Warhammer 40k: Melee Warriors

The piercing alarm made Jack's head throb. He struggled to open his eyes, feeling his mouth filled with the taste of wild beast brewing.

What just happened?

Oh right, that thing's main cannon fired, and I lost consciousness after seeing a flash of light...

Jack blinked hard, trying to overcome the dizziness and nausea.

“Tik? Harlan?” Jack asked in a hoarse voice. He choked on his saliva and coughed repeatedly in the quiet communication channel, which made him feel much better.

Jack looked around, trying to pinpoint his location. He realized that his fighter jet seemed to have crashed on the Planet Killer. The only things covering his cockpit window were rotten flesh and even stranger roots.

He took out his self-defense weapon and left the cockpit, wanting to go further back of the fighter jet to check the situation.

Harlan was not lying prone on the data assembly table; the cables connecting her to the fighter jet's systems were hooking her body.

Jack went over to check and confirmed that Harlan had not died in the impact.

“Your craft beer filling device seems to be broken…” Jack muttered to himself, then shoved the beer-scented straw into Harlan’s mouth.

After taking a few unconscious breaths, Harlan woke up. Like Jack, it took her a while to overcome the dizziness and nausea. Then she asked Jack, "How are we now?"

Jack gave a wry smile and retorted, "Isn't this your job? I can only confirm that we crashed on an enemy ship, but I can't confirm the condition of the fighter jets. I don't even know whether Tyk is alive or dead in the spherical gun bay."

The two remained silent. The passage between the spherical gun bay and the main body of the Furious interceptor was quite narrow; even a slight impact could cause the dented metal to block the passage.

It's even possible that they could suffocate Tick inside the spherical gun bay.

“Alright, let me see what else we can do.” Harlan didn’t waste too much precious energy on Tick, whose fate was uncertain. She immediately connected to the fighter jet’s system and analyzed various data.

Jack stood guard beside Harlan, taking down the Howler shotgun hanging on the wall to keep watch over their surroundings.

Harlan's face turned deathly pale. She shouted to Jack, her voice cracking, "Something's coming at us! Lots of it! The dense red dots are almost forming a huge blob! We have to take off and get out of here!"

"Take off? How do we take off? Didn't the fighter jet lose power during the crash?"

“It seems…it seems we’ve lost it.” Cold sweat poured down Harlan’s forehead as she displayed the fighter jet’s structural diagram on the screen.

Green indicates normal, yellow indicates damage, and red indicates destruction.

Judging from the structural diagram, all of the Furious interceptor's Xuan-style defensive armor was destroyed. It is very likely that these items preserved the overall structure of the aircraft at the last moment, preventing it from being destroyed like a bomb upon impact.

Along with the Xuan-style defensive armor, the tail propulsion engine of the Fury interceptor was also destroyed, as it was the only part of the entire aircraft that was not protected by the Xuan-style defensive armor.

“We…we have to fly! We have to fly!!” Harlan panicked as she looked at the bright red thrusters. She could feel something unnatural coveting her soul, and she stammered, unable to utter a complete sentence.

Jack gasped for breath, gritted his teeth, and immediately ran back to the cockpit. He had to fight for his own life and Harlan's.

He's going to get this doomed fighter jet flying again! He'll do it the way those weirdos on the Exterminator did!

Knock knock knock...

Jack tapped the black screen with his finger, swallowed hard, and then spoke to the screen.

“Miss Wing? In the final moments of my life… I’ve decided to confess my true feelings to you… I actually like you. The reason I rejected you last time wasn’t because I disliked you, but simply because it was the first time I’d ever faced a fighter jet professing its love, and I lacked experience in this area; I was terrified…”

As soon as Jack said those words, the screen flickered, and a simple face made up of numbers and symbols appeared.

If Gu Jian were to take a look at this, he would definitely be able to recall the once-popular emoticons.

The expression on the screen at this moment, in response to Jack's declaration of love, is like this.

