Starting from the Planetary Governor - Chapter 616

Chapter 614, Forging the World

the main force of the Forge World Alliance entering the Alfonzo Sector was led by Gu Hang himself.

Their fleet was far more powerful than the one left in Martins’s hands. They also had two open chapters, one shadow chapter, and a large number of Alliance ground forces.

With such strength, they were destined to quickly resolve the Alfonzo Sector’s problems. This

was especially true for the three Forge Worlds, which represented a vast asset.

The primary reason for deploying maximum forces in the Alfonzo Sector was twofold:

first, they could leverage Sebastian Moreau’s influence to quickly win over the doves and convert them to their side.

Warfare is the most intense form of politics. Relying solely on war to achieve a goal would be prohibitively laborious. Success was

not even certain. Even

if it succeeded, the cost and timeline were uncertain.

Using political means to coax forces that were previously foreign, or even hostile, into their own hands would be ideal.

However, even if the so-called doves opposed the hawkish behavior represented by Varluk, or even if they were persecuted by the hawks, they didn’t necessarily have to follow the Alliance.

As the reputable leader of Alfonzo’s dove faction, Moro could effectively bind and coordinate the forces of Alfonzo’s doves. However, besides having a leader, this also required strength.

Moro certainly didn’t have it. He fled to the Alliance alone, so how could he have any strength to speak of?

His strength was solely the Alliance’s.

Only if the Alliance provided sufficient strength to back him up could others see the promise of following him and better leverage his role as a cohesive force.

Furthermore, Gu Hang possessed the “special attack weapon” against the Mechanicus: the Black Box.

Of course, it wouldn’t be necessary to use it initially. Gu Hang would only bring it out when absolutely necessary.

There was no need to worry about what would happen if the Black Box was given away.

The Black Boxes Gu Hang would give as gifts contained technology that the Alliance had already mastered, rendering them virtually useless.

He was now giving away a handful of black boxes, and it wasn’t particularly conspicuous. The time for caution was long gone. What would happen if the various Mechanicus sects learned of Gu Hang’s possession of the black boxes? Aside from the Martian sect, which

Gu Hang did have to be wary of, he no longer had to worry about the other small and medium-sized sects. Even Mars, at such a distance, wasn’t much of a concern. They wouldn’t come after him just for a few black boxes, that was certainly not the case.

Unless Gu Hang revealed that he had hundreds of

black boxes, some containing cutting-edge technology, that would be another matter. The Mechanicus were obsessed with black boxes. Beyond the technology they represented, the black boxes themselves were crucial. They were products of the hyper-technological past of humanity’s golden age. For the Mechanicus, studying a black box was like studying a sacred artifact imbued with immense truth, a subject of immense scientific and religious fascination.

For this reason, even if a black box made of plastic steel wasn’t of interest to them, they were captivated by the plastic steel black box itself.

In reality, the Black Box had indeed performed a significant function.

By the end of November, the Alliance’s main fleet had entered Alfonzo. Along the way, doves surrendered and hawks retreated. Many of these Alfonzo worlds were also experiencing corruption, but it was far better than the Nepeta Segmentum and only slightly worse than the Pride Talon Segmentum, falling well within acceptable limits.

By the end of December, over sixty worlds had been captured by the Alliance.

Even now, a legion of Mechanicus Skitarii had gathered behind the Alliance. It included not only elite Skitarii and Automata, but also a Knightly Order!

They had yet to capture a single Forge World, yet the combined forces of the ordinary worlds controlled by the Alfonzo Cult were already formidable.

The hawks on these sixty worlds were either expelled, eliminated, or… simply turned dove.

In reality, the distinction between doves and hawks was not that clear. They were all part of the same family, simply with differing political views. When the order from Archmagos Varluk arrived, the centrists followed suit in persecuting the diehard doves. Now that the Alliance army had arrived, with Archmagos Moreau leading the charge, the centrists quickly switched sides.

This was perfectly natural.

