"The enemy has established a landing zone."
"Large armored forces are gathering at the landing zone."
The detection equipment, adjusted to scan the planet's interior, emitted probing waves.
The scanning panel filled with densely packed icons.
The information displayed told Lu Jin that the enemy had chosen a plain far from every fortress and underground barracks as their landing zone.
The Astra Militarum might have already withdrawn, reassigned to fight somewhere more important.
Only the Inquisitor who held a grudge against the Fierce Angels, along with the Mercy Emissaries Chapter serving as his lackeys, had remained to fight Manros.
But their armed forces still held an overwhelming advantage over the Fierce Angels.
An armored force centered on Predator tanks operated by Space Marines was assembling.
There was even an enormous ground combat command platform known as a "Command Vehicle."
The icons also showed Knight Mechs.
Unlike war vehicles such as tanks, Knights were bipedal vehicles with various weapons mounted on their two arms. They were agile and fast, and their firepower was formidable as well.
"Lord of Retribution."
The command center's blast doors opened.
An old man in a black officer's uniform entered the command center with a group of male and female officers.
Lu Jin had met him two days ago.
The man was the former rebel army's Marshal. Previously, the rebels had had no leader at all; only once everyone began resisting had the various rebel forces elected this man to command them.
"I don't know what you think, but I feel the situation has actually improved." Lu Jin pointed at the scanning panel as he spoke to the Marshal.
The old man nodded and led those behind him over. "I believe that after the Virus Bomb destroyed our homeland, we have instead gained the advantage in this war."
He then explained the new strategy he had devised based on the changed circumstances.
In short.
They would take the initiative, having the Mortal armored forces fight an armored battle against the Mercy Emissaries Chapter on the plains rather than stubbornly defending the underground barracks.
At first hearing, it sounded as absurd as having Mortal infantry charge head-on into Space Marines.
But there really was a historical precedent.
During the Legion era ten thousand years ago, after the Iron Warriors rebelled, they had attempted to seize an Imperial world called Taran.
The Iron Warriors first bombarded Taran with Virus Bombs, then fought an armored war against the locals.
The result was that a Legion with tens of thousands of Space Marines failed to defeat the Taran people.
Although the Iron Warriors had been forced to retreat because their allies abandoned them, rounding things off, the Taran people could still say, "We defeated a Space Marine Legion!"
"My thoughts were the same: an armored battle." Lu Jin voiced his agreement after hearing the strategy. "The gap between Space Marines and Mortals is enormous, but the gap between tank and tank is not nearly so great."
"We have sufficient armored forces and air forces," the Marshal said.
It was no surprise that the Manros rebels had armored troops and pilots.
Even before portraits of Lu Jin spread through Manros, the local resistance forces had fought the ruling class for thousands of years. They were not the stereotypical rebels clutching battered weapons and knowing only how to charge mindlessly.
They were a professional army with a precise organizational structure, specialized branches, and logistical support.
They had been able to endure because the ruling class lacked direct control over the lower hive and Underhive, while their agents wavered between the rebels and their masters.
The representative example was... when the former governor imposed martial law, even the Planetary Defense Force entering the lower hive and Underhive could not establish control over the hive city, because the Planetary Defense Force itself contained large numbers of rebel members.
Whether it was directly establishing rebel forces for armed resistance or infiltrating arms factories and military organizations to conduct soft resistance, the locals had mastered every form of resistance.
A hive world naturally possessed two advantages—industrial capacity and an enormous population—and Manros was no exception. As for why this hive world relied on imports of external military industrial goods, then exported modified industrial products through its artisans... where its original production lines and everything they produced had gone was a question worth the former governor's consideration.
In Lu Jin's view, even without him, the local rebels could have overthrown the former governor.
He had merely become a symbol capable of uniting consensus more effectively.
"You will command the battle." After considering it, Lu Jin made his decision. "I will personally take part in the fighting."
The Marshal immediately shook his head. "I'm afraid that..."
Lu Jin patted the man's shoulder twice and walked out of the command center.
Once the blast doors closed again.
An officer spoke up. "Some people think we need to seriously consider Manros's role in this war. Because if we continue paying the Imperial tithe and exist as a world subordinate to the Imperium, there would be no need..."
"What I told you was that we could accept the Imperium's amnesty by paying the tithe."
The Marshal walked before the strategic map, his back to the others.
"But after conducting a real tally, we discovered that if we paid the tithe, we would not even be able to export industrial goods in exchange for food."
"Even if this war had never come, even if we had eliminated those slavers without relying on the Fierce Angels."
"We would still become rebels."
Those words silenced every officer.
In truth, before the war's arrival, the people of Manros had been deeply unsettled. Some had felt there was no need to follow the Fierce Angels all the way into darkness.
That was human nature.
But after the Marshal revealed that secret, no one would think that way again.
Before the Lord of Retribution sought to establish a new order, using the prospect of gaining Imperial recognition through paying the tithe had been a means of calming hearts. Only the Marshal elected as the rebel leader and a very few others knew the truth, and they had already made their choice. In their plans, they had originally intended to face the Imperium's suppression alone, but this sudden war had instead brought an advantage: many Space Marines from within the Maelstrom, including the Fierce Angels, would have to face that suppression alongside the locals.
Who was facing the Imperium alongside whom was hard to say.
The armored forces gathered toward the hive city through underground tunnels connecting the various underground barracks.
Those tunnels had once been used by the World Eaters occupation forces to transport supplies, but now they were being used to move troops and deploy forces.
