Argus Residential District.
Passing through that broken giant gate, the world changed instantly.
No longer open yellow sands and gravel; dense prefabricated houses and crisscrossing gas pipes wound through the streets like intestines.
The air was thick with the smell of engine oil and the sour rot of household waste.
It was too quiet here.
No cries of civilians, no Orkish “Waaagh!” Only the crunch of tracks over gravel echoed in the deathly silent streets.
Alex’s gaze swept across those dark windows and alleyways.
His Pilot’s intuition told him with 1,100% certainty that there were enemies here.
“Zzz…
zzz…” The sky began to change color.
The originally greyish-yellow clouds took on a sickly purplish-red hue.
A sharp whistling sound came from overhead—the sound of high-speed objects frictioning against the atmosphere.
Massive, sac-like objects trailed dark red wakes, slamming into the depths of the city like a meteor shower.
Their surfaces were covered in chitinous shells, and at this distance, one could even see the pulsating blood vessels on them.
“Another airdrop?” Alex instinctively looked at Tarkus, who was hanging onto the side of the vehicle.
Tarkus looked up, his eyepieces reflecting the falling meteors of flesh and blood.
His voice was as cold as the night wind.
“No.
Those aren’t ours.” Boom—!!!
“Xenos!!
Contact on the right!!” “Suppressive fire!!” Combat erupted in an instant.
This wasn’t the messy charge of the Orks.
Countless Tyranid Lictors stepped over walls, pipes, and even the corpses of their kin, rolling toward the convoy like a purple carpet.
Alex held the trigger down.
The multi-laser drew a web of fire in the narrow street, shredding the pouncing Tyranid Swarm.
But before the corpses could even hit the ground, the bugs behind them were already jumping over the shredded meat.
“Don’t stop!!
Push through!!” Tarkus gave the order.
“The objective is in the plaza!
The Captain is there!” The chimera smashed through the barricades.
The moment it rushed into the central plaza, there was no room to “stop and observe the situation.” Because there were no spectator seats here, only a meat grinder.
The ruins of the fountain in the center of the plaza had become an island.
Davian Tull stood there, the massive heavy bolter in his hands roaring like a pile driver.
Beside him, two or three heavily wounded Tactical Space Marines and a few remaining Scouts formed a steel hedgehog, back-to-back, desperately blocking the purple tide surging from all directions.
“Fire!
Don’t let the vehicle stop!” Tarkus didn’t even wait for the vehicle to come to a full stop.
Holding his Bolter in one hand, he unleashed a round of precise shots at the Tyranid Swarm pouncing from the left flank.
Tros and the other Defense Forces veterans rested their Lasguns on the firing slits.
Red beams poured out frantically; though they couldn’t penetrate the thick carapaces, they were enough to scorch the light Tyranid Lictors’ flesh.
The multi-laser shrieked.
Red blades of light swept across, instantly slicing a group of Termagants attempting to ambush Tur from the flank into twitching fragments.
This sudden round of heavy fire support forcibly tore a hole in the airtight encirclement.
At the center of the storm, Tur snapped his head around.
When he saw the chimera rushing in, along with Tarkus and his squad firing wildly, his blood-stained face showed no joy.
On the contrary, he was furious.
“Who told you to come here!!” Tur’s voice rose above the roar of the heavy bolter—a true roar.
“I ordered a full evacuation!
That was an order!!” The heavy bolter in his hands was smoking white from overheating, but he still used it like a hammer to smash the head of a pouncing Tyranid Lictor.
“You shouldn’t be here!
The Blood Ravens cannot all be buried here!” However, no one answered him.
Avitus stood directly on the open ground without any cover.
He set up his heavy bolter and began a violent metal storm against the Tyranids in front of Tur.
“Shut up, Captain,” Avitus growled.
This was likely the first time he had been so disrespectful to his superior.
“Save your strength for killing bugs.” Thaddeus activated his jump pack, leaping over the Tyranid tide like a red falcon, landing directly at a gap in the defensive line beside Tur.
His Chainsword swung into an impassable barrier of death.
Tarkus said nothing, only advancing silently, using his Bolter to clear the Captain’s flanks.
Alex sat in the turret, listening to Tur’s exasperated roars and the Astartes’ silence—a silence as stubborn as their gunfire—over the comms channel.
He froze for a moment.
These crazy war machines…
were they treating their Commander’s orders like hot air just to save their brothers?
The corners of Alex’s mouth curled up uncontrollably…
Interesting.
It reminded him of his days in the Frontier War.
