Starting from the Planetary Governor - Chapter 820

Chapter 815, We all have little secrets

A toxic miasma permeated the industrial core of Ruku, and the humming of the power armor’s built-in respiratory and circulatory systems was remarkably clear in the dead silence.

This world, located in the Ardan region, was at the forefront of the Dark Side’s expedition. As the planet faced the challenge of islandization, an Ork fleet invaded.

After decades of reproduction, the Ork problem on the planet had become severe.

However, the Ork presence in the world alleviated Ruku’s Chaos corruption. Local rebels, Ork warlords, and loyalists, corrupted by Chaos cultists, engaged in a protracted battle over the planet’s productive industrial zone.

After establishing contact with the loyalists, the Alliance repeatedly dispatched ground forces and spacecraft in an effort to simultaneously eliminate both the Orks and the Chaos rebels, but after six months of fighting, they were unsuccessful.

Further assessments raised the planet’s severity level several times, ultimately drawing considerable attention from the Southern Front Command.

A new army group was dispatched.

This single army corps alone wouldn’t be enough to solve the problem. But adding a contingent of Space Marines would make all the difference.

And the Space Marines leading them were from the Unforgotten Oath.

Miloriela’s boots crushed the last alien skull, crimson cranial fluid forming ice crystals on the ceramite. He looked up toward orbit, the outlines of four frigates faintly visible beyond the grayish-white atmosphere—observers sent by the Alliance to “assist in the battle.”

“Grand Master, the decontamination process is complete,” a raspy electronic voice echoed over the communication channel. Chief Librarian Uther emerged from the shadows of the ruins, his bone-white Librarian armor stained with charred flesh. “But you shouldn’t be participating in such a clearing mission yourself,”

Miloriela said gravely.

He could detect a faint fragrance beneath the Librarian’s robes, a scent signature only discernible by members of the Bloodsworn Circle. The moment the Chapter Master activated his private radio, the dark gold winged emblem on the inside of the Librarian’s breastplate suddenly glowed—the ancient symbol of the Fallen Angel Hunter.

“Let’s talk in the confessional.” Milorila turned and walked towards the half-collapsed church, his shadow cut into mottled blood clots by the shattered stained windows.

They stepped through the bronze doors melted by the ion cannon. Deep within the stone chamber inscribed with ciphers, twelve holographic projections had been waiting for a long time.

“Inner Circle, all members are present,” the projection of Chief Priest Qasim spoke first. He was currently leading the Third Company on another Alliance mission in the Border Sector. “According to a tip from our brothers in the Silent Hunters, the remains of Black Armor have been discovered in the lower levels of the hive on Gamma VII.”

The holographic image suddenly switched, and a blurry battlefield record showed a giant in pitch-black power armor being struck in the left shoulder by a plasma beam. Milorila’s neural interface stung—the inside of the broken shoulder armor was etched with the torn image of the Imperial Skyhawk.

“By the Emperor!” one projection cried excitedly. “This emblem… is of the Fallen…”

“Silence!” Miloriela slammed his fist down on the stone table. “Uther, verify the intelligence level.”

The Librarian pulled a crystal skull from his robes. As blue flames shot from his eye sockets, twelve projections knelt simultaneously. “The psychic resonance of the relic skull confirms that the genetic sequence of the armor fragment matches that of the defector we discovered thirty years ago.”

A genetic spiral diagram emerged from the flames. A base pair highlighted in red made Miloriela’s pupils constrict—it was the mutation signature unique to the children of the Angel of Death.

A projection suddenly flickered: “The Chapter currently has 237 trustworthy Bloodsworn Brothers, 443 Outer Circle members, and 288 Alliance bastards… We recommend dispatching the Seventh Tactical Squad to Gamma VII under the guise of eliminating Chaos remnants.”

“Not enough.” Milorila’s fingers carved deep grooves into the stone table. “We need at least two hundred Bloodsworn Brothers, and the Sword of Atonement from the Reliquary.”

“But the Alliance just took over our heavy equipment bay three months ago under the guise of ‘unified logistics.'”

Silence enveloped the stone chamber.

Uther’s power armor servos suddenly made a sharp grinding sound. “Those new recruits the Alliance sent in… Three more were promoted to Battle Squad Leaders yesterday. Outer Circle brothers report they’re secretly investigating the gene-seed storage chamber.”

