Chapter 439, I am not the executioner
In the void, on the Interlude, Du Shiliang stared at the fireball that was getting farther and farther away in the universe.
He had a blank expression on his face, like a cold-blooded general.
But his hands still trembled unconsciously.
At this moment, two days had passed since the Intermezzo dropped the Sky-burning torpedo on the surface of Temir 2. The flames burning across the world were also becoming increasingly intense before their eyes.
After completing the launch mission, the combined fleet observed near Temir 2 for a day. They left only after seeing that the entire planet had indeed been set on fire by the "Heaven-Burning Torpedo" and the extermination order had been effectively executed.
He was the one who launched the Burning Sky Torpedo.
In fact, he wasn't even sure he had the power to issue an extermination order.
At first, he didn't expect that he would have to shoulder such a responsibility.
He and his war staff, which included a portion of the Union Army's staff, assessed the situation aboard Temir II.
They came to a unanimous conclusion: it would be unrealistic to launch a ground attack on Temir 2, even with orbital support from the Combined Fleet.
This brings us to their war goal of taking the initiative to attack the Jinguan Star Region, namely:
On the premise of ensuring the safety of the fleet, 1. Strike the Irontooth Orcs' manpower. 2. Evacuate the Empire's soldiers and civilians from the occupied areas. 3. Occupy the planet and build forward defense positions.
These three tasks are prioritized in order.
Striking the manpower is the most important, and evacuating the imperial army and civilians is equally important. Which one takes priority depends on the situation on the battlefield.
Relatively speaking, occupying planets is the least important.
The main reason is that even if you occupy a place, you may not be able to defend it.
If there is a chance to occupy it, then occupy it, place a small army there as a nail, and when the greenskins come back, it will become an obstacle to the orcs' attack. For the human side, it is also a position that can be used, at the very least, it is also an early warning post.
But if you put in too much effort to occupy a planet, the result will be counterproductive.
Striking the manpower and evacuating the imperial army and civilians is different. This is a serious way to weaken the enemy and strengthen one's own side.
For Temir 2, obviously, the option of occupying the planet can be almost ignored.
There are nearly 500 million orcs there, and no less than 2 billion other greenskins - mainly fart monsters.
Among so many people, most of them did not even grow up on the planet, but were transported here on green-skinned ships over the past period of time.
After all, it has only been a few months since the complete fall of Temir 2, so it is unlikely to have grown so much.
The purpose of transporting so many greenskins here may be to spread more spores, hoping that many greenskins will grow in the future.
At this level, the Combined Fleet carries 60 million human troops from three army groups. Even if all of them are thrown down, with orbital support, it will not be an easy task to wipe out the enemy.
If they really fight like that, the war is likely to turn into a protracted tug-of-war. At that time, humans may have to face the orcs that continue to grow out of the greenskin ecosystem and engage in equal consumption.
Moreover, orbital support is not always available. The greenskin fleet is still there. When the time comes, the two hundred garbage ships that escaped from Steel Wing Star will reunite and attack again. Even if they cannot defeat the combined fleet with more main ships, they can still hold back the human ships and prevent them from supporting the surface without restraint. That will be possible.
In this case, the hope for a quick victory in the ground battle is even smaller.
Their mission is to find opportunities to destroy the enemy's manpower, not to use their own manpower to consume the enemy.
As for saving people... the same principle applies.
Doesn’t Du Shiliang know that there are still many survivors on the surface?
Of course he knows.
Even if 95% of the people were massacred, the remaining 5% would represent a population of more than 200 million.
But the key point is that these 200 million people are scattered all over the world of Temir 2!
If they gather together, it will be easy. We can provide strong orbital firepower cover, deploy troops to the ground, establish a defense circle, and defend for a month or so. During this period, we will try to transport people from the ground to ships and evacuate them. When the number is almost up, we will also withdraw the troops and then launch the Burning Sky torpedoes...
If this is possible, everyone will be happy.
But unfortunately, these 200 million people are just a bunch of tens of thousands, or at most hundreds of thousands, scattered all over the world, and there is no way to save them.
