Chapter 239: Let Us Be the Masters of This World
Dawnlight Sector - Secondary Resistance Planet - Gaul III
The outcome of a battle is decided by the grand tide of events. The winner is determined before the first shot is fired. A head-on confrontation is a matter of industrial capacity and manpower, of the ability to sustain losses, and of whether one is supported by the side that controls the means of production.
In a chaotic and noisy camp, Elara, dispatched by the Dawnbreakers to survey the planet and organize the resistance, wrote the last two paragraphs with the tip of her pen. After a moment's thought, she copied them into another notebook. This girl, rescued from the planet Pierdra during the Dawnbreakers' first landing, had now grown into a capable executor. Aided by her psychic talent for seeing into the hearts of others, she was beginning the work of ruling a planet.
Now, with the support of Seraphina, who was acting as a direct advisor from the Dawnlight Fleet, and the Blood Angel Rafael, one ground-assault plan after another was being approved. The resistance fighters who had long toiled on the planet of Gaul finally had their chance to shine.
The order from the Dawnlight Sector government had been officially issued.
From 05.21.752.M41, all planetary governments were to immediately surrender their authority, accept the stationing of civil servants dispatched by the sector government, and actively cooperate with the investigations of the various sector departments.
Those who disobeyed would be executed.
The Dawnbreakers were not averse to treating the nobles who were willing to cooperate normally. But in most cases, these men who had ruled their planets for nearly ten thousand years would not easily give up the power they had so long wasted. They would form alliances, they would seek the support of ill-intentioned powers, they would resist, they would use everything they had to defend the rights that "belonged" to them.
And so, the various branches of the Church of the Dawn, which had spread to the various planets during the Dawnlight Fleet's investigation phase, and the executors who had been trained as planetary administrators, now had their purpose. They would disrupt the actions of the nobles, raise resistance forces to harass the various planetary powers, and at the same time, support from the Dawnlight Sector government was on its way.
"There are so many resistance forces on this planet," a voice said by her ear. Elara turned and saw it was Seraphina.
"Every planet has many resistance forces," Elara replied without turning her head. "All they lack is a voice to tell them how miserable they are, and a leader to show them how to resist." Perhaps it was their positions, their personalities, or the fact that they had grown up together in the schools of the Dawnlight, but Elara did not stand up. "You just sold me out," she said. "Got me a good chewing-out." All her current battle plans had been redrafted.
"I'm sorry. I just thought your ideas were a little too radical," Seraphina said cautiously. The child who, in front of the Emperor's Angels, had once declared she wanted everything, now understood the weight of those words, and had become much more prudent.
Elara closed her notebook. She had been about to say that she was nothing compared to Ciel, who was now playing a game of noble-elimination on Bavaria, but then she looked at Seraphina's expressionless face and suddenly found it boring. She gestured with her chin at a few scavengers who were leaving with food. "I didn't expect you to be even more naive than me. Why are you letting them leave freely at a time like this?"
Dammit, give me back the shy, introverted Elara from when we first left Pierdra.
"We have different paths. It's better to part on good terms," Seraphina shrugged and replied flatly. She then added, "I have a complete intelligence team. They are not spies."
"You can't get things done with just ideals. You also need iron discipline. Even if they aren't spies, what if these people break the rules and start burning, killing, and looting?"
Faced with her friend's question, Seraphina thought for a moment, then answered, "Then of course we expel them from the group. Such people are not fit to be on the front line."
"What's the use of expelling them? To add a few more scavenger-bandits to the lands of Gaul? Or to have them join the noble armies on the other side? The human heart is a difficult thing to understand," Elara shook her head.
Seraphina was silent. For a moment, she remembered the words a Cardinal had said to her when he was being executed on the cardinal world. Human life is base. It submits only to power. If they do not submit to the Emperor, to the Imperium, then they will submit to Chaos. There is no possibility of salvation.
Elara glanced at her. Growth had left different marks on each of them. "If your kinsmen choose to betray, if the people you want to save commit unforgivable sins, will you hate them?"
Seraphina's mouth moved, but in the end, she just shook her head. She didn't know.
"As I thought. You are truly greedy," Elara, who came from a completely different background, said with a cold snort. "If it were me, I would say that people cannot be distinguished by simple good and evil, but by education and guidance."
"You want to use laws to regulate behavior?"
