Abaddon, hiding in the Warp like a rat in a sewer, watched the Terran Dominion's fleet depart.
As soon as the Terran Dominion's fleet left, he would continue with his strategy.
If the Terran Dominion's fleet remained, he would simply continue to hide like a sewer rat.
To be honest, he wasn't sure where this fleet came from.
But he could confirm that it wasn't an Imperial fleet, because their emblem was a single-headed eagle, not the Imperial double-headed eagle.
The difference between a double-headed eagle and a single-headed eagle was like night and day, and he was 100% certain that this was absolutely beyond the capabilities of Imperial technology.
There was no reason for an Imperial fleet to possess technology so far superior to his own warships; such a massive generational gap was impossible.
Because of this, Abaddon did not give up on striking the Imperium of Man; he still lurked in the shadows, preparing to continue his attacks, but all of this depended on Zeke's departure.
Facing such a rat, Zeke naturally paid him no attention.
Or rather, in his view, dealing with Abaddon was less important than finding another colony to develop properly.
After such a massive war with chaos, how could he have the time to focus on Abaddon, a mere warmaster of chaos?
When Zeke returned to his battleship, Pixis approached him.
"Your Majesty, thankfully you are unharmed. The Dominion will remember and avenge the humiliation suffered today."
As he spoke, Pixis still dared not look at Zeke, fearing he would see his Emperor's bruised and swollen face.
Those fellows in the Warp were simply too detestable, truly blasphemous.
Blasphemy!
To actually beat their Emperor black and blue, how outrageous!
These local native four gods were truly impolite, damn them!
Pixis was seething with rage, while the Imperial Guards stood before Zeke, each filled with shame, also not daring to look up at their Emperor.
As Imperial Guards, they had still failed to protect their Emperor, even allowing him to charge into battle himself.
This was their disgrace, the Imperial Guards secretly swore.
They would also make the Four Gods of the Warp pay the price they deserved, but this matter would have to wait until the Dominion arrived.
At this stage, the Imperial Guards were certainly no match for the Four Gods of the Warp, unless the Dominion's Imperial Guards arrived.
As long as the Dominion's Imperial Guards could arrive, a legion of Imperial Guards forming a psionic entity could fight that pig-like Four Gods of the Warp in the Warp.
Even if they were empowered by an entire universe, it would be the same!
And if one legion's Warp entity couldn't beat him, then two.
If two weren't enough, then three; if three weren't enough, then four.
The Terran Dominion has never lacked Imperial Guards; their numbers are practically infinite!
As long as their Emperor gave the order, even if 10,000 Imperial Guard legions were needed, they could still field them.
Watching his subordinates kneel before him, each filled with shame, Zeke said nothing; he merely waved his hand, signaling that his subordinates could all stand up.
This matter was not the fault of his subordinates.
This battle was purely a chaos conspiracy.
It was normal that his subordinates couldn't help him, as they were not the Dominion's top legions; they had been demoted.
Moreover, Zeke didn't feel there was anything wrong with his subordinates; after all, this was a Warp god war, so wasn't it normal that his subordinates couldn't help?
The Emperor's orders must be obeyed, so after Zeke's command was given, the soldiers all stood up, though their shame was visibly apparent.
Regarding this matter, Zeke had no other good solution, as his subordinates' shame was not something that could be resolved by a mere command.
However, Zeke naturally had a good solution for how to address his subordinates' morale issues.
The simplest solution was to lead the Dominion's people to expand their territory.
If his troops could achieve some merits, wouldn't their spirits lift?
Zeke's goal was very clear: the place he was going was the Koalart System, next to the Calis System.
The reason Zeke set his sights on this system was primarily because it contained two stars, and the distance between the two star systems was only a mere 6.7 light-years.
Most importantly, there was a colony there, and that colony still belonged to the tau.
Seventy years ago, the tau incited a rebellion on this Imperium of Man planet, and at that time, the Imperium of Man had no spare capacity to reclaim it.
Even today, 70 years later, no one has any designs on this planet; in Zeke's view, the Imperium had probably given up on it.
After all, Abaddon constantly poked the Imperium's backside. The Imperium truly lacked sufficient military strength to fight the tau.
But just because the Imperium lacked sufficient military strength didn't mean he, Zeke, did not.
Currently, he already possessed three legions of Human assault troops.
Although, due to his previous poverty, these three legions' troops only used Warhammer native weaponry, 3 million Astartes still had considerable combat power.
Although over 200,000 had died in the previous battle.
But was that a problem?
