The task assigned to the Heavenly Lion Battle Group seemed straightforward enough: simply clear the remaining structural debris of a Necrons building.
However, even a destroyed Necrons Macro-Tomb was a target that could never be underestimated.
This ruin, sprawled across the battlefield, was once a massive Necrons defensive structure.
Its surviving living metal structure was still slowly writhing, attempting to repair the damaged sections, but due to the depletion of energy, it could no longer restore itself.
Such facilities were inherently nearly indestructible fortresses, designed from the outset to withstand the twin trials of prolonged time and brutal combat, and thus possessed their own power facilities to provide energy for the living metal's repair.
But it had now been utterly destroyed by a powerful attack, plunging the Macro-Tomb into silence.
They were typically positioned on the outermost boundary of tomb complexes, guarding deeper secrets like a great wall of steel.
Deep beneath the Macro-Tomb, connected to the Necrons' true core facilities—stasis crypts where countless warriors slept, crypteks' foundries continuously producing war machines, and tomb nexus controlling the entire defense system—lay the true heart of the Necrons.
When invaders painstakingly broke through a Macro-Tomb, they often realized with a shock that these surface structures were merely the tip of the iceberg of the entire death empire.
In essence, a Macro-Tomb was more like a precise war machine than a common building.
Its living metal structure could not only self-repair but also provide Rebirth Protocol blessings to the Necrons legions stationed upon it; ubiquitous teleportation nodes allowed troops to move freely within the fortress, giving it the dual function of a defensive stronghold and a strategic hub.
For the Imperium of Man's Expeditionary Force, attacking such a complete Macro-Tomb was tantamount to suicide.
In the early stages, some Commanders, disbelieving, attempted to storm them, but after paying a heavy price, all frontline Commanders now immediately called for heavy firepower support upon encountering a Macro-Tomb.
Whether it was super-heavy tank clusters, Astra Militarum artillery positions, or orbital bombardment, any means necessary were employed to destroy them.
However, even a destroyed Macro-Tomb, its wreckage still exhibited astonishing structural integrity.
Those twisted yet still intact living metal components held an irresistible allure for the Adeptus Mechanicus researchers.
Even more terrifying, when multiple Macro-Tomb remnants were combined, they could potentially re-form into a larger defensive system known as a "City of the Dead."
(The Macro-Tomb, now out of print, was a tabletop unit worth 730 points, with two gun emplacements that could freely mount one large and two small turrets. Four combined formed a 2000-point unit, the City of the Dead.)
(This is what it plugs into, also an out-of-print item.)
(Another type of turret.)
Undoubtedly, the Expeditionary Force encountered the tenacious resistance of the City of the Dead and Macro-Tombs more than once during their advance.
These death fortresses, constructed of living metal, stood like iron walls across the lines of attack, becoming the primary reason for the Expeditionary Force's initial slow progress.
The solidity of these defensive facilities far exceeded the Imperium of Man's imagination; facing towering Macro-Tombs and the endless Necrons legions pouring out of their internal warp gates, ground forces often had to pay a rather heavy price to make progress.
Even the most elite Astra Militarum regiments often suffered casualties exceeding 50% when attacking a complete Macro-Tomb—and this was still the result achieved under the premise of timely heavy artillery cluster fire coverage or successful orbital bombardment support.
As for attempting to destroy a Macro-Tomb relying solely on conventional firepower like armored vehicles or company-level heavy weapons?
That was simply a pipe dream.
Walls composed of living metal could rapidly repair damage, and the energy core hidden deep within the structure was heavily protected.
The Heavenly Lion Battle Group had participated in several assaults on Macro-Tombs, desperate missions to eliminate these death fortresses in the absence of heavy firepower support.
Anatoly still refused to recall the brutal scenes from that time—even for super-human warriors clad in power armor, it was a nightmare.
Under the concentrated phase cannon fire and the endless siege of Necrons warriors, even Astartes Monks suffered unacceptable losses.
The tactic the Battle Group eventually devised was to dispatch elite squads to raid the energy core: one tactical squad had to draw fire, allowing another squad to seize the opportunity to infiltrate.
And even if they successfully approached the target, the warriors still had to install Meltagun bombs amidst a hail of gunfire, with endless enemy reinforcements pouring in.
Behind every successful detonation lay the sacrifice of several warriors.
Since participating in the Expeditionary Force operations, Anatoly and his company had lost nearly a third of their battle-brothers.
Such casualties were heavy for any Astartes Chapter, but Anatoly felt deep gratitude towards Alex.
He knew clearly that this was already the result of Alex's deliberate protection.
In those brutal Macro-Tomb assault battles, if Alex had intended it—even if it was just a delay in artillery support, or a coordinate error in an orbital bombardment—it would have been enough to leave an entire company of Astartes on the battlefield forever.
This was not alarmist talk, but a cruel reality.
Although Space Marines were powerful, they were ultimately flesh and blood.
After all, it was now the Chapter era of 40k, not the Legion era of the 30k Great Crusade.
At that time, Space Marine Legions possessed a complete heavy equipment system and could directly confront any enemy on the front lines.
But everything changed when Roboute Guilliman implemented the Codex Astartes reform, breaking down the Legions into Chapters.
Today's Astartes primarily perform special operations in small squads; while this increased tactical flexibility, it also cost them their sustained combat capability on the front lines.
More critically, the reduction in Chapter size.
A mere thousand-man roster meant that any significant casualties would severely cripple a Chapter.
Looking across the entire Expeditionary Force, other participating Chapters were similar to the Heavenly Lion Battle Group; some weaker Chapters even had to withdraw from the battlefield sequence due to suffering over 50% casualties.
In contrast, although the Heavenly Lion Battle Group suffered heavy losses, it at least maintained its complete combat effectiveness.
On this cruel battlefield, being able to bring two-thirds of their brothers back alive was already a great fortune.
After all, given the powerful enemies faced by the Expeditionary Force and the intensity of this expedition's combat, the Heavenly Lion Battle Group's level of casualties could only be considered normal losses, or even not significant losses.
He reported these circumstances to the Chapter's high command, still awaiting their response to Alex's previous proposal.
For the Heavenly Lion Battle Group, this was indeed a difficult decision.
However, just as Anatoly thought today was merely a routine security mission, deep beneath the destroyed Macro-Tomb, Adeptus Mechanicus personnel conducting reconnaissance unexpectedly awakened a slumbering Necrons construct, and the originally peaceful scientific expedition instantly turned into a brutal battleground.
Anatoly had no time to hesitate and immediately led the Heavenly Lion Battle Group's battle-brothers into combat.
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