Chapter 151: It’s Big and Green
Kao’fu, along with the massive and terrifying iron juggernaut he was piloting, was obliterated by fifty rounds of 155mm howitzers that rained down from above.
The barrage of artillery fire descended intensely, leaving him no chance to escape the blast radius just after restoring his power.
Despite his formidable armor, it couldn’t withstand such a heavy bombardment.
Of course, in the process, some accidental injuries were inevitable.
Within two minutes, several of their own soldiers didn’t make it to safety in time. Even those who found cover close to the blast zone couldn’t avoid death.
But this was a necessary price to pay.
Gu Hang’s offensive maneuver helped minimize this cost.
Saving one or two hundred soldiers was certainly worthwhile.
The death of Kao’fu signified the collapse of the greenskin beasts’ month-long standoff against the human forces on this front line.
After their morale broke, the greenskins had no route to escape.
Human forces surrounded them from all sides, and no matter how skilled they were, escape was impossible.
This was precisely Gu Hang’s objective.
He wanted not only a decisive victory but an annihilation with no escape for the enemy.
Though the losses were not insignificant—around a thousand soldiers were likely casualties across the front—their efforts wiped out at least four thousand greenskins. Approximately 70% of the enemy had fallen under the initial deluge of artillery fire.
At that moment, Gu Hang noticed that his [Event] panel had updated.
[Event: Greenskin Threat]
[The greenskin orks, mysteriously appearing on this planet, have quickly grown into a formidable threat. But under your leadership, brave warriors not only held off their incursions but destroyed the core of their forces through orbital bombardment, artillery, and a full-force assault. However, based on intelligence from the front and your own observations, these greenskin orks appear unusual. They don’t resemble wild orks that naturally evolved on Fury Owl Planet, yet they also seem distinct from the spaceborne orks from off-world.]
[Phase 1 Objective: Completed]
[Phase 1 Reward: T5-level Auxiliary Troop Training Option – Beast Slaughtering Group, acquired]
[Phase 2 Objective: Investigate the cause behind the greenskin orks’ rise.]
[Phase 2 Reward: A critical intelligence report]
…
The reward for the first phase of the [Greenskin Threat] event had settled in the [Event] panel.
In the [Troop Card] interface, Gu Hang could now see the new auxiliary troop training option, ‘Beast Slaughtering Group.’ Any T5-level unit could gain additional anti-greenskin effects by investing more Grace Points.
As for the ‘Beast Slaughtering’ feature granted to the 3rd Independent Regiment, this technically counted as part of the first phase reward, saving him sixty Grace Points.
As for the second phase, it was already something Gu Hang planned to pursue. The reward of “critical intelligence” intrigued him.
What could it be?
They’d find out in due time.
After a brief glance at the event update, Gu Hang turned his focus back to the battlefield.
The situation on the field was still his top priority.
Following the dismantling of the greenskins’ main resistance, the main force rested on-site. At 5 p.m., they ate dinner delivered by logistics, rested for an hour and a half, and then resumed their advance towards the depths of the High Tower Ruins at 6:30 p.m.
This approach wasn’t overly aggressive.
While some greenskins likely survived on the battlefield, they were no longer a significant threat.
Leaving them unchecked was out of the question, however. The main forces would be continuing their mission in the ruins, and logistical support would need to pass through this area, meaning the site still required security.
Thus, Gu Hang left the 6th and 7th Guard Divisions stationed in the north and south to eliminate any scattered greenskin survivors in the area and to secure the logistics route.
The clean-up task didn’t need much explanation; it wasn’t difficult anymore.
And as for the main force advancing deeper, they encountered no resistance.
The prior orbital bombardment had been no joke; very few greenskins survived that scale of assault.
Their main targets—the greenskin staging grounds and headquarters—had been the focus of the strikes.
Other areas received less concentrated fire, but greenskin presence there was already sparse.
