The Emperor’s Angel of Death

The reason it could approach its opponents so silently with such a massive form was all thanks to the Scorpion's Titan-class holographic field, which visually distorted the vehicle. From other angles, it looked like a rainbow vortex, making it difficult to visually observe in bad weather. Scanning equipment and targeting devices would be disrupted by the energy interference, and even impact point determination would be obscured by the field.

At the same time, its equipped Stellar Engine produced almost no sound, even at top speed.

It rapidly approached the T'au airport like a ghost, closing to within six thousand meters.

"Turn around!"

After charging to maximum intensity, the twin-linked pulse cannons unleashed a blinding light like the sun. Two thick beams of light streaked across the sky, instantly slicing through the massive Riptide suit, which was still in standby mode, and detonating it.

Boom—

A massive mushroom cloud rose from the T'au temporary airfield, not only annihilating everything within hundreds of meters but also creating a shockwave that flipped over several nearby Hammerheads.

At this point, the 'Grumpy' had already changed its course, turning into an arc-shaped maneuver around the airport.

"How many is that now?"

"Uh, do these long-legged ones count?"

"Why wouldn't they? They're much bigger than those deformed little motorcycles, aren't they?"

"If we're counting those, then that's the 39th."

"39... If I can get 100 kills, I should get a champion title, right? That should make inviting Miss Nino more likely..."

"Tsk—you still haven't given up? I'm telling you, you should read more books, learn how to write poetry, and maybe singing and dancing would be more useful."

While the two were talking, the Scorpion's second shot projected a beam of death, hitting a VX8 attempting to take off and instantly bisecting it.

The T'au forces, jolted awake, immediately reacted. After the initial chaos, they quickly found a counter-strategy. A large number of smoke grenades were launched around the base, forming a continuous smokescreen several kilometers long and hundreds of meters high. Simultaneously, because the scanning equipment couldn't detect the enemy's location, all vehicles and battlesuits formed several armored intercept cores and battlesuit hunter cores, attacking from several directions toward the enemy's presumed position.

But before they found their target, two beams of light slammed into two Hammerheads, instantly blasting them into a cloud of flying shrapnel. The shrapnel acted like scythes, cutting down the Fire Warriors hiding behind them.

While destroying the tanks, a series of homing missiles shot into the Fire Warrior lines. They were like venomous swarms, buzzing as they struck the Fire Warriors attempting to form an encirclement on the ground at great speed. In that short moment, the hunter core of Fire Warriors lost about a fifth of their number.

Only then did the T'au forces finally spot the behemoth skimming past at a height of one hundred meters, but their battlesuit's visual devices could only see a blurry blob of light, forcing some battlesuit pilots to shut down their targeting systems and track the target directly with their eyes.

Although they didn't know what the enemy's weapon was, the T'au armored hunter core immediately responded. Four Hammerheads took to the air, firing as they moved, trying to catch up to the ridiculously fast object.

At the same time, Shas'Vre and Shas'Ui piloting XV8 battlesuits maintained a three-suit combat formation, all increasing their altitude. They had determined that the enemy was likely a single target with extremely high firepower and mobility, and to deal with it, they had to use superior numbers to block its movement and then concentrate their fire to quickly eliminate it.

The tactics were transmitted to every battlesuit through the network, and two Stormsurge suits quietly moved into attack positions, repositioning to begin their assault.

The KV128 Stormsurge battlesuit is the largest ground armor currently used by the T'au. Although it looks similar, it is not a battlesuit but more like a heavy artillery piece with legs. Its primary weapon is a heavy pulse driver, with extremely powerful firepower. It can be said to be the most powerful ground weapon currently in the T'au arsenal. This mobile artillery mecha was born on the front lines of the T'au Empire's deteriorating war with the Imperium of Man, with the primary targets being the Imperium's Knight mechs and small Titans.

Due to its excessive weight and the enormous energy requirements of its weapons, this type of bombardment suit cannot fly and can only be deployed using a modified Manta. It is manned by two pilots, both carefully selected veterans of Hammerhead crews. One is responsible for driving, and the other is responsible for monitoring, aiming, and firing its weapon systems. In addition, to ensure the safety of the bombardment suit, it is even equipped with a rare energy shield system, which can withstand long-range attacks from human heavy weapons.

But unexpectedly, one was destroyed before it could even be activated. The remaining two pilots swore to avenge their comrade.

However, they now had a problem—

How to aim at the opponent?

The Stormsurge's advanced fire control system simply couldn't lock onto the opponent, let alone calculate its trajectory. Even with the assistance of markerlights and target information transmitted from other battlesuits, they still couldn't form an effective attack path.

To ensure their own safety, they could only wait, waiting for their comrades to trap this thing.

At this time, to the T'au's surprise, the thing actually slowed down. A team of XV8 battlesuits immediately flanked from the rear, unleashing a volley of fire at the target's location. However, only a series of glowing ripples bloomed across the mysterious machine, their attacks all hitting the ground, kicking up clouds of dust.

At this moment, in Ribbentrop's mind, all the enemy's target data, direction, altitude, speed, and so on were etched. His mind seemed to be divided into several people, each processing a target.

As his thoughts changed, the tank's main guns also adjusted, the twin-linked cannons suddenly beginning to adjust their angles independently.

In about less than two seconds, he had determined the attack pattern for the next ten seconds.

With the main guns firing in sequence, two XV8s were directly destroyed, which greatly surprised the T'au commander. They didn't expect the enemy could attack two independent targets simultaneously, but there was no time to adapt, and they could only grit their teeth and force their way up to create an opportunity for the Stormsurge to kill.

At the same time, a Manta also took off from the temporary airport, carrying three XV88 Broadside battlesuits to a predetermined ambush area. Because they didn't know the situation in the sky, the Manta transport didn't dare to fly too far or too high, dropping its deadly cargo after only a dozen kilometers.

Shas'Vre in the XV88 battlesuit believed that his team would have no problem killing this mysterious enemy, because this XV8 variant could be said to be the T'au's most heavily armed battlesuit (the previous one was not a battlesuit), and their twin-linked railguns could tear thick armor apart like tissue paper.

Bonus chapter tomorrow, happy New Year to all readers~