This is our Warhammer journey

Chapter 204 Calga's Worries
"."

Upon hearing Karga's reminder, a moment of silence filled the channel. Titus could clearly feel the death stare from the warband priest behind him.

His cheek muscles twitched involuntarily, his knuckles tightened and loosened on the gun handle, and for a moment, his inner bloodlust urged him to turn around and shoot that meddlesome guy.

But in the end, he kept a straight face and obediently put the alien weapon away.

The Neural Shredder is indeed effective; it's a tailor-made countermeasure weapon for high-tier Zerg units that rely on neural nodes.

In the battles to reclaim planets by various fleets, it was an open secret that decapitation squads were equipped with this weapon. Titus, who followed Romulus in his campaigns, naturally used it to efficiently eliminate targets.

He understood Calga's intention.

The squad leader wasn't making things difficult for him; he was protecting him.

Outside, Romulus's command style has always been 'do whatever is most efficient': alien technology, captured weapons, unconventional tactics—because he has always won, and given the status and position of his opponents, no one dares to say a word.

But once back in Makurag, under the watchful eye of the Holy Scriptures, some rules must be followed.

"I apologize, I was not familiar enough with the requirements of the Holy Scripture. I will pay more attention in my future command."

Romulus's voice entered the communication channel at the opportune moment, his tone sincere and just right.

"I understand, Lord Romulus."

Calga responded swiftly and respectfully, while secretly admiring Romulus's ability to lie and give him a way out.

After all, anyone who has read the "Terran Swarm Strategy Manual (Spiritual Edition)" can see that the tactical guide is simply a complete analysis of the "Spiritual of Astartes" followed by a precise dissection of the Zerg's weaknesses, resulting in a set of combat plans.

How could someone who could compile such teaching materials not understand the sacred texts?

But sometimes, the key isn't whether something is true or false, but who says it.

Sure enough, the warband priests who had been on the verge of conflict suddenly fell silent, and even the Scripture Guards who were preparing to record the violations quietly put away their data tablets.

Titus took the opportunity to stretch his shoulders, and the servo motors of his power armor emitted a pleasant hum.

He silently charged at the swarming insects gathering in the distance, his sword drawing a bright arc in the ashes, his iron boots crushing the black beetles on the ground.

Due to the terrifying intensity of war in the Fortress World, the Zerg swarm has also evolved Terran creatures that can withstand high-temperature environments and grow by consuming minerals and steel, thus providing the swarm with biomass.

Now, he can finally legitimately and thoroughly enjoy his chopping.

"Lord Romulus, how is the space battle going?"

Calga then asked another question.

With the support of numerous Astartes on the surface, annihilating this swarm is only a matter of time.

Even if units like the Hive Tyrant appeared, they would only be dealt with by a single spear when faced with the Imperial Navy, which had absolute air superiority.

"The pressure is very low. If nothing unexpected happens, this is the maximum loss the Tyranid swarm can accept."

Romulus replied, focusing intently on directing the fleet's maneuvers alongside the Great Sage Caul.

It was just a conversation; it didn't take up any of his memory at all.

Calgar nodded slightly, his gaze sweeping over the fading swarm signal on the tactical hologram.

The artillery fire from the orbital defense platform continued to trace brilliant trajectories in the void, but the enemy's offensive was indeed showing signs of weakness.

These powerful hunters from beyond the galaxy, though greedy and ferocious, are not foolish beasts that only know how to rampage recklessly and fight to the death.

When the hive's will assesses the value of an action and determines that the cost and reward are unacceptable, it will choose to retreat and select a more easily attainable target.

"You'll be busy for a long time to come."

Romulus's gaze pierced through the endless fireworks in the void, fixed on the boundless void.

No one knows how many more Zerg hive fleets are lurking in the void, waiting for the next opportunity.

"The Ultramarines will remember everything the Expeditionary Fleet did, and as for the Tyranids, we will protect our home."

Although the Terran defense line suffered a humiliating defeat, turning a war that should have been contained outside the region into the Battle of Alteramar, Calgar took the outcome in stride.

He was prepared to deal with these terrifying aliens for decades or even centuries to come.

In fact, the Empire was mostly slow to react during battles, and various departments were bearing the burden of the Empire's overexpansion, which was becoming increasingly difficult to reverse.

