Warhammer: Black Emperor

Chapter 571 Urian: The Air Force Leading the Legions in the Shadow of Order
The orbital bombardment lasted for five days before it ended.

The desired effect was not achieved ahead of schedule, but rather the attack on the alien fortresses nestled among the mountains was ineffective.

To open up a landing zone, each army corps deployed fighter squadrons.

Urian Bendreig stood on the bridge of the Nightspear, gazing through the observation window at the planes taking off from the various legions' warships.

Urian's expression was complicated, with a jumble of thoughts swirling in his mind.

The father did not punish the abomination for the damage, nor did he gain the father's trust.

As my thoughts wandered, the scene from the Indomitable Truth came to mind.

Urian recalled those scrutinizing eyes, and that dizzying, cold gaze surged up his spine once more.

[The father must have sensed something.]

Luther will be discovered sooner or later...

Perhaps, from the moment I promised Lord Ninglu to keep the secret, I embarked on a different path.
As Urian pondered, his gaze fell upon spade, cobalt blue, purple...

Many colorful fighter jets, like flocks of migrating birds, traversed the void.

He took in the magnificent sight of tens of thousands of fighter jets flying overhead, and he recovered from his shock.

[The Air Force, under the command of "Shadow of Order," leads the other legions.]
Other legions still rely on the Swordtail interceptor as their main fighter aircraft, which has been removed from the "Shadow of Order".

Rosicky Cech led the technical sergeant in simplifying the operating system of the Swordtail interceptor, which resulted in a decrease in performance, but the auxiliary corps pilots were able to perform the piloting duties.

The new generation of Lightning fighter jets is so expensive that even the casting world cannot meet the needs of all legions; the "War Dogs" company doesn't even have a single one.

Even the "ultimate warriors" who possess dozens of industrial worlds have only completed half of their costume change.

The gap is even greater in terms of quantity.

Urian's helmet tactical interface displays the scan results from the ship's avionics system.

The total number of aircraft in the other legions is 6,580.

The "Shadow of Order" deployed a total of 7,690 Lightning-type fighter jets, along with 1,400 auxiliary aircraft.

Seven thousand six hundred and ninety fighter jets are not even the entire air strike force of the "Shadow of Order".

The current situation is not entirely due to Lord Ninglu's instructions.

Through his time following Lord Ninglu, Urian gained some understanding of the "Shadow of Order" and was able to estimate the number of fighters in the eleven battle groups to be between three hundred and five hundred.

Only the Sixth Fighter Group, after Flamini became its commander, vigorously developed its fighter squadron, which numbered over five thousand aircraft.

Urian was shocked when he learned of this number, unable to imagine how the "Shadow of Order" could have completed the large-scale deployment of new fighter jets in just over a decade.

It wasn't until they learned of the massive production capacity of the foundry worlds of Voss and the new industrial world of Colony that supported the large-scale equipment replacement that they understood how this was achieved.

Urian couldn't help but doubt his father's path, for the Dark Angels never cultivated the territory they acquired.

The Dark Angels destroyed the aliens' evil world and took their technology into the Sacred Relics Chamber.

The Dark Angels reclaimed the lost human colonies and, after recruiting all qualified candidates, presented them to the Emperor.

Unlike Ultramarines and Shadow Order, Dark Angels do not manage the worlds they conquer, and their equipment replenishment depends on supplies from the Forge World.

"Shadow of Order", "Iron Hand", "Ultraman", "Iron Warrior" and "Salamander" all possess powerful forging capabilities.

Mars prioritizes supplying Lord Fernus, and Lord Nimrod has reached agreements with numerous forging worlds, allowing him to equip new gear at a rate far exceeding that of other legions.

Despite possessing a large number of forbidden weapons granted to the First Legion by the Emperor, the deployment of regular equipment by the Dark Angels' septic tank lags far behind.

As Urian pondered, the swarm of aircraft dove down toward Talos, meeting the swarm of drones rising from the ground.

Inside the Swordtail interceptor, which had been in service for over fifty years, Ravenwing warrior Aloseli watched as spade-colored aircraft dyed the stratosphere the colors of the Legion.

He performed a wide-angle scan, looking at the densely flashing runes on the panel, which quickly exceeded a hundred.

Aroseli pulled the lever, and the machine gun roared to life.

Flames erupted and debris flew everywhere.

The number of runes flashing on the panel did not decrease; instead, it suddenly increased and filled the entire panel.

As Aroselli saw the dense, dazzling beams of light rushing towards him, the sense of crisis caused his adrenaline to surge, and he quickly pushed and pulled the control levers with both hands.

