Starting from the Planetary Governor - Chapter 620

Chapter 618: The Abilities of the New World Torch

. Wang Mengsong watched the battle with a cold eye.

What could he say? He was just an ordinary soldier in the chapter’s Penance Battalion, the one who led the chapter to commit serious crimes. What right did he have to speak?

No one would listen.

And Wang Mengsong himself was in a very awkward state of mind.

The Alliance wanted to surrender, and he had already surrendered, and even participated in a crucial backstab against the Fury Flame Chapter on the Fantasy Moon Star.

The Alliance wanted to sentence the entire chapter to a Penance Expedition, and he accepted it. After all, it was a crime. What’s more, this Penance Expedition under the protection of the Alliance was actually no different from a normal situation and was not very painful.

The Alliance stripped him of his title as Chapter Master, not allowing him to continue to command and lead the chapter, and instead sent him to the Penance Battalion, and he accepted it. Gu Hang was understandable that he would not be worried about him. Moreover, he asked himself if his actions were selfless, all for the survival and even development of the chapter. It didn’t matter if he wasn’t a Chapter Master. He could just join the Penitentiary Camp and become an ordinary soldier. He would do anything for the Chapter.

But then something happened that made him feel something was amiss.

The Chapter was replenished so quickly.

It was unbelievable!

He was a Chapter Master, once in charge of the entire Chapter’s operations. He knew better than anyone how arduous and time-consuming it was to replenish a Chapter.

Had the Alliance simply found eight hundred young men who met the perfect conditions for gene-seed surgery?

And in just over six months, they had all been implanted and had grown superhuman organs?

The Alliance had a big secret!

And they weren’t even pretending, laying it out in the open!

Were these truly the offspring of our New World Torches?

He absolutely didn’t believe it.

There weren’t even that many gene-seeds!

He even secretly contacted the Chapter’s apothecary—the one who had been sent to the Penitentiary Camp with him—to obtain some biological samples of these New World Torches and run them through a test. They were

truly the offspring of our own Chapter, with no flaws in their bloodline.

Furthermore, these ‘new recruits’ displayed considerable skill. Though they had only been Space Marines for a short time, they were as skilled as the Chapter’s veterans, if not more so.

The new Chapter Master, Moretti, was particularly outstanding. If such a figure had appeared in the Chapter before, Wang Mengsong would have been ecstatic. His greatest concern had always been the lack of a successor to the Chapter. He had barely risen through the ranks, rivaling the champions of other Chapters. However, the Chapter’s lack of new recruits had worried him greatly.

Now, the new Chapter Master was highly skilled, which certainly reassured Wang Mengsong, but also tinged with a sense of soreness.

Although he hated to admit it, in his dreams, he had imagined a Chapter filled with rookies, inexperienced, and repeatedly failing in action. And as the previous Chapter Master, he had been treated with some respect, his opinions sought…

yet, that hadn’t happened.

The Penitentiary Battalion, the Penitentiary Battalion—it was exactly what the name said: these veterans were guilty.

The new recruits of the Chapter hated them.

They hated Wang Mengsong himself especially.

These new recruits fully embraced their role as the “Torches of the New World,” possessing a strong sense of honor and a mission to restore the Chapter’s glory. But precisely because of this, the Chapter was labeled traitors to the Empire, even committing two egregious acts of backstabbing allies. With their reputation tarnished, it was only natural that the perpetrators were resented.

The harsh treatment and isolation were a source of great distress to Wang Mengsong and his men.

Even if the Penitentiary Battalion had been punished by sending them into the most brutal battles, perhaps they would have been able to accept it.

But even that wasn’t possible.

The new recruits saw every battle as a golden opportunity to cleanse their sins and gain merit, eager to fight every battle with distinction, no matter the cost. Under such circumstances, how could they bear to send the Penitentiary Battalion into action? Wouldn’t that be a disgrace to their own achievements?

This feeling of being ignored and marginalized only made them feel even more uncomfortable.

Furthermore, the culture that had formed within the Chapter among these new recruits was… strange.

They had never received any instruction in tactical style from the old Torches, yet they had spontaneously developed a fighting and tactical style similar to theirs. This was perfectly normal; sharing the same bloodline, the same seed, their strengths and weaknesses were similar, so their tactical styles naturally tended to be similar.

However, beyond their tactical style, the rest of the Chapter culture was vastly different.

The old New World Torches were not particular about their relationships, maintaining a relatively friendly and courteous atmosphere… but the new Chapters had a very strict atmosphere, filled with deep hatred and resentment.

Furthermore, they had deeply adopted Alliance tropes, with Chapter Chaplains acting as political commissars in the Alliance army. The entire Chapter was fervently loyal to the Alliance, believing they were born with original sin and therefore deserved all sacrifices.

Such a spirit of self-sacrifice, a strong tendency towards martyrdom, was completely different from the New World Torches of the past.

Wang Mengsong was quite dissatisfied with this, believing that this was nothing like the New World Torch at all. He even lamented that the New World Torch was gone, and now it was just a loyal dog of the Alliance, resurrected through its corpse.

Of course, his thoughts were irrelevant and meaningless.

