose of transporting so many green skins may be to spread more spores, hoping that many green skins will grow in the future.

These three tasks are prioritized according to order.

They came to a unanimous conclusion: It is unrealistic to conduct a ground attack on Temir 2, even if the combined fleet provides orbital support.

In contrast, Temir 2's own orbital defense system was not very effective. After the Greenskins took over, they had not had time to build their own. At the same time, the Greenskins' main fleet was not in this galaxy and was fully equipped. When the conditions for releasing the sky-burning torpedoes are met, the best solution is to quickly smash this extermination weapon.

Otherwise, if they wait a little longer and things change, they may not even have the chance to launch the sky-burning torpedo.

Even the Pegasus fleet itself does not have reserves of such extermination weapons.

After all, it has only been a few months since the complete fall of Temir 2, so it would not have grown so much.

Relatively speaking, occupying planets is the least important.

With so many people, most of them are not even native to the planet, but have been transported over by green-skinned ships in the past period of time.

Now, the two sky-burning torpedoes on his ship were transported from the Raging Owl Star by Governor Gu.

But the key is that these 2 million people are scattered throughout the world of Temir !

The main greenskin ships can arrive at any time, and the greenskins on the ground can entangle the human dropping troops at any time.

If they really fight like that, the war is likely to turn into a protracted tug of war. At that time, humans may have to face the orcs that keep growing out of the green-skinned ecosystem and consume them in equal measure.

He has never let go of the sky-burning torpedoes, and he has never executed an extermination order.

At this order of magnitude, the combined fleet carries 60 million human troops from three army groups. Even if they are all thrown away, with orbital support, it will not be easy to clear out the enemy forces.

Although it seems to be the optimal solution, it seems to be the most rational choice. However, Du Shiliang never thought of doing this.

After all, if the green-skinned main fleet arrives, they will not let the human fleet do this.

Their mission is to find opportunities to destroy the enemy's vitality, not to use their own vitality against the enemy.

For Temir 2, it is obvious that the option of occupying the planet can almost be ignored.

From the moment the weapon is released to the time it explodes, it is very fragile and can easily be intercepted.

Moreover, orbital support may not be available at all times. The green-skinned fleet is still there. When the time comes, the two hundred garbage ships that escaped from the Steel Wing Star will regroup and attack again. Even if they can't defeat the combined fleet with more main ships, the human race will be held back. Ships can't support the surface unscrupulously, but that's okay anyway.

In other words, he didn't expect that this decision would have to be made by himself.

However, at this point, launching the sky-burning torpedo is still just a 'plan'.

He no longer wanted to think about why Gu Hang had such a powerful weapon.

But I shouldn’t have the final say on whether to launch the Sky-burning torpedo, right?

The empire lacks particularly clear regulations on units and individuals that issue extermination orders. Judging from past records, the Inquisition has done the most, followed by the Chapter Masters of the Star Chapter.

The former is easy to understand, as this is their job; the latter is actually easy to understand. Space Marines will always fight on the most critical and worst battlefields, and the probability of encountering problems that must be solved by an extermination order is higher than that of ordinary people. The Imperial force is much larger, and since they have this kind of power, they will naturally issue more.

Except for these two, the number of times other personnel used extermination orders has dropped dramatically.

Of course, in ten thousand years, in such a large universe, anything can happen. Marshals of the Astra Militarum, marshals of the navy, commanders of war zones, senior government officials, senior clergy of the Ecclesiarchy and the Mechanicus... Although there are only a few, they all have records of issuing extermination orders. But no matter who it is, it’s not me anyway.

I'm just an ordinary rear admiral, but I can't be such a big boss. Although he couldn't figure out who could sign it, there was someone. Just send back the combat report and wait for the order, then I'll execute it.

Then, the order he was waiting for was to ask the person in charge of the forward campaign, Major General Du Shiliang himself, to be responsible for making this decision. As the governor of the alliance, the head of the sector, and the leader of the Seven Horses Agreement, Gu Hang gave him full authority and bore all the consequences of his decisions, allowing him to make decisions boldly and confidently.

This is not a scapegoat. After all, Governor Gu said that he takes all responsibility.

This is to decentralize authority, allowing frontline commanders to have full autonomy to make decisions they think are correct, and not to cause big problems on the frontline just because of "I can't make a decision."

Then, Du Shiliang became numb.

I?
He was caught off guard.

After another round of discussion, they still believed that this was the best solution.

Then do it.

But when Du Shiliang witnessed with his own eyes that the whole world was reduced to a sea of ​​fire because of his decision, and when at least 200 million people died because of his decision, he felt his whole body trembling.

It's been shaking for two days.

For the past two days, he couldn't sleep at all.

