The Emperor’s Angel of Death

Chapter 3211: Greenskins, More Greenskins

For this trip to Volistad, Zoshyan brought very few Space Marines. Because it seemed like all available equipment and troops were on standby, ready to provide support at any moment, he only took the Astral Knight's 1st Company and a prospecting team consisting of forge world priests and sages from the Steel Stars.

After all, Volistad wasn't too far away, located in the Tempest Sector near the Segmentum Pacificus. He didn't anticipate any major issues.

However, before even arriving there, Zoshyan received news.

Volistad had been invaded by Greenskins!

Well, Zoshyan couldn't help but feel that the Greenskins were indeed becoming increasingly rampant. About 30-40% of the warp space distress signals received were related to Greenskins, as if they had suddenly entered a boom period and were attacking on all fronts.

But in a way, Zoshyan had indeed come at the right time, because the Greenskins had already penetrated deep into the Volistad system's core, occupying most of the system and besieging Volistad Prime. The astropathic messages sent by Volistad had not been answered quickly, and if they waited for reinforcements, the situation might have already deteriorated significantly.

At this point, Zoshyan had a company of Space Marines and an Abyss-class battleship at his disposal, as well as some armed forces from the Holy Order of the Blazing Heart – Zoshyan's idea was that since they were already here, they might as well properly transform this 'place of sorrow'.

The Adeptus Mechanicus had 18 ships, including 4 large vessels, as well as approximately 400,000 Militarum Protecta, accompanying automata, and war engines.

But the scale of the Greenskin invasion seemed quite large. According to scans, there were nearly a hundred ships active within the system, all of which should be Greenskin vessels, mostly concentrated near Volistad Prime.

Zoshyan then quickly formulated a plan: first, liberate Volistad IV, because it had an orbital airport that didn't seem too severely damaged, but had already been occupied by the Greenskins. It could serve as a springboard for attack, or rather, lure the Greenskin fleet over.

With the Randle at hand, Zoshyan wasn't too worried about how much trouble the Greenskins' cobbled-together ships could cause, as long as they didn't get boarded on a large scale, they couldn't possibly lose.

After formulating the plan, they immediately began to act. The fleet pierced into the Greenskin-infested system like a sword and was immediately discovered by the Greenskin small craft wandering around. However, it must be said that the Greenskins were really bold, even seeing a giant ship like the Abyss-class, they dared to attack with a 'let's try' mentality, and of course, they were instantly wiped out from the universe, leaving not a single trace.

After that, the fleet arrived all the way to Volistad IV. The Greenskins here never expected enemies to suddenly appear, and even the ships hadn't escaped from the vicinity of the planet before they were all destroyed.

Then came the boarding led by Zoshyan himself.

He and the warriors of the 1st Company spent half an hour killing their way through the airport, eliminating the Greenskin bandits entrenched in the depths of the airport control center and their Mek boss. At this time, the Greenskins had already begun to dismantle the airport facilities, preparing to piece together new scrap ships. If it weren't for Zoshyan's arrival, the airport might have been gone.

After controlling the airport, Zoshyan ordered the activation of all defensive weapons to prevent other Greenskin ships from attacking the planet. Immediately afterward, the Militarum Protecta of the Adeptus Mechanicus also began to enter in large numbers to clear the remaining Greenskins.

With the orbit secured, it was the ground's turn. Volistad IV itself was not large and had no important resources. It just had grain and minerals. The invading Greenskins were not many, but they had already made it difficult to resist. There were tragic scenes of corpses everywhere. Now the population was basically cowering in several large cities, trembling under the Greenskin siege.

This didn't even require Space Marines to take action. The aerial strike force composed of ornithopters and dragonflies only took a few hours to defeat all the Greenskins, but it was not so quick to completely eliminate the Greenskins on the planet. Zoshyan could only leave some Militarum Protecta, and then send a few small ships to attack those fleets besieging Volistad – Greenskins are very sensitive in many cases, and they often show incredible slowness. Volistad IV has been liberated, and the fleet besieging the main star seems to have no decision, or rather, they do not have an early warning mechanism.

Zoshyan was very familiar with Greenskin enemies. They may be cunning, but they all have one characteristic, that is, they cannot stand provocation, and they can easily be angered and launch reckless attacks.

Things were as he thought. The Greenskin ships, which were originally 'bored' and staying in orbit throwing garbage at the planet, immediately abandoned their original mission as soon as they saw a new enemy appear, like a disturbed swarm of bees, and rushed towards the Adeptus Mechanicus ships. Those ships did not engage in battle and turned around and left.

Naturally, the Greenskin ships also launched a chaotic pursuit, and due to their speed inconsistency, a line was quickly formed behind several fast ships. When approaching Volistad IV, the activated orbital weapons took the lead in firing, destroying several Greenskin ships. This not only did not stop their pursuit, but instead aroused their desire to attack, pushing the ship engines to the limit.

At this moment, the ready-to-go Randle struck, attacking the pursuing Greenskin ships from the side with several large Adeptus Mechanicus ships.

Like a sharp knife cutting through muscle, the Greenskin fleet, which had been pulled into a straight line, was directly divided into two. The Randle was like a predator rushing into a school of fish, using terrifying heavy artillery to evaporate the Greenskin ships at the rear of the queue one by one, while the Adeptus Mechanicus ships began to encircle and suppress the enemies in the first half.

Although it is a very cliché and simple tactic of luring the enemy into an ambush, it can only be said that it has always been applicable to deal with Greenskins.

Faced with the overwhelming firepower of the human fleet, the Greenskins also showed their second characteristic - they are not afraid of ruthless enemies, but they are afraid of many enemies.

Even if they were destroyed by the Randle like slaughter, they still rushed to attack this giant ship one after another, just like primitive tribes waving spears to besiege giant beasts. In this case, some Greenskin aircraft really approached the Randle, but fortunately, there was a strong fighter squadron in the Randle's hangar, and these annoying flies did not succeed in landing on the Randle.

After several hours of fierce fighting, most of the Greenskin ships were destroyed, and the surviving Greenskin ships immediately dispersed like birds and beasts after realizing that their numbers were insufficient.

The human side only lost two Adeptus Mechanicus frigates and some scars on the Randle's outer shell.

After winning the naval battle, the fleet immediately approached Volistad Prime and quickly contacted the planet's garrison.

After a brief communication, Zoshyan judged that the current situation on the planet could only be said to be relatively bad, but not so bad.