Powerful firepower rained down on the Chaos Space Marines.
Furious green Gauss Rays erupted, devouring the Chaos Space Marine who had descended from a Drop Pod and erasing his body completely from the physical universe.
When the Imperium needs us, we are all the Emperor's currency.
"For the Emperor!"
"For humanity!"
Boom!
Boom! Boom!
Quite a few went down taking their enemies with them.
They only hoped that by giving their lives, they could give their comrades one more chance to fire.
That shot wasn't for themselves.
It was for human civilization, for humanity's future—a bullet fired to open a path to tomorrow.
"Humanity above all!"
"For the Emperor!"
Boom!
Explosions.
The thunderous roar continued without pause.
The stronger the enemy, the more it highlighted their unbreakable, iron will.
"Die!!!!"
"Die, all of you, you bastards!!!"
This was a battlefield, not a game.
Some people could come back to life, but others would lose everything for good.
Even when they stood to lose everything, there were still people willing to charge forward, using their lives to wipe away the humiliation written by humanity's traitors.
War made people grow.
At the defensive line, someone clutched a machine gun, eyes bloodshot, teeth clenched, roaring as they fired bullet after bullet, each infused with loyalty, at the Chaos Space Marines who seemed impossible to kill.
Behind the defensive line, people fought desperately to eliminate the Chaos forces that had already breached it, creating opportunities for the living to kill their enemies.
In the church, the tremors outside still did not disturb their prayers.
Inside the factory, the workers in hiding peered out. After seeing soldiers fall one by one, some finally mustered the courage to pick up the guns that had been dropped.
Some stepped forward; others stayed hidden.
This world didn't need a lone savior. It needed everyone to become a savior.
"Fight!"
Countless people charged again and again at their seemingly invincible enemies, as if they would fight to the very last person.
This war was bloodier and more brutal than every war Gamma World had ever experienced.
The cold bullets made no distinction between friend and foe.
They would kill anyone left standing.
By now, there was no surrender, only victory.
"Hold the line! We have to hold until reinforcements arrive!"
No one knew when reinforcements would arrive.
Just as the Astra Militarum waited for the Imperium's aid, they had to hold back the enemy until help came.
"Hold the line!"
Drop Pods were still descending from the sky.
In space.
Aboard the Chaos Warband's ship, countless fanatical traitors were being unloaded. It was like dumping mountains of garbage onto the planet, steadily defiling its original colors.
The soldiers of Gamma World and the planet's resistance had temporarily repelled the traitors' invasion.
But the enemy's numbers were still growing.
"Chapter Master Siles, there's a tough one down there. He's killed quite a few Dragon Warriors in our warband."
"..."
Ozrax was their backyard.
And now the insects in their backyard had killed their masters.
What was more, one of them was a "Space Marine" surrounded by a radiant glow.
That stirred something in him.
Back then, he too had protected everything behind him. But how had it turned out?
On a planet tainted by Chaos, he had risked everything to rescue a little girl. But because the planet had failed to pay the Imperial Tithe, the Imperium had enforced a one-in-ten cull—and she had been chosen.
And he—
He had been the one to carry out the order with his own hands.
Was this what the Imperium wanted?
The Imperium's vast bureaucracy drove both its enemies and its own people to despair. It could never be changed, and everything he did was meaningless.
So, in the depths of his guilt and endless regret, he heard a voice. He heard the Chaos Gods answer him. The Emperor had not answered, but the gods had.
He had not embraced Chaos. The Emperor had abandoned him.
Now, seeing his former self in Cisrain only made him hate the Imperium and Cisrain all the more.
"The hypocritical Imperium disgusts me. The light it bears makes me hate it even more."
"Begin low-orbit bombardment. Destroy everything they have. I'll go kill him myself."
Just as he had done that time, he would "kill" himself once more.
Siles had once been recruited by a Salamander Librarian who had fallen to Chaos, but his beliefs were different from the other man's. That one was simply evil. His wickedness was like the goodness of the Lord of Fire Dragons. They wanted to ravage the entire hypocritical Imperium, while he wanted to destroy it. They had chosen entirely different paths.
If he ever encountered that man again, he would kill him all the same.
Oceanic Planet.
The Salamanders charged the enemy, enduring their scorching bullets.
They didn't have time to play a game of attack and defense. They needed to destroy the control room as quickly as possible and disable the battleship's engines.
"Company commander, we've received the message."
"Inform the Blood Raven Chapter. The company commander has taken his men back. We won't be getting any other reinforcements for now."
"That's indeed the best solution. This gives us more time to defeat the Xenos organization's attack more effectively." The Salamander Techmarine nodded. If possible, they wanted to steal this battleship, but they absolutely couldn't let the enemy escape.
There was also an enemy commander aboard the Tau Empire battleship. Who knew whether letting them go would provoke a counterattack from the Tau Empire?
Elsewhere, Cyrus's squad had received the news as well.
"Salamander Company Commander Vulkan has taken his men back to help Ozrax."
Yalta nodded. "It's the best choice. We can't take the battleship quickly, and there's no point in having them sit around inside the research vessel. Sending them back might actually help. Captain, did Talon go back too?"
"Talon went with them. He'll be more useful providing support." Cyrus nodded, his expression still grave. After all, they were facing an entire Chaos Warband's worth of Chaos Space Marines. But to keep everyone from getting nervous, he turned to the squad. "Continue the mission. We've lost our reinforcements, but the enemy could still receive support. So we'll stick to the original plan and take the battleship as quickly as possible. If we can't capture it, we destroy it. We can't let a single enemy escape."
"Yes, Captain!"
"Yes, Captain!"
They were no longer as desperate to capture the battleship as before.
That meant they could use their most efficient tactics to take down the enemy.
The Tau Empire's side.
The enemy had previously attacked at a high frequency, breaking through their defenses at an astonishing pace.
But then the enemy suddenly stopped, making them tense.
"What scheme are they cooking up?"
"Whatever it is, their target is the control room."
Outside the control room, Tarian had sealed off the area completely and firmly seized control of the firing range. In these narrow corridors, only one Astartes warrior could pass through at a time. To take the control room, the enemy would have to charge in through a hail of bullets.
Close combat was out of the question.
If they were forced into melee, they would be slaughtered one-sidedly. Even in Crisis Battlesuits, they would be at a disadvantage, while the more powerful battlesuits couldn't operate effectively inside a battleship.
In the starry void.
A white research vessel raced forward at top speed.
"Faster."
"Faster."
Before you continue