"Exactly. Ciel's methods won't last. That's why she was sent to planets that already required extreme measures. But we are different," Elara said, pulling out a set of notebooks and beginning to share her plan with her friend. "The influence of the Sea of Souls is unavoidable. We can never ignore it. Evil beliefs will induce the dark side of a person and make them commit sins. It is impossible for humans to be 100% free of error. But we will correct them. And if someone commits a sin, then they should be corrected even more. Even if it means bloodshed!"
Seraphina stared at the girl, who was speaking with such fervor. After a long moment, she nodded almost imperceptibly.
Putting aside the clash between the pragmatist and the idealist, the settlement was in chaos. The captured city was filled with scavengers, workers, and common citizens.
Arthur stood on top of a domed building, surveying it all. He couldn't help but shake his head at the chaotic scene. A rabble. Most of them could only be considered refugees, not warriors. The moment the cannons of the nobles' private armies roared, they would probably rout.
Arthur, who was used to commanding elite warriors, felt a visceral discomfort. If these were Cadians, they would have been ready to move out in ten minutes. A long-range march of several thousand kilometers to conduct a decapitation strike would have been as easy as eating and drinking. But he couldn't ask for too much. For an ordinary planet in the southern sector like Gaul III, this was the standard.
"But they should be able to grow this time," Arthur sighed softly. To learn war in war, to learn from death in death. If you want to resist, you must bleed. No one would give them the time or the opportunity. The Dawnbreakers would do their best to ignite the fire in their hearts, but it was up to them to grasp it.
He descended from the high platform, the sound of his boots on the metal floor a dull thud. He prepared to go back and study the strategy Romulus had given him again. It had only been a few months, but Arthur was already feeling the difficulty of being a Warmaster. After all, when you're charging at the front, you're only responsible for yourself. But when you're commanding a full-scale war, a single wrong order can cost the lives of hundreds of millions. The pressure was indescribable.
Arthur stared at the blinking lights on the tactical sand table, his knuckles tapping on the edge of the data-slate. The Dark Angels' Firewing military advisors, who were in charge of the actual battlefield command, were quickly formulating a plan based on the strategic objectives given by the Primarch, while at the same time, using the new warp-online office system that Ramesses had just set up to command the military activities of the entire sector. They used the warp-shadow of the safe houses to securely transmit information, and used the Aeldari as operators to deliver the correct information to the correct people. Although it still looked very primitive, it was one of the few methods of superluminal communication that could be called safe and efficient.
With the end of the Dawnlight Sector's campaign, Romulus, who now had a pile of qualified workers, was eager to launch his own plan. First, a large-scale purge of the entire sector's upper echelon, eliminating any hidden dangers left by the Mechanicus on the planets, and unifying the entire sector under a single regime called the Dawnbreakers.
As Seraphina, dressed in an advisor's uniform, approached, Arthur put aside his thoughts. "Lord Arthur," she said.
The knight had not come here to command them. The Warmaster was coordinating the purge of the entire sector. How could he focus his attention on a single, unremarkable planet? The nobles on this planet were hoarding some kind of Exterminatus-class weapon provided by the Adeptus Mechanicus. The Dark Angels were here to provide a backstop, and to recover that technology. Similar incidents were not uncommon. The tech-priests would love to see the Primarchs suffer a loss. After all, the Imperium's planets were not their planets. And as the purge progressed, Chaos incidents were also frequent. Heretical beliefs were a small matter. There were even Greater Daemons. It had given the Dawnbreakers a good look at the level of corruption among the Imperial nobility.
Arthur had just happened to come to this planet and was taking the opportunity to observe the state of the resistance.
"Speak," he said. The corridor lights cast a long shadow behind him. Seraphina looked at Arthur, who was like a drawn sword, and spoke quickly. After several years together, this was the lord who still made her the most nervous. "The troops are ready. They are waiting to move out."
"Good," Arthur nodded. The planetary resistance needed a catalyst. And since the Dark Angels were already here, they might as well act together.
The two came to the assembly area, discussing the details of the battle along the way. Arthur also took the time to help them perfect their battle plan. When they arrived, the members of the planetary resistance were already in formation. On the left were the numerous but disorganized masses. Only a single, fully-armed shield-guard unit of about a hundred thousand men looked presentable. They were all hardened veterans, the original combatants of the planetary resistance. They had been fighting on this planet for several years, and their combat skills were certainly sufficient. And this was only a small part. The rest of their forces were fighting the nobles' auxiliary armies in the major cities. And among them was a ten-man squad of Space Marines led by Rafael.
