Under Zeke's command, the Dominion Fleet did not continue to circle above this colony, but instead began a direct return to its first colony.
The Tyranid Swarm was coming; he had to protect his home base, right? He couldn't just watch his star system be massacred, could he?
Zeke's fleet began its return to his initial star system. Meanwhile, the Imperium of Man had also detected intelligence that the Tyranid Swarm had reappeared in the Segmentum Obscurus and was now advancing towards the Cadia Sector.
Such intelligence plunged the entire Imperium into deep crisis. The planetary Governor of the Segmentum Obscurus felt a sense of pessimism about this Tyranid Swarm invasion.
Again... just when they had managed to repel the chaos invasion, the bugs came again. Are they not letting people live? Can't people get some rest?
The answer was clearly simple: no!
As if in collusion or to echo previous events, after the Imperium received news of the Tyranid Swarm's reappearance, the Cadia Sector once again suffered a chaos invasion.
Cadia Stands!
This cry had always been the rallying call of the people of Cadia. Even now, with the situation truly dire beyond measure, they continued to persevere.
The knight Corps of the Yaeger knight house had left, the Terran Dominion's fleet had left, and the Astra Militarum forces had begun to withdraw.
Even in the early stages of the battle, Imperial reinforcements simply couldn't arrive in time.
The Warp storm had only just ceased, and many more Imperial reinforcements had actually already retreated.
Due to the appearance of the bugs, in the early stages of the battle, the Imperium was destined to divert more troops to prepare for the Tyranid Swarm, leaving the defenses on planet Cadia unprecedentedly weak.
The original Cadian Shock Troops had suffered heavy losses.
After the last war with chaos, the Imperium had no time to replenish the Cadian Shock Troops; the Astra Militarum and PDF had suffered even heavier losses.
What they faced, however, was the 13th Black Crusade, unleashed in full force.
Abaddon was determined to use Cadia's fall to announce his existence to the mysterious power that had ignored him; he sought revenge against the Imperium of Man.
But even so, the forces on the surface of planet Cadia still fought bitterly.
The Eye of Terror must not fall.
After all, these Blackstone Fortresses, creations of the necrons, were still very useful. These creations from the necrons could still exert their purpose and function.
Therefore, no matter what, Cadia's existence still held value; they had to hold it.
This was to prevent a large-scale invasion of chaos forces into the real universe.
The Imperium's armies would once again continuously send aid towards Cadia. In this situation, they even disregarded the Tyranid Swarm army advancing towards the Segmentum Obscurus.
Compared to those bugs, the Imperium needed to deal with the chaos invasion more urgently.
Those bugs?
At worst, they would just eliminate all Imperial citizens along the way.
For the Imperium, they still had an efficient method to block the Tyranid Swarm's invasion.
Destroy all food, and these bugs would naturally leave obediently due to lack of sustenance.
Although the cost of doing so might involve an Exterminatus order on surrounding planets.
But—
No sacrifice would be too great for the Imperium of Man to accept.
Everything was for the continuation of the human race; as long as the race could continue, the Imperium of Man was willing to pay any price.
Of course, this decision was still somewhat too shocking.
Therefore, no one would issue this order until the Tyranid Swarm forces were confirmed to truly enter the Segmentum Obscurus.
At the same time, in the Calis System, on planet Calis—
After 6 days of galactic travel, Zeke returned to his first colony.
On planet Calis, when the Dominion Fleet returned, all human compatriots on the colony stood out.
They lined up to welcome the return of the Dominion forces, shouting, "Long live the Emperor!"
The PDF also returned to the planet after the Dominion Fleet returned to New Port. They marched in formation through the city gates of the planetary capital.
Millions of Human Assault Forces lined up in the planet's largest public square, receiving inspection from all the planet's people. They were proud, for they fought for the Emperor.
They not only fought for the Emperor and defeated chaos, but also fought for the Emperor and punished the xenos.
They were proud; they felt they had achieved the greatest thing in their lives.
Glory accompanied them.
Their feelings were correct, because as they stood in the public square receiving the attention of all their compatriots, all their compatriots cheered for them, because they were fighting for the Emperor.
During the time Zeke was away, this planet had already trained a batch of PDF and four Human Assault Force units.
Those attack units that didn't get to fight alongside the Emperor could only watch their comrades receive cheers and be adorned with glory.
The PDFs diligently maintained the enthusiasm and jubilation of the populace on the planet to prevent this enthusiastic ceremony from becoming a disaster.
The PDF are troops recruited and trained by the local planetary Governor to defend the planet.
The size of the PDF is determined by the number of humans on the local planet.
For example, on Zeke's first colony, with a total of 8 billion human citizens, the planetary PDF would number 16 million.
The combat effectiveness of the PDF is determined by the specific average values of the humans on the local planet.
Since Zeke currently lacks the funds to genetically enhance all of them, this PDF army's combat power is above the Astra Militarum but below the Space Marines.
They are in a very intermediate, middle-tier state.
If one absolutely had to compare them to armies in the Imperium of Man, they would be slightly stronger than the Tempestus Scions.
But in any case, their strength is limited.
This was mainly due to Zeke being too poor at the moment; his primary mineral and alloy production capacity needed to be used for constructing various things.
The enormous Stellar Base in space at this time still needed to be upgraded, and defensive platforms also needed to be built on it. These were major consumers of alloys.
More importantly, the shipyards on the Stellar Base now needed to continuously produce warships.
Currently, the alloys just to maintain frigate production were completely insufficient, let alone wanting to produce larger destroyers.
Every month, the Stellar Base had to build two frigates, and these two frigates alone could consume the entire colony's monthly production capacity for Zeke.
Although its production capacity was still increasing, it was still like trying to put out a blazing cart with a cup of water.
For Zeke, every single one of his resources was crucial right now.
He had to stretch every resource, especially alloy resources, to the maximum.
Under such circumstances, Zeke, who had never really considered the need for local defensive operations, naturally could not allocate alloy resources to the ordinary PDF.