Chapter 499: Judgment Hegemon Expedition

May the Lord of Humanity bless…

Thank you for your arrival… truly thank you…

Inside the underground parking lot of the mega‑structure building, all civilians gathered in front of the supply room expressed gratitude and thanks to the more than thirty assaulters who came to rescue.

I thought death was certain, that I would be torn apart and eaten by the soldier bugs, but who would have thought that the only Astartes I had ever seen in textbooks, the internet, and urban legends—and moreover, a formal member of a legion—would actually appear before my eyes?!

These thirty‑plus civilians were natives of Tai Luo Ke Er; in their past lives, they only knew that Tai Luo Ke Er had a reserve combat squad stationed there, but no one had ever personally seen any Astartes, not even a reserve member's true appearance.

And just now, it was precisely these silent giants, crushing all the soldier bugs with thunderous force, that allowed them to continue breathing and living.

Thud, thud…

At this moment, the red‑helmet sergeant pinched and held a 'human‑shaped toy' with his left thumb and index finger, also arriving at the door of the supply room.

Seeing the shirted man's face flushed and swollen, as if he could barely breathe, and having used them as bait, nearly losing their lives to the bug's maw, the crowd, who had initially felt relief and joy after surviving, instantly turned to anger.

It's this guy! It's this guy!!

Can't we execute this bastard!!

Two girls dragged out of the supply room by the shirted man cursed loudly, wishing the assaulters would blast this selfish bastard away with a single shot.

But the assaulters' response to the girls remained silent, for as Astartes, it is absolutely impossible for them to inflict private punishment on innocent civilians.

Of course, this premise is 'innocence'.

Only see the sergeant walk before the civilians, raise his left arm, completely lifting the shirted man's feet off the ground, making his breathing even more difficult.

Then, the sergeant looked down on all the civilians, his voice metallic, and said in a low tone: 'I act on behalf of the Lord of Humanity, conducting an on‑site judgment.'

While speaking, the sergeant looked at the shirted man whose neck he gripped, 'When human life is threatened, any means may be used to protect oneself from harm, but using other human lives as bait or shields is prohibited and illegal.'

Furthermore, according to Chapter 16, Section 11 of the *Human Truth*, it is stated that self‑interest is inherently not a sin, being one of human nature; but if self‑interest causes others to suffer, endure punishment, or even physical death, then it is a sin of the utmost gravity!

Therefore, I judge this person guilty; does anyone present have any objections?

Having said that, the sergeant continued to look down on all the civilians.

As for those who had been cursing and resentful, upon hearing the sergeant's 'judgment declaration,' they fell silent, and after understanding its meaning, they all nodded in agreement, with no objections.

'Very well.' Seeing this, the sergeant again looked at the shirted man whose neck he held, and made the final proclamation: 'Your final judgment is death.'

Crack!

As the sergeant's words fell, the crowd could clearly hear a faint sound that made their teeth ache, representing the subtle noise of bones twisting and breaking.

Furthermore, the shirted man, at the instant the sergeant exerted slight force with his left hand, had his eyes roll back and his breath ceased.

After confirming the shirted man's death, the sergeant casually flung his corpse to one side.

After all, for any legion's Astartes, the thing they most despise and hate is 'betrayal'.

And the shirted man's selfish, self‑serving act of betraying others is precisely betrayal, which caused the sergeant to add, 'Scum.'

Next.

With more than thirty assaulters escorting them, all civilians left the underground parking lot unharmed, moving smoothly through the chaotic streets.

Whether soldier bugs, serpent bugs, or warrior bugs, if any of these creatures dared to show themselves, they would be shot down or hacked apart by the assaulters, who seemed to have auto‑aim.

This let the civilians first experience what true 'sense of security' means.

Finally, when the assaulters delivered them to a mall garrisoned by auxiliary forces, UNSC, and police officers, serving as a temporary base, these giants turned and left again to search for more besieged civilians.

———————

…

Looking toward Tai Luo Ke Er from tens of thousands of kilometers in space, one can see that near its orbit, frozen, congealed blood reflecting starlight, combined with the wreckage of million‑ton living warships, forms a unique 'star ring'.

But this 'star ring' will not last, because at every moment, wreckage affected by gravity turns into meteors that pierce the atmosphere, and it will surely dissipate before long.

However, Tai Luo Ke Er's surface environment seems unable to endure until the day the 'star ring' disappears.

