Starting from the Planetary Governor - Chapter 855

Chapter 849, Broken Bones

Ankachi VIII System.

On the surface, Zerg and Orcs engaged in a frenzied battle. In the outer orbit of the planet, Zerg bio-ships and Ork junk ships also engaged in a desperate struggle for control of the planet’s orbit.

From beyond the system, support from both sides continued to pour in. Ships laden with soldiers airdropped onto the surface; warships protected transports or even attacked enemy transports.

The battle was undoubtedly at its most intense.

Amidst this desperate struggle, a human vessel stealthily approached the planet’s orbit.

Aboard this vessel was Archmage Chen Yanqing.

He was Archmage of the Storm Mage Corps and a Senior Instructor of the Imperial Psionic Association.

He was not originally from the Alliance, but a low-ranking member of the Psionic Association from Holy Terra. After Gu Hang became Honorary President of the Psionic Association and formulated its new development strategy, he followed them to Alliance territory. He

began by establishing a branch of the Psionic Association within the Alliance, and later participated in the integration of the Psionic Association with the Alliance’s Stormcasters.

During this process, he made significant progress and joined the Western Expeditionary Force at the outset of the Dark Side Crusade.

He quickly rose to the rank of leader of the Stormcasters’ tactical observation team on the Western Front, leading the team to establish the first psychic beacon array. He successfully located the jump trajectories of major enemy target fleets on numerous occasions and played a vital role in actual combat.

He was a man of war. During his recent return to the Alliance homeland for rest and recuperation, he had already reached A-level psychic power. He was personally received and commended by Gu Hang, and even bestowed with a psychic crown.

He also performed exceptionally well after the outbreak of the war in Omgeria. In a blocking battle against the Greenskins, he reverse-engineered the Waagh force field frequencies of the Greenskin junk fleet, helping the fleet disable the Ork gravity well generators and laying the foundation for victory.

Now, he’d accepted Gu Hang’s orders and become one of four observers stationed in the most dangerous areas of the front lines.

He was exceptionally daring. While his colleagues were confined to more peripheral systems, where the fighting was less intense, using psychic power and astral tunnels to observe the main battlefield as best they could, he plunged directly into the heart of the battle zone.

The psychic reconnaissance vessel he commanded, disguised as a meteorite, broke through the Zerg spore cloud and Ork space debris defenses, approaching Ankachi VIII to observe the battlefield from a close distance.

He was able to transcend the physical limitations of conventional reconnaissance methods, capturing signals of battlefield fluctuations directly at the interface between the Warp and reality. He was able to maintain the concealment and stability of the human observation network despite the massive Warp fluctuations and the interference of the Waagh force field. He constructed a dynamic combat power model of the Zerg and Greenskins, providing a quantifiable basis for decision-making during the window of opportunity…

It could be said that the information he provided was the most crucial piece of the battle information Gu Hang received from the front lines.

He even had the audacity to take advantage of the chaos and bring a company to the surface. While observing the Orks and the Zerg locked in a fierce battle, he found a relatively calm area on the planet and used psychic teleportation to send an elite reconnaissance company down.

However, this company didn’t last long on the surface of Ankachi VIII, quickly losing contact. Furthermore, with less than a hundred men, even the most elite, dropped into the raging battlefield of Ankachi VIII was like dropping a stone into a turbulent sea; the small ripples it stirred up were nothing compared to the massive surge.

While their sacrifice was swift, it wasn’t in vain.

At least, having his own men on the surface, along with the Cold Light III device they brought with them, did allow Archmage Chen Yanqing a brief moment of direct observation of the surface, allowing him to glimpse things that had previously been difficult to discern.

And it was this fleeting glimpse that yielded him a significant gain—he had a rough idea of Bone Crusher King’s approximate location on Ankachi VIII.

Although humanity had previously speculated that Bone Crusher King was definitely on Ankachi VIII, otherwise the Zerg wouldn’t have suddenly launched such a massive, all-out attack on this world at this moment,

speculation was still speculation. Compared to having direct, clear evidence like now

, he realized that the information about Bone Crusher King’s position on the surface, combined with the recent observations of a wave of unusual Zerg activity, made him realize that the Zerg’s recent movements were likely targeting Bone Crusher King!

