148: Chapter 148 Obstacles

After Xia Xingchen reappeared in the outside world, it took him a month to convey his will to every corner of his domain.

Everyone knew that a great conquest was about to begin.

Inside the supreme conference room, Zheng Hai, Hua Ke, Leovitos, Saint Sabbat, Ma Pingliang, and Edward were all present.

Except for Nuwa, who was still in the Evernight Star System, Xia Xingchen's core team was basically gathered here.

"It is now the 970th year of M40. Today will surely go down in the history books of the entire Ultima Segmentum."

Xia Xingchen sat in the conference room, announcing to everyone a crusade that would be enough to shock the entire Imperium of Man in the future.

"Hundreds of governors in the west have betrayed the Imperium of Man, betrayed humanity, and betrayed the God-Emperor.

We have an obligation to crusade against them, an obligation to launch a holy war, and an obligation to take back everything that once belonged to the Imperium of Man."

After Xia Xingchen finished saying all this, he hid the last sentence in his heart.

"Of course, the future belongs to me."

The reason Xia Xingchen dared to be so certain was entirely because he had sufficient confidence.

After thirty full years of development and the growth of a generation, the total population under Xia Xingchen's actual control had reached an astonishing five hundred million or so.

The total military force had reached an astonishing twelve million.

Including armed freighters, the number of warships in Xia Xingchen's fleet had reached over fifty.

The only thing lacking now was the quality of the warships.

But there was no help for that; after all, the number of warships that the Triplex Phall Forge World could provide to Xia Xingchen was very limited.

In these nearly twenty years, they had provided Xia Xingchen with three Lunar-class cruisers and more than twenty armed small freighters.

For Xia Xingchen, it was enough.

Everyone agreed with Xia Xingchen's crusade plan, and a new problem was subsequently placed before Xia Xingchen.

It was not as if there were no threats around Xia Xingchen; the Lux Civilization was not far from him, but its remote location and difficult navigation made it a natural safe haven instead.

Besides the Lux Civilization, the greatest threat to Xia Xingchen was the Orks.

Ma Pingliang explained in detail to Xia Xingchen the existence that could threaten the Daxia Star System.

First of all, this group of Orks did not occupy any planet; their main body was entrenched on a battle moon.

After reconnaissance and intelligence gathering by Xia Xingchen's side, this battle moon had a history of at least ten thousand years.

Its specific origin could no longer be verified, and this battle moon could no longer be activated.

The Orks relied on the weapons and equipment on this battle moon to continuously plunder the surrounding human worlds.

The location of this battle moon happened to be stuck at the gateway of Xia Xingchen's western Great Crusade.

If Xia Xingchen wanted to march into the west, he had to destroy this battle moon first.

"Is there anything important on that battle moon?"

Xia Xingchen looked around and saw that everyone was silent.

"Very well, then let the dream star fire the first shot of the crusade."

Xia Xingchen stood up and walked to the gate, then turned around and called to his followers behind him:

"Come, let's take a look at our army now."

Xia Xingchen personally pushed open the door for them, and what appeared before everyone was an incomparably wide high platform.

Hundreds of thousands of uniform troops were lined up below the review platform.

The new crusade began from this moment.

The Department of Military Affairs had initially drafted the combat plan for this Great Crusade.

In the 971st year of M40, the dream star led three Lunar-class cruisers, ten combat freighters, and cosmic mass-class transport ships, heading in the direction of the battle moon.

On the dream star.

Xia Xingchen received the intelligence report on the surrounding forces.

At this moment, there were four major forces hindering Xia Xingchen's expansion: the Imperium of Man, the Transmigrator forces, the Orks, and the Aeldari.

The Imperium of Man.

Theos Kevi was originally an admiral in the Imperium of Man.

He was originally a loyalist who was loyal to the Imperium of Man, but ever since returning from a Warp voyage.

All the crew on Theos Kevi's warship, including Theos himself, had betrayed the Imperium of Man and become Imperial rebels.

At first, everyone thought this was the result of Chaos corruption.

But the problem was that they were not loyal to Chaos either; they were simply opposing the Imperium of Man and also opposing Chaos.

The scholars of the Imperium of Man were puzzled and did not understand what was going on.

Xia Xingchen stared at the name "Theos"; this would be his main enemy on the road of expansion.

Theos Kevi controlled more than a dozen star systems of the Imperium of Man, built up a rebel force relying on the military power in his hands, and used his ancient Retribution-class battleship, the "Verdict," as his flagship.

