67: Chapter 49 Decapitation Operation

Inside the transport, Xia Xingchen sat surrounded by the Star Guard, all ready for action.

Nuwa's voice rang out in the cabin through the communication system:

"Attention, we are only one minute away from the The Spire."

Just as everyone was on high alert, violent explosions suddenly erupted around them.

"Watch out for anti-air! Anti-aircraft fire!"

The interior of the transport immediately shook violently. The ten transports dispersed at once, beginning to evade the ground-based anti-aircraft fire.

Under the fierce barrage, one of the transports was hit and forced to make an emergency landing elsewhere.

Soon after, a second transport was struck by enemy anti-aircraft fire, and its right-wing engine exploded.

It was in even greater danger than the first, eventually falling into a direct freefall.

The original ten transports were suddenly reduced to eight, and the troop strength plummeted from a hundred to eighty.

Fortunately, luck was on their side afterward; the remaining eight transports completed a standard warhammer 40k-style drop.

The transports hovered at low altitude as the bay doors opened, and Xia Xingchen led all the Star Guard in a direct drop.

They landed on the Governor's Plaza at the The Spire.

Taking advantage of the fact that the The Spire's defense forces had not yet reacted, Xia Xingchen immediately led all troops to advance at full speed toward the Governors Palace.

Xia Xingchen walked at the very front of the formation, his Plasma Pistol firing continuously; any nobles or servants running around were shot dead on the spot.

As Xia Xingchen reached a corridor, a tall, thin noble happened to run right into him.

Without any reason or words, Xia Xingchen grabbed him by the throat and pressed the Plasma Pistol against his forehead.

"You have two choices: tell me where the Governor is right now, or I blow your head off."

Feeling the threat of death, the noble was scared witless, his legs trembling uncontrollably as he stared blankly at Xia Xingchen.

"I... I... I..."

The noble's stuttering made Xia Xingchen very dissatisfied; he squeezed the man's throat harder and threatened:

"I'll give you three seconds. If you can't tell me, I'll ask someone else."

As he spoke, Xia Xingchen pressed the Plasma Pistol even firmer against the man's forehead.

Feeling the residual heat of the muzzle, the noble immediately shouted:

"The Governor is in his bedroom! Just go straight down this corridor!"

After hearing this, Xia Xingchen tossed him aside and continued to lead his troops forward.

At that moment, the Governor's personal guards arrived in the corridor to block Xia Xingchen's advance, and both sides engaged in a fierce firefight in the narrow passage.

Xia Xingchen's Plasma Pistol fired repeatedly as he led the charge. Under the cover of his soldiers, Xia Xingchen was like a steel tank; his ferocious firepower and powerful defenses drove the rebels to the brink of despair.

Next, Xia Xingchen once again demonstrated the formidable melee capabilities granted by his power armor. Without even using his power sword, he simply clenched his fist and swung, shattering a rebel soldier's head with a casual blow.

In the most brutal manner, Xia Xingchen displayed absolute power that brooked no defiance.

After dealing with the enemies in the corridor, Xia Xingchen grabbed the last soldier by the throat. A cold red light emanated from his helmet's eyepieces, and his voice came through the loudspeaker:

"Where is the Governor?"

Xia Xingchen didn't fully trust the noble's words; he needed to cross-verify to confirm the Governor's exact location.

Unfortunately, the soldier before him refused to answer.

"I'll give you one chance. Tell me where the Governor is, and you'll live."

As soon as he finished speaking, Xia Xingchen saw the soldier's hand behind his back fiddling with something.

Without hesitation, Xia Xingchen threw him away like a rag doll.

As the soldier tumbled through the air, Xia Xingchen clearly saw that it was a high-explosive grenade.

The grenade then exploded in the passage, sending blood flying everywhere.

"A loyal soldier, indeed. Too bad he followed the wrong person."

Xia Xingchen had no choice but to continue following the noble's directions. Reaching a corner, he found two paths branching off ahead.

Go left or go right?

Unable to afford a gamble, Xia Xingchen ordered the troops to split: he led forty men to the right, while the remaining forty went left.

The Star Guard nodded and promptly split into two groups.

After walking less than a hundred meters to the right, they encountered an extremely elite unit.

This unit was entirely clad in Carapace Armor and equipped with sophisticated weaponry, including Imperial standard M36 laser guns and even hellguns.

The power of a hellgun far exceeded that of a standard laser gun; even Xia Xingchen had to temporarily avoid its direct brunt.

A Star Guard member who couldn't dodge in time had his armor pierced; his entire chest looked as if it had been melted by volcanic lava, instantly revealing a glowing red wound before he collapsed to the ground.

"Holy shit, hellguns? You've got to be kidding me. How can there be such an elite unit here!"

Xia Xingchen immediately raised his Plasma Pistol and aimed at the head of the soldier holding the hellgun.

Pulling the trigger, the plasma bolt struck the rebel's skull like an electric drill.

