[The 473rd Iron Legion is overloading the core. Please block the enemy and do not let them approach!]
The core area, at this moment, there was not a single living soul left upon these ruins.
Those things that looked like humanoids were most likely corpses or something of the sort.
In the past, the corpses of this city would surely have been collected by the Corpse Guild to be turned into corpse starch.
However, now, the people of the Corpse Guild had all left this hive city, The entire hive city, except for the Astra Militarum deployed here for defense, had become a complete no-man's land.
A soldier ran over in a hurry and saluted his superior officer.
His eyes were firm, as if he were already prepared to sacrifice himself at any moment.
"Colonel, we have opened all the energy pumps!"
"It will only take two hours for the energy to reach its peak. At that time, we shall return to the Golden Throne."
"The Emperor's light shall shine upon us!"
"Good job, soldier!" Colonel Bokant couldn't help but take a sip of hot coffee.
His hands were trembling; he could hardly believe that he had actually become the one to blow up his own home.
"Next, we shall prove our loyalty through our actions!"
"To be honest, I am truly reluctant to blow up my former home!"
"But to prevent it from falling into the hands of traitors, I have no choice!"
[Lion El''Jonson: I understand!]
The sudden voice made everyone's hearts tighten.
Generally speaking, the voices transmitted through this communication channel were very important, as they were the combat instructions relayed to them by that blonde young woman.
[Colonel Bokant: We await your orders, My Lady. We shall garrison the hive city until the very last moment!]
[We will not move a single step until the engine explodes, Every member of our 473rd Iron Legion is prepared to offer their loyalty to the God-Emperor.]
His tone was very fierce, even carrying a thick sense of finality.
The Steel Legion was like its name, steel inside and out; they were not soldiers like those from Krieg who were completely brainwashed, yet they still had the courage to stay here and perish together with the enemy.
[Lion El''Jonson: I am not here to give orders; I merely came to bid you farewell!]
[I once personally gave the order to destroy my home and watched my mother world be blown into fragments with my own eyes. Since then, I have carried the duty of slaying traitors.]
[My father, my former adoptive father betrayed me and the Emperor. I will never allow myself to fall before I kill him!]
At the front of the battlefield, a large number of Terminators followed Lion El''Jonson, charging toward the Chaos positions.
The thick armor of the Terminators could indeed grant immunity to most barrages of bullets, but when facing an even grander battlefield, it would eventually overload and break.
Whenever a massive macro-cannon shell fell, it would always take away the life of a critically wounded Terminator veteran.
A large number of World Eaters surrounded their members, yet even in such a critical moment, Lion still had the capacity to chat with mortals.
For his current self, it was not difficult to command the battlefield while chatting with ordinary people.
he was even gradually adapting to this multi-threaded battlefield, slowly making up for his past shortcomings.
[Colonel Bokant: My Lady, I imagine things are even busier on your end. I can hear the sound of cannons through the comms.]
[You are currently on the battlefield and shouldn't have made contact with us. Compared to us, you Angels of the Imperium are clearly more precious in the Emperor's eyes!]
[We mortals are not worth grieving for. For the Emperor, for the future of humanity, and for any possible hope, we are willing to choose a glorious sacrifice.]
The Colonel's tone was much more indifferent now; compared to chatting with those cowardly nobles, he truly admired this young woman who was not tall but could influence the battlefield.
he clearly looked soft and weak, yet he was even more ferocious in battle than the Astartes around his.
It was said that on the front lines, he had even personally dismantled a Titan, A mortal like him simply couldn't imagine how someone even smaller than himself could dismantle a Titan.
[Lion El''Jonson: Don't say such things!]
Lion El''Jonson shouted loudly into the communicator.
[His Majesty the Emperor has never looked down upon mortal lives; during the Council of Terra back then, he even thought about handing political power over to ordinary people!]
[Please remember forever that compared to his children and his scions, the Emperor favors all of humanity even more!]
[Everything he has done is merely a manifestation of that favor. If you have the chance to return to the Golden Throne, please remember this!]
Lion lopped off the heads of a few more demons, however, the continuous fighting was already making his body a bit overwhelmed.
Several World Eaters with battle-axes slashed his elbow, even though he was now small and dainty and had already performed evasive maneuvers, the number of enemies was simply too many, exceeding his limit to respond.
[Lion El''Jonson: Damn it, no more talking!]
[I really must devote myself entirely to the battle!]
[Be careful, a few Chaos Astartes were charging toward your position earlier. Remember, you must stop them, you must...]
The call was cut off at that moment, the entire 473rd Iron Legion fell into a state of communication blackout.
They knew this was the opening of the war's curtain, and they were very clear that the enemy's offensive this time would be incredibly frenzied.
