General Drost's rather stern face squeezed out a smile that could barely be called gentle:
"I trust my judgment. At this point, there's no need to worry about some inauspicious heretical remarks or the legality of psykers."
"To speak heresy, if there's a chance of victory, I'm even willing to cooperate with the dead and align with xenos."
General Drost's words didn't cause any stir in the hall.
Everyone in the church hall was a soldier General Drost trusted.
And Reyna's heresy threshold had already been raised by Alexander.
Alexander, on the other hand, twitched the corner of his mouth slightly.
Cooperating with the dead, aligning with xenos...
General Drost's words, in a sense, were indeed true.
Noticing that his words hadn't made any waves, General Drost shook his head helplessly and said:
"I sincerely invite you two to participate in the upcoming meeting. You will take the place originally intended for governor Augustus Flax."
"Of course, that'll have to wait until my dear Tech-Priest Shakolik has soothed the machine spirit—"
"Commander, the machine spirit is greatly pleased." Before General Drost could finish, Tech-Priest Shakolik interrupted him.
"What?" General Drost was stunned for a moment, looking somewhat bewildered at the laser communicator behind him.
In his memory, for this cursed thing to be used in the approaching shadow of the Tyranid, it had to undergo a sacred ritual where the Tech-Priest repeatedly unplugged and replugged it, smeared it with holy unguents, and gently patted it at a forty-five-degree angle before it could possibly function normally.
Although it didn't show on his appearance, General Drost was a venerable one hundred and eighty years old.
He had witnessed the Tech-Priest's operations many times and was somewhat aware of the complex procedures for soothing the machine spirit.
Today, it just worked?
"Just now, as the two of you entered the hall, an unexpected surge of ecstasy suddenly welled up from the machine spirit. The entire machine is in excellent condition and can establish inter-system communication." Tech-Priest Shakolik's gaze fell on Alexander and Reyna.
Reyna looked at Alexander with a bewildered expression, and General Drost also followed suit, looking at Alexander.
Alexander scratched his head, waving his hand at everyone around him with a confused look, indicating that he wasn't very clear either.
the machine spirit was greatly pleased the moment it saw him?
Could it be, as Sanguinius said, that he had further realized his Warp nature?
Alexander pondered for a moment. He had been studying his newfound abilities recently.
The first was the ability to sleep. Alexander had recently been surprised to find that he seemed to be able to fall asleep quickly anywhere. This seemed to be Nobi Nobita's ability.
The second was an incredibly precise shooting ability. Alexander's shooting talent had been inexplicably enhanced, almost reaching the level where every shot fired would hit its mark. This was clearly also Nobi Nobita's ability.
The third was... what the Tech-Priest mentioned, making the machine spirit greatly pleased. Machine affinity? He didn't know if this was Nobi Nobita's ability or Doraemon's ability.
Alexander couldn't figure it out in a short while.
He even remained half-skeptical about the fact that he possessed a Warp nature.
Seeing Alexander's expression, which suggested it had nothing to do with him, General Drost didn't ask further.
Being able to establish communication with other planets within the star system for a period of time was good, no matter what.
Sparks crackled from the laser communicator. This communication device could conduct somewhat unstable communication within the star system.
However, with the Tyranid approaching and Star Speaker communication being even more disrupted,
this laser communicator became all the more precious.
Crackling light illuminated the communicator, and faces appeared within it.
Alexander glanced at a total of six faces; one position was empty.
"It seems the Imperial Navy doesn't intend to hold a meeting with us to discuss," a scar-faced woman said.
The Imperial Navy stationed in the Netherworld Star System refused to discuss defense matters with the Astra Militarum and the Battle Sister.
It seemed that in their eyes, the warriors stationed on the planets within the star system were unnecessary and useless.
"They've always believed they're fighting a war they're destined to win."
General Drost spoke with some pessimism:
"And I only hope we can hold out longer."
The Astra Militarum and Battle Sisters all believed this was a war destined to be lost; the only chance was to stall for more time, waiting for aid from the Blood Angels.
The Imperial Navy, however, believed the Tyranid were nothing but a rabble, and the Netherworld Star System would stand firm.
General Drost shook his head, pushing these matters out of his mind.
"This is governor Alexander of the Lower Nest and Ms. Reyna. I'm sure you are all familiar with their information." He pointed to Alexander and Reyna as he spoke.
No one objected to Alexander participating in the meeting. They all knew of Alexander's achievements.
Two Chaos cults, the right-hand man of the genestealer patriarch, suppressing the expansion of the GSC in the Lower Nest, plus his current status as virtually the representative of Ashford's Lower Nest forces—
If anyone were to object to Alexander attending the meeting, they would truly be an insect.
General Drost was not surprised by this. He turned to look at Alexander.
"All the information about our allies is also in the documents over there, but I'll introduce them again anyway."
With that, General Drost pointed to the faces in the communicator:
"This scar-faced lady is High Sister Magda Grace of the Order of the Sacred Rose. She and her ten thousand Battle Sisters will defend Lexio."
High Sister Magda Grace nodded slightly in greeting: "I heard you suppressed the Genestealer offensive. Well done. We couldn't achieve the same on Lexio."
The High Sister's tone contained both praise for Alexander and guilt for herself.
Due to the intervention of that Inquisitor of the Inquisition, the High Sister was able to discover the presence of genestealer on Lexio. And as Alexander knew, this was not the High Sister's first time fighting the Tyranid.
"This is Commander Alexei Demetrius, 'Hammer of Vostroyan' Tank Commander of the Vostroyan 1635 Armored Regiment. He will be stationed in the toxic gas sea of Ixoi."
Commander Alexei of the Vostroyan Firstborn Regiment performed an aquila salute towards Alexander and General Drost.
"I came at the summons of General Drost," he said sincerely and resolutely: "This time, Vostroyan will never stand by."
Vostroyan chose to stand by during the Horus Heresy. To atone for this sin, the firstborn son of every Vostroyan family would become an Astra Militarum, vowing never to be absent again when war came.
They had excellent poison-delivery equipment, suitable for combat in the toxic atmosphere of Ixoi.
"This is Commissar Tyngle. He will lead the Cadian forces to defend the Void Dome on Tartarus."
General Drost continued to introduce:
"This is Major Henrig Janster of the Cadian 1433rd Air Wing. He will guard the gas giant Aelos."
When he saw the last person, General Drost paused:
"These are the Cadian Artillery Regiments. They will defend the asteroid belt encircling the outer reaches of the star system, under my direct command."
Alexander nodded slightly in greeting to the Cadian soldiers.
Thus, apart from the uninhabited death world Perdita, all of the Netherworld Star System was guarded by Imperial soldiers.
After introducing all the commanders, General Drost sat next to Alexander and pulled over the star map of the Netherworld Star System.
The structure of the entire Netherworld Star System was very interesting.
At the innermost were two toxic stars.
Moving outwards were the six planets: Tartarus, Ashford, Lexio, Ixoi, Aelos, and Perdita.
Further out was an asteroid belt known as the Ringworld.
The outermost layer was the Shining Shield, formed by layers of glacial asteroids.
"Let me tell you why the Imperial Navy is so confident of victory, even thinking that we people will be useless."
General Drost sighed and said.