An Ultralisk's combat power might not rival the top-tier ground forces of Warhammer 40K factions—an Emperor-class Titan, for instance. However, as a mass-producible Zerg Swarm behemoth unit, when their numbers swell, any ground force must yield.
†Feels so good having saved up this wave of Ultralisks!†
The Death Guard position loaded and fired artillery at maximum speed. Salvo after salvo of poison gas shells detonated in the main artery. Nearly four-digit Zerglings perished in that barrage. But not a single Ultralisk fell.
Ultralisks shrugged off most shelling impacts. Their polyhedral carapace plating provided formidable protection, capable of withstanding ship-borne autocannons and air-to-ground missiles. The Death Guard's ground fire primarily relied on plague-based attrition. Their ground firepower was clearly insufficient to halt the Ultralisks.
"My Plague Father! They're still alive?!"
"The plague… isn't affecting them!"
It should have. But the Swarm Overmind had preemptively ordered Abathur to evolve resistance. The Zerg Swarm now retained over 95% biological functionality within plague zones. Debuffs were minimal.
Ultralisks, with their inherent resilience, were immune to most slowing effects.
The Ultralisks now burst through the plague gas. Less than a hundred meters from the Death Guard position.
"My Pla—!!!"
A Death Guard never completed his heartfelt cry. An Ultralisk's immense foot flattened him. Green ichor burst from beneath its tread.
The Ultralisk rammed aside the Nurgle daemon engine before it. Predator tanks, super-heavy vehicles—all were sent flying.
No wonder Starcraft 1's Ultralisks were called "Mammoths" and "Big Bulls."
Death Guard and Nurgle daemons who narrowly escaped the dozens of stampeding Ultralisks had no time to regroup. Zerglings and Hydralisks swarmed them. Zerglings posed little threat—Hydralisks, however, were lethal.
Whether melee or ranged, five or more Hydralisks could rapidly kill these disoriented Death Guard.
†Push! Push! PUSH! KEEP PUSHING!!!†
Terrain was the only true limit on Ultralisk output.
Within the narrow conduits Ultralisks couldn't enter: Zerglings, Roaches, Ravagers charged forward. No need for flanking maneuvers, no need for encirclement tactics. Simply color in every passage with creep, like a coloring game, and the Zerg Swarm would win.
The Bottom Hive, partially occupied moments ago, was now fully Swarm-controlled. The Ultralisk tide surged upward, crashing into the Underhive.
The Underhive was primarily Nurgle daemon territory—Plaguebearers. The two-meter green daemons heard the Ultralisks' footsteps. They looked toward the passages.
Then they saw the stampede of Ultralisks.
Even high-tier Nurgle daemons couldn't withstand this. They fled at maximum speed into flanking structures. Some dove into alleys. Others crammed into rooms.
They witnessed Ultralisks trample the Death Guard's forward positions into scrap. Some Ultralisks still bore the wreckage of Death Guard artillery and vehicles impaled on their carapaces. Overwhelming.
Within the narrow passages, Zerglings swarmed the Plaguebearers.
Zerglings were cut down one after another. But the Plaguebearers realized—these insects were endless. As they killed, Hydralisks and Roaches reached the battlefield. Lethal threat.
Plaguebearer after Plaguebearer was slain, banished to the warp as immaterial energy.
"This battle is UNFAIR!!!"
A lone surviving Death Guard in the passage had killed hundreds of Zerglings and several Hydralisks. But he fought alone. Zerglings and Hydralisks had torn off one arm and both legs. His remaining hand spasmodically pulled the bolter's trigger.
No time to regenerate. More Swarm creatures swamped him. Before they buried him, he summarized this battlefield:
"This isn't combat. This is SLAUGHTER!!!"
Indeed. Before the Swarm, daemons could only be slaughtered.
Yet the Swarm also suffered crippling losses. Killing a single Plaguebearer or Death Guard required massive expenditure of forces. Daemon corpses yielded no biomass.
