That Qu's confusion lasted only a moment.
Immediately after, true 'divine punishment' descended.
The energy beams that were originally precisely sniping the orbital biological ships suddenly became as dense as a rainstorm.
In the Qu's vision filled with biological perception, the entire sky seemed to be pierced by countless scorching spears of light.
Moreover, these spears of light were not scattered randomly; they were cold and precise, as if a supreme god was using a giant brush woven from light and fire to sketch a map of death on the earth.
Their landing points were remarkably the main gathering areas of the worm tides that were assembling or wreaking havoc across the globe.
Boom—! Boom-boom!!
Explosion shockwaves millions of times more violent than thunder swept across heaven and earth.
Every beam of light that landed instantly turned into a plasma fireball hundreds of meters in diameter. The extreme high temperatures and shockwaves vaporized and shattered all organic and inorganic matter within their range simultaneously.
On the vast plains, after the light flashed, the dense tide-like worm swarms left nothing behind but giant, scorched, glass-edged craters and the nauseating smell of burnt proteins permeating the air.
In the dense jungles, flames shot into the sky, reducing towering ancient trees and the worms hiding within them to ashes together.
In the city ruins, the bug tide that originally held an absolute advantage evaporated in swaths under the cleansing of the orbital bombardment, leaving not even wreckage behind.
This was merely the first wave of baptism.
Before that Qu could recover from this world-destroying orbital bombardment, an even more ear-piercing screech came from high above.
Countless missiles trailing blazing white exhaust flames breached the cloud layer like migrating swarms of metallic bees, diving toward secondary targets on the ground where the worm density was slightly lower or where they were scattered in complex terrain.
The warheads of these missiles varied: some were extremely high-temperature metallic hydrogen warheads, some were acid warheads that released corrosive biochemical liquids, and others were plasma warheads that triggered violent chain reactions.
Like the scythe of the Grim Reaper, they efficiently cleaned up the fish that slipped through the net of the orbital bombardment.
The flashes of explosions flickered continuously on the surface, as if the entire planet was enduring endless torture.
Under this multi-layered saturation strike, the army of worms brought by the biological fleet—which might have numbered in the tens or even hundreds of billions and could continuously self-replicate and transform by devouring biomass—saw its numbers plummet at a cliff-like rate in an extremely short time.
Nearly four-fifths of the invasion force turned into charred remains, minced meat, and drifting dust in just these few short moments.
For the Sarasoan civilization, which was on the brink of extinction, this sudden, devastating strike from beyond the heavens almost instantly and forcibly reversed their precarious and despair-filled situation.
Although the planet's surface was still devastated, and surviving worms and unknown threats still existed, at least the catastrophic disaster that seemed ready to swallow them completely in the next second had been forcibly halted.
Countless Sarasoans hiding deep in shelters, feeling the terrifying explosions outside that seemed like a recurrence of the mythical age, couldn't help but feel a trance of having survived a disaster alongside their fear, as well as a faint expectation for the unknown interveners.
They could finally catch their breath slightly.
But in reality...
This bombing did not distinguish between friend and foe at all. Especially during the orbital purification, the spears of light and missiles falling like raindrops, while efficiently eliminating the worm army, inevitably affected the Sarasoan cities, military strongholds, and shelters mixed in with the bug swarms.
Hundreds of millions of local intelligent creatures who had originally survived the bug tide invasion did not die under the Qu's modifications but were reduced to ashes and wreckage along with their homes in this bombing.
??
The Qu suspended in the air had its thought core filled with deeper confusion and a trace of offended indignation.
It still could not understand what existence dared to interrupt it in such a brutal manner while it was 'playing', 'appreciating', and 'modifying' this new pasture, even destroying its pet fleet and army.
In its long career of 'sowing' and 'harvesting', it had never encountered such a situation.
Just as it tried to increase its perception frequency and scan outer space to find the source of the interference, the sky 'lit up' once again.
This time, it was not devastating energy beams, but countless burning trajectories tearing through the sky.
They were like a meteor shower rising in reverse, or spears thrown by gods, piercing the atmosphere with resolute momentum and plummeting rapidly toward the surface of Saraso.
Their sheer number and broad scope covered almost all areas where fighting was still occurring.
And these were drop pods from the Human Empire.
A massive number of drop pods, made of high-strength alloys with streamlined exteriors and spraying deceleration flames from their bottoms, smashed into the earth.
They ignored the sporadic anti-air fire from the ground, whether it was the biological acid cannons of the worms or the surviving anti-aircraft guns of the Sarasoans, and accurately landed on predetermined tactical nodes.
Bang—! Bang—!
