Boom, boom, boom!!!
The roar of heavy engines tore through Suiyang's polluted skies.
Two Stormbird gunships bearing the insignia of the White Scars raced toward the Hive City like a pair of massive anvils, trailing blazing exhaust.
Around them, twenty Imperial Navy Thunderbolt fighters formed a tight escort formation. Like a flock of faithful hawks, they maneuvered nimbly along the gunships' flanks and overhead, vigilantly scanning the surrounding airspace.
The closer they drew to the Hive City—the first to fall, now entirely controlled by the Rebel Forces—the more pronounced the unnatural atmosphere became.
The industrial fumes and dust normally found around a Hive City had been replaced by a thicker stench of blood, tinged with rust and decay.
This was no localized smell of blood such as one might encounter on a battlefield. It seemed to permeate the entire region, seeping into the atmosphere. Even inside the fast-moving aircraft, a trace slipped through their imperfect air filtration systems.
More unsettling still, the distant outline of the Hive City seemed shrouded in a thin, shifting veil of dark red mist. Even the sunlight passing through it took on an ominous hue.
"I smell prey." Ding Xiu released some of his safety restraints and took his signature door-sized Powered Zhanmadao from his back, laying it across his knees.
Through the observation window, he narrowed his eyes at the distant steel jungle wrapped in blood-red haze. A hunter's smile curled his lips, but there was not a trace of complacency in his gaze.
"A stench of blood thick enough to choke on, and... something foul that sets my nerves on edge."
"We'll land in Sector A," Pei Min's voice came over the Communications Channel, calm and clear. On the small tactical map hovering before him, a landing site near the Hive City's central