(//▽//)

Chapter 421: All things have a spirit! Heart for heart!

Surprisingly... there was a reaction...

Seeing the simple emoticons on the screen, Jack felt no joy, only a slow growing fear of facing an unfamiliar presence.

Is this... really true?

Jack swallowed hard. He wasn't a complete novice when it came to machines; he had learned a lot about machine maintenance from his time working at the transport port.

However, "maintaining the machines" was just their private term. Sometimes, the managers of the transport port would set aside a portion of the profits to hire those mechanical monks in red robes to carry out major repairs.

Jack still vividly remembers the monks using incense and holy oil to repair the aging transport plane.

He still remembered a word that the monks kept repeating – machine soul.

It means the soul or spirit of a machine.

To be honest, Jack initially thought the term was nonsense. Imbuing things with a spirit was something he did when he was young; when it was time for bed, little Jack would strip naked and leave his clothes aside.

He would tear off a sheet and cover his clothes with it, and even order his teddy bear to stand guard to ensure that his clothes could sleep as comfortably as he did.

The next morning, Jack would put on his warm clothes and give his teddy bear a big hug to thank him for his kindness...

But this is just a child's fantasy!

Clothes have no life! The teddy bear doesn't understand his commands! It's all just a bunch of ridiculous things his ignorant brain has imagined!

As Jack grew up, he stopped childishly talking to his clothes and toys, stopped showing awe for the massive machines like the transport planes, and later he stopped taking the jokes of the Punisher's mechanics...

"Hey! This girl seems to really like you. You'd better take good care of her."

The voice of the old mechanic in charge of maintaining the Fury interceptor inexplicably rang in Jack's mind. Jack swallowed again. He suddenly realized that many people on the Punisher were not mentally unstable, but that they could actually establish a connection with the ethereal spirit of the machine.

No wonder... no wonder the other day, two armed sailors got all red in the face and started shouting about having a duel for honor after their guns just touched.

It seemed that Jack had been in a daze for too long, because a simple emoticon indicating confusion appeared on the cockpit screen, and at the same time, a purring sound like a cat came from inside the cockpit.

Use your heart to sense the voice of the machine's soul...

Jack recalled a phrase often uttered by many on the Punisher. Suppressing his strange and unfamiliar feelings, he brought his face close to the screen and whispered, "Miss Wing, I'm sorry I was distracted just now. It's all because you're so beautiful and charming that I..."

A shy emoji appeared on the screen. Jack looked at the interceptor's response and suddenly found the interaction very interesting. He felt his long-dead curiosity and childlike innocence return once again.

Although he now despises his childhood foolishness and naivety, it doesn't mean he hates that experience. On the contrary, deep down, Jack wishes his clothes and teddy bear could come to life and keep him company through his lonely life.

People need emotional comfort.

"Miss Flying Wing, I..."

"Damn it! What are you busy with! Those monstrous things are getting closer and closer to us!"

Harlan's shout jolted Jack out of his reverie, and he suddenly realized that he was inside the belly of a nightmare.

Jack hurriedly said, "Miss Wing, we need to get out of here right away. Can you restart the engine?"

The screen displayed a strained expression.

Jack was still not giving up; he comforted the interceptor as if it were a teddy bear missing a plastic eye.

The cockpit was filled with sweet words he had never uttered to any other woman. The expressions on the screen changed constantly. Jack gripped the control stick tightly, giving the machine spirit more encouragement.

"Oh my god! Oh my god! God help us! God help us! The engine has actually regained power?" Harlan looked at the engine in surprise as its color changed from red to yellow, but this slow charging was still not enough for them to escape. The red dot was only a few hundred meters away from them.

"Engine warm-up time is insufficient!"

Hearing Harlan's reminder, Jack, looking at the expression on the screen, steeled himself and leaned down to plant a deep kiss on the screen.

Is this helpful?

