Chapter 352: Live Combat Test |
The Greenskin Tide plan had many prerequisites.
While Palcador drafted the plan, Lino prepared to test these prerequisites one by one in the end times.
Using the companion simulation feature, he created an alt account for Beast within the Crimson Palm, allowing the Ork to operate alongside him.
"WAAAGH... I feel like The Warp in the end times is even messier than in the age of rebellion," Beast muttered, looking out the viewport from the body of an Ork Bodyguard.
Lino, possessing the Crimson Palm's Warboss, beckoned to the Shaman Boy beside him and ordered, "Open up the star map we've scouted."
"Right away, Boss." The weirdboy manually operated the map, explaining the intel to his God of the Orks: "A year ago, this here Expanse had thirty-five humie worlds, one cogboy forge world, and about a hundred-odd space entities scattered along the trade routes. There were about three hundred lost worlds that the Shrimp Empire hadn't grabbed back yet, and around two hundred worlds held by xenos civilizations.
"Today, aside from the forge world, every other world belonging to the Shrimp Empire has been invaded by the rubbish thing. More than half the humie worlds have been turned into rubbish thing worlds. The lost worlds and xenos worlds are in pretty much the same state."
Lino asked, "Among those xenos worlds, how many of them aren't silicon-based lifeforms?"
The weirdboy said, "Boss, the main lifeforms on those xenos worlds are all silicon-based."
Lino asked again, "Which world is closest to us right now?"
The weirdboy zoomed in on the star map, focusing on an area just left of center in the Expanse sector map. "It's a knife-ears world called Yarahaya. The place got trashed by the pointy-beak boyz not long ago. If we head over now, we'll probably run into a nest of pointy-beak boyz and a scattered few knife-ears."
Lino frowned. "A knife-ears world? Are you talking about a Craftworld, or the kind built on a planet?"
"The kind built on a planet. These knife-ears are corsairs. Without a Craftworld to protect 'em, they had to settle on a rock."
"Ah, I see." Lino snapped his fingers at Beast. "Go check the fleet's combat readiness."
"Right away, Boss." Beast eagerly scurried off.
Lino pointed at the knife-ears world and issued his command: "Set course for this world immediately, but once we arrive, don't drop out of The Warp just yet."
"Got it, Boss." The weirdboy relayed the order.
Lino found an empty cargo bay and began running a Genetic Simulation, using materials from his portable inventory to craft live Mutagenic Spores.
Considering that their upcoming enemies would primarily be pointy-beak boyz and knife-ears, Lino optimized the spores' genetic sequencing, increasing the success rate for infecting both groups.
Next came the necessary testing strips, containers, and harvesting tools to collect the experimental data.
These items were already prepared; he had plenty in his portable inventory, ready to be pulled out at a moment's notice.
In addition, the artillery barrels and shells used to disperse the Mutagenic Spores needed some modifications.
Just to be safe, Lino summoned a research team from the Palu Homeland to directly supervise the Crimson Palm's mekboyz as they modified the equipment.
Five Terran hours later, the fleet arrived in the region of The Warp corresponding to the knife-ears world.
"All crews, report self-diagnostics." Lino oversaw the operation from the command deck.
The voices of the various mob bosses rang out from the Noisy Box one after another:
"Mutagenic Spore shells counted and loaded. Five thousand total, ready for immediate use."
"Macrocannon modifications complete. Switched from direct-fire to shotgun-spread; a single volley can fire ten spore shells."
"Salvage ships modified. Genetic scanners and tractor arrays are ready."
"Palu Shadow on standby. Once activated, it can shroud the planet within half a minute."
Lino gave a slight nod and signaled the helmsman boy down below. "Move out. Enter realspace."
"WAAAGH!" The helmsman boy spun the wheel, tearing open a Warp exit and piloting the fleet right through it.
Not long after arriving in realspace, a scanner blip appeared on the findin' gizmo.
"Boss, it's an Augur Array from the pointy-beak boyz. They spotted us."
"Scan their fleet condition. Tell me how many men and how many ships they've got."
"On it, Boss." The findin' boy hammered at his keyboard and reported back: "Boss, they've only got one battleship. Aside from the humies piloting the thing, the rest are all pointy-beak boyz, around 30,000 of 'em. I ain't seen much, so I dunno which pointy-beak boyz warband they're from."
The findin' boy projected the scan results onto the holographic screen.
A red emblem appeared in the feed. In the center was a white shield overlaid with two crossed black swords, and at the heart of the shield sat a scarlet blood drop.
Judging by the design and color scheme, they had to be related to the Blood Angels.
Unfortunately, as a cloud-hammer and a perpetually exhausted grad student, Lino had never had the time to memorize the lore, culture, and heraldry of every single Space Marine chapter. For the moment, he couldn't recognize this specific one.
Still, considering this was the fringes of the Imperium where proper Space Marines rarely operated, there was a near 100% chance they were either chaos Space Marines or Renegades.