"Everyone, hold your positions!"
"Remember, in two hours, we shall meet the God-Emperor!"
"Show your mettle! Do not lose our face before the God-Emperor!"
It was as if this battle cry boosted everyone's morale, the people who were already prepared for death immediately showed a spirit of defying death.
The heavy weapons teams in front kept firing, a large number of Chaos followers disappeared like snowflakes.
At the same time, the Leman Russ Tanks on the streets also fired wildly at suspicious locations.
The Basilisk Self-Propelled Artillery had also leveled their muzzles, aiming at the distant streets.
"Boom!"
Relying on the information Lion had given him, Colonel Bokant successfully ambushed that charging World Eaters squad.
The concentrated fire of dozens of cannons instantly blew the entire Astartes squad away, just as Lion had said, if a mortal legion wanted to fight Astartes, they could only use excessive saturated fire.
"Great, it worked!"
Just as the Colonel thought his tactical deployment was extremely successful.
A World Eater actually dragged a mangled arm and continued to charge toward their position.
They shouted blasphemous slogans, attempting to use these extremely crazed cries to delude these people who possessed a will of steel.
"Let me handle it!" Colonel Bokant picked up the Chainsword in his hand and charged directly in front of that World Eater warrior.
While the other's power armor had not yet been pulled out from his soldier's body, Colonel Bokant delivered a strike with his roaring Chainsword and actually managed to kill a heavily wounded Astartes.
"How foolish, to think such weak bodies could oppose us. Only by accepting the Blood God's blessing can one achieve true strength!"
As this World Eater Astartes was on the verge of death, he was still muttering such words.
Clearly, under the Blood God's corruption, he had not yet completely lost his mind.
"Compared to you, I'm still considered wise!"
"I would rather welcome total death than serve a demon!"
Looking at the Chaos Space Marine lying on the ground, the mortals on the field erupted into a few cheers.
But soon, the Colonel glared them back with a stern look, as if killing a Chaos Astartes was not worth mentioning in his eyes.
"Continue to hold the positions!"
"Do not let those cultists swarm over!"
"We have lost contact with the Chapter Master of the Dark Angels; there is no one left to help us know the enemy's movements!"
No one was discouraged by these words, nor did anyone think it was a major problem.
Because everyone knew that their maximum survival time would not exceed the next two hours.
Dying a bit earlier just meant seeing the God-Emperor sooner, as for when the time came, then everyone would go to see the God-Emperor together.
Relying on a flexible defensive line, the mere 20,000 men of the Steel Legion actually held back an army of hundreds of thousands!
Relying on various streets and ruins as cover for defense, these fearless soldiers directly plunged the enemy into a bitter struggle.
Every ruin and every slum could potentially hide a soldier of the Astra Militarum.
In this already narrow place, even the followers of Chaos found it hard to guess where these damned members of the Loyalist Faction would hide to snipe at them.
As the core area heated up, even the warriors on the front lines could feel the temperature behind them getting hotter and hotter.
But they merely wiped their sweat, facing the upcoming battle...
And watched helplessly as the pale yellow energy column continued to rise.
The machinery erupted with a roar, the machine spirit seemed to be expressing its displeasure at this moment.
However, with so many energy columns pouring into its body at once, the machine spirit could not do anything.
It could only wait for its own demise, slowly waiting for this hive city to completely disappear.
[Mission time remaining: three minutes. Attention, some friendly units are still within the blast radius...]
[Time until explosion: three minutes. Some friendly units are still within the blast radius.]
Looking at everything on the gameboard, Caleb was silent at this moment.
This was not because of cold-heartedness, but because Caleb knew that in the Warhammer universe, such things were an unavoidable choice.
These mortal legions had no way to leave their positions; once they left, it was possible for the guys from the Chaos faction to repair the hive city.
Once the hive city was repaired by those members of the Dark Mechanicum of the Chaos faction, his mission would fail.
Of course, what troubled Caleb was not just the failure of the mission, but also because these mortals couldn't run away even if they wanted to.
The subsequent explosion would cover the entire hive city, and even the Dark Angels, who were kilometers away, would be slightly affected.
At this moment, the pieces in Caleb's hands were no longer just Terminators.
Two Predator tanks had also been destroyed by the enemy's firepower.
The original dreadnought was also scarred and had been withdrawn by Caleb, and the core defensive perimeter centered on the Primarch was constantly shrinking, getting smaller bit by bit.
"Hold, you must hold!"
"What an interesting mortal, don't fail to hold!"
Lion El''Jonson paid no attention to the wounds on his body; he even focused his attention entirely on the enemy information reported by Caleb.
Based on this information, a blueprint had long been woven in his mind.
And within that blueprint, the 473rd Regiment of the Armageddon Steel Legion had reached a precarious point.