It was precisely for this reason that Gu Hang was able to draw upon a contingent of Mechanicus forces from these sixty worlds to assist in the battle.

Gu Hang didn’t intend to abandon them to fight the powerful enemy he was about to face, as they might turn against him again.

However, deploying them to different worlds to quell the infestation was possible.

These Mechanicus forces were originally drawn from local locations. On some worlds, the situation was favorable, and with minimal or no Alliance intervention, they could resolve the situation themselves by unifying the world’s top leadership, even leaving them with enough troops to contribute to the Alliance.

Gu Hang deployed these withdrawn Mechanicus forces to worlds facing greater challenges.

This saved Gu Hang the need to maintain occupation forces on each world and disperse his forces.

His main force arrived at Aramita, the first major objective of Alfonzo’s journey, in early January.

This was one of the three great forge worlds of Alfonzo, and it was also where Moreau had once served as a Forge General.

Gu Hang remained cautious.

While they had captured sixty worlds without encountering much resistance, the Alfonzo Segmentum was a vast region, even larger than the Dragonhawk Segmentum, encompassing seven hundred worlds. The Alliance had captured less than a tenth of that.

Furthermore, the Alfonzo Cult was quite formidable.

Even though Sage Dubo had led a significant defeat, they still retained considerable strength.

In terms of fleet, they still possessed at least two mechanical arks, the Alfonzo I and III,

and at least two battleships .

Of course, this strength was significantly weaker than during the expedition to the Proud Claw Segmentum.

However, on the ground, their forces were substantial.

If the Alliance attempted to capture a forge world, and the enemy was determined to resist, the force they would unleash on the ground would be immense.

Even orbital support would be difficult to secure.

The Alliance wasn’t an orc, unable to thrive by simply bombing and collecting scrap. If a Forge World is blown to pieces, what’s the point of Gu Hang going down to fight a ground war?

He wants the productivity of the Forge World!

But the battle must be fought.

He tried to persuade them to surrender first, but it didn’t work.

The entire outer defense of Aramita and the orbital guns on the planet’s surface were all on high alert, ready for war.

Although there was an insect infestation inside, as a dignified forging world, it was still unwilling to surrender so easily without a fight.

Gu Hang also showed patience in this regard. He did not rush to launch a military offensive, but just pressed forward with a large army to keep the pressure on.

Fighting slowly would not work.

From Gu Hang’s point of view, he never had the idea of deploying troops and using the entire planet as a battlefield to fight a big battle on Aramita.

However, he had to demonstrate this intention, and even more importantly, demonstrate this ability, in order to truly avoid a war of attrition.

It didn’t matter that the first wave of persuasion failed. The hundreds of Alliance agents who had infiltrated ahead were already very active.

Their situation also reassured Gu Hang.

They were about to openly operate.

Logically, with the enemy army approaching, wouldn’t the enemy’s hidden agents within their own ranks have to be eliminated?

If they were too well hidden, there was no way; but if they were operating openly and were not apprehended, or even impossible to apprehend, that in itself spoke volumes.

There were bad elements among the masses.

It was impossible for no one to shield or protect these Alliance agents.

It wasn’t just one or two individuals, nor was it just the middle and lower classes. Otherwise, Alliance agents wouldn’t have been able to conduct political collusion relatively openly without being apprehended.

Beneath the Aramita Forge World’s tough image of resistance to the end, undercurrents surged.

A strong fortress is always easiest to breach from within.

Right under Gu Hang’s nose, the Alliance Intelligence Center was working intensively. They constantly received instructions from agents on the ground, compiled them into files, and, through the work of analysts, developed professional opinions.

For example, they identified specific individuals to target, who could provide protection for the agents, who could help them gain access to higher-level figures, and who was wavering…

These instructions, in turn, guided the agents’ actions.

The oil men, originally members of the Alfonzo sect, provided significant assistance.

Otherwise, even the Alliance’s intelligence capabilities couldn’t have uncovered so many secrets and gained access to so many individuals on Aramita in such a short period of time.

