141: Chapter 141 Taking Life and Death Lightly, Welding the Throttle to the Limit

In the Red Sand Hills, a dried-up riverbed wound its way north.

The vibration of tracks crushing gravel spread across the ground. Three hundred leman russ Vanquisher-pattern main battle tanks formed a long snake-like square formation, with two hundred chimera armored personnel carriers guarding the flanks. The iron flood ground over the Gobi, kicking up dust that blotted out the sky, tinting the midday sun a hazy yellow.

Cole stood on the observation platform of the command vehicle, holding high-powered binoculars. He scanned the armored column that stretched as far as the eye could see, a disdainful sneer playing on his lips.

"Too much force," he lowered his binoculars and spoke to the adjutant beside him. "It's a waste to use this against a few Underhive militias who can't even scrape together a tank company."

The adjutant quickly smiled obsequiously: "Colonel, this is the intent of the coalition, to ensure nothing goes wrong."

"Ensure nothing goes wrong?" Cole sneered, pointing toward the middle-rear of the convoy. "Their only threat is that stolen Stormbird transport craft. It's a bit tricky because it has a Void Shield, but a single craft can't make much of a splash. I've prepared a grand gift for it."

In the middle-rear of the convoy, the twin barrels of the hydra flak tanks pointed diagonally toward the sky.

"If it dares to show up, I'll shoot it down." Cole patted the railing of the observation platform. "My record is just missing a vehicle with a Void Shield."

The adjutant nodded repeatedly in agreement.

Cole raised his binoculars again, scanning the steep hills on both sides of the riverbed.

Dust filled the air, reducing visibility to within a kilometer. His heavy tanks could only follow this riverbed; they couldn't possibly climb the steep slopes on either side.

"The terrain is unfavorable for us." He frowned, then relaxed disdainfully. "But what kind of tactics can those Underhive dwellers, who can't even get a full meal, possibly pull off?"

"Even if they charge down, do they expect to engage my armored units in melee?"

Cole had sufficient confidence in himself, but he had overlooked one thing.

...

Cole's convoy drove majestically into the middle section of the riverbed.

Just as the lead leman russ rounded a bend in the riverbed, an armor-piercing shell came whistling through the air from two kilometers away.

Boom!

The shell precisely penetrated the front turret armor of the lead tank, instantly detonating the ammunition rack.

The turret, weighing over a dozen tons, was blown straight into the air, crashing heavily onto the riverbed and rolling for over ten meters. The hull erupted in a towering inferno.

Before the second tank could even turn, a second shell whistled in, precisely hitting the side armor. The hull was instantly torn to shreds by the detonating ammunition.

"Enemy attack!" The communication channel instantly exploded into chaos, with the roars of tank commanders and reports from gunners jumbled together in a mess.

Cole, however, did not panic.

He grabbed his binoculars and locked onto the direction the shells were coming from.

On the heights at nine o'clock, 13 leman russ main battle tanks showed only their turrets and upper glacis armor; the rest were buried in the packed red earth. The firing ports of the hull-down tank bunkers were pointed directly at the entrance of the riverbed.

On even higher ground behind them, a Baneblade super-heavy tank sat steadily in its firing position, its long-barreled main gun aimed at the throat of the riverbed.

This was a firepower trap custom-made for Cole by Fu Haoran.

The 13 leman russ tanks were responsible for close-range crossfire to block any retreat, while the Baneblade used its extreme range to pick off the lead tanks.

"Hull-down tank bunkers." Cole lowered his binoculars, a cold sneer on his lips. "I didn't expect these Underhive dwellers to know how to dig fortifications. But do they really think they can stop me with just this little bit of hardware?"

He turned and barked orders: "Front-line leman russ, advance at full speed, suppress them head-on! chimera infantry fighting vehicles, cover the flanks, close in and then attack from the side! Casualties are inevitable, don't worry about them!"