Of Manros's sole hive city, everything above the lower hive had been destroyed by the world-burning fires unleashed by the Virus Bomb. Only the deep Underground Hive was absolutely safe.
Lu Jin left the command center and arrived at the entrance to the Underhive passage leading to the surface.
A massive armored force had already gathered there.
Beside the long passage lay the resistance army's old stronghold.
The resistance army had once planned to use a large number of aircraft to bomb the hive spire. Though they could no longer carry out that plan after the Mercy Emissaries Chapter arrived, the hangars built for it now proved useful.
Lu Jin saw pilots and ground crew wearing heavy protective suits pass through an entrance sealed off by a membrane of energy and enter the hangars.
After the pilots boarded their fighters, the aircraft taxied out when the hangar blast doors opened, took off vertically, and flew outside through the enormous pipes used by the hive city to vent exhaust gases.
Lu Jin looked around again.
The assembled armored troops drove nameless tanks into formation.
The tank crews first climbed out of their tanks to rest.
They also carried weapons such as rifles.
Unlike the crude rifles the resistance army had distributed to civilians some time ago, the rifles in their hands appeared exceptionally refined.
But in the coming battle, those rifles would not even serve a self-defense function.
More and more tank units drove in through the passage, all gathered from other underground barracks.
A gunship flew over the armored forces in the passage and landed before Lu Jin.
The hatch opened, revealing fifteen Fierce Angels veterans and twenty-two recruits.
"Why is there only one gunship?" Lu Jin asked as he boarded through the hatch.
Genos emerged from the cockpit. "We captured quite a few vehicles while fighting the Botulism Gang, but the key issue is that nobody besides me knows how to fly one!"
Lu Jin thought that made sense and turned to look at the recruits.
The veterans all wore the Terminator Armor Huron had sent earlier, while the recruits could not make use of Terminator Armor even if they had it. Terminator Armor required training, so they wore the Power Armor previously used by the veterans.
Not long ago, these people had still been boys, but now they had become superhuman warriors, generally over 2.2 meters tall.
The moment their eyes met their Chapter Master's, they immediately gave chest-touch salutes.
"We don't have time to train you slowly." Lu Jin looked at Kao. "One veteran to one recruit. You will lead the remaining recruits."
Kao, standing at the edge of the cabin, nodded.
Within two solar hours, the people of Manros assembled two thousand main battle tanks. Once the passage to the surface opened, they drove out in formation.
Genos piloted the gunship into the air, flying at an ultra-low altitude less than ten meters above the ground.
Standing by the gunship window, Lu Jin saw that besides the main battle tanks armed with only a main cannon and a large-caliber heavy machine gun, the armored force also included twelve superheavy tanks called Brutal Blades.
Those tanks were certainly operated by elite armored troops, and their paint had been completely stripped away.
"Those are tanks you could only see during the Great Crusade ten thousand years ago." Genos watched the ground forces beyond the left cockpit window while flying. "If nobody else could fly the gunship, I'd want to get my hands on a Brutal Blade and drive it too."
"Is nobody curious where the locals got these ancient tanks?" Kao said.
"This used to be a World Eaters Legion garrison. Didn't the locals find the Red Butcher worn by our Chapter Master brother? What's so strange about them having a few tanks?"
"Don't tell me even the World Eaters' wargear quartermasters got Butcher's Nails implanted?"
After two solar days of travel, the armored forces encountered the Mercy Emissaries Chapter's armored forces.
Ash drifted through the air over the gray plains.
Visibility was less than two meters.
Genos operated the gunship using experience and terrain radar.
The gunship was currently positioned behind the ground forces.
On the radar display, the two armored forces stretched in single lines across the vast plain, advancing toward each other.
The enemy had fewer than seven hundred tanks, and not all of them were tanks used by Space Marine Chapters, like Predators. Some were tanks used by the Mortal Astra Militarum.
Perhaps, like those Knight Mechs, the Inquisitor had pulled strings to acquire them.
A roar reached the cabin.
Over a hundred fighter aircraft screamed overhead.
Lu Jin immediately leaned close to the window and stared.
He saw the hundred-plus fighters vanish into the smoke and ash. A brief minute later, they became "fireworks" outlining the silhouettes of the enemy Knight Mechs and Command Vehicle.
"During the journey, the Manros people kept sending air forces to bomb the enemy, but the results were not very good."
"These Manros pilots had launched their attacks prepared to die with the enemy."
Genos recalled the information sent to the gunship over the past two days.
"The Command Vehicle." Lu Jin entered the cockpit and pointed at a large rectangle on the radar. "Once the two ground forces begin exchanging fire, find a way to get us to the Command Vehicle. Then I will lead the battle-brothers inside."
Genos considered it.
The Command Vehicle certainly contained the enemy ground forces' commanders. The Inquisitor with a Blood Feud against the Fierce Angels might even be inside it.
But the problem was that the Command Vehicle, as a giant vehicle equipped with Void Shields, was about the size of a large building. No one knew how many enemies were inside. If they charged in as a swarm, the outcome would likely be bad.
"We might die in there..."
"Not we. I will go in alone."
Genos sharply turned his head.
"Once I enter, find a way to circle outside or do something else. Don't come in until I tell you to."
Lu Jin stared out the window as he spoke.
Another wave of fighters screamed past above the gunship.
Light flickered amid the ash and smoke ahead, outlining the massive vehicle's contours.
Before you continue