Shipping goods from the game to the World of Warhammer

Chapter 107 Eliminating the root cause and cutting off the supply chain

The gene stealer that dodged the attack was clearly much more agile than the first thief who was impaled by bone spikes. It leaped into the air a moment before the bone spikes broke through the ground, its four claws grabbing the pipe above its head, its entire body hanging in mid-air, barely dodging the string of deadly bone needles that pierced out from under the floor.

But then, the tube was also pierced through from the inside by a bone spur.

A row of bone spikes burst out of the pipe wall one after another, like a zipper being violently pulled open, with metal fragments and rust splashing everywhere.

The gene stealer's left claw was pierced through the palm by a bone spike that suddenly pierced the tube wall, pinning his entire body firmly in mid-air.

In that instant, another burst of bone spurs erupted beneath his feet.

This time it couldn't dodge; two bone spikes pierced its legs from below, pinning it to the spot. It roared and swung its claws upwards, trying to cut off the bone spikes, but the next wave of spikes gave it no time to struggle.

Gregor saw that the body of the great Star Child had been pierced through seven or eight times from bottom to top, purple blood splattering onto the ceiling. Its four arms hung limply at its sides, and it let out a final, low, hoarse sound before its head tilted to one side and remained motionless.

"Back up! Everyone back up!"

Gregor didn't know who was shouting; it could be their Star Child, or it could be some ordinary soldier who was just as terrified as he was, but the order came too late.

The tremors beneath their feet were already spreading towards them.

Gregor could feel the metal floor trembling beneath his boots, the frequency increasing, as if a giant snake was awakening and slowly pushing open the steel plate above it.

"Run!"

The moment his comrade next to him took a step, the floor beneath his feet exploded.

Dense bone spikes erupted from the ground, lining the center of the passage in a straight line, like a row of teeth protruding from hell.

Gregor's comrade was pierced through the right foot by a bone spur, which lifted him half a meter off the ground. He then hung there like an insect nailed to a specimen board, his legs kicking weakly a few times.

More soldiers fell.

Gregor started running backwards, a bone spur piercing the ground less than ten centimeters from his left foot. He felt the air current from the spur sweep across his calf. He instinctively lunged to his right, his shoulder slamming into the wall of the passage, making him wince in pain.

But the next second, the ground to his right also began to crack.

Gregor instinctively leaned against the wall, his face pressed against the cold metal floor, his whole body trembling.

In those few seconds, he heard the screams around him decrease, because fewer and fewer people were still able to scream.

He turned his head and, through the dusty lenses of his protective mask, saw the scene in the passageway.

The ground was covered with bony spikes piercing from the earth, like a thicket of white thorns growing on steel. His comrades lay motionless in this thicket. The rubber material of their protective suits was easily pierced by the bone spikes, offering absolutely no protection.

Chemical protective suits can block toxic gases, but they can't stop sharp bone spurs that are several meters long from the bottom of your feet.

The two Star Children lay fallen in front of the passage, their purple blood already flowing. Their four arms were twisted at unnatural angles, pinned to the spot by multiple bone spikes, like two trophies made into specimens.

Gregor struggled to stand up, but a sharp pain shot through his leg, revealing that the bone spur had already pierced his right thigh.

pain.

The intense pain caused his vision to momentarily turn white before returning to normal, but everything was blurry. He could feel warm liquid flowing down his thighs, soaking the trousers of his protective suit.

He fell to the ground, his head turned to the side, his gaze unconsciously sweeping over his fallen companions.

Then he saw something wrong.

The comrade lying on the ground next to me had his protective mask shattered in the impact, revealing his face underneath.

Gregor recognized the face; it was Private Hearn from their platoon, a young man who didn't talk much but was a good shot.

But Hearn's face was completely different from his usual expression.

There was a noticeable, irregularly shaped bulge on the front of his skull, as if an extra piece of bone had grown under his skin.

Gregor's gaze shifted to another fallen companion, then to another.

With masks shattered and helmets detached, every exposed face showed varying degrees of abnormality.