Were over 2 million Astartes not enough to conquer a planet occupied by the tau?
The Titan Legions, capable of filling mountains and oceans, would make the tau on that planet understand what divine retribution was!
As for whether to use negotiation to lure the tau out and then eliminate them all at once, as before, Zeke felt it was unnecessary.
Previously, he lured them out mainly because his army numbers were insufficient and he didn't want to fight a ground war. This time, he felt there was no need to engage in such messy tactics with them.
Furthermore, and more importantly, his assault troops, meaning the Space Marines.
They were not going to let their Emperor bear such a stain again!
Before, when the Emperor used such deceptive tactics, they didn't know or see the Emperor doing it, so it must have been for a good reason.
That's right, what they were now imagining was that the Emperor definitely had his reasons.
The Emperor must be relatively benevolent, after all, they didn't dare directly scold the Imperial Guards.
They couldn't just go up and point at the Imperial Guards' noses, saying that their disloyalty caused the Emperor to suffer such humiliation, could they?
Those Imperial Guards were the Emperor's personal retinue.
In the past, they couldn't interfere, or rather, they weren't qualified to interfere.
But now it was different; they were already under the Emperor's command.
They felt their Emperor no longer needed to do such embarrassing things; they could completely conquer this planet for the Emperor.
For the Emperor's glory!
Ultimately, although they had become Dominion citizens, the education they had received was the original Imperial education.
That is to say, for them, sacrifice was nothing.
Sacrifice was for a better return to the Emperor's golden throne.
It was so they would be worthy to say they had lived up to the Emperor when they met him, but now?
The Emperor was right beside them; would they still fear sacrifice?
No.
They would not.
If their lives caused the Emperor to bear the stain of deceiving others, then they would rather die.
Regarding his subordinates' generous words, Zeke really wanted to say it wasn't necessary.
However, their eyes were exceptionally firm, which undoubtedly told him that they truly felt that way.
Having received such a long aristocratic education, Zeke knew what constituted a qualified high-ranking official.
Therefore, he ultimately allowed the Space Marines to conduct ground operations.
The Dominion's fleet left the Cadia Sector and began advancing towards their predetermined direction, while Abaddon, hiding in the Warp, watched the Dominion's fleet depart.
When the Dominion's fleet once again entered superluminal speeds, even thousands or tens of thousands of times the speed of light, he nervously withdrew his gaze.
But in the next instant, he felt a deep sense of humiliation. He didn't believe the other party hadn't noticed him peering from the Warp, yet they ignored him. What did this mean?
It meant that the mighty Warmaster of Chaos, Abaddon, was actually ignored by a fleet!
This was a contempt and insult to his person and his dignity.
But precisely, they had the right to do so.
A feeling of profound humiliation and a sense of having narrowly escaped danger appeared simultaneously in his heart, making him feel extremely distressed.
Abaddon's mental state was in shambles; he felt a deep pain, the pain of being ignored.
Ignored.
The mighty warmaster of chaos, the commander of the Black Legion, the conqueror of the Eye of Terror… was completely ignored!
The Terran Dominion Fleet didn't even spare him a glance, as if he were just a rat hiding in a dark corner, not worth a second of their time.
They left casually, as if mocking his incompetence.
Under this feeling, Abaddon withdrew his gaze and, when he looked back at planet Cadia, his eyes became even sharper.
He couldn't defeat the Terran Dominion Fleet, but surely he could defeat the Imperial defenders on Cadia?
Since the Terran Dominion Fleet couldn't be bothered with him, he would take his anger out on the Imperium of Man!
He wanted this universe to hear his name, Abaddon, and not have him be ignored directly by the Terran Dominion Fleet like a clown today.
He wanted that the next time he encountered the Terran Dominion Fleet, they would at least acknowledge him, instead of leaving as if they hadn't seen anything at all!
To live like this, for him, held no honor; it was like being trampled underfoot.
"Black Legion!" Abaddon's voice boomed through the Warp channel, shaking the soul of every chaos warrior like thunder.
"Target – Cadia!"
"Kill them all! Crush them! Let the Imperium's dregs know—"
"Show them what the Chaos Legions truly are!"
The 13th Black Crusade truly began at this moment; the previous one didn't count.
The previous one was Tzeentch's trick against Zeke.
And now, the invincible Warmaster Abaddon, who had won every battle, was about to launch his 13th Black Crusade, and he intended to defeat the Imperial armies once again.
He wanted to destroy planet Cadia, letting the power of chaos sweep through the Imperium and split it in two.