At this moment, Lion El''Jonson could faintly feel that only about 3,000 mortals remained on the entire defensive line.
The Chaos side had sent more than just one squad of Astartes, drop pods, having descended from who knows where, had even deployed an additional batch of Astartes squads to raid the core area.
Obviously, the Chaos side was determined to win, but they probably didn't expect, that these mortals would react so swiftly.
Colonel Bokant lay in a pool of blood; he had thought he could use his mortal body to challenge a relatively healthy Astartes.
Facts proved that he had thought too much, he had underestimated these supermen, the Astartes.
The heavy weapons team had clearly pierced the opponent's heart, yet this guy could still charge in front of him like a madman.
Very fast, extremely fast, so fast that he completely didn't expect this to be a person who had lost his heart.
Or rather, these guys shouldn't even be called humans, because in that visible hole, he saw a second beating heart.
"So that's how it is?"
"No wonder the gap is so big!"
His breathing gradually became weak, but when he felt the scorching airflow from behind, Colonel Bokant revealed a smile.
Obviously, these Chaos cans who only knew how to hack and slash did not know what was about to happen; they hadn't even noticed the mortals' plan.
"Interesting mortal, daring to challenge me, your head will be sacrificed to the Blood God, this is your honor!"
Colonel Bokant stared at the traitor in front of him with a mocking gaze; he had no fear of death, only mockery for the enemy.
"Sacrifice me? You have no time left!"
"Soon you will be able to meet the God-Emperor, repent well to His Majesty!"
"Hum!" Colonel Bokant used his last bit of strength to activate the overload procedure.
A light like the sun illuminated the entire hive city; at this moment, the entire hive city lit up.
Now this world had no more hunger, exploitation, or oppression, because everything here had already disappeared under the holy light at this moment.
There was no sound; when the shockwave arrived, there was only a buzzing in the ears.
The Dark Angels who were fighting first saw the extreme light in the distance, and then felt a massive and intense shockwave that made their ears buzz.
Their Lyman's Ears failed at this moment; they could only use their bodies to feel the shockwave and their eyes to see the glorious light after the explosion.
Yes, the explosion was magnificent and tragic, nearly a million Chaos legions were wiped out in an instant.
Almost none of the Chaos legions that entered the hive city could survive; they went to meet the Emperor's judgment amidst this extreme light and heat.
"Is it finally over?"
Lion brushed the dust off his body and stood up from the ruins, because the shockwave had just blown him away, he wasn't very clear about where he had been thrown.
"Huff!"
Several Terminators in power armor also stood up beside him, they shook the dust off their bodies, then raised their weapons, continuing to guard the surroundings.
"Primarch, their mission is complete!"
"Those mortals proved themselves with courage and heroism!"
"I previously thought they were a bunch of cowards, but facts proved, they have more backbone than many Battle-Brothers!"
The knight captain also gave high affirmation to this batch of mortal legions.
Because they were extremely qualified sharp swords, the most loyal sharp swords in the Emperor's hand.
They dared to exchange their lives for hope and loyalty, which was already many times stronger than some legions that only shouted about the God-Emperor!
"Let's go, there are other places that need us!"
"I hope my father is watching all of this; my father will definitely let them return to the Golden Throne, at least that's what I believe!"
At this moment, Caleb did not speak; he just quietly looked at the piece in his hand and fell into deep thought.
He didn't understand why the piece of the mortal legion had ended up in his hands.
That's right, at this moment, there was an extra piece in Caleb's hand.
That was Colonel Bokant's piece.
At the last moment of his life, his soul was not taken by the Chaos Gods, but was brought into his hands by the gameboard through mysterious means.
[Congratulations, Host, mission completed. Deployment points have been increased to 4000.]
[You are rewarded with permission to acquire an enemy piece, limited to Khorne pieces, unable to capture pieces of other Chaos Gods.]
"Is that so? That's interesting!"
"It looks like you really are a hero; you completely killed a Greater Daemon of Chaos for the Imperium!"
Caleb looked at the piece in his hand and muttered silently; at this moment, the piece in his hand was no longer an ordinary piece.
It was more like a medal of honor, writing down that heroic and unyielding moment of the human spirit.
Caleb placed this piece next to the Emperor's piece, as if fulfilling some kind of promise, letting him truly return to the Golden Throne.
The war was still continuing, the battlefield of Armageddon had already fallen into a white-hot stage.
An apocalypse-level war had already begun.
More and more war machines were being thrown into the battlefield.
Titans were roaring, several Knight Houses were also involved.
The Inquisitors of the Grey Knights had also arrived at the edge of the galaxy.
Even the Space Wolves had received the distress signal and brought an entire Chapter to support them.