The Emperor’s Angel of Death

As a traditional Imperial officer, Jannick Dure, who had fought for thirty years from a junior noble officer to his current rank, believed that no enemy could withstand the bombardment of millions of artillery shells.

Similarly, as a high-ranking commander in the Astra Militarum, he had faced many enemies, from savage Orks to rebellious cultists, and occasionally even encountered the Tyranid Hive Fleets. But each battle against these enemies would end with a devastating barrage of artillery fire, turning any corrupted world into a realm of fire and smoke belonging only to the Imperium.

However, this was his first time fighting the cunning Eldar. The enemy possessed extraordinary speed and perception, and always seemed to know their every move. On the first day of the landing, they were ambushed at the landing site, and over 500,000 soldiers of the expeditionary force were killed in six hours.

But this could not stop the power and will of the Imperium. This picturesque world should not be occupied by ugly aliens; it should become a part of the Imperium.

Jannick Dure planned to acquire an estate on this world after the war, and display some alien skulls or trophies. When he retired, he would settle here and share stories of his lifelong devotion to the Emperor with his descendants.

Perfect, provided he could eliminate these annoying flies first.

Fortunately, thanks to the supreme commander of this pioneering expedition, Lord Commander Cloudchiel Ghent Rowa, as a planetary governor, he had prepared sufficient manpower for the expedition. Even the loss of 500,000 troops was only a small part of the expeditionary force. Their actual strength reached a staggering 7 million, along with a large number of heavy weapons and equipment. Although Cloudchiel Ghent Rowa seemed to be a rather extravagant and pleasure-seeking fellow, at least he had the intention to contribute to the Imperium, and he actually found such a high-value alien world with little defensive strength. This was definitely a 'picked up' achievement, and perhaps he could praise him a few words later.

After gaining a foothold, the Imperium also devised a way to counter these cowardly aliens.

Their speed was indeed fast, and they were elusive, but their offensives were not powerful enough, which proved that they were not numerous.

In this case, as long as the Imperial army advanced steadily in formation, the enemy would have no chance to take advantage. Occasional skirmishes could not pose a threat to the overall Imperial army. Although they would cleverly target Imperial army commanders for assassination, the officers had learned their lesson and no longer easily showed their faces on the front lines. Instead, they stayed in the solid and safe bunkers in the rear, like Jannick, directing the battle under the protection of bodyguards.

At the same time, in response to the enemy's high mobility and difficulty in aiming, the officers brought out the Astra Militarum's signature move - suppressive fire.

Simply put, they used artillery shells and rockets to push forward all the way, with infantry following up under the cover of armor. When encountering suspicious targets, they would open fire directly, regardless of what it was.

Under such a simple and efficient tactic, the Imperial army that landed on the enemy's core territory made rapid progress in three directions, quickly advancing to the enemy's central area. Although they burned down a quarter of the world's forests and savanna in the process, this was not a problem. After all, most officers believed that there were too many trees in this world, and they would have to be cleared sooner or later to facilitate the construction of cities and farms in the future.

In their view, only barbarians like the Catachans liked jungles. Civilized people only needed the sky, the ocean, and land that could be cultivated or built upon. Imperial citizens should live in steel and rock. Of course, these high-ranking individuals could still enjoy the natural scenery, and this world was the best trophy.

Sixty percent of this planet, which was not registered by the Imperium, was ocean, and the land was divided into three continents. He didn't know where Governor Cloudchiel got the information from, confirming the location of the alien's central area, so the Imperial army's offensive direction was always very clear, only attacking one of the continents, and ignoring everything else as they pushed towards the enemy's core area. Although the aliens on the other two continents had been supporting them, they were blocked at sea and in the air by the Imperium's air force and fleet.

Victory was at their fingertips.

"Order the 112th and 114th Artillery Regiments!"

Jannick put down his binoculars, turned around, and roared at the communicator beside him, slamming his fist against the hard stones that made up the temporary fortifications.

"9th Regiment, advance direction, maintain a distance of 500 meters, creeping barrage, elevation plus 6, traverse right 20 mils, I want to give them a non-stop rain of fire!"

The two artillery regiments hurriedly obeyed his orders, preparing to load the Earthshaker cannons and Basilisk self-propelled artillery.

Soon, the sound of hundreds of shells streaking through the air echoed. Jannick could even smell the gunpowder in the wind. He smiled contentedly. This was the meaning of war, the taste of gunpowder on the tip of his tongue... nothing made him feel better than this.

Thinking of this, he touched the things hanging on his belt, a string of dried pointed ears and soulstones embedded on them, a full twenty of them, cut from the corpses of those ugly aliens, which would be very interesting trophies of this war.

He picked up the binoculars again, adjusted the focus and watched for possible enemies.

Having fought until now, he had hardly seen any living Eldar. He had seen some broken corpses, though. They crudely imitated the human form, but the alien's lowly features could not be erased.

In the binoculars, a tide of green, accompanied by huge gray-iron tanks, gradually advanced, passing through a bombarded area full of broken trees and bubbling swamps. Screams erupted as shells landed in front of them, and then pillars of smoke shot up into the sky, throwing various charred tree trunks and soil mixed together.

In the process, flashes of bullets could be seen shooting out from afar, felling panicked soldiers one by one.

"I can't believe the aliens can survive in this kind of firepower."

A staff officer not far away muttered in surprise, watching the bullets shooting out of the smoke.

"There's nothing to disbelieve. Aliens always have unexpected cunning tricks, but these insignificant things can never compete with real steel and fire."

Jannick said decisively. He glared fiercely at the staff officer, then pointed at him and scolded:

"Put your mind on what you should be doing, not on what those wooden aliens did or didn't do. Order the 4th Regiment to follow up as well. This time, no retreat is allowed. Either they charge into that woodland shrouded in mysterious power, or they all die on the road! Tell them, this is my exact words! If anyone has any objections, come to the command post immediately to see me!"

"Yes, sir!"