In low orbit, the battle raged with suffocating intensity.
The flagship of the Flame Lizards' Third Company, the Emperor-class battleship Unyielding Holy Flame, stood in the center of the battlefield like a divine steel colossus.
Its immense, eight-kilometer-long hull glinted coldly under the starlight, and the barrels of its macro cannon arrays still shimmered with residual heat from recent overcharge fire.
Around it, more than a dozen vessels of the First Combat Division formed a tight defensive formation. Their energy shields overlapped in a matrix, creating a near-impenetrable barrier.
But their enemy was a zerg bioship fleet dozens of times larger.
Grotesque hive mother vessels floated like rotting fruit in the void, constantly spewing waves of mantid flyers and spore bombs.
Leviathan bioships throbbed with writhing veins across their carapaces, building up for another wave of acid volleys. Farther out, an uncountable number of escort organisms launched suicide charges in an attempt to break the wall of fire.
And yet, the Flame Lizard fleet did not yield an inch.
"Matrix Protocol—engage."
Inside the bridge, a Flame Lizard gunner spoke calmly.
At once, armored panels along the Unyielding Holy Flame's flanks slid open, launching ten massive metallic prisms into the void.
Each of these constructs was the size of a frigate, and once airborne, they aligned themselves into a perfect geometric formation.
A second later, space between the prisms began to distort, high-energy beams linking and focusing between them—
WHRRRMMM—!!!
A blinding white light exploded forth, sweeping across the battlefield like a divine judgment.
Where it passed, the hive mother ships' hulls were torn like paper, their inner biomatter instantly vaporized.
Three Leviathans tried to evade, but the residual blast caught them mid-maneuver, severing their massive bodies in half. Their acid and entrails froze into crystalline shards in the vacuum.
Inside one of the Luna transports, the civilian passengers stared blankly out the windows at the scene.
"Wh-what… what kind of weapon is that?" one engineer stammered, the briefcase clutched in his hands since the escape now tumbling to the floor.
"It's like… the wrath of a god," murmured an older man in reverent awe.
Meanwhile, aboard the Unyielding Holy Flame's bridge—
The tactical command table flickered with a stable blue glow as the holoprojector displayed a 3D projection of Dr. Ariel Hanson above it.
She looked worn and pale, still clad in her medical lab coat. The left sleeve bore a burned hole where acid had corroded it, its edges blackened.
She pushed her bent rectangular glasses up her nose. The panic in her eyes had faded, replaced by the resolute calm that comes only after enduring countless trials.
"According to the latest data…" Hanson's voice was hoarse from prolonged work, "over 64,000 civilians have now been safely evacuated to your fleet."
Her image flickered with slight distortion from signal instability. "But according to our shelter registry's real-time data, at least another 20,000 people remain scattered across surface bunkers."
Standing at the tactical console like a steel monument was Flame Lizard Captain Gaozan, clad in his Terminator armor. The intricately forged pauldrons bore a vividly detailed Fire Dragon insignia.
Behind his mask, the heads-up display refreshed battlefield telemetry in real time, projecting the zerg's planetary movements directly into his vision.
Even though Hanson only appeared as a hologram, she could still feel the tangible pressure radiating from the armored giant—like a sheathed blade capable of splitting mountains at any moment.
"Your courage is commendable, Doctor," Gaozan said.
His voice, processed through his helmet's speaker, was as deep as the Earth's core yet oddly calm. "But the coming phase of the operation will be handled by our professional search and rescue forces."
He raised one armored hand, causing the holomap to zoom in, highlighting zerg activity approaching Hanson's position.
"You've fulfilled your duty. You should evacuate immediately."
Dr. Hanson drew a deep breath, the motion making her coat ripple slightly.
She turned her head toward something just outside the projection field, then looked back, her gaze even firmer. "Captain Gaozan, I understand your assessment. But as this colony's Chief Medical Officer and its public representative, I cannot leave ahead of my people."
She pointed at the worn identification badge on her chest, its metallic coating almost completely stripped. "My team and I are prepared. We've fortified every key location in this district to delay zerg breakthroughs. We won't leave until the last survivor is safe."
The bridge fell silent.
Gaozan's gaze settled on her tattered uniform. Amid the bloodstains, the impression left by a long-worn medical insignia remained.
Since arriving in this universe, the Flame Lizards had despised the Terran Empire's bureaucratic indifference to civilian life.
But this frail scholar, by her actions alone, had proven that no matter the universe, the flame of human spirit never truly dies.
Hanson's decision might seem meaningless—Agria's militia was, after all, no match for the zerg—but it still earned Gaozan's respect as an Astartes.
"…Understood."
He finally nodded. The sound of metal grinding echoed from his armor's joints.
"The Flame Lizards will honor your choice."
Turning toward the communications array, he issued a fleet-wide command.
"Deploy additional support teams to all evacuation points. Ensure every last one of our people is pulled from the jaws of the swarm."
Hanson's tense shoulders finally relaxed. She gave a weary but sincere smile. "Thank you, Captain Gaozan. On behalf of Agria, I—zzzt—!!"
Her voice was cut short. The hologram twisted violently as harsh electromagnetic noise tore through the transmission.
The final image froze on a sudden flash of explosion behind her, then dissolved into static.
"Signal lost!" a communications officer shouted. "Detected high-intensity psionic storm at Dr. Hanson's location—could be the arrival of the Queen of Blades or a new zerg psi-unit!"
Even before the projection disappeared completely, Gaozan was already striding toward the observation window.
Through the thick plating, Agria's surface was clearly visible.
