The Emperor’s Angel of Death

After learning that the Astra Militarum urgently needed a specialized siege super-heavy tank capable of long-range precision strikes and destroying enemy fortifications, the Magi of Mars, after careful consideration and over two millennia of design, decided to mount an Earthshaker Cannon—the giant cannon from a Warlord-class Titan—onto the chassis of a Shadowsword super-heavy tank.

It turned out that the super-heavy tank's bulky chassis could completely withstand the enormous recoil generated by the Earthshaker Cannon, and thus a brand-new siege tank was born.

The power of the Earthshaker Cannon is self-evident; its destructive force is among the best of the Imperium's existing heavy artillery. It even requires the deployment of an accompanying Tech-Priest for precise calculations to avoid catastrophic consequences, because its destructive power comes not only from the moment of the explosion, but more importantly from the subsequent shockwave, which can directly crush a wide range of solid fortifications. Its power can even cause the ground to 'liquefy'.

However, the Doomhammer itself faced an awkward position after its development, because during the long research process, the Astra Militarum had already obtained other, more useful siege tanks, namely the Thunderer siege tank and the Stormsword heavy siege tank. These two models were also improved from existing tanks, but their main guns were the relatively inexpensive Demolisher Cannon and Siege Cannon, while the Doomhammer's Earthshaker Cannon was too expensive to manufacture to meet the Astra Militarum's requirements for 'cheap and practical' siege tanks. In this case, the Doomhammer had to abandon its original positioning and instead take on the role of 'Titan Hunter', but an even more embarrassing situation accompanied its first actual battle.

The Doomhammer's Earthshaker Cannon was directly evaluated in actual combat as unsuitable for fighting against rebel Titan Legions, because the Earthshaker Cannon could only severely damage the Titan's void shields. To defeat it and cause damage to the Titan itself, the Doomhammer's rate of fire and single-shot damage were almost impossible. A Warlord Titan could use two main weapon arms, the Earthshaker Cannon to break the void shields, and another cannon to make a fatal blow, which was not a problem. But for the Doomhammer, which only has one cannon, the situation is a bit awkward, and the Earthshaker Cannon is almost the limit of the Shadowsword chassis, which means that the Doomhammer's speed must be reduced to an appalling level, even nicknamed 'Doomturtle' by the Astra Militarum. The poor maneuverability also led to the fact that once it failed to destroy the enemy, it could not even run away when counterattacked.

But Mars could not admit that it had designed something not so useful, so the Doomhammer was still forcibly stuffed to the Astra Militarum, and the Astra Militarum was also very棘手 with it. Due to its bulkiness, it was difficult to deploy, but this thing was so valuable that any commander would be difficult to explain if it was lost. Fortunately, the power of the Earthshaker Cannon was indeed more than enough to attack strongholds, and some Astra Militarum regiments slowly fell in love with this unique super-heavy tank, but the reserve has been very low, so that many Forge Worlds are unwilling to produce this thing.

However, Solzhenitsyn took a fancy to this super tank. It was overkill to attack strongholds, and it was not enough to fight Titans with void shields, but it was very suitable for dealing with large Tyranid creatures without void shields but with very thick shells and tenacious vitality!

The unique killing mechanism of the Earthshaker Cannon is just suitable for killing Tyranids that rely solely on shell thickness for defense, and its huge killing range can also target the 'swarm sea'. Therefore, he not only took out all the Doomhammers in the armory, but also took out Zhao-Akada's stock, and asked Ulanhuda to rush to make a few more, so he put together these 24 Doomhammers. In response to the problem of the Doomhammer's maneuverability, Solzhenitsyn also boldly asked the Tech-Priests to 'reduce the burden' - that is, remove all the secondary guns, and even reduce some of the turret's armor, to minimize the vehicle's combat weight, so that its maneuverability at least reached an acceptable level. Anyway, their main task is to counter-kill the enemy's bio-artillery, and armor is not a very important attribute.

Now they have become Solzhenitsyn's main anti-artillery force.

After getting the coordinates, the three Doomhammers adjusted their directions and entered the launch area. With a violent roar, cracks appeared on the flat ground under their tracks.

The whistling shells crossed hundreds of kilometers. This is also the reason why Solzhenitsyn chose to defend the mountain. Shooting from a high position can maximize the range and accuracy of human firepower.

Under Bahram's gaze, three violent flashes bloomed in the Tyranid artillery group, like three supernovas. The nearby Tyranid creatures wailed and were torn into pieces by the scattered energy. When other Tyranid artillery tried to move, the ground under their feet suddenly boiled like a rolling sea, causing them to lose their balance and fall to the ground, and like being put into a mixer, first their armor shattered, and then blood mixed with minced meat sprayed into the sky. The terrible energy was transmitted along the ground and their bodies, and in just a blink of an eye, a bloody swamp was created, filled with a large number of shell and bone fragments.

"The Battle Leader made the right choice. The Doomhammer is a very suitable anti-artillery weapon for killing Tyranid creatures."

Bahram murmured to himself:

"It seems that every detail and characteristic of Tyranids is under the control of the Battle Leader. The Imperium seems to have not contacted the Tyranid fleet many times so far. Did the Battle Leader come to such a precise judgment based solely on the Mechanicum's data or."

"Captain, the enemy is entering the range."

Hearing Jacob's reminder, Bahram retracted his gaze from this shocking scene, and then said to him:

"Let the Whirlwind Missile Squad fire and shoot the first interception line according to the predetermined parameters."

"Yes."

Then he said to the Tech-Priest:

"According to the requirements, we must transmit the observation images after this shelling to the headquarters."

"Captain Bahram, it is already being executed."

"Well, thank you."

Upon receiving the order, 9 Whirlwind Missile Launchers began to launch rockets in unison. These rockets flew over the heads of the defenders and fell directly onto the rocky foothills, where the claws of the Tyranid swarm had just stepped onto this area.

Boom—

Accompanied by undulating explosions, the crimson flames suddenly swelled and rolled like ignited gunpowder, engulfing countless Tyranid creatures.

9 Whirlwind Missile Launchers fired more than 540 small incendiary rockets at once, forming a wall of fire about three kilometers long and an average of five hundred meters wide. The spilled aggregated burning material can create a high temperature of about 1,000 degrees Celsius, which is enough to pose a deadly threat to small and medium-sized Tyranid creatures.

Within seconds, tens of thousands of Tyranid creatures turned into rolling coke, but more, driven by the hive mind, threw themselves into the sea of fire without hesitation.