In the void, on the intermezzle, Du Shiliang stared at the fireball that was getting farther and farther away in the universe.

His face was expressionless, like a cold general.

But his hands still trembled unconsciously.

At this moment, two days have passed since the Interlude dropped the Sky Burning Torpedo on the surface of Temir 2. The flames that burned all over the world were becoming more and more intense before their eyes.

After completing the launch mission, the combined fleet observed for a day near Temir-2. They only left after seeing that the entire planet of the 'Burning Sky Torpedo' had indeed been ignited and that the extermination order had been effectively enforced.

Burning torpedoes, he dropped them.

In fact, he wasn't even sure if he had the power to issue an extermination order.

At first, he didn't expect to take on this kind of responsibility.

Together with his War Staff, which included part of the Union Army's staff team, he assessed the situation on the Temir 2.

They came to the unanimous conclusion that a ground attack on Temir-2, even with the combined fleet providing orbital support, would be unrealistic.

This is to mention the war objectives of their initiative to attack the Jinguan Star Region this time, namely:

On the premise of ensuring the safety of the fleet, 1. Strike at the living forces of the iron-toothed orcs. 2. Evacuation of the Imperial military and civilians from the occupied areas. 3. Occupy the planet and build forward defensive positions.

These three tasks are prioritized in order.

The most important thing is to fight against the living forces and evacuate the imperial army and civilians, and the specific priority depends on the battlefield situation.

Comparatively speaking, the occupation of the planet is the least important.

Mainly because it is not necessarily possible to hold it if it is occupied.

If you have the opportunity to occupy it, then occupy it, put a small number of troops, and when a nail is pressed there, when the greenskins come back again, it will also become an obstacle to the orc attack. On the human side, it is also a position that can be used, and at the very least, it is also an early warning sentry.

But if you have to invest a lot of power in order to occupy the planet, the gain will outweigh the loss.

This is not the case with the fight against the living forces and the evacuation of the Imperial army and civilians, which is a serious way to weaken the enemy and strengthen one's own side.

In the case of Temir 2, it is clear that the option of occupying the planet is almost negligible.

On top of that, there are almost 500 million orcs, and at the same time no less than 2 billion other greenskins - mainly fart spirits.

So many people, most of them have not grown up on the planet, but have been transported in greenskin ships for some time in the past.

After all, it has only been a few months since the full fall of Temir 2, and it will not grow so much.

And the purpose of transporting so many green skins here may be to sow more spores, hoping to grow a lot of green skins in the future.

At this order of magnitude, the Combined Fleet carries 60 million human troops from three army groups, and even if they are all thrown down, plus orbital support, it will not be easy to clear the enemy army.

If that happens, the war is likely to turn into a protracted tug-of-war. At that time, humans may have to face the orcs that keep growing out of the greenskin biosphere, and they will have to consume them equally.

Also, orbital support cannot be available at all times. The greenskinned fleet is still there, and when the time comes, the two hundred garbage ships that escaped from the steel wing star before will reunite and attack again, even if they can't defeat more combined fleets with capital ships, and involve human ships that can't support the surface unscrupulously, then it's always okay.

In this case, there is even less hope for a quick victory in the ground battle.

Their task is to find an opportunity to destroy the enemy's living force, not to use their own living force to consume the enemy.

As for saving people...... It's the same thing.

Didn't Du Shiliang know that there were still many survivors on the surface?

Of course he does.

Even if 95% of the population were slaughtered, the remaining 5% would represent more than 200 million people.

But the point is, these 200 million people are scattered all over the world of Temir 2!

If they gather in one place, it is easy to say, the orbital fire is strong, the troops are put on the ground, a defensive circle is established, and they will be held for a month, during which they will try to transport the population from the ground and withdraw from the ship, and when it is almost time to withdraw the troops, and then drop the torpedo......

If you can do that, of course everyone will be happy.

But it's a pity that these 200 million people, tens of thousands of people, hundreds of thousands of people who have died together, scattered all over the world, can't be saved.

I don't know how long it will take to gather and evacuate them one by one.

The greenskinned capital ships can arrive at any time, and the greenskins on the ground can entangle the human projection troops at any time.