Heavy impact sounds rang out one after another. The buffering mechanisms of the drop pods absorbed the vast majority of the impact force, and the cabin doors sprang open violently under the drive of hydraulic devices.
The next moment, the Emperor's 'Angels of Death' descended.
The first to surge out were giants clad in dark blue titanium power armor decorated with pale skulls and bat-wing insignias—the Astartes of the Night Lords Legion.
They were as silent as mountains; only their helmet visors flashed with cold red light. The bolters in their hands were already loaded, exuding a strong aura of slaughter.
Following closely behind were Imperial Auxilia soldiers, also wearing dark blue power suits or even heavier and bulkier CMC power armor, as well as elite Helljumpers whose armor was grim black and whose tactical visors flashed with an eerie purple glow.
They surged out of the drop pods and quickly formed standard tactical formations.
Without any hesitation, nor any communication, these Imperial warriors unleashed devastating firepower on all worm creatures within sight the very first second they stepped onto the alien soil.
Thud—Thud——!
The uniquely 'pleasant' firing sound of bolter rounds rang out, each one containing massive kinetic energy and built-in explosives.
Small worms often required the precise hit of several bolter rounds to be completely shredded;
Meanwhile, some large worms over ten meters long, clad in thick biological carapaces, required focused fire from heavy bolters, plasma cannons, or multiple missiles to be taken down.
The scorching beams of hard-light rifles, the blue spheres of plasma weapons, the metal storms of rotary autocannons...
Various weapons wove a net of death, efficiently harvesting the remaining bug swarms.
At the same time, more transport crafts, sharp-looking carrier-based aircraft, and bulky but fiercely armed aerial gunships also penetrated the atmosphere and joined the battle.
They either cleared obstacles for ground troops with precise firepower or covered large areas with dense barrages.
Transport crafts deployed more Auxilia, clones, mechanical and biological weapons, and heavy armored vehicles to the ground, quickly consolidating and expanding the landing zones.
The battle instantly reached a white-hot stage.
The Empire's war machine displayed its cold and efficient side.
However, within this efficiency lay a disregard for alien life.
The Night Lords simply didn't care whether the Sarasoans fleeing in terror on the battlefield or shivering in the ruins lived or died.
Having no need to infiltrate or flank, their tactical movements were wide and sweeping. The explosions of bolter rounds, the splash of plasma weapons, and even the shockwaves generated by swinging power weapons in close combat could tear apart Sarasoans unfortunate enough to be in the attack path.
They wouldn't deliberately slaughter these local intelligent creatures, but they absolutely wouldn't compromise their attack efficiency in the slightest to avoid them.
In the eyes of the Night Lords, eliminating the aliens related to the Qu civilization was the primary mission, and the lives of the indigenous inhabitants were just acceptable collateral damage in this purification operation.
Just as the ground war was raging, the Qu that had been hovering in the air observing the situation finally caught the attention of the Imperial forces.
"High-value alien target spotted! Aerial unit, suspected command node!"
A Helljumper squad leader immediately marked the target through the tactical network.
Almost the instant his words fell, bolter rounds, laser beams, and a small missile fired by a passing carrier aircraft from several directions whizzed toward the bizarrely shaped Qu in the air like sharks smelling blood.
Buzz—! Buzz—!
However, all attacks aimed at the Qu, when they were about ten meters away from its body, seemed to hit an invisible yet incredibly tough barrier.
The trajectories of the bolter rounds were bizarrely deflected, shooting into empty space;
The laser beams scattered as if hitting a mirror;
The missile was pushed away by an irresistible force and self-detonated in mid-air.
A visible energy ripple, like water waves, rippled out around the Qu.
Obviously, as a race capable of crossing interstellar space on their own, the Qu naturally also possessed so-called biological force fields.
And this Qu was completely unharmed. Its wings still flapped slowly, its compound eyes indifferently 'gazing' at the 'tiny' creatures below trying to attack it, as if mocking their overestimation of their own capabilities.
Facing the continuous shooting from the ground troops, the Qu did not show obvious emotions of anger.
Its compound eye structure slightly adjusted its focus, like a calm scholar observing a novel specimen under a microscope, quietly 'gazing' at the Night Lords on the ground wearing dark blue power armor who continued to pour firepower at it.
These super-soldiers with two hearts, three lungs, reinforced skeletons, and superior reflexes seemed to arouse its strong 'research' interest.
Perhaps in its view, this was also a biological template with considerable potential, worthy of being 'collected' or 'improved'.
However, this 'appreciation' did not last long.
Seeming to grow tired of the clamor of 'ants', or perhaps sensing a more important threat, its wings flapped violently.
