No Return Necessary, Order: Take the Second Planet!

A full Chaos Space Marine Chapter.

One thousand Chaos Space Marines!

Cyrus fell silent.

Since the Horus Heresy, the loyalist Primarch Guilliman had promulgated the Codex Astartes to prevent the Imperium from falling back into the endless chaos ignited by traitor legions.

He split legions that originally numbered tens of thousands to one hundred thousand into individual chapters of no more than one thousand men. Although this decision caused strong dissatisfaction among other legions and even fierce opposition from his Primarch brothers, it was accepted for the sake of the Imperium. Afterward, the split chapters were only allowed one successor chapter to inherit the original title, while the others adopted new names, homeworlds, and monasteries.

A full Space Marine chapter did indeed have one thousand men.

However, in reality, for the Imperium, most chapters could never reach this number because the number of Space Marines lost to war had always exceeded those they could train, especially for a chapter like the Salamanders, who were known for their benevolence; their casualty rates were incredibly exaggerated.

A Salamander company sometimes had only twenty-some Astartes brothers.

And the Salamanders Chapter had only seven companies in total.

The dozen or so Salamanders currently present could hold Tangle Planet and repel the enemy's attacks time and time again.

But now, there was a full chapter on the other side.

One thousand Chaos Space Marines!

Against a tough guy like Cyrus, there were a full one thousand on the other side.

That was equivalent to nearly seventy Salamander companies, or two hundred Cyrus scout squads.

As for Ozrax's actual combat capability, the only one who could hold back the Chaos Space Marines was likely Governor Cisrain himself.

No matter how powerful he was, no matter how brave the other mortals were, or how powerful the armor they wore or the force fields they possessed, their capabilities were ultimately limited. How could they possibly withstand the invasion of this Chaos warband?

Not to mention, after fighting the Chaos warband, there were still Chaos Beacons in the vicinity constantly attracting more enemies.

"Wait."

"Yalta, contact the research ship. I need to speak with Governor Cisrain immediately."

"Governor Cisrain, what is happening?"

"I need to know the situation on Ozrax before I can tell you."

If his guess was correct.

Ozrax was in extreme danger.

One thousand Chaos Space Marines.

They could conquer a small sector of the Imperium.

And that governor did not have enough soldiers under his command to confront the enemy. He needed to warn the governor to be careful; if necessary, they might need to return.

"Lord Governor."

"The battle barge has been repaired."

"Understood."

Cisrain put down the Conscience in his hand and walked outside.

Tap, tap.

Dull footsteps accompanied the flickering lights.

The entire planet of Ozrax was pulled into the prelude of an emergency mobilization. The tense atmosphere made the whole planet feel heavy, solemn, and oppressive.

Tap, tap.

Inside the research station, research personnel walked by with rapid footsteps. Laboratory doors emitted urgent beeping sounds as various experiments entered critical stages. Heavy, silent expressions appeared on everyone's faces.

Holding their breath, they intensified their experiments.

Verifying critical results.

Tap, tap.

On the ground, infantry ran forward, setting up defensive lines and digging deep trenches. On the training grounds, square formations stood solemn and grave.

Equipping for battle, making solemn declarations.

War would soon be upon them.

Tap, tap.

In the cathedral, the sound of prayer echoed once more. Whispers lingered in the air, leaving nothing but endless oppression and ignorance of the future.

Virgins offered themselves, sisters prayed.

Imprinting purity seals.

Tap, tap.

Cisrain's footsteps did not stop. Ozrax, this massive meat-grinder, did not dare to pause for a moment after learning the news of the Chaos warband.

Floating ships, war machines, electromagnetic rails, space trenches, the first line of defense, the second line, the third line—dense construction orders were being issued continuously, and the Synapse Condenser was running at overload.

Of the three research ships, two were rushing toward Ozrax.

They were constantly transporting production lines from the Gamma World's armories.

Massive amounts of war supplies and personnel were being mobilized.

Everyone could feel the coming war.

But even with such dense preparations, for this planet, these defensive works were still as thin as paper, liable to be pierced at any moment.

Cisrain's footsteps stopped.

The door to the control room in front of him opened directly.

Inside, the room was already filled with projections from the Gamma World. Under the interstellar signal, the figures flickered; communication over such long distances suffered from latency.

The interstellar signal was still as poor as ever.

However, the good news was that Cyrus's squad had taken Tangle.

And they had obtained a large amount of technology.

[Reverse Engineering: Supercomputing Intelligent Drone (Full Power: 4 Gamma Days)]

[Reverse Engineering: Combat Suit - Full Iron Pilot Plan (Full Power: 17 Gamma Days)]

[Reverse Engineering: Plasma Cannon (Full Power: 0.5 Gamma Days)]

[Reverse Engineering: .]

These items could be developed through the Synapse Condenser and then mass-produced through integrated factories, provided the energy supply could keep up.

"Lord Governor."

"Continue your work, don't mind me."

"Yes."

"Lord Governor."

Cisrain walked toward the chairman's seat in the combat analysis room.

Brown sat in the second seat on the far left.

The mechanical chair rose slowly, allowing Cisrain to see that he was still in his seat.

The central star map marked the locations of the Chaos warband detected by the probes left by the research ships.

Red light dots flickered incessantly.

And they were rapidly heading toward them.

The enemy had arrived.

And they came with fury.

"Lord Governor, Cyrus's squad reports that they have defeated the invading xenos and held Tangle Planet, and at the same time, they encountered Salamanders Chapter Captain Vulkan."

"They have news."

Brown glanced at Cisrain before lowering his head to continue his report: "A Chaos warband unit is approaching our vicinity. Number: a full-strength chapter."

"."

"They are requesting to return immediately for support."

Cyrus's squad had already gone to conquer those two fortress planets for him.

Tangle had already been taken.

And on the other oceanic planet, that group of xenos was preparing to take the other one.

If Cyrus took his squad and left now, it would be almost like handing the captured Tangle over to someone else.

Therefore.

Cisrain did not even consider it.

"Denied."

Brown looked up at Cisrain, "Lord Governor, one thousand—"

There was no point in them coming back now.

Whether they returned or not would not change the outcome of the war.

"Tell them to take the other planet. We will hold until they return."

One day, after Abaddon cut off his topknot, he went to his barracks to see what people thought of his new hairstyle. However, he found that his subordinates were looking at him with strange expressions. Just as he thought a rebellion was about to break out, a ten-thousand-year-old Terminator veteran ran up to him, knelt on both knees, and cried out: "Warmaster! We are innocent, Warmaster! The thirteen Black Crusades—that was all that bastard Abaddon, he did it all by himself!"