I don’t know how long it will take to gather and evacuate them one by one.
The greenskin main battleships can arrive at any time, and the greenskins on the ground can entangle the human deployment forces at any time.
The price/performance ratio is too low.
In contrast, the best solution is to quickly launch the Extinction Order weapon when the orbital defense system of Temir II is not very good and the greenskins have not had time to build their own after occupying it, and the main fleet of the greenskins is not in this galaxy and has all the conditions to launch the Burning Sky Torpedo.
Otherwise, if they wait any longer, the situation may change and they may not even have the chance to launch the Burning Sky torpedoes.
After all, if the greenskins' main fleet arrives, they will not allow the human fleet to do this.
The process from the time an extinction weapon is dropped to the time it explodes is very fragile and can be easily intercepted.
However, at this point, launching the Burning Sky Torpedo is still just a "plan".
Although it seems to be the best solution and the most rational choice, Du Shiliang never thought of doing it this way.
In other words, he didn't expect that he would have to make this decision himself.
He had never fired a sky-burning torpedo or executed an extermination order.
Even the Pegasus fleet itself does not have reserves of such extermination order weapons.
Even the star domain government itself may not have this kind of thing. At most, the Inquisition within the star domain may have one or two.
Now, the two Burning Sky torpedoes on his ship were sent by Governor Gu from the Angry Owl Star.
He no longer wanted to think about why Gu Hang had such a powerful weapon in his hand.
But it's not my turn to decide whether to launch the Burning Sky Torpedo, right?
The Empire lacks specific regulations on the units and individuals that issue extermination orders. Judging from past records, the Inquisition does the most, followed by the Chapter Masters of the Star Legions.
The former is easy to understand, as that is their job; the latter is also easy to understand, as Space Marines always fight on the most critical and harshest battlefields, and the probability of encountering problems that can only be solved with an Extermination Order is much greater than that of ordinary Imperial troops. In addition, they have this power, so naturally they will issue more.
Apart from these two, the number of times other personnel used the extermination order has dropped drastically.
Of course, in such a large universe, anything could happen in ten thousand years. Marshals of the Astra Militarum, Admirals of the Navy, commanders of war zones, high-ranking government officials, senior clergy of the State Religion and the Mechanicus... although few in number, they all had records of issuing extermination orders.
But no matter who it is, it’s not me.
I am just an ordinary rear admiral, I can't make such a big decision. Although he doesn't know who can sign, there must be someone. Send the combat report back, and then wait for orders, I will execute it.
Then, the order he was waiting for was to ask the person in charge of the forward campaign, Major General Du Shiliang himself, to make the decision. Gu Hang, as the governor of the alliance, the head of the star zone, and the leader of the Seven Horses Alliance, gave him full authority and took all the consequences of his decision, allowing him to make the decision with confidence.
This is not an attempt to shirk responsibility. After all, Governor Gu said that he takes full responsibility.
This is about delegating authority so that front-line commanders have full autonomy to make the decisions they believe are correct, and avoid big problems on the front line because of trivial matters like "I can't make a decision."
Then, Du Shiliang felt numb.
I?
He was caught off guard.
After another round of discussion, they still believed that this was the best solution.
Then let’s do it.
But when Du Shiliang witnessed with his own eyes the whole world becoming a sea of fire because of his decision, and when at least 200 million people died because of his decision, he felt his whole body trembling.
I've been shaking for two days.
He couldn't sleep at all these two days.
As soon as he closed his eyes, he saw a burning world and the wailing of the Temir people, which he had never heard with his own ears but lingered in his ears all the time.
He always told himself that this was not his fault. It was not his fault, it was the fault of the greenskins. It was the invasion of the aliens that caused all this. I just did my duty. I just wanted to reduce casualties and avoid more deaths...
However, no matter how many and how correct the reasons are, they cannot dispel the heavy pressure that 200 million innocent souls bear.
However, reality did not give him any chance to escape or relieve his mood.
He will then make the next decision.
The battle between Temir 4 and 5.
The conditions for launching the Burning Sky Torpedoes are not met in these two places.
