Chapter 992, Even Angels Submit

Chapter 992, Even Angels Submit
On the holographic tactical platform, landing ships broke through the interception and shuttled back and forth between Terra Palace and the planet's orbit.

This scene is still quite breathtaking.

Each time, it represents an army unit arriving on the ground.

Dante silently calculated in his mind that there were already more than 30 million troops gathered.

This number is already close to the target set before the war.

The large-scale airdrop is still ongoing.

The area around the palace will be the main battlefield.

But his role here is also significant.

The place they were in was once a hospital of a hive city. According to some survivors, it was once an important stronghold for the nearby city in the fight against the Nurgle plague, sheltering many civilians infected by the plague. Many doctors, as well as volunteers and priests from the State Church, treated civilians and soldiers here, and a team of fighting nuns guarded the place.

But soon, they became a thorn in the side of Nurgle's army. An army far exceeding their capabilities arrived. Even the battle nuns and volunteers fought with all their might, but they could not stop the enemy.

They were crushed, and only a very small number escaped, hiding in the surrounding streets until the Nurgle army passed, at which point they dared to come out to search for food and supplies.

But it's actually very difficult.

The destruction of hospitals by the Nurgle army was not their primary objective; it was merely a side effect of their march. However, wherever they passed, plague, disease, toxins… these things would contaminate the entire region.

These survivors were mostly sick; and almost all the food supplies they could find were problematic.

But they had no choice but to survive.

Their good fortune lay in the fact that they at least survived until the arrival of the Alliance forces.

The first to land were members of the Blood Angels, led by Dante. Their initial numbers were small. After landing, they found the hospital, rescued some survivors, extracted information from them, exorcised their supernatural diseases, and provided them with supplies.

After confirming that there were not many enemies in the vicinity, the Blood Angels established a relatively hidden base and called for more support.

Then, troops gradually began to gather here.

Unlike the troops airdropped into Terra Palace, the main battlefield there was a fierce, head-on offensive and defensive battle. The main force consisted primarily of expeditionary soldiers from the Infinite Starfield, with some Alliance ground troops also deployed—several army groups, but their total proportion did not exceed 20%.

But it's different here.

Though few in number, they are exceptionally elite—Dante himself leads the core combat company of the Blood Angels Chapter, which is located here.

Instead of launching a large-scale battle to eliminate the Chaos traitors, they quietly occupied an area and went into hiding. Their initial task was simply to receive the subsequent landing forces in an inconspicuous and unobtrusive manner.

The entire login process was also quite discreet.

There will be no large landing ships coming in a grand manner. Instead, small-scale, low-frequency transport will be carried out through methods such as secret teleportation, stealth landing pods, and stealth fighters.

The core objective is to deploy a number of troops here with minimal attention.

It's impossible that the enemy was completely unaware.

However, the Blood Angels did a very good job here.

They killed a significant portion of the enemy who witnessed the attack; they would mislead the enemy into launching attacks elsewhere and then quickly withdrawing, thus misleading the enemy into believing that this was a small, behind-enemy-lines operation.

This is troublesome, but not enough to warrant the enemy sending a large army to sweep through the area. Small-scale sweeps, on the other hand, depend on the specific circumstances: whether to annihilate them, avoid direct confrontation, or mislead them in other directions.

In this way, the Blood Angels gradually amassed a total of six hundred warriors;

Then, Raymond Weiss came down with six hundred Saint Warriors.

Then came the eight hundred warriors of the Phoenix, led by Mattin.

These nearly two thousand Space Marines are practically the Alliance's current all-star lineup.

But this is not the end.

Small-scale, covert airdrops continued thereafter.

Until the total number of Space Marines gathered here reached about five thousand.

The remaining three thousand came from various warbands within the alliance.

Now, they are all under Martins' command.

This appointment initially caused some skepticism among many people.

Martins is undoubtedly a household name. Everyone knows that he was an early adopter of the Alliance and has made outstanding contributions to the Alliance's growth from its inception to its current strength.

However, everything must be compared.