But wasn’t there Moreau?

He had once been the Forge General of Aramita, and he knew a great deal.

And it wasn’t just him.

Many of the individuals the Alliance recruited along the way were former oil men from Aramita, from the Mechanic Priests to the Archbishops. They ranged from all levels.

Most of them shared one characteristic: they were labeled as Moreau’s direct descendants.

After being captured and imprisoned by the Great Sage Moreau, they naturally faced a round of reckoning.

As a forging general, Moreau naturally had many loyalists, and even a single round of reckoning wasn’t enough.

Later, Arno mobilized a group of his loyalists to rescue him, but he escaped. A significant number of those still trapped in Alamita remained, and naturally faced another round of reckoning.

This time, however, it was particularly severe.

Many were executed, and many were imprisoned. Meanwhile, a significant number, though unclear whether they were direct followers of Moreau, were likely connected, and were therefore exiled.

Many of these exiles were also gathered from the sixty Alfonzo worlds captured by the Alliance.

They might not have been considered loyalists in the past—literally, they would have been either dead or imprisoned.

But now, they are.

After all, they’ve all been branded Moreau loyalists by Alfonzo, so what’s there to worry about?

Before, it was a disaster;

now, it’s an opportunity!

Those who had lived on Aramita for countless years naturally offered a wealth of advice to the Alliance’s intelligence services, allowing them to take action.

Unfortunately, current analysis suggests that directly forcing Aramita to surrender peacefully is unlikely.

The two previous purges, carried out by the Hawks and by the will of Archsage Varuk, significantly weakened the political and military power on Aramita, which had previously been subordinate to Morro.

Varuk subsequently dispatched many of his own people to take over key positions on the planet. Inciting rebellion would be extremely difficult.

Even though Aramita seemed abandoned, Alfonzo’s fleet had not deployed many mobile forces there.

However, it was rumored that a fleet was already gathering from Bostan—one of the three Forge Worlds of the Alfonzo Cult and the largest—and

the cult had already requested assistance from the Princess Segmentum, with Humphrey Paul promising reinforcements.

As long as they held out on Aramita, support would arrive.

Therefore, they possessed both the will and the value of resistance, which was why those hawkish greasers refused to surrender and intended to resist to the bitter end.

However, along with this analysis, another proposed course of action was also delivered to Gu Hang’s desk.

After reviewing it, Gu Hang casually sent a copy to Moro, the two Chapter Masters, and the Chief of the Glory Guards. He instructed them to review it and then come to a meeting to share their opinions.

Half an hour later, the meeting began, and an hour later, the resolution was issued:

Damn it!

The person in charge of the action was Leo Moretti, Chapter Master of the New World Torch, who strongly volunteered to participate in the battle. After

careful consideration, Gu Hang agreed to his request, but he also dispatched his trusted Chief of the Glory Guards, Eero Lacrosha, to assist in the operation.

Lacrosha served as a supporting role, but in reality, he was responsible for supervising Moretti’s work on Gu Hang’s behalf.

To be frank, Moretti, despite his title as Chapter Master, was quite inexperienced. He had been a Space Marine for only about six months. Although he is already the earliest warrior among the New World Torch, and although he has centuries-old warriors like Wang Mengsong as his advisor, and although he is very talented, and can train to the level of a company champion with the garbage seeds of the New World Torch, and can also inspire and enlighten, approaching the level of a regiment champion…

However, after all, it cannot cover up the problem of his lack of experience. Wang Mengsong is experienced enough, but Gu Hang does not trust him at all.

But there must be opportunities for growth, and Gu Hang is willing to give them.

Of course, it is not given blindly, and Lacrosha is the one who will cover it.

This person, although a mortal, has a strength level that is no weaker than some of the best Space Marines.

————

Here it comes.

There is another chapter in the early morning.

My wife is playing tricks on me and it really makes me itchy…

(End of this chapter)