There aren't many players who can orchestrate the entire game like Romulus, and no one else is qualified to do so.

The two battlefield commanders cooperated fully in the attack and defense of the Behemoth hive fleet. Although they have not yet actually met, there has been a great deal of communication between them.

Without a doubt, Romulus, as the commander who coordinated the entire war, left an extremely deep impression on Calga.

Victory is now inevitable.

"grown ups."

Calgar lowered his voice in the private channel, his gaze sweeping over the busy staff in the command room, signaling to the returning Digris to cast a psionic shield on himself to ensure no one would notice the private conversation.

"After the war ends, the victory celebration will be held in Macurag."

He paused for a moment, letting the weight of his words sink in.

"The Terra investigation team has already arrived and is making preparations."

This wasn't meant to suggest popping champagne early, but rather to remind Romulus.

Surprisingly, Terra's response was indeed very quick this time.

Romulus replied, his voice carrying a hint of meaning:

"According to the latest battle report, the expeditionary fleet has quelled the unrest in the Kos to Tyron sector. The main force of the fleet is concentrated in Bormina, and the Eastern Starfield will be able to resume paying the eleventh tax within the next ten years."

As for which factions made the payments, let's not worry about that too much.

As a general who takes the lead in reclaiming these planets, it is only natural that he would take some temporary measures when necessary.

"I will then hand over the reins to the Ultra Warrior."

"Simply hand over to the respective subgroups."

Calga sighed inwardly.

He felt he always had to be careful—

At least if the Ultra Warriors don't explicitly intervene, they can still step in and mediate in crucial moments in the future.

To be honest, Lord Romulus is far too arrogant. It's as if he's riding on the head of the High Lords, openly declaring that he wants to establish independence and promote Great Astartesism.

The efficiency brought about by Astartes' intervention in Imperial politics can indeed allow the sector to recover at an astonishing speed, but those Imperial organizations whose power has been weakened, such as the Cult of Mechanics, the State Cult, the Ministry of the Interior, and the Ministry of Justice, are not happy about this.

As Calga gazed at the gradually recovering eastern star region on the holographic star map, his worries deepened.

As a chapter commander, he was also a shrewd politician. He believed that such simplistic and brutal measures were destined to be unsustainable; the forcibly suppressed contradictions would eventually erupt like a volcano within the next few centuries. It was unknown whether Lord Romulus had found a solution.
-
What plan?
It was noticeable that Calga's face turned bitter whenever political wrangling came up, a stark contrast to his meticulous demeanor when facing military pressure.

Romulus chuckled and ended the private communication.

There is no solution.

Everything will be alright once His Majesty the Regent awakens.

Go talk to the Regent.

Outside the window, light spears flew everywhere, and fine space torpedoes rained down on the Zerg fleet. Romulus rose from his captain's seat, and the machine spirit, following his instructions, replaced the holographic projection of the Auger Matrix with images of several Zerg motherships.

"Ramesses, are you done on your end?"

The fleet maintained its distance, relying on bursts of light spears to continuously put pressure on the Zerg swarm.

Considering the issue of casualties, the Imperial Navy did not engage in a forced battle, but instead used maneuverability to constantly pull the formation of the Hive Fleet, turning it into a clump.

"It's coming soon."

Inside a Zerg mothership, enveloped in surging green psionic energy, Ramses was fiddling with his unusually massive warp engine.

The massive engine, encased in thick plates of adamantite steel, is being gradually overloaded under Ramses's control.

This was salvaged from an unfinished Victory-class battleship, and Ramses ignored the furious outburst of the local forging sage.

In any case, according to the expeditionary fleet's investigation, these medium-sized foundries can provide the Mechanicus's pioneering fleet with a battleship every five years.

It's easy to imagine how perfunctory these oil enthusiasts were when dealing with the Empire, even resorting to salvaging ships from the ship graveyard to fulfill orders.

"hurry up."

Not far from Ramses, Arthur couldn't help but squeeze out a comment.

Before him stood a Norn Assimilation.

The Queen of the Blazing Insects inside the mothership seemed to have sensed the threat and had been trying to destroy the warp engine that was already embedded in the mothership's body, even going so far as to send out multiple Norn Assimilates.

