Starting from the Planetary Governor - Chapter 570

Chapter 568: All members arrive

in the lower hold. The Heroic Spirits’ tactics were quite insidious.

They deliberately spared a group of Skitarii, allowing them to constantly relay messages that they were holding their ground and were about to collapse.

Then, a steady stream of Skitarii reinforcements continued to pour in, adding fuel to the fire. They could never reach the reserved position in the inner area, facing ambushes and sudden attacks from the vastly superior Heroic Spirits along the way, and were quickly annihilated.

After defeating numerous Skitarii here and nearly clearing the surrounding area, the Heroic Spirits abandoned the tactic of encircling a point and attacking reinforcements. Instead, they decisively eliminated the enemy positions and then advanced in a mighty stride.

The Heroic Spirits had not forgotten the orders from their Alliance Governor.

Attacking the enemy’s vital forces was necessary to achieve the mission objective.

Otherwise, it would have been extremely difficult to eliminate all 15 million Skitarii on board.

Gu Hang’s energy was expended sustaining so many Heroic Spirits in constant battle, not to mention the fact that in space, amidst the decisive battle between the two fleets, his psychic powers were still entangled with the power of the neurozoan.

Most importantly, even if Gu Hang did so, relying solely on Heroic Spirits to kill all 15 million elite Skitarii on board would take forever.

It was simply impossible to kill them all.

They still had to attack the neurozoan that Du Bo had imprisoned and controlled.

Attacking from the lower deck was quite a distance.

However, after the Heroic Spirits eliminated a number of the already limited defenders, using a siege-and-attack tactic, the route became smooth for a considerable distance. At

one point, they even reached a point within 15 kilometers of Du Bo.

Although they still had to climb a dozen floors and navigate the complex internal routes of the ship, Du Bo still felt a sense of anxiety.

He connected with Paulson, the man in charge of the starship’s defense, and lashed out at him.

Raging with criticism, Paulson personally led his team to close the breach.

He abandoned his previous strategy of refueling the enemy. He had originally intended to allow the Heroic Spirits to advance further, thereby mobilizing his own forces.

But now, rebuked by Dubo, he had no choice but to advance.

With limited manpower, what could he do? He

relied on a sufficient elite force.

As a fully modified Sage, this was a natural requirement; he also brought a combat group comprised entirely of the most elite, top-tier Automatons.

His arrival was immediately effective.

The Heroic Spirits’ continued attack was immediately halted.

They sought alternative routes to expand the battlefield’s breadth and depth. The three-dimensional battlefield, spanning over a dozen floors and approximately ten kilometers, was fragmented by the ship’s unique terrain into smaller, localized, yet interconnected and intertwined battlefields.

This placed immense pressure on Paulsen.

But it also unleashed the sage’s abilities.

The computational units within his mind, comprehensively accounting for the complex battlefield situation, dispatched each unit at hand to the most needed locations. With relatively limited forces, he resolutely held off the Heroic Elves’ attack.

Furthermore, as time passed, the shortage of manpower was rapidly alleviated.

After all, Alfonzo II still had abundant manpower.

The constantly accumulating forces steadily eased the shortage.

Even after the Heroic Elves occupied the lower decks, the Warp rifts widened, and a constant stream of Heroic Elves emerged from them. Gradually, the Skitarii’s numbers on the battlefield were even, if not slightly, surpassed.

Here, the two sides formed a primary battlefield, and the unfolding battle, if viewed on the surface, resembled the brutal urban warfare of a small hive city.

Furthermore, it was an urban battle where neither side could employ heavy weaponry.

By contrast, while some Warp rifts might open up across the ship, with the help of several other sages, along with the vast reserve force left behind, they could still eliminate any Heroic Spirits emerging from a single Warp rift before they could gain momentum or establish a second battlefield.

Du Bo contacted several sages in quick succession, while also directly “watching” the battle unfolding on the ship through his feed, gaining a general understanding of the overall situation.

