Starting from the Planetary Governor - Chapter 607

Chapter 605, Taking the Initiative

As time entered the eighth standard Terran month of the year 10328, the situation in the Iron Armor Wars suddenly escalated.

In fact, the entire year had been quite turbulent.

In February, the Western Front collapsed, the Phoenix Master disappeared, and the Phoenix Chapter suffered heavy losses. This was a rare occasion in the history of the Imperium where a founding Chapter suffered such a heavy loss. However, the number of Phoenixes remaining was dwindling, and the Acting Chapter Master had only just been chosen. Revenge was difficult, and the only option was to rely on the descendants to find ways to help. Unfortunately, the number of Phoenix descendants was small.

Six months after the Western Front collapse, the Magre Realm was in chaos. The Iron Armors expanded recklessly, not even caring about the strength of their control over the worlds they occupied.

Even the word “occupy” was questionable. Often, for less important planets, the arrival of an Iron Armor ship would herald the world’s “liberation.” Even the people and rulers of this world were still bewildered, perhaps debating whether to resist the Iron Armor’s occupation, pledge loyalty to the Empire, or simply surrender temporarily.

In the end, the Iron Armor left.

What kind of occupation was this?

But often from this point on, cults rapidly flourished, and strange events occurred one after another.

Fortunately, the arrival of the Imperial Central Army led by Salilius offered some hope of stabilizing the Western Front.

While striving to restore stability to more worlds in the Magre Realm, Salilius also searched for the main force of the Iron Armor Chapter. Whether or not to seek a decisive battle was another matter, but at least he needed to understand where the main force of the Iron Armor Chapter was now, what they were doing, and what their condition was after defeating the Phoenix.

The northern front, with the strong support of the Anti-Foreign Order, also began to accelerate the elimination of the Zerg. Several worlds had already successfully resisted the Zerg, and the situation was improving.

Even a company of Infinite Warriors on the northern front had overcome numerous obstacles and pushed the battle line into the Sword Gate Star Region.

This place is right next to the Princess Star Region.

Meanwhile, on the southern front, Gu Hang also dispatched.

Although the current shipbuilding cycle isn’t complete, if we wait another six months, six giant ships will be able to join the Alliance fleet. But even within these six months, Gu Hang couldn’t wait any longer.

Fortunately, the ships previously seized had already been repaired.

The Alliance simultaneously selected the Jingjie and Alfonzo star regions as their offensive targets.

Gu Hang’s strategy was a huge leap. Initially, he played it safe, but now that he had decided to fight, he wasn’t afraid to attack from both sides.

Of course, the forces weren’t completely divided equally.

At least, at the outset, the Alliance assembled its fleet and took the lead in capturing the other side of the Star Tunnel leading to the Jingjie Star Region. The reason

they hadn’t taken this place before wasn’t because they couldn’t attack it, but simply to avoid provoking the opponent too much.

But now, who cares about provocation?

The battle for the Star Tunnel went relatively smoothly.

With Gu Hang’s arrival and the Alliance fleet fully deployed, relying solely on a complete and robust planetary defense system proved meaningless. Without a strong garrison, the fleet’s flexible protection, and most crucially, the psychic power to counter the Storm Mages led by Gu Hang, their desperate defense was meaningless, offering little in the way of delay.

After successfully capturing the Astral Tunnel, the Alliance adopted a strategy largely consistent with what Salilius had done in the Magre Realm.

However, the situation was somewhat different.

The Magre Sector was a newly occupied territory for the Iron Armors, and many of the worlds they hadn’t even “occupied” could be considered so. Even if they had spread Zerg corruption, its severity was minimal. Eradicating it would likely require only mobilizing the local governments and getting the locals to pay attention, and they could resolve the issue themselves.

However, the situation in the Nepeta Sector, adjacent to the Empress Sector, was completely different.

Nepeta Sector had been directly occupied and ruled by the Iron Armors for eight years, since the Iron Armors War. Since the Iron Armors’ growing power, they had been spreading their influence from the Empress Sector to the surrounding star systems for at least two hundred years.

After the Iron Armors occupied Nepeta Sector, resistance within the star system was relatively low, unlike in the Magre Sector.

The Nepeta Sector governed hundreds of worlds, each with a high degree of cooperation from their local governments.

Therefore, the Iron Armors’ chances of spreading Zerg corruption to Nepeta Sector were substantial, and their history of spread was likely quite long.

Even before the rebellion began, and even in its early stages, the Iron Armor didn’t dare to openly spread corruption. But in the past six months, after their boundaries were lifted, their scruples have greatly diminished, and the level of corruption has become unimaginable.

In fact, the Alliance’s intelligence departments had already noticed the signs of this.

Although the Alliance hadn’t taken the initiative in the past, they had certainly begun gathering intelligence on the Nepeta Sector, a clear strategic target.

Even before they had any intelligence on the connection between the Iron Armor and the Zerg, they had already detected a serious problem of cults and rebellions within the Nepeta Sector’s planets.

Previously, they hadn’t taken it seriously. Cults and rebellions were common on every Imperial world.

Even within the Alliance, core worlds like Koroja, which had undergone institutional reforms and decentralized power, still occasionally received reports of local law enforcement agencies and local garrisons dismantling small cults. After all, with a population of 40 billion and dozens of hive cities, it was impossible to completely eliminate anything.

Even Koroja is in this state, let alone the vast majority of other Imperial worlds.

While there are a number of cults across the worlds of the Nepeta Sector, and many show signs of collusion or even open cooperation with the local ruling elite, they are generally still considered “heretic.”

Of these cults, those with ties to the Chaos Abyss are still rare, and Alliance intelligence agents have not detected any serious evidence of this. Many cults primarily distort and misinterpret the teachings of the Imperial State Religion, making these relatively acceptable.

The initial overall assessment was that the risk of cults was high, but still within an acceptable range.

It now appears that the previous investigation was primarily misguided.

The Alliance has relatively little experience with swarm-like disasters, and the mention of cults often leads to the idea of Chaos corruption.

And when combined with the Zerg parasitic infection, the severity of the situation skyrockets!

Even within the Nepeta Sector, such issues will become increasingly prominent within the Pride Claw Sector.

(End of Chapter)