Chapter 575 93 Dark Expedition (Twenty, the True Heretic)

Chapter 575 93. Dark Crusade (Twenty, True Heresy)

Robert Guilliman stared at the porthole.

A huge living warship was showing off its might to him. Although the thing itself might not have such consciousness, Guilliman still could not tolerate it. He stared coldly at the ship and its companions, taking in everything from the deformed protruding ridge to the wildly dancing tentacles at the bottom.

"Fire." He said.

Without any equipment to help, his voice swept over every crew member on the main bridge, as if the tide rolled over sand. His orders began to be executed, reported layer by layer, and heard by one loyalist after another.

Guilliman closed his eyes, felt the vibration of the deck under his feet, felt the breath of Macragge's glory, and his mind gradually sank into it.

A minute later, an indescribable brilliant light illuminated his face.

Amid the reports and cheers of the sailors, he slowly opened his eyes and saw a huge ship curling and twisting in the sea of ​​fire.

Its thick carapace had been completely penetrated, and its muscles, as tough as the earth, were completely destroyed by the destructive firepower of the Queen of Glory's warship, turning it into nothingness.

The other cruisers sailing with it also failed to escape the same fate. In just one round of salvos, six Zerg cruisers were shot down.

This may be the only advantage of fighting against the Zerg swarm. You don't need to calibrate the target and aim hard - just fire at will, pour out anger and violence, and you can achieve considerable results.

The light continued to shine, and there was no joy on Guilliman's face. This round of salvos seemed to have achieved remarkable results, but compared to the number of Zerg fleets, it was still just a drop in the bucket. Moreover, the Zerg had its own way to make up for this part of the loss.

Soon, in the short time when the artillery position was reloaded, Guilliman saw a scene through the observation window that was enough to make ordinary people collapse.

More Zerg cruisers and smaller frigates swarmed in, using their bright red tentacles to roll up the fragments and flesh of the dead ships into their bodies.

Their chitinous carapaces proliferated and thickened at a speed visible to the naked eye, and the original offensive organs began to increase, and some even began to slowly expand.

Yes, this is the truth of fighting against the Zerg.

They have no morale, because they have no concept of life and death. They don't care about losses, because any losses can be compensated. They have no intelligence and no fear, because they are all controlled by one consciousness.

Guilliman closed his eyes again, and the forge roared, sinking his consciousness into a sea of ​​nothingness.

Here, all things and concepts became extremely abstract, and the ships became flat and shining, like the sequins decoration on the collar of court-style clothing.

His consciousness rose from one of the sequins, circling, whistling, and came to the top of all the ships, and he was not the first existence to arrive here.

Guilliman saw countless hungry eyes.

It was not a single whole, but an indescribable thing composed of countless tiny points of light, spanning the battlefield, like a huge dark cloud, covering this sea of ​​​​stars to darkness.

It itself does not have any malice. Apart from hunger, it has no other desires, and even seems to ignore Guilliman's arrival.

Those eyes just glanced at him and turned back, continuing to issue orders with full concentration, letting the fleet advance towards Sotha.

But why Sotha?

Guilliman did not have an answer for the time being, and he did not need an answer. He opened his eyes, and the abstract world disappeared completely.

In addition to the number, there is another important reason why the swarm is difficult to resist, which is the shadow he just saw. The hive fleet has extremely powerful psychic power and is extremely aggressive.

It can turn a determined mortal soldier into a lunatic who has lost his mind, and it can also turn a well-trained psyker into a screaming psychic bomb.

So, the question is, why was the combined fleet not affected?

The answer can be traced back to a deck of Macragge's Glory, the hot forge in Robert Guilliman's chest, and a red magic circle of mysterious origin.

It is engraved in the engine room of all ships in the combined fleet.

Guilliman stepped down from his command platform and walked to the porthole on the far left. From this angle, he could see the battlefield of the destroyer battle group. They intercepted the vanguard of the Zerg fleet with their speed and were fighting with it.

Unlike the steady and slow battle of large warships, the battlefield of the destroyers was extremely bloody. Every minute and every second, their void shields had to face the severe challenge of the Zerg living missiles and biological plasma.

The only advantage of the destroyer battle group was speed. The Zerg fleet moved very slowly, and the closer they were to the "dining table" they chose, the slower they were.

But their counterattack was still terrifying. Some of them would approach those careless destroyers with primitive jet propulsion and charge at them.

Once hit, they would be deeply embedded in them and spit out pure-blooded gene stealers and various bugs. For a small ship like a destroyer, this was no different from being sentenced to death.

Even Astartes would find it difficult to fight against the Zerg tide in such a narrow space, let alone mortal crew members. Therefore, the captains generally have a consensus that if things really come to this, it is best to self-destruct the reactor.

This is a last resort, a desperate struggle under helplessness, and it can be considered lucky.

The living warships of the swarm generally have predatory tentacles. These giant living creatures will open their bloody mouths and completely devour the ships that are unfortunately captured by the tentacles, and eat them very quickly. By this time, it's too late to self-destruct the reactor.

Guilliman calmly walked back to his command station and began to read the battle report that had been sent back.

The combined fleet was huge, with as many as six battleships joining it, in addition to the four Ultramarines battle barges. Two Conqueror-class ships, one Victory-class ship, and three Opal Dragon-class ships.

They achieved very brilliant results, but this was also due to the pursuit and interception of the escort fleet and cruisers. Although the large forces of the Insect Hive have ignored the combined fleet's offensive, they have been sending smaller living ships such as impact ships to try to counterattack.

The impact of one ship may not matter, but what if there are ten, fifty, or five hundred ships?

The Lord of Macragge slowly fell into deep contemplation. He had realized that the swarm's landing on Sotha was likely to be unstoppable.

