The instant the missile exhaust lit up the underground hall, the Primus realized it had made a fatal mistake.
It had assumed the three bipedal war machines had held their fire because they lacked firepower.
That wasn’t the reason.
They had been waiting for their targets to expose their weak points.
The seven mining vehicles had already raised their laser cannons.
Blue-white energy compressed inside each barrel, bathing the corpses of the miners welded onto the roofs in a ghostly pale glow.
Then the Goliaths fired.
Not a reckless volley.
The first wave of Hellfire missiles split into seven attack groups, arcing through the smoke and weaving around shattered walls from different directions.
One missile dove toward a turret pivot.
Another locked onto a cooling vent.
A third plunged into an exposed coolant pipeline.
The remaining missiles curved around the heavily armored fronts, striking the vulnerable rear flanks as though they instinctively knew where the machines hurt the most.
The Primus’ four eyes contracted sharply.
It slashed its bone claws through the air, commanding its followers to intercept the barrage.
Too late.
The missiles were far too fast.
The first cutting vehicle had just completed charging its cannon when its turret pivot exploded.
The massive barrel sagged.
Instead of firing at the Heavy Factory, the laser slashed diagonally into the tracks of the mining vehicle beside it.
Boom!
The tracks snapped apart.
The vehicle lurched sideways, and its massive cutting wheel gouged deep into the floor.
The second vehicle suffered even worse.
Its coolant tank ruptured.
Superheated steam and volatile promethium waste erupted from the side of the hull like a venomous serpent.
Several hybrid escorts were instantly boiled alive.
The third laser drilling vehicle tried to fire a follow-up shot.
A Hellfire missile slipped neatly through its cooling vent.
The explosion erupted from inside.
Its entire turret and half the cockpit were blown skyward.
The miners welded inside didn’t even have time to scream before they vanished in the fireball.
Behind the Taurus armored carrier, Rufus stared with his mouth hanging open.
“What the hell…” “Those are missiles?” He had seen Planetary Defense Force rockets before.
They were loud.
Produced plenty of smoke.
Whether they actually hit anything seemed to depend entirely on the Emperor’s mood.
These were different.
They turned.
They threaded through gaps.
They searched for wounds.
For the first time in his life, Rufus felt that every so-called heavy weapon the Underhive gangs bragged about amounted to children waving metal pipes at stray dogs.
Helena watched the chain of explosions in silence.
She no longer called it a miracle.
By now, she had learned an important lesson.
If she didn’t understand something, she shouldn’t immediately explain it with theology.
Even so, her grip tightened around her Arbites badge.
On an Imperial battlefield, destroying heavily armored vehicles usually required carefully coordinated artillery.
Tech-Priests blessing the weapons.
Servitors loading the shells.
And countless unfortunate infantrymen sacrificing their lives just to buy enough time.
Leon Drake needed none of that.
He simply gave a single order.
“Fire.” Three Goliaths answered.
One by one, they crippled the guns of seven massive mining vehicles.
Cold.
Precise.
Efficient.
That was what truly frightened her.
It wasn’t overwhelming firepower.
It was that every shot felt calculated long before the battle even began.
Leon glanced at his tactical display and finally relaxed.
A moment ago, these mining vehicles had threatened to crush his Heavy Factory.
Now…
They were turning into wreckage.
Wreckage meant minerals.
Minerals meant troops.
Troops meant survival.
“Ada.” “Count the disabled targets.” Severely disabled: Three.
Moderately damaged: Four.
Remaining operational: Five.
Enemy command node remains atop the central heavy cutting vehicle.
Leon fixed his eyes on the last line.
Enemy command node.
The Primus.
Not yet.
It couldn’t die yet.
At least…
Not so cheaply.
As long as it lived, it would keep forcing the convoy into formation.
And every attempt to regain control would expose even more weaknesses.
“Goliaths.” “Leave the Primus alone for now.” One pilot sounded genuinely disappointed.
“Commander.” “I’ve got a perfect shot at its head.” “Leave it.” Leon bit down on his cigar.
“Let it keep giving orders.” “If it stops directing traffic…” “Who’s going to line all these trucks up for delivery?” Silence filled the command channel.
Then the fat SCV pilot burst out laughing.
“Commander…” “You’re even more ruthless than I am.” Leon didn’t even blink.
“Why would I show mercy to bugs?” “They’re the ones welding miners onto vehicles.” The Goliaths immediately reassigned their fire-control systems.
The second missile wave ignored the crippled vehicles.
Instead, it targeted the machines still trying to reform their formation.
One demolition-hammer mining vehicle attempted to flank around the Hellions.
It had barely completed half its turn when a missile tore through its drive shaft.
Hundreds of tons of steel slammed into the ground.
The cutting vehicle behind it couldn’t stop in time.
It rammed straight into the disabled machine.
The enormous demolition hammer crushed its ally’s coolant tank.
Flames erupted beneath both vehicles.
A Hellion raced past, casually bathing the escaping cultists in plasma fire before disappearing into the smoke.
On the right flank, another laser vehicle tried to avoid the incoming missiles.
It had only begun rotating its turret toward a Hellion when a Goliath’s twin autocannons opened fire.
The autocannons weren’t trying to destroy the entire vehicle.
They targeted only one component.
The turret mounting ring.
Brrrt!
Brrrt!
Brrrt!
Metal fragments exploded everywhere.
The massive mining cannon lost its support and crashed onto the roof, crushing several miners still welded into their operating stations.
Leon’s eyelid twitched.
Not from sympathy.
From waste.
“Don’t smash them too badly.” “We still need to recycle those vehicles.” The Goliath pilot answered immediately.
