The Astartes Family's Notebook

Fortunately, Skord has a well-developed mining industry and many highly skilled miners with an educational background. While these useless miners wouldn't dare to charge into battle, they could easily operate the artillery from a distance.

The imperial spectacle: before the twenty-one corps launched their attack, more than forty artillery regiments provided fire support.

If the elite IG teams in other parts of the world, who are currently engaged in fierce battles, knew this, I wonder what they would think.

Forget it, our human empire has even more abstract things, this is nothing compared to what's to come.

Although the successive governors of Skord adhered to the mining boss's philosophy that it was better to buy than to build, they never neglected the defenses of the First Nest City.

The array of light spears and the fortress-class cannons on the city wall are well maintained and are not just for show.

Especially with the Void Shield protecting it, it's really tough to take down.

If Motor Sich had a million brave IG and PDF troops, he would not hesitate to order a strong attack. The besieged city defenders had no choice but to do it, and the more they did, the faster they would collapse.

If a mortal soldier breaks through even a single point, the Astartes can expand their gains into a wider area.

Especially after breaking into the first hive, facing an unknown number of Nurgle walkers and cultists, conservatively estimated to be over two hundred million, a large number of mortal troops are needed as the main force to fight urban warfare.

It's unrealistic to expect the Astartes to handle all the urban warfare; the casualty figures would be unacceptable to Motor Sich.

The Void Shield, this magical thing, is not a shield in essence, but more like a one-way portal. Any object with a velocity greater than the critical velocity will be teleported into the subspace as long as it passes through the Void Shield.

The higher the strength of the Void Shield, the higher this critical speed will be.

Therefore, to intercept slow-moving objects, it is necessary to reduce the strength of the Void Shield.

The question is, is it worth it? I'm deliberately reducing the strength of my Void Shield to defend against a single aerial bomb, and you take the opportunity to unleash a Light Spear and two Macro Cannons. What if this Void Shield breaks?

Therefore, the problem with Void Shield's ability to protect against high speeds but not low speeds is not a design flaw, but rather a problem with the user.

The Shadow of Death faction naturally couldn't possess a super-powerful ability to modify the fundamental principles of the Void Shield, nor could they actively reduce the strength of the Void Shield. This made the fossil fuel fighters handcrafted by the Empire extremely useful.

Compared to the Imperial standard Lightning fighter, the hand-built equipment in the Second Hive City was so dilapidated that it was almost unbearable to look at; the flight control system even used a large number of steel wire cables and riveted levers.

But even the most dilapidated airplane is still an airplane.

An ancient sage once said that an airplane must be able to fly.

As long as it can fly, it's a good airplane.

The heavy airframe hampered the promethium engines that the fourth company had acquired. The advanced engines, which could theoretically provide a cruising speed of Mach 3 for a 20-ton airframe, were hampered by the crude assembly process. Coupled with the heavy load of bombs, whether these aircraft could break the sound barrier was purely a matter of chance.

But it doesn't matter. As I always say, a plane that can fly is a good plane.

On the Empire's side, at least they could continue to mold and tinker with engines, and continue to repair and replenish aircraft, with a steady stream of aviation enthusiasts applying to join the air force.

What's on the Chaos Traitors' side? Cultist pilots whose brains are infected by a virus?

The enormous numerical disparity is reminiscent of the Battle of Anwizland.

This time, however, it was the Empire that seized control of the low-altitude airspace.

The inventory of aircraft in the first hive city was already insufficient, and pilots infected by the filth were even rarer.

Even if the blessing of the benevolent father caused these fighter jets and pilots to all go into overdrive.

However, as the numerical gap widened from several hundred times to over a thousand times, Nest One finally lost air superiority at a certain point.

Why not use the Inferno Dragon?

Haha, stop messing around. The transformation of Hell Dragons uses bombers and interceptors like Fury and Starhawk, which are used for outer space combat. Although they have "aircraft" in their names, they are essentially small airships that are a hundred meters long and weigh a few hundred tons.

Are fighter jets within the atmosphere really worth the effort of chaotic beings to transform?

Even if it does transform, it won't be a Hell Dragon, it'll be a Hell Chicken.

The warp demon that gets absorbed will likely be ridiculed for centuries, losing its magic and becoming an eternal joke.

In terms of stealth, the Raptor Squadron is indeed far superior to the Desolate Wings. Without specific missions for infiltration and reconnaissance, the Raptors have gone in and out hundreds of times without any casualties.

While closely monitoring the progress of the Shadow of Death's mission to destroy the planet, Motor Sich suppressed his inner unease.

Since the tactics are effective, let's keep using them. It's the Chaos traitors, not the loyalists Astartes, who should be looking for ways to break the deadlock and change tactics.

