After receiving Noah's permission, Dos Santos boldly began to issue his own orders. This was the first time he had issued orders personally without Noah's prior instruction.
"Order the fleet to advance at full speed towards the direction where the World Eaters appeared. Maintain a distance of 400 light-years. The fleet will activate its stealth field to prevent detection by the World Eaters.
Let us observe what they intend to do and track their movements to locate the Black Legion."
The reason for tracking the World Eaters was not merely to eliminate this small Black Legion force.
Noah's objective on this outing was to completely resolve Abaddon, so directly attacking the World Eaters would be meaningless.
It was more important to first observe what the enemy intended to do, and then analyze where they emerged from through their Warp travel.
Under his command, the fleet slowly began to advance in the direction of the World Eaters, with the stealth field already activated.
Noah's Patrol Fleet was redeploying due to the appearance of the World Eaters, but the World Eaters at this time were likely completely unaware of this.
They had no idea what was happening; they were focused on offering slaughter and battle to their blood god.
The blood god did not care whose heads were offered; the blood god only cared if they were heads taken after a valiant battle.
In the Segmentum Tempestus, on this side of the Great Rift, no planet was more glorious than Noah's World 108.
Even the least populated World 108 had a staggering 160 billion people.
The surrounding Imperial Worlds were well aware of this.
Therefore, Khorne's World Eaters Warband naturally knew this as well. If they were to offer a blood sacrifice to the blood god, they would naturally seek to attack a place with a large population.
When Abaddon's World Eaters departed, they had gathered an estimated force of over 10 Warbands.
Each Warband's strength ranged from 500 to 3,000 Space Marines.
The combined Space Marine strength of these ten Warbands exceeded a total of 15,000 men!
Additionally, they possessed some war machines.
Some Warbands might possess Daemon Engines and Chaos titans, but in small numbers.
Each Warband would enslave a large number of human slaves, mutants, and Chaos cultists as cannon fodder, possibly 5-10 times the number of Space Marines.
The cannon fodder units, such as cultists and mutant slaves, in this World Eaters force numbered a staggering 350,000, and this number would continue to increase as the war erupted.
During battle, these World Eaters could also summon their daemon allies to assist in combat, which further augmented the World Eaters' forces.
In the initial stages of a war alone, the World Eaters could summon daemons from Khorne in numbers reaching hundreds of thousands, or even millions.
Each Warband might possess 1-2 capital ships, and the 10 World Eaters Warbands combined possessed a total of 16 capital ships, with the number of battleships alone reaching 10.
Each Warband might have 5-10 smaller warships, totaling 87 ships.
In addition to these naval warships, the World Eaters relied on boarding actions.
Therefore, they would have a large number of assault boats, landing pods, and raiders, possibly reaching six hundred ships, but with lower combat power.
If it weren't for Noah's sudden emergence, this fleet would absolutely be considered a formidable force.
They could easily launch attacks on any Imperial World, and apart from core planets like Terra, most planets would not be able to withstand their offensive.
Over 10,000 Space Marines, coupled with a large number of auxiliary troops and war machines, gave this World Eaters force enough audacity to target Noah's World 108.
With hundreds of billions of Imperial citizens, if all these people were sacrificed to Khorne, they truly dared not imagine what blessings they would receive.
Thus, the World Eaters' fleet had a very clear objective; their fleet almost immediately headed towards one of Noah's Worlds.
The Misty Star Domain 108 Worlds' industrial world, Nairus.
This was an industrial world among the World 108.
It had over 180 billion Imperial citizens, and its industry was extremely powerful.
With Noah's support, this world could already produce all heavy tanks, including the venomcrawler, and they also had their own starport capable of producing warships.
Due to the Imperium of Man's warships being overly subpar, Noah designed a new frigate for them: the Sentinel-class frigate.
This frigate was designed by combining the technology of the Imperium of Man and stellaris, with a length of 896 meters.
Its bow main gun was a railgun, its broadside weapons included 2 pulse laser cannons and 4 autocannons, and its point defense system was a "Firefly" point defense matrix.
This frigate was a multi-role frigate, and it was the first general-purpose frigate Noah designed for the Imperium of Man.
It would greatly satisfy planetary surface defense needs, and this industrial world was responsible for producing this frigate.
This frigate would not be directly incorporated into the federation Fleet's patrols; it was merely a frigate that local planets could build for use by their local governor.
It would allow local planets to have a certain degree of self-preservation capability when facing space combat, rather than being passively beaten and relying solely on orbital defense facilities.
Industrial World Nairus, with its planetary production capacity, could produce one such frigate in just four months.
Although this manufacturing speed and capacity were far inferior to that of the Heaven-Supporting Fortress under Noah's command, for an Imperial World, it was already quite formidable.
During the time Noah had them under his development, they had already acquired three frigates of this class.
Therefore, when the World Eaters Warband's warships just entered their star system, they discovered this fleet.
Alarms on the planet quickly blared, and governor Ignatius Dorn immediately began preparing for war mobilization.
Ignatius Dorn. As a governor, his name alone indicated that he was a worshipper of Dorn.
Precisely because he was a worshipper of Dorn, he intended to emulate the Imperial Fists and steadfastly defend his planet.
Ignatius Dorn: "Have the general come to see me now, and also notify our local Space Marine troops. I need to discuss the enemy's problem with them."
