There were countless examples like the Becker Machine Plant.
With the advantage of a preemptive strike, most noble strongholds in the Mid-hive were breached in one blow and secured without even an exchange of fire.
The fighting in the Upper Hive and the Spire was far more difficult. Although the assaults there were led by Astartes, these nobles had plenty of vicious tricks up their sleeves.
Faced with annihilation, many families chose to perish together with their enemies.
Mutants, Xenos Mercenaries, Robots, Biochemical Cyborgs, Psykers...
Even Astartes had to deal with such enemies carefully.
Fortunately, the Chapter fleet had already secured Badab's airspace. The entire sky and orbital space were under the Astral Claws' control.
Fighter and bomber squadrons flew sortie after sortie at high intensity, providing fire support for the Astartes.
Some aircraft intended for void warfare descended into the atmosphere to skim the ground. Carrying bombs measured in tons, these larger, stronger, fiercer, and more brutal craft blasted every Enemy of Humanity straight to the heavens.
If not for the difficulty of later repairs and reconstruction, as well as the potential for massive civilian casualties, Huron would have preferred to order the void fleet to bombard the ground directly.
Best to blast everything into dust—leave nothing but a clean white void!
Huron stood on the observation deck of the Watt Family Residence, watching flames rise throughout the Upper Hive and Spire. His face still bore a dazed expression, while Corian stood guard around him with the Terminator Company.
Glancing at Corian, who stared unblinkingly at the fires rising everywhere and looked eager to join the fight, Huron decided to let him loose. "Corian, take half the Terminator Company and command the Second Company in assaulting the Spire nobles' residences. Kill all resistance without mercy. Imprison those who surrender."
"Yes, Chapter Master!" Corian grew excited, then hesitated. "Why keep them alive? Shouldn't all these nobles be killed?"
"Because they do not deserve to die as nobles." Huron gritted his teeth. "I will nail them to the pillar of shame and let them die as heretics, anti-human beasts, and scum against society."
"Understood, Chapter Master." Corian raised his Power Sword and left the Watt Family Residence with half the Terminator Company.
Huron looked up at the sky. A vast spinning nebula, like a giant eye, filled his vision.
That was the Maelstrom, the second-largest Warp Rift in the galaxy after the Eye of Terror. The eye-like nebula was actually matter being drawn into the Warp.
Since arriving in this world, this was Huron's first time seeing the true starry sky. Before this, he had remained in the Chapter Monastery, dragging the Chapter's senior officers into construction projects.
"How could they dare..." Huron muttered.
Why did Valen dare to treat people as ingredients so openly? Judging by how practiced he was, this method was probably not his invention. It must have gone on for a very, very long time—long enough for Valen to consider it perfectly natural.
Where were the enforcers? The Inquisition? The Ecclesiarchy? The Officio Assassinorum?
Weren't they usually so enthusiastic about punishing heretics?
How had a heresy as enormous as the Watt Family, one that did not even bother to hide what it was doing, gone unchecked? They had even been Planetary Governors for over a century!
If Huron had not crossed over, he might have laughed it off. This was the grim Gothic aesthetic of Warhammer; this was the Imperium of Man's signature style.
If he had merely been an ordinary transmigrator without any cheat, he could have numbed himself with the thought that it was none of his business and beyond his power to change.
But he had a cheat, and it was not weak. He had even begun as the Chapter Master of the Astral Claws, able to take off whenever he pleased.
So he had tried his best to change everything through gentler methods, trying to make everyone happy and willing to accept it.
Whether it was using Decisions to raise the success rate of transforming recruits to nearly one hundred percent, using military industry to manufacture Astartes equipment, employing civilian laborers for infrastructure, or using the training function to quickly teach the Auxilia to read.
It was all so that everyone could gain tangible benefits, so that no one would become a sacrifice on his road to rise.
Even the nobles—he had tried to spare them.
That was also why he had not minded joining forces with Valen to deal with the other nobles. So long as the Watt Family and the other confiscated noble families did not lose their minds, he did not mind sparing them and making a fortune together along the way.
There was no particular reason for it. It was simply because he had a cheat and the ability to do so.
As he had said before, he could hardly be expected to be the sort of person who only played the control console while walking a tightrope, yet somehow bore all the pressure and killed without hesitation, could he?
Then reality slapped him hard across the face.
"If you don't wipe a mirror, it won't shine. If you don't kill nobles, it won't do..." Huron muttered.
Of course, saying that did not mean Huron intended to carry out an indiscriminate massacre. That would make him no different from the nobles. But from now on, the noble class could forget about making money. First, they would have to survive a Public Trial.
On a level Huron could not see, the system was maintaining the balance of his Gene-seed, preventing him from descending completely into madness.
The Astral Claws Chapter's Parent Chapter was unknown. As products of the Cursed Founding, they were chimeras of the Ultramarines, World Eaters, Raven Guard, and Night Lords.
They were among the Tech-Priests' more successful creations. While they possessed no particularly outstanding beneficial mutations, the World Eaters' bloodthirsty mania, the Raven Guard's Gene-seed degeneration, and the Night Lords' epileptic prophecies had all been suppressed. Their Gene-seed's purity and stability were astonishing.
That was why the Astral Claws had been able to split off three successor Chapters.
The Tiger Claws, meanwhile, had spent too long in the Warp, strengthening the expression of their World Eaters genetic traits and making them extremely warlike.
Fortunately, the Chapter had always restrained that warlike nature through strict discipline, making the Tiger Claws Chapter more like the War Hounds than the World Eaters.
Without the system's balancing, Huron would likely have already fallen into the Night Lords' prophecy that "the future held no hope," then descended into madness.
But aside from not going mad, things were not much better now.
Huron's mind was filled with every kind of punishment and torture. He imagined how the nobles would weep and beg when subjected to them.
Then he felt a wave of discouragement, because this would only satisfy his anger and meant nothing to that Battle Sister who had already died.
Yes, Huron did not even know her name. Neither her own memories nor Valen had ever mentioned it.
"If you don't kill nobles, it won't do..." he muttered.
Before you continue