He simply resigned himself to his fate and followed the Chapter to the surface of Aramita to carry out the mission.

Moretti had taken the rare opportunity to bring them along.

After all, the mission was difficult and its importance was undeniable. He had to use the full strength of the Chapter, even the Penitentiary Battalion.

Wang Mengsong fought with the Chapter like an ordinary soldier—well, he was—following the Chapter.

First, they forced their way into the space elevator. This step had been arranged in advance by Alliance agents, and the local oilmen provided assistance.

Then, after the elevator reached the starport, they launched a swift and fierce assault.

This was divided into three parts:

First, expand the scale of the battle, attract attention, and create chaos.

Second, capture as many key areas as possible. This point could be coordinated with the previous one.

Third, behead the Mechanicus Hawk Sage who was managing the starport.

Wang Mengsong was certainly not qualified to handle the third point, so he could only focus on the first and second tasks.

To be honest, he did a pretty good job.

He and his old brothers from the Atonement Battalion killed many enemies and captured several key locations, including a command center, which paralyzed communications between enemies in a large area.

He had completed his mission.

On the contrary, the so-called elite members of the Chapter, who were responsible for the decapitation, encountered problems.

The elite of the Mechanicus were not really that easy to deal with.

After the sage realized his own combat strength, he realized that a fully armed Mechanicus Sage was not easy to deal with.

At the same time, a large number of elite Skitarii deployed a strong defense line and stubbornly resisted the attack of the New World Torch.

The second captain in charge of the command was obviously furious.

He began to ignore casualties and forced the Chapter’s strength to attack frantically, regardless of casualties and losses.

Wang Mengsong could not help but approach with a small team.

He did not participate in the battle. After all, he had not received orders and could not act without authorization.

He could only witness, from afar, how New World Torches perished under the Skitarii’s dense firepower.

The powerful mechas of the Knight Titans, combined with the Skitarii’s cyborgs, demonstrated formidable combat prowess.

Their lines were constantly being squeezed, and the New World Torches’ offensive, despite seemingly incurring heavy casualties, was achieving impressive results.

However, the experienced Wang Mengsong saw that this was a deliberate move by their opponents. They were trading space for the Space Marines’ manpower.

Every advance for the New World Torches came at an exorbitant price in blood.

This kind of fighting was unacceptable.

But what could he do?

Should he continue to stand by and watch indifferently?

He thought he could calmly watch these new recruits, who hated him, perish one by one, even if all of them were dead.

After all, in his mind, he didn’t consider those whose Chapter culture and ethos were so different from those of the Old Torches to be New World Torches. So what was the big deal if they all perished?

Moreover, he hadn’t received any orders. At this critical moment, the Second Captain hadn’t even attempted to summon the Atonement Battalion to help.

Serves them right!

He thought to himself, and every time a New World Torch warrior appeared before him, his brow would unconsciously raise.

Over the Chapter’s comms, he heard these new warriors roaring again and again:

“For the Alliance!” Wang Mengsong even scoffed at such cries.

“For the Empire! For the Emperor!” He didn’t much care. The New World Torches had been shouting the same thing for centuries, and he was tired of hearing them.

“For the New World Torch!” Hmm, that was a bit interesting.

“To wash away our sins!” Who were you talking about?

“With my blood, forge history!” This seemed like their new Chapter slogan? Was it necessary?

…

Behind his stern face, Wang Mengsong gritted his teeth.

He still refused to admit he’d made a mistake. After all, if it weren’t for his decisions, what would the New World Torch be like today? They would have long since vanished into history.

If he hadn’t joined Iron Armor in the rebellion, would Iron Armor have let them go? The war situation seven or eight years ago was nothing like it has been these past two years. The Empire’s might hadn’t even gathered yet, and at that stage, the New World Torch’s strength against Iron Armor would have been certain death, the only outcome being annihilation.

Well, backstabbing an ally, destroying an entire chapter, and crushing the first wave of the Inquisition’s forces was a bit of a mess…

And on Phantom Moon, although he had backstabbed again, wasn’t it to restore order and make good on the Alliance’s promise of allegiance? That couldn’t be considered his own sin, could it?

While he had tarnished the Chapter’s reputation…

what were these young recruits doing now?

They were born into such hardship, and the Chapter’s atmosphere was so serious and emphasized sacrifice, but for what?

No matter how much he hated to admit it, he had to admit it: it was to repair the many holes he had dug.

Why did the New World Torch want to “forge history with my blood”? Because their past was too shameful.

These shameful things existed no matter how many objective reasons Wang Mengsong had to defend himself.

And now, could he really sit here with peace of mind, watching these younger generations who were different from him and even hated him go to their deaths one by one?

He slowly raised his hand and connected the communication channel: “We can’t fight like this. I suggest we withdraw and take a break for a while, leaving some troops here to continue engaging and looking for breakthroughs in other directions.”

“Shut up, traitor, you have no right to speak here.”

It was not surprising that the second company commander, who was already furious, had such an attitude.

Although he was scolded, Wang Mengsong had made up his mind.

“Camp of Atonement, follow me, we must let those young guys take a serious look at what the New World Torch is really capable of!”

(End of this chapter)