In contrast to Karna, who was fighting back and forth with his opponent in Black Fury, Arthur was in a somewhat awkward position.

Unlike when fighting Chaos, he can't compete with the Zerg swarm in terms of numerical values.

"It'll be soon. Master Ya, how are you going to fight Khorne if you run into him like this?"

Ramses cast a shield on Arthur and couldn't help but tease him.

"Play normally."

Arthur, who was dealing with the Norn Assimilation's slash, couldn't help but shake his head.

Compared to Tzeentch's immediate silence upon encountering him, Nurgle's immediate death, and Slaanesh's agonizing struggle after regaining his senses, the demons of the Khorne lineage were indeed a formidable challenge for Arthur.

Or rather, regardless of all the fancy stuff, the real one-on-one battles between real men are the most stressful for him.

There is no mechanism, just numbers.

If you really can't compete, then you can't compete.

"Horus!"

A roar came from above, and scorching flames swept across the face. Karna came to the rescue, dragging his burning spear.

Not far from him, a Norn Assimilate was slowly melting away in the flames.

"Oh, the numbers."

Ramses shook his head, and couldn't help but recall the idea he had extracted from Fabius Bayer's consciousness.

The Eldar's Death God's power is related to Guilliman's resurrection, and he does have some ideas about that, but he hasn't figured out how to improve his other companions.

Initially, each person was given an old woman's sword, but if Arthur were to truly accept the power of the warp, he would lose his most important ability.

'Perhaps we really should keep an eye on the Star Gods. Go back and write a report to see which Star God fragments are available, and then try them out to see if they're usable.'

The mage's fingertips still held the warmth of the soul's ashes, and the two precious soul crystals turned to dust in his palm.

"Tsk, finally found it."

He squinted, staring at the final readings of the subspace engine, a slight smile playing on his lips.

Detonating a subspace engine is a simple operation—just overload it—but choosing a good location takes time.

After all, everyone's goal is to completely destroy the Zerg hive fleet. To prevent this swarm from emerging again, they need to find an opponent capable of eliminating the fleet.

The Soul Forge of Vashtor is naturally the first choice.

When it comes to revenge, it's all about getting it over with quickly; the longer you wait, the less intense the feeling becomes.

That old bastard Vashtor was in cahoots with Tzeentch. It was bad enough that they had besieged the park, but Tzeentch also planned to corrupt him through real-world media. If he hadn't been sticking to Astor, things would have gone wrong.

He also needs to give back properly.

Don't ask why we didn't go and cause trouble in Asgard, the culprit behind this. This fleet is just for show. It's better to let Varian have some fun and experience the pinnacle of biological technology from beyond the galaxy.

They're all just looking for trouble with Chaos, why bother making such a clear distinction? Rounding it off is a form of revenge, too.

Without hesitation, Ramses activated the self-destruct program of the battleship-class subspace engine, and then teleported away with his companions.

The energy core overloaded instantly, and blinding blue-white light burst forth from every crevice in the engine room. The entire warship, like a balloon bursting, tore open a hideous rift spanning millions of kilometers at the boundary between the real universe and the subspace.

hum-

The massive vortex formed by the warp storm engulfed the nearby Tyranid fleet. Those terrifying Zerg motherships twisted and deformed in the dimensional turbulence, their shells peeling off and their flesh evaporating before crashing directly into Vashtor's Soul Furnace.

When the blinding light faded, only a dozen or so wrecked Zerg warships remained, barely clinging to life in deep space.
-
In the warp, Vashtor, who was still overwhelmed with the task of capturing qualified demons to complete orders and annihilating the 'King of the Formless and Nameless's Park, was watching the Behemoth Hive fleet.

They emerged from the rift in the warp and plunged into the soul furnace.

Driven by pure hunger and bloodlust, and seemingly thrown into a brief state of disarray by entering the warp, they began attacking every living thing they could see.

The demons were driven away, while his precious war machines, capable of being deployed into the material universe without ritual, were being devoured by these ravenous creatures.

They seemed to have been hungry for a long time, and they didn't even let the molten iron in the furnace go to waste.

hee hee~
A sinister laugh echoed from within the Crystal Palace.

Vashtor roared.

"You, Treachery!"

(End of this chapter)