"Nairus will never fall into the hands of the great enemies of chaos!"
Why did Nairus have the courage to remain here and protect his planet?
On the one hand, he was a governor, a governor cultivated by Noah's Department of the Interior, and he had his own responsibilities to bear.
On the other hand, there were the Space Marine troops on his planet, a full 10,000 Space Marines stationed on his planet.
Protecting his Imperial World, the Imperium's demigods guarded the entire world.
Such a large number of Imperial demigods was a massive military force this ordinary governor had never imagined, and it was precisely because of the existence of this force that he had considerable courage.
10,000 Space Marines! He had never dared to imagine fighting such a rich war.
About ten minutes later, local Space Marine PDF members, Space Marine Chapter Master Deus Krieg, and the local general arrived together at the governor's palace.
At this moment, with the Space Marine's Chapter Master present, the general naturally had no right to speak.
The army was, of course, commanded by the Space Marine's Chapter Master, so the general of the PDF did not possess any named authority.
"Chapter Master Deus Krieg, it is an honor to invite you to my governor's palace. I will not waste your time with pleasantries. I will now report the challenges we face to you."
Ignatius Dorn was indeed an Imperial governor cultivated by Noah; he did not have the messy ideas of other governors who would try to do other things first.
Instead, he immediately got to the point.
"Our Nairus possesses a total of three frigates, which can defend our orbit. This combat power is clearly no match for the enemy."
"The enemy fleet is extremely massive and will arrive at our orbit in just two standard Terra hours."
"The Department of the Interior has already contacted the Patrol Fleet, and the reply from the Patrol Fleet is that we must hold our ground; we will not receive any reinforcements in the short term."
"This fleet belongs to the Black Legion. The Grand Marshal needs to use it to draw out the Main force of the Black Legion and strike at the enemy."
"So our current situation is that our navy is not a match for the enemy, and support from the Grand Marshal will not arrive in the short term. At least, the Grand Marshal will not dispatch troops to support us until the Black Legion's position is discovered by our navy.
Now we need to rely on ourselves."
Ignatius Dorn explained the current situation to the Chapter Master in front of him, then expressed his stance.
"My stance is very clear: your troops are Space Marine troops.
Therefore, all our armies will cooperate with you in battle; all PDFs will be under your command, and all command authority will be transferred to you. I, as governor, will not interfere with your command."
"If there are any logistical needs, as long as I can provide them, please do not hesitate to ask me.
I will do my utmost to ensure that any materials you require arrive at the time you need them."
Ignatius Dorn expressed his attitude.
And such an attitude from him was rare in the Imperium; few governors would make such a declaration.
governors in the conventional sense of the Imperium of Man were often very abstract; such governors who directly stated they would do their utmost to support at all costs were very few.
Deus Krieg's superhuman brain quickly assimilated this information, performed some analysis, and finally summarized:
"In other words, our navy will not be a match for the enemy, and we will not receive support from the navy. We need to defend with all our might to delay them and find a way to draw out the Black Legion."
"Undoubtedly, this problem is extremely severe. I have already seen the data you sent me; the enemy's fleet is incredibly massive. If they enter the orbital bombardment phase, our army will be powerless to resist."
"Therefore, if we want to hold this world and reveal the existence of the Black Legion, then the orbital cannons and planetary shield generators on Nairus will be of paramount importance."
"I will dispatch two companies of troops to protect the locations of the planetary shield generators and orbital cannons. I also ask you to gather at least 10 regiments of PDF troops to be deployed at the aforementioned two locations."
"The remaining troops must await an opportune moment. We need to move our Planetary Defense Fleet from orbit to the planet's surface, trying to avoid engaging the enemy in space."
"As you said, we only have three frigates, while the enemy's main warships far outnumber ours. Therefore, we need to use every bit of our strength carefully."
Deus Krieg, relying on his superhuman brain, first put forward several ideas. After stating all these plans, he raised another question.
"Governor Ignatius Dorn, since you have already stated that the Grand Marshal cannot send troops to support us in the short term, I now need to know the scale of the military forces on the entire planet."
"The enemy's numbers far exceed our imagination, and we need to guard the entire planet, so the number of PDFs must be sufficient."
"Also, I have never fought against the great enemies of chaos before, and I am not clear what methods these great enemies of chaos possess. According to our operational guidelines, I can only tell you that the great enemies of chaos generally corrupt the underhive population when they fight."
"I need you to honestly tell me how many people are still in the underhives on our planet and whether they have been properly settled."
The most troublesome aspect of fighting Chaos Forces, especially Chaos Astartes, has never been their inherent combat power, but rather the endless cultists that emerge after their arrival.
Where do cultists crawl out from?
Naturally, they crawl out from the underhives.
Although the Misty Star Domain 108 Worlds were brought under Noah's rule.
Noah also provided them with a large amount of resources and support from the Department of the Interior.
However, each planet has at least over 100 billion people, and there is a continuous influx of people from other worlds.
These constant changes also furiously impacted the internal affairs system established by Noah.
The massive population meant that Noah's previous attempt to completely abolish the underhives was unsuccessful.
Because many people needed places to live, and the newly built city blocks were completely insufficient.
Basically, none of the 108 Worlds in the Segmentum Tempestus had succeeded in clearing out their underhives.
Only the colonies directly administered by Noah himself had truly managed to eradicate all of this.