Your Rogue Trader has arrived

"Quick! Get the reserves up there! Hand out weapons to the refugees—anyone who can move, get them into the fight!

They live under the Dynasty's protection, so they must fight for the Dynasty, even if it costs their lives!"

Rebecca had already left the tactical center and reached the front lines. She roared orders, mobilizing every force she could, yet the battle line still pushed toward the Throne District.

She could even see the distant artillery fire now.

"Governor! It's dangerous here!" The guards tried to pull Rebecca back, but she refused outright.

"Boom~"

A massive explosion echoed from Pilgrim Square. The sacred statue of the Emperor tilted and crashed to the ground.

The traitors had toppled the God-Emperor's icon and defiled it with the blood of the loyal.

"By the God-Emperor... the Emperor's statue has fallen... Is this the end?"

From her position, Rebecca could now see the traitor army directly.

The hulking form of a Forge Fiend lumbered toward her. Just as she resolved to give her life in fulfillment of her oath to the Dynasty—

She saw a volley of missiles suddenly appear from midair.

A dense, concentrated barrage of missiles plowed straight through the traitor ranks.

Even the Forge Fiend, hit by the sustained salvo, was blown to pieces.

"Whoa! Hell yeah! Blasphemy against the God-Emperor will earn His wrath!" Harlan shouted in exhilaration.

He had successfully killed a Forge Fiend—a feat that, in the Imperial Navy, might earn him several promotions!

The attackers were the thirty stealth Wraiths. Having completed their mission, they converged on the Throne District as agreed.

They arrived just in time to see the cultists' assault—humans being slaughtered by madmen, the holy icon defiled.

Harlan made an instant decision and ordered all Wraiths into the fight.

The Wraiths maneuvered at high speed while cloaked, their Plasteel shells reaping enemy lives and buying the loyalists a chance to regroup.

But their ammunition was running low, and the energy for stealth was nearly depleted. One by one, the Wraiths expended their payloads and had to withdraw from combat.

Harlan flew his Wraith over Pilgrim Avenue. The carnage below made even his scalp crawl.

Then the Word Bearers, desecrating the corpse of a Priest, immediately caught his attention.

"Chaos Space Marines... By the God-Emperor... How did they get here?!"

Harlan checked the Wraith's remaining ammo, then aimed at the two Word Bearers.

"Die, traitors!"

But to his shock, before he could even fire, the Word Bearers all turned to look in his direction at once.

The Astartes' keen hearing allowed them to pick out the Wraith's engine noise even amid the chaotic battlefield.

The daemons bound within them further sharpened their senses.

"There's a cloaked airborne vehicle over there."

"I hear it too."

Harlan felt a chill run down his spine. He slammed the firing button, but the Word Bearers broke into a sprint the moment the missiles launched.

It was the first time Harlan had ever seen Space Marines run at full speed.

"Fast... so fast! By the God-Emperor... even a Taurus Assault Vehicle isn't this quick, is it?"

The entire missile volley missed.

The targeted Word Bearer immediately raised his Boltgun and fired back!

The bolts struck the cloaked Wraith with pinpoint accuracy.

They had locked onto the stealth Wraith using nothing but sound.

Hit repeatedly, the Wraith belched black smoke, and a shrill alarm blared inside the cockpit. The Wraith was only a light fighter—its external armor couldn't withstand such fire.

Harlan didn't dare linger. He throttled to maximum speed and fled the battlefield.

"An unfamiliar fighter... A new invention of the decaying Imperium? Pathetic..."

The Word Bearers watched the Wraith retreat but didn't pursue, instead continuing their advance with the main force.

The Wraiths had already achieved their tactical objective.

And at that moment, Gao Yi's reinforcements arrived.

Though Gao Yi's fleet couldn't enter the atmosphere directly, with no anti-air fire to stop him, he could freely use shuttles to deliver his soldiers into the Upper Hive.

Gao Yi mobilized every available shuttle and Transport Ship in the fleet, and issued all CMC Combat Suits in stock.

The Barracks' nonstop production over this period had built up a stock of 4,000 CMC Combat Suits for Machine Gunners, along with a good number for Marauders, Firebats, and Medics.

The various suits were enough to equip 4,500 combat personnel.

Shuttles and Transport Ships flew toward the Upper Hive.

Gao Yi also donned his own Adamantium combat suit and boarded a shuttle heading groundward.

From high above, the traitors and loyalists had already become a tangled mess on the ground.

The brutal close-quarters combat claimed lives with every passing moment.

"Send a message to the Governor. Tell her their Rogue Trader has arrived. Watch your friendly fire!" Gao Yi gripped his Power Sword tightly.

Both sides of the battle noticed the swarm of fast-moving aircraft streaking overhead.

The loyalists spotted the emblem of the Dynasty.

"The God-Emperor above! The Rogue Trader is back... the Rogue Trader is really back!"

The faces of the traitors, however, were far from pleased.

Especially those PDF Troopers from the Valentin Family.

Though tainted by Chaos, they hadn't been fully assimilated yet—most had been swept into the rebellion by the tide of the Chaos horde.

The authority of the Rogue Trader was still deeply etched into the minds of these soldiers, who had served the Dynasty for generations.

"Damn it... why now, of all times? We were so close! But it doesn't matter—things have already gone this far. You can't change a thing!"

Valentin watched from behind as his cultists and soldiers pushed into the Upper Hive. So what if the Rogue Trader had returned? How many soldiers could those Transport Ships carry? Three thousand? Four? Even if there were ten thousand, the gap in numbers was still terrifyingly vast.

And he still had the aid of those powerful Word Bearers.

But when Rangers clad in CMC armor stepped out of the Transport Ships and joined the fight, Valentin immediately sensed something was wrong.

Rows of Marauders stood together like unending batteries of artillery.

Their Adamantium armour allowed them to weather the traitors' counterattacks while suppressing them with firepower.

Medics worked behind the lines, constantly repairing the wounded Marauders.

And the Machine Gunners were all formidable fighters, deadly at both range and close quarters.

"Power Armour? No... Power Armor? How is this possible? How can there be this much Power Armour? What the hell has this Gao Yi done?"

Thousands of soldiers in Power Armour? Valentin had never even heard of such a thing in his life. Not even the wealthiest Rogue Trader in the entire Expansion Zone would do this!

But watching his hard-won troops being slowly pushed back from the Upper Hive forced Valentin to accept the reality.

Meanwhile, the SCVs that arrived with the Transport Ships began repairing the damaged fixed defenses.

When some Chaos Cultists thought these were just ordinary machines and tried to destroy them, the SCVs taught them what true close-quarters combat meant.

The Engineering Drill turned the approaching Chaos Cultists into a spray of shredded flesh.

"AAAAAAAHHH! Impossible! Why is this happening?! I was so close to victory!"

Now, Valentin's only hope lay in those Daemon Engines and the mighty Word Bearers.

He believed that as long as those blessed by the Dark Gods remained, they could still turn the tide of battle!

His faith in the power of the Dark Gods was absolute.