"Colonel! The flank auspex shows a large number of high-speed targets approaching!" The young noble adjutant pointed at the screen, his expression tense.

Cole glanced at the screen, his gaze instantly turning cold: "Are you teaching me how to fight?"

"No, I'm just worried..."

"Humph, would I not have thought of what you can think of?" Cole snorted coldly. "What else could be approaching at that speed besides those unarmored Taurus Rapid Assault Vehicles? Have the heavy weapons squads coordinate with the chimeras on the flanks; that'll be enough to stop them."

He paused, his tone full of disdain: "Just a bunch of unarmored junk trying to use human wave tactics. Let them charge; it saves me the trouble of hunting them down one by one."

...

Behind the hills on both sides of the riverbed, dust billowed.

Cole's infantry squads had already set up heavy machine guns and Laser Cannons on the crests of the slopes. chimera armored personnel carriers were parked sideways below the slopes, their thick armor serving as mobile cover for the infantry.

Patrol squads held thermal imagers, staring intently at the movements in the mountain valley.

The squad leader stared at the red dots getting closer on the auspex, then looked at the dust-obscured view, feeling a faint sense of panic in his heart.

"It's no big deal." He gritted his teeth to reassure himself. "As long as the chimeras are here, those junk assault vehicles can't possibly break through."

The squad leader was still staring intently at the auspex.

The next second, the deafening roar of an engine exploded right in his ears.

A modified pickup truck burst through the dust at the top of the slope, soaring into the air.

...

Victor felt like his whole body was flying.

This was his first time driving. In this kind of Gobi desert, no driving skills were needed; he just had to weld the accelerator down and make sure he didn't flip the car.

Iron spikes on the steering wheel dug deep into his palms, blood mixing with sweat and dripping onto the dashboard, but he didn't even flinch.

"Target distance is 2 kilometers, all units prepare to attack!"

The command came through the comm channel.

Victor grinned and pressed the accelerator even harder.

As the pickup truck crested the steep slope, Victor saw the enemy convoy below.

Facing the defensive line formed by the iron flood, Victor felt no fear, only the excitement of his blood boiling.

The brothers in the truck bed also began to roar, aiming their Boltguns and Multi-meltas at the enemies below, shouting: "For the Emperor!!"

Seeing Victor's vehicle leading the charge, the squad leader was about to order concentrated fire when he saw hundreds of pickup trucks swarming out from behind the slope, followed by countless other vehicles. Like a herd of crazed bison, they charged straight down at a speed of one hundred and sixty kilometers per hour.

Some vehicles charged too hard and rolled over upon landing, throwing the people inside, but the convoy behind them didn't slow down in the slightest. Tires ground over gravel, kicking up sparks, and exhaust pipes spewed thick black smoke as they continued their downward charge.

Victor had only one target in his eyes—the hydra flak tank at the bottom of the slope.

He kept The Agent's absolute order in mind: prioritize taking out the anti-aircraft platforms to clear a path for the Governor's air power.

"The Bloodline is Truth, the Hive is Eternal!!"

Victor roared, and a second before the pickup truck slammed into the missile array, he leaped out.

Boom!!!

A massive explosion instantly engulfed the entire anti-aircraft missile array. The Melta bombs in the truck bed detonated one after another, and unlaunched ammunition was set off, flying everywhere. The entire anti-aircraft position instantly became a sea of fire.

Victor crawled out of the sand with a bleeding head, wiped the blood from his face, and was about to charge forward when he saw a chimera armored personnel carrier suddenly swivel its turret, aiming at the Holy War Convoy charging up from behind.

He glanced down at the pendant on his chest, grinned, picked up an unexploded Melta grenade from the ground, and roared as he charged toward the chimera's tracks.

"Kingdom of God, here I come!"

The fire from the explosion soared into the sky again. The entire chimera was flipped over, its tracks blown into two pieces.

Seeing Victor's sacrifice, the surrounding Holy War believers roared even more fanatically. With their accelerators welded down, they charged straight at the Imperium's defensive line without a single person retreating.

