Starting from the Planetary Governor - Chapter 835

Chapter 830, Great Smart Plan
The Inquisitor of the Anti-Xenophobia Tribunal named Sipleg had no ill intentions, but was truly concerned for the Empire and the greater good.
The Orcs of Ohm were expanding at an alarming rate. The Orc commander known as Dragonshell, who rose from pirate warlord to Warchief, was incredibly powerful. His armies were even more formidable, swiftly decimating the human forces on Ohmgeria’s mainland.
During the Age of Cataclysm, humanity’s ability to connect across the cosmos was drastically weakened, leaving isolated worlds powerless to stop the Green Tide.
After the most promising legions directly under the Segmental Government and a disorganized warband operating in Ohmgeria suffered crushing defeats, the Green Tide became effectively unstoppable.
Without a solution, the Green Tide would not only engulf all of Ohmgeria but would even continue to overflow.
The Green Tide, now encompassing an entire star system, was terrifying even before the Cataclysm. It would require the combined might of multiple factions to annihilate it,
let alone today .
At least before the Imperial Dark Side and the arrival of the Alliance, it was impossible to muster a large force against the Greenskin Orks near Omgeria. Each world and faction had its own problems to contend with.
In this climate, Sipleg stepped forward.
This Inquisitor, a descendant of the Imperial Inquisition, had been active in the surrounding region before the Cataclysm, seeking to combat the increasingly rampant Greenskin xenos. The Cataclysm shattered his plans, undoing all his efforts.
He was unwilling to accept defeat, and he would not allow the Orks to truly expand as he had anticipated.
The Omgeria sector was beyond saving, completely ravaged by the ravages of decades. Perhaps some remnants of humanity on many planets remained in hiding, quietly resisting and surviving, but that was no longer enough to determine the outcome. But at the very least, the Green Tide must be contained within the Omgeria Sector and prevented from expanding beyond it.
If the Dragon Shell Clan were to conquer two or three more star regions, the Dragon Shell Orc Empire would likely become completely unstoppable, even rivaling the “Beast Empire” that once threatened to destroy Terra.
But humanity simply couldn’t muster a united front against the Dragon Shell. What then?
Severeg’s gaze shifted to humanity’s other greatest enemy: the aliens—the Void Zerg.
As a Senior Inquisitor of the Tribunal of Exorcism, Severeg possessed a deep understanding of the Zerg. Two star regions away, several nearby planets suffered severe parasitic infestations.
The parasitic infestations on those worlds were considered “conventional.” In contrast, the infestations encountered by the Alliance during the Ironclad War were unconventional.
Typically, the Void Zerg use ultra-small, fist-sized micro-bio-ships to spread dormant parasite eggs across the vast expanse of space, like spores, drifting aimlessly. Once they reach a planet with the potential for life, the micro-bio-ships are automatically captured by the planet’s gravity and plunge into the asteroid.
A single fist-sized bio-ship can often hold tens of millions of eggs. Upon landing, they absorb a small amount of nutrients and hatch, becoming anything from a speck of dust to the size of a fingernail, gaining rudimentary mobility.
Next, they seek out native organisms to parasitize, multiplying more eggs, ultimately aiming to parasitize humans or some other intelligent species.
Once they reach this stage, the parasite’s mission is complete. They are too small, their connection to the Queen Mothership from which they were released too tenuous, but they are seeds. Once they can land on an intelligent host, that intelligent species, acting as a native species, can be exploited.
Next, the parasites infect more people, and the initial infected individuals become leaders, establishing Zerg cults to infect even more.
Infected individuals in this state are not like the mindless zombies the Alliance dealt with during the aftermath, having lost their hive mind networks. They are incredibly intelligent, possessing intelligence comparable to that of ordinary humans, and even using the infected’s own brains. They are simply parasites, creating illusions in their victims, making them believe they are aiding a benevolent and powerful “Protoss.” One day, the Protoss will rescue all suffering, and they will live in paradise.
Only by finding and eliminating the hidden leader can the remaining infected be reduced to mindless zombies.
Often, there is more than one leader on a single planet. They are also extremely hidden, making them difficult to find. Their
religious-like organizational structure is why they are called “cults,” often referred to by humans as “parasitic cults” or “infected cults.
” Their inherited wisdom from their original hosts makes them difficult to deal with. Their tactics aren’t rigid, not just in warfare. Even more troubling are the problems outside of war.
They lurk within the native societies of infected hosts.
Those with the smallest physical differences from the native race are infiltrated, tasked with luring and recruiting more followers. Targets that need to be dealt with covertly, or during uprisings, are handled by parasites that have evolved into inhuman forms, acting as a backup force.
Once they have grown to a sufficient size and become numerous, and the parasite leader can harness a sufficient number of parasitic followers to collectively light the “light,” the countdown to apocalypse begins.
This collective mind can transcend the waves of the Warp and transcend the physical distances of the real universe. Within the hive’s mental network, it acts as a beacon, flickering in the darkness, clearly signaling to all hive fleets that a treat awaits.
Often, the nearest hive fleet will arrive.
