Landing?

Cheng Mingrui was getting anxious. Why wasn't the human cruiser behind them hurrying up with its pursuit? He had already laid his trap. Had a few Macro-cannon shots scared it off? Surely not...

He had worked frantically alongside the Mekboys, using the cheat-like power of Ork Knowledge to turn a damaged Macro-cannon turret into a space mine launcher.

The Mekboys had lived up to expectations too, producing plenty of big, powerful, thoroughly Waaagh! contraptions. Dinner was ready, and it was annoying when the guests wouldn't come and eat.

"Slick... sir, we'z... our warship has entered the nebula. What are your orders, sir?" Clever Git reported in a solemn voice.

"..." Cheng Mingrui was speechless. After coming this far, were they supposed to just loiter outside instead of going in?

"Reduce speed by half. Once we're out of the nebula, return to full speed and keep following an S-shaped course toward the second nebula. Halve our speed again there, then return to full speed after leaving the second nebula and keep going at full speed."

"Understood! We'll complete the mission, sir!" Cheng Mingrui could almost see Clever Git standing at attention and saluting in his mind.

Once they slowed down, Cheng Mingrui led the boyz in laying row upon row of rather imaginative space mines throughout the nebula. Some of the Mekboys had even given their creations grand names.

There were things like Blast a Bunch, Drop 'Em Blind, One of a Kind, Gretchin Crap, Chain Blast, and the Biggest Waaagh! Names like Gork's Greeting and Blow the Sky Apart seemed much more normal by comparison.

The Orks really were having the time of their lives.

After filling the nebula with space mines, Cheng Mingrui headed for his next work site, a little disappointed that he wouldn't get to watch them explode.

Besides the space mines, he had another secret weapon. With all that boundless, intricate knowledge in his head, it would have been a shame not to build something. It was like a model kit enthusiast receiving a kit he loved but being unable to assemble it right away.

Once the pursuing Guardian followed them into the nebula, it immediately fell into the space mine trap. The four-kilometer-long cruiser was simply too enormous to dodge mines over a hundred meters long.

Countless space mines fitted with magnetic fuses prowled through space like piranhas. The moment the Guardian entered the minefield, they swarmed toward it, with each mine trailing a whole string of others.

Explosions erupted relentlessly above, below, and on every side of the Guardian, surrounding the entire warship with the glare of flames. Its Void Shield held out for quite some time before finally collapsing.

The flames from the exploding mines finally licked at the warship itself, inflicting real damage on the Guardian's structural layers. Red alarm lights flashed throughout the vessel.

Terrified by his first experience of a battle on this scale, the captain ordered the warship to stop advancing and wait for its Void Shield to recharge, his face ashen.

By the time the explosions stopped completely and the Void Shield raised its blue-violet barrier again, an hour had passed. When the Guardian resumed its pursuit, the Glory Knight was already nearing the orbit of Euronia 4's moon.

The wait had actually been entirely unnecessary. How could hundred-meter-long space mines sink a four-kilometer-long warship? Even if it had forced its way through, it would at most have suffered damage to some outer structures, turrets, and the like. Such superficial damage was nothing compared to the loss of a tactical opportunity.

After enduring the bombardment of the second nebula's minefield, the Guardian fell even farther behind. Catching the Glory Knight now seemed impossible. Leaving an inexperienced captain to command the battle alone had brought about a tremendous tragedy.

Cheng Mingrui hadn't expected the human warship pursuing him to be so inept. He had even hurriedly magnetized the spire amidships on the Glory Knight and turned it into an arc weapon. Now it looked entirely unnecessary.

If I'd known, I wouldn't have planned such a cautious strategy. It would've been better to head straight for the habitable planet, Euronia 3. It's too late now. The five-kilometer-long Glory Knight has already entered Euronia 4's gravitational field. Changing course with something this enormous under the pull of gravity would be too dangerous.

Still... The cunning Cheng Mingrui rubbed his bald head. That doesn't mean I can't have it all.

The Glory Knight began circling Euronia 4 in an elliptical orbit, swinging outward along the edge of its gravitational field.

Blue lances of light cut through its orderly orbital flight. The Guardian, which had been left far behind, had finally caught up. Perhaps because its captain had received a stern reprimand from the governor, its firepower was even more ferocious.

Even at a distance where its shots couldn't hit, it still had to use long-range fire to constrain the Glory Knight's course.

"Should've fought like this from the start..." By now, Cheng Mingrui no longer cared. Sitting calmly on the Bridge, he ordered the Glory Knight to gradually lower its orbit, preparing to enter Euronia 4.

To be honest, after two ambushes, a voyage through the Warp, and a long-distance pursuit, the Glory Knight was nearing the limits of its reliability. Continuing to fight would be unwise. Bringing the Orks down for a safe landing was the prudent choice.

Watching the lances and Macro-cannons force the Glory Knight into a lower orbit under his command, sending it plunging toward Euronia 4, the Guardian's captain felt immensely pleased with himself.

"This vessel's initial mission objective has been achieved. The Ork warship has suffered heavy damage at our hands. In an estimated two Terran hours, it will crash on Euronia 4 and join the rocks and sandstorms there."

Sent toward Euronia 3 alongside the Guardian captain's message claiming credit were several streaks of silvery-white light. They were too small to be easily detected on a cosmic scale. Even if radar picked them up, they might be mistaken for meteorite fragments.

These were the reason Cheng Mingrui had circled the planet. Using Euronia 4's gravity for a slingshot maneuver and facing the star to interfere with optical radar, he had packed Iron Claw and the other Orks into small craft and launched them toward Euronia 3.

According to his calculations, the small craft loaded with Orks would drift through the system like ordinary meteorites, then be captured by Euronia 3's gravity and finally fall onto the planet's surface.

Cheng Mingrui didn't care whether they landed successfully. As long as a single severed Ork limb reached the planet, he had succeeded.

Ork spores would spread, develop underground, and hatch batch after batch of new boyz.

The intense heat generated by atmospheric friction kept burning away at the Glory Knight's hull. Damaged turrets and armor plates continually broke off, unable to withstand the scorching heat.

Had anyone been standing on the planet's surface and looking up, they would surely have been awestruck by the magnificent spectacle. An enormous warship fell from the sky, trailing a long tail of flames from its burning descent, before slamming into the ground like judgment falling from heaven.

The mushroom cloud produced by the impact and explosion could rise over ten thousand kilometers, while the shock wave would sweep across hundreds of square kilometers of land, wiping away everything upon it.