"The Bloodline is Truth!" Hundreds of voices roared simultaneously, drowning out the roar of the engines.

...

The squad leader watched his chimera get blown into the air, his pupils shrinking and his whole body turning cold.

"Dammit! How do they have Melta bombs!"

Melta bombs were the ultimate trump card for the Imperium's infantry anti-armor. He never dreamed that these Underhive dwellers would weld them onto pickup trucks and engage in suicide charges.

What made him collapse even more was yet to come.

The Genestealer cultists who jumped from the vehicles roared and pounced. Most of them had three or even four arms, and their sharp bone claws easily tore through the infantry's flak armor. Their strength and agility far surpassed that of ordinary humans, and a large gap was instantly torn in the defensive line.

While the first wave tore open the gap, the pickup trucks of the second and third waves had already charged into the gaps in the allied formation, using vehicle-mounted Multi-meltas to pick off the tanks' tracks and engine compartments, cutting the once-complete iron dragon into segments.

The Martyr cars of the fourth wave slammed directly into the chimeras trying to close the formation, using explosions to completely tear the gap open.

Ronan led the pickup truck melta squad, charging through the torn gap at full speed. Relying on the pickup trucks' high mobility, they circled to the side and rear of the leman russ tanks, giving the enemy no chance to turn their turrets.

Pulling the trigger, a brilliant white melta stream erupted. The ten-plus centimeter thick side armor was melted through like butter, the engine compartment instantly detonated, and the iron behemoths were disabled, turning into burning iron coffins.

Fu Haoran had divided the Holy War Convoy into four waves: the first wave was responsible for tearing open gaps, the second and third waves were responsible for destroying anti-aircraft defenses, the fourth wave created chaos, and finally, Ronan and others performed guerrilla warfare, using their speed advantage to tie down the enemy.

"Colonel! The flank defense has completely collapsed! Over half of the chimeras are lost! All anti-aircraft platforms have been destroyed!"

Cole's face instantly turned as black as the bottom of a pot. He barked orders: "Rearguard chimeras and assault vehicles, reinforce the flanks immediately! Plug that gap for me!"

"Colonel! They've already been sent! But there are too many enemies, we can't plug it! Also..."

Before the adjutant could finish, a piercing whistle suddenly came from the sky.

A silver-gray attack aircraft burst through the swirling dust.

In the cockpit, Fu Haoran stared at the auspex on the screen. The movements of the Imperium troops among the hills were clearly marked.

This modified domestic low-altitude penetration avionics system perfectly adapted to the terrain of the Warhammer World. Even with dust filling the sky, it could precisely lock onto every target.

The remaining anti-aircraft units fired into the sky, shells exploding near the wings, the air currents violently shaking the fuselage.

Fu Haoran pushed the stick hard into a side-slip, and the A-10 skimmed past the sand dunes, instantly shaking off the ballistic trajectory.

"Not dead yet."

The nose of the plane swung around, and the Avenger autocannon aimed at that anti-aircraft armored vehicle, the trigger held down to spray a hail of bullets.

The Avenger Gatling gun instantly roared, and large-caliber armor-piercing shells poured out like a rainstorm.

The armored units along the path were torn apart as if they were made of paper.

Cole was violently tackled to the ground by his adjutant, only then escaping disaster.

When he climbed up from the ground, his once impregnable command vehicle had become a raging ball of fire.

Fu Haoran pushed the throttle to the max, and the attack aircraft leveled out, circling over the battlefield.

Cole climbed up from the ground, about to order a counterattack, when he suddenly heard someone shout: "It's a Knight! A Knight Mech is coming!"

At the end of the riverbed, amidst the billowing dust, a twelve-meter-tall mech came running at a fast pace.

The Paladin Knight Mech raised the rapid-fire cannon on its right arm, firing quickly and picking off the leman russ main battle tanks as they tried to turn their turrets.