The value for money is too low.

In contrast, taking advantage of the fact that Temir 2's own orbital defense system is not very popular, and the Greenskins have not had time to establish their own after they occupy it, and at the same time, when the Greenskins' main fleet is not in this galaxy and is fully equipped to drop the Burning Sky Torpedo, it is the best solution to quickly smash this extermination weapon.

Otherwise, wait, things will change, and they may not even have the opportunity to drop the Burning Sky torpedo.

After all, if the Greenskins' main fleet arrived, they wouldn't let the human fleet do it.

The process between the dropping and the explosion of the extermination weapon is very fragile and can be easily intercepted.

However, at this point, dropping the Burning Sky torpedo is still just a 'plan'.

Although it seems that it is the optimal solution, it seems that it is the most rational choice. However, Du Shiliang never thought of doing this.

In other words, he didn't expect that this decision would have to be made by himself.

He never let go of the Burning Sky torpedo, and he never executed an extermination order.

Not even the Pegasus fleet itself has a stockpile of such extermination weapons.

This kind of thing, even the star field government itself does not necessarily have it, at most it is the inquisition court in the star field, and there are one or two rounds.

Now, the two Burning Sky torpedoes on his ship were sent by Governor Gu from the Angry Owl Star.

He was no longer willing to think about why Gu Hang had such a big killing weapon in his hand.

But I shouldn't have the final say on whether to release the Burning Sky Torpedo or not, right?

The Empire lacked particularly clear regulations on the units and individuals who issued extermination orders. Judging from the past records, the Inquisition did the most, followed by the warband leaders of the Star Warband.

The former is easy to understand, and this is their job; The latter is actually easy to understand, Space Marines will always fight on the most critical and harsh battlefields, and the probability of encountering problems that must be solved by an extermination order is much greater than that of ordinary imperial troops, plus they have this kind of power, so they will naturally issue more.

In addition to these two, the number of times other personnel used extermination orders has been reduced by a cliff.

Of course, in 10,000 years, in such a large universe, anything can happen. Marshals of the Astral Army, Marshal of the Navy, Commanders of the Theater of Operations, high-ranking government officials, high-ranking clergy of the State Church and the Mechonism...... Although there are few, there is a record of extermination orders being issued.

But it doesn't matter who it is, it's not me anyway.

I'm just an ordinary rear admiral, but I can't be such a big master. Although he didn't know who could sign it, there was someone anyway. Send back the combat report, and then wait for the order, and I'll just carry it out.

Then, the order he was waiting for was that the person in charge of the advance campaign, that is, Major General Du Shiliang himself, was responsible for making this decision. As the governor of the Alliance, the head of the star sector, and the leader of the Seven Horse Alliance, Gu Hang gave him full authorization, and took all the consequences for his decision, so that he could make a bold decision with confidence.

This is not a dump, after all, Governor Gu said that he is responsible for everything.

It's about delegating authority so that frontline commanders have full autonomy to make decisions that they think are right, and don't cause big problems on the front line because of things like 'I can't make decisions.'"

Then, Du Shiliang became numb.

I?

He was caught off guard.

After another round of discussions, they still decided that this was the best solution.

Then execute.

But when Du Shiliang witnessed the whole world being reduced to a sea of fire because of his decision, and when at least 200 million people died because of his decision, he felt that his whole body was trembling.

It's been two days now.

For the past two days, he couldn't sleep at all.

As soon as he closed his eyes, it was a burning world, and the wails of the Temirs that he had not heard with his own ears, but that haunted his ears all the time.

He always told himself, I can't be blamed for this, it's not my fault, it's the Greenskin's fault, it's the invasion of those aliens that caused all this, I just did my duty, I just wanted to reduce casualties and avoid more deaths......

However, no matter how many correct reasons there are, they can't dispel the heavy pressure on the 200 million souls.

However, reality did not give him a chance to escape and relieve his mood at all.

He immediately followed up to make the next decision.

The battle of Temir 4 and 5.

In these two places, there are no conditions for dropping sky-burning torpedoes.

Sky torpedoes are expensive.

