Starting from the Planetary Governor - Chapter 949

Chapter 940, Nightmare Executioner

like Ji Hao, and several other waves of them, carried out similar missions.

Among the various crises facing the Alliance, the Dark Eldar were certainly not a significant opponent. While they frequently attacked human planets and fleets, their scale was limited, and their losses were modest—at least not compared to other alien and Chaos enemies.

They were like annoying mosquitoes; they bit and sucked blood, causing swelling and other annoyances, but honestly, they weren’t the most deadly of creatures, not on the same level of threat as those jackals, tigers, and leopards.

Even mosquitoes, however, were a nuisance in large numbers. This was especially true in the Alliance’s heartland.

The Alliance’s military specifically targeted these areas.

Many Dark Eldar strongholds were discovered and eliminated by the Alliance.

However, some remained, and according to Gu Hang, they were still useful.

As it turned out, they were deployed here.

Before the battle began, the Alliance’s forces had already secured the Veil Spirit Gates. Furthermore, the Alliance’s combat forces were far superior to those of the Dark Eldar guarding the Veil Gates.

This was not only in terms of numbers, but also in terms of quality.

For example, the Dawnbringers Chapter, led by Ji Hao, were entirely imbued with the Glory Seeds of the Saint Legion and trained by the Blessed Sons, resulting in a formidable force.

The impact of such a fully staffed Chapter was formidable, annihilating

the Veil Gate defenders before they could react.

And this time, it wasn’t just these elite troops that were deployed.

The Central Front was also included.

The Alliance currently had five Fronts engaged in the expedition,

four of which were involved in the Dark Side Expedition. The Northern Front was responsible for the defense, holding the entire Scar’s defenses and preventing the Chaos forces emerging from within from threatening the Alliance’s heartland. The Southern, Eastern, and Angel Fronts, advancing southwards from three directions, essentially recaptured the entire eastern border of the Empire. The next step was to advance towards the southern border.

After conquering the two central territories of the Empire’s Dark Side, the Western Frontier crossed the Scarlet Scar from the Seven Star Corridor and headed towards the Holy Territory, towards Holy Terra. Their operations were no longer within the Dark Side of the Empire and were not considered part of the Dark Side Crusade, but rather part of the Terra Crusade.

The final Frontier was the Alliance’s Central Frontier.

While this force seemingly took no part in external warfare, its responsibilities were no less significant. Their primary mission was to defend the Alliance’s heartland and the numerous occupied and under-development areas.

While these areas were now Alliance territory, their recovery had been completed, and the main battles were over, within the dark universe, despite the illumination of the Thunder Torch, the influence of Chaos and the corruption of the xenos persisted.

Disasters had plagued the lands before the Cataclysm, let alone after it.

The Central Frontier was responsible for this task.

An Alliance occupation was never a complete endeavor. Since the Alliance strives for long-term stability, beyond political stability, economic development, and the planet’s own military defenses, it naturally requires a strong military force to suppress all conflicts.

To be honest, the Central Front is almost the most powerful of the five major fronts!

Of course, this doesn’t mean that the Alliance will simply leave its strongest military force at home. In fact, as the Dark Side Crusade captures ever-larger territories, the Central Front naturally faces increasing pressure to defend more territory. Furthermore, the Alliance implements a rotation system. Exhausted frontline troops must return for rotation and rest.

Before returning to the front lines, they are naturally assigned to the Central Front.

Established units within the Central Front are also rotated to other fronts during this period to provide fresh reinforcements.

Overall, the Central Front maintains the largest and most powerful force among the other fronts.

To put it bluntly, the Alliance truly needs a sufficiently powerful army to command the center. If everything were assigned to the expeditionary force, what would happen if something went wrong? They definitely needed a sufficient military to handle everything.

And when necessary, they could also conduct large-scale military operations.

For example, right now—the all-out attack on Comoros!

The seven Veil Gates aren’t particularly large. While each can accommodate battleships, only one can enter at a time.

If the Veil Gates were the only ones, the battle would be lost. The Dark Eldar could block the gates from the other side. They wouldn’t need to destroy or close them; they could simply block them and destroy any incoming human fleets.

Fortunately, Queen Rose Harbor is still largely under human control. This gives the Alliance fleet the opportunity to gradually advance and accumulate forces, while the Dark Eldar can only interfere.

After all, they haven’t even managed to deal with the expeditionary fleet yet. The Infinite Legion’s Glorious Queen, once stationed here, is the backbone!

And it’s not over yet.

Once humanity gained control of the Veil Gates and the ports, were they content with deploying troops using these seven “small water pipes”?

Definitely not.

Expanding the existing Veil Gates, and even constructing new, larger ones, was imperative.

Ji Hao’s Dawnbringers Chapter was tasked with this mission.

A full complement of Dawnbringers, thousands of Blessed Sons, were rapidly deployed to the ground battlefield via hundreds of fighters and transport aircraft, under the cover of orbital firepower.

Meanwhile, the Alliance forces entering Comoros had already connected with the command system of the expeditionary force led by Robert. Gu Hang actually had no objection to handing the Alliance forces over to Robert, but their respective command systems were incompatible, and it was unwise to rashly coordinate tactics without rehearsal, as that could easily lead to problems. The Alliance forces

should continue to carry out their missions according to their original plans.

At most, they would need to communicate relevant information to the Terran expeditionary force during operations.

This was the case with the current Dawnbringer.

Robert’s strength lay in the fact that, even in this situation, he could still manage the coordinated operations.

The Dawnbringer’s current objective was to capture a warehouse that had been discovered through previous intelligence. The number of Dark Eldar troops stationed there was unknown, and it wasn’t certain to be numerous. However, the most difficult aspect of the mission was the possibility that the enemy could destroy the warehouse if they failed to defend it.

