After Gavins arrived at the bridge, he immediately formed a new temporary command team with Captain Tabers and Mechanic Bishop Klein.
After communicating with the theater commander, Grand Master Aidan, they received permission to return to Titan.
Also returning together were two other strike cruisers that had just completed their missions from the neighboring Efflan system.
It is planned that when the three battleships pass through the Hesus Festival area when they arrive, the battleship Supreme Decree, which is a follow-up preparatory force, will also join them in returning to Titan...
Within two Terran Standard Days, the other two Gray Knight strike cruisers had already separated from their respective battlefields and arrived at the scheduled rendezvous point.
But before that, a supply barge from other strike cruisers in the theater quietly came to the loading and unloading deck of the Revenant Redeemer, and after staying for 6 standard time units, it quietly and mysteriously sailed away from the Revenant Redeemer.
As the "temporary" commander, Gavins knew nothing about this. He just stayed in the command seat in the center of the bridge and quietly performed his basic functions as a commander.
After a brief communication between the three ships and confirmation of the command sequence, with the Revenant Redeemer as the central flagship, the remaining two strike cruisers will be deployed in an escort posture at a later position on the left and right.
The small fleet of three strike cruisers began preparing to leave the current battle zone and return to Titan.
The engine of the Revenant Redeemer has started first and started outputting power.
It will lead the other two strike cruisers to the Manzeville Point located in the interior of the Efflan system for a subspace jump, and then sail through the subspace to reach the Hesus Festival area as soon as possible to rendezvous with the battleship Supreme Decree waiting there.
As the fleet sailed towards the jump point, Gavins sat on the command seat in the center of the command platform on the bridge, looking at the scenery out the porthole directly ahead.
He was confused by the information contained in the traffic order he had received previously.
"Did the reserve team evacuate first? Or is the Supreme Edict coming for us? I think if it is just for escort, this is not necessary." He asked Tabers on his left.
Tabos had no intention of hiding it. He looked at the battle deployment situation in the galaxy in the holographic projection in front of him, and explained to Gavins:
"That's not the case. In fact, the battles in these two galaxies are now at an end. In view of your command sequence problem, the information you received has a certain lag. In fact, the frontline troops have begun to evacuate."
As soon as he finished speaking, the navigator in front of the command podium had already sent out a signal that he had arrived at Manzeville Point and was about to enter subspace navigation.
"The end? I only see the dynamics of our four troops now."
Gavins also turned his attention to the holographic projection in front of him. He pointed at the symbols of the three strike cruisers on the projector that were still suspended above the planet where the battle area was located. He looked back at Tabos and asked:
"So what happened to these three ships?"
"Them? They have some individual tasks that need to be completed, and they are probably still waiting for the final instructions." After hesitating, Tabos decided to tell the truth what he knew to the "temporary commander" who had never assumed the responsibility of a leader. official".
"What mission? May I know?"
As a new officer, Gavins was very curious about the new information authority he was in.
But he still knew that his name as "commander" was prefixed with the word "temporary", so the limited high-level information was destined to be impossible to completely open to him.
When he asks about some topics that he feels are sensitive, he will still carefully confirm whether his authority is sufficient in advance to avoid embarrassing situations.
And Tabers' answer caught him off guard. The other party's answer did not dwell on his authority. Instead, the specific information made him feel extra heavy as a front-line combatant who had never assumed command authority.
Tabers put it this way:
"Of course you can know. In fact, it can't be hidden from you. If you want, just go and look out the window. Before we leave here, take one last look here. Some scenery, if you don't look at it, you won't look at it again. It’s not here…”
Just like this, at the last moment before the Revenant Redeemer entered the subspace, Gavins followed the guidance of Tabos and saw the three real planets in his sight, and all he saw was that the entire planet was melted. scene.
On the corresponding planets below the three strike cruisers, the same scene is happening at this time:
A huge ring of fire that can be seen with the naked eye in space is rapidly spreading from scratch on the planet, from small to large.
At the center of the ring of fire, there is even more intense prominence-like lava that is violently spewing upward from the earth's crust.
The shock wave generated by the violent plate movement brewed and exploded, and then spread to the entire planet following the previous ring of fire...
Gavins stood up suddenly from the command seat. The servo inside his Terminator power armor hummed in protest at the violent movement, but he could no longer care about it.
He looked at the destructive scenes taking place on the three distant planets in front of him, and a dry voice came out from his mouth like a moan: "Double...polar cyclone torpedo...extinction order?"
At the same time, the communication signals of the entire fleet also captured the encrypted announcement that resounded throughout the galaxy and even the sector:
"In the name of the Lord of Mankind! In the name of the Council of High Lords of the Human Empire! In the name of the Tribunal of the Human Empire! I, the High Judge of the Demonic Tribunal, Telinka Lyudmila, under the gaze of the God-Emperor, It is solemnly announced that the following three worlds will be punished with the most extreme punishment! The execution list is: Alfaran No. 1 Hive World! Alfaran No. 5 Agricultural World! Alfaran No. 15 Hive World! Every inch of the empire’s territory Blood, all hard-won! All the people of the empire are the treasure of the God-Emperor! We are incompetent and cannot defend ourselves from the enemy; we are ignorant, so we can only take this strategy to save the rest. After this battle, all the blame will be on me. .I, the High Judge of the Demonic Tribunal Terinka Lyudmila. I am willing to accept the "hundred-year investigation" initiated by any colleagues on my decision-making in this battle. If there is any oversight, I am willing to take responsibility for it. Accept the trial of the Empire and the excommunication of the High Court! This judgment takes effect immediately! Time..."
The high-pitched and sad voice of Judge Lyudmila from the Demonic Tribunal still resounds on the encrypted channel of the SATA Sector, and this declaration is also spread through this channel to all planets, starports, and hives in the SATA Sector. , battleships, and everything else where the imperial forces are still fighting.
After hearing this declaration, both the Astartes warriors fighting on the front line and the manufacturing directors in the forging world behind the scenes silently stopped their work.
They silently looked towards the invisible place in the distance, where there were three worlds that originally belonged to the empire, and countless people of the empire were abandoned like this.
But it is necessary.
The issuance of an extermination order is never a child's play.
Being able to make such a choice already shows that the war situation here has deteriorated to the point where the highest commanders in the theater are helpless. Or maybe the cost of saving the planet proves to be far greater than the planet itself.
The end of the extermination order is no joke. Any judge who issues an extermination order will be responsible for his decision to the end.
If anyone in the next hundred years can prove that her order is unnecessary, then what awaits her is the most severe punishment from the Empire-the order of excommunication.
Therefore, every judge who is forced by the situation to formally list the options for the extermination order needs to have great will and awareness. Every decision he makes affects the life and death of one or even several planets.
Here I borrow a sentence from the original work:
"There is no place here for weak-willed and hesitant people. Only through firm actions and beliefs can humans survive. There is no sacrifice too big to bear, and no betrayal too small to tolerate." ------ Inquisition Tingzhitan Teachings, Chapter 28 "Extermination Order"
