Starting from the Planetary Governor - Chapter 674

Chapter 672, Saving the North Line

. Saving the remnants of the Northern Front Legion was a truly meaningful undertaking.

While there were certain risks involved, they weren’t significant, and the rewards were considerable.

Risks aside, everyone arrived safely, received their people safely, and returned safely. Those who perished were members of the Inquisition, not the Alliance. The Alliance did its best and can truly live with a clear conscience.

As for the rewards, they came in three main areas.

First, the combat effectiveness of the force itself .

While only a few tens of thousands of men, holding out for months under the siege of a planetary Zerg swarm and the orbital threat of biological vessels in the sky is no mean feat.

While the numbers were small, the crews supporting the warships were the real heavy hitters. The Marines were considered elite, generally speaking. But many were former sailors and even support personnel from the warships. These personnel were simply issued a gun and a coat of armor, offering little combat effectiveness.

Beyond that, however, the rest were truly elite.

Fifteen thousand of the Stormtroopers assigned to Qin Zhiping by the Inquisition remain. They all wear exoskeleton armor, with a tenth equipped with regenerative power armor, making them quite formidable. While they’re all mortal, consider the Alliance’s Honor Guards, too. With adequate training and equipment, even mortals can be quite capable.

These Stormtroopers can be considered “smaller Honor Guards.”

Or perhaps the Honor Guards are larger, Loyalist Stormtroopers. The essence is the same, except that the Honor Guards’ equipment and training are superior to those of the Loyalist Stormtroopers, considered the strongest of the mortal armies.

Another unit, numbering under a thousand, consists of bounty hunters.

This is a rather unique group, not officially affiliated with the Empire. Instead, they make their living on certain worlds, taking on bounty-laden “criminals” on various missions commissioned by the Imperial Ministry of Justice. The official Imperial government holds them accountable and provides them with no assistance beyond intelligence. They have to buy their own equipment, earn their own profits, and receive no pensions for their deaths.

The vast majority of them are civilians in the hives, forced to fight for their lives after finding it difficult to survive through normal means. Even many gang members and criminals don’t mind taking on bounty hunting themselves while killing their rivals or engaging in illicit activities, or they find a familiar hunter to act as their own hand, sending their victims to the Ministry of Justice for a little cash.

Even those who work as bounty hunters professionally don’t mind switching roles occasionally, engaging in illegal but profitable activities. One

can’t expect them to be loyal or ethical.

Because of these factors, the training and equipment of bounty hunters vary widely. The vast majority are of the worst quality, frowned upon by the Imperial authorities.

However, a small minority manages to survive mission after mission and successfully complete their missions. Moreover, unlike most of their peers, they didn’t spend their earnings on a life of luxury and revelry, instead investing their earnings in self-improvement and upgrading their equipment. This cycle continued, leading them to fame and even attracting the attention of the Inquisition.

The Inquisition typically scrutinized these individuals for their clean backgrounds. If they passed the vetting process, the Inquisition would attempt to assign them more dangerous but more lucrative missions, while also offering them access to higher-level knowledge, equipment, techniques, and even body modifications.

Becoming a renowned hunter was a rare feat, but not every hunter was chosen by the Inquisition. Those chosen by the Inquisition had to survive the highly dangerous missions repeatedly to continue their advancement. Once

someone reached this level and earned the Inquisition’s favor, various Inquisition factions would attempt to recruit them into their ranks, becoming followers of official Inquisitors like Qin Zhiping.

Don’t underestimate the term “follower.” It sounds like being a vassal, but in reality… well, that’s exactly what it is. But even if they were just dogs, they were still dogs with official positions. With official positions, not only did they not have to go on missions as frequently as before

, their safety was greatly improved. They also didn’t have to spend their own money on equipment maintenance, upgrades, and enhancements, while still providing a decent income, making life much easier. More importantly, it was easier for their offspring to join the official ranks, creating room for advancement. If they performed well among the retainers, they could become interrogators or agents. And after advancing to positions like assistant inquisitors, they became full-fledged inquisitors.

Even the lowest-ranking inquisitors were considered top figures in the Empire, theoretically capable of issuing extermination orders for entire worlds. While that wasn’t realistic, no matter which world they went to, as long as it wasn’t a place like Holy Terra where a single stone could easily knock down a high-ranking official, even the lowest-ranking inquisitor would be a significant figure.

Setting aside such distant prospects, even this group of retainers, numbering nearly a thousand, represented a top-tier combat capability among mortals.

Not to mention, some of them had already reached the level of interrogators, agents, and assistant inquisitors.

Three or five such individuals could, if they could think of a way, even kill a Space Marine.

Speaking of Space Marines, Qin Zhiping also commanded over a hundred Argent Watch Space Marines.

The Argent Watch was no ordinary Chapter. They were established through consultation between representatives of Holy Terra and numerous Space Marine Chapters, and were handed over to the leadership of the Inquisition.

Their uniqueness lay in their personnel composition. They never recruited new soldiers themselves, but rather nurtured them. Instead, they recruited warriors from various Chapters who had excelled in combating the xenos to serve within the Argent Watch.

Of course, they sometimes recruited Space Marines who had made mistakes but were truly exceptional to “atone” for their sins.

Regardless of the criteria, one thing remained undeniable: every Argent Watch member was nearing or even reaching the level of a company champion.

After all, they were selected from the best of thousands of Chapters, so such a level of skill was unsurprising.

These one hundred Argent Watch warriors were the elite of the elite.

Such an army of tens of thousands of people is actually just in trouble, the situation is too dire. As long as they are given time to rest and recover, and then used properly in the battle, and cooperate with the alliance’s land forces, they can play a crucial role in many scenes. They can

be used as key forces in key battles such as naval battles to seize ships and land battles… It can be used.