Boom—!!!
The next moment, a visible ring of shockwaves suddenly expanded with it at the center.
A terrifying vortex of airflow formed instantly, sending sand and stones flying and cracking the ground.
Dozens of Night Lords, Auxilia soldiers, and Helljumpers nearby, even clad in heavy armor, could not resist this overwhelmingly immense force. As if slapped hard by an invisible giant hand, they and their armor were forcibly thrown away, smashing heavily into distant ruins or the ground with muffled thuds.
Some light vehicles were even blown tumbling.
This casual strike demonstrated that an individual Qu possessed terrifying abilities that stood at the pinnacle of the physical level; it was a powerful biological weapon in its own right.
Having cleared the interference before it, this Qu ignored the disputes on the ground. Its four wings flapped violently again, and its figure turned into a blurry afterimage, shooting vertically toward the sky at a speed far exceeding any intra-atmospheric aircraft, aiming straight for low orbit.
It wanted to see with its own eyes exactly which faction dared to destroy its pet fleet and ruin its mood.
Almost the instant it broke through the atmosphere and entered the cold vacuum, the scene before it made its highly developed perception system freeze.
In the low orbit of Saraso, replacing its biological fleet was a steel fleet consisting of over a hundred ships, arranged in strict combat formation.
These ships had grim lines, thick armor, bristling gun turrets, and dark blue coatings on their hulls, along with the iconic pale skull and bat-wing insignias of the Night Lords Legion, looking like death fortresses suspended in the sea of stars.
The aura of slaughter and destruction they exuded was completely different from the organic, eerie style of the Qu biological ships.
And at the core of this fleet was an exceptionally massive Imperator-class flagship.
Its Gothic architectural style, towering cathedral spires, magnificent sculptures covering the hull, and the densely packed honeycomb-like broadside gun arrays all proclaimed its firepower and authority.
It was like a steel behemoth lurking in the sea of stars, looking with cold 'eyes' at the Qu that had just intruded into its domain.
There was no warning at all, nor any intention of negotiation.
The very millisecond the Qu's figure appeared within the range of the fleet's sensors, the prelude to destruction had already sounded.
Buzz~ Whoosh!!!
Vacuum cannot transmit sound, but the instantly erupting energy fluctuations and ballistic trajectories were more heart-palpitating than any sound.
The macro-cannon arrays from dozens of Night Lord warships, along with the main gun muzzle of that Imperator-class flagship, simultaneously flashed with blinding blue electric light.
Immediately after, nearly a hundred tungsten steel penetrator rounds accelerated to the extreme, trailing dark blue wakes composed of ionized particles, like javelins thrown by the Grim Reaper, shot toward it at terrifying speeds far exceeding conventional weapons—some reaching five percent of the speed of light, and some even approaching twenty-five percent. They formed a net of death that almost covered every angle the Qu could dodge.
!!!
The thought core of this Qu instantly issued the highest level alarm.
Its biological perception clearly 'saw' that those massive needle-like or shuttle-shaped projectiles accelerated to sub-light speeds contained kinetic energy easily capable of tearing apart asteroids.
Its biological force field might be able to deflect single ship-cannon-level energy attacks, or block dense rains of bolter rounds, but facing this saturated volley from warships delivering devastating strikes purely through extreme kinetic energy, its defense was as fragile as paper.
It had only brought its pets to 'play' and 'appreciate' the edge of this remote star system; the main fleet of their Qu civilization had not accompanied it at all.
If its biological mothership were here, with its powerful biological energy shields and special organic armor, it might still be able to resist or even counterattack...
But at this moment, it was isolated and helpless!
The instinct for survival overwhelmed everything.
This Qu, with an agility that almost twisted the laws of physics, coordinated its four wings and long tail, performing an extreme high-speed warp dodge at the critical moment, narrowly avoiding the core coverage area of the railgun volley.
A few penetrator rounds at the edge grazed past its biological force field. That energy barrier fluctuated violently, flickering erratically, as if it would collapse at any moment.
However, just the instant it completed this thrilling dodge and its figure stabilized again in the vacuum, an extremely abrupt and eerie 'chill' violently seized its core perception.
This feeling was not the coldness of the vacuum; its body had long adapted to that and could survive in interstellar space for long periods.
This was a trembling and fear originating from life instincts, as if its soul was touched by an invisible hand, firmly locked on by some deeper, darker existence.
Even though it was in the void of space, it felt as if it were exposed stark naked to the fangs of a predator, and the stars around it seemed to have turned into eyes watching indifferently.
Why...
Why did it feel 'cold'?
______
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