Chapter 1172: Fighting Titans
The sky over Comoros was dyed blood red by artillery fire.
On the bridge of the Vengeful Spirit, Horus stood with his hands behind his back, his pupils reflecting the burning battlefield below.
A holographic projection flickered before him, with countless dots of light representing the advance of the Imperial army.
The battle groups of the Luna Wolves tore at the Dark Eldar's defenses, the iron streams of the Iron Warriors crushed one spire after another, and the Death Company of the Blood Angels was carrying out a bloody purge in the Noble Quarter.
"Not bad, not bad." Horus' mouth curled up slightly, with cold satisfaction in his voice, "It looks like the battle will be over soon."
He tapped his fingertips on the holographic projection, switching the image to the central area of Comoros.
The resistance there continued, and the last elite of the Dark Eldar relied on the intricate webway to fight back. But this was just a last-ditch struggle.
"Send the Titans." Horus' voice suddenly turned as cold as ice, "End this battle as soon as possible."
The transport fleet in orbit began to adjust its formation, and hundreds of giant airdrop capsules detached from the belly of the ship.
These huge metal coffins, which are as big as small fortresses, are engraved with runes of the Mechanicus. They burn with sacred flames as they pass through the atmosphere, like falling meteors.
"Prepare for airdrop!" The mechanical voice of the Mechanicus Grand Magus Castor Felox echoed in all channels, "3! 2! 1!"
When the first wave of airdrop pods broke through the clouds, the entire battlefield fell silent.
Those were the exclusive airdrop capsules of five Emperor-class Titans, each of which was as huge as a moving mountain.
The sonic booms produced by their fall shattered all the glass within a radius of several kilometers, and the shock waves blew away all the rubble and corpses on the ground.
"Praise the Omnissiah..." an Astra Militarum soldier muttered to himself, the laser gun in his hand dropping unconsciously.
"The Hundred Battles and the Return of Glory has landed!" The hymn of the Grand Magus of the Mechanicus suddenly sounded in the communication channel, "The God's Machine has arrived!"
The moment the first Emperor-class Titan landed, the entire Comoros was shaking.
The giant feet of the ship sank dozens of meters into the ground, and the shock wave spread in a circular shape, razing all the buildings within a kilometer to the ground.
Its body was a hundred meters tall, its armor engraved with honor marks from thousands of years of battles, and the sensor array on its head flashed a cold red light.
As it slowly straightened up, its shadow covered half of the city.
"Start the plasma reactor." The pilot of the Hundred Battles and Returns announced loudly, "The weapon system is online."
The giant turret on the Titan's arm began to rotate, and the barrel of the volcano cannon was as thick as the pillars of a temple.
Energy gathered in the muzzle, making a creepy buzzing sound.
"In the name of Ohm Messiah! Forward!"
The roar of the first volcanic cannon made time seem to stand still for a second.
The crimson beam of light penetrated a Dark Eldar fortress five kilometers away, directly vaporizing the carefully built fortifications.
A mushroom cloud rose from the explosion, and the shock wave flattened everything in its path.
At the same time, the other four Emperor-class Titans also began their dance of destruction.
The twin turbolasers of the "Iron Will" are like the whip of God, and every sweep can evaporate an entire Dark Eldar army.
The missile array of the "Eternal Loyalty" was fully launched, and hundreds of Hellfire missiles drew deadly trajectories in the air, turning the noble district in the distance into a sea of fire.
The plasma destroyer of "Emperor's Wrath" was fully charged, and with one shot, it turned countless temples and streets in Comoros into lava lakes.
Around the Titan, thousands of Titan Guards formed an iron defense.
These elite warriors, wearing Terminator armor and armed with heavy weapons, will mercilessly strike any enemy that attempts to approach the God Machine.
"For Om Messiah! Praise the Divine Machine!" the captain of the guard shouted, and his assault cannon spewed out tongues of death, smashing a team of witch dancers who tried to launch a sneak attack into a pulp.
Further away, hundreds of Warlord-class and War Dog-class Titans formed the second wave of attack.
These relatively "petite" war machines flexibly shuttled between the ruins, using a variety of huge weapons to sweep away enemies in every corner.
A consul of the Cabal stood on a crumbling balcony, looking at the scene in despair.
His communicator kept receiving distress signals from various places, but it was of no use.
"Lord Victor! We need—"
His words came to an abrupt halt as a plasma beam from the "Return of a Hundred Battles" hit him exactly. The last thing the Archon saw was a blinding blue light.
