The outside was chaotic as a raging fire, but inside the drop pod, it was as silent as the night.
All the warriors of the Excoriators allowed their thoughts to sink completely into pre-battle ditation.
The roar of the Ork anti-air firepower also gradually fell silent. This allowed the orbiting fleet to mobilize more support assets and air-drop them down—including Land Raiders, Predator tanks, and Dreadnoughts.
This greatly accelerated the progress of the offensive.
Once the tide of destruction began to spread, it could no longer be stopped, blood flowing from one control point to the next.
Viewed from space, the entire region looked exactly as if it had been infected by so terrifying, rapidly eroding cancer, the blazing fires spreading furiously from one node to another.
Finally, the first drop pod smashed solidly into the ground, the impact so violent it seed to shake the earth and move mountains.
It pierced deep into the planet's crust, sending dirt and mud flying everywhere, while even the bedrock could not escape being pulverized under the force of the impact, surging outward in billowing waves.
In the next second, the pod doors peeled away and crashed to the ground, while the explosive bolts originally securing the restraining fras abruptly popped open, vibrating endlessly.
Beneath the scarred outer shell, the holding cages snapped open in unison, releasing the dangerous and deadly cargo contained within.
After such a long wait, the Excoriators finally charged into the battlefield under the cover of suppressing fire, their flashing bolters joining the already woven net of firepower to blanket the enemies before them.
Thanks to the efforts of the Astral Knights Chapter, a bridgehead had already been established before the drop pods even landed.
After the first few minutes of intense crossfire, the Excoriators seized a foothold amidst the Greenskins' counterattacks. Relying on this position, the follow-up forces launched a ceaseless offensive, repelling every last Ork unit pouring out of the fortress.
The assault from the sky followed the Chapter's usual tactics—savage and highly efficient, while possessing an absolutely terrifying deterrent effect.
After gaining an initial advantage, heavy transport ships also began landing continuously on the planet's surface. With fire support from the ground troops, the Predator tanks carried within drove out one after another.
Engines roaring, cannon barrels swinging back and forth, they locked onto one enemy target after another with eager anticipation.
There were also the Dreadnoughts—these most precious and rare of battlefield assets were also deployed to Vorenus. At this mont, they proudly strode out from their distinctively shaped drop pods, their rotary cannons spewing searing flas and their lightning claws raised high.
The sky at this mont looked like a tapestry of mottled, grotesque colors, illuminated by the intense flashes of rising explosions and flares from the ground.
From the invisible void above, lances of laser fire continued their relentless bombardnt of the surface, although their pure, flawless halos were sotis distorted by the spiraling trajectories of passing rockets or the wings of swooping aircraft.
The Greenskin Warlord's guard, trapped within the main fortress, was still fiercely resisting the first wave of attacks launched by the Excoriators.
These heavily armored Nobz braved the hail of bullets to launch charges, attempting to close in on the temporary positions established by the Excoriators, their roars shaking the heavens and earth.
WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!
Simultaneously on the fortress's outer shell, various artillery pieces erged from behind defensive emplacents that had not yet been destroyed. Their barrels were almost parallel to the ground as they rocked violently under the force of recoil.
Even more massive, fully ard Killa Kans strode slowly out from the shadows of the city walls. They looked incredibly similar to the machine Soshyan had slain earlier, only not quite as large.
The launchers mounted on their shoulders aid at the most heavily contested areas, rcilessly blasting grenades and rockets over.
For a ti, the battle fell into a stalemate.
Without a doubt, those defending this place were indeed the most elite Orks on the entire planet. Even in this desperate situation they fought to the bitter end; as soon as one fell, the gap would be imdiately filled, no one willing to step back even half a pace.
Throughout this, specialized Ork squads carrying even more lethal weaponry continuously joined the battlefield—Stormboyz, Tankbustas, Weirdboyz, all kinds of them.
All of this finally ca to an end when the Legio Cybernetica marched out from the smoke in orderly formation.
With the assistance of the battle automata and the Astral Knights, the Excoriators quickly strangled all enemies surrounding the landing zone to death, and began pushing deep into enemy territory, expanding their occupied zone and gradually establishing a solid frontline.
Pulling the battlefield perspective to a much grander scale, just as initially planned, the Astra Militarum and the Lanters Chapter both completed their respective deploynts with the main fortress as the core, their lines spreading out into a long, narrow arc.
