The Emperor’s Angel of Death

Chapter 3070: Forced Landing

More terrifying than the massive warp hole were the changes in realspace. Under the pull of those Tyranid satellites' mysterious power, the gravity wells of the galaxy began to shift.

The once-desolate galaxy instantly became turbulent, with celestial bodies shifting and meteoroids flying everywhere. Byrnoth stared intently at the various panels, calmly directing the fleet to accelerate through the Tyranid blockade.

“Gravity correction factor, 441.”

“Engine output power increased to 89%, unable to rise further!”

“Activating auxiliary power!”

“Gravity correction factor, 497! Danger level reached!”

“Adjust heading, 171!”

When the positions of celestial bodies in the galaxy began to change, a human fleet would likely have been disoriented by the turbulent gravity. However, the Hearthkyn ships' unique design and superior computing power allowed them to make minute adjustments to speed and direction in real-time, minimizing the risk of being caught in a planet's gravity well.

Even so, the fleet's speed inevitably decreased, and the fastest of the smaller bio-ships were closing within attack range.

“Initiate suppressive fire on marked areas!”

As railguns and lasers flashed in the void, Tyranid bio-ships convulsed and died. The heavy conversion beam cannons could directly obliterate the smaller bio-ships.

But the Tyranids were too numerous. Those Tyranid satellites not only awakened the existing bio-ships but were also constantly creating new ones. On the Hearthkyn warships' scanning instruments, the entire galaxy was rapidly being filled with dense red dots.

Soon, a planet that had turned a filthy yellow-green color appeared in the viewports. At this moment, various piercing warning sounds began to blare on the bridge's instruments, and even the emergency lights began to flash.

“Massive psychic signals detected!”

“Navigation equipment severely disrupted!”

“Communications array severely disrupted!”

“Fire control system severely disrupted!”

The series of warnings caused Byrnoth's hard face to almost wrinkle into a landscape of rolling hills. Fortunately, the Hearthkyn had relatively high psychic resistance, which meant their equipment was also more resistant to psychic attacks (the equivalent of having 20% magic resistance). So, for the moment, there was no imminent danger.

But if this continued, things would not be good.

“Change heading to 220, skim past the planet's high orbit, activate auxiliary thrusters.”

Then, he opened internal communications.

“Chapter Master Torson, in approximately 10 minutes, we will pass the planet's high orbit point. At that time, we will open the flight decks, with only about a 2-minute window.”

“Acknowledged.”

Ten minutes later, the Hearthkyn fleet rapidly skimmed past the planet's high orbit point, while behind them and on all sides, they were surrounded by a dense swarm of bio-ships.

As the flight decks opened one by one, Stormravens and Stormhawks in silver-grey livery detached from the ships and headed straight for the murky planetary atmosphere, followed by two Blackstar gunships, and finally two unmanned Stormbirds—for this operation, Torson did not choose the traditional Thunderhawks, but instead selected 10 Stormravens, 10 Stormhawks, and 12 Stormtalons.

The smaller Stormravens carried squads of nine warriors, while the larger Stormhawks carried the Terminators of the 1st Company.

These Stormhawks and Stormravens were relatively new equipment, not relics from the Legion's armory. The Stormhawk was a new piece of equipment that appeared late in the Great Crusade, mainly produced by the two Forge Worlds of Tigrus and Anvilus IX. However, since these two Forge Worlds fell to the Traitors, the production of Stormhawks has greatly decreased. Compared to the Thunderhawk, the Stormhawk is smaller, but its structure and flight system are more complex, and its construction time is longer. Today, only a few Forge Worlds in the Imperium can still produce them. In addition, only Chapters skilled in manufacturing, such as the Salamanders and Iron Hands, still maintain a considerable number of Stormhawks, while the stocks of other Chapters are dwindling due to technical losses and battlefield attrition.

However, Ulan Huda, as a former supply world for the Eighth Legion, retained most of the STCs for Great Crusade equipment, including the Stormhawk. Therefore, while manufacturing large numbers of Stormtalons and Stormhawks, they also produced Stormhawks in small batches. However, because the Chapter had become accustomed to using Thunderhawks and larger vehicles like the Stormbird, the Stormhawk's role was somewhat awkward, and it was used relatively infrequently.

The Stormraven's role was similar, and it was even smaller than the Stormhawk. It is one of the newer pieces of equipment in the Astartes armory, but for a complex and faction-ridden bureaucracy like the Imperium of Man, there is no record of when the Stormraven entered service. However, there are rumors that the Stormraven's STC template was discovered by a Blood Angel's Techmarine apprentice during a study abroad program in the early M41 in a long-forgotten Mechanicus archive on Mars.

One important reason for Torson's choice of these two aircraft was simply speed and maneuverability.

In past battles, air and orbital superiority were mostly in their hands. In this situation, transport vehicles with greater capacity, such as Thunderhawks and Stormbirds, were naturally more useful. After all, the single transport volume determines the number of people that can be deployed on the battlefield within a certain amount of time. In this case, carrying capacity is the decisive indicator. The other is the vehicle's defense, after all, it is necessary to consider rushing into the enemy's defense zone under artillery fire. Maneuverability and self-firepower are secondary, because at that time, they do not rely on clumsy vehicles such as Thunderhawks or Stormbirds for air support.

But this operation was different, they were going to be operating on a completely isolated world, the enemy would definitely have absolute air superiority, and there would be basically no support in orbit.

Then, the most important thing for these aircraft is speed, to ensure that they are not overwhelmed by Tyranid flying creatures, and secondly, combat capability, especially comprehensive combat capability, which can cope with air combat and ground support. For example, the Stormraven can be equipped with a twin-linked heavy bolter, and the back is also equipped with a turret equipped with twin-linked lascannons controlled by servitors. On the hardpoints of the wings, it can also carry 4 anti-armor Storm Strike missiles, and a pair of hurricane bolters are additionally installed on the side of the fuselage to enhance firepower, making its air and ground capabilities very balanced. The Stormhawk also has a similar configuration, a twin-linked heavy bolter on the nose, and a pair of twin-linked lascannons mounted on each wing, but their most powerful weapon is the twin-linked vengeance missile launcher on the top of the fuselage, this missile launcher is similar to the launcher equipped on the whirlwind missile launcher, and can carry out saturation bombing of the target range before or during the assault.

Considering this series of indicators, Torson finally chose the hawk and raven combination, and the three Stormbirds were equipped with ground vehicles and used as backup transport and escape vehicles. After they arrive on the ground, they will hide, and only re-ascend into the air in an emergency or during evacuation.