21: Chapter 21 The Gene Thief: We'll Make It Never Return

"If you aren't full of vigor, can you even be called a young person?!"

Cheng Yu did not take the Necron King's words to heart.

For this battle to retake Liyu Star, Cheng Yu made the following deployments:

General Drake would lead two thousand battle groups to intercept the minions of the Tyranids / Tyranid Great Devourer.

Upon his triumphant return, his achievements would be assessed and rewarded, though it was likely he would be appointed as a minister; the Empire was indeed currently lacking in command talent.

As for His Majesty the Emperor, he would lead the expedition personally, commanding one thousand battle groups and the vast majority of heavy weaponry to conduct a saturation bombardment of Liyu Star.

The operational objective was to annihilate all entrenched enemies and establish orbital defenses—attack first, then defend; focus on defense, then resume the offensive.

All outsiders, whether they had already submitted to the Empire or were still imprisoned, could voluntarily sign up for the battle.

As for Countess Dukaria on Liu Fei Planet, Cheng Yu did not order her to participate, but simply instructed her to maintain local defenses and guard the surrounding star sector to prevent the Tyranids / Tyranids from flanking them from another direction.

Although it was unlikely for the Tyranids / Tyranids to attack a frozen wasteland, it was not impossible for them to attack an ice world.

"Woo... woo-woo woo-woo..."

The horn blasts from tens of thousands of clones shook the heavens and the earth.

The Emperor's Honor Guard raised sixteen dragon banners and thirty-two colorful lanterns.

Cheng Yu walked up the high platform step by step, where loudspeakers had been prepared for him, and on one side of the platform was a giant screen for the convenience of outsiders to observe the Emperor's heroic bearing.

"Gentlemen, according to the intelligence provided by Priest Cassius, thirty-four governors of the Corpse Emperor Empire have visited Liyu Star."

"They are all scoundrels, bastards, animals, and parasites."

"A perfectly good habitable planet, rotted into this state!"

The giant screen switched images at the right moment, beginning to display the tragic state of Liyu Star, featuring both footage filmed recently and historical photos provided by Priest Cassius.

Whether before or after the Genestealers usurped power, the planet was littered with corpses and filled with toxic gas.

Before the fall, in the upper levels of the towering Hive City, the wealthy and powerful squandered money like dirt, living in extreme extravagance; the men all sported large potbellies, while the women were adorned with jewels, looking more like ghouls than humans in their garishness.

And in the lower levels of the Hive City, the state of the laborers... even the Necrons looked more like living creatures than they did.

After the fall, both the upper and lower levels were the same.

Massive numbers of Genestealers of various forms had built shrines to the Four-Armed Corpse Emperor throughout the Hive City, worshipping day and night without ceasing.

"My soldiers, liberate Liyu Star from the hands of the bugs!"

"Victory! Victory! Victory!"

The waves of cheering grew louder and louder.

Billions of clones and some outsider combatants began boarding the strange warships.

Cheng Yu also boarded the deck of the "dont eat cilantro"; this was the first time since Cheng Yu had transmigrated that he had truly left Cheng Yu Planet and entered outer space.

Just as Cheng Yu sat down in the command chair, a clone reminded him that there was movement on Aria's side; she had sent out a small ship to a designated coordinate and brought back a dozen people.

Those people were Aeldari, both male and female, but they did not appear very close to Aria, and looking at them, they did not seem like her relatives.

Up until now, Aria did not know that the Cheng Yus were a collective consciousness.

Therefore, after the matter was concluded, she even attempted to bribe the clones helping her with empty promises, asking them not to spread the word about this.

She said she could introduce them to beautiful Aeldari girls.

"Continue to observe Aria and her companions, and report to me immediately if there are any new developments."

"Understood."

Main Body closed his eyes to doze; for the next few days, he would focus his energy on military matters.

He hoped that the humans in the Hive City had not all died out yet; he really wanted to salvage some talent.

Liyu Star was not too far from Cheng Yu Planet, so the expeditionary fleet did not need to travel deep into Warp; they only needed to "glide" between realspace and Warp twice to arrive.

The former Ecclesiarchy priest Cassius had been cruising near Liyu Star, and according to the clones' observations of him, he had been trying to find a way to break the deadlock during this time, but had not come up with any solutions.

His attitude was very correct, and as for his ability... it could be cultivated.

Now that Cheng Yu had arrived, there was a solution.

"Orbital macro-cannons, activate!"

"Target all three Hive Cities on Liyu Star, as well as the dozen or so anti-aircraft bases."

"I have thousands of battle groups and hundreds of starships; do I still need to decide which direction to launch the main attack from?"

"Blow them all away! Explosion is art!"

The power of the orbital macro-cannons was immense; if there were no anti-aircraft shields, the macro-cannons would strike the open ground directly, with an effective kill radius reaching from several kilometers to tens of kilometers.

Moreover, after the bombing, the vast white land was truly clean, with no residual radiation, much better than atomic bombs.

The Genestealers on Liyu Star were no pushovers either, and almost simultaneously activated their anti-aircraft shields and anti-air weaponry.

In an instant, the sky and the ground were plunged into patches of explosive fire.

"Hahaha, these Hive Cities are useless to me now; burn them all to ashes."

Cheng Yu ordered all starships to fire at will and expend all macro-cannon ammunition.

"Ammunition is plentiful, use it all you want!"

"Go to hell, all of you!"

Influenced by the madness of the main body, all the clones fell into a state of uncontrollable, morbid excitement.

On some starships where ammunition had run out, the clones even used the still-high-speed engines as bombs and threw them down.

They didn't consider at all that without engines, the ships themselves would soon be sucked in by the planet's gravity.

About half a standard hour passed, and the anti-aircraft fire on Liyu Star had fallen silent.

The entire planet was either a sea of flames or billowing with thick smoke, making it impossible to see what the situation was below.

"Landing operation!"

At Cheng Yu's command, landing pods rained down toward the ground like a downpour.

"Governor, this might be a ruse by the Genestealers to feign weakness; should we observe a little longer..."

After all, Cassius had seen warfare and was relatively experienced, but he had never seen such a reckless way of attacking.

The fires below hadn't even been extinguished yet; wouldn't jumping in now just turn them into barbecue?!

"Hmph, a mere few million Genestealers; watch as my heavenly soldiers shatter them in one strike!"

...

The main body transferred its consciousness into a clone that had already landed; Main Body also wanted to fight, as sitting in the command chair, while comfortable, was not satisfying enough.

Thick smoke billowed all around, and visibility was very low; just as Main Body put on his gas mask, he was tackled by something.

It was a Genestealer; this thing was truly tenacious, and its strength was also great.

After the Genestealer tackled Cheng Yu, it went straight for his neck with a bite, which Cheng Yu blocked with his rifle.

Only when it was close did Cheng Yu realize that this thing looked truly disgusting, like Pyramid Head from Silent Hill, but without the helmet.