Starting from the Planetary Governor - Chapter 672

Chapter 670, Collapse and Breakout

. The Northern Front’s army group was distinct from the Western and Southern Fronts.

The Western Front had a single, unwavering mainstay: the Ortopis Chapter, the Solar Fleet, and the Solar Legion.

While these were three separate entities, they were all directly affiliated with Holy Terra, their coordination having been well-established. Salilius exercised full leadership over both the Solar Fleet and the Solar Legion. Fleet commanders and Astra Militarum commanders alike had no problem following Salilius’s orders, allowing him to fully mobilize the forces of the Western Front.

The Southern Front, on the other hand, involved the Alliance itself.

Of course, both the Western and Southern Fronts had additional forces. For example, on the Western Front, some remnants of the Phoenix Chapter remained from the initial Western offensive, following the orders of the Phoenix Chapter. Other Chapters, including ships and Astra Militarum units, joined during the buildup, along with conscripts. Local troops were also recruited from the Magre Realm.

Similarly, on the Southern Front, some troops were transferred from the Eastern Realm, and even from the Yunmengze Realm west of the Eastern Realm, to Gu Hang’s command.

However, these “foreign forces” were merely subordinate forces, not core forces, serving as mere icing on the cake.

Gu Hang and Salilius maintained strong control over their core forces, thus allowing them to exert control over the entire army.

However, the Northern Front was different; it was a true coalition.

While the Black Crusaders were a core force, their proportion within the Northern Front was honestly incomparable to that of the Western Front, let alone the Alliance on the Southern Front.

There were also twice as many other Chapters, and the fleet was a patchwork. Beyond the Black Crusaders, the Devouring Star Realm provided significant support. The ships from the Devouring Stars were similar in nature to the Northern Fleet and Yunluo Fleet from the Dragon Eagle Sector.

These fleets, subordinate to the sectoral governments, had no inherent affiliation with one another and were forcibly thrown together. Perhaps, when they left their homelands to join the expeditionary force, they were instructed by their own government leaders to do their utmost to bring their fleets back. After all, a fleet is invaluable to a sector. If it were truly decimated by the Empire, rebuilding it on its own would take countless years,

especially for the poorer sectors.

During the fleet struggle between the Northern Front Legion and the Zerg in the Rheaduches System, these sectoral fleets were the first to collapse.

They simply slipped away.

The Hive Fleet, however, cleverly avoided pursuing the fleeing human ships, instead focusing on increasing the pressure on the human fleets.

Seeing the battle becoming increasingly difficult to sustain, and seeing the fleeing ships actually flee, the remaining human ships, already shaken, fled even more.

At this point, the human fleet’s overall losses weren’t particularly severe. After all, their most crucial ships hadn’t escaped.

The biggest impact was on morale.

The biggest impact on the overall battle situation was the gap in the fleet’s formation. The Hive Fleet could exploit this gap in the human ships’ firepower and launch an assault. Not only would this expose other human ships to flanking fire, but it would also expose some of their core vessels.

In a swift assault, the battle barge, arguably the most important vessel in the Northern Legion’s fleet—the flagship of the Black Crusade’s Third Fleet, the flagship of the entire fleet, commanded by Leroy himself—was destroyed by concentrated fire. Both

before and after the explosion, individual vessels escaped from the impending battle barge. Perhaps Leroy himself, along with several key personnel still aboard, had managed to escape. However, due to the poor communication conditions, no one could contact Leroy, and he could no longer effectively command the entire fleet.

Immediately, Marshal Xi Rui of the Black Crusaders’ Fourth Fleet assumed command. The battle barge he was aboard was indeed the second flagship within the fleet.

Marshal Xi Rui’s actions after taking command were undoubtedly flawless. Tactically, he was doing his best to restore the fleet’s tactical formation after the destruction of a battle barge; strategically, he was also doing his best to calm the enemy and prevent the fleet’s total collapse.

But no matter how hard he tried, the final collapse arrived.

With Leroy gone and the flagship destroyed, more ships began to withdraw from the battle.

Orders were sent, but there was no response.

It was unclear whether the Zerg’s pervasive and powerful communication jamming capabilities were truly intercepted, or if they had heard but were deliberately ignoring any response.

Qin Zhiping’s Inquisitorial warship had actually held out the longest.

But it was pointless.

Seeing defeat inevitable and realizing the situation was hopeless, Qin Zhiping had no choice but to order the ships to evacuate.

Or perhaps a more elegant term would be “breakout.”

He succeeded, and although the ship suffered heavy damage, and although after a subsequent interstellar shuttle, he lost contact with the main force, he and his crew had at least survived.

But just as they were breathing a sigh of relief, bad news arrived one after another.

The ship’s damage control department reported that the damage to the ship was extensive and unrepairable, so they could only patch it up and try to keep it operational. But there was no way to guarantee how long the ships could remain operational. Perhaps, at some point, they would suddenly become damaged.

Qin Zhiping could only flee eastward with his ships.

He knew that heading north would be a death sentence, as that was Zerg territory. It would be better to head east, towards the Alliance-held Alfonzo Sector, closer, and if they did manage to reach it, there might be a glimmer of hope.

Then, they were attacked by Void Zerg hunting ships.

Apparently, during the previous battle, the Zerg had ignored the fleeing human ships as a temporary tactic. After their victory in the fleet decisive battle, these escaping ships were all spoils of war, and they would definitely have to find a way to recover them.

Dragging their damaged ships, they certainly couldn’t escape pursuit.

With their last remaining vestiges of motivation, they could only force their Inquisition ship to make a forced landing on the world called Taiyuan.

Twenty percent of the crew perished in the forced landing,

but at least 80% survived.

The feeling of surviving a catastrophe didn’t linger in their hearts for even a second. What followed was the endless pursuit of the insect swarm!

(End of this chapter)