Martins was, after all, just a Space Marine who was only a few hundred years old; the chapter he led, the Phoenix, was a chapter that had been excommunicated a few hundred years ago. Even after emerging from the Yom Kippur Expedition, it had miraculously grown stronger and more powerful during that time, with the help of the Alliance, and was even more formidable than it had been at its peak...

But after all, it can't compare to a startup team.

A relatively inexperienced warband leader, and a warband like that, was able to become the leader of everyone in such a crucial battle simply because of his special position in the alliance.
If it were elsewhere, it wouldn't matter.

But here, two of the core members of the founding order are present. The two chapter leaders of the founding order, Saint Raymond Weiss and Blood Angel Dante, are both here.

Especially Dante!
This man is a legendary hero of the empire! With thousands of years of experience and countless glorious achievements, isn't he more qualified than anyone like Martins?

Some people were indignant.

But for most people, it's mainly out of curiosity.

Take Dante himself, for example.

He didn't have much ambition for power. He was too 'old'. Perhaps Space Marines don't die of old age, but over thousands of years, he had almost always fought on the front lines where the Imperium needed him. Even though his body was no different from its peak, his heart was weary.

He would be more than happy to be able to unload some of his burdens.

But before this battle, he did indeed think he would be the commander-in-chief.

It wasn't that he wanted to do it; the main reason was that he genuinely believed no one else present was more suitable for the role than himself.

Unexpectedly, it was Martins.

He first breathed a sigh of relief—he no longer had to shoulder such a heavy responsibility.

Then I felt a little ashamed, realizing I shouldn't have thought that way.

Then, there was curiosity: what abilities and skills did Martins possess that made Gu Hang think he was more suitable to be the commander-in-chief than himself?

With this question in mind, Dante met with Mattines for the first time. In that one meeting alone, Dante knew why.

The sight of Martins' towering figure standing before me was truly awe-inspiring.

There are some exceptionally tall individuals among the Space Marines, but normally it's difficult to be as tall as Martins.

It's not normal.

But the difference in size alone was not enough to convince Dante.

More importantly, he sensed a quality in Martins similar to that of Robert.

Is this the Son of God?
No, it's not.

The term "son of God" has a strict definition.

How many years did Mattins live? He couldn't possibly have been one of the emperor's sons ten thousand years ago.

But Martins possesses the same, similar strength.

The father of genetics.

Does Gu Hang really have this ability?

Dante was deeply moved by it.

……

Martins did not overlook the mentality of the troops who were temporarily assigned to his command.

This needs to be addressed, otherwise, if such factors lead to poor command and control in important tasks to come, it will be disastrous.

He also fully understands how to utilize his advantages.

Quite some time has passed since he became the so-called 'Minor Primal Body'. Although Gu Hang never explicitly stated it, he gradually came to understand what had happened to him.

He is now completely different from ordinary Space Marines. He would be easily identifiable among ordinary Space Marines; he is different from everyone else, he is a being on another level.

He appeared before everyone without any hesitation, making it clear to them that their leader was not just an ordinary battle group commander or a veteran with hundreds of years of experience.

It is obvious that his measures were effective.

Not only Dante and Raymond Weiss fully recognized his command, but so did the other Space Marines under his command.

Besides that, another matter he was concerned about was other reinforcements from the sky.

Five thousand warriors, considered elite among Space Marines, were indeed his core force, but the number was still somewhat too small.

The other three units are also ready to go.

One is the Glory Guard Regiment from the Alliance. This is the most elite unit of the Alliance Army. Although all its members are mortals, their quality is absolutely top-notch. In fact, they cannot be simply judged by the standards of the Astronautical Army; otherwise, no Astronautical soldier could reach their level.

Even when facing an equal number of Space Marines, they are not entirely without the ability to resist. And if their numbers reach three to five times that of each other, the Glorious Guards might even be able to fight them head-on.

The other unit comes from the largest non-military combat force in the alliance at present—the Sisters of the Holy Lily Combat Order.

The "living saint," led personally by Grand Sister Gerre, is currently preparing.

These two forces together will number over 100,000.