For now, things seemed relatively stable. While the entire ship seemed to be seething with fighting raging everywhere, none of the core areas appeared to be in danger of being conquered.

He could also sense that Gu Hang’s psychic energy, which had constantly challenged him in the universe, had weakened considerably.

While this could be a feint, Gu Hang had done this before, feigning defeat and then launching a surprise attack.

But this time, Du Bo judged it to be genuine.

He intensified his attack on Gu Hang’s psychic energy, seeking to take advantage of his weakness.

This would inevitably put even greater pressure on Gu Hang, not only leaving him no time to attack his own ships but also further diverting his attention, reducing his focus on the Heroic Spirits within the War Ark.

…

Du Bo’s strategy was correct.

Gu Hang was truly feeling the pressure.

This was the most formidable opponent Gu Hang had faced since the Great Unclean One, Gowaga.

Furthermore, the difference was that the decisive battle with Gowaga took place within the Storm Kingdom, his home turf, where his power would be significantly amplified.

Now, while he was significantly stronger than he had been against Gowaga, he lacked the home-field advantage. Instead, he had to fight on the enemy’s home turf, having to support so many Heroic Spirits simultaneously.

The pressure was indeed immense.

The most direct manifestation of this was the Alliance’s Storm Mage Corps, which had over ten thousand psykers, but had already lost nearly a thousand.

Seven percent casualties was a significant impact. While not everyone was killed, only three or four hundred were shot in the head, and the remaining six hundred sustained injuries that could be recovered in the future.

But it was still heartbreaking.

The Storm Mage Corps wasn’t cheap either; it was part of Gu Hang’s fortune, painstakingly accumulated over many years. A significant number of them were cultivated by Gu Hang through his gift points.

One psyker is worth one hundred grace points—enough to buy a gene-seed!

Of course, the bulk of Space Marine training lies in the initial personnel selection and subsequent training. Training a psyker is essentially a one-time deal, and Gu Hang generally doesn’t bother adding grace points for subsequent upgrades.

Still, the deaths of over three hundred people mean thirty thousand grace points have been lost. Furthermore, individuals with psyker talent are inherently rare, requiring a vast population base and a lengthy screening process to create a 10,000-person psyker regiment. Gathering them is no easy feat.

Furthermore, the loss of personnel will have little impact on overall strength. After all, in the current psychic confrontation, Gu Hang remains the core force in exerting his power. However, the pressure and expenditure of the confrontation are shared by Gu Hang’s 10,000-person psyker regiment.

With the number of his Storm Mage Regiment reduced, Gu Hang’s ability to support so many Heroic Elves fighting within enemy ships and counter the Neurozoan forces in space will be reduced.

It’s not obvious right now, but once the number of mage corps decreases by 20% or 30%, the pressure on each remaining storm mage will increase significantly, to an unbearable level. This will trigger a chain reaction, potentially leading to the collapse of the entire situation.

Without the support of the entire mage corps, Gu Hang’s endurance will be greatly reduced. At this point, it will be almost as if Gu Hang has failed.

At that point, he will probably not be concerned with defeating Alfonzo’s mechanical fleet, but with evacuating his own ships as quickly as possible.

Of course, that’s not the case yet.

Although the heroic spirits manifested in the enemy ships have reached a stalemate, that doesn’t mean Gu Hang has exhausted all his means.

What is the means to break the deadlock?

Of course, simply teleporting a Burning Sky torpedo is not an option.

If possible, Gu Hang would certainly like to do so. Forget Burning Sky torpedoes, even if dozens of missiles of the same caliber as the Dongfeng Fen were launched and detonated within the ship, the effect would be devastating.

Unfortunately, teleportation couldn’t achieve this.

The Heroic Spirits currently fighting within the enemy ships were essentially manifestations of Gu Hang’s psychic power and the Warp energy of the Storm Kingdom. They appeared to be wielding firearms and wearing power armor, but in reality, these were merely facades.