Though the troops occasionally encountered stray greenskins during their advance, they posed no threat.
To ensure stability and later operations, Gu Hang left a guard division every twenty kilometers to maintain the supply route and eliminate any local greenskin orks.
Around midnight, the troops reached the greenskin ork gathering point previously reported by the Star Warriors.
According to the latest intelligence before the orbital strikes, over four thousand greenskins and three times as many Grot cannon fodder, along with significantly advanced heavy equipment, should have been stationed here.
But now, there was only a massive crater and a vast field of debris.
In the center of the greenskin camp was a huge crater, devoid of anything.
This crater was large enough to fit thousands of greenskins, yet not a trace remained.
There was truly nothing left.
Suspicious debris began appearing around the crater’s edge.
Judging from the scraps, these might have been remnants of greenskins or pieces of their equipment.
But it was all guesswork.
Misshapen fragments and melted, cooled objects left room only for speculation.
A bit further out, some identifiable body parts were scattered—a finger here, half a leg there—denser with remains.
Farther out, more intact equipment fragments appeared: overturned, charred trucks, destroyed armored cans, and some relatively complete charred corpses.
The once-proud greenskin orks, gathered here to destroy everything in their path, had suffered a devastating blow.
If any greenskins had survived on the outskirts of the blast zone, their numbers would have been minimal, and they’d likely fled by now.
Gu Hang was satisfied with the effect of the strike.
However, a single concern nagged at him: why hadn’t the Star Warriors reported on the strike’s results?
This was not typical.
The special operations team had completed marking the targets over ten hours ago and should have withdrawn far enough to avoid the blast radius. They had plenty of time.
In fact, they didn’t even need to withdraw that far.
They only needed to stay at a safe distance and ensure they weren’t within the orbital bombardment markers. They would be out of harm’s way, with no orbital fire to fear.
After the magnetic field interference cleared post-strike, they even checked in with Gu Hang to confirm their safety.
At Gu Hang’s request, they’d set off to inspect the two most critical target zones—the greenskin camp and their base—to assess the bombardment’s effectiveness.
Given their proximity, they should have been able to report back promptly.
In reality, though, Gu Hang’s main forces had already seen the aftermath of the greenskin camp firsthand, yet the special operations team hadn’t reported a thing.
It was now midnight, and very late.
The entire force had been active since 11 a.m., fighting a battle, advancing through ruins, and clearing greenskins. Thirteen hours had passed with only a brief break for lunch, leaving the troops exhausted.
Moving the main force further would be impractical.
He called for a radio operator and sent a communication request to the Phoenix Battalion.
No response.
He felt increasingly uneasy.
He summoned Pobov and instructed his unit to rest and then move towards the greenskin headquarters noted in earlier reports at dawn.
If they encountered greenskins along the way, they weren’t required to eliminate them unless convenient.
The primary objective was to locate the special operations team.
Gu Hang couldn’t help but feel a growing concern.
Although the team included five Star Warriors, who theoretically shouldn’t face any real danger…
But…
Hadn’t a Star Warrior been lost when they fought the Original Fury Owl Sect?
Let alone greenskins.
Especially since these greenskins seemed somewhat different from naturally evolved wild orks.
Wild orks and space orks shared similar traits in terms of biology and social structures, though the latter were more advanced and formidable.
Seven thousand years ago, a terrifying ork disaster nearly destroyed the human empire.
But orks not yet considered a galactic threat were usually called wild orks.
Tracking how the greenskin spores spread to a new planet was difficult.
A greenskin spore might hitch a ride on a cargo item during interstellar travel, ending up on an interstellar ship.
When the item was unloaded, the spores could settle on the ground or be carried by the wind, and with the right conditions, take root and grow. The first Sku-gor Beast would emerge—a fierce little predator that hunts, fights, and survives.
During the acts of hunting, fighting, discharging waste, and dying… the many spores released or split off from greenskin bodies began to spawn more Sku-gor beasts, grots, and even ork boyz.
