The Thunderhawk Gunship's fuselage jolted violently, and a piercing alarm ripped through the previous silence in the transport bay. Red lights on the bulkheads flashed wildly, illuminating every Ultramarines' faceplate like a blood-soaked fiend.
Outside the window, the once-gray sky had transformed into a death-net woven from explosion flashes and energy beams. Swarms of manta ray-shaped T'au Empire "Barracuda" fighters were flutter coming from all directions, deftly weaving through the Imperial gunships' ponderous formations, their ion cannons and missile pods beneath their wings continuously spewing lethal energy and flames.
The Thunderhawk Gunship carrying Sicarius tilted sharply during a violent evasive maneuver. He could clearly hear the grating shriek of countless shrapnel scraping against the hull. A tracking missile, trailing a long wake, narrowly scraped past them, striking the engine of another friendly gunship not far away.
That hundred-ton steel behemoth instantly became an uncontrollable fireball, tumbling through the air, plummeting helplessly towards the city ruins shrouded in toxic mist below.
"Engines one and four are failing! We're going down!" The pilot's hoarse roar echoed through the comms channel, "Prepare for impact! Prepare—"
Before he could finish, accompanied by a deafening roar that seemed to tear the world apart, the Thunderhawk Gunship slammed into the ground at a brutal angle. The immense impact carved a hundred-meter-long trench through the ruins, finally coming to a halt before the skeletal remains of a collapsed building, twisted metal groaning in agony.
Such a hard landing, enough to break the bones and rupture the internal organs of any mortal, was of course nothing to an astartes.
At the moment of impact, Sicarius' muscles instantly tensed, and the power armor's servo-systems emitted an overloaded hum, dissipating most of the impact force into nothing. He easily stabilized himself, and the moment the transport hatch was violently torn open, he raised his bolter.
A T'au Fire Warrior was aiming his pulse rifle, attempting to spray the newly opened hatch. But what greeted him was a bolter round imbued with the Emperor's wrath.
The warhead precisely struck its chest, exploding within milliseconds, obliterating the xeno and its blue armor into a mist of blood and flesh.
At the same time, Sicarius also noticed that in the sky, many Thunderhawk Gunships that failed to make a successful forced landing were being shot down. Some Battle-guys had no choice but to activate their jump packs mid-air, air-dropping directly from their out-of-control gunships.
This act severely violated the astartes Codex's regulations regarding airborne operations, but given the urgent situation, any accountability for tactics would have to wait until after the battle.
Just as Sicarius was about to inquire about Numi's situation via the comms channel, a faint premonition of danger made him instinctively tilt his head slightly. A searing pulse laser almost grazed his helmet, leaving a molten red spot on the bulkhead behind him.
The ambushing Fire Warrior immediately adjusted its trajectory, attempting to attack again, but from the other side, Numi's heavy figure had already burst forth. His bolter roared, and a precise burst of fire annihilated the attacker.
"These xenos are starting to use new recruits on a large scale," Numi's muffled voice came through the communicator, "In previous battles, with the assistance of abominable intelligence, their attacks never missed."
"Yes," Sicarius calmly responded, simultaneously suppressing several peeking enemies in the distance with his bolter, "As long as we push a little harder…"
Before he could finish, a commanding voice cut into the comms channel of all warriors of the Second Company. It was captain Leido Ashius, the Eighth Company captain and the highest commander of this special operation.
"All squads, attention, immediately rally around your respective sergeants," captain Ashius' voice was quite urgent, "We just received a signal from friendly forces. The Helldivers Legion has encountered high-priority xeno units, and we must immediately advance towards their position!"
...Meanwhile, in the T'au Empire's tactical command center, the atmosphere was extremely tense.
The Helldivers Legion's mad-dog-like rapid assault clearly caught the T'au Empire completely off guard. They never expected their Kroot allies, who served as a flank screen, to completely collapse in such a short time. An emergency meeting was immediately convened.
The T'au Empire's Water Caste diplomats and Fire Caste commanders, of course, knew how dangerous the Helldivers' costly rapid infiltration was. But some excellent commanders among them also saw a fleeting opportunity—this Imperium of Man force had penetrated deep, completely detached from their main forces! If they could seize this opportunity, they might be able to deliver a crushing blow to the arrogant Humans.
As of now, the battle had devolved into a bloody stalemate, which the T'au found undesirable, and the enormous casualties of this war were already enough to shock the entire high command.
Even in past wars against the savage ork, the T'au Empire had never suffered such heavy casualties. Although everyone firmly believed that the ultimate victory of The Greater Good would surely come, they also urgently needed a substantial victory to boost the morale of their entire army.
Thus, a commander named Farsight was urgently pulled from the stalemated left flank. He would lead a squad of elite XV-8 Crisis Battlesuits, like a sharp scalpel, to excise the "tumor" that the Helldivers had become.
All T'au participating in the meeting believed that this powerful force would be enough to teach the deep-penetrating Imperium of Man force a painful lesson.
However, no sooner had Commander Farsight's forces been dispatched than an even more astonishing piece of news reached the emergency council—the Imperium of Man's main force, those genetically engineered warriors in blue heavy armor, were launching a large-scale raid on their rear via Thunderhawk Gunships and orbital drop pods!
The emergency council immediately fell into disarray again. The two factions, one advocating recalling Farsight to deal with the rear threat and the other insisting Farsight continue to intercept the Helldivers, argued fiercely, neither able to persuade the other.
Finally, it was Farsight himself, via remote communication, who personally settled the debate.
His voice was calm and clear, instantly overriding all the clamor: "Gentlemen, please listen to me. Although the Imperium of Man's genetically engineered warriors possess strong individual combat power, according to the reconnaissance of our Air Caste comrades, their numbers are only about a hundred or so, and they cannot cause fatal damage to our stable rear in a short time.
However, if we allow the Imperium of Man force on the right flank, whose numbers have already reached six digits, to directly penetrate our rear positions, the entire front line will completely spiral out of control."
He paused, then made his decision in an unassailable tone: "My mission remains unchanged. I will eliminate the immediate threat."