Upper Hive Battle

The assault on the Upper Hive began in earnest.

Frenzied cultists eagerly accepted the handed-out weapons and pushed toward the Upper Hive under the cover of heavy vehicles.

What they held in their hands could hardly be called weapons; what was given to these cultists were mostly crudely made, hand-cranked autoguns whose rifling had even been worn away.

Valentin did not need these cultists to kill many people. What he wanted was for these people to use their own lives to exhaust the defenders' ammunition.

The ones truly responsible for the assault were the PDFs belonging to his family, along with the humans modified by the dark priests and the desecrated daemon engines they manufactured.

At this moment, Governor Rebecca was in the tactical center listening to the officers' reports.

The wraiths' attack on the fixed turret had also been discovered by the loyalists. Rebecca realized that Gao Yi, the new rogue trader, had already started making his move. Although she did not know how Gao Yi had pulled it off, this was exhilarating good news for everyone in the Upper Hive—reinforcements were coming soon!

Yet this joy had not lasted long before countless calls for help flooded into the tactical center.

"Governor! The cargo area! The elevator, Pilgrim Square, even the drainage area have all sent distress signals! Those rebels are launching a massive offensive!"

Rebecca immediately walked over to the holographic display.

Blinks representing their own defensive positions were winking out one by one. Every dot that vanished meant the defenders there had been wiped out. Communications sent to inquire about the situation met with no response; she could only hear roaring and explosions right before death. Soon, the voices of the resisters vanished completely, replaced by the frantic screeches of those cultists.

At the same time, the few remaining astropaths within the dynasty seemed to be enduring endless agony.

The sacrificial ritual had disturbed the Warp. Unable to rise because they were peering into the Warp, the astropaths were suffering unspeakable pain as they sent a final message to Rebecca.

"They are coming."

"How is it possible—how could they break through so quickly?"

Meanwhile, within a large defensive position on Pilgrim Avenue, soldiers looked nervously at the wide, pristine marble road before them.

Originally, this avenue was used for the emperor's pious believers to make a pilgrimage and pray at the God-Emperor Statue in the center of the square. Yet the once-sacrosanct avenue was now riddled with scars, and a fraction of the defenders were retreating from the avenue back toward the position, bringing back news of the enemy.

The frontline positions had almost entirely lost contact. Even as the officers continuously boosted morale, fear still spread among the soldiers.

Because this place was close to the God-Emperor Statue, all surviving priests of the Ecclesiarchy remained at the position, swearing to protect the safety of the God-Emperor Statue and prevent those chaos cultists from desecrating it.

A soldier could not help asking the nearby priest.

"Priest, can we win?!"

The priest was exceptionally steadfast.

"Look at the holy icon of the Emperor behind us. The Emperor is watching us from behind, and we will surely win victory."

As soon as the priest finished speaking, countless cultists at the end of the avenue charged toward the position. Chaos had completely consumed their sanity, and many heavily mutated mutants were mixed among them.

"For the Emperor! Take them down!!"

All the soldiers on the position opened fire.

The characteristic buzzing sound of laspistols was endless.

The fixed turret also continuously hurled heavy bolters toward the densest crowds.

The blind charge of the cultists meant these PDFs did not even need to aim to easily hit their opponents.

Slices of cultists fell beneath the barrage, and that priest even picked up a boltgun used as heavy firepower, stood straight up, and frantically pulled the trigger.

The recoil generated whipped up his priest's robes and revealed a physique beneath the robes that was absurdly muscular.

This dumbfounded the PDF nearby.

Normally, they needed mounts to use this kind of weapon, otherwise this powerful recoil was enough to leave an experienced veteran struggling to recover for a long time. Yet this priest simply picked it up and fired continuously.

He finally understood why, at the very beginning of the riots, this group of Ecclesiarchy members had shouldered wave after wave of assaults for the dynasty.

"With every ounce of my strength, with every inch of my will, with every thread of my soul, I swear—my soul and my faith belong to the immortal Emperor! Meet his wrath, you scum!!"

Under the terrifying firepower, the cultists fell like wheat.

Just as everyone thought this crisis would be averted once again, a bolt from an unknown source accurately struck that priest.

The power of the bolt tore the priest's body straight into fragments.

The true assault of the traitors had arrived.

Those former comrades stepped over the bodies used as cannon fodder and began launching an assault on the position.

Among the rebel ranks there were no longer only humans. Servitors subjected to desecrated modification charged toward the position at extreme speed, feeling no pain, and their modified bodies also allowed them to withstand more damage.

A total of ten daemon engines were also advancing toward the position. Among these daemon engines were no longer just forge fiends, but also desecrators resembling multi-legged mechs. These desecrators were mobile heavy self-propelled artillery.

What made these PDFs tremble the most, however, were those blood-red figures among the enemy ranks.

"A—Astartes... The Emperor's angels. No, not angels! It's the legendary traitors!!"

The might of the Astartes had long since deeply ingrained itself in the hearts of every imperial soldier.

The soldiers here had fought against those traitors who worshipped the chaos gods, and they had also fought against those cruel xenos, but the shock brought when these former angels of death of the Emperor stood before their eyes was even greater than that of those daemon engines.

This Word Bearer disdainfully lowered the boltgun in his hand. Within the mind of the enchanted warrior of the Word Bearer, a voice also sounded—a voice belonging precisely to the khorne daemon possessing him.

"You shouldn't have used the bolt to kill him. You should have grabbed him, chopped off his head, and killed these corpse emperor's believers in melee. Skulls like that are much more valuable."

"You don't need to teach me! Whenever I hear these hypocritical guys praying to the false emperor, I cannot suppress the anger in my heart. I didn't want to let him speak for even one more second!"

"Hah, you Word Bearers are still the same. Why not let me take over your body? I will easily help you wipe these people out, and you can enjoy your victory when it's all over."

The daemon could hardly wait for the slaughter to come, its words seducing this Word Bearer.

"Get back! I don't need you to help me destroy these false emperor's believers!"

With that, this Word Bearer ignored and resisted the whispers of the daemon, and launched an assault toward the loyalists' position using his favorite method: melee. Once the Astartes fell into close combat with mortals, the gap in strength between the two sides became even more pronounced.

A single punch could send a soldier flying dozens of meters, and their speed was so fast that even the naked eyes of these mortal soldiers could hardly capture it.

Any plan to drag these traitors down together in mutual destruction was easily shattered as well.

The imperial frontlines began to collapse.

After key heavy-firepower points were cleared one by one, the loyalists could no longer suppress the enemy's charging momentum. Some priests even picked up chainswords and rushed out of the position, wanting to use their flesh and blood to block the enemy from approaching the God-Emperor Statue.

Yet the final result was being targeted by that Word Bearer and torn into fragments. The Word Bearer held a natural hatred for members of the Ecclesiarchy, even placing the priority of killing these Ecclesiarchy members above other tactical targets.

Even though these priests' physical attributes surpassed ordinary soldiers and their faith was incomparably steadfast, they were still mortals, and before these Astartes they possessed zero power to fight back.

When the traitors completely broke through the defense line of this position, they could truly be considered to have entered the area of the Upper Hive.