Typically, while the greenskin ecosystem of wild orks on a planet has yet to fully develop, greenskins remain in a primitive tribal state.
There’s no real technology or organized structure to speak of, merely a group of creatures with relatively high intelligence that resembles a wild beast pack.
Among them, they constantly fight and brawl, carrying on endless infighting.
After all, fighting is in the very nature of greenskins, and whether the target of their aggression is their own kin or an outsider, they hardly care.
In the course of these fights, they select a boss greenskin to act as the tribe’s leader.
The greenskins that form the tribe then, under the boss’s leadership, go on to attack anything around them that they can fight.
If they can’t find anything to fight, they’ll splinter into smaller groups and turn on each other.
Throughout this process, their numbers gradually spiral upward.
Many greenskins die from infighting, but despite fluctuations, their overall numbers increase.
Meanwhile, as more battles take place and the greenskin numbers grow, the ‘waaagh’ field they generate becomes denser.
This supernatural force, intricately connected to psionics yet distinct from it, resembles a form of ‘will-driven technology.’
This force not only strengthens their group but inexplicably advances their technology.
They start crafting weapons and equipment that only greenskins can wield, eventually setting them on a path towards interstellar travel.
Without external interference, this process would be extremely slow.
But with external influence—say, they consume enough brains from other species or encounter enough advanced war technology from humans or other intelligent races—the greenskin’s tech-savvy orks, Grot engineers, and Mek Boyz can speed up this development process significantly.
Judging by this standard, the greenskin tribe here in the High Tower Ruins, which only numbers in the tens of thousands, shouldn’t logically have things like kill cans or massive juggernauts.
The fact that they have guns and thermal weapons already suggests they’ve progressed quickly.
Moreover, previous reports from Garbage Town never indicated any large-scale wars between different greenskin factions.
This doesn’t align with the characteristics of wild greenskins.
But they’re also different from space orks.
If an interstellar greenskin clan had truly set its sights on Fury Owl Planet, there would be no hope for resistance.
The greenskins in the High Tower Ruins on Fury Owl Planet are indeed an unusual case.
Yet it’s also possible that humanity’s research on greenskin ecology is incomplete, so not even the knowledge Gu Hang recently absorbed mentions this scenario.
For this reason, Gu Hang felt a sense of unease about the current situation of the Special Operations Team.
This particular greenskin tribe was unusual enough to potentially cause trouble that even the Star Warriors might not handle.
The God Emperor’s Death Angels often lived up to their demigod reputation; however, in cosmic conflicts against countless monstrous foes, there were times they’d be cut down in droves.
Greenskins were indeed among those monstrous threats.
…
Not to jinx it, but the Special Operations Team had indeed run into trouble.
If one rewinds to 11 a.m., when the orbital bombardment struck, they had fortunately been unharmed.
They patiently waited until the bombardment’s residual heat dissipated and communication was restored, after which they reported their safety to the Governor.
Following his orders, they proceeded to the designated orbital strike targets.
The primary sites they needed to scout were the greenskin gathering point and their main base.
They headed to the main base first.
Here, the scene was similar to the gathering point—a massive crater, with all surrounding structures leveled.
The key difference was the wreckage; there were significantly more Grot workers and builder boyz here, along with more greenskin structures’ remains.
That was about it.
They scouted the bombardment site for a while, assessing the strike’s effectiveness and checking for any survivors.
The greenskin munitions factory was confirmed destroyed;
The greenskin camp was confirmed destroyed;
Three greenskin hatchery farms were confirmed destroyed.
One had to admit, greenskins were disturbingly resilient creatures.
Despite this level of apocalyptic bombardment, far more powerful than even a nuclear blast, greenskins positioned slightly farther from the blast center—especially those lucky enough to be in fortified shelters—emerged unscathed.
Fortunately, their numbers were sparse and dispersed.
