Guilliman is the MVP, Baal is the one who wins by lying down!
The protracted War of Attrition, which lasted for two and a half years, turned the entire starry sky into a graveyard, with death and numbness permeating the souls of every living being.
Each charge and counter-charge was far more intense than an apocalyptic battlefield.
In the first year of the war, both the Baal defenders and Hive Fleet Leviathan were relatively restrained. One side did not want its homeland to be reduced to ruins, and the other side did not want the two precious samples to be lost.
But as the war intensified, both sides descended into hysterical madness. With their reason gradually eroded, the two founding mother groups unleashed their most powerful and secret weapons.
The Dark Angels' arsenal was opened one by one, and they wreaked havoc on the battlefield using the battle planet of the Stone Fortress. A large number of Extinction Relic Machine were deployed in a targeted manner, and the Blood Angels also released the Blasphemous Artifact from the depths of the underground Baal Prime.
Even Zalasus, who was just there to make up the numbers, sent out his few Deathmark and Skorpekh Lord, along with the crescent-shaped Death Scythe fighters unique to the Necron, to be sent to their deaths.
Meanwhile, the Hive Fleet also began a desperate struggle, completely abandoning cold data calculations and starting to proliferate like cancer cells in the nearby Asteroid Belt.
Perhaps the Hive Mind's control methods were too idiotic, and automatic attacks were more reliable. The Fate-shaping Hive Queen immediately rebelled and decisively took over command.
He also criticized the Hive Mind for being unplayable, saying it was like playing against a bot and that it would be better to just run it on auto.
Yes, you heard right. Although individual Tyranid are more like some kind of insect-engineered intelligence and do not have true Autonomous Will in essence, the Hive Mind as a swarm intelligence does have emotions.
Moreover, not only do they experience this, but it is even more intense than that of ordinary intelligent life. After all, the Swarm is also a living organism; it feels joy when it eats something delicious and anger when it is beaten down by an enemy.
This often results in battles where the Hive Mind's own micromanagement is less effective than those fought on full auto.
To address this drawback, the Hive Mind Will created Self-Awareness forward commanders, such as the Norn Queen and even the Hive Tyrant, to serve as its external brain.
As expected, with the Fate-shaping Hive Queen taking command, the war situation changed instantly, and the small Tyranid, who were originally used as cannon fodder, completely disappeared.
On the contrary, the rarely seen Executioners, Biovore, Likatt Axe Bug, and even the degraded version of the Hive Tyrant are all the rage, and the Warrior Bug is the most cannon fodder.
The Fate-shaping Hive Queen has realized that sending low-tier units to their deaths is simply aiding the enemy. Rather than mindlessly wasting resources, it's better to improve their quality and use them to weave in and out.
As for Scourge units like Mordred, the Norn Queen directly deployed a Hive Ship to conduct targeted Orbital Bombardment against them.
Don't think that sending only one Zergling is a sign of disrespect for Mordred. On the contrary, the Hive Ship is not much smaller than the Gloriana-class Battleship.
This mothership had undergone special modifications; its blazing plasma bio -Plasma never stopped, relentlessly bombarding Mordred. Anyone who dared to peek out would be instantly blasted in two.
This tactic solved Mordred's problem—a the Swarm and incompetent unit that could eat even more than the Zerg Swarm—forcing Mordred to abandon his map-clearing abilities and reduce him from a mindless turret to a Hero Unit constantly putting out fires.
But this leads to another problem: even when covered by artillery fire, once on the ground, no matter how many insects are planted, they will be killed by humans who appear out of nowhere.
The monastery, which was originally an outpost fortress, was destroyed, and all 13 regional defense lines fell. The entire Baal was completely reduced to ruins, and the capital was split in two. However, these ruins provided the human defenders with more hiding places.
Only if the Fate-shaping Hive Queen is an insect, otherwise she would definitely be cursing why the stone is moving.
Neither side could defeat the other, and there were even Abstract Maneuver where both sides exchanged bases and then pushed back again.
By the second year of the war, Baal's orbital fortress was completely destroyed.
