As luck would have it, not long after the Ultramarine Officer finished his inspection and confirmed that the construction of the defensive works was essentially complete, the deep purple spore fog rolled in from the edge of the horizon, looking as if it would envelop the entire planet.
However, even if the fortifications hadn't been finished, the early arrival of the dense fog wouldn't have mattered.
Upon receiving the report that the forward scout had died and instantly resurrected, the entire hilly position had quietly entered maximum combat readiness.
The respirators in the Power Armor switched to internal circulation mode, and the regular human soldiers donned their full-face helmets.
For a moment, the only sounds in the trenches were the metallic clatter of weapons being chambered and the low, sharp commands coming through the communicators.
~Da-da-da!
A short burst of automatic gunfire abruptly shattered the tense silence.
Everyone present was a veteran; even those who weren't had long been tempered by their prolonged stay on the meat-grinder that was Perditia.
Furthermore, since the players could not truly die, they felt little tension even as the massive Tyranid army was about to attack.
Therefore, although the shot was sudden, there was no chain reaction across the position, no one was panicked into firing wildly without a clear sighting of the enemy.
The squad leader beside the shooter immediately slid over and yelled in a hushed voice, "What are you doing? Don't fire indiscriminately and waste ammunition!"
"Tyranid!" the firing player immediately retorted, "I saw a Tyranid! A Hormagaunt! But the son of a bitch juked, and immediately ducked into that ditch ahead. I missed!"
"Are you serious?" The surrounding players immediately voiced their skepticism. "Tyranids can hide in ditches? Don't they only charge straight ahead?"
Seeing that no one believed him, the player grew anxious: "Damn it, why would I lie to you? It's true! That thing was quick as hell!"
In fact, he didn't need to say anything more. Most players soon realized that the Tyranids this time really could hide in ditches.
As the dense fog closed in, a massive, dark horde of bugs appeared in everyone's line of sight. It looked like another classic tide of flesh.
However, the sight this time was completely different from the past.
The large-scale swarm did not advance in a solid "shell wall" of chitin like before. Instead, they maintained considerable gaps between individuals, moving forward in a loose formation.
Even more startlingly, not a single bug was charging directly toward the position. Every one of them was utilizing the terrain—be it shell craters, rocks, or natural depressions—to perform tactical evasion.
They darted rapidly from one cover to the next, minimizing the time they were exposed to the Helldivers' fire, and in the process, they were closing in on the position at an alarming speed.
This new tactic was truly effective.
Under the extremely low visibility of the dense fog, straight-line charges were easy enough,everyone could just spray fire blindly.
But this circuitous evasion tactic genuinely caused a massive amount of the Helldivers' attacks to fall into empty space, with bullets and energy beams fruitlessly striking dirt and rock, kicking up clouds of dust.
And that wasn't all.
Just as the players were frantically trying to aim at those ghostly figures, a sharp sound of something slicing through the air came from above.
Large amounts of highly corrosive acid rained down with incredible precision, landing right on top of their heads!
Worse still, a newly deployed heavy lumbering gun emplacement was hit by a precise direct shot from some kind of biological artillery, and with a thunderous explosion, it was blown sky-high!
Human vision was severely impacted by the dense fog, but the Tyranids were unaffected. Under the colossal and efficient neural network of the Hive Mind, whatever the frontline Hormagaunts saw was instantly known by the rear-line Termagants.
The ranged attackers only needed to hide deep within the fog and wait quietly for the "eyes" in front to transmit the coordinates of the human firing positions.
This sudden precision strike and new tactic left the company commander feeling a bit flustered. After all, he lacked professional military knowledge and was not the type of quick-witted person with strong improvisation skills.
In this situation, the only thing he could probably do was crouch in the command post and act as a cheerleader, giving motivational speeches to the frontline officers over the communication channel.
But now, the company commander had a new, actionable idea—he suddenly remembered the dozens of high-power searchlights that had just been installed on the high ground, based on the Pyro's suggestion.
They hadn't been turned on yet! Although he didn't think these things would be of any use in the current complex battle situation, since they were already positioned there, it seemed a shame not to try.
Treat a dead horse like a live one, let's turn them on and see!
"All searchlight teams! Turn on the lights immediately! Maximum power! Point them down!"
Following his command, the dozens of massive searchlights positioned on the crest of the hill instantly illuminated.
The result was unexpected: turning on the searchlights actually worked!
The blinding strong light, like dozens of light swords descending from the sky, instantly tore through the thick purple fog, illuminating the area in front of the position as bright as day!
The Tech-Priests responsible for the rear-line maintenance had clearly put some thought into it; the power of these searchlights had been calibrated to the extreme, and the beams were even mixed with specific frequencies of intense pulses.
This kind of intense light, even if shined suddenly in broad daylight, would be enough to instantly blind a normal person's eyes.
But the Tyranids, the advanced units were naturally unaffected. However, the Hormagaunts, which were the main cannon fodder, were a different story.
The Hive Mind, in order to conserve biomass to the maximum, hadn't even equipped these basic units with a digestive system, causing them to starve to death in a dozen hours.
How could it possibly waste precious biomass to reinforce their sensory systems?
In an instant, the Hormagaunts that were executing complex tactical maneuvers became like ants thrown into boiling water, instantly falling into massive confusion.
Their simple visual organs were completely unable to process such intense stimulation, and large numbers of Hormagaunts were instantly blinded.
Although the synapse creatures and bio-signal receivers were still functional, they were not completely out of control, but they clearly could no longer execute the sophisticated tactical maneuvers from moments ago.
With the sensory organs of the frontline Hormagaunts completely destroyed by the strong light, the "eyes" of the rear-line ranged units were also blinded.
Their firepower strikes naturally lost their previous surgical precision, forcing them to fall back to less accurate, blanket coverage fire.
In this case, the Helldivers were no longer afraid.
For them, as long as it wasn't the kind of precision shelling that landed a direct hit on their heads the moment they resurrected, even the most concentrated artillery fire was nothing more than atmosphere for this cruel war.
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The Mother Nature Episode was kinda mid not gonna lie.