The Emperor’s Angel of Death

As they approached a certain distance from the human battle lines, the golden peaks of the pyramids began to open like flower petals. The hulls of the ships moved gracefully above the pyramids, while the obelisks at the base emitted energy, the hum rising to a piercing, almost screaming sound.

Accompanied by ominous green flashes, countless Necron metal forms emerged, arrayed in formations, with bizarre airships floating above them. Figures resembling commanders, wielding halberds, stood atop these airships, along with various war machines, large and small, from spider-like constructs to scorpion-like engines of destruction.

What followed was a bitter battle, a bloody conflict that Kaisar could never have imagined without witnessing it firsthand.

As the attacking force, under the command of White Templars Sixth Company Captain Spahbad, the human forces launched the initial assault, directing more fire towards the obelisks and the already-formed Necron phalanxes. However, the enemy reacted even faster. Beams of light, shaped like needles and constantly flickering, erupted from the tops of the pyramids, striking the artillery batteries far behind the front lines. A continuous series of explosions erupted behind the human positions, shaking their morale.

But the truly dire situation was only known to those artillerymen. Before they could realize what was happening, sweeping energy beams sliced through Stone Lizards and Manticores, cleaving them in two with astonishing precision. Yet, this was not the end. As self-propelled guns detonated due to ignited ammunition, and the artillery crews frantically tried to salvage what they could, the enemy's attacks did not cease.

The Necron commanders were not foolish. Although they scorned the technology of these flesh-and-blood creatures, they knew that their firepower was fierce enough to warrant a corresponding strategy.

As the ground in the distance silently collapsed into sinkholes, swarms of wingless, venomous insects buzzed out and rapidly advanced towards the chaotic artillery positions. The artillerymen were shocked to discover a swarm of bizarre, multi-segmented mechanical insects above them, the size of adults. These tomb scarabs, propelled by invisible wings, launched a fierce attack, cutting through armored vehicles with cutting beams and slicing apart the frantic, unprepared soldiers with blade-like limbs and charged stingers—the Necron commanders apparently deemed such flying units sufficient to deal with the human ground forces, while the more lethal Night Scythes were dispatched to destroy the enemy's air force.

And this was not the worst moment. An even more terrifying enemy emerged from underground, something the artillerymen had never anticipated. Huge, fast, arthropod-like constructs burst from beneath their feet, pushing the annihilation of the rear-echelon ranged forces to its climax. Tomb Spyders, executing their kill orders, advanced with dizzying speed and could move freely through solid matter. Self-propelled guns and other weapons that attempted to relocate in haste were torn apart and thrown aside by these killing machines. The artillerymen's small arms were woefully inadequate against them.

Fortunately, the command structure had anticipated this. Using intelligence gathered on enemy weaponry, the Space Marine commanders had predicted the possibility of the enemy using phase-shifting mechanical entities to attack the artillery positions, and had deployed a preemptive strategy—though the reaction was still slower than the enemy's execution.

The Archeopters and Dragon Riders, who had been waiting in concealed hangar bays, mobilized en masse, swarming towards the constructs attacking the artillery positions in a ground-hugging cloud.

This strategy was based on the common weakness of all Necron phase-shifting constructs; for example, Tomb Spyders required a long recharge time for each phase shift, and could only exist in a bi-phasic state for a limited time. These vanguard artillerymen were bait to lure them out, and although Necron units could be reassembled and resurrected, they were far from the front lines. Their scarabs could not recover the wreckage and energy, so their loss would be permanent.

This was a gambit in the chess game: trading a portion of the artillery force for the Necrons' highly threatening phase-shifting constructs.

For the humans, it was a worthwhile trade.

Therefore, this force was specifically assembled to hunt the constructs. The Dragon Riders had undergone modifications with Skitarii Alphas modules—this modification enhanced the Dragon Riders' low-altitude dogfighting capabilities. Their primary weapon was the flechette carbine, which fired a large number of hypervelocity micro-darts that were almost impossible to dodge. At the same time, their enhanced intelligent computing systems allowed them to accurately calculate the enemy's movement trajectories, making them ideal for hunting fast, low-flying small targets. They were also equipped with arc grenades, whose powerful electromagnetic fields could paralyze enemy war machines.

As the Skitarii Alphas quickly cleared out the tomb scarabs, the Archeopters' ground-attack variant, the Bombard, began circling and attacking the Tomb Spyders and Tomb Stalkers that could not phase-shift for a short time. It could carry powerful ground-penetrating bombs, one of which was enough to cripple a huge Tomb Spyder, and the firepower provided by the four heavy bolters could also inflict effective damage on them.

In an instant, lightning flashed, thunder roared, and fire blazed as the two sides clashed. Wrecked Protector Imperialis and construct fragments fell continuously, while the larger tomb constructs fled, rolled, and exploded into countless pieces under the Archeopters' bombardment.

Such battles were happening in several directions around Cinder Furnace.

The Necron lords finally realized that they needed more powerful air power, but when they tried to recall the Night Scythes, they discovered something: the Night Scythes, while chasing those "high-speed fighters," had flown straight into a dense laser defense network, and those lasers were fired from heavy laser arrays, which directly caused the Dynasty to lose two-thirds of its Night Scythe force, and the rest had to face human fighters that outnumbered them by a hundredfold.

Under these circumstances, recalling the Night Scythes became impractical, and they had to rely on their existing ground forces to eliminate the human artillery.

The surviving human artillery also took the opportunity to withdraw from their positions, but their battle was not over. The first batch of artillery deployed consisted of 20,000 guns, mainly Stone Lizards with a small number of Manticores. After the Necron attack, less than 3,000 remained. However, the expedition carried more than 100,000 artillery pieces, and the second batch deployed was the main force, consisting of nearly 60,000 guns. In addition to Stone Lizards, there were also a large number of Gryphonne heavy mortars and Medusa siege tanks. The surviving artillery quickly merged with the second batch of artillery and established new positions.

At the same time, the enemy's infantry began to move in a uniform, slow advance, and the gauss weapons in their hands emitted a cold and deadly light.