Some have a bony protrusion on their forehead, some have a protruding lower jaw, and some have an extra piece of gray, shell-like hard skin behind their ears.

Gregor's pupils dilated sharply at that moment.

His gaze slowly, in disbelief, turned to his hands.

The protective glove tore during the struggle, revealing the back of the hand underneath.

Beneath the skin of the back of his hand, a slightly raised bone structure could be vaguely seen.

What's going on?

he does not know.

Is this what it looks like to be infected? But it doesn't seem like it.

Gregor tried to raise his hand to touch his forehead, but his arm was too weak. His vision blurred, and everything around him darkened. The last thing he saw was the corpse of those beings he had always called "Children of the Stars," with four arms, purplish-gray armor, and extended bone crowns.

The features on the faces of his companions were the same thing.

The view went dark.

Gregor never opened his eyes again.

The passageway fell silent again.

All that remained was the faint scraping sound of bone spikes retracting into the ground, and the distant, indistinct sounds of battle.

A few seconds later, the metal floor about thirty meters ahead of the passage silently bulged into an arc, and then several enormous creatures covered in dark brown carapaces emerged from the ground.

Their bodies are oval-shaped and extremely flat, like a giant beetle spread out on the ground. The carapace on their backs is smooth and thick, with several longitudinal bony ridges arranged on it. On both sides of each ridge are neatly retractable bony spikes, just like those that had just run through the tunnel from underground.

Lurker, an evolved form of the Hydralisk.

It remained on the ground for less than two seconds. Its flat body secreted acidic substances from its abdomen, and its sharp claws quickly dug through the metal floor beneath its feet. Then, its entire body burrowed into the ground like a flat fish and disappeared among the shattered steel plates.

If the Hydralisks are the Zerg's long-range suppressive firepower, then the Lurkers are the Zerg's underground mine-laying system.

In this hive city environment, the advantages of the Lurkers are amplified to the extreme. Craig's hive city structure is layered, with each layer having a mezzanine several meters thick filled with pipes, cables and supporting structures.

For the infiltrators, these interlayers are natural highways, allowing them to move freely within the building structure and launch attacks from any position, while those on the ground have no idea what lies beneath their feet.

They don't need to engage in direct combat, charge, or even show themselves. They simply wait quietly below the path the target is taking, and when their vibration-sensing organs detect a certain density of footsteps above, dozens of long, bony spikes will erupt from the ground simultaneously.

The heavy automatic cannons on the front line couldn't hit them, the infantry fighting vehicles' onboard weapons couldn't reach them, and even the close-quarters strangulation ability that those purebreds were so proud of was useless in the face of this attack, because they simply couldn't find where the attackers were, and even if they did, they would have to face the thick walls and the ground.

To deal with the Lurkers, you need detection methods capable of detecting underground units, or heavy firepower like siege tanks that can blast open entire areas of the ground. But it's clear that the Genestealer Cult has a limited stockpile of heavy equipment in this hive city, making it impossible to deploy enough heavy firepower in every passageway.

Over the next half hour, four other cleanup teams advancing towards the lower nest entrance were also ambushed in the same way.

Without warning, the ground cracked open, and bone spikes gushed out from beneath their feet. The pureblood gene stealers at the forefront were pinned to the spot, while the soldiers behind them scattered in panic, but they could not outrun the bone spikes emerging from the ground.

The four cleanup teams, along with the pure-blooded gene stealers guarding them, were all wiped out in less than an hour.

The Genestealer Cult's counterattack was thus firmly suppressed.

Those flamethrower units that originally planned to burn their way back to the lower nest area now face the risk of being pierced through the ground even if they take a single step forward.

No one dared to walk on the passageway, because no one knew whether the steel plate beneath their feet was a safe place or a deadly trap where bone spikes would suddenly emerge.

But Rhodes knew that wasn't enough.

The infiltrators could block the enemy's advance, but they couldn't solve the problem of poison gas. The industrial poison gas that had already been released was still spreading in the tunnels of the Central Nest District. Although the concentration was slowly decreasing over time, as long as the enemy controlled those chemical plants, they could release another wave at any time.

