Noah's development proceeded smoothly for a year, but the Hive Worlds of the Imperium of Man were not so fortunate.
Tides of orks, covering mountains and plains, had already overrun most of the Hive Cities on this world.
The Imperium of Man's army had retreated into the largest Hive City on the planet.
They prepared to make their final stand there.
In fact, if Noah hadn't dispatched troops daily to clear out the orks and turn them into canned food for his subordinates, these orks would have long since completely overwhelmed the Imperium of Man's defenses.
However, it is worth noting that the Krieg soldier soldier, whom Noah had marked with some psionics and considered a provisional citizen of the federation, still survived through such prolonged combat.
Noah paid close attention to him; whenever he encountered danger, a psionic slap would typically appear to help him deal with it.
Combined with the greatcoat he wore, the orks found it difficult to inflict any fatal threat upon him.
This led to him becoming one of the few two-year, thousand-battle veterans in the Krieg soldier.
Having served for a full two years, he successfully rose to the rank of Colonel in the Krieg soldier.
For the Krieg soldier, officers and soldiers were the same.
Rank was determined solely by merit, and someone who had lived for two years like him was naturally a rare existence within the Krieg soldier.
Of course, apart from him, no one else fared much better.
The Siege Regiment he served in had been replaced six times consecutively, meaning six Siege Regiments had been annihilated within a year, and he was the sole survivor each time.
By now, he had another moniker throughout the Hive City: the Emperor's Chosen.
How else could one explain his survival every single time if not for being the Emperor's Chosen?
This was the Krieg soldier, after all!
Noah had been closely monitoring the battles on this planet, and he knew very well that these humans likely wouldn't be able to hold out.
The orks were endless, vast numbers of them constantly pouring out; their reproduction methods were too unique, and even their weapons were becoming increasingly powerful.
However, Noah made no move, even though the opposing side were fellow humans, he did not send troops to aid them.
He was waiting; he was waiting to see what the space fleet of this Imperium of Man, this so-called Imperium of Man, was truly like.
This was very important; he needed to assess the strength of this human civilization's space fleet.
Theoretically, if a planet encountered such a large-scale attack, in the federation, the federation's fleet would have long since arrived to begin orbital bombardment, and even ground forces from other star sectors would have already arrived and joined the battle.
It would not take days for the federation's military to receive an alert, react, and dispatch troops to support a planet.
In fact, it would only take a few minutes to react.
The army would immediately deploy, using faster-than-light travel to reach the planet in need of support.
Normally, reinforcements from other planets, especially those from surrounding star sectors, would arrive within a few hours.
So, with this thought, with the desire to see what level of starship this civilization possessed, Noah remained inactive.
This wait lasted a year—
A year passed, and he still hadn't seen any reinforcements.
The only reinforcements he did see were about six months prior, when a small gunboat descended from space, and four soldiers in power armor emerged from it.
The strength of these individuals was only slightly higher than that of the enhanced people in his underground city.
No matter how he looked at it, Noah didn't believe that these mere four soldiers in power armor could truly alleviate the threat currently faced by a planet of the Imperium of Man.
Therefore, he patiently continued to wait for the Imperium of Man's fleet to arrive.
However, things clearly went beyond his expectations; no matter how long he waited, he saw no further reinforcements from the Imperium of Man arrive.
Instead, he watched as the Imperium of Man's army was finally driven into the last remaining large Hive City.
When this scene appeared before Noah's eyes, his mind somewhat stalled; he truly couldn't understand why this was happening.
How absurd was it for a space-faring human race to be forced into their last large city by creatures wielding large blades and various chaotic weapons on the ground?
Such a sight shocked Noah and left him quite speechless regarding this civilization.
At this time, the last Hive City of the Imperium of Man already held a population of 18 billion.
This meant that virtually the entire planet's population had fled there.
Seeing this absurd scene before him, Noah could no longer bear it, so on this day, he opened the gates of his underground city and walked out.
He intended to figure out what exactly was going on.
The gates of the underground city slowly opened, Noah emerged from within, and then the gates closed again.
With his powerful physical prowess and strong psionics, Noah had no need for troop protection.
Rather than fighting his way through orks, he preferred to advance personally.
He had only walked a little over a hundred kilometers from the city, leaving the range of the fungal wasteland, when he saw large groups of orks gathered around the fungal wasteland.
The number of orks could be described as filling mountains and seas, but Noah was not at all surprised by this scene.
This was all normal.
Ever since the population within the city grew, the ork production in the fungal wasteland had gradually become insufficient to meet the food consumption needs of the underground city's population.
Therefore, to continue satisfying food consumption, Noah would periodically dispatch troops to conduct a large-scale cleanup, with the fungal wasteland as the center.
Due to the nature of the ork race, they would gather wherever there was a fight.
Thus, the orks around the fungal wasteland grew more numerous.
However, perhaps because the number of orks captured and eliminated over the past year was simply too vast, they had all spontaneously reached a tacit understanding, waiting outside the wasteland.
They were very well-behaved, just waiting outside.
They waited for Noah's Mechanical Legion to come out and capture them, and then they would start a massive Waaagh.
However, each time, it ended with Noah's Mechanical Legion capturing most of the orks to be made into food, then driving away the remaining few, anticipating their next gathering.
The two sides could be said to have a very good understanding, one that had lasted for eight months now.
The orks met Noah's food demands, while Noah satisfied their desire to start a Waaagh.
Although they were mercilessly crushed every time, the orks remained tirelessly enthusiastic.
This was a happy race.
This was Noah's clearest assessment of the orks: a race that viewed war as pleasure.
After taking another look at the orks covering the mountains and plains, Noah enveloped himself in psionics, flew into the sky, and then bypassed these orks.
His destination was clear: the Hive City he had previously lived in, which was also the largest Hive City on this planet, where their governor resided.
He was going to the governor now to ask why their reinforcements had not yet arrived!
A year had already passed; if this were the Terran Federation, he would have been executed a thousand or two thousand times over by now.
And it seemed that this world had already been fighting the orks before he even arrived.
Noah wasn't sure how long they had been fighting.
In any case, Noah found it somewhat incomprehensible why there were still no reinforcements.