Chapter 123: War
After assisting the T'au in clearing out the Lictors, Omega's harvest was still to be seen. Now, they had to begin evacuating Korsa. Hive Fleet Gorgon had already dropped out of its gravitic FTL, and would arrive in a short time.
Omega, who had left with the joint fleet, stood at the view port of the Cogboy, looking at the beautiful planet before him. His friends and acquaintances were all on it: Ventris, Inquisitor Fenni, the Sufferers, the Hammers of Dorn, the IOU-writing commanders, the butterfly-like Sisters of Battle, and even the blue-skinned xenos who had to say thank you after he had stolen them blind.
"I wonder if we'll ever meet again," Omega muttered to himself.
Behind him were Laust and Rhea and the others. The cog-heads' mood was similar to Omega's, just that the object of their concern was different. They were muttering things like, "We're not done digging yet," and "Couldn't it have been a little later, let me just dig one more shovel."
Omega felt nothing was wrong with this. Cog-heads were all like that. He was not at all surprised.
"Alright, stop muttering. I've already classified and graded the relics. You can exchange your contributions for them to study," Omega said to the crowd behind him just before the Cogboy was about to jump into the warp.
"Woohoo! Praise the Omnissiah!" the cog-girl cheered.
"Praise the Omnissiah!" the other cog-heads also cheered.
"..."
Omega, who was getting a little red in the face from holding it in, gave the leading cog-girl a sharp glare, then turned and left with a flick of his hand.
After the joint fleet had made a short-range warp jump and left Korsa, both sides on the ground were busy with pre-battle preparations. As for the Greenskins, they needed no preparation. They were always at war.
This situation continued until the augur arrays on the early-warning satellites on the periphery of the Korsa system detected an unknown number of objects rapidly approaching Korsa. The war had begun.
Hive Fleet Gorgon, after entering the Korsa system, had headed straight for Korsa. The ever-hungry, ever-insatiable Tyranids had already awakened the dormant Tyranid creatures in their bio-ships long before they had even entered the system. The moment the bio-ships stopped in low orbit, a sky-full of Tyranid mycetic spores rained down on the ground. The Korsa people and the new recruits on the ground did not yet know that the beautiful meteor shower of tens of thousands in the night sky was the most terrifying attack method of the galactic scourge. They just looked up at the night sky with curious eyes.
The veterans, however, had already taken up their weapons and had begun to pray to the Emperor. They did not pray for their own survival. They only hoped that they could kill more xenos before their souls returned to the Golden Throne.
Neither the human nor the T'au anti-aircraft fire had been activated. They wanted Gorgon to invest as much biomass here as possible. Only with a large investment, a huge sunk cost, would Gorgon be unwilling to abandon this place, and thus achieve the goal of attracting and holding the Tyranids.
The Greenskins didn't care about so much. Both the Snakebites and the Blood Axes were in a state of extreme WAAAGH! The entire Greenskin forest was filled with a festive atmosphere. All kinds of Greenskin anti-aircraft weapons were firing at the falling spore drop pods. Although the accuracy of the weapons themselves was pathetic, with the power of "I think" and sheer numbers, many of the Tyranid drop pods were shot down during their descent, their contents splattering into a paste on the ground.
"Report! Gorgon has increased the number of drop pods in the direction of the Greenskin forest!"
Ventris and the commanders in the room all smiled tacitly. Then he said, "Let the Greenskins and the Tyranids fight for a while. We'll play defense for a bit. Heh heh. When the Greenskins can't hold on anymore, we'll give them some long-range support. I never thought I'd see the day when I'd be giving fire support to the Greenskins. And the key is, I mean it. Isn't that strange?" one of the commanders said jokingly.
"Hahaha, now that you mention it, it does feel a little strange. Hahaha."
"Hahaha, it really is."
"Alright, a little fun is fine. But don't forget, this is just the beginning. The hard part is yet to come," Ventris reminded them.
"Yes, sir!"
Although Gorgon had changed the direction of its drop pods, the first wave of the attack had still delivered Tyranid war beasts to every corner of Korsa. These spore drop pods, which looked like disgusting lumps of flesh, were carefully designed, living Tyranid creatures. They could withstand the high temperatures of atmospheric re-entry, and after entering the atmosphere, they could also flexibly change course and decelerate. After landing and disgorging the Tyranid creatures inside, they would open a balloon-like sac to float in the air and provide support to other Tyranid creatures with their own bio-weapons.
The Termagants and Hormagaunts that poured out of the spore pods began to indiscriminately slaughter all life on Korsa the moment they were released. The Tyranids that landed not far from the human and T'au defensive lines, as if they knew there were enemies here, ignored everything else and charged straight for them.
Gorgon knew there were enemies here. The Lictors that had arrived earlier had already transmitted the intelligence they had gathered to the Hive Mind in their own unique way. But it didn't care. All it cared about was whether these enemies could provide biomass. If they could, they were food. In its eyes, there were only two kinds of food: easy to eat, and requiring a little more effort.
"Fire! Don't let these bastards get close to the defensive line!"
The Astra Militarum platoon commander gave the order when the charging Hormagaunts and Termagants had reached the optimal firing position. A few volleys took out at least half of the Tyranids, but a portion of the faster Hormagaunts still broke through the fire blockade and rushed towards the defensive positions. But the barbed wire and trenches that had been set up stopped them again.
