Chapter 7: Rangdan Alien Civilization
Red warning klaxons blared across every city on the planet as the xenos army launched its full-scale assault. The alert spread rapidly throughout the city.
In the Governor's office, Governor Miss Isha, Minister Bruel, Major General Kristiel, and the others watched the 3D holographic display. Their faces went pale as they watched dense enemy forces plummet from space into the atmosphere. Their numbers covered the entire sky.
The Governor watched helplessly as the space defenses fell one after another on the tactical display.
"Stop them! Somebody stop them! Have these Rangdan gone mad?!"
Major General Kristiel studied the intelligence feed. "They're trying to conquer our world at any cost before the Imperium fleet arrives, Governor. They're willing to die for it."
Miss Isha's face went white with fear. Her slender hands gripped together, trying to suppress the trembling.
The Governor looked up, his cigar shaking. "If they're willing to die for it, then you all FIGHT like your lives depend on it—because THEY DO!!. "
"I won't become a Rangdan slave!" He pointed at the Major General. "Use nuclear weapons if necessary! Do anything you can to stop them."
"Yes, Governor!" Kristiel saluted and quickly left the office. Minister Bruel looked at the retreating general, then bowed to the governor and followed him.
With a major battle imminent, they all had to fight for survival. This war was truly a matter of life or death.
"Father, I'm going to find someone and ask him to help us."
The governor looked at his daughter with a mild, gentle expression, already expecting the answer "Who?".
"The Angel, The Ghost, whoever he is, I will find him," Miss Isha's voice steadied with determination.
"One person's power is limited, but if he has the resources and military might of the entire planet as support, perhaps he can do more. Perhaps he can turn the tide completely."
"I will convince him to stand with us, and I will do anything for it."
The moment she finished speaking, Miss Isha lifted her skirt and ran from the room without waiting for her father's reply. Her golden hair streamed behind her, her expression resolute.
The Governor sat down heavily in his chair after his daughter left. He didn't know what sin they had committed to go through such hard times. 'Imperium', 'Rangdan', 'Ghost'.
"Sigh, why do we have to suffer through this?"
After a long moment, he gave a self-deprecating laugh. "In front of such powers, all our scheming seems so ridiculous now. Hahahaha!"
...
A magnificent small spacecraft departed from the high-altitude port atop the tallest building, escorted by over twenty fighter craft. Inside, Isha, still wearing her formal gown, piloted the ship at full speed directly toward the front lines.
At that same moment, a warrior in heavy power armor stood silently in a narrow alley off a ruined city street, gripping a spear among scattered xenos corpses. He walked slowly down the alley toward the main street.
Omega emerged into the sunlight and looked at the sky above. The entire sky resembled a burning cloud as hundreds of fiery meteors plummeted through the atmosphere like falling stars.
He looked up at the meteor shower filling the sky, genuinely astonished. "A major battle is inevitable," he muttered, recovering from his surprise.
Looking closer, he realized the fiery meteors were all small craft.
Soon, the sound of Rangdan dropships crashing into streets echoed everywhere. Powerful xenos warriors emerged from the wreckage, fully armored, wielding las-guns, among them were Elite Warriors.
One meteor-like craft landed on a building directly in front of Omega, punching a large hole through the structure before rolling into the street with a thunderous boom.
A Rangdan warrior opened the hatch and stepped out under the watchful eyes of countless surrounding slave soldiers. He immediately spotted Omega standing quietly at the corner. As he raised his lasgun to fire, the figure vanished.
All the xeno saw was a flash of blade-light and then darkness.
Omega picked up a heavy lasgun from beside the fallen xenos corpse and fired rapidly at the surrounding Rangdan.
After a brief skirmish, Omega moved quickly to another district. He generally ignored the slave army; millions of slave soldiers made killing them all quickly at the same time impossible.
Omega considered it fit to leave these enemies to the planetary defense forces.
While he saved his inhuman stamina for truly high-value targets instead.