Knowing that, Lino felt absolutely no psychological burden about attacking them—he wouldn't be accidentally killing any good humies or good pointy-beak boyz.
"They took down a knife-ears world with just one warship? Knife-ears corsairs really are total trash." Lino chuckled and ordered, "Turn on the targeting auspex and lock onto the pointy-beak boyz' ship. Move in close. We'll spread the Mutagenic Spores first, then we'll mop up the pointy-beak boyz."
"WAAAGH!"
Lino waved Beast over. "I'm leaving command of the battle to you. I'm going to the lab to keep an eye on the research."
"You got it, Boss." Beast thumped his chest and stepped up to the command podium in his boss's place.
Lino turned down the corridor, heading to the makeshift laboratory to monitor the real-time experimental data.
The fleet engaged sub-light engines, arriving in orbit above a desolate planet dotted with artificial forests.
The knife-ears here must have been chasing some kind of primitive forest retro-trend.
Across the earthy brown surface, they had artificially cultivated woodland gardens, treehouses, and lakes. They had decent taste; it was just a shame they had terrible luck and ran into a pack of vicious pointy-beak boyz.
The fleet bypassed the pointy-beak boyz' battleship and fired their shells from the lowest point of low-earth orbit.
The shotgun-spread barrels unleashed ten shells per volley.
After a quick five-volley barrage, the artificial forests below were blanketed in spores.
Normally, five greenskin warships would absolutely dominate a single pointy-beak boyz' battleship.
As long as they had working brains, the pointy-beak boyz would definitely choose to cut and run.
But this particular group of pointy-beak boyz—the ones seemingly tied to the Blood Angels—did the exact opposite. They charged their battleship straight into the fray, initiating a boarding action on one of the greenskin frigates.
Beast stared in dumbfounded shock. It was hard to imagine any sane person doing something like this.
"Well now, that's rare. You don't often see pointy-beak boyz with this much gut," Beast said, bursting into laughter. "Patch in the live feed from their boarding party. I wanna see just how tough these pointy-beak boyz are."
"On it."
The holographic projection swapped to the security feeds aboard the greenskin frigate, displaying an incredibly brutal and bloody massacre.
The pointy-beak boyz, clad in dark red Power Armor, fought like utter madmen. They chased down the greenskins, hacking and slashing wildly, all while stuffing severed limbs and heads into their mouths, chewing and swallowing them in massive gulps.
The entire bridge crew stood stunned at the sight.
"I fink these pointy-beak boyz' mouths stink even worse than a squig's..."
"By Boss Li, these pointy-beak boyz have lost their damn minds! They're actually eating us greenskins? Is there no justice left in the world?!"
"Boss Beast, what do we do now? The greenskins on that frigate probably can't hold those lunatics off."
The boy asking the question looked eager to jump into the fray, clearly itching for a scrap.
Beast scratched his head. "First, run a scan and see how many combatants they've still got left on their own ship."
"Right... I'm lookin'. Ain't no pointy-beak boyz left on their ship, only humies."
Beast's eyes lit up, and he punched his palm with a fist. "Here's what we'll do, then! Pass down my order: overload the blue fire furnace on our frigate and blow those pointy-beak boyz to kingdom come. Then, we launch a jump-jump tactic and hijack their ship. We trade one frigate for a brand-new battleship—that's a bloody good steal!"
"Gahaha! A bloody good steal!"
"We're winning so hard right now!"
The boyz and grots on the bridge erupted into chaotic cheers.
Half a minute later, a brilliant orb of plasma detonated in low orbit.
Twenty thousand greenskins and thirty thousand pointy-beak boyz perished together, all exchanged for a half-decent Imperial battleship.
Beast dispatched a boarding party to board the enemy vessel and disperse the Mutagenic Spores.
After waiting half an hour, the humies aboard were mutated into Paru Boyz, and control of the ship formally passed to the Palu Empire.
By digging through the data logs in the Cogitator Array, Beast uncovered the origins of this warband.
They were the Blood Knights, a successor chapter of the Blood Angels. Even before the opening of the Great Rift, the Imperium of Man had already branded them as Renegade Space Marines.
So they were bad pointy-beak boyz, not normal pointy-beak boyz. No wonder they'd resorted to eating greenskins raw.
Beast reported the news to his boss.
Lino blanked for a moment, then finally recalled the lore surrounding the Blood Knights.
Because they were constantly tormented by the Red Thirst, the Blood Knights frequently had to consume raw flesh and blood to satiate their cravings just to maintain their sanity.
The Imperium of Man viewed their actions as heretical, and numerous Inquisitors were hunting them down.
Left with no other choice, the Blood Knights had fled to the outskirts of the Expanse just to survive.
He certainly hadn't expected to just casually run into these "vampires."