“Understood, Commander.” “I’ll try to leave the corpse intact.” Ada corrected him without hesitation.
Vehicles do not possess corpses.
The pilot paused for a moment.
“Fine.” “I’ll leave the whole vehicle intact.” Statement accepted.
Listening to their conversation made Rufus’ scalp go numb.
These steel soldiers were dismantling machines weighing hundreds of tons…
While casually arguing with their adjutant over vocabulary.
Even the craziest maniacs in the Underhive weren’t this relaxed.
At last…
The Primus reached its limit.
It unleashed a shrill, piercing scream.
This wasn’t an ordinary command.
It was as though the entire psychic network had been twisted into a whip and lashed across every cultist and every miner welded into the convoy.
The remaining five operational mining vehicles immediately changed direction.
They stopped chasing the Hellions.
They abandoned any attempt at another firing formation.
Instead…
They converged toward the center.
The Primus intended to compress the convoy into a single armored fortress, shielding itself behind steel plating and mountains of corpses.
Helena immediately understood.
“My lord.” “It’s pulling its defenses inward.” Leon nodded.
“Yeah.” “It’s finally scared.” Of course it was afraid.
Why wouldn’t it be?
It was a senior command node of the Genestealer Cult.
The Father’s Blade within the Underhive.
The supreme commander of every hybrid follower.
But every report coming back from the Hive Mind was disastrous.
The blue-armored Marines.
The red-armored Firebats.
The bipedal war machines.
The yellow engineering vehicle.
None of them could be analyzed.
None could be infected.
None could be consumed.
Their flesh was sealed by something as cold and unyielding as forged iron.
Trying to swallow them was like forcing molten steel down its own throat.
Now…
Even the industrial vehicles it had painstakingly assembled were being stripped apart and turned into raw materials.
This was no longer a battle.
It was demolition.
And it had become the building slated for demolition.
The central heavy cutting vehicle began reversing.
The Primus intended to retreat into the maintenance tunnels beyond the hall.
The tunnels were packed with pipes and narrow rail lines.
Mining vehicles couldn’t enter.
Purestrain Genestealers and hybrid escorts could.
If it reached those tunnels…
It could regroup and prepare another ambush.
Leon had no intention of allowing that.
“Hellions.” “Cut off its escape.” Both Hellions wheeled around simultaneously, racing toward the maintenance tunnel through the burning wreckage of the mining vehicles.
Sheets of plasma fire swept across the ground, flushing every hybrid defender out into the open.
“Marines.” “Seal the tunnel entrance.” The four Marines fired alternating bursts.
Every hybrid cultist emerging from the tunnels was immediately thrown back by a hail of gauss rounds.
“Goliaths.” Leon pointed toward the central vehicle.
“Hit its legs.” All three Goliaths immediately locked onto the massive cutting vehicle.
This time…
They ignored the turret.
Ignored the front armor.
Their targets were the inner road wheels supporting the tracks.
Hellfire missiles skimmed along the ground.
First the left side exploded.
Then the right.
The giant cutting vehicle lurched violently.
The Primus nearly lost its footing.
All four arms clamped desperately around the massive cannon mount.
Old wounds split open once again.
Green blood streamed down its chitinous armor.
Helena gripped her bolt pistol tighter.
Her breathing grew noticeably heavier.
Now she finally understood the Goliath’s true strength.
It wasn’t like an Imperial Knight, reducing everything to rubble through overwhelming firepower.
Instead…
It dismantled an enemy one joint at a time.
One pipeline.
One support structure.
One critical component after another.
It didn’t challenge courage.
It didn’t compete in faith.
It only analyzed structure.
Find.
Lock.
Disassemble.
The Primus’ central cutting vehicle ground to a complete halt.
The maintenance tunnel behind it was sealed by the Hellions.
Mining vehicles on both flanks had become tangled in collisions.
Directly ahead…
Three Goliaths held unwavering missile locks.
Ada reported calmly.
Enemy vehicle formation has collapsed.
Primus maneuvering space reduced to twenty-seven meters.
Recommendation: Enter suppression phase.
Leon still didn’t order the kill.
He watched the blood-soaked four-armed monster standing atop its crippled vehicle.
It wasn’t finished.
A high-level command organism like this would never simply wait to die because a few vehicles had been destroyed.
“Nobody pushes too deep.” “Stay at least twenty meters away.” “Firebats hold the tunnel.” “Marines eliminate the escorts.” “Goliaths.” “Keep it locked.” “Don’t let it jump.” Rufus blinked.
“We’re…
not killing it?” Leon looked at him.
“Ever seen a cornered rat?” Rufus nodded.
“I have.” “Then don’t force a four-armed rat to jump into your face.” Rufus wisely kept quiet.
The Primus slowly lowered its body.
All four arms pressed against the roof of the cutting vehicle.
The layered plates across its back unfolded one by one, exposing thick bundles of dark violet muscle beneath.
Every muscle tightened like a fully drawn bowstring.
Helena’s expression changed instantly.
“My lord.” “It’s preparing to leap!” Leon had already seen it.
At the same moment, Ada’s crimson trajectory predictions flooded his HUD.
The Primus wasn’t targeting the Goliaths.
Nor the Firebats.
Its target…
Was Leon Drake.
It had finally figured it out.
If it couldn’t destroy the Heavy Factory…
Then it would kill the commander.
Leon calmly raised his customized gauss pistol.
The barrel pointed directly at the Primus.
“Come.” “Let’s see…” “Whether you can jump faster…” “Or I can put a round through your head.” All three Goliaths elevated their autocannons.
Their rotary barrels began spinning up.
The muscles across the Primus’ back contracted violently.
Its enormous body exploded off the roof of the central cutting vehicle like a launched missile.