Chapter 63 Landing

"This inquisitor has quite a vivid imagination."

A certain Thousand Sons sorcerer chimed in on the trans-dimensional channel.

"Rameses."

Romulus, who was still analyzing how to rescue those unfortunate souls, could not help but raise his voice.

"Come on, I'm not reading her mind. Anyone with eyes can tell what that girl is thinking."

"I'm telling you to stop teasing her."

"All three of us are wearing helmets and masks; it's clearly Karna who was putting pressure on her with his glare."

Rameses protested, refusing to take the blame for everything, and immediately pointed out the primary culprit.

"What does this have to do with me?"

Karna raised an eyebrow, thinking to himself that things were going south. He paused mid-chew and immediately dragged another companion into the fray.

"Arthur was looking too."

"Huh?"

Arthur wore a look of utter confusion.

Seeing everyone else staring at the inquisitor, he had simply followed suit to fit in. He had originally intended to swing his sword a couple of times, but in the end, he couldn't figure out what the issue was.

He had assumed his companions had some profound insight.

Turns out they were just staring for fun?

"I thought she had been replaced by a daemon. Turns out her subordinates just completely misunderstood her orders and killed people?"

*Slap—*

Romulus struck his forehead.

"Spare me the dark humor."

It was dark indeed; a whole bunch of people had died over just a few words.

"To survive, these people will do anything."

Karna sighed with emotion. Having dealt with mortals quite frequently and keeping an eye on the Ecclesiarchy, he had a rough understanding of the human thought process in this universe.

The alienation of humanity in this universe truly manifested in every conceivable aspect.

After finding some grim amusement in the situation, they did not simply brush the brief episode aside.

"It seems our future orders must be as detailed and explicit as possible. We must never give them room for wild interpretations, or else dealing with people like the Inquisition will likely lead to good intentions producing terrible outcomes."

Looking at Aglaia's distressed back, Romulus—who likewise could not calculate the survival probability of those unfortunate wretches—sighed softly and drew a conclusion.

The fate of those unfortunates was dictated by the overarching environment. Romulus could save them once, but sooner or later, these people would be put to death under some other pretext.

Ultimately, in the eyes of their peers, merely existing threatened their chances of survival under Aglaia.

"Indeed."

Everyone shared the same sentiment.

Heaven knows what outrageous things these Imperial citizens might pull off if you simply told them to run a factory to the best of their ability.

Rameses silently enveloped the figures of those individuals within a safehouse.

While they could not dictate the path to survival for these people, they could at least dictate the manner of their deaths.

At least once these poor souls died, they would finally find peace.

*Hum—*

Two completely different cruisers gradually drifted into planetary orbit.

Seemingly quiet?

Just as the suicide squads inside the decoy ships breathed a sigh of relief and prepared to conduct orbital bombardment tests, ten heavy plasma bolts fired from the surface of the planet Pierde delivered a jolt of firepower to everyone aboard the *Dawn*, none of whom had ever experienced space warfare.

The surface of Pierde, covered by massive clouds of dust, flared with a brilliant blue light.

Then, ten glowing spots rose from the surface, pierced the atmosphere, and struck the decoy ships at near-light speed.

Countless streams of high-energy particles instantly overloaded the void shields, and high-temperature plasma instantly engulfed the cruisers, triggering an unprecedentedly violent explosion that tore the two several-kilometer-long warships into fragments.

Even though space was a vacuum and sound should have been isolated from the cosmos, the trans-dimensional travelers still heard a deafening scraping noise.

This was the sound of the high-energy plasma expanding and relentlessly battering the hulls of the ships.

Well, the travelers now roughly understood why the grand fleets could not casually approach enemy-controlled worlds.

Against land-based firepower of this magnitude, even battleships would be reduced to instant annihilation.

"Verification complete. The planetary orbital defense platform has been occupied by heretics. The grand fleet cannot approach," Aglaia reported as she watched the cruisers blasted into smithereens.

So that was how they verified it?

Truly efficient and thoroughly wasteful.

The travelers gained a visceral understanding of the Inquisition's methods.

Before a threat, all resources of the Imperium were consumable, subordinated entirely to higher efficiency.

Romulus monitored the communications.

The atmosphere there was calm, as if everyone was entirely accustomed to Aglaia's maneuvers.

Fanatical, yet somehow somewhat logical within the context of this world?

"Shall we continue to verify the operation status of the hive city's void shields?"

"No verification needed," Cawl stated. "Telemetry indicates the ship wreckage has been blocked by the void shields."

Void shields could directly shunt high-energy particles or solid objects moving at high speeds straight into the warp, and the wreckage plummeting toward the planetary surface was no exception.

The Prospector Fleet's detection systems were exceptionally advanced and captured the entire process.

"How are we to breach the surface?"

Aglaia asked next.

Having resolved one problem, they were now forced to confront another.

How should the ground assault forces aboard the fleet be delivered down?

"The Adeptus Mechanicus has sufficient assault craft," Cawl replied. "Enough to transport Astartes forces or other armed elements past the land-based void shields for the initial landing. However, we know nothing of the conditions on Pierde Prime, and I cannot guarantee a high success rate for the landing."

"The Expeditionary Fleet possesses sufficient Thunderhawks to undertake the initial assault mission," Orlando stated directly. Breaching the surface, establishing a secure foothold, and seizing control of anti-air fire made the Astartes the most suitable candidates.

The Black Templars had accumulated countless landing experiences over ten millennia, and the current scenario was well within their plans; they had endured far more difficult situations.

In any case, he wouldn't dare let the elders lead the initial assault.

"......"

Tyberos appropriately maintained his silence.

"We have Stormbirds."

Romulus, who had kept a low profile since the naval engagement began, waited patiently for them to finish before speaking up.

"Twenty of them."

"......"

"Furthermore, considering the situation inside the planet, I require you to come aboard the *Dawn* to re-equip."

"Unnecessary!" Orlando quickly refused.

How could they possibly merit the honor of donning sacred relics without having accomplished a single deed?

"We will accompany you on the assault mission."

Without dwelling on their surplus of equipment or uttering clichés about weapons being meant to be used, Romulus added another sentence, making his intent crystal clear.

You wouldn't want to fail to protect the elders because of equipment limitations, would you?

"No... Understood. The Expeditionary Fleet accepts the order," Orlando wanted to refuse further, but after the chaplain gave a series of clear-cut hand gestures, he quickly changed his response.

"Gather aboard the *Dawn*."

A victorious smile tugged at the corner of Romulus's mouth.

He was starting to understand these warriors.