Let's keep bombing like this for now; who knows, one of those bombs might just blow up the generator set or the load capacitor.

Without resolving the issue of the Void Shield, a true siege battle is out of the question.

Chapter 119 Imperial Charter Fleet

There are countless waterways, but safety is the most important.

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Astartes is not a good brother to fifty dollars. Even during the Great Crusade, the Legion-sized Space Marines acted as vanguards, ending the game early with overwhelming force and then handing over the garbage time to the mortal support forces.

The glory of a human empire is the glory of all humankind. The Great Astartesism cannot withstand debate. An empire cannot function without Astartes, but it cannot function solely on Astartes.

Motor Sich has no right to ask what the Fifth Company of the Raptor Squad is thinking, but he can ask what the Desolate Wings is thinking.

No joke, Skold's PDF unit is truly the worst one that Desolation Wings has ever led. At best, they'll probably only be able to compete with them at the bottom.

But no matter how difficult it is to use, you still have to use it.

The Shadow of Death's plot has been discovered by the think tank Euler. After Nurgle's fanatics were tacitly sent to meet the Father by their own people, the Warband's opinion was unified.

Delay it, just keep delaying it, delay it until the drilling rig reaches the Earth's core, delay it until the explosives powerful enough to destroy the planet are placed, delay it until Abaddon comes to pick them up, and then the Chaos Astartes can just pack up and leave.

As for the No. 1 Nest City, who cares?

The cultists knew that their conversion to Nurgle and betrayal of the God-Emperor was an unforgivable sin, and they resisted more resolutely and thoroughly than the Chaos Astartes of the Shadow of Death Warband.

Therefore, Motor Sich and Yesfer really dared not plan any decapitation operation.

Even now, the Shadow of Death still has at least one and a half companies of Chaos Space Marines holding the inner gates of the hive.

If the loyalists were to launch a full-scale attack, the casualties would be terrifying.

Moreover, because Skord's mining-related industries are highly developed, the act of drilling through the earth's crust is transparent to both sides in the conflict, and the large geological monitoring equipment in the second hive city can also detect the drilling activities of the first hive city.

It's still early. Creating a hole in a planet would be a massive undertaking, especially since the Shadow of Death faction is forced to do it from within their hive. The location of a hive is crucial; it can't be built on muddy ground. The solid rock beneath Hive One is the first and biggest obstacle the Chaos Traitors face.

The situation is not yet at its worst; the loyalists still have time to continue their aerial bombardment.

Once the Void Shield defense is destroyed, everything will be fine.

But this is a Void Shield, a fortress-level Void Shield used by the Hive City; it's really tough to crack...

Generally speaking, industrial electricity consumption is far higher than residential electricity consumption. Normally, the fortress-level void shields used by hive cities require several dedicated power plants to provide independent power. This is to ensure that the normal production capacity of hive cities is not affected, and also to ensure the safety of the void shields.

But what if Skord, from its planet to its hive, is just not normal at all?

What if the power plant is built outside the capital city and gets destroyed?

Don't try to guess what the governor is thinking; you'll never figure it out. Heaven knows it was the great-grandfather of the current governor who did this mess. The first hive city integrated all the power stations inside the hive city.

The loyalist Astartes were thoroughly disgusted and tried to infiltrate and sabotage the operation, but if they went in small numbers, they would never return, and if they went in large numbers, they would be trapped and beaten.

In any case, neither Motor Sich nor Yesfer could make that decision.

They had no choice but to continue bombing, shifting their focus from overloading the Void Shield to completely paralyzing the external defenses of the first hive city.

Foundations, spears, city walls, and cannons—all of them were sent into the sky to stand shoulder to shoulder with fighter jets.

After creating a breakthrough zone, the IG armored squad, which had been resting and recuperating for a long time, finally came in handy.

The Void Shield could defend against the Light Spear and the Macro Cannon, but it couldn't stop the tracks of armored vehicles. The siege had finally entered the urban warfare phase.

Even so, the Shadow of Death faction had no intention of directly confronting the loyalist Astartes.

If we're going to drag it out, we'll drag it out no matter what. We'll never be left out, and we'll never fight to the death.

The billions of Nurgle cultists were disposable shields. The Chaos Astartes used their long-range guns to restrict the Imperial infantry's large-scale offensive, dragging the battle until the loyalist armored forces entered the battlefield before allowing the Nurgle cultists to continue resisting. These Chaos traitors then retreated to the next defensive zone to resupply and launch another attack.

What goes around comes around, and this time it's Kars' turn to experience what it means to never lose if you don't want to win.

The most disgusting and tiresome thing is that the Imperial's mortal troops only have so many elite soldiers that they can't play the tactic of attacking from all sides and spreading out in multiple places. They can only honestly fight for it one block at a time.

