The Emperor’s Angel of Death

Sand, gray sand, like the embers and residue after burning.

With the slightest disturbance, they would be swiftly swept away, mixed with swirls of unclean air, beating against the desolate slopes like waves licking the shore.

Under the glaring sunlight, something glittering seemed to be sparsely scattered among the grains of sand.

But if one were to walk over, bend down, and grab a handful of the coarse sand, the grains would immediately slip away through the gaps between one's fingers, so gently it could almost be called a caress, without even a tiny sound as they fell to the ground.

Yaya released her hand from the protection of her glove, letting the sand fly into the distance, and just a dozen meters in front of her, something seemed to be burning feebly, emitting a strong smell of burning gasoline, just behind this slope dotted with many glittering fragments.

With heavy steps, she moved forward a little, finally seeing a Skitarii Dunecrawler of the Adeptus Mechanicus almost completely burned out.

These two-legged machines resembled huge square weights, their four legs angled like a dying beetle; it was impossible to tell whether it had been destroyed before tipping over, or tipped over before being destroyed.

The red iron shell had been burned like steel being reforged; the parts that had finished burning had turned into a rough, uneven gray scab.

The side of the shell seemed to have been pierced by some kind of explosive, leaving a large hole.

A few white markings, burned to shreds, remained on one side of the vehicle, seemingly indicating its number.

The observation port at the front of the vehicle no longer had any of its former neatness; two armor plates were nowhere to be seen.

The hatch on top was open, the round hatch door swaying, like an insect's unyielding defiance of death, still waving its antennae.

There should have been a plasma cannon at the front of the vehicle, and a machine gun on the top hatch, but now they were spoils of the victor.

The fate of the never-before-seen crew members seemed to have become intriguing: had they been lucky enough to escape, or had they been captured when they got out of the vehicle, or, like everything else in this wasteland, had they all turned into a wisp of absurd and laughable black smoke?

Yaya hoped with hatred that the servitors inside had died a painful death, although she knew very well that these semi-mechanical beings would not feel any pain at all.

"Yaya, it's time to go."

Behind her, the voices of her companions rang out.

The female rider in heavy protective gear immediately bent down, took a small piece from the Dunecrawler, then turned and jogged to her motorcycle, straddling it and snapping the piece onto a magnetic patch, which already had more than a dozen pieces on it.

Besides her, there were fifteen other motorcycles and two Atalan Jackal all-terrain vehicles; this was the full strength of their 0083 Jackal Squad.

And their vehicles all came from the "enemy," the Adeptus Mechanicus.

First of all, motorcycles were very common means of transportation in forge worlds, and Atalan all-terrain vehicles were even more common industrial small vehicles in the Imperium.

They were usually equipped with destructive industrial tools such as mining lasers and flamers, allowing the riders of the all-terrain vehicles to provide support to agile team members in mining expeditions and combat.

With such machines, a mining company could extend its tentacles long enough to find new locations, providing food for the Imperium's endlessly hungry planetary network.

Therefore, Atalan-class all-terrain vehicles could be found in almost all industrial, forge, or agricultural sectors of the Imperium—like the ubiquitous lasgun, they were low in manufacturing cost, highly durable, and easy to repair, in a sense, a symbol of the human industrial field, and of course, their models were also diverse, especially in marginal areas and frontier fields.

The Blacklimb Church attached great importance to vehicles during its development, from initially collecting and recycling scrapped vehicles to directly controlling the workshops in the mining areas.

The cult accumulated equipment while training new blood proficient in driving and combat.

Finally, before the rebellion, the Blacklimb Cult had a huge mobile force of more than 20,000 vehicles of various types, and formed more than 300 small teams composed of various vehicles, naming them Jackal Squads.

In battle, the Jackal Squads would be like a tenacious viper constantly shuttling through the enemy's fire, and with their huge impact force, the simple weapons in their hands became more deadly.

Those Tech-Priests who thought they were just a rabble of stragglers soon realized their mistake, because some Jackals secretly carried mining explosives, throwing them unexpectedly into the enemy's midst during high-speed movement, causing annoying disasters.

However, their most important task was to fight against the Adeptus Mechanicus' patrol forces, such as the Dragoons and the Ironstrider Ballistarius, or mobile units like the Ironwalkers, maintaining the ground transportation network between Cinder Furnace City and other war zones.

In the early days of the rebellion, with the help of captured vehicles, the number of combat vehicles of the Blacklimb Cult once climbed to more than 100,000, and even organized a "armored force" in a decent manner, claiming to use steel to defeat steel—

The idea was good, but unfortunately, the Blacklimb Cult still underestimated the explosive power of a forge world.

Although they were indeed caught off guard by the Jackal Squads at the beginning, and the Genestealers once connected several war zones together, the forge director promptly mobilized forces, and a fierce counterattack followed.

Tens of thousands of Dragoons and Ironstrider Ballistarius, in cooperation with Dunecrawlers and Ironclad heavy servitors, began to form a giant net in the vast desert.

At the same time, a large number of Pteraxii formed a tight surveillance network in the sky, and the Jackals soon found that they had become birds in a net.

After a month of continuous fighting, the Blacklimb Cult was horrified to find that their vehicles had been reduced by half, and now there were less than 50,000.

And they finally realized that those trucks, off-road vehicles, or various engineering vehicles were difficult to compete with real weapons, even the Dunecrawlers, which had always been ridiculed, were difficult to deal with, let alone those combat servitors.

At this time, the cult realized that ground combat had become a bottomless pit, so they decisively changed their strategy and direction, abandoning the direction of Trevank City, where the enemy's forces were most concentrated, and concentrated the Jackal Squads in the direction of the No. 3 Holy Furnace Mining Area and the Slag Mountains.

Yaya's squad was responsible for the 200-kilometer stretch of desert between the No. 3 Holy Furnace Mining Area and Cinder Furnace City.

The No. 3 Holy Furnace Mining Area was very important to the cult, because after the cult controlled Cinder Furnace City, they confirmed that the Adeptus Mechanicus was reluctant to bomb their precious machinery and foundries, so they immediately began to resume work, trying to manufacture weapons while fighting the enemy.

However, manufacturing equipment and weapons required raw materials and energy.

Raw materials were easy to handle, after all, Cinder Furnace City was not short of metal, and a lot could be dismantled, but the energy could not be solved.

The city's reserves of energy had been partially destroyed during the rebellion, and the remaining part could only last for a maximum of 2 months, and at this time, it was very dependent on the energy provided by the refinery in the No. 3 Holy Furnace Mining Area.

Fortunately, the energy pipelines were buried deep underground, so there was no need to worry about being bombed by the enemy, but the No. 3 Holy Furnace Mining Area had not been completely occupied from the beginning, because the Blacklimb Cult had dispersed its forces to Trevank City, resulting in insufficient troops being invested here, and ultimately allowing the Adeptus Mechanicus' defensive forces to gain a firm foothold.