Without risking detection, they didn’t spend time eliminating survivors.
However, if a greenskin was conveniently within reach, they wouldn’t hesitate to finish it off.
Given greenskin nature, if the boss was killed in the bombardment and there were no other leaders left among the survivors, they’d revert to being intelligent beasts, acting solely on instinct and fighting each other until a new leader emerged.
During this period, they’d be at their weakest, and humanity could seize this opportunity to eradicate them entirely.
Then, by thoroughly sweeping every inch of territory once occupied by orks, the greenskin crisis would theoretically be resolved.
However, due to their resilience and spore-based reproduction, humanity could never afford to lower its guard against greenskins.
In the long-term future, the planet would require constant monitoring of former greenskin-affected areas, regularly eliminating suspicious plants.
But as long as vigilance was maintained and Imperial protocols followed, any potential issues could be detected and dealt with at the first signs, preventing another major outbreak.
Just as their spirits were starting to relax, a roar suddenly echoed from afar.
Startled, they quickly realized their presence hadn’t been detected.
It seemed more likely that a greenskin ork was rallying its subordinates through loud calls.
Communications via yelling might seem amusing, but there was no room for humor now.
This scenario meant there was still a greenskin leader in the area, one with considerable rallying power.
Moreover, this leader couldn’t be newly emerged from a recent skirmish.
A freshly selected boss wouldn’t have that kind of commanding presence.
So the conclusion was obvious: despite the intense orbital bombardment, a powerful greenskin leader had survived.
It wasn’t clear if this was due to sheer luck or some other factor, but it certainly wasn’t good news.
They decided to investigate the situation.
If a large number of greenskins were already gathering under its command, they’d simply report the information to the Governor and leave a team to monitor.
But if the greenskin numbers were still low, Battalion Leader Martins and the five Star Warriors intended to eliminate the greenskin leader.
Decapitation tactics were one of the most effective strategies against greenskins.
A massive ‘waaagh,’ even an interstellar crusade, required the organization and initiative of a formidable greenskin warlord.
Only a strong leader could unite the greenskins.
Conversely, once the boss was dead, the remaining greenskins would descend into chaos, usually killing off at least half of their own numbers in internal fights.
They held no notions of survival for their kin or prioritizing external threats.
Even in individual battles, the death of a squad leader could destabilize the entire group, while the death of a battle commander could turn the tide toward collapse.
Against greenskins, the best tactic was to identify the largest, greenest, and strongest one on the battlefield and kill it.
And who better for this job than the Star Warriors?
In past wars, the Phoenix Battalion routinely executed similar missions five, six, seven, or even eight times per battle whenever greenskins were involved.
Now, they were just returning to old routines.
The Star Warriors even found it nostalgic.
But upon sneaking into position and observing the gathered greenskins, they quickly abandoned the idea of an ambush.
The number of greenskins far exceeded their expectations.
There were over a thousand ork boyz assembled there.
And they weren’t only light infantry—battle trucks, kill cans, and numerous heavy weaponry were present, numbering over fifty in total.
More greenskins continued to trickle in from various directions.
The sheer scale of it shocked Martins.
Why were there so many?
After some discussion, they came up with a plausible explanation:
Most likely, the greenskin leader had already been leading his gathered forces toward the greenskin camp.
Halfway there, the orbital bombardment struck.
The main targets were the base and camp, which were subjected to unavoidable devastation.
But these greenskins were on the road, halfway between the two sites, and thus narrowly escaped annihilation.
Many greenskins were still wounded; even Martins could see numerous injured orks.
After all, the orbital strike wasn’t limited to two macro-cannons; there were twenty smaller macro-cannons and hundreds of orbital missiles, bombarding everywhere.
These weapons were brutal against organic life.
Yet, in the end, over a thousand greenskins survived.
Executing a decapitation tactic would be challenging.
Not only were there too many enemies, but the greenskin leader itself was remarkable:
It was big. It was green.