And in this warehouse are the materials for building the Curtain Spirit Gate, which are necessary for the subsequent human forces to expand the Curtain Spirit Gate.

Humans couldn’t produce this stuff on their own; they had to seize it from the Blackskins.

Upon learning of the Dawnbringers’ mission, Robert quickly coordinated.

A Pure Armored Division, formed from a certain religious world, led by his command, under the fervent cries and encouragement of the Ecclesiarch, launched a heroic charge, opening a path for the Dawnbringers and attracting the enemy’s attention.

Just as Ji Hao’s Dawnbringers reached a point near the warehouse, orbital fire support from an expeditionary cruiser arrived.

The deafening explosion of orbital fire provided a welcome start for the ground forces. Enemies in the area surrounding the warehouse’s coordinates were bombarded.

To avoid impacting the warehouse, the firepower employed was minimal, but still quite effective.

A Space Marine company from an Infinite Warriors successor launched a preliminary attack, conducting a reconnaissance of the enemy within the warehouse to gauge their strength. Nearly a hundred Space Marines were already a formidable force. If the enemies in the warehouse were not strong, they might even be able to capture the warehouse directly, and then the Dawn Messengers wouldn’t have to bother.

Even if that wasn’t possible, at least they could go a step further and clear out the enemies for the Dawn Messengers.

In general, under Robert’s command, after a set of combined punches, the Dawn Messengers didn’t have to worry about anything. They could just go to the target location and take the things away.

Ji Hao was quite moved by this.

It was indeed comfortable to fight under the Son of God.

However, he was somewhat uncomfortable, or perhaps he didn’t like it very much.

The Dawn Messengers were established not long ago, and had been in the Central Front of the Alliance. They had only fought some minor battles, and had not had the opportunity to rotate to other fronts. As the head of the chapter, he was very confident in the strength of his own chapter, and most chapters were no match for them. Confident in his strength, he eagerly sought to lead his Chapter to a glorious victory, one that would earn the Dawnbringers a thumbs-up. As the first Chapter Master, he also wanted to leave a lasting legacy for the Chapter.

A crucial battle, a crucial performance—that was what he cared deeply about.

Robert had paved the way for him with impeccable ease, leaving Ji Hao somewhat frustrated.

Of course, this didn’t prevent him from adjusting his mindset and executing his mission effectively.

However, the opportunity to demonstrate his abilities soon presented itself.

The company had suffered unexpected losses and was forced to call for reinforcements.

They claimed that among the enemy lay a powerful elite force of Dark Eldar, even surpassing the Space Marines in individual strength. They were unable to complete their planned clearing of the outer flanks.

Ji Hao took this seriously.

While it was certainly not good to rejoice over the devastating defeat of allies, he could hardly conceal his excitement.

However, he remained sensible. He didn’t act rashly. His own main force continued to advance according to the original plan, only dispatching the Second Company to provide support and help the allied Chapter escape.

…

Nightmare Executioners—Bilson knew this kind of enemy.

As a veteran Captain of the Infinite Son Chapter, the Holy Infant Archons, he had encountered this foe before the Cataclysm.

While defending the trade routes from the Alliance to the Infinite Segmentum, he and his company faced a deeply impressive foe during the defense and counterattacks against various Dark Eldar attacks.

Clad in heavy black armor and elusive in their movements, these Eldar super-soldiers were even more powerful than ordinary Space Marines. They lacked ranged weaponry, yet were able to reach Space Marines with swift, unstoppable speed.

They even employed a technique similar to short-range teleportation and blinking. Their pitch-black forms could literally transform into shadows, vanishing on the spot and reappearing at their target’s location.

Then, their armor-piercing vortex blades posed a formidable threat to Space Marines in close combat.

Many of Bilson’s battle-brothers had perished at the hands of Nightmare Executioners in the battles before the Cataclysm.

But in the past, Nightmare Executioners were always few in number. He had never encountered a Nightmare squad larger than ten.

This time, he foresaw a Nightmare squad of fifty!

In just one teleportation assault, Bilson’s company lost twenty Space Marines.

Their offensive was instantly halted, and they were forced to fight and retreat, immediately sending a call for assistance to the Dawnbringer.

The enemy’s counterattack was fierce, and the Infant Archon warriors were not immune, but they had to be wary of the Nightmare Executioners’ surprise attacks. After their initial assault, the previous Nightmare squad retreated under the cover of other Blackskin units. Clearly, they did not wish to engage the Space Marines head-on upon their appearance, preferring to retreat and seek another opportunity for a surprise attack.

Bilson’s company was forced to form an extremely tight formation, even though it made counterattacks nearly impossible and would be extremely vulnerable to heavy casualties if bombarded. Otherwise, if their formation were to break, another wave of Nightmare Executioners would teleport in, suddenly arriving behind them without a sound or movement. A single strike would likely decapitate dozens more Battle Brothers. Fortunately

, the Dawnbringers arrived to reinforce them.

However, upon seeing that the Dawnbringers numbered only a hundred, Bilson’s expression changed again.

“Why only one company?” Bilson’s voice was tinged with fear.

He saw that adding another company was pointless; the Nightmares would still teleport in, behead them, and then retreat. If this continued, the newly arrived Dawnbringers would end up in the same situation.

The arrival of a large number of Space Marines was essential, capable of overwhelming the enemy with a single blow, leaving the Nightmares unable to rely on their own forces for cover, exposing them to direct combat.

Although the Dark Eldar Nightmares are also very capable in frontal combat, they are definitely not able to withstand the impact of Space Marines that are several times or even dozens of times their number.

However, what can a single company do?

————   There is one more chapter before dawn

yesterday   (this chapter is finished)