Chapter 294: Mutalisk-Swarm to the Face! How Can We Lose?
The streets, arenas, and grand spires of Commorragh... countless residents of the Dark City looked up at the sky. For the long-lived Dark Eldar, the last Imperial disaster that had befallen Commorragh felt as if it had happened just yesterday. The arrival of the unfamiliar fleet filled the Dark Eldar with terror. But for the slaves of other races within Commorragh, it was unbelievably good news.
The humans trapped in Commorragh were not just Burns's small group. Countless others had not shared his luck. When they saw the warships emblazoned with the golden Aquila, countless humans erupted in cheers and even began to riot amidst the chaos. A large number of other xenos slaves also joined in. Although they didn't know who the invaders were, they knew this was the perfect opportunity to escape the Dark Eldar. In the hands of the Dark Eldar, death was an inevitability, and it was always an extremely painful one. It was better to gamble on this one chance for survival. The arrival of the humans had ignited their ferocity and their desire to live.
The riots ratcheted the chaos in Commorragh up another level, forcing the Dark Eldar to divert even more personnel to suppress the slave uprisings.
Just as Lucan had thought, Commorragh had not faced a direct threat from within the Webway for far too long, and they had few defenses prepared for it. Most of Commorragh's disasters, like the current Zerg infestation, had occurred from within.
And although the Dark Eldar generally play a passive role in the Warhammer universe, the fact that they have taken root in this galaxy means they are not useless. They immediately moved to close the several Webway gates the fleet was using, but they were ultimately a step too late. All the fleets Lucan had brought had already successfully crossed the threshold.
"Eldrad, it's your turn. Point out the main Kabal locations for me."
Eldrad nodded. Relying on his own memories and the intelligence from the Ynnari faithful still hiding in Commorragh, coordinates for one location after another were marked in the fleet's tactical system. Some of these belonged to the fortress-complexes of powerful Kabals, but many more were locations likely to hold rare treasures and loot.
"All ships, coordinates received. Open fire and bombard the Kabal headquarters directly," Lucan ordered. "Do not destroy the locations marked with spoils. Deploy landing forces and seize as much loot as possible. As for all other locations... fire at will!"
One can imagine the effect of an orbital bombardment from a single fleet on a planet. Now, one could imagine the devastation of several fleets simultaneously bombarding the structures of Commorragh. In just the initial phase of the invasion, the Dark Eldar had already suffered losses greater than any previous invasion.
"Lord Lucan," Eldrad interjected, "according to our agreement, I hope you can avoid bombing the outer regions as much as possible. The Eldar there are our potential followers. Their deaths are of little value to you, and would, in fact, send a massive number of souls to Slaanesh in a short time. I will take this opportunity to lead the Ynnari to those areas. Using the casualties you are already inflicting, I will show them that the God of Death can protect them and grant them salvation. Even in death, they will not be consumed by Slaanesh. I ask that you cooperate with us on this. The Ynnari need more followers."
Lucan did not refuse his proposal. His goal was not to slaughter every Dark Eldar. Commorragh was too vast, and he did not currently have the strength to manage this dimension. In any case, now that he had the Webway routes here, he could come back whenever he wanted.
After receiving Lucan's permission, Eldrad led Yvraine and the Visarch from the bridge.
Commorragh's various fixed anti-air defenses began to fire back. Fleets of Dark Eldar fighters and warships began to launch. However, the warships still preparing to leave their starports were the first targets to be hit. Explosions and the beams of energy lances lit up the skies of Commorragh. The newly launched warships were blown into wreckage, which rained down on the city below. The servo-systems and augur arrays also showed that warships from other areas and cities within Commorragh were heading toward them. Although the different cities were constantly in conflict, an invasion of this scale by humans had forced them to join the war.
Lucan ordered all teams to accelerate their progress. Once their strategic objectives were met, they would prepare to withdraw. There was no need to get bogged down in a death match with the Dark Eldar. If their losses were too great, it would affect the subsequent support operation for Baal.