The Burning Sky Torpedo is very expensive.
Although the Alliance did not have a production line to build the Burning Sky Torpedoes, these two Burning Sky Torpedoes were in stock and were produced by black boxes, which meant they were free. However, the black boxes could only produce three Burning Sky Torpedoes in two years, and the Alliance did not have much in stock.
What's more, Du Shiliang didn't know this.
He only knew that it was a good deal to exchange a Burning Sky Torpedo for the lives of 2.5 billion greenskins.
However, there were not so many greenskins on Temir 4 and 5 for him to bomb.
Moreover, in these two places, there may be more than 80 to 90 billion people surviving.
Whoever bombs is a war criminal.
For these two planets, the plan in the previous military meeting was to make preserving the empire's population the first priority.
The plans for the two planets can be discussed separately.
There may be about 100 million greenskins on Temir 4, half of whom are fart spirits. They collect raw materials and waste in the occupied areas, and build greenskin factories on the spot to produce various primary processed "garbage".
On the one hand, it is directly manufactured into weapons and equipment and provided to the military.
On the other hand, it is stored. From the looks of it, it seems that there will be green ships coming here regularly to transport this "garbage" away.
This is also in line with the positioning of Temir 4 as a mining and industrial planet.
However, the natural environment of this planet is not very good. Outside of the mining areas and hive cities, it is almost unsuitable for organic survival.
The greenskins are very adaptable, and their spores can take root and sprout anywhere. However, the quality of the environment will still affect the development speed and "yield" of the spores. They have also initially built an ecosystem, but it is not large and not critical.
In the past, the green-skinned reinforcements for Temir 4 mainly came from Temir 2, which had more people next door.
Now that Temir 2 has burned down, the greenskins on 4 need to rely on when the main fleet of the greenskins will arrive and whether they can transport more troops from their own nest when it arrives.
Moreover, humans still have a well-organized defense force on Temir 4, and the government has not collapsed. Although their remaining ground anti-orbital forces are relatively weak in the case of complete loss of orbit, and they dare not fight against the greenskin fleet, but when necessary, they are willing to sacrifice and can also be used to cover the attack or retreat of the defense force, which can play a role to some extent.
At the critical moment, Temir 4 maintained a defense force of over 500 million people, constantly fighting and consuming the greenskins in mines, tunnels, and huge industrial areas.
They were no match for the greenskins and lacked supplies, especially food. They often had to pay ten times the casualties before they could defeat the enemy.
However, they know that this is a battle for survival, a struggle between species with no retreat, and there is no surrender or giving up.
They fought with gritted teeth. Since the number of greenskins was not enough, although they had a lot of fun fighting, the progress was not very fast.
Saving Temir 4 would be easy enough.
They planned to send four army groups to serve as the main force, contact the defense forces on the mainland, and provide them with a large amount of logistical supplies, mainly food, supplemented by production lines for weapons and ammunition.
The former can solve urgent problems, while the latter can update local weapons and equipment.
Temir 4 was not short of raw materials, but of production lines for good weapons. Many of their defense forces were still using homemade guns and cannons.
The Alliance reduced the productivity of G9 rifles and ammunition, plastic steel production lines, individual armor, artillery shells, artillery and other series. It did not seek to build a production base, but with a little more production capacity, the combat effectiveness of the 500 million planetary defense forces would be taken to a higher level.
With the five ships of the Combined Fleet stationed here and the assistance of eight million elite Alliance troops, it should not be a problem to push back those greenskins.
At the same time, civilians in large settlements can be evacuated.
The supply fleet and transport ships that the Combined Fleet now carries are capable of transporting 300-500 million people in one wave.
First, they will be transported to Steel Wing Star, which is considered safe, and then they can be transported. As for how to arrange the transportation capacity and where to really receive so many people from Steel Wing Star, it is not something that Du Shiliang, a general fighting on the front line, will consider. The officials of the alliance will take over.
After a series of plans for Temir 4 were made and actually implemented, Du Shiliang's mentality finally improved a little.
Only at this time could he tell himself:
"I am not an executioner, I am a savior."
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