Jack didn't know the answer to that question. When he got up, he only noticed that the temperature in the entire cockpit had dropped significantly, as if the power supply had been completely cut off.

The abominations and various demons surging from the depths of the Planet Killer were only a dozen meters away from the interceptor. Harlan, in despair, raised the Howler shotgun and aimed it at his own head.

At this critical moment, the engine, which appeared to be structurally unusable, suddenly spewed out a burst of scorching plasma, the immense thrust instantly propelling the fighter jet forward at high speed...

......

"The impact force of this thing is really strong..." Koji remarked. The boarding torpedo he was riding had already penetrated the Planet Killer. The armor-piercing laser at the front end had run out of energy, and the entire torpedo, under the precise control of Fithia, had stopped on an open ground suitable for their landing.

Fitaia remained seated beside the boarding torpedo control console, where she needed to operate the automatic gun defense system mounted on the torpedo's front end to provide cover for the troops' landing.

The hatch was propelled forward by the explosive bolts, and the sturdy, heavy iron shell was strong enough to crush everything in its path.

The soldiers ran out quickly, showing no signs of madness or fear about the terrifying and chaotic environment inside the Planet Killer; only vigilance and determination remained.

Komi, holding a long blade, also came down. He keenly sensed that some demons were about to fall from the ceiling above him.

"Destroy them from above your heads! In the name of the Savior!"

The soldiers looked up, aimed, and fired. The Roarer shotgun's powerful impact could even send demons that jumped from the ceiling flying higher into the air, and large amounts of debris fell like snowflakes.

If the Demon Judge were to witness such destructive efficiency, he would be utterly astonished.

Are the demons strong?

Like other factions in the Warhammer world, demons have wildly different strengths and weaknesses. A powerful demon can tear a hole in the Emperor's body, while a weak demon can fight a moth to a pulp.

At least the demons that came to intercept Komi and his group were not powerful beings; it would be more accurate to call them warp creatures.

Their overwhelming advantage over mortals stems more from the corrupting influence that pollutes their spirit and soul, and their souls and bodies that transcend the rules of physics.

The winds of corruption shake the minds of mortals; extreme panic can make people forget to fire and forget to struggle.

The soul and body that transcend the rules of physics became a kind of protection; the hot laser that could easily burn off limbs only left a shallow pit or even a ripple on the demon's body.

These distorted entities don't necessarily have any fatal wounds; when you shoot one, it usually just produces a large amount of mucus, muscle, and excess internal organs.

When the soldiers led by Komi overcame the turmoil in their souls with Beast Brew and used the Howler Shotgun to break through and suppress the demon's soul form, the gap in strength between the two sides was greatly reduced.

In addition to their faith in the Savior and the fact that the orcs were stronger and more resilient than ordinary people, this counterattack inflicted heavy losses on the surging demons.

Chapter 422: Hehehe...small and fragrant.

"Hold the line! Fire! Fire!"

Ella the cat-woman impressed Komi. Although she was nominally still a slave that Komi had bought from Fox Des, she performed just like an elite Cardia warrior in battle.

The cat-like creature's speed allowed Ella to reload at breakneck speed; Komi couldn't even sense when the shotgun in her hand had stopped firing.

Ella's shooting was also extremely accurate; her pupils dilated and contracted according to the changes in light, ensuring she could maintain the best vision in this chaotic environment.

If this applies to cat people, what about other people?

They lightly tapped the metal canisters at their waists, and tiny sugar crystals made from demi-human blood were transported through tubes into their mouths to be chewed, giving them a temporary boost.

Some demons were lucky enough to escape the hail of bullets and landed, ready to wreak havoc with their grotesque limbs.

But the Orc soldiers weren't like the Titans; they simply swung their shotguns and smashed the demon, instantly revealing what was inside its chest cavity.

The demon staggered, and his comrades immediately turned their guns on it, tearing it apart with a barrage of fire.