Once‑verdant forests and blue oceans have been nearly drained by the Tai Luo Insect Race; even where patches of 'green' remain, they are biological swamps left by the Tyranid‑like Insect Race.

Had the Assaulters Legion not arrived, Tai Luo Ke Er would have become a completely barren, lifeless planet.

From the outbreak of the Tai Luo Insect Race's reconnaissance units to the present, when over four thousand warships have gathered in near‑Earth orbit, three Earth days have passed.

During this period, the fleets of Glory Iron Fist and Holy Blood Angels arrived in succession, and by emitting matrix beams to burn the biological swamps, they caused most of Tai Luo Ke Er to crystallize.

If the Holy Covenant Empire still existed, it would surely endorse the fleets' 'glass‑burning' activity.

Furthermore, not only did the legion fleets arrive, but the primarchs of three legions also descended upon the Tai Luo Ke Er metropolitan area, while the Grand Apparatus 012, 013, 014, and Ark 002 were stationed in the outskirts of the Tai Luo Ke Er star system, awaiting orders.

———————

…

2210/01/05.

Now the metropolitan area lies in ruins, over 50% of its buildings destroyed; the authorities have requisitioned and commandeered large numbers of malls, stadiums, and other public facilities to house the homeless civilians.

The metropolitan area's stored medical, food, and living supplies, plus the aid provided by the assaulters, Glory Iron Fist, and Holy Blood Angels fleets, have kept the death toll fixed at '30,379,722 people'.

Tabulating this number, all humans across the universe feel deep sorrow and anger, for this is the most devastating loss of life in war since the interdimensional storm a hundred years ago ravaged the cosmos.

Since a hundred years ago, humanity has gradually established its galactic hegemony; even when venturing into the multiverse, humanity remains in a state of absolute dominance.

Who would have thought that a universe where humanity has already conquered the galaxy—Universe 003—would host an opponent like the Tai Luo Insect Race?

Amid grief and anger, colonies and other universes, without needing official summons, spontaneously reached out to aid Tai Luo Ke Er, offering whatever help they could.

If it were not for the Tai Luo Ke Er star system still being classified as a danger zone by the authorities, forbidding civilian organizations from entering, the near‑orbit of Tai Luo Ke Er would by now have gathered tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of transport ships.

Moreover, those who wish to go directly to Tai Luo Ke Er are overwhelmingly civilians of the main universe.

Know that in the main universe's galaxy, aside from routinely exterminating alien remnants and seeking shield worlds immune to spiritual‑energy detection and probing, it is basically impossible to encounter any warfare.

Thus, when many retired veterans learned of the Tai Luo Insect Race, they at once wanted to launch a 'bug‑cleanup' and an 'extermination operation'.

But for safety considerations, the authorities still could not allow civilian organizations to rush to Tai Luo Ke Er.

Furthermore, humans who have inherited the Administrators' mantle have long since applied Administrator technology everywhere; if the fallen brigadier generals possessed a hundred Yan-du-class escort ships, they could easily contend with a swarm fleet numbering in the millions and would not readily lose the most vital orbital control.

Therefore, a joint expeditionary force led by three Original Beings has arrived, together with an Ark capable of opening false wormholes and a grand device capable of instantly reshaping an entire star system; confronting and ferreting out the Tai Luo Insect Race's root should be a foregone conclusion.

Soon after.

Local time in the Tai Luo Ke Er metropolitan area: 11:33.

Inside the large conference hall of the Umbrella branch building in Metropolitan District 01, situated on the middle floor, specially designed according to Astartes height and physique, the hall overall adopts a semi-circular layout and features oversized stepped seating.

Here, gathered are approximately a hundred battalion commanders who have shed their powered armor and wear the uniforms of their respective legions.

Among them, more than half…

It should be said that about ninety percent of the battalion commanders' uniforms are black-themed, with yellow and vivid red as accents; moreover, the faces of these ninety percent are quite mature, and some have even shaved their heads or grown full beards.

The remaining ten or so battalion commanders, despite their steadfast gaze and resolute demeanor, still cannot hide their youthfulness and inexperience, appearing as if they have just come of age.

There's no helping it; those ninety percent come from the Glory Iron Fist and the Holy Blood Angels, with an average age exceeding one hundred ninety years.

Meanwhile, the ten or so battalion commanders from the Assault Breakers are around thirty years old, which, compared to the veteran legion commanders, truly makes them the 'youngsters'.

As for the round table at the front of the conference room, it is occupied by three similarly uniformed Original Beings.