No one has too many elite troops.

As for the second benefit of rescuing this group of inquisitors of the anti-foreign order, it lies in intelligence.

If there are such benefits from gathering such a small remnant army, what if there are more troops in the Northern Front Legion that can be rescued and united?

However, in this regard, Gu Hang was a little disappointed.

Qin Zhiping provided a wealth of intelligence, including the complete details of the Northern Front’s collapse, providing a clear statement: the Northern Front was truly finished.

However, the scenario Gu Hang had hoped for, with numerous remnants of the Northern Front’s forces, did not materialize.

Of course, that didn’t mean there weren’t any, but Qin Zhiping didn’t know exactly how many survived, or where they were.

The only certainty was that the bulk of the Northern Front’s ground forces were on Rheaduches. At least two thousand Space Marines, along with tens of millions of Astra Militarum troops, were deployed in the ground battle. The Astra Militarum included many Loyalist Stormtroopers, even half of them from the renowned Firstborn Legion. Their strength was so formidable that even the Alliance Army might not be able to match them.

Such a massive ground force suffered two major disadvantages: first, the loss of orbital protection; second, being in enemy territory, where supply chains were difficult to come by.

They were bound to suffer heavy losses, that was undeniable.

But was their entire force annihilated?

Gu Hang expressed cautious optimism.

After suffering horrific casualties and a drastic reduction in their strength, the remaining supplies might be enough to sustain the survivors for a while longer. Without orbital cover, they could disperse and engage in guerrilla warfare… In short, approximately nine months had passed since the Northern Front’s defeat, so they should have had a significant number of survivors, and they were elite troops.

As for the other Northern Front units scattered around, while Qin Zhiping didn’t know their exact locations, which was bad news, there was also good news. As they fled, they observed the flight directions of several other fleeing ships, from which they could attempt to deduce their locations and targets.

Moreover, Qin Zhiping was probably not the only one who knew that heading north, through the Zerg-occupied regions of several star regions, and returning to the Devouring Universe, was nearly impossible. Therefore, heading east and seeking the Alliance was the best option. If there were any survivors, they were likely scattered nearby.

Another bit of good news was that Qin Zhiping and his men had removed their ship’s astropathic communication system when they left. At the time, his intention was probably to preserve this artifact, at least to maintain the hope of calling for help—and as it turned out, they were ultimately saved.

And now, this artifact could continue to be put to good use.

After Gu Hang’s psychic enhancements, its communication capabilities had been greatly enhanced, even within the shadow of the warp that enveloped the entire Princess Star Region. Furthermore, it was part of the entire Northern Front Legion’s internal communications system, meaning the Alliance could use it to contact survivors from a distance of one or two star regions.

This would be far more convenient than the Alliance’s previous practice of sending out exploration teams, risking approaching planet after planet, attempting to establish contact.

Furthermore, some Northern Front Legion survivors might still have ships. They might not choose to land on the ground, but rather hide in some asteroid belt, an uninhabited desolate world, or the far side of a gas giant, avoiding the Hive Fleet’s pursuit.

Previously, locating these units would have been harder than finding a needle in a haystack for Alliance exploration teams—the haystack isn’t as vast as the stars!

Now, the task was much easier.

The third benefit of rescuing Qin Zhiping and the others lay in the political realm.

Gu Hang, besides being the commander-in-chief, was also the leader of the Alliance. He needed to consider not only military matters but also political ones.

He believed that after the war, the Alliance would inevitably face a major political upheaval. That would likely be the most crucial moment for the Alliance’s gains from the war, the distribution of the spoils of victory, and even the very existence of the Alliance.

Any political support would be a significant aid in that eventual crisis.

Gu Hang would not overlook this fact.

Qin Zhiping, on the other hand, was a senior member of the Inquisition, holding the rank of [Inquisitor]. Above him were only a few Grand Inquisitors. Saving him would not only earn his friendship, but also the friendship of the entire Inquisition.

As one of the three largest factions within the Inquisition, it directly controlled a top-tier Inquisition faction like the Silver Watch. The Inquisition held considerable influence, swaying the opinions of the Inquisition representative on the Supreme Council.

These three benefits were enough to convince Gu Hang that rescuing this unit was immensely beneficial.

Beyond the final political benefit, the other two points were repeatedly validated over the following three months.

Using the astropathic device, the Alliance successfully contacted seven scattered units. After

resting, the Inquisitorial forces, accompanied by Alliance ships, conducted raids throughout the three months, personally participating in the rescue of four of these units; the remaining three were also rescued by other Alliance forces.

The total number of rescued troops reached over twenty million, half of whom were seamen and crew members. The remaining half consisted of troops brought aboard the various survivor fleets, or those who, like Qin Zhiping, had made forced landings on the planet’s surface and remained there until today.

Furthermore, a total of seventy warships of all types were rescued.

The largest of these consisted of thirty-seven warships, led by an aircraft carrier and two battlecruisers.

Just as previously speculated, they were indeed hiding in an asteroid belt on the edge of a star system, sailing dangerously and avoiding the hunting of the Hive Fleet.

This fleet of seventy ships, including aircraft carriers, battleships, and battlecruisers, was no small force. It was also a very sufficient supplement to the half-Alliance fleet that Gu Hang personally led into the Queen Star Region.

And at this time, a message that symbolized the beginning of a change in the situation also came clearly:

the combined forces of the Western Front Legion and the Alliance, led by Salisius and Martins, defeated most of the Zerg swarm pouring westward and successfully entered the Queen Star Region.

————

This chapter has 4k!

98k is still owed

(this chapter is over)