Warhammer: Hail to the Void Lords!.

Chapter 988 (08.987): 'Punishment of the Void'

A humid cloud from the southern continent silently spread over this vast desert meadow.

The cold raindrops pattered on the ground, fell onto the cold barbed wire, and struck the armored shell of the watchtower.

The rain blurred the view through the bulletproof glass and, with its monotonous noise, interfered with the sentries' perception of the outside world.

But for the Hell Vanguard soldiers on the move, this was an immense blessing from the Lord of Mankind—the enemy's vision was blurred and their hearing was impaired.

The damp desert meadow beneath your feet provides far better support than simple shifting sand.

Although they still leave footprints and cannot use high-speed roller skates, their walking speed is fast enough.

The teams carrying out different tasks, like ghosts blending into the night, moved silently and stealthily into the bushes outside the airport.

Click!

A soft metallic cutting sound. A soldier clad in assault-type heavy power armor silently cut through the barbed wire fence using hydraulic extensions from his power backpack, quietly infiltrating the airport's restricted area.

"Tower 11, reporting as scheduled, all is normal." On the tower, a Severo rebel soldier wearing red bulletproof armor was giving a monotonous routine report through a communicator.

He stared listlessly at the foggy world outside, completely unaware of the impending danger.

Neither the aerial radar nor the forward observation posts around the airport detected anything suspicious.

Under normal circumstances, no one could possibly evade these two sophisticated detection methods and silently infiltrate this heavily guarded airport.

Unless, of course, they can emerge from underground like the ancient legend of the "Sandworm Overlord".

One by one, dark figures silently climbed upwards along the spiral staircase on the outside of the tower.

Snap! rustling...

The members of the location team, like the most lethal predators, silently took down all the sentries on the outer watchtowers with their tactical daggers.

Immediately afterwards, the breaching agent swiftly and efficiently used a silenced live-fire pistol to take out all the operators inside the watchtower with two muffled thuds.

After eliminating all threats, they immediately released a servo skull.

A flash of red light appeared in the skull's eye sockets, and then connected to the Thinker array within the watchtower.

While silently infiltrating communication channels and stealing all enemy communications, it also, in accordance with communication regulations, periodically sends out a report in synthesized voice saying "everything is normal," as if the people on the watchtower were still alive.

"At 100 degrees to the east, a row of quick-concrete hangars has been discovered. The total length of the complex is approximately 3 kilometers." An observer lay on the rain-soaked outer platform of a tower, carefully observing the massive arched quick-concrete structures in the distance with his advanced adjustable magnification tactical binoculars.

These structures are exceptionally hard and thick; the thickness of their quick-setting concrete is sufficient to withstand direct bombardment from almost all conventional shells, except for the large-caliber shells used by the "Petrified Lizard" self-propelled artillery.

Conventional attack methods certainly wouldn't be able to destroy the aircraft hidden inside. Unless... they possess a destructive force far exceeding that of ground artillery shells, a force large enough to alter the landscape.

The ranging method employed was the most traditional and reliable laser ranging. The Hellslinger operating the laser rangefinder knelt on one knee and aimed the rangefinder's laser emitter at the first hangar building he could see.

Then, he shone the laser beam at the building furthest in his field of vision.

"8000 meters."

"Confirmed, the main unit storage area is 8000 meters long. Coordinates..." The observer quickly used the data arm plate on his arm to input the ranging data into a complex formula to calculate the area of ​​the firing range and the precise coordinates.

"Mission complete. The precise coordinates of the orbital lance strike have been uploaded." He looked up, peering through the rain at the dark night sky.
-
Above low Earth orbit.

Three small Imperial Navy warships are on the verge of resisting the planet's orbital gravity well. The warships require enormous amounts of energy to counteract the powerful gravity well generated by the planet's gravity.

If it were a larger, heavier warship, at this altitude, it would have already been dragged down by its own enormous weight and crashed to the ground.

The physical universe is fair. It applies the exact same laws to the Imperial Navy, the Xenomorphs, and the traitors, without any favoritism or preferential treatment.

Therefore, there were no enemy warships in such a dangerous near-Earth orbit.

This is a relatively safe location.

Of course, aside from those bombardment macro cannons specifically designed to defend against orbital intrusions from the planet's surface, their firepower would be lethal to destroyer-class warships.

"Precise strike coordinates received from ground reconnaissance unit. Adjusting the firing arc of the bombardment lance."

"Live-time images of the enemy's mainframe have been sent to the tactical station. Captain, what... attack method should we employ?"

An officer on the bridge respectfully asked Archie Cuthbert Collingwood, the acting captain of the Scimitar-class escort ship, who was seated on the command throne.

At the pre-departure battle briefing, Horatio repeatedly reminded him that the bombardment must not last too long, and that they only had one chance.

Otherwise, the ground-based defensive macro cannons would immediately pinpoint their firing source.

Those massive, terrifyingly large cannon shells could easily tear their small escort ship to shreds.

Destroying enemy air vehicles is not the key to this operation.

The key is that he wants to use a more ingenious method to completely disable the Imperial warplanes that have been exploited by the Severus rebels from taking off and fighting.

His brow furrowed, his mind racing as he considered how to achieve maximum strategic destruction within a very limited timeframe.

[According to the intelligence Horatio sent me, the enemy's air vehicles are mainly atmospheric fighters captured from this planet, such as "Thunder" and "Lightning"... These are not vertical takeoff and landing aircraft; they require runways... Yes! Runways!]
"One-third of the power!" he decisively ordered. "Target: the entire runway in front of the mainframe hangar. Conduct a sweeping attack."

"Captain? Why not just destroy the hangars? Our focused energy lances are enough to completely destroy those hangars."

"All we need to do is vaporize a chasm in front of their hangar that they can never cross, and no matter how capable their planes are, they won't be able to take off."

Moreover, perhaps... once we recapture these imperial weapons, they can be put to our immediate use.

"Weapons Officer! Fire the light lances, lock onto the runway on the ground image! Destroying that won't affect the airport's main runway."

"Yes, Captain! Locating coordinates! Bombardment area, coordinates 332.479, shift right to 333.481!"

The light spears are charging! Power unit, immediately reduce the Void Shield's power and channel energy into the bombardment light spear array!

"The Void Shield's power has been reduced to half! The power circuit has been successfully input into the Light Spear Array! Light Bombardment Light Spears, ready!"

"Fire!" Archie gave the order decisively.

"Fire!!!"

A beam of incredibly powerful energy shot through the layers of massive energy-concentrating lenses of the Light Spear's main cannon, striking the planet's surface like divine punishment.

"Let your glory be a tribute to the fallen heroes. Pay the price, you traitor!" Valina said angrily.

This violent burst of energy instantly illuminated the vast area surrounding the airport as bright as day. Even at midday, there had never been such dazzling, such deadly brightness.

(End of this chapter)