Having completely gained air superiority, the Hive Fleet thought it was invincible again and immediately launched a reckless attack. Then, the ruthless Zhuang Sen detonated a Cyclone Torpedo in Baal's atmosphere.
After the Cyclone Torpedo exploded, four Virus Bomb were dropped, turning everything except the Hive City region into a death zone.
This devastating explosion caused the Swarm to lose a massive amount of biomass, completely erasing their previous advantage. The human Allied Forces also fared poorly, barely clinging to life.
Before the war, the two Chapter together had about 30,000 men, but now they only have a little over 10,000. The Auxilia are dying in droves. In the end, the original 4 billion Baal population has been reduced to less than 1.2 billion, all of whom are old, young, women and children, huddled in the Hive City the half-destroyed city.
Even so, the Defense Force did not concede defeat, because the Tyranid were also on their last legs, while they still had a complete industrial base and two Primarch. As long as they continued to wear down the swarm, the main fleet of the Chapter could break through the Swarm's defenses.
The main fleet, on which high hopes were placed, lived up to expectations. After two and a half years of back-and-forth fighting, it finally tore through the Hive Fleet's defenses and broke through the Tyranid signal blockade, making contact with the Baal garrison.
With increasingly clear and frequent signal transmissions, the morale of the Baal defenders soared. Everyone knew that the Battle of Baal was about to end and it was time to launch a counter-offensive.
The two Primarch led the charge, taking all the Astartes into the death zone filled with excessive radiation and deadly gas to hunt down the Swarm, and then advanced all the way to the orbital starport platform.
Then the Ultramarines arrived.
The arrival of these Ultramarines, clad in brand-new Ultramarines and wielding ample firepower, was so sudden that no one had time to react. The Ultramarines, with their unparalleled numbers, overwhelmed the nearly dead Hive Fleet and relentlessly pursued the remaining survivors.
With the Primarch's superhuman vision, Mordred saw the massive fleet spanning the entire Baal orbit, and the blue Thunderhawk with toilet seat markings descending from the sky.
There is no doubt that the Baal crisis has been resolved, but Mordred is not happy at all. Moreover, not only Mordred, but almost all the garrison troops are numb, and an extremely absurd emotion is forming in everyone's mind.
Who am I? Where am I? What are we supposed to do? Why did reinforcements suddenly arrive? And why are they Ultramarines? Why didn't they come sooner? Why now of all times?
In a broken trench filled with debris, corpses, and some unknown junk, Mordred slumped to the ground, with Zhuang Sen sitting next to him.
Mordred was alright, since he wasn't wearing armor; his previous gear had long been burned to ashes, and even his clothes were made of simulated flesh and blood tissue. He was practically naked, so you couldn't tell how badly he was hurt.
The Lion King, on the other hand, was in a much worse state. His armor was tattered and worn, with pieces missing here and there, and patched up with patch after patch. His cloak had two holes burned in it, and his longsword had a chipped edge. The only thing he could show for himself was the shield given to him by the Emperor.
It was covered in filth, its hair and beard were stuck together in a clump, and it was a black, messy, greenish mess of some unknown substance. In short, it lay sprawled on the ground like a disheveled, fat cat.
Two and a half years of continuous high-intensity warfare would be unbearable even for Space Marine. As for Zhuang Sen, he was even more unlucky. Not only was he a commander, but he also had to put out fires everywhere. He hasn't closed his eyes yet.
"Second Son, do you have any cigarettes?"
"No, but I have two mushrooms here, do you want them?"
As two plumes of smoke rose, the two Primarch, the demigods of the Imperium of Man, simply lay back against the muddy, filthy trench.
No one spoke, but everyone had something on their mind.
Zhuang Sen casually tossed aside the mushroom stalk in his hand and looked at Mordred in turn looked at Zhuang Sen. Their eyes met, and Mordred finally spoke:
"I smell Guilliman, and I reckon he's pretty excited right now."
"Yes, after all, it was such a great victory. I would be excited too, so?"
"Help me hold his legs down for a bit!"
"Fine, but let me hit his left cheek."
"Can!"