Even the samples required for evolution came from wounded Swarm units.
Every passing second cost the Zerg Swarm vast resources.
Daemons, too. Even slaughtering countless Zerg, they harvested no souls.
But they had to fight. Daemons knew: if they didn't fight these insects, they'd reap no souls at all.
Thus, Zerg Swarm and daemons—ostensibly non-conflicting—both coveted the same resource: life. No convenient arrangement existed where Swarm-killed human souls defaulted to daemons.
The Underhive, two-thirds occupied by the Ultralisk charge, was on the verge of breaching the Upper Hive. Then the Ultralisks encountered their first major obstacle.
The leading Ultralisk's forefoot struck the ground.
BOOM.
A violent detonation erupted beneath it. Even an Ultralisk, a unit of colossal scale, was thrown bodily upward, forequarters lifted high. Its chest was exposed—bleeding profusely from the blast.
†Landmines?!†
Powerful mines, targeting the Ultralisk's less-armored underbelly. The Ultralisk's forelimbs touched down again. Its body, destabilized by the injury, collapsed forward onto its knees. The lurching motion triggered several more mines.
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
Three consecutive detonations. The prone Ultralisk, pressed against the ground, lost significant portions of its body. Clearly unsalvageable.
The first Ultralisk casualty.
Adjacent Ultralisks also triggered mines. One had a foot blasted clean through, the wound extending to the knee. It, too, collapsed, unable to rise.
Ultralisks felt no pain. But with leg structures shattered, they couldn't support their immense frames.
Two crippled Ultralisks blocked the advance of those behind. The charge stalled. The same pattern repeated in other main arteries. Soon, Ultralisks were detonating mines and rendered combat-ineffective.
Nearly ten Ultralisks incapacitated. Aside from the unfortunate one that triggered multiple mines and perished, the others required recovery time.
Zerglings attempted to clear mines with their bodies. Plaguebearers, concealed in darkness, burst from flanking structures. Fearlessly, they engaged the Zerg Swarm in melee.
They reaped Zerglings. Hydralisks perforated them in turn.
Then—from within buildings, from rooftops—Chaos cultists wielding lasguns took elevated positions. They targeted Hydralisks. Surprisingly effective combined arms.
Hydralisks' firing angles couldn't match rooftop cultists. Return fire was largely ineffective.
Hydralisk casualties mounted. The Plaguebearer advance became difficult to contain. Banelings were largely ineffective—Nurgle daemons possessed high acid resistance. They themselves fought with corrosive bile.
Only Roaches could directly contest Plaguebearers.
The Swarm Overmind wasn't concerned for the Ultralisks. These Plaguebearers couldn't eliminate them quickly. Under sustained assault, the Ultralisks were almost unharmed. Instead, they grew more enraged, slamming their bulk against Hive structures.
Hive construction, if nothing else, was exceptionally durable. Given that Hives were almost entirely unregulated construction, insufficient structural integrity would have collapsed them long ago.
Ultralisks couldn't breach these walls quickly. They left massive dents. Then they trampled the cultists who'd taken shelter within.
†Hmph. Think the Zerg Swarm lacks three-dimensional warfare capabilities? Think you can encircle Ultralisks using buildings as cover? WATCH THIS. Prep the drop pods!†
Above, a Leviathan's colossal form breached the atmosphere. It loomed over the Hive.
The entire Hive could see it. Particularly the Spire's peak. The Leviathan was alarmingly close to the Spire. So close that Spire nobles could discern the drop pod sockets on its hide.
A tendril brushed past. It snapped an imposing Spire structure in two.
Chaos cultists atop the building noticed the sky darken. They looked up. They saw drop pod after drop pod launch from the Leviathan, hurtling toward them.
Drop pods detonated on rooftops. Zerglings and Hydralisks surged forth, charging the cultists.
The slaughter resumed.