Start with Planetary Governor

Chapter 528, Political Pressure

The Void Zerg that emerged from the northern battlefield of the Spider Web Universe are definitely related to the Iron Armor Regiment.

Otherwise, how could time be managed so skillfully?

Just as the Zerg appeared on the northern front, Iron Armor could arrange a massive offensive on the western front in an instant?
Combined with the fact that Iron Armor made his fortune by resisting the Void Zerg in the Princess Star Region, they have been asking the Empire for money for the past hundred years, using this excuse. Moreover, if money is given, the Void Zerg can be suppressed; if money is not given, the situation in the Princess Star Region and the surrounding areas will soon be "corrupted". Once money is given, Iron Armor will immediately stand up and beat the Void Zerg back.

It was as if the Void Zerg were raised by them.

Of course, this is impossible.

At least that's what people thought in the past.

That's the Void Zerg! Since humans discovered this alien, countless worlds have been destroyed and countless soldiers have been sacrificed! They devour everything, there is no possibility of negotiation, they are tireless and do not care about life and death.

A single void insect beast does not have self-awareness, but it has instincts similar to intelligence. Under the command of the so-called mother of the insect nest and the unified deployment of the creatures at each node, they can completely ignore the life and death and interests of a single individual or even a large group of people. The combat execution is even more full, and there are no problems such as the collapse of the whole army and inadequate execution. Morale, discipline, and organization, these issues that must be considered and headaches for human armies, do not exist at all.

They can fight to the death in one place, or they can retreat decisively without any attachment and move as fast as the wind.

These characteristics are simply a nightmare for all opponents in war.

In the past, people just thought that Humphrey Paul was taking advantage of these bugs. When the Empire did not meet his demands and conditions, he deliberately released these bugs and waited until the conditions were met before fighting them back.

But now it seems that things may not be that simple.

Some speculations that were previously considered nonsense were brought to the table:

Could it be true that Tiekai was able to collude with the Void Zerg?

But how is this possible!

Those bugs can't communicate!
But if that's not the case, why is Ironclad's campaign design so synchronized with the Void Zerg and works so well together?
No way I can explain it.

Because of this, the second of the three major courts was also attracted by this strange phenomenon that interested them very much.

That was the Xenophobia Tribunal.

Unlike the Inquisition, the Inquisition generally does not care about the affairs of the Empire. They focus on combating all kinds of alien enemies, especially the infiltration of alien enemies into human society.

The possibility that the Ironclad Chapter had some degree of communication or even conspiracy with the Void Zerg had aroused great interest from the Inquisition.

They are also professional counterparts.

Not only did a large number of elite Inquisitors arrive with a fleet and a group of troops, they also brought with them their most closely-cooperative group of Space Marines: the Silver Watch Chapter.

The Silver Watch is called a chapter, but in fact its structure is completely different from that of ordinary Space Marine chapters. It is a group that specializes in attacking various alien enemies. Its members are not trained by itself, but veterans drawn from various chapters who have special experience and outstanding achievements against certain types of aliens.

They will temporarily erase their former chapter identities and work for the Inquisition under the name of Silver Watch for a period of time. They may leave Silver Watch after carrying out missions for a few years and bring the experience and technology they learned here back to their own chapters; they may also continue to work in Silver Watch; of course, a considerable number of them will inevitably die in the most dangerous battlefield against aliens.

But no matter what, the Silver Watch is not only the elite drawn from various chapters, but also the experts in fighting against various aliens in the empire.

As soon as the inquisitors from the Silver Watch and the Anti-Xenophobia Order arrived, they carried out several very targeted operations according to local conditions, attacking and destroying the node creatures of several planets, causing fundamental changes in the battle situation on these planets.

As a result, the situation on the northern front was eased.

It's just relief.

Several worlds that have been fully invaded by the Void Zerg have already had large areas covered with digestion tanks, hatching towers, and meat blankets. The population of a nest city and almost all the materials that can be used by the Void Zerg have been put into these things and hatched into groups of Zerg war beasts.

