Starting from the Planetary Governor - Chapter 959

Chapter 950, Blood Rose Maze

Labyrinth. Veserani claims the Dark Eldar are capable of destroying all of Comoros.

Whether this is true or not is unclear,

as it’s difficult.

During the human attack on Comoros, they assessed the destructive effects of the Extermination Order weapon on Comoros and were not optimistic.

Not to mention the risk of interception and the losses their own forces would suffer within Comoros after its release.

Simply looking at the destructive effects, neither the Burning Sky Torpedo nor the more advanced Earth-Blasting Planet Destroyer would likely achieve the desired effect.

The Burning Sky Torpedo’s core principle is to ignite a planet’s atmosphere, incinerating everything on the surface, leaving only a layer of molten lava on the surface before slowly extinguishing and ultimately returning to desolation.

While Comoros does have an atmosphere, the nature of the Veil is that it’s artificially created and separated.

Even if a Burning Sky Torpedo were to ignite a region, it would likely not spread for long.

There’s no need for a literal severing; each “city” or “block” is inherently discontinuous.

The same goes for the Earth-Blasting Planet Destroyer. This thing is essentially a terrifying, earth-penetrating super-bomb. It pierces the planet’s crust and detonates in the mantle. The immense, unique energy is transmitted to the core, triggering a terrifying internal reaction that causes a collapse and explosion from the inside out, effectively destroying the entire planet.

Like the Sky-Burning Torpedo, while the Earth-Blasting Planet Destroyer is far more powerful and technologically advanced, it essentially destroys the planet’s structure to achieve its “planetary destruction” effect.

And Comoros isn’t a celestial structure. A Earth-Blasting Planet Destroyer would have the effect of a massive bomb, an uncontrollable one at that. Might it destroy one or two city blocks? But that would be a drop in the bucket for Comoros as a whole.

As humanity conquered a portion of Comoros, their understanding of this city built between the veils grew clearer.

Comoros might not even be a physical entity, more like a city assembled from countless disjointed city blocks.

This assembly technique seems like a mystery to humans, currently incomprehensible.

Currently, both the Great Sage Cawl and the Alliance’s scholars and technical experts have reached a general consensus: with current human technology, there’s virtually no way to effectively destroy Comoros. At best, they could employ planet-destroying weapons to single-handedly destroy individual city blocks.

But even that wouldn’t be practical.

The cost is prohibitive.

Even the cheapest Sky-Burning Torpedoes are prohibitively expensive to manufacture, and

their success isn’t guaranteed.

Not to mention the potential for interception or accidental damage to their own forces, even if successfully launched, the probability of successful detonation is likely less than 30 percent, given the stark contrast between the atmosphere of a single city block and that of an entire planet.

These factors combined make it virtually impossible to attempt to destroy Comoros with such weapons.

Because even without considering the Dark Eldar’s resistance, humanity has been unable to find a suitable method to completely destroy Comoros, scholars and researchers naturally suspect that the Dark Eldar are bluffing.

They might even lack the ability to destroy Comoros.   But first and foremost, this matter must be taken seriously. One cannot simply believe it’s all bluffing and then bomb Comoros when faced with a threat of genocide.   That would be a complete waste of effort. Not only would the