"Hmm... if I remember correctly, the entire Blood Knights chapter was supposed to sacrifice themselves in the Devastation of Baal, buying Dante the precious time and strategic breathing room he needed until Guilliman arrived with reinforcements. If I wipe out these pointy-beak boyz right now, can the Imperium still win the battle for Baal?"
Lino spent a few seconds pondering the matter before suddenly realizing something.
"Bring up the galactic plane map and pull up the coordinates for the Blood Angels' homeworld, Baal."
A grot tasked with logging Lino's research progress paused his work, tapped the holographic projector, and brought up the map.
Baal was located in the northern mid-regions of the Ultima Segmentum.
It sat smack in the dead center of the Imperium Nihilus!
No matter which corner of the Imperium Nihilus one needed to reach, a journey departing from Baal would be the shortest route!
Assuming they eventually needed to form an encirclement around the Eye of Terror, Baal was undoubtedly one of the most geographically optimal bridgeheads.
The sectors and systems surrounding Baal fit this requirement as well.
Lino calculated the timeline. Right now, they were three months away from Guilliman awakening. Factor in the time it would take Guilliman to travel from Macragge to Baal, and the Battle of Baal would conclude in roughly seven months.
He could send a unit of Paru Boyz disguised as the Blood Knights to scout the terrain around Baal and find a suitable location to establish their bridgehead.
Even if the Imperium saw through their disguises, it wouldn't matter as long as they secured the intel.
"Beast, I'm going to get you a batch of researchers from the Palu Academy. Lead them to cultivate a batch of Blood Raven Boyz..."
Lino detailed his plan. Beast nodded continuously; the Blood Raven Boyz were perfectly suited for behind-enemy-lines reconnaissance.
Time passed as they researched the Mutagenic Spores and prepared the new "Blood Knights" warband.
Three Terran hours later, the Blood Knights' battleship was fully manned by the Blood Raven Boyz.
Having calculated the timeline for the Battle of Baal, Lino ordered them to survey the surrounding systems before the conflict reached its climax. Then, they were to perfectly time Guilliman's arrival to gather intel on the Imperium forces at Baal itself.
With that, the "Blood Knights" deployed.
Lino shifted his focus back to the experimental data.
The combat test data for the Mutagenic Spore was remarkably good.
Thirty percent of the knife-ears completed their mutation within three Terran hours. The rest would gradually transform into Paru Boyz over the course of the next ten Terran days.
The spores that failed to find a knife-ears host weren't wasted, either.
Just like normal Palu spores, they took root in the planet's soil, sprouting into vibrant green mushrooms that birthed squigs, grots, and more Paru Boyz.
Lino passed the test data onto Palcador, casually bringing up his arrangements for Baal and the "Blood Knights" along with it.
Palcador's face lit up with admiration, and he praised him: "Great Boss, sometimes I genuinely feel that if you weren't too busy to draft these plans yourself, you might not even need my help. Your setup for Baal matches our strategy perfectly. We were also planning to turn Baal into a bridgehead."
Lino raised an eyebrow and took the Dataslate to check the drafted plans, confirming that Palcador was telling the truth.
Great minds truly thought alike.
As Lino quickly flipped through Palcador's strategy, an image automatically wove itself together in his mind:
The Greenskin Tide would launch from the Koronus Expanse in the Ultima Segmentum, sweeping westward across the galactic map. It would infect every world in its path, slowly establishing an ironclad encirclement around the Space Marine homeworlds, forge worlds, Craftworlds, and Necron dynasties.
By severing the supply lines of the Space Marines and the cogboys and grinding them down over time, they could force their enemies into absolute ruin.
The Craftworlds were fully self-sustaining with complete ecological cycles, so a direct brute-force breach followed by a massive deployment of Mutagenic Spores would be enough to collapse the knife-ears' societal structure from within, converting them all into fresh troops.
The Necron dynasties were the trickiest problem.
Those bony bastards were completely immune to the Mutagenic Spore. Furthermore, their combat prowess was second to none, leaving them with almost zero exploitable weaknesses.
According to rumors, the ribs also possessed an apocalyptic superweapon capable of detonating any specific planet with a mere tap of a finger.
If backed into a corner, they'd undoubtedly be ruthless enough to drag everyone down into mutual destruction.
But what if they simply blew up the dynasty's Tomb Worlds before the Necrons could pull the trigger?
Lino snickered to himself. He and Palcador's team were on exactly the same wavelength once again.
The plan clearly stated:
First, form the encirclement. Then, unleash a sudden, cataclysmic strike against the ribs, ensuring total annihilation in a single fatal blow.
This was the core strategy driving the Greenskin Tide.
"Good work, Palcador. We'll proceed with this plan. Also, step up the expansion for Warp Monocrystal production while you're at it."
"Yes, Great Boss!" Palcador bowed and turned to leave.
Lino called him back. "Hold on, I want to ask you something. Over this next stretch of time, do you think there's anything I specifically need to handle myself?"
