Chapter 991, Landing on Terra

The coalition's support for the ground began long before they were able to gain control of the planet's orbit.

In the first week after Gallardo's death, when orbital control was still in its early stages, several landing ships departed from coalition aircraft carriers and headed to the ground.

The Allied fleet escorted them, but there were still some reckless traitors, or those who had not yet been identified, who were intercepted by ships, the firepower of the orbital defense perimeter, and the attacks of ground-based railguns.

About 30% of the landing ships did not survive until landing.

This means that more than 30,000 soldiers sacrificed their lives during the landing operation.

To be honest, the 70,000 soldiers who fell did not offer much help in the defense of Terra Palace.

No matter how small the inner ring is, and no matter how insufficient the troops under Marshal Yan Xinzhen's command are, they are still in the millions.

With 70,000 troops, the palace guards could have a tiny bit of room to rotate the troops that were fighting on the front lines.

However, while its practical significance may be limited, its symbolic meaning is quite profound.

The palace guards are indeed elite; they are well-trained, highly motivated, and able to fight even in desperate circumstances, especially with the Imperial Guards leading the way.

But generally speaking, no human army can be completely demoralized. Even with the resolve to die for their cause, they can still waver when faced with profound despair.

They had nowhere to run and were fighting with their backs against the wall. Even if they surrendered, rationally speaking, the enemy was composed of Nurgle zombies or a force mainly composed of Khorne berserkers, so there was nowhere for them to turn.

But when people are truly in despair, their reason will break down.

Moreover, this despair is not only psychological, but also involves some supernatural factors.

The core of Nurgle, completely opposite to Tzeentch, lies in unchanging nature, decay, and despair… and these very qualities, carried by the yellowish-green winds, seeped into the inner ring of Terra Palace. And Khorne's mental plague, capable of driving people to madness, should not be underestimated.

Even if the inner ring of the palace has a lot of protective measures to minimize and prevent the impact, as long as there is even a little bit of protection, coupled with the current situation on the battlefield, the combination will cause problems.

They will commit suicide, they will unconsciously collapse and lose their organization, they will surrender to Nurgle, they will launch suicidal attacks against Khorne and then die easily in battle...

Of course, it must be said that such situations are extremely rare among the elite palace guards. Even when they do occur, they are only isolated incidents.

However, these isolated cases are showing a tendency to expand under such circumstances.

In reality, the defending forces could hold out for a long time. However, these problems continued to spread amidst despair, becoming a hidden danger that was foreseeable to escalate into a major issue in the future.

However, the arrival of reinforcements greatly helped alleviate this problem.

To put it bluntly, it's a psychological thing.

No matter how the Imperial Guards proclaimed, they believed that reinforcements would surely arrive, and that the Son of God was already on his way to support the ground forces. All the palace guards believed this.

However, no matter how much they believed, it was still more reassuring than if this had actually happened in front of them.

The 70,000 people who fell from the track achieved this effect.

The reinforcements are real, and they have already arrived.

The hope brought about by this reality effectively countered the despair and greatly slowed down the pervasive erosion caused by the spiritual corruption stemming from chaos.

And the reinforcements were definitely not just a fleeting phenomenon. These 70,000 men were merely the first batch of troops.

The next batch will arrive in three days.

Furthermore, in terms of scale, it reached 210,000 people.

The probability of landing ships being intercepted has also decreased from 30% initially to 20%.

The third wave of landing troops already numbered 500,000.

These waves combined are enough to drastically change the situation in the inner ring.

A month after Galardore's defeat and death, when the outer orbit of Holy Terra was completely under control, a large-scale landing began.

The enemy is not entirely without anti-orbital capabilities. They control some ground-based anti-orbital fortresses—the density of these things on Holy Terra is quite high.

However, the Allied Navy, having freed up its resources, became even stronger after absorbing a significant portion of the Solar Fleet.

The entire allied fleet, positioned in outer orbit, fiercely pressed down on the ground. While those orbital fortresses were being bombarded, a significant portion of their elves had to dedicate to intercepting shells and missiles, as well as attacking warships in outer orbit.

After all, they couldn't just stand by and do nothing. Otherwise, if the allied warships kept bombarding them like this, even if the railgun fortress had strong defenses, it would eventually be destroyed.

This reduces their threat to landing ships.

Of course, there are also some Chaos Cannons that came with the Chaos forces besieging Terra. When they are raised, they also have the ability to block orbital and landing ships.

But the palace played a significant role in this regard.

The inner palace also has a strong firepower and can be used in two parts.

Some of the firepower was directed at the exposed positions of the enemy's heavy artillery. The surface-to-surface missiles and large-caliber indirect fire cannons launched from the positions posed a significant threat to the enemy's heavy firepower.

After all, these Chaos Demon Army's firing positions are not protected by heavy city walls.

In addition, there are some rapid-fire cannons used for interception, which can also be used to intercept enemy interceptor missiles.

In conclusion, under the cover of the navy and the Terra Palace, the coalition forces' massive amphibious landing operation was a success.

Over ten million army troops arrived on the ground and assembled at the inner palace.

The majority of them were soldiers from the expeditionary force that Robert brought from the Infinite Starfield. These soldiers from the Infinite Starfield were all handpicked veterans who had undergone long subspace expeditions and fought in the bloody Battle of the Comoros.

Furthermore, the proportion of Space Marines among them was very high. This airdrop brought over 15,000 Space Marines to the ground, almost all of whom were Robert's genetic offspring.

And Robert, the father of genetics, was among them!
Inside the inner palace, the Son of God and the Marshal of the Imperial Guard had an epic meeting.

At first glance, Marshal Yan Xinzhen was certain that this person was indeed the Son of God, and could not be faked.

His last remaining concerns vanished, and he willingly relinquished strategic command of the entire inner palace.

(End of this chapter)