Starting from the Planetary Governor - Chapter 824

Chapter 819: Civil War is the Most Painful

Hefting his hammer, Alvin looked elsewhere.

Just now, of course, the battle wasn’t just between him and Captain Nata.

Besides the one killed by the trap earlier, he had seven other battle-brothers, led by the psychic warrior Gaza, struggling to hold off an attack from veterans of the Chapter that outnumbered them by two or three times their number.

Normally, this would have been unbeatable. Especially since the Raiders not only outnumbered them, but also had the support of multiple Terminators and even two Dreadnoughts. With the added advantage of a surprise attack, they could easily wipe out half the Brotherhood’s members with heavy firepower in a single encounter, and a simple mop-up would be enough to end the battle.

But in reality, the battle was still ongoing.

The Brotherhood’s warriors, while not necessarily victorious, at least didn’t seem to be collapsing.

In fact, if one were to truly count casualties, the enemy had already lost six veterans of the Chapter, including two Terminators. On their side, only two warriors were incapacitated. The remaining five, led by Shaka, continued to resist resolutely.

All of them were members of the Brotherhood, composed of Alliance members, and their overall caliber was quite strong.

They were at least veterans, and three of them had reached the level of Exemplar Warriors—a level typically found in ordinary Chapters, typically by those like the Flag Master Chief or the Chapter Master’s Honor Guard.

Shaka, on top of this Exemplar Warrior status, possessed the strength of an A-rank psyker, a further guarantee. Even Alvin himself wouldn’t have dared to guarantee a single-handed victory against Shaka. After all, Shaka wasn’t like ordinary psykers, who, once their psychic powers were breached, would be like lambs to the slaughter against Space Marines. Shaka himself was a Space Marine, and if faced with a sudden attack, he could easily dispatch the attacker with a single strike. Even against a leader like Alvin, a company champion, he could withstand a couple of blows. Then, he could leverage his psychic powers to launch a counterattack.

In short, Shaka’s presence was the key to their continued survival.

With a long sigh, Alvin discarded his helmet. The wounds on his face, barely bleeding, had just stopped. He raised his warhammer and was about to join the battle.

But then, he heard two coughs.

The sound came from Nata,

the captain of the 3rd Company of the Unforgotten Oath, his breastplate deformed beyond recognition and mortally wounded. He struggled to remove his helmet, a feat that seemed to consume almost every ounce of his strength.

Nata’s mouth was vomiting blood. His entire chest cavity had been shattered. Unless he was immediately rushed to a special ward and his heart reconstructed with state-of-the-art medical support, perhaps his life could be saved, or at least he could be placed in a Dreadnought Coffin.

But that was clearly not possible now.

He struggled to even move, and the slightest bit of consciousness he still had was a fleeting glimmer of life.

Alvin, with just one glance, determined he was no longer a threat.

He didn’t want to waste time; his battle-brothers were still waiting for his support.

However, after Nata spat out the blood foam from his mouth, he chuckled twice, glanced at Alvin’s back, and, regardless of whether he wanted to hear it or not, spoke to himself:

“Stop struggling, it’s pointless.”

“The entire chapter has long since submitted to the Lord of Change. The very nature of the universe is endlessly changing, and the future will be even more so!”

“You can’t escape, and neither can the Alliance. The Empire, humanity, and even all living things in the universe will be in endless flux…”

As he spoke, Nata’s body glowed with blue and pink light. His shattered form began to twist and shift, like shattered glass reflecting a variety of colors. Something bizarre was happening, so bizarre that Alvin, watching it, felt dizzy.

“Bang!”

A bomb shattered Captain Nata’s mouth, which had continued to chatter even as he neared death.

As he completely transformed into a headless corpse, the changes in his body—or rather, the “illusion” Alvin saw—all disappeared.

He turned again, fighting alongside his battle-brothers to eliminate the remaining ambushers.

They were already struggling against Shaka and his men, let alone with the addition of Alvin, a master with a ragtag killer streak.

The effectiveness of his and Shaka’s combined strength was even greater.

With Shaka’s help, he quickly broke through the attackers’ defenses, rushed to a Dreadnought, and destroyed it.

Then came the second.

Then the Terminator squad.

At this point in the battle, Alvin heard the roar of Dragon Elephant engines in the sky.

He was initially nervous, fearing reinforcements.

Not all of the Third Company was there. There was another squadron outside, nowhere to be seen.

If another thirty Chapter veterans had joined the siege on him and the remaining Brotherhood, it would have been difficult to withstand.

But the reality of the situation brought a deep sense of relief.

The three Dragon Elephant fighters looked familiar—they were the vehicles that had brought them here.

The pilots’ communications connected with him:

“Hello, Master Chief Alvin, we have received instructions from our superiors to fully cooperate with your battle. Your enemy is our enemy.”

Overjoyed, the Master Chief immediately ordered the three fighters to join the battle.

Approaching the battlefield, the three fighters launched direct ground-to-ground fire, targeting Alvin’s enemies.

The Dragon Elephant fighters were incredibly powerful. Their massive size allowed them to carry heavy weapons, capable of carrying a squadron of Space Marines and even one or two tanks. Furthermore, the Dragon Elephant possessed exceptional speed and agility… it was a true air combat king!

In space combat, when launched by aircraft carriers near starships, the weapons they carried could inflict devastating damage to even those vessels!

Of course, these three Dragon Elephants didn’t have that capability at the moment. As transport and support aircraft supporting the Space Marines, they were forced to reduce their firepower in order to carry ten soldiers and sufficient supplies—at least not the equivalent of a few anti-ship missiles.

