Chapter 1093 Chaotic Hive
The moment the alarm sounded, the entire New Damask nest began to boil like an ant nest that had been punctured.
Kalia's apartment was on the seventh floor of Block H. Through the rusty ventilation windows, she saw tens of thousands of residents pouring into the main road like a tide.
The whistles of the security forces rose one after another, interweaving with the shrill alarms to form a suffocating storm of noise.
"Your Majesty, the Emperor..."
"Quick! Put on the emergency lights!"
The mother's voice was trembling as she roughly put a coat on Kalia.
The cuffs of his jacket were still stained with engine oil from the factory yesterday, but now they had become his most precious possession.
There were chaotic footsteps in the corridor, people were screaming, children were crying, and there was the harsh sound of heavy metal objects being dragged across the ground.
As they rushed out onto the street, Leah's bare foot stepped on something sticky: a crushed communicator with the unread evacuation notice still displayed on the screen.
Overhead, three patrol airships from the Sheriff's Bureau were sweeping the crowd with dazzling searchlights. Wherever the white light went, it illuminated every face distorted with fear.
The chaos on Central Avenue was beyond anyone's imagination.
Kalia clutched the corner of her mother's clothes tightly, feeling like a fallen leaf in a storm.
The squeeze of the crowd made her ribs ache, and every breath was filled with the strong smell of sweat and blood.
"Get out of the way! Get out of the way!"
A team of sheriffs led the way, wielding stun batons, their explosion-proof masks reflecting the cold light under the searchlights.
Suddenly, there was a loud explosion ahead, and the shock wave made the crowd on the entire street rise and fall like waves of wheat.
Leah saw a ball of fire rising from the commercial district and pieces of burning billboards raining down.
"Mom! My feet..."
Leah's cries were drowned out by the noise.
Her left foot was stuck in the gap of the gutter. Her shoe had long since disappeared, and the rough metal edge was now cutting her delicate skin.
The mother knelt down and pulled desperately, but more panicked refugees stepped on them.
The bridge of the rescue ship in orbit has now become the command center of hell on earth.
Captain Craig's uniform was soaked with sweat, and every scene on the surveillance screen was more terrifying than a nightmare.
The refugees on the D deck were chopping at the ventilation ducts with fire axes. The oxygen reserve in the E area medical cabin was only 17%, and the overload alarm in the cargo hold No. had been ringing for two hours...
"Captain! Six more lifeboats are coming!" The sensor operator's voice was tearful.
Craig looked at another screen where the Emperor's Children fleet was adjusting its formation, with the muzzles of its cyclone torpedoes aimed at the planet.
He remembered that his wife and daughter were still in the C Block dormitory, which had been occupied by the mob for three hours.
"Initiate... initiate emergency escape procedure!" His voice was so soft that it was almost inaudible.
When the hydraulic lock of the docking bay was released, the twelve lifeboats that had not yet completed the transfer floated into the void like kites with broken strings.
The ventilation shaft in Area H-112 became the most brutal arena for survival.
Old Thomas watched his young and strong co-workers climb up like spiders, while the elderly and children were pushed to the edge.
The walls of the well were covered in blood and shed skin, and every vibration of the steel beams triggered a new round of screams.
"Damn it! Grab my hand!"
Thomas struggled to pull a girl onto the platform, her right leg twisted at a terrible angle.
Thirty meters below them, a homemade lifting platform was disintegrating, and a dozen workers fell like dolls.
The screams bounced off the walls of the well, eventually turning into a strange harmony.
The most despairing thing was the sight when one looked up. Through the criss-crossing steel frame structures, one could see hundreds of similar ventilation shafts filled with survivors.
Some people had been climbing for a whole day but were still lingering on the middle level; some chose to jump into the adjacent shaft, only to crash into the beams and be smashed to pieces.
In the tactical command room of the Emperor's Children Legion's flagship, Fulgrim's fingertips moved across the holographic star map, and the twelve worlds that were about to be destroyed flashed scarlet light under his hands.
When his finger stopped on the projection of Harvest III, Eidolon's voice suddenly came from the communication channel: "Father, the Seventh Company reported that... civilians are attacking the defense line of the local planetary defense force."
The holographic screen switched to real-time images of the seventh sector of the hive city. Tens of thousands of civilians knelt in front of the blockade set up by the Emperor's Children. Mothers held their babies high, and the elderly held the statues of the Emperor. Their cries even penetrated the battleship's soundproofing system.
"Report on evacuation progress."
"Less than 40 percent is complete, Master Primarch."
"Too slow." Fulgrim shook his head.
"Send one of our companies down there to speed up the transport."
........................
Over the ruins of Hive City H-7, thirty Thunderhawk gunships suddenly broke through the thick smoke.
Unlike the usual combat configuration, these aircraft have been stripped of all heavy weapons, and have temporarily installed medical cabins and cargo containers hanging under their bellies.
"Pay attention to the altitude!" Cassius, the captain of the 7th Company, ordered on the communicator.
"These buildings are structurally unstable, please be careful."
His Thunderhawk hovered with amazing precision over a crumbling apartment building.
When the hatch opened, five three-meter-tall purple-armored giants slid down the rappelling ropes, their power armor gleaming with a luxurious luster in the firelight.
"In the name of the Emperor!" Cassius' voice came through the helmet loudspeaker.
“Women and children board first!”
The residents of the slums were stunned. These angels of death of the Emperor, who they could only look up to on weekdays, were now kneeling on one knee, carefully holding up the crying baby with their hands covered with fine armor.
An old woman trembled as she touched the eagle emblem on the captain's shoulder armor. Cassius not only did not stop her, but instead lowered his head to let her touch his helmet.
"Look!"
Someone suddenly pointed to the sky and several Stormbirds flew across the sky.
"They are escorting us!"
Six transports filled with civilians were slowly taking to the air, surrounded by groups of Emperor's Children fighters.
"Speed up your boarding! For the Emperor's sake!"
The planetary defense forces sent the civilians onto the Thunderhawk gunships and then rushed to pick up the next group of people.
And in the underground pipe network of H-7 area, there was an unnatural vibration. Old Thomas stopped working on the wrench, and his calloused palms pressed against the damp pipe wall. The vibration rhythm was strange, like some multi-legged creatures crawling collectively.
"Something's wrong..."
As soon as he opened his mouth, the explosion-proof light above his head suddenly exploded.
In the last moment before darkness fell, Thomas saw a flash of blue reflection of a shell deep in the ventilation shaft.
The defense line of the Third Guard Company of the Hive City collapsed within a minute.
Lieutenant Cummings had just raised his laser rifle when he saw the first monster leap out of the sewage pipe. It had the outline of a human, but with insect-like limbs and bone blades that gleamed with cold light.
"It's a Genestealer..."
