The Emperor’s Angel of Death

"Hold on, men!" General Dontchev Anton Volga roared, waving his ancestral command sword.

"Keep these green beasts out of the main trench line!"

He then raised his laser pistol, passed down for over a dozen generations, and fired. Instantly, flashes of intense light were swallowed by the onrushing horde of Orks. Even squinting, he couldn't see through the smoke and blinding sweat, unsure if he had hit anything.

But a rocket flying his way forced him to duck into a bunker. Only after it exploded two hundred meters away, sending up a cloud of dust and the remains of two unfortunate soldiers into the sky, did he dare to peek out. Looking through his binoculars, his heart sank.

The Ork tide surged forward, smoke dancing with the trails of tracer rounds. Various weapons flashed like lightning and thunder. Although mines and artillery shells constantly detonated beneath the greenskins, raising dust, blood, and severed limbs, sending their ugly corpses spinning in the air before slamming onto the ground, turning into a blurry mess of flesh and blood, the other Orks completely ignored it, trampling their comrades' remains into bloody pulp as they roared like beasts, emitting狂战战吼.

Dontchev planted his sword in the ground and grabbed his adjutant by the collar with his free hand, pulling him close and shouting into his ear:

"I ordered you to organize a suicide squad! Where are they? Where did they go? Why hasn't anyone plugged the gap yet?"

Shells and bullets streaked across the trench, accompanied by thunderous explosions. The adjutant put his mouth close to the general's ear.

"Sir, General Manoff's regiment has suffered heavy losses on the right flank. The newly formed suicide squad was reassigned there by command to reinforce them!"

"I don't give a damn! Manoff's in a hurry, so we're not? We're about to die here! Thirty-five days! We've held for thirty-five days! We're short on weapons, ammunition, manpower, everything except bloody greenskins! The regiment is either dead or dying, the defense line is shrinking every day, and we're all about to die! Is Black Bay Fortress even worth defending anymore?"

With that, he glanced behind him at the ancient castle standing atop a massive rock formation several kilometers away. It was already ravaged by war, smoke billowing from its spires, but the family banner still flew—a warrior wielding a battle-axe, the legacy of their ancestors.

Black Bay, the origin of the Volga family, the place of their prosperity. Their ancestors rose from a small lord, through cunning and courage, step by step, to become one of the three great powers of the Western Continent. The Iron Legions of the Peron Kingdom once made countless nations tremble and submit. However, compared to the Pechinka family, the Volga family lacked political flexibility. Their overly rigid militaristic style had created too many enemies. The Pechinka family used this to their advantage, employing flexible diplomacy and vast wealth to form an anti-Peron Kingdom alliance, defeating the Volga family in two crucial battles with numerical superiority, limiting their expansion.

Until the Empire arrived. The Volga family ultimately missed the opportunity to become the planetary governor, but their powerful armed forces still made the Pechinka family wary, preventing them from pushing too hard. They even offered the Volga family more than a quarter of the planetary defense force officer positions to win them over, successfully preventing unrest.

Afterward, the family maintained its militaristic traditions, influencing both the military and political spheres, becoming one of Wollistad's most prominent noble families. During this period of peace, Black Bay Fortress, once a military stronghold, transformed into a large city. Around the castle, districts and buildings sprung up one after another. Although it didn't become a hive city, it had a population of over five million at its peak, making it one of the most prosperous cities on the Western Continent. Most of the real estate still belonged to the Volga family, bringing them immense wealth.

Until the Orks arrived.

Initially, when they learned that the Pechinka family was almost finished, the family members were overjoyed, because everyone knew that their opportunity had come. With the family's influence in the military, they had a great chance to replace the cunning 'Southern Traders' as governor.

However, the rapidly deteriorating war situation delivered a head-on blow. The Orks were clearly enemies beyond their expectations. As representatives of the military, they were hit almost as hard as the Pechinka family, with over two hundred serving family members killed in action during the first week of engagements. The front line collapsed, and the damned commander-in-chief appointed by the Pechinka family continued to organize meaningless resistance, further weakening the family's strength. When the order to evacuate was given, Black Bay was already half-encircled by Orks.

In this situation, the Volga family faced a fatal dilemma.

Evacuate, or defend?

After fierce debate, the patriarch made a decision. They could not abandon their ancestors' legacy and tombs, but they could not all die here either. They could only send a portion of the direct line members to lead the non-combat family members and some civilians to evacuate, while the rest would defend Black Bay to the death!

There was also a very practical reason for doing this: if everyone evacuated, no one would be able to escape. The Orks would pursue relentlessly. After a week of fighting, they knew these enemies well. They were tireless and had various vehicles, making them far more mobile than humans burdened with families.

The only way was to attract their attention. They were warlike, and as long as there were enemies, they would ignore everything else.

In other words, those who stayed to defend would buy a chance for those who retreated to survive.

However, the brutality of the battle far exceeded their expectations. On the first day, the outer city almost fell, and hundreds of thousands of people were massacred. Many refugees were trapped in narrow alleys by the beasts, trampled each other while being hacked by blades and axes. It is said that the corpses in some alleys were piled higher than the walls on both sides.

The defenders faced too many problems. There were about two to three million people left, but most of them were not soldiers. Even if they drafted civilians, the family armory did not have enough weapons. They could only use primitive melee weapons, even homemade spears. Their combat capability was almost negligible. Furthermore, because the city was built during peacetime, there were almost no fortifications. They could only pile up temporary barricades, dig trenches, and even tear down buildings, but this was not enough for the Orks, who were even more agile than humans. But the most serious problem was supplies.

Although they had started collecting food, drinking water, and various supplies long ago, the Orks advanced too quickly, and the efficiency of human execution was too low. When the fighting really started, not much material could be transported to safety, which led to food and ammunition shortages only twenty days into the battle.

Therefore, all they could do was endure and persevere.

Seems like it's been a while since I wrote a human-beast war like this.