After clearing the Greenskins from the streets, the Astral Knights swiftly passed through massive tal hoists and entered an enclosed corridor leading to the main energy node.
Everywhere they went, hot Greenskin corpses—both the muscular and the scrawny, as well as so even smaller varieties—were scattered among the rubble and debris piled up all around.
Pale yellow dust perating the area blanketed the still-uncoagulated pools of purple Xenos blood.
The enclosed corridor connected to many control rooms. Soshyan ordered the squad to split up and act independently.
Still busy, the chanics heard noises behind them in bewildernt, followed imdiately by the roar of Bolters firing.
Usually, a single gun would fire first, and the remaining weapons would subsequently join in, jointly pouring a deluge of bullets into a specific target. Behind that low, thunderous roar was also a unique screaming sound resembling grinding tal.
Most of these Greenskin "technicians" died before they could even react, while their short Gretchin followers were either trampled to death or huddled in corners, clutching their heads desperately.
The Space Marines had no intention of wasting even a bit of strength or a single bullet on them.
While moving, Soshyan heard a much heavier, more sonorous sound.
It was the rumbling wail of a city on the verge of collapse and tottering buildings; it was even more like a death knell resounding through the firmant, echoing back and forth across the sky.
"Soshyan."
Sol suddenly walked to his side and whispered:
"Lothar just sent a ssage. The fleet was ambushed by a new Greenskin fleet and lost a few Transport ships. The detachnt fleet can now only divert half its forces to counter them."
At this mont, Soshyan experienced a Sudden Realization. The impact just now was clearly caused by a crashing Transport ship.
"In other words, we don't have much ti."
Having said that, Soshyan involuntarily quickened his pace, ending the lives of any encountered Greenskins with even greater speed.
Star-like sparks danced and fluttered in the foul air. He stepped out from the shadow of a corridor's ceiling and stood in an exceptionally bright factory.
Raging firelight shone upon him, casting a long shadow across the stone-paved floor.
Most of the internal facilities of this building were already fragnted. It was unknown whether this was the effect of the bombardnt or if they had always been this way.
Large patches of the tal surfaces on many walls and ceilings had peeled off. The exposed chanical inner layers looked like tissue under human skin: tal veins knotted together, coiling atop thick tal base plates.
Their structure appeared quite complex, with tal circuits and pistons arranged in an intersecting pattern, while cables and screws were inextricably entangled.
Damaged conduits hanging to the ground flowed with streams of scorching energy, while other cracked pipes dripped unknown liquids.
Soshyan looked up and around. The massive tal nests spiraled straight up around him, as if still delusionally attempting to project their power into the sky.
Higher up in the sky, weapon trajectories wove a bright grid across the atmosphere.
The Navy's Lightning Fighters swooped rapidly overhead. The weapons they were equipped with plowed streaks of devastating scorch marks across the sky. Ork aircraft touched by this violent energy would instantly lt into the blinding walls of light.
In response, swarms of rockets rushed in like teor showers, their blazing trails the only clue pointing to their existence.
To his left, level with the roof's height, Soshyan could spot from afar two Warhound Titans striding across the battlefield, leading large numbers of Imperial Army soldiers in a charge against a fortress.
Ammunition impacts as fine as clouds shrouded their incomparably colossal forms, looking exactly like swarms of fireflies dancing at dusk.
Subsequently, he once again heard the deep rumble emitted by the city on the verge of collapse, sounding as if it were a booming bell ringing from the planet's core.
It was still resisting, fighting desperately, as if it knew new reinforcents had arrived in outer space.
Suddenly, an even more piercing sound rang out.
Then, a shockwave rushed head-on toward them.
A squadron of heavy fighters was attempting to drop bombs here, but one of the aircraft was struck dead center by ground fire, subsequently exploding with a boom into an astonishingly massive ball of flas and wreckage.
Two of the others were forced to deviate from their targets to avoid colliding with each other, their overburdened engines letting out wails of protest.
Yet another one was caught in the tremor of a Void Shield surging with power once again; its engine on one side was severely damaged.
It shuddered as thick black smoke billowed from its port engine. Although trying hard to pull the nose up, it ultimately still crashed headfirst into an energy tower.
The heavily armored fighter was abruptly torn apart by the violent impact in an instant, peeling off as easily as a canned lid.
As the fighter's main body completely disintegrated, its engines also exploded one after another.
But its explosion also destroyed a tall tower.
The Greenskin chanics responsible for maintenance on the tower were violently thrown out, tumbling and falling helplessly toward this courtyard below.
So of them were already dead, while others kept screaming right up until they hit the ground.
They smashed onto roofs, terraces, corridors, and courtyards like raindrops, bouncing off slanted walls and only tumbling to a halt after experiencing several more impacts.
The fiercely burning wreckage followed closely behind.
Soshyan tilted his head up and found one of the corpses hurtling straight toward him, so he swung the longsword in his hand.
The corpse, severed into two segnts, violently smashed onto the floor tiles, producing a loud crack like shattering an egg or snapping celery.
Soshyan looked down and found himself drenched completely in Xenos blood.
Another corpse plumted a few ters to his right, looking like a bursting blood bag.
"Keep moving."
After confirming there was no further danger of collapse, Soshyan led the squad straight into the main hall of the energy node.
Here, besides a large row of massive, steam-belching machines, there was also a group of Greenskins who had already received reports of the intrusion and were waiting in full battle array. Even the chanics had picked up guns and cannons, staring dead at the main doors.
As long as anything non-green appeared outside the doors, they would blast it to glowing slag.
BOOM——————!
With a loud bang, the wall on the side of the hall explosively blew apart, tearing two nearby chanics and a dozen unlucky Gretchin to shreds.
"For the Emperor!"
The Space Marines poured in from an unexpected location. The Greenskins, who had been guarding the main doors the entire ti, were instantly caught completely off guard. Just seconds into the battle, a large swath of them was swept to the floor.
Waaaagh!!
Although caught in an ambush and thrown into chaos, Greenskins were not such fragile creatures—especially when their leader was still present.
As the most powerful and nurous of all Xenos threats humanity had ever faced, they had evolved so perfectly into machines of violence that Imperial scholars proposed an insane hypothesis—this species might have been deliberately bred for war.
Fearless, unbelievably strong, and possessing a terrifyingly bellicose nature; all of this was woven into their genetic level.
Therefore, after enduring the initial chaos, they swiftly organized a counterattack.
"Die!"
Soshyan, taking the lead, slamd his iron fist downward, delivering a heavy blow to the plate-like forehead of the monster that charged right up to his face, shattering the bones beneath it.
But it still didn't die. It roared in response, and its almost absurdly large jaw snapped shut violently, mangling one of his wrists.
Another strike. Soshyan hamred down even harder, pushing his armor's power system near its limits.
Then, the third strike knocked the strong beast to the ground, leaving it sliding down along the inner wall of the hall.
"Boyz! Follow ! Smash da Canned Humies!!!!"
A high-pitched, resonant roar abruptly exploded. Following that, amidst the perating orange-yellow smoke, a Nob standing over three ters tall lunged fiercely toward Soshyan.
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