Along his route, he specifically hunted Rangdan commanders, powerful-looking xenos, or their war beasts.
One or two hours later, the entire Rangdan army in the occupied zone surged forward in massive waves toward the core city. Fierce combat erupted on the defence lines. From the sky above to the land below, it was filled with the sounds of exploding shells, missiles, lasgun fire, and electromagnetic cannons.
In a ruined building, the second-floor hall was covered with xenos corpses. Each wore a slave collar around their neck and excellent armor or military uniforms.
Omega, in his full power armor, examined a table covered with wartime command files. He held a slave collar tightly in his left hand. With a crack, it shattered, and he opened his palm to examine the fragments.
The slave collar wasn't particularly durable against his strength.
After killing so many Rangdan, he understood how they functioned. The collars were forcibly implanted and connected directly to the slave's nervous system through biological neural tendrils.
Forcibly removing one would either leave the slave brain-dead or kill them outright.
Furthermore, the collar suppressed resistance. Whenever a slave considered resisting the Rangdan, they experienced excruciating headaches that made death seem preferable. Over time, the collar continuously indoctrinated the slave's thoughts through chemical compounds acting on biological nerves.
However, this forced control couldn't completely dominate a slave's consciousness, so many slaves secretly researched methods of removal.
Omega picked up a diary from the table and read it carefully. Although he couldn't read Rangdan script, he hadn't been without resources over the years.
He took out a pen-shaped device from his pocket and scanned the pages quickly. The translation tool immediately deciphered the Rangdan text, rendering it into human language. After reading through once, he closed the notebook and put it away, feeling somewhat conflicted.
These slaves seemed to know he would come and kill them, so they deliberately left behind intelligence about the Rangdan civilization.
This wasn't the first time. Omega's overwhelming strength made these slaves believe he could save them. Unfortunately, due to his lack of knowledge, he currently lacks that capability.
More importantly, the Imperium of Man did not permit humans to coexist with Rangdan.
The notion of peaceful coexistence with xenos was considered depraved and sinful. Humanity's supremacy was an absolute doctrine, and xenos civilizations generally harbored malice toward mankind.
The elimination of the Rangdan was mandatory and unquestionable.
However, from the intelligence he'd collected from the Rangdan civilization this month, it was evident that this xenos species excelled in the psychic domain.
Their entire civilization's philosophy centered on mind over matter, a culture divided into two applications: internal and external.
Internally, for members of the Rangdan civilization, the concept of mind over matter emphasized the improvement of mental power. Mental discipline controlled one's body through training, ultimately achieving perfect bodily control with spirit and flesh unified.
As spirit and body were trained toward perfect unity, the body was further enhanced through biological augmentation, which in turn required mental power to be increased further.
This philosophy evolved into a continuous cycle of strengthening both spirit and body, ultimately cultivating extremely powerful Elite Warriors who were also skilled in psychic attacks.
These xenos warriors possessed exceptional reaction speeds.
Following this logic, ordinary Astartes-level combatants were not the Rangdan's upper limit. From opponents Omega had encountered during this period, he'd identified three distinct tiers of Elite Warriors.
Though he'd still killed each in a single strike, their strength was genuinely formidable. Omega had developed an interest and curiosity about this xenos civilization and began collecting secrets and data related to the Rangdan.
Among these materials, the terms "Warmaster" and "Lord" appeared in reference to the Rangdan civilization, indicating that this species possessed terrifying capabilities in biological modification and evolution.
Although Omega didn't possess Rangdan biological technology, he was interested in researching their underlying philosophy.
Externally, the concept of mind over matter had been twisted. The Rangdan, as the dominant entity, directly enslaved other xenos races using biological neural connections within slave collars.
This appeared profoundly evil and terrifying among the various alien species in the galaxy.
Even spacecraft and war machines incorporated the mind-over-matter concept. Biological flesh had been integrated into mechanical constructs; one of such examples was the War Beasts, which had been cultivated and weaponized for war.
[End of Chapter]