The aircraft shook violently, trembling in the airflow.

It withstood more than a dozen attacks, the scars making the sword-tailed interceptor even more ferocious, and the broken bones making it even more indestructible.

Guns roared furiously, tearing dozens of drones apart.

Arose's body trembled slightly from the adrenaline rush, his eyes scanning several streaks of flame, followed by more bursts of smoke. Thunder heavy fighters and Swordtail interceptors spun and plummeted.

Bang bang bang!
The shockwave from the explosion slammed into the machine, a piercing alarm sounded, and the ancient machine spirit roared angrily.

A flash of blazing flames streaked past, and Aroselli, struggling to keep up with the Lightning fighter jet, thought enviously.

[If I could fly the new generation of fighter jets like the veterans, I would achieve even more victories.]
As Aroseri pondered, the Grand Master's command echoed from his helmet.

"Sledgehammer drop activation!"

"Raven, cover us!"

Aroselli tapped the panel twice, and with a wisp of smoke, the alarm stopped.

The ancient machine spirit responded to his "prayer" and flew toward the shimmering black runes.

Hammer-shaped runes plummeted down, and rows of terracotta-colored aircraft circled around, keeping the swarming drones at bay.

Amid a series of explosions, Aroselli was unable to discern the ownership of the surrounding debris; his vision was filled with noise.

He glanced at the squad's combat comrades markings; only two veteran Lightning fighters remained.

Aroseli immediately pulled the control stick, and his plane swung wildly in the air, its wings slapping against the drone.

The drone spun around and collided with another drone. He was just about to quickly move closer to his teammates to form a combat formation.

Suddenly, the fiery wreckage of the drone slammed into his sword-tailed interceptor.

A cold wind rushed into the cockpit, and a piercing red light flashed wildly.

Aroselli felt his hands were unusually heavy. He had no choice but to abandon his original plan. Maintaining the plane from crashing and acting as a shield was the limit of his current ability.

The wind howled against him as he watched sadly as dozens of drones swarmed and crashed into a Lightning fighter jet. He felt a sense of relief that he hadn't accomplished his plan.

Aroselli peered through layers of smoke from the explosions; his altitude display was destroyed, and he had no idea how much longer this death journey would last.

Ammunition depleted, steering system malfunction.

"Raven... Hammer down..."

The sound from the helmet communicator awakened Aroseri's numb nerves.

He saw stormbirds and ancient, brutal skyspear gunboats whizzing past him.

Aroselli breathed a sigh of relief, and in the miraculously running markers, he discovered that his company had only 292 men left, 205 of whom were Lightning fighters.

Boom boom boom!
Ground-based anti-aircraft artillery roared furiously, its hissing drowning out the engine's roar.

The Stormbirds disintegrated with a deafening roar, and the Dark Angels' black ceramic power armor melted in the molten energy.

The spade stormbird exploded like a firecracker, and a sturdy Skyspear gunship slammed heavily onto the ground, crushing more than a dozen aliens into a bloody pulp.

At the same moment the Dark Angel landed on the Turks, Flamini easily pushed the control lever.

His fighter jet instantly weaved through the swarm of drones, rotating in neat formation.

Flamini leisurely examined the tactical interface; his battle group had lost 407 fighters but had crushed hundreds of thousands of drones.

He thought confidently, "My battle group has now been assembled into a massive air force."
A long-barreled automatic cannon under the fuselage and a laser cannon on each wingtip fired simultaneously with a roar.

The machine guns roared, and dense laser beams swept towards the drones like raindrops.

Clear!

"storm!"

Primarch's private pilot, Nelson, temporarily pilots a Voss Lightning fighter to join the bombing mission.

His plane accelerated and dove through the scattered wreckage of friendly aircraft.

The under-suspension missile bays were incredibly heavy, pulling the wings downwards.

The tail fin then rises high, and it is made of a rough and practical piece of black metal.

Seeing the alien facilities locked on the panel, the "lucky one" felt that today was his lucky day. He stepped on the gas pedal and instantly overtook the lead plane.

Four air-to-ground Hellfire missiles, mounted under the wings, roared out and crashed to the ground like arrows.

Boom boom boom!
Flames shot into the sky, and metal debris tore apart the bodies of the surrounding aliens.

After releasing the missiles, the Lightning fighter jet felt a sudden lightness and quickly took off.

One after another, jet-black fighter jets rose into the sky, surrounded by various other fighter jets billowing thick smoke.

(End of this chapter)