It is not easy to completely eliminate the Zerg invasion in these worlds.

What's more, the Zerg fleet in space is still increasing its forces, and the number will soon reach a level that the human fleet cannot suppress.

It is not easy to break through the blocking line formed by these Void Zerg on the northern front.

The situation on the Western Front was even worse.

Tens of thousands of Ironclad Space Marines pushed the Phoenix Legion back step by step in the battle. The land they had taken in the previous offensive phase was gradually taken back by the Ironclad Legion, and even two key hub worlds were captured.

The Phoenix Regiment has urgently mobilized more troops from other battlefields, and there is a trend of assembling the entire army; in addition, several Phoenix sub-regiments have responded to the call of the parent group and are on their way. At the same time, Su Lie also asked the empire for more reinforcements.

However, before these supports arrived, even with the presence of Phoenix Lord Su Lie himself, the situation on the battlefield was still bound to become increasingly deteriorating.

That period was also when the alliance was under the greatest political pressure.

The voices of the Empire demanding the Alliance to take the initiative to attack were getting louder than ever before, so loud that even Gallardo could not stand it. According to him, one of the undersecretaries had already proposed an impeachment motion against him.

Although he suppressed the proposal and dismissed the deputy minister who had come forward, it was a sign of the trend, or even a warning from certain political factions in the central government, which made it impossible for him to continue to "protect" the alliance.

In addition to the pressure from the central government of the empire and the cosmic government to send troops, there is an additional pressure from the battle group.

The Phoenix Regiment issued a call to many Phoenix sub-regiments, and one of the call messages would naturally be sent to the Phoenix Regiment currently in the alliance.

If it is a call, then it is just a call, not a strong command.

However, in the message, Phoenix Lord Su Lie was actually quite confused.

During the Bauhinia Rebellion, the Phoenix Chapter was a party involved. Of the three chapters found guilty, only one Phoenix survived.

All three regiments were sub-regiments of the Phoenix, and because of this, after the Bauhinia Rebellion, the relationship between the Phoenix and the Iron Armor was very bad. However, the verdict of the central government of the empire had already been issued, and even though Su Lie had strongly raised objections, the final result could not be changed.

And... to be honest, the Phoenix Chapter and its sub-groups don't actually have that much influence.

It is definitely big, after all, this is a newly founded chapter with a history of ten thousand years. However, the Phoenix Chapter's "fertility" is not very good.

Space Marines have two gene seeds in their lifetime, and every chapter is like this, there is no difference in this regard. However, the adaptability and characteristics of the gene seeds of each chapter are quite different.

For example, the gene seed of the Infinite Legion is a typical example of good adaptability. Ten thousand years ago, in the Legion era, the Infinite Legion was the largest Space Marine Legion at the time; then, when it was split into chapters, the chapters that were split from the Infinite Legion were naturally the most numerous; in the ten thousand years that followed, due to the large number of people, good adaptability, and high success rate of gene seed implantation surgery, the number of Infinite Warriors increased further, which brought them more gene seeds... In this way, a positive cycle was formed. Today, the number of chapters that originated from the Infinite system is the largest in the entire universe.

Next are the descendants of the Punisher Legion and the Golden Knight Legion, who are also quite adaptable.

There is strength in numbers, this is an eternal truth.

The adaptability of the Phoenix Legion's gene-seed is not the worst, but at best it can only be considered as a medium-to-low level.

The descendants of the Phoenix pursue perfection, are polite, and have a very high level of swordsmanship. Whether it is combat skills or tactical strategies, they are all gorgeous and even gaudy.

This is both an advantage and a disadvantage. Sometimes, they can achieve jaw-dropping victories, but often their efficiency is hampered by overly complicated strategies and techniques.

In short, if the Phoenix does not have enough offspring and people, then its influence will naturally be relatively insufficient.