Reverend Qasim’s projection suddenly split in two—a sign that he was mentally suggesting something to an Outer Circle member in reality.

“Grand Master, perhaps it’s time to make a decision. Let the outer brothers continue to play the role of the Alliance’s good dogs, and we will go to Gamma VII with the holy relics and the blood-sworn brothers.”

Someone said, “But abandoning the mother planet fortress means giving up the underground sanctuary we have run for hundreds of years! Those confessor prisons, genetic scrolls…”

“It is precisely to be left to the Alliance.” Milorila stood up, the confessor’s chains behind him rattling, “When they find that the sanctuary ‘happens’ to contain evidence of the chapter’s collusion with Chaos… When the outer brothers sadly admit that they have been deceived… When the hyenas of the Inquisition pounce on us like they smell rotten meat, it will prove that we have already ‘fallen’… Only in this way can we truly escape.”

“It should be impossible for the Alliance to discover the inner ring. The puppies they stuffed in still know nothing until now. But why is it that from the Alliance Center to that Gu Hang, they seem to have determined that there is something wrong with us and keep targeting us?”

“Don’t underestimate him, maybe he has some special methods.”

“I agree with the Grand Master’s orders. We bear the utmost secret, and it must not be leaked to the outside world. If this continues, the secret will be lost sooner or later.”

“The Mother Group will help us establish a new identity.”

“Communications with the Mother Group were reestablished yesterday. This will safeguard our operations.”

…

The holographic projections began to flicker at a high frequency, the psychic disturbances of the Inner Circle’s heated debate.

Listening to the discussions, Milorila felt the blood pumping in his heart begin to heat, the ancient genetic lock of the Blood Oath Ring taking effect. When he untied the cervical choker to reveal the dark red scar on his throat, all the projections simultaneously revealed the same mark—the sacred mark from the Mother Group at the founding of the group.

Everyone was silent. The Grand Master had made the final decision.

“In three hours, there will be a 47-second gap when the orbital surveillance fleet changes shifts.” Milorila called up the star map, and the coordinates of Gamma VII were as dazzling as drops of blood. “Fake a warp fluctuation alarm, and we will take advantage of the chaos to activate the ‘Ashewing’ battleship hidden on the back of the satellite. Cassim, inject loyalty serum into all outer brothers; Cassim, implant a level three chaos pollution report in the database of the mother planet; Uther… prepare to activate the sanctuary self-destruct program.”

The projection of the regiment’s Grand Apothecary Orion suddenly distorted: “Those outer brothers… they are after all…”

“They wear the armor of the angels of death, but have never known the weight of secrets.” Milorila pressed his palm on the Book of Truth in the confessional, and the spikes on the bronze cover pierced the flesh. “When the flames of the Inquisition purify this place, the surviving outer brothers will be reborn – as a regiment truly loyal to the Alliance.”

Uther suddenly raised the data tablet of a new blood of the Alliance: “But that battle-brother named Alvin, he has…”

“So you’re going to accidentally leak our escape plan to him.” Milorila wiped the blood from his palm and carved his final instructions on the stone table. “When our Outer World brothers heroically prevent our defection, and when our homeworld fortress is reduced to ash in the ‘crossfire,’ Gu Hang will only be relieved to have gained another loyal dog. We, like our ancestors, will fade into darkness and continue the eternal hunt.”

The Chapter Master drew his sword of atonement and slashed his palm. Twelve projections synchronized the same movement. “Eternal Hunt!”

As the confessional bell chimed thirty-seventh, a piercing alarm suddenly rang out from the orbital fleet.

…

Alvin Renark’s retinal projection was bleeding. He stared at the data stream pulsing through his tactical goggles—the data from the three months of anomaly data collected by his secretly founded Brotherhood of the Pure Flame.

He was an Alliance soldier, one of the earliest to join the Unforgotten Chapter.

After joining the Chapter, he quickly demonstrated his prowess and rose through the ranks, rising to become the Flag Sergeant of the Third Company. According to tradition, should his Captain encounter any mishap, he would be the next in line to take over.

For a recruit who had been in the Chapter for less than five years, this rate of advancement was incredibly rapid. No one could accuse the Unforgotten of discouraging Alliance recruits.

Everyone in the Chapter seemed polite. The Captain respected him, and his soldiers trusted him and fully executed his combat orders.

In short, everything seemed normal.

However, he felt otherwise.