However, they did have standard air-

to-ground missiles, laser cannons, and Guardian macrocannons—these “conventional weapons.” Such firepower, when delivered to the enemy, could be quite devastating.

Of course, this alone wouldn’t be enough to destroy a Space Marine squadron.

The Space Marines’ exceptional agility allowed them to easily dodge aerial fire. Their area-of-effect damage, if missed, wouldn’t effectively inflict significant damage.

However, with the addition of Shaka, Alvin, and the numerous Paragons and Veterans on the ground, the situation changed dramatically. Their firepower effectively created an advantageous environment for the ground warriors, fragmenting the battlefield and allowing Alvin and Shaka to unleash their formidable individual strength. When the enemy, fragmented by aerial support, lacked numerical superiority in a localized area, they were quickly eliminated by Alvin and Shaka,

significantly reducing the difficulty of the battle.

As these powerful enemies were eliminated one by one, the battle became dramatically easier. Finally, when the enemy was completely annihilated, only one more person was lost, along with the loss of a Dragon Elephant—the pilot ejected and was saved.

At this moment, including Alvin, they still had a total of five Space Marines and two Dragon Elephants.

Thinking about it, his Third Company was essentially wiped out. His squadron had been wiped out, and Nata’s squadron had also been wiped out, along with the Dreadnoughts and Terminator squads… what was left of the entire company?

In a normal Dark Side expedition, even if they had conquered ten or even dozens of worlds, they wouldn’t have suffered such losses.

And yet, in just a few minutes of civil war, an entire company was decimated…

That was the brutality of civil war.

But there was no reason to lament.

He opened a coded communication, trying to confirm the latest situation with his fellow Brotherhood members.

There were a total of 96 Brotherhood members on Ruku. But since they were under attack, what about the others?

Was it possible that the entire Chapter had been attacked?

Nata’s behavior just now seemed to confirm this.

According to the information Nata had revealed, did it mean that the entire Chapter had long been sacrificed to the so-called Lord of Change?

He knew what the Lord of Change was—one of the four unholy gods of the Warp, and the most mysterious, unpredictable, and unpredictable of the four.

Could this be the Chapter’s hidden secret?

Had the entire Chapter become Chaos traitors? Had they simply hidden it well in the past?

Nata’s behavior before his death certainly suggested it.

However, Alvin still harbored doubts.

If that were the case, why did Nata say those words before his death?

Was he simply dying and wanting to vent? Was there something he couldn’t help but say?

It wasn’t impossible, but it was highly unlikely.

If he were about to lose, and Nata’s declaration of victory were a bit more believable: to play the victim.

Villains in stories are often like this.

However, in reality, he didn’t believe such a thing would actually happen, especially to a Space Marine Captain with over a century of combat experience.

Especially since Nata wasn’t just being talkative when victory was imminent, but after defeat, and before his death, he had to reveal a huge secret to him?

No matter how he thought about it, it seemed strange.

Instead, he was more inclined to believe that Nata’s last moments were merely an attempt to further mislead him—since he’d already lost, his death was certain, he might as well make a last-ditch effort.

This line of thought seemed to make more sense. With

this in mind, he couldn’t help but ask Shaka, who was standing beside him, “What do you think?”

Shaka instantly understood what Alvin was saying. Though he was far away, he had witnessed Nata’s final moments.

“Don’t believe his words. They’re too unreliable. They’re just noise, not a reference. We still need to investigate the true situation ourselves.”

“Where can we find out?”

Shaka pointed to the sky.

There was the Luku satellite.

This satellite, orbiting Luku, was so large that its outline could be seen in broad daylight.

And according to previous intelligence, the psychic tracking system Shaka had secretly used on several high-ranking members of the Chapter indicated that they were heading towards the back of the satellite.

Chasing them would certainly be useful.

Even a Captain like Nata could reveal some information—whether true or false—and the Chapter’s higher-ups would surely have even more to share.

Grand Masters—the Chapter Leaders of the Unforgotten Oath are called Grand Masters, a title inherited from their parent Chapter, the Angels of Death—likely possessing high-ranking authority, such as Chief Chaplain, Librarian, and Chief Apothecary. They all possessed correspondingly high-level permissions and were naturally likely to possess high-level “secrets.”

Yet, even Alvin and Shaka, leading a force against half a company of Chapter veterans, struggled mightily. The entire Chapter leadership of the Unforgotten Oath, plus the Grand Master’s personal guard, plus an unknown number of Chapter veterans, surely numbering in the hundreds… How could they possibly defeat them with just their own limited forces?

Even if all the other members of the Pure Fire Brotherhood on Ruku could arrive, it wouldn’t be enough.

Furthermore, it’s highly likely that they wouldn’t all be able to make it.

Alvin’s secret confirmation signal had been sent out for a while, but only a little over thirty people had responded.

The rest remained silent.

He didn’t know if it was because of the poor signal or because his fellow Brothers weren’t able to return at the moment.

He hoped it was the former.

If it was the latter, it meant his earlier suspicions were likely correct: the Chapter’s internal purge wasn’t just affecting their company, but the entire Chapter, a purge of all new members of the Alliance.

With him and Shaka, they could outmaneuver the enemy in the event of a surprise attack, perhaps even slaying all attackers. But what about the others?

As far as Alvin knew, he and Shaka were the strongest in the entire Brotherhood.

There wasn’t a third person on their level.

The thought of this made him feel slightly discouraged.

He said to Shaka, rather dejectedly, “Our current strength isn’t enough to support us in investigating the far side of the moon.”

Shaka shook his head and pointed to the sky.

Alvin was stunned for a moment, then overjoyed!

This wasn’t the world of the Unforgotten Oath.

This was the Alliance’s ongoing Dark Side expedition!

(End of Chapter)