A massive hole was instantly blasted into the rebel's head; half of it was sheared off by the plasma shot, revealing the red and white tissue inside.

Xia Xingchen didn't stop, maintaining suppressive fire. Behind him, the Star Guard dialed their Mad Dragon laser guns to maximum power, firing frantically in a near-overload state. In a short time, they created a dense curtain of fire that pinned down the elite unit ahead.

Seeing an opportunity, Xia Xingchen quickly signaled the soldiers to throw grenades for a concentrated blast.

"Three, two, one!"

The soldiers immediately hurled the high-explosive grenades.

When the grenades landed at the rebels' feet, some turned to dodge, while several at the front prepared for certain death, throwing themselves onto the grenades to minimize the blast's lethality with their own bodies.

With a thunderous boom, thick smoke filled the corridor. The surviving rebels didn't hesitate, immediately training their weapons on the smoke.

A heavy clanging of metallic footsteps charged out from the smoke. Xia Xingchen's power sword, shimmering with eerie light and electrical currents, instantly struck their heads. In a flash, two rebels were decapitated.

Xia Xingchen's fist, like a heavy truck at full speed, sent another nearby rebel flying.

The greatest strength of the dragon shield power armor lay in its internal power amplifiers, power distributors, and electronic muscle bundles.

It could concentrate power at a single point or distribute it throughout the body according to the user's needs and combat style, efficiently allocating strength.

Xia Xingchen had tested it; the power armor could increase his strength nearly twenty-five-fold, with a full-force punch delivering two tons of impact.

At such close range, Xia Xingchen was like a giant among mortals; the surrounding battlefield was nothing more than a slaughterhouse to him.

With the enhanced analytical and reaction capabilities provided by the power armor, Xia Xingchen killed a rebel with almost every blow.

Furthermore, Xia Xingchen wasn't fighting alone; the veteran Star Guard behind him provided constant fire support. They didn't have to worry about friendly fire because their laser guns couldn't penetrate Xia Xingchen's power armor, allowing them to fire without restraint.

The rebels, however, could not; they had to dodge Xia Xingchen's melee attacks while being wary of the Star Guard's long-range fire, making it impossible to organize an effective counterattack.

Before long, the battle was over.

Looking at the corpses littering the ground, Xia Xingchen showed no emotion and simply continued to advance.

The Star Guard followed immediately. At the end of the corridor, a heavy door made of adamantium appeared before Xia Xingchen.

Xia Xingchen slapped the door hard, shocked to find that the door and the surrounding walls were so sturdy that their current firepower couldn't possibly breach them.

"Are you kidding me?"

"Made of adamantium!!!"

"If the Governor could stay hidden inside, he could use the vox system to continuously send out orders."

[part:gemini-3.1-flash-lite]

(The vox system can be understood as the Imperium's global radio network, which the Governor can use to issue orders to the entire planet.)

Xia Xingchen was certain that there must be a command system inside specifically for the Governor's use.

"Damn it!"

Xia Xingchen angrily pounded on this door made of adamantium; he had not expected the man to be so afraid of death.

Now, Xia Xingchen's decapitation strike could be considered a complete failure; he simply could not open this door.

"Nvwa! Nvwa! Are you there?"

Xia Xingchen anxiously contacted Nvwa at the Spaceport.

"Archon, I am here."

Hearing Nvwa's voice, Xia Xingchen's anxious heart calmed down slightly. He hurriedly reported the current situation to Nvwa in detail and asked if she had a solution.

Nvwa only took a fraction of a second to analyze it before immediately providing three plans.

"Master, I have three plans for you: First, we can use the dream star to perform an Orbital Strike, directly destroying the entire The Spire along with the Governor using brute force, and then take over the planet's broadcast system to announce the event, forcing all rebel troops to lay down their weapons and surrender."

Nvwa's first suggestion was rejected on the spot by Xia Xingchen.

"I cannot afford this price. If I kill all the administrative staff and management, I will be left with a completely chaotic planet. I cannot spend over a hundred years suppressing every rebellion on this planet one by one; this is a cost I cannot bear. What I need is the corpse of the rebellion's leader, as well as a group of the old leadership willing to obey or submit, in order to quickly control the entire Vanad Planet."

"Second, we can directly paralyze the plasma energy core of the entire Hive City No. 1, forcing the entire Hive City to lose power and making it impossible for the Governor to issue any orders."

Before she could finish, she was directly interrupted by Xia Xingchen.

"Stop! How is this method any different from the first one? It just turns the chaos of three Hive Cities into the chaos of one. Tell me the third plan. If it's just more bombing or something similar, don't bother."

Nvwa's mechanical voice quickly replied: "Commander, the third plan is completely different from the first two and meets your requirements."

Nvwa then spoke of the third plan: "Third, rely on an electronic interference system to forcibly paralyze all communications and radio broadcasts in the The Spire, making them unable to command, while we forcibly access the communication system. You will then be able to issue orders directly."

