The Emperor’s Angel of Death

Before the Tyranid swarm entered the firing range, the Stormhawks and Thunderbolts had already taken off, beginning to hunt down the remaining Gargoyles and Harpies. The sky was quickly cleared—for the sake of ground defense, Bakhram had transferred all Thunderbolts to Vestro IV. Although these old-fashioned aircraft were indeed far inferior to Fury fighters in space, they were still sufficient in the atmosphere.

At the same time, the soldiers behind the defensive line uniformly raised their weapons, because the enemy was very close. Mountain-like creatures writhed and squeezed against each other, as if an organic, complete entity was surging forward on the scorched earth.

Suddenly, a burning spear pierced the chest of a Warrior. It was an armor-piercing rocket, and the subsequent explosion completely tore its body apart.

"Fire! Fire!"

Tekhsar stood under the company banner, raising his warhammer and shouting.

"For glory! For death! For this land belonging to the Eternal Throne!"

The next second, the defensive line seemed to boil. All light and heavy firepower was activated, instantly sweeping away a large number of Tyranids.

The Stormtalon and Land Raider hunter teams also began to patrol, finding key targets such as Carnifexes to hunt down.

At the same time, the artillery in the distant rear also began to roar, launching ultra-large caliber shells into the distance. With the help of aerial reconnaissance, the Tyranid artillery positions had been locked, and the human artillery chose to preemptively strike before the enemy could fire.

In addition, Marauder bomber squadrons also took off one after another. These huge bombers cast a shadow of death on the battlefield, followed by a rain of Thunderstrike glide bombs. These glide bombs had been improved to a certain extent, mainly increasing the size and charge, making them reach an astonishing 3 tons! (Damn, the British are still using 500-pound bombs from space bombers in the space age, I really can't stand it)

After the glide bombs were released from the Marauders' bellies, they opened their short wings, gradually decreasing their altitude and speed, and under the laser guidance of low-flying Vulture gunships, they glided towards the largest Tyranid creatures.

The battlefield's clamor was quickly covered by volcanic-like roars. The 3-ton Thunderstrike glide bombs were composed of a shaped charge explosive and a thermic core. When the external shaped charge explosive detonated, the powerful impact and power instantly shattered small Tyranid creatures within a 500-meter radius of the impact point. The subsequent burst of the thermic core annihilated everything within a 50-meter radius, even if a huge Hierophant took this hit, it would turn into a pile of ashes.

Although preparations were rushed, fortunately the Eleventh Legion still had a solid foundation, and they had replenished a lot of ammunition and equipment during this period of rest, so temporary scheduling was still relatively easy.

Seeing such powerful firepower, even those frightened militiamen seemed to have gained confidence, and began to cheer on the defensive line. Some people didn't have guns, so they simply took out hunting bows and arrows and shot at the enemy, no matter how far away they were.

In the fierce battle, Tekhsar glanced at the sky. More Tyranid bio-ship wreckage was falling, but new spore cysts were also drawing fiery red trails in the air.

"I wonder how the naval battle is going. Did they fail to stop the Tyranid fleet?"

"The situation... is not good."

On the bridge of the Eternal Loyalty, bells and alarms rang continuously, and various loudspeakers kept emitting beeps and shouts.

Although the Tyranids' weapons were not as powerful as the Imperium's, there were simply too many of them. The void shields were distorted or penetrated under the impact of living torpedoes and bio-plasma. Those small bio-ships sped past in the green flames and acid liquid crystals sprayed by larger counterparts, spitting out barbs from tiny holes.

And those larger Tyranid harpies spewed out huge, barbed bio-cysts through muscle contractions. Once these cysts came into contact with the hull, they would firmly adhere and penetrate the armor, subsequently releasing swarms of Tyranid creatures.

Bakhram was not on the command throne. In fact, he hadn't spent a second on it, and had been guarding the tactical instrument. Although he looked calm, only he knew that his gauntleted hands gripping the railing were full of sweat.

Commanding a fleet was far more difficult than he had imagined. He even resented Talos for a moment for forcing him to take on this responsibility that he was not capable of, but these emotions were quickly dispelled by the grim situation and his highly concentrated attention.

According to the previous plan, a batch of Tyranids would be released into orbit, and after they were destroyed, another batch would be released. During this process, the central fleet needed to fully intercept the Tyranid fleets constantly rushing towards the planet.

The plan started smoothly. The first batch of Tyranid fleets that invaded the planet was quickly strangled, and the central fleet relied on its powerful capital ships to indeed block the Tyranids' advance for a time, but when it was time to release the second batch of Tyranid fleets, the situation changed.

The Tyranids seemed to have seen through Bakhram's plan. Although the tentacles were still reaching towards Vestro IV, this time they were coming from three directions. This put immense pressure on the central fleet, and they had to face an encirclement of about ten times their number.

Talos reached out and drew a line on the star map.

"We must move our position. There are too many enemy ships on one interception route. The fleet cannot withstand this pressure."

Then, he redrew a circle.

"Tighten the formation, the enemy's numerical advantage is too great. We must reduce the area being attacked. Obviously, the Tyranids' targets have become two: the planet and us. So, there is no need to waste effort to intercept them. They will actively entangle us."

Bakhram pondered for a moment and nodded.

"Convey my orders, tighten the formation, maintain the defensive battle group."

"Lord, a giant bio-warship is attacking us!"

Hearing the detection officer's words, Bakhram opened the video interface. He saw a huge beast leading a "school of fish" leaving the main force and accelerating towards the Eternal Loyalty. Its measured length exceeded 25 kilometers, but it did not belong to any of the marked Hive Ships. In other words, this was the sixteenth Hive Ship!

Moreover, it was very different from other Hive Ships. It was very fast, three times the speed of normal Hive Ships, and its head accounted for almost half of its body. It had a huge three-lobed maw, from which stretched tentacles comparable to small ships. When lances and macro-cannons exploded on its outer shell, they only peeled off some old fragments.

Obviously, this was a specialized assault Hive Ship.

Its target was the Eternal Loyalty, which meant that the Tyranids knew which ship was the human flagship. This was an amazing discovery.

"Could it be... that it can analyze our communication waves?"

Bakhram looked at the constantly opening and closing maw, realizing that it only needed one bite to tear the Eternal Loyalty apart, and its strengthened head was invulnerable to even the Imperium's most powerful lances and macro-cannons.