It reminded him of comrades who, even when a Titan had self-destructed, would charge into the enemy ranks with only a dozen rounds in their pistols to drag him out.
“Fine then.” Alex focused his mind.
The nanites in his body began to work in earnest.
The laziness and playfulness in his eyes vanished, replaced by the focus of an Ace Pilot.
In other words, now his vision was full of target boxes—if there’s a box, you hit it, right?
Since you guys are being so loyal, I can’t be too pathetic either.
He gripped the control stick.
His fingers were no longer casually pulling the trigger.
He stopped resisting and waited for the multi-laser to perform its “meter-reversing” feat.
Now was not the time to worry about dying!
The multi-laser’s rate of fire suddenly spiked.
But Alex didn’t aim for broad coverage.
Each of his shots was extremely precise—specifically breaking the bugs’ legs, incinerating acid-spitting organs, and accurately filling the gaps in firepower while the Astartes reloaded.
Just then, the sky changed.
A terrifying screech slammed down vertically.
A spore pod, larger than any before, slammed down precisely less than twenty meters behind Tur.
Bang—!
The dull thud of bursting flesh.
Amidst the splashing slime, a massive figure stood up.
It was a head taller than an Astartes, its four arms wielding bone swords and lash whips, its chitinous carapace shimmering with an aura.
A Tyranid Warrior.
The timing of its appearance was too malicious—just as Tur had emptied his belt and was in the middle of a stiff turn.
“Captain!
Behind you!!” Thaddeus tried to move back to help, but three Tyranid Lictors bit down hard on his leg armor.
Tur heard the wind.
He tried to turn, tried to raise that heavy heavy bolter as a shield.
But it was too slow.
The Tyranid Warrior let out a sharp hiss, its form like a bolt of purple lightning as it crashed directly into Tur’s defensive circle.
That sharp bone sword pierced through the ceramite, pierced through the Astartes’ tough flesh, and buried itself deep into Tur’s left shoulder, going straight through to his back.
Tur grunted, the massive impact making him stagger backward.
Immediately after, the Tyranid Warrior’s second hand—a lash whip with venomous barbs—coiled tightly around Tur’s neck.
The barbs pierced the gaps in his neck armor, and paralyzing toxins seeped in through the seal.
The power armor’s servo feedback suddenly distorted.
“No—!!!” Avitus let out a beast-like roar.
This Ravager, known for his cruelty, wanted to turn his gun, but his position was too poor.
If he wasn’t careful, his bolter rounds would blow both Tur and the bug to pieces.
“mortal!!” Avitus pointed at the Tyranid Warrior preparing for the killing blow, his voice as hoarse as if he had swallowed sand: “Suppress it!!
Pin its head to the ground!!” He didn’t need to say it twice.
Before Avitus even spoke, Alex’s turret had already turned.
Alex held his breath.
In his eyes, the world was reduced to only that purple head.
Zzz—!
The first laser shot precisely hit the Tyranid Warrior’s elbow joint as it swung its bone sword.
The high temperature instantly vaporized the cartilage at the connection.
The Tyranid Warrior’s movement stiffened abruptly.
The bone sword veered away from Tur’s carotid artery and struck his shoulder pauldron.
Zzz—!
Zzz—!
Alex’s hands were as steady as if he were performing microsurgery.
The laser beams accurately blinded one of the Tyranid Warrior’s compound eyes and severed the lash whip coiled around Tur’s neck.
“Roar—!!” The Tyranid Warrior let out a cry of pain and was forced to release Tur, raising its bone sword to try and block the disgustingly accurate lasers.
This was the chance.
Tarkus threw aside his empty Bolter and drew his combat knife, charging forward like an out-of-control tank.
Taking advantage of the moment the Tyranid Warrior was pinned down by Alex’s lasers, Tarkus slammed hard into the monster’s flank, knocking it away from Tur.
“Thaddeus!” The young Assault Marine finally broke free from the entanglement.
He activated his jump pack and descended from the sky, his Chainsword carrying the fury of vengeance as it cleaved hard into the Tyranid Warrior’s skull, which had already been scorched brittle by the lasers.
The serrated teeth roared.
Tyranid blood erupted.
Before the Tyranid Warrior’s corpse had even fully cooled, the Tyranid Swarm began to close in again.
There was no sadness or fear; they possessed no emotional fluctuations belonging to sentient beings.
Those purple monsters simply stepped over the corpses of their kin and continued to surge forward, as naturally as seawater filling a sandpit after the tide.