Whether it was a fired bullet or a slash of a power sword, it was essentially the power of the Storm God at work. The Heroic Spirits were merely manifestations, a way of manifesting the concept of Storm God’s power within the real universe.

They weren’t physical.

Unless he could personally board the enemy ship and spend several days establishing a stable exit there, like the secret research institutes he had built on Wrathful Owl to transmit black box artifacts,

that was obviously impossible.

A temporary Warp rift couldn’t transport physical matter. And   what about

teleportation?   Essentially, teleportation involves a spiritual resonance with the target, transporting the soul and the life it represents to the destination.   This meant that teleportation could only allow the passage of living beings with souls.   The equipment and weapons carried by each living being are essentially the product of the organism itself, their weight being relatively limited, and the emphasis is on the binding of the equipment’s “machine soul” to the organism itself.   As transcendent beings, Space Marines possess immense vitality in both soul and body, allowing them to carry stronger, more numerous, and larger equipment. However, even so, teleporting a single Dreadnought and a full complement of combat ammunition is practically the limit.   However, any weapon of exceptional destructive power—such as the Dongfeng Fen missile—has a larger and heavier warhead and lacks the long-term binding effect of the machine soul to the user, such as armor or firearms, making it impossible to teleport them together.   While Gu Hang couldn’t teleport bombs directly into the enemy ship, he still had Space Marines to transport.   Space Marine boarding was an excellent solution to this problem.   The Phoenix Chapter, cultivated at great expense, was meant to play a crucial role in the present moment.   In reality, Gu Hang had another option: the Blood Sharks.   As a stingy warlord, it seemed a good idea to spare his own strength and assign the Blood Sharks, a chapter not yet his own, to undertake a difficult mission.   Especially since the Blood Sharks were such skilled fighters.   However, after careful consideration, Gu Hang decided against it.   First, there was no telling how much strength the Blood Sharks would be willing to commit. Would they, at Gu Hang’s command, throw their entire chapter into an enemy ship?   The Phoenixes could.   Second, the Heroic Spirits fighting aboard an enemy ship were quite sensitive. It was hard to say how the Blood Sharks would react if they saw them. Third   , and most importantly, the Blood Sharks were strong, capable fighters, and skilled in rapid assaults… all of that was true. However, they still couldn’t match the fighting prowess of the Phoenixes, who Gu Hang had personally trained.   After all, Gu Hang had raised only one-third of the Phoenixes to become company champions, leaving the remaining two-thirds comprised of elite Sergeants. This gap in individual soldier quality was something a regular chapter could never bridge.   The conditions for teleportation were already in place. However, Gu Hang had also considered the heavy enemy defenses aboard the Alfonzo II, a top-tier warship. Therefore, he didn’t immediately commit his Space Marines to the battle, instead biding his time.   Now, Gu Hang believed, that time had almost arrived.   Before initiating the teleportation, Gu Hang asked Martins:   ”Are you ready?”   ”No problem.”   ”Okay, then, go!”   …   A flash of light flashed, and the bizarre images in Sarath Martins’s eyes distorted before his eyes. Simultaneously, he felt a violent pulling sensation, as if tearing his body apart.   These sensations were already somewhat familiar. Even if, for unknown reasons, they were more intense this time, they were still within his tolerable range.   These sensations seemed to last for an eternity, but that was merely an illusion of teleportation. In reality, everything had happened in an instant.   Feeling a push from behind, he took a step forward. The next moment, the Chapter Master, clad in a finely crafted Iron Cavalry Terminator, stomped heavily onto the steel floor.   With a thud, he completed the teleportation.   The sound of his power boots contacting the ground continued to resonate.

Without Martins’s orders, the sergeants of each company and tactical group began to count the troops.

A moment later, the company commanders reported: All eight companies of the Phoenix Regiment have arrived!

(End of this chapter)