Under the will of the Great Devourer, the retreating swarm began to evolve rapidly.
Hordes of Hormagaunts and Termagants leaped into reclamation pools to be broken down. Numbers meant nothing against the precise strikes of the Men of Iron, and this time, the swarm began rapidly improving its quality.
Enormous Bio-Titans and other behemoths began emerging from the spawning pools.
Every front fell silent that night.
The Automated Sentries underwent maintenance. Shattered bodies were repaired and rebuilt, the Peltast Robots had their shells replenished, and the Enforcer Tanks began returning for repairs and resupply.
The tough carapaces of the Tyranid Beasts contained considerable amounts of metal. Once their biomass had been incinerated, plenty of metal fragments remained among the debris. The Nano-Swarms carried by the Enforcer Tanks began devouring this metal to repair the tanks and replenish their ammunition.
Meanwhile, relying on their enormous quantum energy cores, the Apocalypse Titans once again began firing around the clock, striking at extreme range against any Bio-ships that dared approach in space.
The Imperial Fleet in orbit continuously relayed reports of the ground fighting to front-line headquarters.
Watching swathes of the swarm evaporate in those combat recordings brought a strangely soothing sense of relief.
Everyone felt as though their spirits had been healed.
Iax took advantage of the lull in the fighting to assess the losses.
Across seven planets, more than sixty thousand units had been lost in just one day of fighting.
Beyond the ordinary Automated Sentries, several battlefields had come under attack by Tyranid Bio-Titans while lacking heavy support. In the worst instance, a single strike had destroyed over a thousand Peltast Robots and two hundred Armed Sentinels.
The combat capabilities of these basic units left Iax feeling rather helpless, but there was little to be done. A single planet had