The Emperor’s Angel of Death

Chapter 2888: Deep Earth Troopers (Part 2)

"Captain, what's that?"

As the four-man squad traversed a series of hills, using the undulating terrain for cover, the sharp-eyed Kussackra seemed to spot something and quickly tapped Jacob on the shoulder.

"Let me see."

Jacob adjusted his visual enhancement device and quickly identified what Kussackra was pointing at.

It was something growing on a small hill, or rather, its lower half was the size of a small mountain. At first glance, it looked like a swollen, fleshy cheek pouch, but its size was comparable to a Titan. Thick armor plates like some kind of base surrounded it, and numerous chimneys on top were spewing out billowing yellow smoke. Countless tentacles writhed in the air, and sparks of psychic energy could be seen at their tips.

"Hmm? This is…"

Jacob opened the miniature tactical device on his arm and searched for any available information about this Tyranid organism. To his surprise, he actually found something.

"A Biovore? A Tyranid organism responsible for accelerating the digestion of planets. As a crucial part of the Tyranid Hive Fleet's consumption cycle, these swollen, fleshy cheek pouches are launched from bio-ships in orbit and fall onto the planet, then burrow underground like ticks, with only the spore chimneys at the top exposed."

Neil immediately said:

"So, this thing is responsible for the fog."

Jacob closed the tactical device, stared at the thing, and then said:

"We need to take it out, or this fog will severely interfere with our operations. It won't obscure the Tyranids' senses, only ours."

"But if we attack, we'll alert the Tyranid swarm."

"We don't have to do it ourselves, just pinpoint its coordinates."

With that, Jacob took out the third pistol, a signal gun, aimed at the Biovore a kilometer away, and pulled the trigger.

With a slight whooshing sound, a dart-like projectile lodged itself less than ten meters away from the Biovore. Its tail flashed, sending out a signal.

"Command, this is Squad Seven. Biovore located in our area, requires elimination. Signal dart deployed."

Not long after Jacob sent the signal to the rear using the communicator, a voice responded.

"Received. Comet is on its way. Please retreat to a safe area."

The four-man squad immediately began to move, quickly leaving the area where the Biovore was located. Three minutes after they left, a roar came from the distant sky, followed by three silver-gray Voss Pattern Lightning Strike Fighters bearing the insignia of the Astral Knights Chapter. One of the fighters had a blue comet painted on its wing, surrounded by hundreds of stars, representing its past victories.

As the Chapter's main air force, the Lahm Squadron was naturally assigned to ground operations in the star system. In the previous week of combat, Kano led the Lahm Squadron to shoot down hundreds of Harridans and Neurothropes, as well as 2 massive Haruspexes. However, they mostly performed ground support operations, as they had an absolute speed advantage. No Tyranid creature could catch up with them in straight flight.

However, when the Tyranids spread a large number of spore mines, the Lahm Squadron didn't "go out" much. Most of the time, they operated around the Holy Crown Mountains. Only Kano had the skill to lead a squad through the spore minefields to support infiltration teams.

But they didn't dare approach the Tyranid core area, which was full of spore mines, especially when the Biovores sensed a threat and began to spew out a large number of mine clusters to protect themselves.

"Signal received, fire."

Fortunately, with the help of new weapons, they didn't need to enter enemy territory to attack. With Kano's calm voice, the three Voss Pattern Lightning Strike Fighters launched 18 Thunderstrike Glide Bombs—a characteristic of the Voss Pattern Lightning Strike Fighter was its numerous hardpoints: 6 heavy hardpoints and 6 light hardpoints, allowing it to carry 6 glide bombs and large missiles, as well as 6 air-to-air missiles at a time.

After falling for a certain distance, the 18 glide bombs opened their wings and began to decelerate. One of their characteristics compared to missiles was that they had no engines, and therefore no heat signature.

The key to triggering spore mines was heat and vibration.

The glide bombs quickly penetrated the spore minefield, followed by a series of crackling explosions and then a roar. Obviously, some bombs had hit the spore mines.

In the end, 7 Thunderstrike Glide Bombs broke through the minefield, and then, following the signal source, plunged into the Biovore that was constantly twitching and spewing out mine clusters.

Boom——————

"Whoa!"

Kussackra turned around, looked at the huge mushroom cloud rising up, and couldn't help but exclaim.

"So spectacular."

The shockwave and strong wind from the explosion quickly swept over the four, causing their cloaks to flutter and blowing away the spore cloud for a moment.

At this time, Jacob finally saw the external scenery. A kilometer ahead, there was a large area of ​​strange landforms, with clusters of squat, rounded hills like bubbles growing out of the land, as well as deep caves and cracks that suddenly appeared on the ground, all covered with a morbid mucus. In the center was a huge structure nearly a thousand meters tall, composed of thick armor plates, swollen flesh pouches, and countless tentacles.

"Found it!"

Seemingly disturbed by the explosion, thousands of gargoyles flew up like flocks of birds from the previously empty earth, their sharp claws throwing clumps of dirt into the air, and then whistling towards the sky.

"Now we have to launch the signal dart, and then…"

Jacob said as he took out the signal gun and loaded it.

"Evacuate."

The other three covered him, carefully groping to a position about five hundred meters away from the hatchery. As for why not as far as before, it was because Jacob had to confirm whether the other party would detect the signal dart.

As the first dart was fired, Jacob carefully released a micro-reconnaissance robot to observe. He saw that in those constantly contracting and expanding empty spaces, a large number of Tyranid creatures were being hatched one after another, but they seemed to be completely unaware of the slightly glowing dart.

So Jacob fired the second one in another location.

Still no discovery, so he fired the third one as a final insurance.

"Okay, now retreat!"

Jacob had just turned around to call the three to retreat when he saw Kussackra grinding his foot on the ground, and some green liquid could be seen splashing on his leg.

"What's wrong?"

"Just now... a little bug sneaked over, and I casually stepped on it."

The next second, a roar suddenly sounded. Jacob's body stiffened, and then he immediately realized what had happened.

"Damn it! We've been discovered! Kussackra, you bastard, I'm definitely going to beat you up when we get back!"

The four began to run wildly, and behind them was a swarm of insects like a dam break. The entire hatchery seemed to erupt, spitting out countless creatures, from small ripper to the large carnifex. Obviously, the Tyranid consciousness was very sensitive to this place.