Its core fleet possessed about fifty-five to sixty-five capital ships, including three battleships and over twenty cruisers, plus more than four hundred auxiliary vessels supporting logistics.

The total strength of his ground force, the "Will Legion," was between eight billion and twelve billion, and he completely controlled twelve core star systems in the Theos Sector.

Transmigrator forces.

There was another Transmigrator emerging in the Ultima Segmentum.

Although his strength and fame were much smaller compared to Xia Xingchen's, many people in this Ultima Segmentum had heard of his name.

"The Greedy One" Hawk Rees, who mastered frozen firearm technology.

He first made his fortune on a planet on the edge of the Imperium of Man, at a time when that planet was erupting with rebellion.

Taking advantage of the fact that both the Imperial army and the rebel army were exhausted, Hawk Rees made a desperate move, directly using his own warship as the final shell and crashing it over.

The explosion of the warship directly blew the Imperial army and the rebel army into the sky together.

And Hawk Rees relied on his own army to capture the entire planet.

Hawk Rees did not stop his pace of conquest; he first relied on this planet to quickly establish his own rule.

At the same time, he recruited a group of other Transmigrators in the Ultima Segmentum, providing them with a foothold and a place for trade, in exchange for resources and soldiers.

Hawk Rees also actively ceded part of his power and formed a joint alliance with some Transmigrators.

And with his base as the center, he expanded to the surroundings, nibbling away at the planets of the Imperium of Man and aliens.

They controlled no less than dozens of planets, ruling over billions of people.

As their power continued to expand, their ambition gradually inflated, and they set their sights on a Hive World of the Imperium of Man.

As long as they took this Hive City, they could gain a population of over ten billion and have sufficient manpower for expansion and war.

However, they clearly underestimated the defense of the Hive World of the Imperium of Man.

The victories they had previously achieved in the remote star systems of the Imperium of Man had gone to their heads, making them dare to challenge one of the most important planets of the Imperium of Man.

The defensive power of this Hive World was far beyond their imagination.

There were as many as a hundred orbital defense platforms, some equipped with Nova cannons or torpedo arrays.

Planet-level Void Shield provided defense.

At the same time, the entire Hive World was garrisoned by nearly a thousand regiments, with a total strength of at least eight million or so.

Originally, the joint alliance wanted to win with a blitzkrieg, but in the end, they fell into a brutal war of attrition and position warfare.

Nowadays, they were still blocked outside the orbital defense platforms on the outskirts of the Hive City, unable to advance even half a step.

At this moment, they were fighting with the Imperial Navy for the key shipping lane; the Transmigrator side wanted to cut off the supply lifeline of the Hive World, while the Imperial side wanted to fight to the death to hold this transport route.

Next was the Ork force.

A great Warlord rose among the Orks, named Great Iron Fist.

Great Iron Fist had nothing to do with the Orks on that battle moon; he controlled a planet and gathered tens of billions of Orks on it.

And this group of Orks had already begun to build one of the ultimate weapons of the Orks, a battle moon.

You might ask, why didn't Great Iron Fist go to capture that battle moon in space?

The reason was simple: the Orks on the battle moon and Great Iron Fist were in a hostile relationship.

The Ork force on the battle moon was not small, and Great Iron Fist could not take it down for a while.

Moreover, Great Iron Fist was reluctant to directly blow up that ready-made battle moon.

He could only pin his hopes on building his own battle moon before going to capture that abandoned battle moon.

The area controlled by this Ork, Great Iron Fist, was not on Xia Xingchen's main route of attack.

But the problem was that if you don't go to find the Orks, the Orks will take the initiative to find you, especially since Xia Xingchen could launch such a massive war; a great WAAAGH! would definitely be attracted.

The Aeldari.

Several Craftworlds of the Aeldari wandered in the Ultima Segmentum, but they rarely clashed with the Imperium of Man or other forces, and the vast majority drifted alone in the galaxy.

The only thing that could make them take action was probably the prophecy of a Seer.

Xia Xingchen looked at the report handed to him by the Department of Military Affairs.

It was written on it that the largest Craftworld, carrying billions of Aeldari, had had very strange movement patterns recently.

Logically speaking, in order to avoid Slaanesh, the Aeldari should spend most of their time traveling in the Webway, but now this Aeldari Craftworld began to appear frequently in the real universe.