They have done their best, whether from a tactical point of view or not, but the figure of the hive mothership has been obscured.

Guilliman knew very well that a hive fleet would not only have one mothership, but there was still only one ship that was the truly important 'central processor'. They only needed to find this ship to be temporarily stagnant. The attack of the swarm.

However, it is really difficult to do this in front of the living ships that occupy almost the entire Sousa system. The Hive Mothership is hidden in the center of countless living ships. This huge and discrete mass of flesh has the ability to react quickly.

Any gap created by the bombardment will be filled immediately, and the mothership itself is a huge biological factory. They are always cultivating more bugs, and living ships are naturally included.

Reached an impasse?

Guilliman frowned. Naturally, he didn't want the swarm to get close to Sousa, but this was no longer something he could change. Their spores would burst into Sousa's atmosphere soon, killing the people in that world. dragged into a long war of attrition.

At this moment, he was quite grateful that he allowed Belisarius Call to stay on Sosa to conduct his research.

This great sage, who is still rejected by most of the Mechanicus world, is a 'genius' personally recognized by Markmaster Malcador. Although he and Guilliman had some unpleasantness nineteen centuries ago, it does not matter.

There was no way he could hide a fragment without permission.

--etc.

The Lord of Macragge was silent for a few seconds, and some questions were suddenly answered. At the same time, an indescribable anger and disbelief surged in his heart.

How dare he? !

Guilliman strode away from the command platform and ran towards the communication array.

——

Khalil stood up straight and squinted his eyes in the oncoming wind, surrounded by a torrent of steel pouring out of Belisarius Caul's mechanical maze.

He was moving at high speed, but he was not moving by himself, but was hanging on the side of the huge body of the great sage of the Mechanicus.

It may be strange to say this, but Kaul's transformed body is completely a terrifying tank. He can move at high speeds and at the same time make precise avoidances, but there is something fishy about this.

For example, where did Kaul get such a quality of energy to drive such a body?

Khalil knew the answer, but he decided to turn a blind eye to the dark red light emanating from under Caul's red robe.

There are some things that are not suitable to be revealed for the time being. Although Belisarius Caul’s behavior can be called heretical in the extreme, but

Khalil suddenly realized at this moment that he was surprisingly open-minded in some aspects.

"I must tell you, my lord, your plan—" Call began, roaring in the wind. "——Totally unreliable!"

"Really? Which point?"

"How do I know?!" the great sage shouted. "You didn't tell me at all, not even a single word!"

Khalil smiled. Kaul's mechanical body was roaring, but he was as leisurely as if he was on an outing.

"Then why do you say that my plan is unreliable? Moreover, Great Sage, given your status, is the adjective unreliable a bit weird? I thought you would list a variety of arguments to refute me one by one. "

"You are simply..."

"Okay, okay." Khalil patted him comfortingly and spoke softly. "It's not that I don't want to tell you, or that I'm deliberately trying to keep it secret. It's just that there really aren't any specific details about this matter."

"I wasn't kidding when I said I was going to kill it, Great Sage Caul. The Hive Mind may not have a physical body, but it is still a spiritual body, isn't it? Perhaps by the definition of the physical world, it cannot be touched. , So, what if we change the place?”

Amidst the roar of the engine from nowhere, Kaul rushed out of the defensive camp at the foot of Pharos Mountain in silence. There was no obstruction, and all security protocols had been opened in advance.

He was the leader and his army followed. If anyone could look down from the sky, they would see this terrifyingly large iron-gray army flooding the mountains and forests of Sosa.

In the nineteenth century, no one knew how many fighter servitors Belisarius Caul had created and what "surprises" he had prepared for the swarm. However, there were two things that might give people a glimpse of the leopard.

First, Sosa is an agricultural world and a world rich in minerals.

Second, its agriculture has reached the limit, but there is no official mine on the entire planet. However, metals are continuously transported from the depths of Mount Pharos and supplied to all parts of Sosa. So, who is digging the ore?

The scene in the mountains and forests was torn into blurred blocks by Belisarius Cawl's speed, and high-temperature steam gradually diffused from under his red robe. Khalil looked down at him with interest, waiting for his answer.

Cawl thought until they were about to approach the city before speaking.

"Do you want to enter the subspace and kill it?" The mechanical sage asked seriously.

"That's not the case." Khalil said. "But it's not impossible."

He nodded thoughtfully.

"Don't do it, my lord!" Cawl immediately dissuaded loudly. "The first solution you proposed is shocking enough. I don't want to hear the second one. I'm afraid that my thinking array will be overloaded and crashed. But how are you going to do this?"

"It's not difficult. According to the investigation report, the hive mind likes to take things step by step, right? Then I will break its pace. And I won't hold back unless it produces a bug that can rival me through its spores."

"This, with all due respect, sir, I don't think it can do this. This level of bug has never appeared in the data-"

Call was halfway through his speech when he suddenly realized something else.

"Yes." Khalil nodded at him.

"It has a very rational plan to assess resistance, a grading system or something like that. And I will become its biggest threat. I will force it to collect all biomass and drown all the unborn bugs in their cradles to give birth to a new species of bugs."

"But-" Cawl tried hard to keep up with him, and the steam brought by high-speed computing was becoming more and more. "——According to my calculations, it is impossible for it to do this. There is a limit to the amount of biomass that can be stored in a hive fleet."

After the words fell, Cawl heard a chuckle. He turned his artificial eye and saw the expression of Caryl Rohals at the moment in an almost weird way.

It was an indescribable calm smile.

"You are still looking at this plan in a rational way, Cawl, but you don't have to. Whether it can be done or not is its business, I don't care. I just want to kill it, that's all. And if it doesn't kill me, it will never be able to touch any other Sosan people and make them bleed again."