41: Even gods have to line up before they can make their appearance.

[Real World - Holographic Operations Cabin]

[Countdown: 29:48]

Li Cang stared fixedly at the red numbers in the top-right corner of the light screen.

The numbers ticked down slowly; each change was like a dull blade dragging harshly across his taut nerves.

His hands moved rapidly across the console, his fingertips turning slightly red from the exertion.

Every command issued was accompanied by a rapid consumption of resources, like cutting one's own flesh to feed a hawk.

At the edge of the holographic map, red hostile signals were proliferating wildly.

Those weren't guerrillas; that was a regular army.

Three "Deep Sea Calamity" Class Land Cruisers of the Pan-Pacific Empire were approaching the communications tower, crushing every obstacle on the wasteland with an unstoppable momentum.

The vibration of the treads grinding over rocks was transmitted back through the sensors, making the floor of the entire operations cabin tremble slightly.

A suffocating sense of pressure.

[Warning: Warp whispers intensifying. Enemy unit sanity index detected at zero. Aggression locked to: Fight to the death.]

Li Cang took a deep breath, his gaze turning cold.

Since it was a tower defense game, he would see whose towers were tougher and whose lives were cheaper.

He connected to the channel of Base Commander C-19.

"C-19."

No nonsense, just a cold command.

"Hold that tower at all costs."

"Even if you have to plug the cannons with corpses."

...[Holy Terra - Wasteland Base Perimeter Defense Line]

Boom—!!!

A 400mm Siege Mortar shell landed on the trench front, less than fifty meters from C-19.

The shockwave from the explosion, mixed with radioactive dust, swept across the area.

Several Mortal Auxiliary Army soldiers who couldn't dodge in time had their internal organs shattered. Before they could even scream, they were tossed by the air blast like ragdolls, hitting the ground hard, bleeding from their facial orifices, and falling silent.

C-19 stood at the edge of the trench.

He shook the rubble off his pauldrons. His mk ii power armor emitted a hum of overloaded servo-motors as the auto-stabilization system quickly adjusted his posture to steady him.

Through his grayish-black tactical visor, he saw the tide of steel on the horizon.

The three land cruisers had entered visual range.

Their hulls were covered in rusty anchors and deep-sea barnacles, and massive chimneys belched black smoke that obscured half the sky.

Supporting these massive frames were thousands of huge, blood-and-mud-stained heavy load-bearing wheels.

Surrounding them were dense infantry phalanxes wearing heavy diving suits and armed with harpoon guns and rivet guns.

"Distance: 1,500 meters." C-19's voice was as steady as an emotionless readout machine.

"Wind speed: Corrected. Target: Infantry phalanx."

Behind him, sixty-eight Dark Ravens warriors crouched behind crude cover, their Bolters held level.

They didn't fire. They were waiting.

Although the base's production lines were roaring day and night, the output was far from keeping up with such high-intensity consumption.

Ammunition at the front was critical; on average, each person had only half a combat load left—still warm from the production line.

This meant every shot had to result in an enemy's death.

"Let them get close before firing," C-19 ordered.

800 meters. The Pan-Pacific Empire's Pneumatic Rivet Guns began to fire.

Red-hot rivets rained down on the position, making a sharp "clink-clank" sound as they struck the power armor.

The Mortal Auxiliary Army began to take casualties, and screams echoed one after another.

500 meters.

The enemy's Harpoon Cannons began to fire.

Large barbed harpoons trailing chains dragged several unlucky Mortals straight out of the trenches toward the bloodthirsty butchers.

300 meters.

C-19 could even see the hideous, bloated faces behind the glass of the enemy helmets.

"Fire."

Bang, bang, bang.

The muffled reports of Bolters finally rang out.

Not rapid fire, but terrifyingly precise single shots.

The front rank of heavy divers looked as if they had been struck in the chest by invisible sledgehammers.

The bolt shells bored into the thick diving suits and exploded inside, amidst the hydraulic oil.

Pffft! Pffft! Pffft!

Clouds of blood mist mixed with black oil burst forth.

This was the marksmanship of an Astartes (Prototype).

They hit whatever they aimed at; not a single shot was wasted.

But this couldn't stop the tide of steel.

After firing three bolt shells, the Dark Ravens unhesitatingly stowed their guns and drew their Chainswords.

"Ammunition exhausted."

"Prepare to engage the enemy."

C-19 pulled out several high-energy plastic explosive packs from his waist and looked back at the communications tower still flickering with blue-white electric arcs.

The indicator light at the top of the tower was still rotating slowly—[Signal Locking...]

How much longer?

He didn't know.

But he knew that if the tower fell before the signal was locked, everything would be over.

"Mortals," C-19 turned his head, looking at the Auxiliary Army huddling and trembling at the bottom of the trench.

There was fear in their eyes, but even more so, a desperate fanaticism.

They remembered how the Thunder Warriors died, how those giants had charged into the monster swarms to protect them.

"The time has come to prove your worth," C-19's voice broadcasted across the position via the loudspeaker.

"For the Emperor."

"Fill the gap."

No hesitation.

An Auxiliary Army officer jumped up with bloodshot eyes, raising his Autogun.

"For the Emperor!!!"

