Overthinking Is Inferior to Fighting

When the report on the appearance of Orks and the subsequent cleanup summary reached Huron, it consisted of only a few short lines.

Noticing the conclusion of "complete extermination achieved," Huron set his mind at ease.

As long as it did not turn into a counter-insurgency quagmire, Huron did not care.

Furthermore, the frontline troops had reacted swiftly this time, immediately requesting support upon encountering unexpected situations. The senior officers had not treated the lives of rank-and-file soldiers as tools to gain merit, which was very well done.

As for the handling of the Purifying Fire cult, it also ended with all of them being shot dead.

At the mere thought of this bunch of lunatics, Huron was somewhat speechless.

This cult endorsed the Astral Claws' public trial of the nobles, but to such an extreme degree that they began clamoring to judge everyone associated with the nobility.

Then they began setting up private courts, lynching underhive workers and causing the deaths of quite a few people.

After that, they were classified as an extremist cult, heavily battered by the iron fist of the Special Operations Division, with the majority surrendering to accept reform through labor.

Only the most extreme die-hards fled to the deep hive, feeling that the Special Operations Division had been corrupted by noble bribes, and intended to relocate their base to continue their judgments.

When Huron saw this report back then, he was utterly speechless. According to the standards of this outrageous cult, anyone who had ever worked for the nobility deserved to die.

If things were really run according to their methods, it was questionable whether a single hundred million innocent people could be found across the entire Badab.

Now that this bunch of psychiatric cases had been brought to justice, it could be considered a weight lifted from Huron's mind.

However, looking at the large swath of red area marking the deep hive zone, and then at the sporadic green dots representing control zones, he could not help but massage his brow.

Although those green dots represented areas of hundreds or thousands of square kilometers, compared to the deep hive's millions of square kilometers of area, kilometers of height, and dozens of stacked layers, they were merely a drop in the ocean.

Yet Huron had no other recourse.

Although home-raiding had yielded a considerable number of bolters, and production lines for bolters and exoskeletons had been established, not much time had passed, and the Special Operations Division had only established a little over twenty branches, mustering a total of just over five hundred thousand personnel.

This number was naturally more than enough as breacher teams for the fleet, but cast into the deep hive, it was no different from dust falling into the sea.

Even counting the all-weather deployment of the two grand companies, the clearance speed could not be rushed.

For they had to wait for subsequent infrastructure and armed immigration to catch up; otherwise, the troops would barely leave before the monsters and demons of the deep hive sniffed their way back.

Fortunately, the effect of the previous Emperor's Epiphany ritual was surprisingly good, and the Chaos cults in the deep hive had been wiped out directly, reducing one troublesome enemy.

Still, everything demanded time.

Time... Sigh, am I being a bit too impatient?

Huron calmed his emotions.

Fairly speaking, the current two thousand-plus Astartes and hundreds of thousands of special operations personnel might not change the strategic situation if thrown onto Cadia, but they still constituted a force.

Besides, he had only been in this world for a year, and this progress was already considered fast.

Thinking of this, he continued browsing through the other summary reports.

Today's number of publicly tried individuals: over sixteen thousand; death sentences: over ten thousand; remaining criminals awaiting public trial: over one hundred million. The primary charges for today's tried suspects were...

The major high nobles were all personally judged by the Astral Claws, such as Odinson judging the Salome Family.

The reason was simple: these high nobles had underlings handle matters for them; they did not need to soil their own hands at all, nor did they even need to meet the victims.

Just like that battle sister, who until her dying day did not know she was livestock raised by the Watt Family.

With no victims coming forward to voice grievances, the Astral Claws had no choice but to judge them by Imperial law.

However, as for the remaining lesser nobles and the lackeys who attached themselves to the nobility to commit outrages, they had interacted with quite a few victims, and plenty of people wanted to point out their crimes.

Therefore, these individuals were temporarily detained, awaiting victims to come forward and identify them before facing public trial.

