The Emperor’s Angel of Death

As the Tyranid Flying Titan, exceeding thirty meters in length and forty meters in wingspan, appeared, the Thunder Squadron immediately attempted to intercept it. However, the laser cannons and autocannons of the Thunderhawks themselves were unable to threaten the heavily armored Flying Titan, and most of their missiles had already been expended.

Despite this, the Auxiliary pilots, flying their old Thunderhawks, fought with suicidal courage against the swarming Tyranids and soaring behemoths. One Thunderhawk, too focused on attacking a Harridan, collided head-on with a suddenly turning Gargoyle. Its engine ingested a large amount of debris and exploded, sending the wreckage spiraling down in a trail of smoke.

“Squadrons 132 and 133, intercept the Gargoyles! We'll take care of the Harridan.”

Arriving at the battlefield at top speed, Kano immediately ordered the Thunder Squadron to change their targets, then took the lead, charging towards the Harridan.

The giant Flying Titan's mottled purple carapace was covered in laser scorch marks and bullet scrapes. Its eyeless head looked like a scratched wall. However, this was a misconception held by pilots unfamiliar with the Harridan. The creature's head was actually its most heavily armored part. In fact, to defend itself, it had even atrophied most of the sensory organs on its head, relying entirely on surrounding Gargoyles for visual and bio-electrical signals. Attacking the head was actually the least effective strategy.

After a sharp turn to avoid a group of Gargoyles, Kano, like a blue comet, headed straight for the Harridan's right side. With the assistance of the fire control system, he locked onto his target and opened fire in rapid succession.

Flickering plasma erupted in the middle of the Harridan's wing, at the base of its finger-like bones, where its bio-cannons were located.

Struck by the plasma, the giant Flying Titan emitted an enraged screech that created a sonic boom high in the air, but this did not prevent its vital long-range weapons from being destroyed.

This was the Harridan's true weakness. Their bio-cannons had almost no defensive protection, even more vulnerable than their thick wings. Most importantly, the Harridan did not have many weapons. Only the two bio-cannons could threaten transports and other void-capable ships. The two pairs of huge claws on its lower body were lethal to fighters, but not much of a threat to larger ships.

The Harridan, as the largest known Tyranid aerial unit, was also a major psychic node in the Tyranid air force. Its shriek after being attacked immediately attracted all nearby Tyranid creatures. Soon, Kano heard rapid warnings from his scanning device, and the screen was almost filled with dense red dots.

Kano, however, was used to this. He hit the afterburners and fired his autocannons continuously, blasting the Gargoyles trying to block him into pieces, then rapidly passed over the roaring Harridan. The other three Voss Pattern Lightning fighters in his squad suddenly swooped in from the upper right, firing their autocannons in rapid succession, destroying the Flying Titan's second bio-cannon. The Harridan, now without its bio-cannons, became even more enraged, but it did not chase the lightning-fast fighters. Instead, it accelerated towards the transport ship, as if intending to ram it head-on.

Given its weight and toughness, a head-on collision would be devastating.

While directing the squadron to attack the Harpies, Kano suddenly pushed the nose down and quickly rolled, dodging a series of rapidly approaching bio-missiles.

Four Harpies seemed to have targeted this troublesome fighter, attacking from several directions, while Gargoyles constantly appeared in his possible maneuvering paths. Although their weapons posed no threat to the agile fighter, they could interfere with its maneuvers.

Kano then released a series of decoy flares, attracting more bio-missiles, and pulled up sharply, performing a near-impossible S-maneuver. He quickly locked onto a Harpy, and after a brief burst from his autocannons, the creature fell to the ground with broken wings and a shattered spine. At this point, he seemed to ignore the Harridan heading straight for the transport ship, focusing solely on hunting Harpies.

But in reality, the true Tyranid hunters of the sky were already in position.

Three enormous silver aircraft roared down from a higher altitude, launching a volley of Hellstrike missiles at the Harridan's broad back. Then, the twin-linked Avenger bolt cannons on their noses began to scream, firing deadly armor-piercing rounds into the chitinous carapace, which had been shattered and cracked by the missiles. At the same time, the spherical turrets on both sides of the thick fuselage began to strafe the Gargoyles crowding around the Harridan with twin-linked heavy laser cannons.

These three Fire Raptors had been specifically deployed at ultra-high altitude to deal with the Harridan. Originally, when Sotha Nul received the STC for the Fire Raptor, he didn't particularly like this somewhat cumbersome fighter. However, due to the strong recommendations of Mazhar and others, he still placed some orders with forge worlds like Gryphonne IV, but modified the turrets on the sides of the fuselage, changing them to energy weapons, because Avenger bolt cannons consumed a lot of ammunition. If the sides also used projectile weapons, the ammunition capacity would be insufficient, affecting operational endurance. Fortunately, the Fire Raptor's power supply was sufficient to equip a certain number of energy weapons.

Even though only twelve were eventually produced, they spent most of their time gathering dust in warehouses, with little use in subsequent battles. However, when fighting the Tyranid, the Fire Raptor suddenly had a very important mission. The Space Marine's existing arsenal of fighters, including the Stormtalon, had difficulty killing a Titan-class creature like the Harridan in a short time, and the Thunderhawk was not fast enough, making such missions very risky and easily getting entangled by large numbers of Gargoyles.

As a variant of the Storm Eagle, the Fire Raptor inherited the Storm Eagle's speed and maneuverability, making it faster and more agile than the Thunderhawk. In terms of firepower, the twin-linked Avenger bolt cannons did not have the instantaneous destructive power of the Thunderhawk's turbo-laser destructor, but had stronger sustained attack capability and were no less lethal, making them more suitable for dealing with relatively fast-moving aerial targets.

So the long-neglected Fire Raptor finally found its place on the Tyranid battlefield. They formed hunting squads of three, doing nothing but patrolling at ultra-high altitude. As soon as there was news of a Harridan, they immediately rushed to hunt it down. With their fierce firepower and extreme speed, even swarms of Gargoyles could not stop them.

Struck by the Fire Raptors' heavy fire, the massive Harridan finally could not hold on. Streams of pus and blood spurted from its giant, toothed maw, and various fragments mixed with shattered soft tissue rained down on the ground.

The fatal blow came from the wing root on the left. A series of bullets tore through the tendons, causing it to lose its balance completely. Although it flapped its wings forcefully, it still began to fall uncontrollably.

The three Fire Raptors pursued it all the way, and only after the Harridan had completely lost its ability to fly and crashed to the ground did they turn around and head towards the upper atmosphere, accompanying the trembling transport ship.

After a terrifying voyage, although some Tyranid creatures were nailed to the outside of the hull, the transport ship still reached the edge of the atmosphere and began to head towards a safe orbit, but the Rahman Detachment's mission was not over, because the second transport ship was also ascending.