The third force, though smaller in number—even fewer than the Space Marines—is a true Titan legion, now so large that perhaps only the Titan legions of the Martian Forged World can rival them.

More than three hundred Titans also constitute a formidable main force.

However, these troops have not yet landed on the ground.

They are on orbit, inside the aircraft carrier, waiting for the crucial moment to arrive before tearing through the sky and landing to coordinate the operation.

Their key objective for this mission was the very heart of Nurgle's army, the place marked as the Cauldron of Corruption.

The leader of Nurgle's army, now confirmed to have been ascended to demonhood - Zeppelin.

And that day arrived very quickly.

……

At the final military conference of the battle group led by Mattins, the holographic tactical panel that was set up was almost completely engulfed by the nauseating yellow-green waves representing the Nurgle army, with only a small golden area symbolizing imperial glory hanging alone in the inner palace and the area adjacent to the palace.

A blazing white arrow, representing the main force of the allied forces, pierced out from the center, its sharpness aimed directly at the core of that filthy yellow-green vortex—the former Imperial Prime Minister, the demon prince who has now completely embraced Nurgle, Qibodu.

"His Highness the Regent, with overwhelming force, has swept through the city from the front, piercing through layers of decaying walls. Our mission, however, is to penetrate its festering, swollen flanks—" Martins' thick, gold-clad fingers slammed into the hologram, landing precisely on the flank of the main force's sharpest arrowhead, on a ruined hive marked "Hills of Suffering," "to break through the weak defenses and reach the side of the cauldron of decay, as a secondary attack."

"If things change, we will immediately switch to a strong offensive strategy."

"The objective of this operation is to eliminate that biggest traitor!"

"Now, let's go!"

The will of five thousand Space Marines had been forged into one as if cast in adamantite, sinking into the bottomless quagmire of war in the ruins of Terra's hive.

They are no longer passive, lurking shadows, but have transformed into a destructive molten flow that silently advances through filthy flesh and blood.

At the forefront of the procession, Martins stood like a mobile fortress. Any filthy zombies or bloated plague warriors that dared to emerge from the collapsed, twisted concrete and filthy smoke were instantly reduced to splattered chunks of viscous flesh and foul pus under the roar of his Dawnbreaker chainsaw greatsword. Wherever the blade passed, blood steamed and rotting flesh charred black, as if possessing an invisible purifying force.

Blood Angels assault squads darted like ghosts among the ruins, their explosive shells precisely ripping open the rotting heads of Nurgle poison gunners hidden in the shadows; the saints' holy flamethrowers roared with a purifying power, burning away the plague cloud and clearing a temporary, relatively "clean" passage for the following troops.

Each step forward was accompanied by the sticky sound of corpses being completely crushed beneath the boots, and the mixture of spores and metal fragments floating in the air relentlessly tried to corrode the seams of the power armor. This incredibly sharp blade was silently and efficiently slicing through the relatively loose flank defenses of the Nurgle army along the twisted spine of the "Hills of Suffering," heading straight for the rotting core.

Suddenly, a blazing light, a hundred times more terrifying than a volcanic eruption, burst forth from the northeastern sky, tearing open a huge, lava-flowing gap in the thick cloud of radioactive dust that shrouded the low skies above Terra—that was Robert's main army launching a full-scale assault on the core fortress area known as the "Cauldron of Corruption," personally overseen by Zippert.

The deafening roar of the explosions, even from tens of kilometers away, continued to pound on the soldiers' auditory sensors like a relentless hammer blow. Fragments of data streams from the main force flashed wildly at the edges of the holographic tactical goggles: massive casualty figures rolled coldly, and signals of armored units being hampered lit up one after another.

The urgent, mixed calls from the public tactical link echoed inside Martins' helmet:

"...The Steelwalker's Fearless Formation has collapsed! The Third Regiment has been subjected to devastating artillery fire!"

"...A Chaos Heavy Armor Unit has appeared on the left flank, model unknown! Its attack speed is extremely fast!"

"...The plague flies have broken through the air defense netting! They've blotted out the sky!"

At the eye of the storm lies the "cauldron of corruption".

(End of this chapter)