He immediately mobilized all psychic observation methods, and even at the risk of exposing the ship, ordered it to move closer to surface orbit.

Finally, he saw what he had hoped to see.

…

Chen Yanqing pressed his palm against the metal support of the observation cabin, the crystal inlaid with the psychic crown glowing coldly on his forehead. The jumping data stream in the bridge holographic projection gradually twisted into a dark red color. The psychic vision penetrated the interference of the biological shield, and the energy fluctuations of the surface battlefield exploded like boiling magma at the nerve endings.

“A high-energy aggregate appeared in the southwest quadrant.” His voice was transmitted from the communication matrix to the entire ship, “Captured a level 7 biomass collapse reaction.”

His pupils contracted slightly.

In the psychic vision, the hexagonal honeycomb structure of the Zerg ambush circle was closing in, and the psychic nerve bundles of the neuron worms pulsated like silver-white blood vessels under the earth’s crust.

When the Bone Crusher King’s war fortress smashed the fourth acid turret, the lurking Zerg overlord finally tore through the rock layer.

“Record the time node: Standard Terra time, 19:37:42.” Chen Yanqing’s psychic tentacles wrapped around the tactical link, “Activate the spectral comparison module, and calibrate the battlefield energy level to the red zone threshold.”

The holographic image suddenly became clear. Three Hive Tyrants, their carapaces gleaming with obsidian, advanced in a triangular formation, their limbs plowing smoke-filled furrows through the ground.

The Executioner Tyrants suddenly unleashed their curled claws, their slashing beams precisely encircling the Ork leader’s trajectory.

The Bone Crusher’s reaction, however, was beyond the Zerg’s calculations. His armored right arm suddenly expanded several times, the green light of the Waaagh field condensing into solid gears at the elbow joint. Just as the claws were about to make contact, the gears suddenly reversed direction, the misalignment caused by the curvature of spacetime deflecting the Tyrant’s attacks towards the hills to the left.

“Abnormal energy readings!” Chen Yanqing’s mouth and nose were bleeding, and the psychic crown he wore, a rare sight on his head, was blazing at full power. But he didn’t bother wiping the blood away, instead reporting rapidly what he was seeing. “Gravitational distortion is occurring around the target, possibly a manifestation of a high-level Waaagh force field!”

At that moment, his psychic vision suddenly rippled.

The Bonebreaker King drew a battle axe, crafted from unknown bones, from his back. The vacuum created by the axe’s rotation actually reeled back two bio-plasma cannons. The neuron’s coordination network experienced a momentary delay—enough for the Ork leader to plunge into the center of the Zerg formation.

“Pay attention to the neural pulse frequency,” Chen Yanqing increased the output power of the psychic crown. “The seismic waves in the northeast are oscillating in a regular pattern. It’s the neuron’s rewiring of their encirclement.”

The holographic image suddenly shook violently. A Zerg bio-artillery position fired acidic slime shells, forming a circular cage that divided the battlefield into six sectors. The Executioner Tyrant seized the opportunity to cling to the gaps in Bone Crusher King’s armor, its claws vibrating at high speed in an attempt to sever the power lines.

But the Waaagh field’s strength now exceeded its observable limit. Bone Crusher King’s pupils glowed green, and his battle axe suddenly disintegrated into hundreds of rotating gears, each swirling with a different energy property. As these gears sliced through the cracks in the Tyrant’s carapace, Chen Yanqing watched as the signals representing the Zerg units on the tactical panel began to go out in droves.

“Biomass concentration plummeted!” Just as he finished speaking, his right eye suddenly exploded.

But he didn’t stop, continuing his cold report: “Mass annihilation reaction detected! Resetting observation link…”

On the reappearing screen, Chen Yanqing could already see Bone Crusher King clutching the severed head of a Hive Overlord, wielding it like a hammer. The Waaagh field’s kinetic energy conversion efficiency was astonishingly high. Every time the Overlord’s remains struck a new Zerg unit, a circular shockwave pulverized the surrounding Zerg swarm.

That was a Hive Overlord!

