There are three Hive Cities on Avarax, with Central Hive City being the largest. The other two Hive Cities are much smaller in scale. Orksoften target places with the largest populations and the most stringent defenses, as they perceive such actions as more Waaagh! Therefore, the defensive strength of Central Hive City is paramount, boasting nearly three million PDF Soldiers alone. Moreover, since the Tyrant breeding factory is located there, the number of Tyrants and Stalkers is also highest in this location.
However, the ground forces will have to wait a bit before officially engaging the orks. This is because the fleet in orbit serves as the first main force to resist the orks.
"Large ork small carrier groups detected, target about to enter the minefield." The Kill Kroozer variants in the ork fleet, Dreadnoughts carrying a large number of carrier-based aircraft, opened their hangar doors and released numerous ork carrier-based aircraft that were still spewing black smoke. The Ork Boyz piloting these craft all excitedly waaaghed towards the Avarax defenders who were ready for battle. However, what awaited them were countless booby traps suspended in the dark void.
"Target has entered the minefield, expected to detonate in three minutes." To better strike the ork carrier groups, all booby traps were designed to be time-triggered. Those Ork Boyz, who were shouting wildly and only had the Ishimura and other armed merchant ships in their eyes, did not notice the booby traps passing by. It wasn't until three minutes later, when most of the ork carrier-based aircraft had already entered the minefield, that the crew of the Ishimura pressed the detonation switch.
Immediately, countless flames flashed, engulfing all the ork carrier-based aircraft. When the flames quickly dissipated due to the vacuum environment, most of the overwhelming ork carrier groups had been destroyed by the explosion. The remaining ork carrier-based aircraft also suffered damage to varying degrees. If these were pilots of ordinary races, their morale would have plummeted due to the huge losses. But this violent explosion obviously could not scare the Ork Boyz, who are born for war. The Ork Boyz driving the carrier-based aircraft continued to press forward, completely ignoring their already tattered aircraft, and continued to waaagh.
"Notify the other armed merchant ships to conduct ADS railgun salvo interception." The Ishimura and the other armed merchant ships all raised their ADS railguns, ready to intercept the remaining ork carrier-based aircraft. But the biggest characteristic of orks is their unpredictable behavior. It can be said that any plan can only restrain orks at the beginning.
"Target battlecruiser is charging, it's the one boarded by Tyrant units!" The bridge of the Ishimura suddenly flashed with red alarms.
"What is the situation with the Tyrant boarding party?"
"All camera systems are damaged, unable to receive signals, monitoring system shows all Tyrants have gone berserk, and all Stalkers have become beast-like."
"Notify the entire army and ground air defense units to concentrate fire and attack!" Although he didn't know what exactly happened on that great hammer-class battlecruiser, the Commanders obviously could not let it crash into the defense line. Since the Ishimura's missile launch array was still reloading ammunition, it was unable to perform a large-scale salvo for a while. Therefore, the main force of this round of attack fell on the armed merchant ships.
Since they did not master the technology of manufacturing macro cannons and lance weapons, the massive armed merchant ships were equipped with an exaggerated number of missiles, as well as ADS railguns. There were also countless laser cannon arrays, and even more assault ships carrying Tyrants and Stalkers. The five armed merchant ships all began to fire salvos. Almost instantly, thousands of various missiles were launched, pouring en masse towards the charging great hammer-class battlecruiser.
What surprised the Commanders in charge of the operation was that the void shield of this great hammer-class battlecruiser actually flickered and began to fail. Perhaps it was because the ork void shield generators, cobbled together from various junk parts, finally failed. Or perhaps the Tyrants and Stalkers who initiated the boarding successfully completed the task of destroying the void shield generator. In any case, this sudden discovery caused the missiles to change their attack target.
"Correct attack position, target: engine." Thousands of missiles changed their flight direction, all pouring towards the massive engine at the rear of the great hammer-class battlecruiser. Then they exploded. Although they were just conventional missiles, the power generated by thousands of them exploding simultaneously was considerable. At least, it was enough to destroy the weak engine section that had lost its void shield protection. Deprived of engine thrust, the great hammer-class battlecruiser, which had been charging with an unstoppable momentum, finally slowed down, relying only on inertia to continue gliding slowly.
"Send more Tyrants up to see what's going on inside. If necessary, we can turn this ship into our armed platform," Marcus said.
"But, sir, you should know that humans cannot use the weapons cobbled together by the ork from their junk," an Avarax native Commander reminded him.
"We don't need to operate that ship, nor do we need to use the weapons inside. Just by installing thrusters and weapons, we can turn it into a mobile armed platform," Marcus casually explained. Some wealthy Hive Cities have mobile orbital defense platforms, which can play a significant role in resisting external invasions. However, Avarax, being in a remote location, obviously did not have the conditions for this.
In short, under Marcus's command, several nearby armed merchant ships released hundreds of assault ships full of Tyrants and Stalkers. And everyone finally got to see the situation inside this great hammer-class battlecruiser. orks are clearly not a hygienic race. In the already filthy and foul-smelling corridors, there were now piles of dismembered Ork Boyz. Occasionally, one could even see a Super Tyrant that had suffered excessive damage, with its entire upper body blown off, beyond the repair capabilities of the T-Virus, and already dead.
The boarding Tyrants and Stalkers continued deeper into the junk ship, and soon encountered a large number of abnormally excited orks. "Starting targeting, providing fire bombardment." Due to the loss of the void shield's cover, the attacks from the Ishimura and the other armed merchant ships could directly penetrate the thick armor of the junk ship, hitting the Ork Boyz inside. After several rounds of laser cannon salvos and missile bombardments, the first batch of orks encountered by the Tyrants were quickly cleared out. It wasn't until the Tyrants and Stalkers annihilated several waves of charging Ork Boyz and reached a huge compartment that everyone finally discovered the reason why this ship had lost its void shield.
One, no, it should be said, a blob of incredibly massive flesh monster, initially estimated to be over a hundred meters tall, had already occupied most of the compartment, swallowing the original void shield generator within it.