On one hand, this was to establish the efficacy and authority of the Badab Codex; on the other hand, it was to popularize legal knowledge among the onlookers.

Although the nobles were all beasts and bastards, many residents living in the twisted environment of the underhive were no better.

Some heinous criminals were also publicly tried and shot, while Huron decided to let bygones be bygones for minor offenses like petty theft and brawling, giving them a chance to turn over a new leaf.

Yet most hive citizens were both illiterate and legally blind; without proper legal education, they would likely still feel aggrieved even after breaking the law.

However, after looking at the various primary charges of the suspects on trial today, Huron felt his blood pressure rising once more.

The charges alone gave him the absurd sensation of how can words be arranged in such combinations, let alone reading the specific details—that counted as cardiovascular exercise for him.

The anxiety that had just been suppressed welled up again.

Aside from Palatus, the largest of them all, the remaining thirteen hive cities on Badab Primus together probably housed a population of thirty to forty billion.

Although those hive cities surrendered at the mere whisper of wind, due to manpower shortages, Huron had only dispatched a total of ten auxiliary personnel to maintain stability.

Needless to say, similar events were likely still continuously playing out in those hive cities.

Although these matters theoretically had nothing to do with Huron, nor could they be blamed on him.

Yet the worldview cultivated in his past life, compounded by the powerful system, instead gave him a morbid sense of responsibility, making him feel that all these problems he knew of yet could not solve were partially his burden.

Fortunately, Odinson and his other Astartes officers were competent enough, and the system's functions were efficient enough, otherwise this twisted mindset of his might have caused massive chaos.

After struggling with the thought for a moment, Huron chose to stop overthinking and headed toward the dueling pit.

Because of the Emperor's Gaze buff, Huron now stood 2.5 meters tall after donning his power armour, and his combat prowess was steadily rising.

Corian and all the Battle-Brothers of the Tiger Claws bloodline had been thrashed by him more than once, which was also a major reason why Corian and the others behaved so obediently.

The Chapter Master was simply too formidable in a fight.

Arriving at the dueling pit, a few Tiger Claws who had just returned from duty and had not fought their fill were dueling in the pit, surrounded by quite a few other Tiger Claws and Astral Claws.

"Chapter Master, you are here." A Tiger Claw saw Huron and immediately stood at attention.

"Chapter Master." The others greeted him as well.

"Good afternoon, everyone. Anyone looking to continue duelling can come and fight me later." Huron had already changed into training gear and walked into the dueling pit.

"Add me to the mix, all of you take me on!" Huron shouted at the Tiger Claws in the arena.

The Tiger Claws reflexively snapped to attention before reacting, howling as they charged toward Huron.

Huron waited for them to close in, lunged forward fiercely, and directly sent one Tiger Claw flying with a collision.

Then he side-stepped to dodge two chainswords slashing at him, grabbed two Tiger Claws whose momentum had caused them to lose balance, and flipped them straight through the air.

Next, he picked up two chainswords and charged at the remaining three Tiger Claws like a mad dog.

The three immediately assumed defensive postures, using the chainswords in their hands to block Huron's strikes.

Huron's strikes were relentless, growing even faster; flashes of intense sparks erupted where their chainswords clashed, leaving the three Tiger Claws struggling to parry.

Crack. The chainswords of Huron and the three Tiger Claws snapped in unison.

He directly hurled the two hilts at the Tiger Claws, then grabbed two of them by the sides and began swinging them around like a windmill.

The remaining Tiger Claw was beaten black and blue by two Battle-Brothers and collapsed to fall fast asleep before he even had time to beg for mercy.

In just a few short seconds, all six Tiger Claws in the arena had sustained injuries.

Huron put down the two Tiger Claws in his hands: "Apothecary, come inspect!"

An apothecary watching from the side immediately entered the dueling pit, using instruments to check the injuries of the Battle-Brothers.

Huron felt refreshed, dismissing all other thoughts as he looked up toward the spectator stands.

"Anyone else want to come!"