The Lanters Chapter to the north, in particular, adopted far more fierce and rapid tactics. With the help of the Armoured Assault Battalion, they swiftly consolidated their gained advantages and completely destroyed the primary energy core on Vorenus Pri.
At the sa ti, after fierce combat, the Astra Militarum also captured and secured the eastern passageways leading to the fortress, cutting off this massive stronghold from its reinforcents.
Although the Greenskin Warlord of Vorenus was still under the protection of the fortress, in reality, the fortress it had built had already beco its own cage.
And the executioners had already entered the arena.
BANG—!
The drop pod door crashed to the ground, revealing a night sky seemingly rimd with fire. As far as the eye could see was a scene of apocalyptic ruin turning to rubble.
Looking westward, it was not difficult to determine the positions of the various squads from the echoing volleys of bolter fire.
From beginning to end, Magyar's gaze never left the north—that towering, yellowish-brown behemoth had already been turned heavily scorched and blackened by the flas. After being repeatedly baptized by the torrential downpour of the orbital bombardnt, the pathway leading up to the Warlord's fortress had now been bombed beyond recognition, the kicked-up rubble and dirt even obscuring the horizon.
Fortresses and towers crowded and bit at each other, rely to compete for space. The inorganic steel shells jaggedly interlocked like dog's teeth, fusing together to form the curtain walls and buttresses surrounding the citadel. On top of this they patched together the shapes of demi-lunes and fortresses, these constructs standing as proudly as sheer cliffs.
Right now, a massive fire was slowly licking around this monster. Boiling, thick smoke was as heavy as a curtain, enveloping the ramparts and parapets layer by layer.
Although the shields atop the fortress remained as solid as a rock, the lower platforms surrounding it had been entirely destroyed. The location where the entrances and exits were supposed to be was now nothing more than chunks of rubble rolling down the slope.
This ant there were no longer any obstacles to delay the charge of the ground forces.
The Excoriators broke into a run. As soon as they leaped out of their drop pods, they charged along the paths toward the colossal gates before them, rushing straight into the heavily guarded defender positions.
Flas soared into the night sky, while the light bursting from energy weapons continuously illuminated the eerie world around them like a starry firmant.
Predator tanks kept firing forward, the recoil of their main cannons causing them to rock back slightly on their path of advance with every shot, while Land Raiders crushed over the unrecognizable ground as if no one else was there.
Above the torrent of steel, Stormraven gunships maintained a low hover, the fuel in their engines boiling and roaring, providing constant downward thrust for these iron raptors that were unleashing their lethal payloads without reservation, keeping them aloft.
Magyar opened his mouth and took a deep breath, fully savoring the scent of this world that was about to be slaughtered by him.
Finally, Magyar drew his Reaper of Death and broke into a sprint.
His first prey did not make him wait long. That group of unlucky bastards was currently firing at a Land Raider, entirely unaware that Magyar was charging right at them.
By the ti they ca to their senses, it was already far too late. The roaring scythe swept past with the force of a thunderbolt.
Death blood right in the center of the Ork line.
Whether armor or flesh, the massive scythe tore through them with effortless ease.
Following its swinging trajectory, the sparks of exploding electrical arcs left a trail of fleeting light in the air.
Suddenly, Magyar began to laugh uproariously. Although filtered through the helt's vox-system, this laugh—mixed with heavy white noise—sounded almost exactly like the roar of a wild beast.
With every rise and fall of the scythe, lifeless bodies constantly flew into the air and smashed back into the ground.
Personally led by Magyar, the vanguard forces composed of Terminator squads advanced like a hot knife through butter, swiftly arriving near the front of the causeway.
At this ti, the armored forces also drove up beneath the walls, aiming at the fortress walls and unleashing a volley of cannon fire.
Although the Greenskin defenders had also set up defensive artillery emplacents on the walls, returning sporadic fire from ti to ti, this feeble firepower was like dropping a stone in the ocean, completely unable to delay the charging montum of an entire Chapter that was still growing and expanding.
After breaching the great gates, Magyar was the very first to charge into the fortress, while Soshyan and the Astral Knights remained outside, assisting them in combat without entering the fortress alongside them.
Because this honor belonged to the Excoriators.
Finally, three hours after Lord Magyar entered the fortress, this reaper of xenos reappeared under the sky once again, but this ti standing atop the summit of the fortress.
One pauldron shattered, absolutely drenched in blood, he carried his massive scythe in one hand, while his other hand held high an unimaginably large, ferocious head—
The Greenskin Warlord of Vorenus officially beca the 245th addition to the Death-Sanctum's collection.
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