103: Chapter 103 Destroying the Giant Rock Nest City

Xue Shatian stood on the spire of the Troy World Hive City, overlooking the space that no longer belonged to them.

Kargos stood behind Xue Shatian and asked in confusion: "Why give up the fight for the Spaceport? Do you not know that once we lose the Spaceport, our reinforcements will be completely unable to enter from the outside?"

Upon hearing this, Xue Shatian asked with interest: "So you can use your brain after all?"

Kargos snorted coldly upon hearing this.

Xue Shatian said calmly: "Our strength in space is too weak. Rather than being routed by the Imperial army in space, it is better to engage them in close-quarters combat on the ground."

Xue Shatian still explained it to Kargos.

Kargos did not blame Xue Shatian; in fact, he was eager for the Imperial army to land and engage in close-quarters combat with them.

Fighting at long range in space is something Khorne disdains most, but anyone with a normal brain knows that ordinary flesh and blood cannot withstand laser guns and Bolters, so necessary long-range attacks are still required.

Of course, the tasks he looked down upon were all handed over to those Chaos mortal units.

And the Bolters in the hands of the Khorne warriors were simply to give them something to do while charging.

"What do we do now?"

Xue Shatian walked into the Governors Palace. On the huge wall of the Governors Palace hung a map of the entire Troy World.

The terrain of Troy World can be thought of as a horizontal North and South American continent. The difference is that their central connection point is a huge circular plain, where the largest city was built—the Troy Hive City.

In the center of the plain is the Sea of Troy.

There are five Hive Cities located on this continent. From west to east, they are the Western Hive City;

Heading east, one would encounter a vast forest area where trees that survive by absorbing iron minerals grow. The Hive City built here is dedicated to mining the resources here and is known as the Ironwood Hive City;

And further east is the central Troy Hive City;

East of Troy is the eastern continent. Closest to the Troy Hive City are countless giant rocks, underneath which lie huge marble veins, and that place is known as the Giant Rock Hive City;

The easternmost one is the Eastern Hive City.

In the other words, no matter which side is attacked, there will always be a continent that becomes the rear of Chaos, continuously producing equipment from the ground.

The best method is to attack the interior from both the east and west simultaneously.

But this requires a huge force. 99% of the entire expeditionary army belongs to Xia Xingchen, and Xia Xingchen only has sixty divisions. If he wants to maintain a two-front war, he simply does not have enough manpower.

You must know that the Chaos mortal units on this planet number in the tens of millions, and if you add those Chaos Cultists, there are probably about one billion people.

Fortunately, this world is not a Hive City world; otherwise, Xia Xingchen might as well give up.

Xia Xingchen had already arrived on the Black Ships.

Sitting in the conference room, Xia Xingchen sat on one side of the round table, while sitting next to Inquisitor Kolo were a nun and a Space Marine.

Inquisitor Kolo immediately introduced them to Xia Xingchen: "This is the Chapter Master of the Novamarines, Bardan Duvarot."

Inquisitor Kolo pointed to the Astartes Monk on his right hand side.

The Novamarines Chapter comes from the Second Founding. The Chapter's armor uses a quartered layout alternating between blue and bone white, also described in records as "quartered blue and bone color," characterized by symmetrical left-right division. Their emblem is a twelve-pointed star with a skull in the center.

Inquisitor Kolo then pointed to the Zheng Hai on his left: "This is Canoness Vira of the Order of the Martyred Lady."

Vira wore a helmet and was draped in the iconic black armor and red robes of the Order of the Martyred Lady.

The dark ceramite armor plates shimmered with a ghostly light under the cold lights, as if they could absorb the surrounding heat at any moment. The red vestments draped over the outside were like congealed blood, every fold having been soaked in the filthy blood of heretics on countless battlefields. The hem of the robe moved without wind, like the burning flames of the Emperor's wrath.

Xia Xingchen sat opposite the three and asked: "What is your plan?"

Inquisitor Kolo, Canoness Vira, and the Novamarines Chapter Master all looked at Xia Xingchen. Finally, the Inquisitor spoke first: "You will command all offensive deployments; we are only responsible for the most critical final execution."

Xia Xingchen thought to himself, as expected, the dirty and tiring work still has to be done by us mortal units.

Xia Xingchen quickly pulled up a holographic projection, which displayed the map of Troy World.

Xia Xingchen explained his combat plan to everyone, and their landing point was designed to be the Western Hive City world.

Just then, Novamarines Chapter Master Bardan Duvarot spoke up, his deep voice transmitted through the amplifier: "Mortal, why choose this place?"

