Both the Zerg Swarm and the greenskins were fighting with savage intensity.
Gaurik proved himself a true Warboss. He successfully led his greenskins into the heart of the Hive. Along the way, even the Ultralisks couldn't deter their iron-willed determination to see the Hive destroyed.
The barbarity displayed by these Orks made even the Zerg feel a twinge of inferiority. And these were modern Orks, who had degenerated over countless millennia; Ancient Orks (Krorks) were said to stand twelve meters tall. Trazyn the Infinite likely has the last one in his collection.
"SET DA BOMBZ! BLAST DIS NEST TO DA SKIEZ!!!"
The greenskins began planting explosives throughout the Hive. Countless Zerg units tried to stop them, but whether they were Hydralisks or Roaches, they were as fragile as paper before Gaurik's power klaw.
His shield generator made Gaurik seem invincible, allowing him to tank a massive amount of the Swarm's attacks. While the Hydralisks and Roaches couldn't pierce his shield, the energy drained with every hit. Gaurik wasn't truly invincible, but he had bought more than enough time.
The bombs were quickly set. These weren't small handheld devices; they were massive charges hauled by trucks, capable of literally blasting the Hive into the heavens.
"BOYZ, RETREAT WIF ME! WE AIN'T GONNA BE BLOWN UP WIF DIS NEST!!!"
The first bomb detonated shortly after, a brilliant spark of fire blooming in one corner of the Hive. Even from the outside, one could see the Hive's flesh being torn asunder.
Gaurik and his mob of Nobz retreated rapidly, but how could the Zerg Swarm let them go so easily?
The Orks' decapitation strike was a failure because they had only killed a production unit. They had never found the Swarm's actual command units; neither Broodmother Zagara nor Cerebrate Zasz were on the battlefield.
By the time Gaurik and his crew emerged from the Hive to board their trucks, they found themselves surrounded by an even greater number of enemies. An absolute minefield of Banelings made a breakthrough impossible.
Behind them, the Hive continued to explode, showing obvious signs of total collapse. Once the chain reactions finished, the Hive would be completely leveled.
But so what?
†Drone, morph a few more Hives. We have more than enough biomass now.†
If resources were scarce, a Hive would be a precious unit. But with sufficient resources, it was common for a planet to host multiple Hives. The best way to destroy a Hive is to drop an asteroid or a capital ship on it; Gaurik coming in person was his most unwise decision.
He wasn't going back.
"ME TRUKK!!!"
Dozens of Banelings detonated against Gaurik's vehicles, reducing them to scrap. The Zerg gave the Mekboyz no time to rebuild as more Banelings surged forward.
†I don't care about casualties; I want this Warboss dead!†
A pure Baneling force fears artillery, but against pure infantry, it is peerless. The Ork Nobz charged the Banelings, but not a single one could withstand the self-destructive impact of more than three Banelings. Some smarter Nobz tried to pick them off with gunfire, only to have their weapons ruined by the smaller Banelings that split from the corpses.
One by one, the Nobz were blown apart, and their Orkish technology was systematically destroyed.
"DON'T FINK YOU CAN KILL ME, YOU BUG FINGS!"
However, killing Gaurik was no simple task. The Overmind watched as the massive Warboss kept killing, and killing, and killing. He seemed tireless, as if he would never weary of the slaughter.
"GORK AND MORK IZ WATCHIN' ME! I AIN'T DYIN' HERE! I'S GONNA CONQUER ALL DA WORLDZ AND PAINT 'EM RED!!!"
†At this rate, you look more like Khorne is watching you...† the Overmind complained internally.
"DIE, DIE, DIE!"
Gaurik swung his power klaw so fast it became a whirlwind of steel. Even the Banelings struggled to get close, relying on the acidic spray from their explosions to slowly corrode the giant claw.
Eventually, regardless of the cost in lives, the Zerg Swarm melted through Gaurik's heavy power armor. Even the "I Fink" method couldn't keep a machine working once it had suffered such catastrophic structural damage.
Stripped of his gear, Gaurik began fighting the Banelings with his bare flesh. But how could a mortal body ignore Baneling damage? Even the Emperor would be injured if he took a Baneling hit without his shields up.
Acid hissed as it ate into Gaurik's body. After taking the brunt of over ten large and small Banelings, his towering frame finally collapsed before the Swarm.
From the moment this powerful Warboss landed on the planet to his final breath, the number of Zerg units killed by his hand had exceeded six figures. Yet, in the end, he was but flesh and blood. He fell.
Even in death, his hand reflexively crushed one last Baneling.
Then, the Warboss was finally finished. He moved no more.
Without the Warboss, the WAAAGH field began to dissipate. The Orks felt the death of their leader and immediately descended into internal chaos. Several Nobz closest to the Warboss declared independence and began fighting each other.
This was the nature of the greenskins. They WAAAGH-ed hard, and they scattered just as hard.
The Orks, who originally held a numerical advantage, lost all ground once the infighting started. What followed was the tedious and lengthy process of "mopping up."
†Zagara, handle the cleanup. They are no longer a threat.†
"As you command, Overmind."
Zagara began controlling the Swarm to steamroll the rest of the planet. The remaining Ork forces were no match for the Zerg. Their attempts to resist were ruthlessly crushed by the Swarm's multi-dimensional assault system. Even suicidal charges only added to the Zerg's casualty count without breaking their offensive structure.
"Pathetic lower species. Your resistance is meaningless. Become part of the Swarm."
The Ork positions were devoured bit by bit. No matter how valiant the Nobz fought or how skilled their tactics, the defeat was absolute.
The Overmind had resolved his first true WAAAGH crisis through the sheer raw power of the Zerg Swarm. However, this was but one of the thousands of WAAAGH-es in the galaxy, and far from the largest.
Only when he encountered Ghazghkull Thraka—the prophet of Gork and Mork—and defeated him, could he claim to have truly conquered the greenskin race.
Now, the size of the Swarm had begun to reach a significant scale.
The benefit of expanding was a foothold in the galaxy; the downside was that others would now perceive you as a threat.
In the neighboring sectors, the Imperial worlds were now aware of a new terror.
The Zerg Swarm