Moreover, the other side has become smarter. Those pure-blooded gene stealers no longer go to the front line to destroy the gas storage tanks themselves. Instead, they send engineering teams of mixed-blood descendants to remotely control the valves to release poison gas, while they themselves stay in the factory and wait for the mutants to come to them.

As long as those chemical plants remain in enemy hands, the alien combat entities will never be able to enter the Central Nest Zone on a large scale.

The hatchery received new instructions.

The massive organic structure, which had become one with the abandoned factory buildings in the lower nest area, began to pulsate violently once again, and a new batch of insect eggs surged out of the nutrient pool.

Emerging from the eggshells are infected worms whose goal is to infiltrate and completely destroy those operating factories.

Hundreds of infected worms poured out of the hatchery, flowing like a gray stream into the ventilation ducts of the lower nesting area.

Drainage channels and cable ducts. They climb upwards along the capillaries of these nest cities, through areas covered by fungal carpets, bypassing the underground network patrolled by lurkers, and silently infiltrating every corner of the central nest area.

Inside the No. 3 Chemical Storage Plant in the East District of Zhongchao District.

This factory is currently the largest chemical storage facility controlled by the Genestealer Cult, containing nearly one-third of the HX-7 industrial agents in the entire Middle Nest District. Dozens of atavistic purebloods and more than a dozen squads of hybrid descendant soldiers are heavily fortified inside, with firing positions set up at every entrance, and even the ventilation ducts are welded shut.

A pureblood was crouching amidst the cluster of gas storage tanks in the factory's core area, its four arms crossed over its chest, vigilantly monitoring its surroundings. This was the largest of these purebloods, nearly three meters tall, and even its carapace was a darker color than its counterparts.

It is responsible for guarding the factory and ensuring its operation.

Since discovering the remarkable effectiveness of poison gas against the monsters, the cult's leadership has prioritized protecting these chemical facilities. As long as these factories are controlled, the deformed monsters on the ground will never be able to invade the Central Nest District on a large scale.

As for the new monsters that emerge from beneath your feet, as long as you stay in the factory and remain on your own safe land, they can't do anything to you.

The pureblood gene stealer's four eyes scanned every corner of the factory. The ventilation ducts were welded shut, the drains were blocked, and every door was guarded by soldiers.

Impeccable.

As it was thinking this, a shadow, almost imperceptible, quietly appeared beneath the factory floor on its back.

It looked like something was slowly crawling from underground into the factory.

The purebloods didn't care, since the Genestealers cult hadn't encountered these creatures directly either.

This gave the infected insects a breakthrough.

They can precisely dig gaps between the factory foundations and squeeze into them without deforming the ground. Their specialized tentacles precisely avoid plots of land that might cause ground deformation, moving little by little inward along the underside of the factory floor.

This process is extremely slow.

It took it nearly half an hour to reach the vicinity of the pureblood gene stealer.

Then the stinger on the back of the infected insect protruded.

Dozens of bio-filaments, thinner than a human hair, shot out from the terminal organ of the infected insect's tail stinger, piercing directly into the gene stealer's central nervous system through the gaps in his carapace.

The pureblood gene stealer's body stiffened abruptly.

It noticed.

But it was too late.

These amorphous parasites completed their connection with the central nervous system in a fraction of a second, and a strange and powerful will surged into the pure-blooded brain along these threads.

It tried to resist, attempting to use the psionic barrier inherent in its race to block the invasion, but the will of the swarm overwhelmed its nervous system like a tide.

The pureblood's four arms convulsed violently for a few seconds, its claws scratching wildly in the air in front of it. A nearby member of its kind noticed its abnormality and let out a low, questioning growl.

Then the spasms stopped.

The pureblood gene stealer straightened up, its four arms hanging naturally at its sides, and all the muscles in its body relaxed.

It turned its head to face the other of its kind who was casting a questioning glance at it.

The light in its eyes was fading, replaced by a layer of orange-yellow psionic light.