Xia Xingchen looked up; it was the Astartes Monk who had taken the initiative to ask.

"The reason is very simple. Compared with the iron forest area where the Ironwood Hive City is located, the iron forest area is more suitable for us to carry out the advancement and deployment of mechanized units."

He was also very helpless; the marble mountain area to the east was simply a natural fortress and stronghold. Attacking from that side would result in unimaginable casualties.

Canoness Vira also raised a question: "Are we just going to ignore the eastern region? There are two Hive Cities there. If we leave them alone, they can continuously provide personnel and weapons to the west, and our battle will become extremely difficult by then."

Xia Xingchen listened to this. In fact, they had already thought of a method, and it was very simple: The most extreme way is to use Orbital Strike to forcibly bomb the Giant Rock Hive City into ruins, and when necessary, release some special biochemical weapons to create an artificial isolation zone to prevent the transport of personnel and supplies from the eastern Hive Cities. After all the fighting is over, then slowly deal with the easternmost Eastern Hive City.

"Our suggestion is to use Orbital Strike to flatten the entire Giant Rock Hive City directly. This requires us to send elites to infiltrate the Hive City world and destroy the plasma engines."

Xia Xingchen's words can be summarized in two sentences: Send an elite squad to infiltrate the Hive City to destroy the plasma engines, and then use Orbital Strike to blow the Giant Rock Hive City flat.

When he finished saying this, it undoubtedly sentenced the hundreds of millions of people on the Giant Rock Hive City to death.

Of course, this plan was currently just a plan for Xia Xingchen and had not been fully finalized. Just destroying a Hive City was no longer something that could be done solely by his orders.

And the only one who could approve this order was naturally Inquisitor Kolo.

Inquisitor Kolo was silent for a moment, then nodded.

"Do you need our help?" Novamarines Chapter Master Bardan Duvarot offered to help Xia Xingchen.

Xia Xingchen did not refuse; completing such an extremely dangerous mission naturally required the help of Space Marines.

Xia Xingchen nodded, and after discussing some other details, he took the initiative to say goodbye first.

After Xia Xingchen left, only Inquisitor Kolo, Canoness Vira, and Novamarines Chapter Master Bardan Duvarot remained in the room.

"Do you really trust this lost lamb?" Vira first expressed her distrust of Xia Xingchen and questioned Inquisitor Kolo beside her: "Inquisitor, forgive my presumption, you must know that in the Taiping Sector, our relationship with these Transmigrators is very bad. It is said that two Transmigrator factions have already broken out into war with us."

Hearing such words that sowed discord among companions, Kolo immediately stopped her sternly: "Canoness Vira, you must be clear that Xia Xingchen is our companion now. If you continue to slander colleagues like this, I can completely charge you with heresy."

After hearing this, the Canoness immediately closed her mouth.

"Vira, you must know we have no choice. If any of you could assemble a million-strong army to attack this world, you wouldn't need to say anything; I would personally tell Xia Xingchen to leave."

Reality would not allow them to refuse. This world cannot be subjected to Exterminatus because there is something extremely important on it.

Otherwise, a world with tens of millions of Chaos troops and nearly one billion Chaos Cultists would have long since been hit with Exterminatus.

Xia Xingchen returned to the dream star and began to quickly mobilize personnel. This time it was not a siege battle, but a need to execute a decapitation target.

Xia Xingchen pulled out nearly three hundred people from the Star Guard.

This time, Xia Xingchen would also go personally.

"What are we still waiting for? The Orbital Strike is about to begin, and the troops are ready, so why is the assembly still delayed?"

Xia Xingchen paused for a moment and said calmly to Zheng Hai: "Waiting for someone."

Just then, a crew member immediately reported: "Archon, there is a gunship requesting to land."

After hearing this, Xia Xingchen naturally knew that it was the Novamarines who had arrived.

"Open the hatch and let them in."

As the side hatch of the dream star opened, the Novamarines' gunship landed on the landing platform.

Walking down from it was the First Company Captain of the Novamarines, Mordecai Blaylock.

"Now we can begin the Orbital Strike and draw their fire."

After Xia Xingchen gave the order, he quickly came to the interior of the cabin.

He came before the First Company Captain Mordecai and performed a standard Aquila Salute to him.

Mordecai looked carefully at the human noble in front of him. He was very different from those other human nobles.

Specifically where he was different, there was a kind of hope for the future---

"Captain, our Orbital Strike is ready, and we can synchronize the plan."

The First Company Captain Mordecai nodded.

Subsequently, a formation composed of transport aircraft and attack aircraft began to head towards the direction of the Giant Rock Hive City.