"Free fire! Aim for those bugs that are close! They're almost in my mouth! Are you blind?!" Hearing the platoon commander's curses, the new recruits quickly opened fire on the Hormagaunts that were entangled in the barbed wire. The old veterans rolled their eyes, but their actions were a few steps faster than the new recruits.
"Sergeant, weren't we supposed to use the mechanical hounds to repel the first wave?" a new recruit, standing closest to the sergeant, asked, his eyes nervously fixed on the front. But the moment he finished speaking, the sergeant's palm landed on the back of his head, followed by a torrent of curses. "I'll tie you up and have you bomb the bugs! Didn't you see the cog-head's face when he received the order, like his own father had died? 'Steel-jaw' and the others are very precious. If it weren't for Magos Omega's kindness, not just you, but even the Colonel, wouldn't have been able to touch such a treasure in this life."
The beaten new recruit wasn't angry. He chuckled. "Heh heh. Sergeant, I wouldn't be willing either. Right, Steel-jaw?"
"Woof!"
The sergeant patted the hound beside him, a flicker of a smile on his face. Then he looked grimly at the Tyranid bodies in front of the position. "This is just the beginning. It's not even an appetizer. It's not time for them to go on stage yet."
While the humans, T'au, and Greenskins were engaged with the Tyranids, the meteor shower of Tyranid drop pods in the sky had not stopped for a moment. Not all of them would decelerate after landing and release Tyranid creatures. A portion of them, like real meteorites, crashed straight into the ground. After landing, they would unfold their sturdy outer shells, revealing the swollen, fleshy sacs inside. Then, like ticks, they would burrow into the ground, leaving only the spore chimneys on top exposed. These special drop pods were Capillary Towers. They could release billions of polluting microorganisms into the air through the spore chimneys on top. Just as a spider injects venom into its prey to melt it and make it edible, these microorganisms would change the planet's original atmosphere, making the air itself "mature," making the air also the Tyranids' food. At the same time, the toxic air would also kill the other creatures on the planet. This was also one of the Tyranids' most terrifying and unanswerable weapons. If you held out to the end, even the air would want to kill you. Even if you drove off the Tyranid fleet, what was left was a death world filled with toxic gas and Tyranid creatures.
"WAAAGH!" A Greenskin Boy, his face a mask of excitement and bloodlust, swung his big choppa, hacking and slashing his way through the swarm. Although he had already accumulated a lot of wounds, he felt very WAAAGH! right now and didn't want to stop at all. After he had killed all the bugs in front of him, he wanted to take a few more heads back as decorations. In case that super-thoughtful little shrimp came back one day, he would take these heads and sell them for teef. Then he would also get himself a more WAAAGH! weapon. He had heard the old-timers brag that his batch of Boyz had sprouted from the ground at the wrong time. If they had sprouted a few days earlier, they could have bought the most WAAAGH! weapons from the little shrimp. Although he felt his big choppa was also pretty WAAAGH!, after seeing the weapons of the heavily armored leaders, he still felt that the little shrimp's weapons were more WAAAGH!
"Big-teef! Get over here! Da warboss has an order!"
Big-teef, not wanting to get a beating, didn't bother to chop the bugs' heads and ran over, shouting as he ran, "Comin'! Where's da big boss sendin' us to WAAAGH! next?"
"He ain't sendin' us to WAAAGH! He's givin' us a heads-up. Da boss says these bugs are poisonous. He wants us to be careful."
Poisonous? Am I poisoned? Am I going to see Gorkamorka? I haven't had enough WAAAGH! yet! The Greenskin was still thinking when his body went limp.
"Big-teef? What's wrong?"
"I dunno. Should we leave him here, or take him back for the Painboy to look at?"
"Let's take him back. I saw Big-teef was pretty WAAAGH! just now."
"Hmm, then let's take him back."
Two Greenskins each grabbed one of Big-teef's legs and dragged the unconscious or dead Greenskin towards the nearest Painboy. As for whether Big-teef would be dragged to death, they didn't know, and they hadn't thought about it.
The same scene was playing out all over the Greenskin forest. At the same time, Hive Fleet Gorgon, which was encountering Greenskins for the first time, was also baffled. It had already changed its instant-death toxin for the Greenskins several times, but why couldn't it kill them?
Compared to Tough Beast's reminder to his Boyz, which had caused a wave of "friendly fire" by making them realize they were poisoned, the Snakebites under Savage-fang had a much more creative way of dealing with the Tyranids. A Tyranid war beast, with a constantly updated set of deadly toxins and a very WAAAGH! appearance, was a dream beast for a Snakebite who would give himself a dose of poison for fun. Many Greenskin Boyz were trying their best to capture a Tyranid alive. They wanted to raise it. A living Tyranid was now a priceless commodity in the Snakebite tribe. Many Runtherds, swinging their long whips, were driving their Squigs into the battlefield, just to catch one to train. Some Boyz, who knows how they had thought of it, had taken the toxin sacs from the Tyranid creatures, mixed them with other random things, and had smeared the paste on their weapons. A Tyranid, after getting a single cut, would immediately kick the bucket.
The thoughtful Greenskins and the poison-wielding Gorgon were locked in a fierce battle for a time. This made the humans and the T'au, who had originally planned to provide some long-range support to the Greenskins, look at each other. But although Gorgon had focused most of its energy on the Greenskins, a considerable number of Tyranids were still continuously attacking the defensive positions of the two sides. Death and sacrifice were playing out on Korsa at every moment.