Starting from the Planetary Governor - Chapter 728

Chapter 726: Unable to sleep or eat

To say that the Infinite Legion didn’t sense the Dark Eldar were targeting them is somewhat inaccurate.

They simply lacked concrete evidence, harbored suspicions, and were unsure.

After all, weren’t Dark Eldar raids commonplace?

The attacks weren’t limited to merchant ships within the Infinite Segmentum; other merchant ships were also attacked. The attacks didn’t necessarily occur within the Infinite Segmentum, or even in the surrounding areas; rather, they were attacked as soon as the merchant ships set out.

Was this necessarily a target?

Of course, they eventually came to their senses after a long time.

Whatever the Dark Eldar’s goal, the end result was that the Infinite Segmentum suffered heavy losses, significantly impacting their development.

While not completely severing ties with the outside world, external trade required considerable effort, requiring significant manpower and escort missions.

The efficiency of trade and transportation depended on safety.

Such an unstable environment, with the potential for raiding, meant that many profit-seeking merchant ships with a low tolerance for loss and a low risk tolerance would simply abandon the idea of doing business with the Infinite Legion.

Those that succeed in conducting business will also need to invest more in security and protection.

More escort fleets will even require frequent deployments of the Infinite Legion for personal protection.

This undoubtedly reduces efficiency and increases trade costs.

The development of the Infinite Sector has suffered a certain setback.

Of course, relying solely on this strategy to inflict a real blow on the Infinite Sector is certainly not enough.

But that’s okay; it’s just one of the methods.

There are many other arrangements.

Xernos is operating in the Spider Web, a region he hasn’t visited before, because the Alliance intends to conduct business with the Infinite Sector there.

It appears to be a large-scale operation, and stable ties will be established in the future.

So what?

Naturally, the Dark Eldar raid will also spread to the Spider Web.

However, what’s unexpected is that the Alliance’s response speed… is a bit too fast.

Xernos is an experienced raiding captain who has plundered many human forces, including some so-called “major powers.”

Once they succeed, they often have ample time to evacuate quickly, leveraging the convenience and concealment afforded by the Veil Spirit Gate.

Then, with the help of their highly camouflaged lurkers, they can continue their quest within human society. Once the storm has passed, they’ll reappear for another strike.

However, he hadn’t anticipated how quickly the lurkers would be apprehended!

He made his assessment the moment he confirmed they’d lost contact.

Logically, his fellow stalkers would be extremely tight-lipped and unafraid of torture. Compared

to the methods his kin employed, using d*rugs, surgery, and the combined torment of physical and spiritual torture, these human methods were nothing compared to the methods his own kin employed. In fact, until their methods reached a certain point, they would even consider such suffering enjoyment.

They weren’t afraid of death; after all, they would return to Comoros and be resurrected by the Haemonchid supported by their families, weakening them for a short while.

In this situation, the lurkers’ capture wasn’t anything to fear, was it?

This is what Xernos’s men thought. They had originally planned to continue transporting supplies and prisoners into the Veil Gate at the established pace, and then into the privateering port of Comoros across the way. They could even hold a ceremony to temporarily expand the Veil Gate to squeeze in several starships.

However, Xernos called a halt to the operation.

He ordered everyone to expedite the process and bring in as much supplies as possible. He then proceeded to massacre captives, draining their soul energy to maintain an expanded version of the Veil Gate, allowing the privateer ships to pass quickly.

Normally, the Veil Gate is a simple gate several dozen meters in diameter. When inactive, it disconnects Comoros from the real universe.

Once activated, the two sides are connected, allowing people and supplies to flow freely.

A temporary injection of large numbers of tormented souls can temporarily expand the Veil Gate, allowing starships to pass through—but this must be done quickly. If it’s too slow, the souls will gradually be consumed, and the gate will shrink until it becomes impassable.

The Dark Eldar’s own ships are designed to be as slender as possible to facilitate passage through the limited size of the Veil Gate. They also have technology that can expand the gate’s size when passing through it, and its shape can adapt to the starship’s exterior, not necessarily being a pure circle. This greatly improves the passage of their own starships.

Human ships, of course, weren’t specifically designed for this purpose. Therefore, capturing a similarly sized human vessel as a trophy would require a much longer process, meticulously slaughtering each individual, creating sufficient fear and pain to fuel their attack.

But now, there was no time.

Under normal circumstances, Lurkers wouldn’t reveal their identities, but judging by their swift capture, the humans likely possessed some unique method to quickly identify and locate Lurkers.

Given their technology, could they possibly extract information quickly from the Lurkers?

He believed it was quite possible.

He couldn’t gamble on such matters.

He forced his men to abandon everything, focusing solely on swift execution, to expand the Veil Spirit Gate wide enough for them to escape aboard their ships.

Even so, the Alliance fleet arrived before they could complete their task.

Xernos’s expression remained unchanged as he informed his men that progress was good, and that the accelerated slaughter process had been initiated, meaning the gate would soon be open enough. He instructed some of his men to harass and contain the human ships.

After forcing the dispatch of several privateers, he immediately fled with the remaining men, closing the Veil Gate.

The supplies that had escaped, the men and ships that hadn’t returned, were all discarded. This also eliminated any possibility of humans pursuing through the Veil Gate.

Such decisiveness.

…

Despite the victory, Du Shiliang still felt a bit unsatisfied.

The looted ships had been recovered, but half the supplies were gone, and 80% of the crew had perished, with those who survived suffering severe psychological trauma.

Most importantly, the pesky black pirates had escaped!

Although four privateers had remained, these smaller vessels had clearly been left behind as cannon fodder, barely enough to fill the gap. The main force of the black pirates had fled under his watch.

All that remained of the Veil Gate was a sixty-meter-diameter silver-gray metal arch.

According to the Inquisitors, this was the beacon of the Veil Gate in the real universe. Once it was destroyed, the Dark Eldar would no longer be able to open the gate—unless they sneaked over from the real universe and rebuilt it.

Upon hearing this news, Du Shiliang breathed a sigh of relief.

The recovered ships, supplies, and personnel were returned to Wang Jiarong; the relevant reports would be submitted to the Alliance Government and the Ministry of Military Affairs, with copies sent to all relevant parties.

At least this matter had been resolved.

But then he began to have a headache: Who knew how many Veil Gates the Dark Eldar had built throughout the Spider Web Universe? And where were they all located?

He couldn’t sleep or eat well until he cleaned it up.

(End of this chapter)