Judging by appearance alone, one would see Rog, with a full beard and naturally silver-white hair, as belonging to the 'uncle generation', while the clean-shaven, handsome Shengjilesi and Sui Meng appear as the 'junior generation'.

The three brothers gathered, exchanged no excessive pleasantries or reminiscences, took their seats in the conference room, opened the holographic star map, and began to devise an expedition plan to eradicate the Tai Luo Insect Race.

Looking closely, the content displayed on the holographic star map is an extragalactic star system outside the domain where Tai Luo Ke Er resides.

Rog raised his head to look at the star map and said, 'When I was rushing over, I had the bookworm… cough, cough, I had Magnus sit on the Terra Shield's spiritual-energy amplification device to help with scanning and detection.'

Speaking, Rog turned his gaze to the many 'red circles' and continued, 'These marked areas, Magnus said, were not under surveillance and were quite "noisy" and "annoying"; therefore we can infer that these regions harbor large-scale Tai Luo Insect Race.'

The areas Rog said cannot be surveyed are each on the scale of a star system; the smaller ones are comparable to the Milky Way, while the larger ones are four to five times the size of the Milky Way.

From this it can be seen that, prior to invading Tai Luo Ke Er, the Tai Luo Insect Race had already devoured numerous star systems, countless lives and intelligent species, all of which have become history because of them.

'What caused and attracted them to visit the galaxy?' Shengjilesi frowned tightly.

'Regardless of the reason, just wipe them all out and the problem is solved,' Rog said indifferently.

Sui Meng nodded, apparently appreciating his older brother Rog's remark of '.'.

'Fine, what you say isn't without reason,' Shengjilesi shrugged, then solemnly told Rog, 'So, War Marshal, what should we do next?'

War Marshal…

It seems he is not yet accustomed to such an address; the normally steady Rog could not help but let the corners of his mouth turn up upon hearing Shengjilesi call him 'War Marshal'.

Fortunately, Rog quickly suppressed his somewhat self-satisfied expression, pondered for a moment, this Original Being who no longer rambled raised his left hand, swiftly marked the corresponding area on the star map, and said:

'According to my personal speculation, the Tai Luo Insect Race is extremely likely to have been attracted, thirty years ago, when my father used Grand Device 001 to erase the sincerely devoted star sector polluted by Chaos, by a physically violating, faster-than-light cross-phase pulse wave.'

Therefore, we can have the biological information on the Tai Luo Insect Race gathered by the Tai Luo Ke Er Intelligence Department uploaded to the three Grand Devices with the help of the Red Queen.

Then, using the Ark's false wormhole, we can instantaneously transfer the three Grand Devices to one of those star systems, continuously performing a 'flush' and reshaping while also attracting more Tai Luo Insect Race.

Meanwhile, our expeditionary force will be divided into ten teams, simultaneously advancing into the unsurveyable zones to engage and make contact with the Tai Luo Insect Race there.

But remember, the purpose of our expeditionary force engaging and contacting the enemy is not to annihilate them through conventional means, since the task of annihilation falls to the Grand Devices and the Ark; our true objective is to find their root, cooperating with the Intelligence and Oversight Departments to analyze what kind of existence the hive will truly be.

Do you all understand?

Having said that, Rog glanced over all the battalion commanders present.

'Understood, sir,' the battalion commanders all replied in unison.

'Very good.' Rog nodded satisfiedly, turned his gaze back to his two younger brothers, and said, 'Do you have any additions?'

'None.' Shengjilesi expressed strong agreement with Rog's expedition plan.

'Elder brother…' Sui Meng, who had remained silent before his two elder brothers while showing due respect, nevertheless spoke up to propose: 'I believe there is no need to upload the Tai Luo Insect Race's biological information; instead, let the three Grand Devices directly activate reshaping mode to eradicate all life within the target star system.'

'Whoa, little brother, that idea is quite radical,' Rog couldn't help but exclaim.

'Just a precaution, moreover…' Sui Meng did not deny it, and related what he had seen and heard on the Nautilus, then said: 'Therefore, I believe the Tai Luo Insect Race is constantly evolving; locking onto a single item's cross-phase pulse wave may prove ineffective.'

'That makes sense.' Shengjilesi immediately concurred.

'Hmm, that is indeed safer; let's do as you say.' Rog also expressed agreement.

After finalizing the plan, Rog rose from his dedicated seat, raised his voice, and declared: 'It's time to give those bugs a proper lesson! Expedition!!'

'Expedition!!'

(End of chapter)