Exterminatus—a term the Imperium used to refer to actions that would destroy an entire planet's biosphere and all life on the world.
Simply put, it meant directly turning this planet into a dead planet, into a ball of stone, a planet destroyed beyond any value.
However, under normal circumstances, Exterminatus wasn't used unless in extremely dire situations.
The prerequisite for using Exterminatus was generally when the planet posed a strategic threat to the entire Imperium at an extinction level, with the threat spreading throughout the entire star system and continuing to expand.
Or when the cost of retaking the current planet was too high, exceeding the cost of Exterminatus itself.
In short, when conventional means could no longer reclaim the situation, Exterminatus would be issued as the Imperium's final resort.
In the current world, the true Tyranid invasion hadn't actually begun yet—this was just dormant bugs starting a massive outbreak, causing chaos across the entire planet.
Under such circumstances, the planet wouldn't fall too quickly, and it wouldn't reach the point of requiring Exterminatus.
That is to say, some special mutation must have occurred.
For example, Chaos invasion.
After all, right after Ejie had excavated the STC, he had encountered Chaos invasion in the underhive and engaged in a small battle.
There had also been Night Lords Chaos Space Marines.
While the Night Lords had fallen to Chaos, they were a bunch of madmen neither loved by the Imperium nor cared for by the four gods, enjoying all kinds of killing and destruction, wanting to spread pain and fear like seeds to every corner of the Imperium.
Could these guys have done something big, causing the Imperium to potentially use Exterminatus?
Then, from the Salamanders Astartes—the one somewhat looking after him—Ejie obtained this intelligence: Exterminatus wasn't completely confirmed yet.
It depended on whether Imperial reinforcements could arrive in time. If they estimated they couldn't make it, they would directly employ Exterminatus.
The cause of this great crisis was indeed related to Chaos demon invasion—specifically the hive city where he had been before.
Due to the stupid actions of the PDF (Planetary Defense Force) commander, the space fortress had heavily impacted that hive city, and the released energy had been utilized, causing a tear to appear there—a Warp rift.
Thus, Chaos armies were also beginning to invade this planet.
So with both Tyranid swarms and Warp invasion coming together, the current planet's combat strength simply couldn't handle both, only barely able to resist one side.
If this dragged on, Imperial reinforcements couldn't arrive in time to deal with both the hive and the Warp rift, then the hammer of destruction would fall—Exterminatus.
Then, through a communication device, Ejie saw the situation there from a pop-up virtual window.
When he had originally left, looking down from high altitude, it had been like a super massive volcanic crater blasted out, with the ground consumed by flames.
Now, at the core of this super volcanic crater, the magma and flames had extinguished, leaving only an abnormal rift.
This rift seemed to be spreading mist outward—actually the invasion of Chaos demons.
When magnified, it looked like the dimensional barrier between the real world and hell had been shattered and torn, with hell on the other side of the rift.
In fact, calling what was inside the rift hell wasn't wrong, since it was the demons' home.
Looking further at the ground around the rift edge, he could already see monsters emerging from the earth, and some incompletely buried severed limbs writhing to life.
Obviously, the people of this hive city and its surrounding satellite cities had become vessels for Warp demons.
Normally, the energy from such a massive explosion should have burned most people's bodies to ash. It now appeared this energy had been utilized, which was why the surrounding area hadn't burned cleanly.
"Stop looking—the next wave of bugs is coming!"
Came the reminder from an Astartes. Ejie, who had also sensed movement, saw something stirring in the surrounding darkness.
With flares being fired, it looked like it would be even more fierce than the previous wave.
Currently, thirty kilometers remained to the area he wanted to reach.
This spearhead force now consisted of all remaining Astartes plus Ejie and fewer than a hundred surviving PDF soldiers.
Ejie also noticed a massive case that one Astartes had been carrying the entire time, never used and carefully guarded.
Was there some special weapon inside?
But now, somewhat deviating from the hive, their march route completely overlapped with where he wanted to go.
"Are we certain we want to reach the destination?"
"Under these circumstances, how could there possibly be any recipient there?"
Recipient?
This term made Ejie raise an eyebrow—that case contained cargo.
"Captain, communication from the Deathwatch—they want us to temporarily suspend our current mission and rendezvous with them."
This sudden statement made all the Astartes fall silent.
"Thirty kilometers remaining. We'll respond after reaching the destination."
So it really was the area he needed to reach.
Could something have happened to his ship?
Thirty kilometers—with Astartes capabilities, they could arrive quickly at full sprint.
But the problem was bug attacks along the way. It wasn't that easy to reach.
The route would probably have even more sinister ambushes.
This way, it might take a full day to arrive.
After the Carnifexes appeared, five hours had already passed and they'd only advanced twenty kilometers.
Suddenly, Ejie felt pressure as the helmetless captain suddenly looked toward him and walked over.
Such a large build, plus that heavy power armor, created more oppressive presence than the Chaos Astartes he'd encountered in the underhive.
"You're not a PDF soldier. Your destination seems to be the same as ours?"
After these words, the gaze directed at him felt increasingly substantial, as if the air was being filled, creating a suffocating sensation.
"Perhaps I might be your recipient."
"Name."
"Lance Plain."
"That is indeed the name of the person I was commissioned to deliver to, but please prove you are Lance Plain himself."
How was he supposed to prove that?
It was like the absurd banking behavior from his previous life—he'd seen such news where someone wanted to withdraw money from their deceased father's bank card but was required to prove "your father is your father."
Brief silence, silent except for the surrounding artillery sounds as bugs were already attacking and other Astartes were holding them back.
As for why they would know his ship's location, Ejie suspected the tunnel rats had GPS-like positioning devices.
After all, the batch of tunnel rats he had were traded from them, and they had known the general location several times.
As for why they weren't locked onto the hive city area, probably because the tunnel rats had self-destructed and lost signal, so they came directly to the original signal source.
That was his ship here—after the tunnel rats had emerged, they had sent out a signal.
It was fortunate they hadn't dug down directly in this vicinity at the time, or they might have fallen headfirst into a bug nest.
"The person who asked you to deliver was Arch-Magos Belisarius Cawl, right?"
At these words, the other's expression showed no reaction—still looking at him calmly.
After staring for several seconds, he nodded to the Salamander member carrying the massive case. That person walked over and set down the wardrobe-sized metal case, then began unlocking it as the case started opening.
So what had that Arch-Magos suddenly sent him? He was getting somewhat excited to find out.
...
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