After receiving the intel from Hitomi, Duanmu Huai once again ordered his fleet to depart, setting course for the designated coordinates.
Of course, he also notified the others.
"So you're saying," Anne asked, eyes lighting up with excitement, "that we're going to save another invaded planet?"
She had been supervising a project when Duanmu Huai's transmission arrived, but the moment she heard, she handed off her work and rushed over. For someone like Anne, quiet managerial duties couldn't possibly compare to the thrill of a battlefield—especially since, with her strength, she was more than qualified to say so.
"Not necessarily," Duanmu Huai replied.
"Eh? But didn't that child receive some kind of message?"
"When it comes to messages from a Starlanguage Speaker, you shouldn't take them too literally."
Duanmu Huai glanced at Hitomi, who was standing quietly on the bridge.
"The way Starlanguage Speakers send messages to one another is by packaging thoughts into psychic signals, then casting them into the Warp, where other Speakers can pick them up. But I've said this before—the Warp doesn't have a concept of time. The past, present, and future all coexist within it. Which means the message Hitomi received might not be happening right now. It could be something from hundreds of years ago—or even a prophecy from thousands of years in the future."
"Ah... I see..."
"That really is fascinating," murmured Ranni, who was sitting nearby and watching the screen intently.
"Fascinating or not, we still need to get to that planet as soon as possible," Duanmu Huai said, his expression darkening. "Normally, when a Starlanguage Speaker transmits information, it's encrypted. But clearly, the signal Hitomi received wasn't. That means it was sent on an open frequency—any entity could intercept it. It's possible that daemons in the Warp could follow that trail to its source. If that happens, the planet's doomed, whether its people die or not."
As he spoke, Duanmu Huai frowned. Hitomi hadn't intentionally received the message, but the fact that she picked it up meant it had been broadcast like a public transmission. If even she had received it, then the daemons might have as well.
To Duanmu Huai, it was like someone shouting, "I'm over here!" in the middle of a forest full of monsters—begging to die faster.
Luckily, the Warp was full of so much psychic garbage that finding anything useful in it was like digging through a landfill for a working credit card—possible, but only if you had insane patience and luck.
Incidentally, Duanmu Huai had always believed that anyone who sought "omniscience" was an idiot. It was why players always joked that those who claimed to worship the Changer of Ways for "the pursuit of all knowledge" were morons.
The logic was simple: What was the point of knowing everything?
Who cared how dolphins swam, how ants dug holes, or how leeches sucked blood? Was knowing about celebrity marriages, cheating neighbors, or illegitimate sons really valuable information? Filling your brain with useless trivia only wasted space.
Those idiots who yelled "I must know all things!" and then got their heads exploded by psychic backlash deserved it. Most of what they "learned" was meaningless nonsense—gossip and garbage from alien minds. True wisdom lay in knowing what not to bother with.
Serves them right to be toyed with by Tzeentch and tossed aside. That kind of idiot deserved nothing better.
"Warp Gate activated! Preparing for jump to target coordinates~~"
Mia's cheerful, lazy voice rang out across the bridge. Moments later, the view outside turned into streaking rivers of light—and then, just as quickly, the fleet emerged into a completely different star system.
The new system glowed a sickly green. Six planets orbited a central sun, and under its light, the entire region looked as if it were bathed in poison.
"I never thought… a starfield could look like this…"
Ranni stared wide-eyed at the luminous, eerie sight.
"Different systems, different colors," Duanmu Huai said. "Some are more beautiful. Some are worse."
He'd seen plenty before, so it didn't surprise him. Quickly locking onto the coordinates, he directed the fleet toward the fifth planet in the system.
"Scan the surface. Put the visuals on the main display."
"Yes, Master," Mia replied.
A moment later, the planet's image filled the bridge's screen.
What they saw were cities—cities utterly destroyed by war.
From the architecture, it was clear this world had once known prosperity. But now, all that remained were ruins—collapsed towers, shattered streets, and bones scattered across the dust. Most settlements were long abandoned.
"Hmm… radiation levels are within normal range. So it wasn't nukes that made it a wasteland."
Duanmu Huai studied the readings and nodded.
"Judging by the patterns, it looks like orbital bombardment—something from above wiped those cities out with extreme heat."
"Is it that thing?"
Anne pointed toward a holographic display of the planet's orbit, where hundreds—no, thousands—of satellites circled the world.
"Maybe. Satellites are usually for communication, but orbital weapons aren't out of the question…"
After thinking for a moment, Duanmu Huai gave an order.
"Send the Eye of Reconnaissance to investigate. Capture a few of those satellites while you're at it—I want their data analyzed."
His Inquisition fleet had grown considerably. In addition to the massive Cabal warship he'd captured, he now commanded four Luna-class cruisers and six Cobra-class missile destroyers. The destroyers were only 1.5 kilometers long and lightly armed, but their speed and maneuverability made them perfect scouts. Duanmu Huai always preferred to let them check things out first before committing heavier ships.
No point ramming your own fortress into someone's backyard, after all.
Soon, one of the destroyers followed orders and moved out. The Dark Night Wardens' tech-priests captured several satellites, dismantled them, and extracted their stored data. The findings were then transmitted to Duanmu Huai.
From the limited information, the situation became clear.
This planet had once suffered a devastating war between two human factions. One side had won, the other had lost—that much was obvious. But not long afterward, mysterious subterranean creatures had appeared and attacked humanity.
They resembled humans, but were larger, stronger, and capable of commanding monstrous underground beasts. They even wielded firearms.
Humans called them... Orcs.
At first, Duanmu Huai nearly jumped out of his chair, thinking the Greenies had shown up—but after some thought, he realized this was just a coincidence of names. The true greenskins didn't mess with biotech or live underground. And if those orcs had been here, the planet would've been overrun in weeks.
So, different "orcs," same name.
Anyway, the story was straightforward enough. After the civil war, humanity was weakened. The orcs struck from beneath the ground, rendering air power useless. They dug tunnels, bypassing human defenses, and struck from below. Humanity collapsed quickly.
Desperate, the survivors launched an orbital counterattack: the Hammer of Dawn, a space-based weapon that fired superheated beams from satellites, burning every city that had fallen to the orcs.
It was a brutal trade—hurt yourself to hurt the enemy—but effective. Humanity might be suicidal, but it was always thorough.
Now, only one human city remained. The rest of the world lay in ruin. Most satellites had gone dark after the bombardment, and though many orcs had been wiped out, the survivors still roamed the surface, preparing to renew their assault and finish humanity off.
This world's condition wasn't much better than the last demon-infested one—but that suited Duanmu Huai perfectly.
He narrowed his eyes at the scarred, broken planet before him. From the reports, the orcs were powerful, adaptable, and fierce—an ideal opponent to harden his troops against. Ground warfare, urban combat, underground tunnels—perfect training material.
Plenty of enemies. Few survivors. The balance was just right.
If that's how it was, then it was time to make this world his battlefield.
"Prepare the troops," Duanmu Huai ordered coldly. "Mia, notify the Dark Night Wardens—have all Astral Guards ready for planetary drop assault!"
(End of Chapter