desired   benefits be lost, but the Alliance’s heavily invested forces in Comoros would also suffer.   Furthermore, Ambassador Dexa directly presented the detailed process by which human scholars demonstrated that the Dark Eldar lacked the ability to destroy Comoros.   Even if the Dark Eldar scoffed, suggesting that humanity was short-sighted and that the Dark Eldar must possess such technology, Dexa maintained a resolute attitude: “No matter what you say, I simply don’t believe it.”   Otherwise, could these dark creatures really use the destruction of their homeland and a desperate struggle as a condition to control humanity?   If you have the guts, just self-destruct, and the entire race will be wiped out.   From a rational perspective, this is certainly worse than unconditional surrender. It can only be used as a bargaining chip. Humanity shouldn’t use it as a bargaining   chip, but rather firmly deny its validity. Unless the Dark Eldars present the Alliance with concrete evidence that they can destroy Comoros.   But if they do, that would also reveal the Alliance’s response.   If the Dark Eldars are unwilling to prove themselves, and if they do, the Alliance won’t accept or acknowledge their claim, destroying Comoros is merely a last resort, a dangling weapon.   Beyond that, their core bargaining chip remains: their ability to inflict unbearable losses on humanity on the battlefield.   On this front, the Dark Eldars are demonstrating their value.   …   In the battlefields within Comoros, over the past two or three months, humanity has launched a frenzied offensive. Not only have they eliminated the Black-skinned guerrillas in several urban areas, but they’ve also further expanded the front. They’re even closer to capturing the next port.   While the next port is only a small one, with less than one-fifth the throughput of the veiled spirit gates that can be opened, it’s still a significant improvement, allowing the Alliance to deploy troops and transport supplies faster.   In fact, the current shortage of troops is a relatively minor issue. The more significant problem is that to maintain a high-intensity offensive, the human army requires a vast supply of logistical resources. From fuel and energy to consumables like ammunition and food supplies… with over a billion human troops currently engaged in combat in the Comoros, the daily and hourly demand for supplies is simply staggering.   In fact, a significant portion of the Queen’s Rose Port’s transportation capacity is currently devoted to transporting and storing these supplies. A large number of secondary troops have also been sent up, tasked with the logistics of delivering various military supplies to the front lines.

In short, as humanity’s advances on the battlefield escalate, the Dark Eldar’s bargaining chips will dwindle.

But precisely at this moment, the human forces encountered a formidable challenge in their main offensive.

The ‘Blood Rose’ labyrinth node, and the rats.

It was diplomat Veserani who informed the humans of this entity. Her expression was filled with pride as she described it.

As for its efficacy, Veserani would not reveal it. She simply claimed it was an ‘unbreakable line of defense.’

Many of its functions had already been discovered by the human frontline troops at the cost of countless soldiers’ blood.

The so-called ‘maze’ wasn’t a traditional physical structure, but rather a war machine constructed by the Dark Eldar technical department under Viktor’s control.

This massive living structure, spanning several city blocks, was constructed with countless mutated bone vines as its skeleton, and its flesh and blood channels woven into a complex network of corridors. Its internal environment simulated the ecological environment created by the ancient Eldar.

The maze had three core functions.

First, the bone vines, entwined with dark runes, are mobile. Once within them, human forces’ movements become completely uncontrollable. On a support mission, a path previously traversed might appear unreachable, yet blocked for those following. An entire unit might advance, only to be unnoticed and scattered by the movement of fog and vines.

In such conditions, human forces are vulnerable to being outnumbered in a localized situation and quickly annihilated by the Dark Eldar’s adeptness at slicing, ambushing, and sudden attacks.

Second, these bone vines can form psychic runes at strategic locations by forming unique patterns and shapes, activating high-speed psychic transmission channels hidden within the maze, allowing troops to rapidly move.

Third, the scarlet flowers that permeate every corner possess the ability to sense information and transform energy. The energy signature and movement trajectory of anyone who enters will be recorded and analyzed, rendering the battlefield completely transparent to the Dark Eldar.

Fourthly, the Blood Rose ‘Labyrinth,’ a war weapon capable of covering an entire city, is an undeniably energy-intensive wasteland. However, creatures that die within the maze are captured by the vines, rapidly digested, and fed back into the maze as an energy reserve. Especially during combat, the inevitable pain of death is a perfect source of nourishment.

The entire Blood Rose Maze is both a living trap and a fortress providing nearly unlimited battlefield support to the defenders. The Skaven

legions, bred by the so-called ‘Shadow Eater’ family, are specifically bred for this environment.