If it had been some bigger war groups, the turmoil that year might have been even bigger.

The failure to resolve the issue back then is what Phoenix and a series of its sub-groups hate in their hearts.

If not for this, Su Lie would not have responded so quickly to the opportunity to come and work on Tiekai, and would not have led the team himself.

As the victim and person involved back then, shouldn't Phoenix be more indignant and more direct?

Su Lie was really curious and disappointed as to why the immortal bird remained motionless.

Faced with the questioning from the parent group, Captain Martins was also quite anxious.

Even the Phoenix Regiment was so resentful about the Bauhinia Incident that year, so how could the Phoenix, who were almost wiped out, not hate it?
I hate it so much that I gnashed my teeth!

If Martins had the final say, he would have joined the Iron Armor War as soon as possible.

However, he must consider Gu Hang's opinion.

He did not forget that the Phoenix Regiment was now a part of the alliance, and their actions had to be carried out within the framework of the entire alliance.

However, under pressure from the parent group, as well as the head of the Phoenix Chapter and the head priest, he was also sent messages to ask about this matter. We, the Phoenix family, have stood together to avenge the injustice you suffered a hundred years ago. Why have you, the person involved, been shrinking in the back?
Martins felt really bad.

When the war situation on the western and northern fronts was in serious trouble, Su Lie contacted Martins again, hoping that the Phoenix could go north to join the war as soon as possible.

He even had a conversation with Gu Hang as the commander-in-chief of the Western Front.

Gu Hang is also the commander-in-chief of the Southern Front War Zone.

Although there was no fighting on the southern front.

Gu Hang fooled Su Lie, but it was difficult to fool his own people.

On the premise of following the overall strategy of the alliance, Martins also asked Gu Hang for battle many times.

Under pressure from multiple levels, multiple aspects, internal and external... Gu Hang had to take some actions while maintaining strategic focus.

The strength of the alliance's advance force has been strengthened.

At the same time, Gu Hang also announced that the Southern Theater will launch an offensive against the Iron Armor Regiment.

As the commander-in-chief of the advance corps, General Perbov led the entire army and launched an attack.

But... this offensive launched under pressure was not actually fierce.

The battle was fought, and the alliance increased its manpower, but it still failed to reach the scale of a single war zone.

The Iron Armored Regiment was deployed on the southern front to guard against the alliance's sparse forces. When they were fully focused on dealing with the northern and southern fronts, it was indeed difficult for them to prepare a large number of forces on the southern front.

In this way, the alliance's not-so-strong offense actually did have some effect.

The war lasted for two years, and the battlefield basically remained in the Menghe star field.

Although the results on the battlefield were small, the Alliance still made a big splash in terms of publicity.

The battles on each planet may not be very large in scale, but in the records reported by the alliance, they are often exaggerated to be apocalyptic-level wars and are fought quite brutally.

The Phoenix Regiment and the Holy Lily Sisters who were fighting alongside the Alliance were also thrown into the front-line battles - at least that was what the Alliance claimed to the outside world.

Of course, this is actually true.

However, the Phoenix only sent out two companies; the Holy Lily Sisters also only sent out a force of five to six hundred people.

This lukewarm but fiercely hyped battle situation did scare some people at the beginning and reduced a lot of political pressure on the alliance.

But soon, this matter was exposed.

There are some opinions from all sides that the alliance is not trying its best.

There is no need for any special preparations. One only needs to look at the most important weapon in the hands of the alliance, the alliance's flagship 'Nova', which has never been deployed to the front line. This will tell you whether the alliance has put in enough effort.

What's more, no matter how much you brag, the battle line won't lie.

The alliance's advancement on the southern front was as slow as a snail.

If Iron Fury had deployed heavy troops in the south, it would be fine if you couldn't push them, but that's not the case at all.

The political pressure was relieved somewhat, but it soon returned again.

(End of this chapter)