On the other side, the soldiers of the ground forces stopped and saluted Titan at the same time.
"Praise the Emperor..." an Astra Militarum colonel muttered, his uniform rustling in the shockwave, "This is the power of the God Machine..."
His adjutant held down his hat, which was about to be blown off: "Sir, we'd better retreat a little further!"
The colonel nodded and quickly evacuated with his troops.
No one wants to be accidentally injured by the aftermath of the Titan firefight, which means no corpses will be left behind.
"Send out the Void Ravens to attack the target Titan." A Dark Eldar Archon gave the order. The Dark Eldar were reacting to the attack and trying to organize a counterattack.
The smoke from the dark streets of Comoros covered half of the sky, and the air was filled with the smell of ozone from the burning of plasma weapons and the stench of burnt flesh and blood.
On the ground battlefield, the soldiers of the Astra Militarum were advancing forward with the cover of Titans and a large number of armored units, and the ruby-red beams of laser guns were interweaving into a web among the ruins.
Suddenly, a piercing whistling sound came from above the clouds - it was not the whistling of artillery shells, but something more deadly.
"Enemy attack! Air units!" The roar of an Astra Militarum lieutenant rang out in the communication channel.
The soldiers looked up and saw dozens of dark shadows swooping down from the burning clouds.
Those aircraft were shaped like giant metal bats, with poisonous green light flashing on the edges of their wings. They were the Void Raven bomber fleets of the Dark Eldar.
In the cockpit of the leader's Void Raven, the Dark Eldar pilot Sarax smiled cruelly.
His slender fingers danced on the control panel, and the missile launchers under the wings slowly deployed.
"Lock on the target." He gave orders to the formation through the encrypted channel, "Show these monkeys the real art."
The first wave of missiles detached from the racks.
The single sickle missile roared down with a purple tail flame and suddenly exploded when it was fifty meters away from the ground.
There was no flame of a conventional explosion, only a silver-white ring-shaped shock wave spreading horizontally.
On the ground, a platoon of Astra Militarum soldiers were still holding their guns and shooting. The next second...
"Uh-huh!"
Neat cuts appeared on the necks of all the soldiers. More than twenty heads wearing helmets flew up at the same time. The headless bodies stood still for a few seconds before falling to the ground with a bang.
The shock wave continued to spread, neatly cutting off the turret of a Chimera troop carrier at the rear.
“Hahaha!” Sarax laughed wildly and pulled up the joystick. “Look at these poor monkeys!”
The second wave of necrotic toxin missiles followed. These dark green missiles exploded the moment they hit the ground, releasing thick purple smoke.
The Astra Militarum soldiers enveloped by the poisonous fog immediately began to twitch, their skin festering at a speed visible to the naked eye, and their eyeballs melted in their sockets.
What was even more terrifying was that the poisonous crystals splashed out by the explosion automatically sought out targets like living things. Several soldiers who had managed to escape the poisonous fog were caught up by the poisonous crystals, and the sharp crystals directly pierced their hearts.
"Medic! We need--" An officer's cry for help was abruptly cut off, his throat pierced by debris.
The most deadly blow came from the third wave of crushing field missiles. When these terrifying blue weapons exploded around the Titan, the first thing they released was a cold wave of absolute zero.
"Warning! The outside temperature is dropping sharply!" the pilot of the Return of Glory shouted.
Thick frost instantly formed on the Titan's foot armor, and more than a dozen nearby Titan Guard Terminators were directly frozen into ice sculptures. Then, the second stage of the detonation device was activated...
"boom!"
The violent shock wave shattered the frozen body into powder, and even the tank's armor was shattered into metal ice chips.
The left leg servo system of the Victory of the Battles made an ominous friction sound, and this divine machine began to move slowly for the first time.
"All squadrons, take off immediately! I repeat, take off immediately!"
The Imperial fleet in the webway burst into dense flashes, and tens of thousands of hangar doors opened at the same time.
The scream of TIE fighters cut through the sky as these iconic fighters of the Galactic Empire swooped down in perfect triangle formation.
Following closely behind were the X-wing fighters from the Rebel Alliance, their S-wings humming mechanically as they unfolded.
"Lock on those alien rubbish!" The voice of Colonel Cohen, commander of the Imperial Navy Air Force, blasted through the headsets of all pilots, "Fire freely!"