The atmosphere within the Chapter was alienated. Relationships between everyone were polite yet distant.

At first, he thought it was part of the Chapter’s culture, and he actively tried to integrate, maintaining a cautious approach.

But soon, he couldn’t bear it anymore.

It was as if an instinct deep within his genes made him want to unite a group of warriors and dispel his inner unease.

And who could he choose?

Of course, the new bloods from the Alliance, like himself.

He secretly established a society within the Chapter.

This was the origin of the “Brotherhood of the Pure Fire.”

Initially, he was quite uneasy about such behavior, always wondering if he had done something disloyal, and even considered confessing to the Chapter Chaplain.

Of course, in the end, he didn’t do it. After much hesitation, he remained silent. It wasn’t until a private letter from Gu Hang, which was delivered to him through the “Space Marine Coordination Committee” under the “Dark Side Control Committee,” that his conflicting feelings were immediately resolved.

In the letter, Gu Hang expressed his concerns about issues within the Unforgotten Oath, believing that certain unknown problems and hidden dangers within the chapter could lead to its demise and affect the fate of the Alliance and human society. Based on this, Gu Hang instructed Alvin to thoroughly investigate any unusual activity within the chapter and report as much as possible. Only in this way could the purity of the chapter be maintained and its path from further down the path of no return be prevented.

Hearing this, Alvin Renark completely cast aside his concerns.

In truth, they hadn’t been a big deal to begin with.

Perhaps he simply needed a reason to convince himself.

He happily developed his Pure Fire Brotherhood within the Unforgotten Oath, with its total membership now reaching 126.

This represented nearly half of the new Alliance members within the chapter.

The remaining individuals who hadn’t been inducted were targets who needed to be tested. They would need to be gradually approached by the Brotherhood to ensure they could maintain the order’s secrecy before they could be inducted.

The entire Order’s mission is to investigate any secrets that may be hidden within the Chapter, and to fight for the Alliance and humanity.

However, recently, Alvin has made some new discoveries.

It seems that among the over one hundred Alliance recruits who weren’t inducted into the Order, some secret societies have formed, though they’re generally small. Furthermore, he’s even discovered that smaller secret societies have formed within the Brotherhood of the Pure Flame.

He remains calm.

It’s normal; everyone has their own little secrets, and it’s tolerable.

He’s even joined two of them.

As long as everyone’s mindset and goals remain aligned within the larger Brotherhood of the Pure Flame, that’s all that matters.

He’s quite confident in this, believing the Brotherhood remains united.

Furthermore, their investigations into the Chapter’s internal secrets are gradually yielding some results.

The first is an investigation into the Chapter’s gene-seed storage vault. After considerable effort, they’ve finally yielded some results: they’ve discovered that the Chapter has retained some gene-seed, something they shouldn’t have. If the Chapter was truly loyal, they should have surrendered all their gene-seed and not retained any.

He had already managed to pass this information back to the Space Marine Administration Association, his designated liaison.

New orders arrived from Alliance Central. First, they commended their intelligence, deeming it crucial.

Second, they were ordered to remain inactive for the time being.

This alone wasn’t enough to convict the Unforgotten Chapter; it would have been even better to uncover some new, decisive evidence.

The Brotherhood began tracing records of the Chapter’s past covert operations, hoping to uncover any clues.

This proved difficult, as they had been tasked with frequent combat missions during the Dark Side Crusade. Alvin had also noticed that the casualty rate among all Alliance newcomers, even those of the Brotherhood of the Pure Flame, was far higher than the average for all other Chapters.

This made him realize that the Chapter truly harbored many secrets. No matter how reasonable the combat orders, the end result was the same: they had been the victims of a betrayal.

This gave Alvin a greater sense of urgency, so much so that he took the risk of doing some “tricks” on several senior members of the chapter so that he could track the target at any time.

Within the Brotherhood, there was a battle brother named Shaka who had outstanding psychic talent, but concealed his talent when joining the chapter and did not enter the chapter think tank. He could help with this.

Just now, Shaka suddenly found him and informed him of an urgent matter: the senior members of the chapter suddenly had unusual movements. They gathered together in an unusual manner, and without any orders from the Alliance military, they boarded a spaceship and headed to the back of the first satellite of Ruku Star.

Just when he was hesitant about this, an order from his company commander asked him to lead his team to assemble and act together.

(End of this chapter)