Chapter 202: Lord Cypher
With military force, Damon had completely taken over the fragile, remaining military and administrative systems of the planet.
When he learned of the specific situation on this world, Damon realized just how bad it was. He was obviously not skilled in administration; he was currently relying on absolute military power to solve the planet's problems. With the suppression from the fleet in orbit and the complete combined-arms combat system of the Raiders, it was only a matter of time before the massive hordes of Poxwalkers were wiped out.
The only thing holding the Raiders back was their numbers. Twenty regiments of Raiders was not a large force when spread across an entire planet. The Imperial government on Agripinaa had abandoned them, leaving many of the planet's cities in a state of anarchy. The Raiders had to dispatch troops to defend and suppress almost every area. A thousand-man regiment, in cooperation with the local Planetary Defence Force, could barely maintain the stability of one city and curb the further spread of the Nurgle Poxwalkers.
However, in the transport ships of the fleet, there were still those special Zerg led by Zagara, whose bodies retained the residual divine power of the Emperor. Damon planned to let these Zerg attack the wilderness areas and the cities that had been completely occupied by heretics and the Nurgle plague. Even the life support systems in the combat suits could hardly provide one hundred percent protection against the diseases here; after all, these plagues carried a bit of supernatural power.
But apart from the seemingly endless Nurgle Poxwalkers, no particularly powerful enemies had been found on the entire planet. Without the arrival of the Raiders, the plague alone could have completely paralyzed this world. And when the main Chaos army truly arrived, they could have reaped it with ease, acquiring an entire planet without expending any extra military force.
The current situation on Lorysia was a perfect breeding ground for Chaos. The despair and suffering souls were the best offerings for the dark gods. When Chaos arrived, those who had turned to it would have handed over the entire planet on a platter.
Relying on their supplies, the Raiders also gained some trust from the survivors in the outer areas and managed to extract a good deal of intelligence from them. This so-called "Emperor's Voice," although strictly forbidden in the cities still under Imperial control, was a well-known existence in the chaotic and poorly managed outer regions. The people even felt no resistance towards it.
Nothing was more convincing than seeing with one's own eyes. Those who followed them walked through the plague-ridden areas completely unscathed. If this wasn't the Emperor's blessing, what was? The common people did not have so many complicated thoughts; all they wanted was to survive.
And these people not only attacked the Ecclesiarchy but also led the survivors to resist the occasional appearance of Nurgle Poxwalkers. The prestige of the "Emperor's Voice" among the people was higher than imagined. The number of their followers, both open and secret, was by no means limited to what was on the surface.
However, it was clear that some Chaos cultists had also mixed in among them. Their slogan had changed. It became that Lorysia's current situation was all because the current Imperium had abandoned the Emperor, and that this was a disaster sent down by Him. Only by destroying this corrupt Imperium could humanity be reborn. They advocated that people should accept this plague and feel the pain within it. The plague was a test from the Emperor. Only those who endured this pain and survived were the firm believers of the Emperor, and those who had become Poxwalkers were because their faith was not firm enough. The fact that the Chaos cultists coexisted with the plague seemed to prove their words.
Two ideologies with the same goal but completely opposite natures filled every corner of Lorysia. The followers of these different beliefs even fought and killed each other in the outer regions. Compared to the wandering Poxwalkers, the hidden elements among these crowds were the most difficult to deal with. It was already difficult to distinguish heretical beliefs from among the crowd, and now it was mixed with the followers of this so-called "Emperor's Voice."
Under normal circumstances, the best way was to kill a hundred by mistake rather than let one go. But fortunately, the Night Sentinels, with their innate sensitivity to the power of Chaos, could pick out the hidden cultists from the crowd. And the followers of the "Emperor's Voice," upon discovering that these Astra Militarum were not coming for them, also stopped planning attacks against them.
It was not yet certain whether the "Emperor's Voice" was a threat, but killing those Chaos cultists was definitely the right thing to do.
Damon was in the former governor's office, listening to the continuous reports from various squads. Gunshots could be heard from time to time in the outer regions; those were the Night Sentinels cleaning up the Chaos cultists. The sound of artillery boomed in the distance from the city, and the flashes from the explosions lit up the dark skyline. The armored forces and the air force were conducting bombing runs on the fallen areas. And in the city areas that had completely fallen and were filled with Poxwalkers, the faintly glowing golden Zerg were devouring every living thing within.
The Zerg's resistance to plagues was already very high, and the residual divine power of the Emperor in their bodies made them immune to all the negative effects of the disease. The corruption that the priests of the Ecclesiarchy could not dispel was completely dissipated wherever these Zerg passed. Unfortunately, these special-status Zerg could not be replicated through hatching.
In a medium-sized industrial settlement in the north of Lorysia, Zagara was ordering her Queens to continuously lay down creep on the ground. The bodies of Nurgle Poxwalkers were being decomposed by the creep. The energy and biomass contained in these Poxwalkers were much more than that of ordinary humans and could not be wasted. With the arrival of the Zerg, once the creep had cleaned up the filth here, the next step was to wait for the Raiders to take over and restart this industrial facility.
However, as Zagara, protected by a group of Zerg, walked into a factory, the Overlords discovered an anomaly inside. She caressed the production line before her. The line, which should have long since stopped operating, actually had some newly produced weapons on it. Zagara touched an Agripinaa-pattern autogun on it; it was still slightly warm. And in the ore-smelting furnace, the hot molten metal was still churning.
"This is not logical. The Overlords did not detect any signal of ordinary humans, and these filthy corpses could not possibly operate these facilities. What happened here?"
Just as she was about to report the situation to Damon, the creep spread over every corner of the ground sent a signal to the Overlords, and this signal was also transmitted to Zagara's mind through the hive mind. Several creatures that did not belong to the Swarm were moving at great speed on the creep, and their direction of travel was toward Zagara's position.
Sensing their ill intentions, Zagara immediately began to hatch a large number of Banelings and summoned nearby Zerg for support through the hive mind. In an instant, all the Zerg in the entire city converged here.
"Where are they?! Who are they?!"
Suddenly, the signal on the creep disappeared. The Overlords floating around continuously searched for them with their psychic powers but still found nothing.
Just as Zagara thought the other party had left after seeing the massive swarm, a plasma bolt, from an unknown source, shot out and directly hit her massive body. Her carapace shattered, and the energy blast instantly blew a hole in her back. The pain in her consciousness almost made Zagara lose control and fall into a frenzy. But her consciousness was quickly pulled back by the teachings of the Queen of Blades in her mind.
When she turned her massive body to look behind her, a human figure with a white hood that obscured his face, a longsword on his back, and dual-wielding a plasma pistol and a bolt pistol, had appeared behind her at some point. It was as if he had suddenly teleported here! And next to this person stood two Astartes. The black power armor allowed Zagara to identify them as Astartes among the humans.
The few Queens that were always by Zagara's side quickly began to repair her body.
"Xenos! Why do you have the Emperor's power within you?!"
A cold and questioning voice came from the other party.
Zagara, who was growing more and more furious from the pain, had no intention of answering his question. Even if the other party was human, since he had attacked her, there was no reason not to fight back.
A large number of Banelings rolled toward the Astartes before her, and the Queens also continuously shot out their spines. Even Zagara herself controlled her massive body and charged toward the enemy.
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We've officially reached our 400 Power Stones goal! 🎉
As promised, here's your well-deserved bonus chapter for the week.
Thank you all for the amazing support—let's keep the momentum going!