Chapter 63: Landfall

Chapter 63: Landfall

"That Inquisitor has quite the inner monologue," a certain Thousand Sons sorcerer piped up on the transmigrator channel.

"Ramesses," Romulus said, his voice rising, still analyzing how to save the unfortunate souls in the Inquisitorial fleet.

"Hey, I'm not reading her mind! You can see what she's thinking on her face!"

"I meant, stop teasing her."

"The three of us are all wearing helmets and masks. The one secretly putting pressure on her with his eyes is obviously Karna," Ramesses protested, immediately pointing out the real culprit, unwilling to take the blame for everything.

"What's it got to do with me?" Karna raised an eyebrow, sensing trouble. He paused mid-chew and immediately dragged his other friend into it. "Arthur was staring too."

"Huh?" Arthur looked up, confused. He had only been staring at the Inquisitor because everyone else was, just to fit in. He had been planning to strike if necessary, but he hadn't seen any problems. He thought his friends had some grand insight.

Turns out they were just watching for fun?

"I thought she might have been replaced by a daemon. So it was really just her subordinates misunderstanding her and killing the guy?"

Smack—

Romulus slapped his own forehead. "You can stop with the gallows humor." It was truly hellish. A few simple words had just gotten a bunch of people killed.

"To survive, these people will do anything," Karna remarked. He had more contact with the mortals and was keeping an eye on the Ecclesiarchy side of things, so he had a slightly better grasp of the human mindset in this universe. The dehumanizing effect of this cosmos was truly present in every aspect of life.

After a bit of dark humor, they didn't just brush the incident aside.

"From now on, our orders need to be as detailed and clear as possible. We absolutely cannot let them interpret things on their own. Otherwise, if we run into people like those in the Inquisition, our good intentions will most likely lead to disaster," Romulus concluded with a sigh, looking at Aglaia's embarrassed back. He couldn't calculate the survival probability of those poor bastards either.

The fate of those unlucky souls was determined by their environment. Romulus could save them once, but they would just be eliminated for some other reason later. The bottom line was that, in the eyes of their colleagues, their very existence threatened their own chances of survival under Aglaia.

"Agreed," the others said solemnly. Who knew what kind of absurd things these Imperial citizens would do if you just gave them a simple order like "run the factories at maximum capacity."

Ramesses silently enveloped the figures of the condemned with his safe house's shadow. While they couldn't decide how these people would live, they could, at the very least, decide how they would die. At least in death, these poor bastards could finally find peace.

VMMM—

Two more, completely different cruisers slowly moved into the planet's orbit.

It seemed quiet.

Just as the suicide squads inside the decoy ships were breathing a sigh of relief and preparing to begin the orbital bombardment test, ten heavy plasma blasts fired from the surface of Pierdra gave everyone on the Dawnlight who had never experienced space warfare a shocking display of firepower.

A brilliant blue light pulsed on the surface of Pierdra, which was covered in a massive dust cloud. Then, ten motes of light rose from the surface, pierced the atmosphere, and struck the decoy ships at sub-light speed.

The torrent of high-energy particles instantly overloaded the void shields. The superheated plasma consumed the cruisers on the spot, followed by an unprecedentedly violent explosion that tore the kilometers-long warships into pieces.

Even though space was a vacuum and sound shouldn't travel, the transmigrators still heard a deafening shriek as the expanding plasma cloud repeatedly struck the hulls of their own ships.

Right, the transmigrators thought, now we understand why a large fleet can't just casually approach a planet controlled by the enemy. With that level of ground-based firepower, even a battleship would be instantly annihilated.

"Verification complete. The planetary orbital defense platforms have been occupied by the heretics. The main fleet cannot approach," Aglaia reported, looking at the cruisers that had been blasted into scrap.

So that's how they verify things? Efficient, and incredibly wasteful. The transmigrators had gained a direct understanding of the Inquisition's methods. In the face of a threat, all of the Imperium's resources were expendable, all for the sake of greater efficiency.

Romulus monitored the comms channel. The mood was calm. It seemed everyone was quite accustomed to Aglaia's methods.

Zealous, but I guess it's somewhat reasonable in this universe?

"Shall we proceed to verify the operational status of the hive city's void shields?"

"Verification unnecessary," Cawl's voice cut in. "Monitoring indicates the warship debris has been blocked by a void shield." Void shields could directly shunt high-velocity particles or solid matter into the Warp, and the same applied to debris falling towards the planet's surface. The Explorator fleet's sensor systems were excellent and had captured the entire process.

"How do we make landfall?" Aglaia asked. After solving one problem, they were immediately faced with another. How were they going to get their ground forces onto the planet?

"The Adeptus Mechanicus has sufficient assault craft," Cawl replied, "enough to transport Astartes forces or other armed personnel past the ground-based void shields for a first wave landing. However, we know nothing of the situation on Pierdra Prime. I cannot guarantee a high success rate."

"The crusade fleet has enough Thunderhawks to undertake the first wave assault," Orlando stated immediately. Penetrating to the surface, establishing a secure beachhead, and seizing control of the anti-aircraft defenses—Astartes were the most suitable for the task. The Black Templars had accumulated countless experiences in planetary landings over ten thousand years. The current situation was still within the realm of planning; they had faced far more difficult circumstances.

He definitely wasn't about to let the elders lead the first assault.

"..." Tyberos, appropriately, remained silent.

"We have Stormbirds," Romulus, who had been relatively quiet since the start of the naval battle, said patiently, waiting for them to finish. "Twenty of them."

"..."

"Furthermore, considering the situation on the planet, I request that you come to the Dawnlight to re-equip."

"Unnecessary!" Orlando quickly refused. Who were they to receive the honor of wearing holy relics without having achieved any merit?

"We will be joining you on the assault mission," Romulus added, not bothering with useless words about how they had a surplus of equipment or that weapons were made to be used. The meaning was clear. You don't want to be unable to protect the elders because you're limited by your gear, do you?

"The crusade fleet will accept your command," Orlando quickly replied after his Chaplain made a series of pointed hand-gestures.

"Muster on the Dawnlight." A victorious smile touched Romulus's lips. He was starting to understand these warriors.