As soon as he closed his eyes, there was a burning world, and the wailing of the Temer people that he had never heard with his own ears, but lingered in his ears all the time.

He always told himself that this can't be blamed on me. It's not my fault, it's the green skin's fault. It was the alien invasion that caused all this. I just did my duty. I just wanted to reduce casualties and avoid death. more people……

However, no matter how correct the reasons are, they cannot dispel the heavy pressure of 200 million innocent souls.

However, reality gave him no chance to escape or relieve his mood.

Immediately afterwards, he was about to make his next decision.

The battle between Temir No. 4 and No. 5.

In these two places, there are no conditions for launching sky-burning torpedoes.

Sky-burning torpedoes are very expensive.

Although, the Alliance did not build a production line for Sky-burning torpedoes at all. These two Burning Sky torpedoes are in stock and produced in a black box, so they cost no money. However, the black box can only pull out three sky-burning torpedoes in two years, and the alliance's inventory is not large.

What's more, Du Shiliang didn't know this.

All he knew was that it was a good deal to trade one sky-burning torpedo for the lives of 25 billion greenskins.

However, there are not so many greenskins on Temir No. 4 and No. 5 for him to attack.

Moreover, these two places may have a combined population of more than eight to nine billion people surviving.

Whoever bombs is a war criminal.

For these two planets, the plan in the previous military meeting was to put the preservation of the empire's population as the first priority.

The plans for the two planets can be discussed separately.

There may be about 4 million greenskins on Temir 1, half of whom are grunts. They collect raw materials and waste materials in the occupied areas, and build greenskin factories on the spot to build various primary processing 'garbage' .

On the one hand, it is directly manufactured into weapons and equipment and provided to the army.

On the other hand, it is to reserve. From the looks of it, it seems that green ships come regularly to transport these 'garbage' away.

This is also in line with the positioning of Temir 4 as a mining and industrial planet.

However, the natural environment of this planet is not very good. Outside the mining areas and nest cities, it is almost unsuitable for organisms to survive.

Greenskins are very adaptable, and their spores can take root and germinate anywhere. However, the quality of the environment will still affect the development speed and 'yield' of spores. They have also initially built an ecosystem, but it is not large and not critical.

In the past, the green-skin replacements for Temir No. 4 mainly came from Temir No. 2, which had a large number of people next door.

Now that Termeer 2 is burned down, the greenskins on No. 4 will have to replenish their numbers by looking at when the greenskins' main fleet will arrive and whether they can transport more troops from their home base.

Moreover, on Temir 4, humans still have an established defense force, and the government has not yet collapsed. Although the orbit is completely lost, their remaining ground anti-orbital force is relatively weak and they dare not fight against the green-skinned fleet. However, when necessary, they are willing to sacrifice and can also be used to cover the defense force's attack. Or retreat, which can play some role.

At the critical moment, Temir 4 almost maintained a defense force of over million people, constantly pulling and consuming the greenskins in mines, tunnels, and huge industrial areas.

They are no match for the greenskins, and they lack supplies, especially food supplies. They often have to pay ten times the casualties before they can defeat the enemy.

However, they know that this is a battle for survival, a battle of species with no retreat, and there is no surrender or giving up.

They were gritting their teeth and fighting. Since there were not enough greenskins, although the fight was very enjoyable, the progress was actually not very fast.

It would be quite easy to save Temir 4.

They plan to send four armies to serve as the main force; they will contact the local defense forces and provide them with a large amount of logistical supplies. Among them, food is the main one, supplemented by the production line of weapons and ammunition.

The former can solve urgent needs, while the latter can update local weapons and equipment.

Temir No. 4 does not lack raw materials, but what it lacks is a production line for good weapons. Many of their defense forces still use native guns and artillery.

The Alliance has reduced the productivity of G9 rifles and ammunition, plastic steel production lines, individual armors, shells, artillery and other series. It does not want to create a production base, but with a little more production capacity, the combat effectiveness of the million Planetary Defense Force will be reduced. Can go up one more level.

Coupled with the five ships of the United Fleet stationed here and the assistance of eight million elite alliance troops, it should not be a problem to push back the group of greenskins.

At the same time, civilians in large settlements can be evacuated.

The supply fleet and transport ships currently carried by the combined fleet are enough to transport 3-5 million people in one wave.

First transport them to Steel Wing Star, where they are considered safe, and then transport them again. As for sending from Steel Wing Star to other places, how to arrange transportation capacity and where to really receive such a large population, that is not something Du Shiliang, a frontline general, has to consider. Alliance officials will take over.

After a series of plans for Temir 4 were made and implemented, Du Shiliang finally felt a little better.

Only then could he tell himself:

"I am not an executioner, I am a savior."

(End of this chapter)