Thousands of Mortals, like a gray dam, charged against the enemy's tide of steel.

They used their bodies to clog the tank treads and cluster grenades to blow up enemy exoskeletons.

They were trading their lives for time...

[Holographic Operations Cabin]

[Countdown: 10:00]

Li Cang's fingers gripped the edge of the console tightly, his knuckles turning white.

On the screen, the green dots representing the Mortal Auxiliary Army were winking out at a rate of over a dozen per second.

Those weren't numbers.

That was the foundation he had painstakingly saved up, his "wall of flesh and blood."

On the battlefield, the situation had completely collapsed.

A land cruiser smashed through the perimeter defense line, crushed the trenches, and charged into the base interior.

Its massive heavy treads were covered in shredded meat and twisted gun barrels.

"Warning: Perimeter breached."

"Warning: Communication tower structural integrity dropped to 92%."

C-19 and his Dark Ravens squad had been pushed back to the base of the tower.

They formed a circle, using Chainswords and captured harpoon guns to desperately hold off the enemies swarming from all directions.

C-19's power armor was in tatters, the servo system in his left arm broken and hanging limply at his side.

But he still swung his Chainsword with one hand, cleaving an enemy trying to approach the tower's foundation in two.

"Commander," C-19's voice sounded in Li Cang's mind, accompanied by a crackle of static.

"Defense integrity has fallen below the critical threshold. Requesting execution of the final delay protocol."

Li Cang looked at the screen. There were still 5 minutes left on the countdown.

And the enemy's main cannon had already begun charging, aimed directly at the communications tower.

No conventional tactic could overcome such an absolute power disparity.

Unless... "C-19," Li Cang's voice became exceptionally low.

"Gather all the remaining explosives."

"The target?"

"That cruiser that broke in," Li Cang pointed at the greatest threat.

"Blow it out of commission right in front of the tower. Use its wreckage as cover!"

This was a crazy plan.

It meant the Dark Ravens had to launch a counter-charge to the feet of that steel behemoth.

"Understood." C-19 did not hesitate.

He cut the communication...

[Battlefield]

C-19 tied the last three high-energy explosive packs together.

He glanced at the brothers beside him.

Of the sixty-eight, only thirty were still standing.

"First Sequence," he whispered the code name that had not yet been graced with the name "Dark Angels."

"For the mission."

Thirty black giants simultaneously activated the jump packs on their backs.

This wasn't a retreat; it was a suicidal charge that squeezed out the very last bit of Fuel.

Like a cluster of black meteors, they slammed into the land cruiser that was currently charging its weapons.

Dense anti-aircraft fire wove a net in the sky.

One Dark Raven was hit by a large-caliber shell in mid-air and instantly exploded into a fireball.

Another was pierced through the chest by a harpoon and pinned to the cruiser's armor plating.

Several more warriors' jump packs stalled mid-air, leaving them to slam into the enemy's armor by sheer physical momentum.

But C-19 made it through.

He landed on the cruiser's tread guards.

He shoved the bundle of explosives deep into the gaps of the drive sprocket.

"For... Holy Terra."

RUMBLE—!!!

The violent explosion directly severed the cruiser's main treads.

The multi-thousand-ton steel behemoth let out a mournful groan, lost its balance, and with massive inertia, tilted to one side, crashing heavily onto the open ground in front of the communications tower.

Dust billowed everywhere.

The massive hull became a perfect wall of steel, blocking the line of sight and fire of the following enemy forces.

The communication tower was saved. But only temporarily.

Pan-Pacific Empire soldiers began climbing the wreckage, attempting to scale the obstacle.

C-19 leaned against the tower's base, holding only a broken tactical knife. His vision began to blur.

[Countdown: 00:00]

Time was up.

Li Cang suddenly stood up from his chair.

"It's here!"

The battlefield suddenly went silent for a moment.

Every electronic device and communication channel was forcibly taken over by the same voice at that instant.

It wasn't human speech.

It was a sharp, piercing, binary noise filled with a sense of divinity.

01001111... [Praise the omnissiah]

01010100... [Target Locked: Holy Terra - Coordinates Confirmed]

01000011... [Sacred Retrieval: STC Data Source - Protection Protocol - Maximum Level]

Immediately following.

The sky turned red.

Not the red of a sunset, nor of firelight.

It was... the plasma fire generated by a massive object's friction as it broke through the atmosphere.

The clouds were violently torn apart.

A ship... no, a city.

An inverted mechanical ark composed of steel and cathedrals, like a Sword of Damocles, slowly pierced the firmament and hovered in low Earth orbit.

[Adeptus Mechanicus - "Iron Cloud" Explorator Ark]

[Energy Level: T4 (Void Class)]

That colossal shadow instantly enveloped the entire wasteland.

The Pan-Pacific Empire land cruisers that had been so arrogant just moments ago were as minuscule as toy cars before this ark.

Countless red laser dots rained down from the bottom of the ark like a storm, precisely locking onto the forehead of every Pan-Pacific soldier.

A cold, synthesized voice without any emotion echoed between heaven and earth:

"Unauthorized technology detected... Executing mandatory reclamation protocol."

"Resisters... shall be erased."

C-19 looked up at that steel miracle that blotted out the sun.