The purge of the entire sector was spread very thin. Basically, every resistance planet had an advisory team with enough Astartes. Fortunately, the organizations they had developed in the various parts of the sector over the years could support such a large operation. As for the important planets, they were dealt with by a fleet in orbit and an Astartes drop-assault.
Arthur's own speed of action was exaggerated. Mortal agents and Astartes infiltrators had always been in control of the situation on the planet's surface. A concentrated assassination campaign alone could cause the nobles' resistance to collapse. Unfortunately, the number of nobles in this universe was too large. A single planet had them in the tens of thousands. A real fight was still a large-scale military conflict. The force he was leading directly was a preliminary force for dealing with dangerous artifacts.
Including the fleet's travel time, in less than three months, military support from the Navy would arrive at the secondary resistance planets.
"My Lord!" Rafael came up to greet Arthur as soon as he arrived. He explained the conditions on the planet's surface and the coordination of the various subsequent actions. He and Seraphina were working well together. As representatives of the advisory team, they had come to Gaul to assist Elara's rebellion. The Dawnbreakers' goal was to prevent the nobles of the various planets from mobilizing the planet's own power. Who knew what kind of madness these nobles would unleash after the Dawnlight Fleet had openly declared its intentions.
"Wait, you didn't say Lord Arthur was coming," Elara said, her eyes lighting up with reverence at the sight of the knight. She then slapped her forehead in annoyance and complained to her friend. This rabble under her command was worse than the civilians they had scraped together in the major cities of Pierdra after fighting the Tyranids. It was really a sight for sore eyes. She had united enough workers to have plenty of weapons and equipment. She could arm several million people without a problem. But morale had always been a problem.
It had been confirmed that the melee in several of the major cities of Gaul had already involved over five million combat units. You could pull any one of those forces and fight a major war on another planet. Elara was busy reorganizing her troops, establishing a soldiers' committee, and devolving central control down to the company level. Unfortunately, time was limited, the mission was urgent, and the results were limited.
Arthur said nothing more. Fear was an instinct. In this assault force, hundreds of thousands of people stood in silence. In fact, just being able to stand here already required extraordinary courage. They had never seen a Primarch, had never seen an Astartes. They only knew that the nobles' lasguns could really turn them to dust. But now, their anger had been ignited. These brave men were beginning to learn the meaning of sacrifice.
"Have you given a mobilization speech?" Arthur asked, turning his head slightly.
"I didn't know what to say," Seraphina answered honestly. She still couldn't understand what she could truly bring to humanity.
"We are here to ignite the fire of resistance on Gaul, to bring them a better life. What's with the hesitation?" Elara couldn't help but say.
"Then you do it?" Rafael chimed in, a look of interest in his eyes. She's learned bad habits.
"I..." Elara glanced cautiously at the knight and swallowed the words that were on the tip of her tongue.
Arthur ignored this brief banter. He looked at the crowd below. His gaze swept over the ragged scavengers, over the fearful and angry eyes. They were afraid. They had long since considered themselves the living dead. They were angry, their suffering hidden in their throats. These were the slaves who had once crawled on the ground, the workers who had been squeezed of their last drop of oil. It was Elara who had taught them how to resist. And now, they needed to know why they were resisting.
Faced with the silent crowd, any words seemed pale and powerless. They only needed one thing to burn away the last of their fear.
Arthur took a deep breath. He looked at these suffering people, at the weather-beaten faces around him, and raised his longsword.
"Arise, ye slaves, who starve and freeze!"
"Arise, ye wretched of the earth!"
The sudden voice, the sharpest, most resonant, most combative of voices, made tens of thousands of eyes turn to him. Elara's eyes widened. She felt as if all her struggles had been condensed into these two lines.
Why must we live in the abyss? Why must we accept this desperate answer?
The slaves who starve and freeze must stand up and tell the Imperium with their blades that the tormentors must be punished. No one is born to be ruled by others. The so-called sophistry of the Imperial nobility is baseless. The suffering humans must stand up and tell Chaos with their swords that these parasites will face retribution. No one is born to be the food of those evil creatures. Those creatures will pay for what they have done.
This world should not be like this.
"We should never have been in this desperate situation, yet we are still in the abyss," Arthur's voice boomed. "Slaughter and war have not ceased. Death and oppression entangle every single person. And you, you are brave. You have not submitted, have not let the oppression crush you. You have not fallen into ignorance and blind obedience. Those who have done so would not be standing here today. And you are not alone."