That was, according to the humans, a Zerg entity capable of single-handedly defeating a Warp Daemon!

How could it be undone so quickly by the Bone Crusher? He’d merely observed the broken link for a moment!

The Neuron attempted to reorganize the psychic network, but the Bone Crusher suddenly ripped the rocket pack slung from his waist. As he executed several mid-air right-angle turns, the fragments of his battle axe precisely pierced the core ganglia of three Neuron. Without its coordinator, the Zerg immediately fell into chaos, and countless holes appeared in the once tight encirclement.

“Recording combat data: The target demonstrates melee combat skills at the level of spatial folding.” Chen Yanqing’s psychic tentacles marked twelve keyframes on the tactical link. “Note the rune array on his left shoulder armor. There are traces of a special power flowing before each attack.”

As the last Executioner Tyrant was thrust into the barrel of his own acid cannon, the Bone Crusher suddenly roared to the heavens. A green beam of light, formed by the Waaagh force field, shot straight into the sky, and the orbiting bio-ship exploded at the roar!

A roar, could it be used as an anti-railgun?!

That was outrageous.

Chen Yanqing was forced to activate his psychic barrier, the ship’s shields rippling under the impact of the energy aftershock.

“Psychic readings have exceeded the threshold!” the assisting mage shouted before dying, “I suggest immediately severing the observation link!”

Those were his last words.

But Chen Yanqing pushed the output of his psychic crown to its critical point.

His other eye shattered, but before his psychic vision was completely shattered, he caught sight of the Bonebreaker King tearing open the chest of another Hive Overlord with his bare hands. Distorted light, like tiny black holes, swirled between the orc leader’s fingers. As the Overlord’s core biomass was forcibly ripped out, it spontaneously collapsed into a strange substance in the vacuum.

Even more terrifying, in the final moment of visual loss, Chen Yanqing felt as if the powerful greenskin leader glanced in his direction.

As the emergency airlock of the observation cabin slammed shut, Chen Yanqing’s combat uniform was drenched in cold sweat. On the tactical panel, the signal sources representing the Zerg ambush forces had all turned dark red, while the Bone Crusher King’s life readings continued to climb.

“Organize the observation records.” He took off his psychic crown, and tiny cracks appeared on the surface of the crystal. “Focus on the target’s ability to manipulate space and time in the third phase of the battle, which is beyond the scope of conventional waagh force fields.”

The adjutant was retrieving backup data at the console: “Do you need to send an emergency warning to the headquarters?”

“The priority has been adjusted to S level.” Chen Yanqing stared at the still-expanding green spot on the holographic star map.

The ship suddenly shook violently. The starry sky outside the observation window was dyed a strange orange-red, and some kind of mixed energy flow was erupting from the surface of Ankachi VIII. Chen Yanqing activated the backup psychic link and saw that the surviving Zerg were frantically rushing towards the underground tunnels, while the Ork Legion began to build some kind of giant device with the debris of the battlefield.

“They’re recycling Zerg biomass,” the Tech-Priest’s scanner blared. “Detecting the construction signature of a starship-like reactor!”

Chen Yanqing pulled up the strategic model Gu Hang had shared with him and fed the latest data into the predictive algorithm. On the holographic sandbox, the curve representing the Greenskin threat suddenly rose exponentially, while the remnants of the Zerg were collapsing towards the edge of the system.

“We must get the observation data to the main fleet before the Orks complete their battlefield recycling!”

Chen Yanqing sensed something was seriously wrong.

The latest intelligence, transmitted rapidly to Gu Hang with his psychic power, reached him.

The ship he was on was also revving its engines to full capacity, attempting to escape.

He wasn’t going to take Bonebreaker’s glance in front of him lightly.

As the ship began to turn, Chen Yanqing took one last look at the lingering image in his mind.

Bonebreaker King stood atop the corpses of the Hive Overlord, brandishing his battle axe, the aftermath of the Waaagh force field still tearing through the atmosphere. The shattered Zerg carapaces reassembled in a green glow, forming the skeleton of a new war machine.

As the hum of the jump engine echoed across the bridge, Chen Yanqing entered the highest level of warning code into the encrypted channel.

(End of this chapter)