It's truly an eye-opening experience; this is the first time Motor Sich has encountered such a difficult urban battle despite the attacking side having an absolute advantage in heavy firepower.

However, the misfortune of the nation is the fortune of the poet...

No, it's the more arduous the battlefield, the happier the Astartes are.

Having thoroughly improved his mid-to-long-range shooting accuracy, Katz didn't have as many worries as the company commanders. On his first hard assault on the nest city, he still had to protect IG and PDF and take the initiative in the attack. This valuable experience was extremely rare.

Not only Kars, but all the loyal Astartes who participated in the battle were incredibly excited.

Especially after Ingus joined the battlefield, his skill in using a heavy logging rifle as a sniper rifle was simply astonishing. Every combat brother who was fortunate enough to witness it was convinced of his skill. Is this the fourth company's champion? It's terrifying!

When the mood struck, Astartes, who came from the Frankish III lineage, couldn't resist showing off his skills.

Normally, Astartes would not deliberately train artillery, especially the Leman Rustank and the Petrified Lizard self-propelled guns.

But are the Astartes trained by Frankish III through a targeted program normal Astartes?

Dissatisfied with the poor skill level of the gunners in the tank crews, the three Noxus giants all chose to personally take over the operation.

All I can say is that hard work never betrays you; the shot was indeed accurate, to the point that even the big-headed eagles had doubts.

How come you guys are so skilled?

Finally, after several days of attack and defense, the loyalists seized an energy pipeline hub and successfully cut off the Void Shield's power supply to the breach in the hive.

Unfortunately, the Void Shield device in the first hive city uses an integrated frame rather than a modular network. Cutting off a power supply line only weakens the overall strength of the Void Shield and does not create a gap in the barrier.

While the initial success boosted morale, Motor Sich voluntarily halted the advance of the front lines, ordering the Imperial troops that had already entered the capital to remain in place and build fortifications, awaiting subsequent reinforcements and supplies.

We can't fight anymore. We only have a little over 100,000 troops capable of fighting, and we've already lost more than 20,000. If we blindly advance any further, we'll run into serious problems.

Ordinary soldiers who are actually fighting on the front lines naturally wouldn't resist such an order; who wouldn't like to rest on the spot?

As a result, the intensity of the battle suddenly decreased.

Logically, the strategy should be to advance when the enemy retreats and harass when the enemy camps. Chaos Astartes should have taken the initiative to attack when the Empire's offensive weakened.

However, the Shadow of Death faction truly carried out their turtling tactics to the very end.

Aside from the Nurgle cultists, not a single Chaos Astartes can be found.

This greatly disappointed the loyalist Astartes who were lying in wait in the shadows.

It's really boring if the fish don't bite.

Then, Ingus and Katz received orders to return to the Victory Balance and await further instructions.

No, how did I offend that old bastard Motor Sich?

This confusion was not resolved until they left the nest and returned to the battle barge aboard the Thunderhawk gunboat.

The unexpected turn of events has finally arrived: an Imperial Charter fleet is approaching Skord.

Meanwhile, Kaz, Tyrant, Ingus, and Gunnie, the company champion of the Raptor Fifth Company, were gathered together to form a temporary tactical team. Mad Sich assigned them a difficult and troublesome task.

In the previous fleet battle, although the loyalist Astartes fleet successfully destroyed the traitors' Chaos fleet, the wreckage and fragments of the warships were bound by the planet's gravity, forming a large, relatively stable space junk zone in high orbit.

These space debris, of course, have no effect on the Empire's standard warships, but they pose a deadly threat to the Imperial Charter fleet.

The four were ordered to clear the wreckage of the cruiser that had been blown into three pieces by the Shadow of Death faction. After the threat was completely eliminated, a frigate would approach and install gravity equipment to use the mass of the wreckage to gather the ship debris in the orbit.

"Tyrant, are the transport ships of the Imperial Charter fleet really that vulnerable?"

Kaz instinctively sensed something was wrong; this wasn't the style of Imperial ships.

"How is that possible? Although they don't have Void Shields, the Charter Fleet's transport ships are still heavily armored."

Tyrant was finally freed from the drudgery of paperwork, and he looked absolutely radiant.

"why?"

Katz was even more confused.

"Just don't give them excuses."

Ingus took over the conversation.

Oh, that's right, this art style is very much like the Empire.

Chapter 120 Emergency Avoidance Clause

If the Imperial Charter Fleet, as Party B, is unable to fulfill its contractual obligations due to force majeure, Party A's client should first request compensation for breach of contract from the representative in charge of the Star Charter Fleet. If the representative in charge of the Star Charter Fleet cannot reach an understanding with Party A's client based on the principle of mutual agreement, Party A's client has the right to file a civil lawsuit with the headquarters of the Holy Terra Star Charter Fleet.

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