The Emperor’s Angel of Death

#2156 - The bloody battle is in full swing

Following Oranios' advice, Arnie rearranged the positions, setting up several circular strongholds based on the original trenches, placing concentrated anti-vehicle teams and some heavy firepower teams in them, and deploying a large number of anti-infantry and anti-armor mines in advance.

However, the enemy didn't give them much time. As the mine-laying was only halfway done, savage and chilling howls, accompanied by the sound of rocks shattering, came from the front of the defense line.

Accompanied by a slight earthquake, a massive, mechanical insect-like thing broke through the rocks and rushed out, then opened a ramp like a blood basin's mouth.

Just when they thought a large number of enemies would pour out of it, the head of this giant machine suddenly lit up.

"Take cover!!!"

Oranios seemed to know what was about to happen and roared. Hayes and the others stumbled back into the trenches, and then the ground began to tremble with the sound of explosions.

They gasped for breath, hugged their heads, and lay on the ground, listening to all kinds of terrifying sounds screaming, roaring, and rumbling above them.

A few minutes later, the attack seemed to finally end. Hayes and the others cautiously poked their heads out, greeted by a battlefield riddled with craters. They didn't even know if they were attacked by shells or something else, but some trenches were already filled with piles of dead bodies.

Looking at the tragic scene before him, Hayes felt a burst of dizziness.

But at least he was still alive.

Looking back at the machine that had broken through the rock wall, Hayes was surprised to find that its form had changed, seemingly turning into a bronze high wall like a devil's smile, covered with weapons that looked like claws and fangs. The devil's lower jaw slowly opened, and a real door opened.

"Kill!!!"

Amidst the sound of drums and shouts, countless cultists poured out of the red-glowing gate. Hayes finally understood why the front positions had fallen so quickly.

"This thing..."

Looking at the evil mechanical door, Arnie felt deeply uneasy. If he was not mistaken, this thing itself should also be a daemon engine, and its size and power were even more amazing. Not only could it penetrate solid rock formations, but it could also provide fierce fire support.

Now he didn't know what kind of structure was behind this thing, let alone how many enemies were behind it. The best response was to destroy it.

But this was underground, and their heavy artillery and vehicles were of little use.

Suddenly, an idea arose, and Arnie made a decisive decision.

"Order the rear artillery battalion to quickly transport the Earthshaker Cannons to the front line! Also, order the Hydra flak vehicle crews to unload the anti-aircraft guns!"

At this time, Hayes and the others couldn't think so much. All they wanted was to fire everything they had at the enemy.

Lasguns, lumberjack guns, grenade launchers—all light weapons were roaring, taking down one crazy cultist after another, but they seemed endless and continued to pour in. No matter how many screaming comrades died, their attacks would not waver.

When the foremost "lucky ones" approached within 150 meters of the defense line, a number of soldiers holding flamethrowers stood up, straightened their bodies, pointed their guns at the trench railings, and unleashed an expanding yellow-black cone of fire at the nearest enemy.

Screaming, hordes of heretics disappeared into a burning fog of agony.

Soon, all Hayes could see was a curtain of fire rising directly in front of him, and the air was filled with thick smoke and the foul odor of burning alien flesh.

Just as the flamer troops jumped back into the trenches, dull gunshots rang out, and several of them were directly cut in half, their severed bodies plunging into the trench.

Chaos Space Marines had appeared.

They drove more cultists forward, like a crimson tide of madness. Many Chaos Space Marines held a huge pistol in one hand and a chainsword or chainaxe in the other. They looked even scarier than the ones Hayes had seen before. Their armor was covered in twisted mutations. He even saw a being taller than the other Chaos Space Marines. Its armor was so heavy, and its helmet had prominent yellow scythe-like tusks on either side. A row of three severed human heads hung on the monster's rear trophy spikes like grotesque spectators.

As the giant twin-linked bolter in the opponent's hand fired, Hayes heard bullets whizzing past him. His lasgun seemed to react of its own accord, and a laser beam flew past the humanoid behemoth's shoulder, hitting one of the trophies behind it.

At the same time, Habry also fired the heavy bolter, hitting the enemy's chest, but the huge monster was not afraid and did not slow down at all.

"That's a Terminator! Anti-vehicle team! Use plasma guns!"

As Hayes fired at it again, a series of plasma blasts hit the monster's left leg, shoulder, chest, and then face.

Until the end, the seemingly unstoppable monster let out a final angry roar and fell to the ground dead.

However, any brief joy Hayes felt at the victory quickly vanished, as he saw more Chaos Space Marines appear, as well as more of these huge monsters called Terminators.

At the same time, the huge "door" began to roar again, and huge fireballs, as well as various screaming flaming skulls, flew out of its eyes and the overgrown muzzles and claws, passing over the heads of those heretics and smashing into the Imperial defense line.

A machine gun squad didn't have time to transfer. Hayes watched them instantly engulfed by the exploding flames, and some even flew four or five meters into the air, emitting chilling screams.

Under the intense bombardment, although reasonable deployments had been made and solid fortifications had been built, many autocannons, grenade launchers, and lascannons fell silent.

"Withdraw! Retreat to the rear defense line!"

The officers began to call for a transfer. Hayes and his squad also quickly collected the heavy bolter and ran to the next circular position. At this time, the artillerymen of their regiment had brought the Earthshaker Cannons to the rear of the battlefield, but it was not very far from the combat front, less than a thousand meters away.

The soldiers began to run towards the rear line, desperately swiping their legs at a desperate speed. Bullets and shrapnel and lasers flew around them. Many people fell to the ground and died in the tide, their bodies pierced by shrapnel and bullets, or torn into bloody fragments by explosions.

"Concussion grenades!"

Oranios shouted into his comm-link.

"Throw concussion grenades!"

In response, within seconds, a long wall of flashing light and shockwaves appeared in front of their previous trenches.

If the soldiers could immediately transfer to the new defense line, they might survive, but for most, it only delayed death.