Although, the alliance did not go to the production line of the incendiary torpedo at all. These two Burning Sky torpedoes are in stock, and they are produced in black boxes, which is equivalent to not asking for money. But the black box can only pull out three burning torpedoes in two years, and the coalition does not have much in stock.

What's more, Du Shiliang didn't know this.

He only knew that it was a good deal to take a Burning Sky torpedo in exchange for the life of 2.5 billion green skins.

However, on the 4th and 5th of Temir, there were not so many green skins for him to frie.

Moreover, these two places may add up to more than eight or nine billion people alive.

Whoever bombs is a war criminal.

For these two planets, the plan in the previous military meeting was to make the preservation of the Empire's population the first priority.

The two-planet scenario can be said separately.

There may be about 100 million green skins on Temir 4, half of which are fart spirits, who have already occupied the area, collected raw materials, waste materials, and built green skin factories on the spot, building all kinds of primary processing 'garbage'.

On the one hand, it is directly manufactured into weapons and equipment and supplied to the army.

On the other hand, it's stockpiling. It seems that there are regular green-skinned ships coming over to transport this 'garbage'.

This is also in line with Temir's positioning as a mining and industrial planet.

However, the natural environment of this planet is not very good, and it is almost unsuitable for organisms outside of mining areas and nests.

Greenskins are very adaptable, and their spores can take root and sprout anywhere. However, the quality of the environment will still affect the development rate and 'yield' of spores. They have also built an initial ecosystem, but it is not big and not critical.

In the past, the green skin of Temir No. 4 mainly relied on Temir No. 2, which was more crowded next door.

Now, Temir 2 is burning, and the Greenskins on the 4th will have to see when the Greenskins' main fleet will come and whether they can transport more troops from the hinterland of their own nest when they come.

Moreover, on the Temir 4, there is still a formed defense force on the human side, and the government has not collapsed. Although in the case of a complete loss of orbit, their remaining ground anti-orbital force is relatively weak, and they dare not fight against the green-skinned fleet, but when necessary, they are willing to sacrifice, and they can also be used to cover the attack or retreat of the defenders, which can play some role.

At the moment of the fight, Temir 4 almost maintained a defense force of more than 500 million people, and the green skins were constantly pulling and consuming in one mine after another, one tunnel after another, and one huge industrial area.

They are no match for the greenskins, and they lack supplies, especially food, and often have to pay ten times as many casualties before they can defeat the enemy.

However, they know that this is a battle for survival, a battle for the population with no way out, no surrender, no giving up.

They gritted their teeth and were fighting, and although the number of green skins was not enough, although they were very happy, the progress was actually not fast.

If you want to save Temir 4, it will be quite easy.

They planned to throw in four armies and take up the main force; Liaise with the local defense forces and provide them with a large amount of logistical supplies. Among them, food is the mainstay, supplemented by the production line of weapons and ammunition.

The former can solve urgent needs, and the latter can update local weapons and equipment.

There is no shortage of raw materials for Temir-4, what is lacking is a production line for good weapons. Many of their defenders are still using earthen guns and artillery.

The alliance smashed the production capacity of G9 rifles and ammunition, plastic steel production lines, individual armor, artillery shells, artillery and other series, not seeking to smash it out of a production base, but with a little more production capacity, the combat effectiveness of the 500 million planetary defense force can be increased to a higher level.

With the assistance of the five ships of the Combined Fleet stationed here and the eight million elite troops of the Alliance, it should not be a problem to push back the group of green skins.

At the same time, in large settlements, civilians can be evacuated.

The combined fleet now carries enough capacity for supply fleets and transport ships to transport 300 million to 500 million people in a wave.

First transport them to the Steel Wing Star, which can be considered safe, and then transport them. As for sending it from Steel Wing Star to other places, how to arrange the transportation capacity, and where to really receive such a large number of people, it is not a matter for Du Shiliang, a general who fights on the front line, to consider, and the officials of the alliance will take over.

When a series of plans for Temir 4 were made and really began to be implemented, Du Shiliang's mentality finally improved a little.

It was only then that he was able to tell himself:

"I'm not an executioner, I'm a savior."

(End of chapter)