Seraphs of the Emperor’s Judgment

Chapter 143: Infiltration Operation

When Soshyan stepped out of the hatch, a Gachis far gloomier than it appeared from high altitude reappeared before him.

The first thing to greet him was a hot wind mixed with thick dust.

In a sense, Gachis was like most of the Imperium's Forge Worlds.

The same rust, the same dimness, the same torment by the fires of industry, the same unwashed stench emitting from it, and the same air filled with lethal toxins and dust.

The only difference was that its masters above were not red-robed members of the Adeptus Mechanicus.

WAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!

At least a hundred Greenskins, previously busy working, roared at the Astartes who had descended upon this place without warning. Although it was more likely they were trying to express shock, just this kind of roar alone was enough to frighten the souls out of most Mortals.

This was an extremely barbaric race. Rusted armor was fastened with leather straps and bolts to their torsos that resembled old trees. Their massive, blocky heads were supported by necks so short they were almost invisible; at first glance, it looked as if they were supporting their heads directly with their thick shoulders. A pair of small eyes filled with violence and cruelty were nailed onto their faces.

But if anyone dared to underestimate them because of their comical appearance, they would inevitably pay an extremely tragic price—this was a consensus among all civilized races in the galaxy.

Since the Emperor led the Great Crusade, the Greenskins had been the most severe Xenos threat humanity faced. They were addicted to war by nature, possessed unimaginable technological talent, and coupled with their massive numbers, could easily gather into an army of destruction.The climax of the Great Crusade was the bloody war between the Imperium of Man and the largest Ork empire in the Milky Way.

Records regarding that war were already extremely scarce, leaving only fragments of words bordering on myth. It was said that only in the archives deepest within the Imperial Palace were the details of that war still recorded.

The outcome of the war, however, was known to all.

The Emperor once again defeated the enemy and crowned his most beloved son with the title of Warmaster, transferring the command of the Great Crusade.

And this, instead, became the beginning of humanity's ten-thousand-year nightmare.

From what Soshyan himself knew, the war ended on a world named Ullanor, where the Emperor annihilated the nameless tyrant of the Ork empire.

But the subsequent War of the Beast gave humanity a good lesson on what it meant that a centipede dies but never falls down.

Overall, humanity had been endlessly entangled with this pest-like race for ten thousand years, all the way up to the present.

"Purge the Xenos!"

Soshyan held the Holy Flame Sword high, issuing a roar to counter the Greenskins'.

The warriors deployed behind him instantly raised their Bolters within a heartbeat, pouring out a massive deluge of bullets in a neat volley.

In an instant, the clustered Greenskins were already flying in a mess of blood and flesh.

Subsequently, the Astartes stepped out of the shadow cast by the Thunderhawk and walked into the blinding, fiery light of the firestorm.

In their eyes, a little over a hundred Orks didn't even count as "resistance"; they were merely small pebbles on the road of advance that could be kicked aside.

Soshyan had lowered his Bolter early on.

He stepped over the slippery pile of corpses and began observing the nearby terrain.

This was a "city" that bordered on being a garbage dump. Shield generators shaped like flutes filled with grooves stood tall upon the earth. Numerous platforms extended from their sides, where large numbers of crude aircraft modified by the Greenskins were originally parked.

However, they had long since been lured away by the Imperial Navy's fighter squadrons.

Most of these field generators, as well as the even more massive neighboring structures, were engulfed in raging flames. Although the Void Shields had blocked the vast majority of the attacks, some had still slipped through the net.

But this was not enough to destroy their overall structure.

In the center of this city was a massive barrel-shaped structure that looked to be fully a thousand meters tall, still emitting steam visible to the naked eye.

If Soshyan guessed correctly, that place must be the energy node for the entire city.

On the other side of the horizon, continuously fueled by the source in orbit, the firestorm continued to expand and surge upward. The increasingly white-hot fireballs spat out large swathes of blazing, incinerating clouds and scorching ash.

The fleet was still continuously applying pressure on the Greenskins' Void Shields, but the firepower was much weaker than at the beginning. Clearly, many Weapon Arrays had entered an overheated state and required a certain amount of time to cool down.

Soshyan sniffed and found the air filled with the smell of electrical sparks, along with a strange odor nearby.

It wasn't just the smell of melting and incineration; it was the scent emitted at this moment by some synthetic material that should never have been exposed to high heat.

"Covering advance."

Under his leadership, the Chapter crossed their temporary landing zone and marched toward several tall, gloomy structures.

The Greenskins had paved all their buildings with a layer of polished, orange-yellow material; this aesthetic was utterly nauseating.

No wonder the entire world was orange-yellow.

Clearly, part of this was attributed to the light of the firestorm, while the other part originated from the building materials the Greenskins used.

While walking briskly through this area of scorching heat and flying sparks, Soshyan noticed marks of layering and splicing on these Greenskin buildings. Many materials were added later, and the difference in color between top and bottom could clearly be seen.

He didn't know much about Gachis, nor did he know if this had once been a human world.

But from the current look of it, this city had very obvious "man-made" traces.

After moving for over a thousand meters, the squad entered a cluttered city block.

Waaaagh!!!!!

Suddenly, the signature roar resounded once again, seemingly wanting to remind the Astartes that there was an ambush here.

Then, enemy firepower was sprinkled toward them. Heavy machine guns occupying the high ground hammered out patches of splashing dust on the ground, yet failed to hit a single target.

The roar of Bolters firing quickly responded, rapidly drowning out that remarkably "dense" firing position.

At this moment, a massive swarm of Greenskins surged out from the intersection. Wielding various strange weapons, they charged toward the Astartes with heavy footsteps.

"For the Emperor!"

Soshyan took the lead, holding the Holy Flame Sword high as he crashed into the enemy ranks.

A massive Greenskin Nob, whose entire body's muscles were swollen like rocks, charged head-on toward him, holding a hammer-like weapon modified from an excavator bucket in its hands.

Soshyan stepped sideways and swung his sword. While decapitating two heads, he also delivered a lightning-fast low sweep, cleanly severing the opponent's waist. He then took a large stride forward, viciously stomping the fallen Greenskin's head into a puddle of foul slurry with his iron boot.

All of this happened in but a few breaths.

Yet at his side, Sol strolled leisurely, never straying more than five steps away from Soshyan.

Facing the surging enemy tide, his movements showed no deformation or deviation whatsoever; his killing efficiency was even higher than Soshyan's.

In just a short moment, the outer layers of all the warriors' armor were drenched completely with foul-smelling Xenos organs. Accompanied by the shrieks of Chainswords and the roars of Bolters, more vile fluids splashed onto the Astartes.

Five minutes later, they had carved out a bloody path through the pile of Greenskins.