Their hunched spines are covered in rudimentary armor, and their overall size is roughly the size of a ten-year-old human child. Low-level Skaven cannon fodder units typically have significant portions of their brain structure removed during genetic engineering, replaced with biological neural nodes capable of receiving commands from the maze.

As human troops entered the maze districts, these “rats” silently seeped out from sewage outlets, ventilation shafts, and even the cracks in the crumbling walls

. Using the maze’s sensory network, they precisely predicted the human firepower axes and, with their boundless numbers, madly overwhelmed the human troops. They appeared in swarms, swarming between armored vehicles and flanking infantry formations, their destructive methods both primitive and efficient. After all, they weren’t all cannon fodder; some “specialized troops” also existed.

Suicide rats, armed with highly corrosive slime spores, gnawed acid at the armor seams, then exploded upon being killed, unconcerned about destroying their own units in the process. After all, ratmen, no matter how expensive, were worthless. Engineer rats equipped with dimensional jammers crippled vehicle engines and communication arrays. Hundreds of frenzied battle rats, using the maze’s bioelectricity to stimulate nerves, ripped out the throats of isolated soldiers with terrifying speed. The few rat trolls that appeared were over five meters tall, their immense vitality allowing them to withstand a tank’s main gun without immediate death, their terrifying strength enough to overturn a tank!

The labyrinthine vines served as their perfect cover and transport belt. Every fallen human corpse fed the maze with more energy, catalyzing the emergence of more twisted rat shadows.

In the initial stages of this hostile war, humanity suffered heavy casualties, forcing their offensive to halt in several districts shrouded by the Blood Rose Labyrinth.

Attempts to brute force and destroy the bone vines proved ineffective, leading humanity to study this Dark Eldar weapon and seek a way to defeat it.

Two hundred warriors from the 4th and 5th Companies of the Black Hammer Chapter were tasked with this mission.

This regiment originated from a Blood Angels Primaris successor chapter established after the Blood Angels’ annexation to the Alliance. All of them wielded Blood Angel Primaris gene-seed, resulting in a highly skilled overall force. While not fully staffed with Sanguine Guards and not considered an elite chapter, they were still far superior to regular chapters.

On the battlefield, two hundred Black Hammer warriors, along with four armored infantry regiments, battled through this living hell to advance into the core of the “Skull-Splitting Cross District.” Their objective for this experimental operation was to capture the landmark signal tower.

The tower’s base was encased in a labyrinthine energy core, and destroying it would theoretically disable a vine-growing channel.

Following the tactical map, they quickly approached their target location. There should be an alloy tunnel leading directly to the tower’s base.

However, on the way to the tunnel, they discovered a significant discrepancy between their previous intelligence and the surrounding terrain: bone vines had altered the path.

To avoid being trapped in the maze, they had to spend considerable time clearing the path through the bone vines and scarlet flowers they could see.

Of course, they didn’t have to do it all on their own.

Shortly after the call was made, the human air force arrived. Fighters and bombers dropped a barrage of incendiary bombs on the area, burning nearly every inch of the ground to clear their path.

However, the challenge remained.

The vines were resilient and inflamed, requiring the intense heat of a melt-thrower to destroy them. The incendiary bombs burned some, but some stubbornly remained.

Furthermore, once one section was burned, new ones would sprout from elsewhere. What’s even more terrifying is that many bone vines are hidden underground and in the walls. After they burn out, they will extend again.

When an area is cleared, it won’t take long for it to recover again after people pass by.

As for the scarlet flowers, they are easy to destroy, but in fact, they are easy to hide in corners and crevices, and they can be missed if you are not careful.

Even if you use carpet burning to clean up, and really use hot melt to burn every inch of land and wall, after a while, the bone vines will extend again to dominate this area, and new ones will grow on the vines.

There is no way, you can only bite the bullet and keep moving forward.

On the way forward, vines have already emerged in this charred air raid area that is still emitting residual heat from burning.

The captain of the fourth company of the Black Hammer – Lu Baigang, has already anticipated the difficulties of this journey.

(End of this chapter)