The best-case scenario for humanity, of course, is the complete annihilation of the parasitic sect on a planet. Even if this isn’t possible, their numbers must be strictly controlled to prevent them from becoming a major force.
If they do become a major force, they must be eliminated from within as quickly as possible, and then fully prepared for a direct confrontation with a Hive Fleet.
The worst-case scenario is that the Parasite Cults haven’t been eliminated by the time the Hive Fleet arrives, or even remain in significant numbers. They will often riot within the planet, cooperating with the incoming Hive Fleet to overwhelm the planet’s defenses. Even if the rebellion is suppressed, the planet’s defenses will be weakened and panic will fall, making them even more vulnerable to the impending full-scale invasion.
Of course, each specific Infested Cult’s attitude towards the Zerg’s arrival varies. On one recorded world invaded by a Zerg swarm, 75% of the population voluntarily and calmly jumped into the swarm’s digestion pits when the Zerg appeared, ready to devour everything.
But this is a special case.
Parasite cultists are often unaware of the implications of the Swarm’s arrival, completely believing the Tyranids are great, enlightened beings who will lead everyone to a perfect, blissful paradise.
At the beginning of the invasion, these cultists may indeed realize their dreams of fighting alongside their beloved Star-Spawn, but once the invasion is largely over, they will become food for the Tyranids like everyone else.
Worse still, the Hive Mind will take over the mind-network established by the Infested Patriarch, shielding non-Zerg beings from its constraints.
The long-held illusion will slowly fade, giving the cultists ample time to appreciate the true nature of themselves, their loved ones, and their alien relatives before ultimately being devoured in a frenzy of despair.
The Infested Cult is little more than a Tyranid buffet, destined for destruction regardless of infiltration success.
However, in this situation, the Infested are a valuable tool.
Siplegg used every possible means to capture several shiploads of parasites two sectors away, transporting them to the few surviving worlds in the Ohmgeria sector.
These worlds had either not yet been invaded by the Orks and were on high alert, or had already been invaded but were still resisting.
The Inquisitor’s arrival earned great respect from the planetary defense forces, raising their hopes.
Siplegg and his Inquisitorial forces, along with those he had recruited from surrounding sectors, were diligently helping these worlds resist the Ork invasion.
But their more important task was to release the infected into human society and provide them with support, facilitating their rapid infestation.
Siplegg even “accidentally” leaked a method he had developed to accelerate the maturation of cultists, allowing them to connect to the Hive Mind network with fewer people.
Siplegg calculated that the nearest Hive Fleet was not far from the Ohmgeria sector. As long as the signal is sent, and the Hive Fleet receives it and is willing to come, the journey will only take about three or four years.
This time would be despairing for any world invaded by a Hive Fleet; the time to prepare is far too short and inadequate. But for Sipleg, right now, it’s good news.
He intends to use the four planets, heavily infested and “accelerated,” as bait to quickly lure the Hive Fleet so close.
He sees this as the best of both worlds.
Since humanity seems unable to contain the Dragon Shell Clan’s spread, let the Zerg stop it.
Since they’ve calculated that the Hive Fleet is so close to human territory, a subsequent invasion is inevitable. Those worlds plagued by parasitic cults will sooner or later, in this era of cataclysm, be unable to contain their internal infection, ultimately leading to a Zerg invasion.
Let them fight it out!
Both sides are aliens, fighting fiercely! No matter how many die, Sipleg won’t feel the slightest bit of heartache.
During this process, there were actually some disagreements within his team.
If it were any other alien race, they could have allowed the two to fight each other, leaving humanity unable to muster sufficient strength to defeat them.
Ideally, the fight would have been to the point of mutual destruction, leaving neither side exhausted, with the human army then scrambling to clean up the mess. That would have been the ideal outcome. But the two warring factions were the Greenskin Orcs and the Void Zerg.
Both races grew stronger
with each battle! The Orcs had a powerful reproductive capacity and could gain combat experience and advance their war techniques by devouring their enemies. Furthermore, the more brutal and intense the battle, the greater the reward from the Orcish gods, gathering ever greater waagh energy. This strengthened each individual Orc within the group, ultimately propelling the entire group ever stronger.
The best way to destroy the Orcs was to defeat them in a single battle, directly eliminating their leader, causing chaos within the group and ultimately swiftly destroying them. The situation
with the Zerg was similar. They grew stronger with each battle.
The way they multiply is by devouring organisms, obtaining biomass, and then producing more Zerg units.
Ordinary organisms can only provide ordinary biomass; but intelligent organisms with souls, especially the smarter and more powerful intelligent organisms, can obtain higher quality biomass by eating. When producing certain powerful Zerg units, such as the Swarm Tyrant, the Brain Worm, the Giant Assassin Worm, the Hive Ship and the like, it is this high-quality biomass that is needed. The Orcs with strong reproductive capacity just
provide a large amount of biomass; the Orcs who become stronger and stronger in battle can also provide more and more high-quality biomass.
Some of Sifleg’s subordinates believe that if the two races are allowed to fight each other for a long time, they may not be able to wait for the mutual destruction they want.
The victorious side may become a terrible disaster that is much more powerful than the current two combined.
(End of this chapter)
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