"Apollo Squadron, crossfire tactics!" Squadron Leader Reynard pushed the joystick, and his TIE fighter rushed towards the enemy group at a nearly vertical angle.
As soon as the crosshairs in the scope locked onto a Void Raven, he pulled the trigger without hesitation.
The red laser beam was like the Grim Reaper's scythe, neatly cutting off the target's right wing.
The Void Raven was immediately thrown off balance by the blow, but the Dark Eldar pilot showed amazing skills.
He actually fired two single sickle missiles while spiraling down.
Reynard pulled the joystick hard, and the TIE fighter avoided the shock wave by a hair's breadth, but a section of the tail was still cut off.
"Damn bastard!" Reynald cursed as the fighter plane shook violently on the edge of losing control.
At this moment, four red laser beams swept over his head and accurately hit the injured Void Raven.
"You owe me one." The chuckle of Rebel pilot Lisa Cole came from the communication channel. Her X-wing fighter flew over Renard and the R2 unit beeped cheerfully.
The air battle quickly became intense.
Void Ravens are far more maneuverable than Imperial aircraft, and are able to make sharp turns in the air that violate the laws of physics.
A Void Raven suddenly climbed vertically, then completed an incredible 180-degree flip at the highest point, biting the tail of a TIE fighter.
"Omega 7 is locked! I need support—"
The pilot's cry for help was drowned out by the loud noise of the missile explosion.
The necrotic toxin missile hit the cockpit directly, melting the entire fighter into green slime.
But the Imperial pilots soon found a countermeasure.
"Concentrate your fire! Don't give them room to maneuver!" Leonard ordered.
Three TIE fighters formed a death triangle, using cross fire to block all retreat routes of a Void Raven.
The red laser beam finally hit the target, and the Void Raven disintegrated in a gorgeous explosion.
Sarax noticed this tough opponent. He pushed the throttle and the Void Raven dived down at a nearly suicidal angle.
"Human, let me see what you can do." He grinned and fired two crushing field missiles.
Reynard reacted immediately, and the TIE fighter rolled at maximum speed to avoid the attack.
The first missile exploded at close range, and the extreme cold instantly froze his left solar panel. The fighter immediately lost balance and began to spiral downward.
"Damn it! Damn it!" Leonard pulled the joystick desperately, trying to correct the spin.
At this critical moment, four proton torpedoes whizzed in from the side and accurately hit Sarax's Void Raven.
The shock wave of the explosion made the Dark Eldar's ace pilot dizzy.
"It seems that I have saved you for the second time." Lisa's X-wing passed by Reynard's falling fighter. "Do you want to surrender?"
"Dream on, you rebel bastard!" Reynald roared, finally taking control of the fighter.
Although the left solar panel has completely failed, the TIE fighter is still able to fight.
As more and more Imperial fighters joined the battle, the Void Raven Squadron gradually fell into a disadvantage.
One after another, Dark Eldar bombers were turned into fireballs by laser cannons and proton torpedoes.
Sarax looked at the friendly signals that kept disappearing on the tactical panel and finally realized that the situation was hopeless.
"Retreat! All units retreat immediately-"
He didn't finish his order. Reynard's TIE fighter had already bitten his six o'clock position without knowing when, and the green laser beam was like the scythe of the god of death, vaporizing the cockpit of the Void Raven.
"It's our turn!" Perturabo stood on the bridge of the Iron Blood, the Glorious Queen-class battleship. His voice spread throughout the entire battleship through the radio. Hundreds of thousands of Iron Warriors Legion Space Marines and tens of thousands of supporting siege vehicles were waiting for his orders.
Perturabo was wearing a heavy exoskeleton armor that was tens of meters high. This armor not only gave him powerful strength and defense, but also made his body extremely huge, even taller than all the Emperor-class Titans present.
Densely packed weapons filled every corner of Perturabo's armor, and hundreds of huge cannons were aimed forward.
"Brother Horus has completed the preliminary plan, and now it's our turn!" Perturabo's voice echoed in the battleship, his words full of confidence and determination.
"Iron Warriors! Forward!" With Perturabo's order, the battleship's engine roared loudly, and the Blood of Iron slowly started and headed towards the battlefield.
At the same time, hundreds of thousands of Iron Warriors Legion Space Marines also took quick action. They marched in neat steps and followed the warships.
Tens of thousands of siege vehicles also started their engines, making a deafening noise.