"The Dark Eldar's resistance is fiercer than I imagined," Lucan mused, staring at the holographic screen. "It seems the Salamanders' raid on Commorragh really was just a fluke."
Various combat data points were being collected by the Tech-priests and aggregated on the display. His own fleet had already begun to take losses. After recovering from the initial chaos, countless ground-based defense batteries had begun to fire on the human warships. Some advanced weapons inherited from the ancient Eldar Empire could quickly overload a warship's void shields and treat its armor as if it were nothing. They could even utilize Dark Matter as a weapon; any object hit would be completely annihilated.
In the air, the performance of the Dark Eldar fighters was stronger than he had expected. Squadrons of razor-sharp Dark Eldar fighters swarmed the human ships. These fighters were incredibly fast.
Watching the brutal dogfights erupting in this airspace, Lucan realized that neither his human-piloted Vikings, the Astartes' Thunderhawks, nor even the Protoss's main Void Phoenix fighters could gain the upper hand. The Dark Eldar Voidraven fighters held a clear advantage in speed, firepower, and especially pilots. These pilots, selected from the champions of Commorragh's countless death races, were pushing their craft to their absolute limits. The skill of the pilots was having a severe impact on the battle. Furthermore, their special lances and missiles were enough to destroy any allied fighter in a single pass.
"Don't waste the lives of these valuable pilots in dogfights with those fighters," Lucan ordered. "Shift targets and destroy the enemy's fixed-position batteries. Do not get entangled with their fighters. Kerrigan, send in your Zerg to deal with those things!"
It takes a long time to train a fighter pilot, and the life of a Protoss is precious. It was better to use the Zerg, who were far more expendable.
Countless Zerg flying units poured from the orifices of the Leviathans. Lucan's message was simple: Go ahead and kill them. See how many you can take down. But if you get caught just once, you're finished. The Dark Eldar ships were fast, but being fragile glass cannons was their common weakness.
You're telling me you can lose with a Mutalisk-swarm to the face?!
Your weapons may be powerful, but my biological projectiles can even turn corners.
When the sheer mass of the Zerg Swarm, dense enough to block out all light, appeared before the Dark Eldar pilots, all their maneuvering skills became useless. In StarCraft, air superiority almost always belonged to the Zerg.
Commorragh's defensive batteries were the primary target. The massive Spear of Adun brought with it an oppressive presence far beyond that of the other warships. Karax and his team of Phase-smiths precisely calculated the Spear of Adun's firepower, ensuring that every strike would inflict enormous losses on the enemy. The Solarite Beam was unleashed on the densest areas of anti-air batteries, turning rock and metal alike into molten lava.
As more and more fixed batteries were destroyed, the ground invasion began. Countless drop pods and Zerg spore-sacs rained down on the cities below.
With a large number of the elite Kabals having been led away by Vect, the city's ground defenses were weaker than ever. This, however, had saved the lives of those Kabals; the fleet's bombardment of their headquarters did not inflict heavy personnel casualties.
Lucan's Warp Projection began to sense the influx of special souls, but there were not many. These were the souls of Trueborn Dark Eldar killed in the bombardment. Just as he had thought, only the souls of these Trueborn could provide the Protoss with the resources needed for the Dark Templar conversion. The souls of the vast numbers of vat-grown Dark Eldar warriors simply bypassed the Webway and flowed directly to Slaanesh.
At that moment, Slaanesh also sensed a massive influx of Eldar souls. For a god born of Eldar desires, their souls were the most delicious treat. Following the trail of these souls, Slaanesh's attention gradually turned towards Commorragh.
"Kerrigan, can you sense Abathur's position?" Lucan asked.
Without the barrier of the Webway, Kerrigan's perception of her fellow Zerg was much stronger.
"I feel him! They are moving toward the upper districts! Abathur reports that a large force of Dark Eldar is purging them! Burns and that Salamander Astartes are with him! Abathur has infested some of the Dark Eldar... and the Overlord of Commorragh, Vect, seems to be leading the hunt personally."
"Vect? Found you."
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