Arthur lowered his sword, pointing it at the burning cities. If the heroes of the Imperium who had come before had shown the Dawnbreakers hope, then the true death of the C'tan shard had ignited their ambition to achieve their goals. When the fire of resistance on every planet was lit, not for the Emperor, not for some so-called dark god, but for themselves, for humanity itself, they would see a meteor streak across the sky.
Whoosh—
BOOM!
A shell shrieked through the air, followed by a dull explosion. A fireball spread death. Shrapnel flew, cutting through human bodies like knives. Viewed from the sky, this planet had lost its former corpse-like, decaying numbness. She was burning. She had begun to burn.
The ovoid shells that had sheltered the nobles were gone. The beautiful, magnificent tall buildings collapsed in the explosions. Pillars of fire sent up black smoke, and the hot updrafts made the rain evaporate before it could hit the ground. The major cities no longer looked like cities, but like smoking volcanoes.
Squad after squad of troops landed. They were Astra Militarum, Battle-Sisters, Astartes. But their purpose now was not to quell a rebellion started by the dregs of society.
"We are the third echelon of the Pioneer Wing. I am now assuming command. Execute immediately!"
"Yes, my Lord! Please assume command and ensure the mission is completed successfully!"
They stood with more people, and advanced on the backward, corrupt things that had brought so much suffering to so many. The resisting people wore slightly outdated breacher helmets. Their vision was obscured, and they could only see what was in front of them. They took a step, and the burning cities grew larger in their eyes. But they did not feel they were marching into hell.
Thump, thump, thump!
The heavy tremor, like the footsteps of a giant, a heavy battle line pressing forward like a mountain, was set against the 'meteors' that were constantly falling from the sky and the burning cities in the distance.
"Do you see?" Arthur asked the stunned crowd, his voice resonant and powerful. "Humans, arise! Resist!"
Elara's breathing grew heavy. The fire of ambition was leaping. She saw the knight, raising his sword in the crowd, as if to awaken the souls that had long been numbed in the abyss.
"Do not say we have nothing! Do not believe we are born with sin—"
Let me tell you.
The knight raised his sword and, with a firm and resolute voice, told everyone an ideal.
"We will be the masters of this world!"
[OPERATION: COMPREHENSIVE PURGE, HAZARDOUS TECHNOLOGY RECOVERY MISSION BRIEFING]
TIMESTAMP: 753.M41 (Exact time unverifiable)
INTEL LEVEL: SECRET (III)
DARK ANGELS
OBJECTIVE: During the liberation of the Imperial civilized world of Gaul III, recover forbidden technology and control casualties.
STATUS: Complete
DETAILS: Civilized world Gaul III has suffered a minor Chaos incursion. A spatio-temporal distortion barrier has appeared on the planet's surface. The planet possesses a large-yield rift weapon.
CURRENT SITUATION: The surface battle has been won. Surface population casualties have reached 5%. Planetary resistance forces and the Astra Militarum will remain as a garrison. Mobile forces will proceed to the next mission objective.
FOLLOW-UP: The Church of the Dawn and civil servants are required to station themselves on the planet, rapidly restore planetary productivity, and conduct a statistical analysis and redistribution of all resources.
"This campaign was not easy," the Preserver remarked, seeing that Romulus had put down the report. After traveling with the fleet for half a year, they had gotten a good look at the heavyweight level of the current Imperium. The fact that this level of internal conflict hadn't exploded could only mean that the external pressure humanity was facing was at an extremely exaggerated level.
"But it will end soon," Romulus replied. Although the opponent was difficult, they had also made sufficient preparations. The work of investigating the various planets and organizing the resistance forces alone had been done very well.
Arthur commanded the front line, concentrating on a surgical clean-up of the difficult and unsuitable-for-the-sunlight problems. In the second wave, Karna would enter with the Church of the Dawn and a large number of civil servants to pacify the local populace. Ramesses, in the process, would build a complete and reliable information exchange system. Although their speed seemed rash, every step was steady and sure. And Romulus's reserve force was there to supplement the offensive plan and to provide a backstop at critical moments.
This was the first time the Dawnbreakers had placed a series of chess pieces on the board of this universe. A thousand planets had begun to burn, but they did not know what the future held. They were about to begin building a new nation, a human power that would never have appeared in the original trajectory of this universe.
Challenges would follow, one after another. But now, they had finally made their move.
Watching as one planet after another was truly brought under the control of the Dawnbreakers, Romulus couldn't help but clench his fists in excitement.
Come. Let us see—if humanity can be the masters of this world!
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