As the whistles sounded in succession, the first to engage the enemy were the artillery positions at the rear.
Unlike the local, small-caliber howitzers used in previous artillery battles, a dozen Earthshaker Cannons, which belonged to the standard arsenal of the Adeptus Astartes, slowly elevated their barrels.
These heavy artillery pieces were so large that a person could easily fit their lower body inside the barrel, and even on the harshest battlefield, they provided a staggering amount of supporting firepower.
After each Earthshaker shell was loaded into the chamber, with the officer's command, the thunderous sound of the cannon roared.
If one did not wear hearing protection, the first sensation felt would be the terrifying sound wave powerful enough to knock a person unconscious, followed soon by a dizzying deafness, and then they would be engulfed in the trendous dust kicked up by the recoil.
Alongside the dull sounds of cannon fire, clearly audible even from thousands of ters away, Zhang Ge watched as fireballs erupted in front of him, with the flas and shockwaves even sending the corpses of Heretics flying into the air.
The positions and fortifications at the landing zones were reduced to debris by the massive caliber shells; even on the ceramite ground, enormous craters were torn into the surface, denting inward.
The explosions caused by those large-caliber shells were enough to shred any unprotected enemy within a radius of hundreds of ters.
Even those hiding behind cover were not safe; the ceramite surface at the tower's peak made many anti-artillery fortifications impossible. If they were not sheltered inside buildings, the shockwaves would send them flying to the sa fate as their shredded comrades.
Compared to the Earthshaker shells that created a circular shockwave spreading outward, the subsequent artillery fire seed sowhat dim by comparison, but the bulk of the firepower still ca from these dium and small-caliber cannons.
In just a few minutes, hundreds of cannons rapidly fired thousands of shells, tal projectiles howling through the sky like a rain of iron. From standard explosions to the devastating Vortex Grenades, from ground-piercing rounds designed for complex terrain to white phosphorus shells covering vast areas.
Literally, the positions of Chaos ignited, with flas and crimson clouds erupting and consuming everything in sight. The flesh beca exceptionally fragile in this chaotic tide, as if an invisible hand wielding a sledgehamr struck the enemy lines ti and again.
Finally, as the bombardnt neared its conclusion, the firing began to llow, but this did not an an end; rather, it was rely the beginning of the entire offensive.
They now unleashed a barrage of smoke grenades, with airburst munitions raining down, enveloping a large area in white mist. This quickly condensed the surroundings' visibility, obstructing not only direct sight but also most thermal detection thods.
Light, heat, and sound—the most common detection thods humans possess—were blocked by the smoke, while the last thod had already suffered in the artillery preparation.
With visibility less than twenty centiters, everyone understood what would happen next.
A chorus of fervent battle cries and prayers approached from the distance, but the first to reach the forefront were the sounds of weeping.
The Heretics, who had just drawn their blades and intended to unleash their prowess in close combat, discovered that what erged from the smoke was not another warrior of flesh, but the roaring black Repentia Engines, wildly wielding chainsaws and flas.
Those bodies, blessed not just with simple prayers, stood no chance against the monstrous strength of the engines; hardened shells or clawed arms offered no protection against the colossal chainsaw as it cleaved through them, reducing them to pulpy remains.
However, this did not an that Chaos had no ans to fight back.
Amidst the thunderous noise, the roars of Daemons mixed with the shrieks of Daemon Engines. One Repentia Engine, swinging its arm to smash a shadow ahead, found its once-smooth strikes halted by a formidable opponent.
It was a crab-like Daemon Engine, its purple-pink shell segnted into almost empty layers that occasionally flared open, spewing forth strange, burning powder.
The very limb of the Repentia Engine was trapped by a large claw with sharp angles gleaming in tallic light.
Gears clicked, pistons rolled, and torques locked. In this brief standoff, the Repentia Engine slamd its shoulder against the trapped claw, pushing the Daemon Engine upwards, directing its "face" with fleshy cannon barrels towards the sky. The shells launched amidst the explosions fell harmlessly into the void.
Though this maneuver cost it the loss of its cut-off arm, which pulled away trailing sparking wires, the engine thrashed and roared in defiance, leveraging the mont of the Daemon Engine's imbalance to thrust its remaining arm through the crevice, channeling holy fire into the body of that profane machine.
This was just one in many skirmishes, but overall, with this type of enemy entering the battlefield, the advance of the Repentia Engines was hindered.
Yet this did not signify a halt in the overall offensive.
When another Daemon Engine had already torn apart the blessed follower in front of the Repentia Engine, aiming to deliver the final blow, an infantryman appeared.
This fanatical believer raised his laser gun, driving the monomolecular knife into the armor of the Daemon Engine.
The result was inevitably a brutal dismissal.
However, imdiately after, a second and third infantryman surged forward.
Despite lacking weapons like ltaguns that could cause significant damage, these infantryn did not pose a tangible threat. The remaining combat awareness of the Daemon Engine detected that as the number of nearby bodies it crushed increased, its strength diminished.
This slowing down beca the opportunity for the Repentia Engines to turn the tide.
After the Repentia Engines had ripped through the surviving front line of infantry that endured the bombardnt, their own infantry kicked at the gaping holes they created and rged into the chaos with other enemies.
Whether within buildings or in so urban greenery, these frenzied light infantryn led by a priest beca the next spearhead of the breakthrough.
Even if an entire squad was obliterated, the surviving mbers would scavenge signal pistols from their comrades' corpses, struggling to fire their red flares into the sky.
Their arms fell powerless amidst the encroaching enemy.
Yet it wasn't only the arms of the survivors that fell; so, too, did the explosive shells.
Obstruction ant that the defense here remained robust, and strong defenses invariably invoked the arrival of hamrs specifically designed to break apart such fortifications.
This was a different kind of advancing barrage—the kind laid upon flesh and blood, grinding its way inch by inch through countless sacrifices, like a mill stained with blood, grinding down everything caught within.
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