And this time, could Cadia still endure safely? No one knew, but what was clear was that the strongest forces had already begun to gradually depart.
The Terran Dominion Fleet had already left, and the Yaeger knight house would not be able to provide support again within a short period.
As long as those three colossal titans weren't there, Abaddon felt his plan still had a chance of success, and a very high one at that.
When he thought of this, Abaddon felt a bit dejected again.
A 1000-meter-tall star-class giant titan; good heavens, if that thing were still on the surface of Cadia, his Black Crusade would probably be over again.
How powerful an enemy was this? It made him feel as if he had fallen behind somewhere.
After all, how did so many entities he couldn't handle suddenly appear in this galaxy?
Abaddon was puzzled, Abaddon was troubled, Abaddon finally decided to continue with his plan.
— — — — — —
Had the 13th Black Crusade of chaos ended?
For Zeke, his attention was no longer on the Black Crusade.
He was currently on the outskirts of the Koalartar star system, preparing to acquire more planets for farming, because in Stellaris, the most important thing was farming, and then snowballing to crush the opponent!
As soon as the Dominion Fleet arrived in this star system, they began scanning the entire system, and they quickly identified their targets.
Pixis quickly walked up to Zeke, saluted him with a Dominion military gesture, and then reported.
"Report, Emperor, this star system contains 6 terrestrial planets and two gas giants. According to our investigation, all 8 of these planets can be transformed into our colonies."
"In addition, there are also a relatively large number of stars here, with three suns. We can build a Dyson Sphere here to provide energy for the Dominion."
"Most importantly, the tau here do not seem to be very numerous. According to our scans, their colony should only have about 4 million troops in total."
"Besides that, our human population seems quite large. According to our scans, the total number of our human compatriots is 47.9 billion."
Zeke stood by the flagship's observation window, gazing at the interwoven light of the three distant stars, and nodded with great satisfaction.
This was excellent; three stars meant more energy, though the Dominion never lacked energy.
But seeing his inventory grow larger and larger was a pleasant thing for Zeke.
And a large human population was also a good thing for Zeke.
After all, he intended to convert all the planets in this star system into colonies, and sometimes, population was indeed a very important thing.
"Very well. In that case, have the ground forces prepare for a landing operation. Before the ground forces land, the navy should remember to Lance the area."
"Though they don't care about sacrifice, we cannot be indifferent.
Meaningless sacrifices are unacceptable in the Dominion, understand?"
Pixis stood at attention and saluted: "Understood, Your Majesty! Ground forces are ready for landing. Orbital bombardment sequence will commence in 30 minutes."
Zeke nodded slightly, his gaze fixed on the flashing tau colony marker on the holographic star map.
"Remember, our goal is to liberate our human compatriots, not to cause senseless slaughter."
"—But if those blue-skinned, noseless xenos dare to resist…"
His fingertip lightly traced the projection, and the image of the tau primary colony instantly magnified.
"—Then let them witness what true war is."
The Terran Dominion was peace-loving, but the tau had attacked the Dominion with their ugliness.
The Dominion had shown them tolerance, but if they dared to retaliate after the Dominion showed tolerance, then it would be their fault.
The tranquility of the Koalartar system was torn apart by blinding light.
The Dominion Fleet's Lance arrays fired simultaneously, thousands of searing white beams descending from the sky, precisely covering the military facilities of the tau colony. There were no explosions, no shockwaves—areas hit by the Lances were directly disintegrated at the atomic level, turning into wisps of smoke that vanished into the air.
The tau anti-air defenses didn't even have time to activate; their command centers, munition factories, and starports were annihilated in the first volley.
tau commanders on the ground stared blankly at the sky, as cries of collapsing front-line units came through their communicators:
"Commander! Our shield systems are completely ineffective! These beams are passing right through—"
Before he could finish, another wave of Lance strikes descended, and the tau's most elite XV8 Crisis Battlesuit squad, pilots and titans included, were vaporized without a trace.
The war ended before it even began.
This was not a game after all; in games, orbital bombardment might take a long time, but not here.
The firepower of just a few frigates was enough to sweep away all resistance on the entire planet's surface.
The war ended faster than anyone imagined. When the Space Marines were air-dropped, the entire war was already completely declared over.
They didn't experience much combat; all they did was clean up the battlefield, disposing of all tau corpses.
They brought all human compatriots under control, preventing them from making unwise decisions.
Everything went so smoothly, but would it really be this smooth?
This was the shithole universe, after all!