The high-speed rotating Chainsword in its left hand let out a piercing shriek as it swung down at a leman russ charging at full speed, splitting the turret and the hull together in two.

The armor-piercing shells fired from the opposite side hit the Ion Shield and failed to take effect.

"Colonel! It's a Knight Mech! They have Imperial Knights!" The adjutant looked at the distant mech, extremely anxious.

Cole looked at the attack aircraft circling in the sky, looked at the encroaching Knight Mech, and saw his iron flood being cut to pieces. He finally understood that he had lost this battle completely.

"Rearguard units, cover the retreat! Everyone else, withdraw in alternating fashion! Then regroup and launch a counterattack!" He gritted his teeth, unwilling to give up.

"Colonel! Let's retreat, we have no chance of winning." The adjutant held him tightly.

Cole shoved him away, his eyes so red they looked like they were dripping blood. "I haven't lost yet!"

However, the surrounding officers didn't dare let the high-born Cole die here. If he died, everyone else would be punished.

In the end, Cole was pushed by his adjutants into a backup command vehicle and plunged into the swirling dust.

Behind him, the iron flood he was so proud of was burning into a sea of fire in the Red Sand Hills.

...

Wade stood on the highland bunker, looking down at the battlefield.

leman russ turrets lay askew on the riverbed, chimera wrecks were still emitting black smoke, and the barrels of hydra flak tanks were twisted like pretzels, plunged deep into the red sand.

The wrecks of the Holy War Convoy and the iron behemoths of the Imperium burned together, indistinguishable from one another.

He had once firmly believed that these heretics would only bring destruction.

But today, it was these heretics in his eyes who had used their lives to tear open the enemy's iron defensive line and win this impossible battle.

Wade had to admit that these Genestealers, who were enemies not long ago, were comrades worth entrusting one's life to now that they were allies.

However, everyone knew that this war had only just begun.

Wade wiped the dust and soot from his face and ordered: "Clear the field, bring back all the tanks and armored vehicles."

"Collect the bodies of our people and give them a proper burial."

"Understood."

Ronan shouldered his melta gun and led his men into the still-burning sea of fire.

A few minutes later, Wade's battle report reached Fu Haoran's cockpit: "My Lord, the battlefield has been cleared."

"Two hundred and forty-seven leman russ destroyed, one hundred and sixty-two chimeras. Over one hundred and twenty remnants captured. Eleven intact leman russ and twenty-three chimeras seized."

"On our side, two hundred and seventeen killed, three hundred and forty-two seriously wounded."

"The vast majority are cult members."

Fu Haoran looked at the burning battlefield below, silent for a few seconds before saying: "For those seriously wounded, send them on their way. Don't let them suffer."

Even if they were being used, these people had died to protect the Hive City. Fu Haoran would not deny them the dignity they deserved.

Besides, he needed more believers to fight for him.

Wade was silent for a few seconds and then nodded.

He knew that for those cultists whose internal organs had been shredded by bomb fragments, a swift bullet was the greatest mercy.

...

Dozens of kilometers away, Cole's backup command vehicle was fleeing frantically.

He slumped in his seat, his whole body shaking uncontrollably—not from fear, but from overwhelming anger and resentment.

"Three hundred tanks... two hundred infantry fighting vehicles... a complete anti-aircraft array..." he muttered to himself, his teeth chattering. "All gone!"

He suddenly clenched his fist, his nails digging deep into his palm until blood seeped out.

"Fu Haoran has Knight Mechs, melta weapons, and standardized air power. This is not the armament a Hive City Governor should have!"

He turned to his adjutant, his gaze fierce: "Tell the Joint Defense Alliance about the situation here. We need more reinforcements!"

Outside the window, in the direction of the Red Sand Hills, the towering flames were still burning, tinting half the sky blood-red.

This battle was just the beginning.

He would definitely make that Underhive dweller pay the price and wash away today's humiliation.