Xia Xingchen was overjoyed upon hearing this and immediately ordered Nvwa to execute this plan.

Just as the dream star was carrying out electronic warfare suppression on the The Spire, the voice of another squad of soldiers suddenly came through the communication channel of Xia Xingchen's power armor.

"Archon, we have good news here! We have fought our way to the enemy's combat command room, controlled everyone inside, and captured the enemy's supreme military Commander!"

Xia Xingchen was stunned when he heard this, then immediately realized that Nvwa's electronic suppression only had ten minutes, and now was the best time.

He immediately left twenty soldiers to guard the door, forbidding anyone from approaching, and set up a defense.

Then, leading the remaining twenty Star Guard, he rushed to the combat command room.

By this time, Frankie had already been pinned to the ground by the Star Guard and could not move.

When Xia Xingchen arrived, the combat command system of Vanad Planet had completely collapsed.

The soldiers below were not receiving any orders from the supreme command and could only blindly hold their positions.

As the battle dragged on and casualties increased, the soldiers' will was being consumed by madness, and deserters had begun to appear on many front lines.

The soldiers captured a Tech-Priest, held a gun to his head, and forced him to operate according to Xia Xingchen's requirements.

Xia Xingchen then connected the supreme command's communication system to the radio broadcast of Vanad Planet.

"Attention all Planetary Defense Force of Vanade: I am the Emperor's Punisher."

When the vox system radio broadcast passed through the supreme command room and reached every corner of the planet and the Hive City.

The soldiers fighting on the front lines were stunned—this voice was neither the voice of their supreme Commander nor the Governor's.

At the same time, Nvwa also issued an order to stop the attack through the internal system.

The three divisions attacking on the front lines immediately ceased their assault, and everyone crouched in the trenches.

The rebels also stopped their counterattack, and everyone waited quietly for the next sentence of the broadcast.

Amidst the static of the current, a majestic and steady voice came out of the broadcast system: "All rebel forces, obey! Your Governor has been decapitated, and the mastermind of the rebellion is dead! I am the Captain of the Punisher Fleet, the fleet has blockaded the star system, and resistance means death! You are Imperial soldiers deceived by a tyrant. Lay down your weapons and surrender immediately! Those who resist will be treated as heretics, their bones ground to dust, with no hope of redemption! The Emperor watches you, and the Emperor will grant you mercy."

Hearing this, the soldiers below instantly lost all will to resist.

The Governor had already been eliminated, so why should they, as bottom-tier people, fight for a dead man?

Under the heavy psychological pressure and the faith in the Emperor engraved in their bones, these soldiers began to lay down their weapons in large numbers.

The First Division, the Second Division, and the Third Division also began to emerge from the trenches.

After clearly seeing that the rebels were no longer firing, the next tasks were to receive prisoners of war, purge die-hards, and clear the entire battlefield.

After Xia Xingchen finished his impassioned speech, he turned his gaze to Frankie.

Stared at by that gaze, which was like that of a jackal, Frankie couldn't help but swallow.

A killing intent that had almost solidified condensed on Xia Xingchen.

Xia Xingchen stated the facts in a flat tone: "Help me open the Governor's door."

To be honest, Xia Xingchen really had not expected a Governor to be so cowardly that the door to his own bedroom was made of adamantium.

Other than using a volcano cannon to blast it, he really could not think of any other way to open it. Now, he could only try his luck and ask those closest to the Governor if they had a way.

Frankie watched as Xia Xingchen took off his helmet. The eyes beneath the mask had no ripples, looking at him calmly.

Those black pupils were like black holes, wanting to completely devour a person's soul.

"I... I..."

"Think carefully before you answer."

Xia Xingchen's voice was very steady, even carrying a hint of carelessness, but to Frankie, it sounded like the whisper of a tyrant.

Frankie was absolutely certain that if he said one wrong word, the other party would unhesitatingly hang him in the square.

"There is a secret passage, a secret passage leading to the Governor's bedroom. It was originally intended to ensure the Governor could escape when he was in deep danger."

Frankie did not care about loyalty anymore.

The Governor himself was someone who had betrayed the Empire, and he only served him because of a contract that had lasted for thousands of years. Since the Empire had already achieved total victory, continuing to serve the Governor would just be a dead end, and it would do his family no good.

"I hope you are not lying."

Xia Xingchen put his helmet back on, and through the power armor's amplification system, a mechanical voice came out: "Stand up, Frankie, and lead the way."

Hearing this, Frankie did not dare to hesitate, immediately stood up, and walked out under the escort of two Star Guard, with Xia Xingchen and ten others following closely behind.

Frankie then led Xia Xingchen through the maze-like passages of the The Spire.

Xia Xingchen almost thought Frankie was planning to lead them into some trap to silence them, and even the Star Guard behind Frankie had their hands on their laser guns.

Frankie was also panicking inside; he shouldn't have built this path so long.

But fortunately, just as everyone's patience was about to run out, Frankie stopped in front of a huge portrait.

"We're here."