A massive psionic storm churned above the city where Dr. Hanson had been. Black-purple lightning slashed through the clouds like serpents, each strike carving out hundred-meter-wide acid craters in the earth.
Even without enhanced vision, one could see the entire urban sector engulfed in writhing psionic clouds—as though something alive was stirring in the upper atmosphere.
"All company honor guards—prepare for teleportation," Gaozan commanded coldly. "Destination: Dr. Hanson's last known coordinates."
"Captain, the psionic interference there is intense. Even our own trapped forces can't maintain stable comms. Shouldn't we—"
A tech-sergeant tried to warn him but was silenced by Gaozan's raised hand.
"Execute the order."
The teleport beacon activated. Ghostly blue energy coiled around Gaozan's Terminator armor like a living entity.
Precision protocols initiated. With a flash of light and a spatial hum, Gaozan vanished from the bridge in a blink.
At that moment, the surface had become a living hell.
Thunder raged overhead from the psionic storm, and black-purple lightning rained down, tearing already-ruined buildings to shreds.
The air stank of ozone and burnt flesh; each breath burned the lungs.
But worse than the weather was the situation on the ground.
Deployed during the fleet's arrival, several Flame Lizard tactical squads, along with Helljumpers and auxiliaries, now found themselves locked in the fiercest combat yet.
"Reform ranks! Patch the west breach!" an NCO bellowed over comms, his bolter firing nonstop.
The zerg ambush had been sudden—and deadly.
The once-stable defense line had been ruptured by lurkers bursting from below. The breach was instantly flooded with charging zerglings.
Worse yet, the creep was visibly spreading, transforming the city with horrifying speed. Buildings were "infected"—their walls crawling with pulsing vein-like tissue, their windows extruding fleshy tendrils. Even the roads softened and squelched, like the inside of some massive beast's stomach.
"They knew we'd come!" shouted a Helljumper while retreating, his hardlight rifle nearly depleted. "It's a goddamn trap!"
It seemed he was right.
After clashing with the Human Empire at Mar Sara—and consuming some auxiliaries and Helljumpers—the zerg had deduced that human settlements would always be reinforced. So they laid ambushes.
And they'd succeeded.
Zerg swarmed from the earth in numbers, launching a deadly preemptive strike on the Flame Lizards.
The skies were no safer.
Mantid flyers dove under cover of the psionic storm, raining acid down on surface troops.
A Vulture-class gunship tried to provide support—only to be torn apart mid-air by zerg springing from the clouds.
CRACK—CRACK—!
A violent spatial rupture rang out in front of the city hospital. Gaozan and thirty Terminator-armored honor guards materialized in an instant.
Their ability to teleport without shipborne pads was thanks to breakthroughs made by Catherine Halsey's team, who had cracked key Forerunner technologies.
Now, nearly all Astartes-issued Terminator armor included short-range teleporters—"short" being relative, as their range extended up to 400,000 kilometers. Technically, one could teleport from Earth directly to the Moon.
Gaozan's team arrived beside a still-active defense post.
Roughly twenty Helljumpers had formed a perimeter using wrecked armored vehicles, constantly scanning for threats around the hospital.
The lieutenant leading them almost fired reflexively at the sudden arrivals.
"By the Emperor—!" he gasped upon seeing the Fire Dragon insignia. "Sir! We've been ambushed by the swarm. They've cut all communications. We're completely isolated."
"Where's Dr. Hanson?"
Gaozan's first question was about the scholar who had defied all odds for her people.
"She's still in the hospital, sir," the lieutenant replied quickly. "My men confirmed she and her team are alive. But our link to orbit is dead—like the zerg erected a massive psionic barrier around the city."
Gaozan's mind raced.
Images from Mar Sara surfaced—how the zerg had deliberately spared some Flame Lizards while consuming auxiliaries and bioweapons.
How the Queen of Blades had withheld her full power.
It all pointed to one chilling conclusion:
"This isn't just revenge or feeding," Gaozan said darkly. "They're harvesting our genes."
His voice was as cold as the void.
The zerg's attack on Agria wasn't just a massacre. It was a calculated trap—to lure Flame Lizards in, scatter their strength, and capture as many Astartes as possible.
With enough genetic samples, the swarm's evolution would accelerate exponentially.
"Ten honor guards, fortify this position," Gaozan ordered. "The rest of you—follow me. We're going to cleanse this city."
No sooner had he spoken than the ground rumbled beneath their feet.
Mutation struck suddenly.
From the far end of the street, a towering shadow emerged. Covered in deep violet carapace, it rose from the creep, psionic arcs dancing across its massive form.
Its appearance was a signal.
All at once, zerg surged from every corner of the city's shadow.
Zerglings, hydralisks, lurkers—swarming from tunnels, ruins, even sprouting directly from the creep, flooding toward the hospital.
"Hold the line!"
The Helljumper lieutenant opened fire first, his command-grade hardlight rifle reducing the lead zergling to meat paste.
Gaozan's honor guard fanned out immediately, forming an impenetrable wall of ceramite alongside the hospital defenders.
Bolters roared. Lasers, plasma, and beam weapons lit the battlefield, vaporizing and shattering the oncoming swarm.
But the zerg were endless. New ones emerged every second from the throbbing creep.
And then—
Gaozan's eyes locked on the monstrous figure in the distance.
It was no ultralisk, nor any familiar zerg variant. He knew instinctively—this was the creature responsible for the storm, the blockade, the trap.
THUMP. THUMP.
He reached behind him and drew his massive, signature power hammer.
Without hesitation, he charged straight into the heart of the swarm.
(End of Chapter)
[Get +20 Extra Chapters On — P@tr3on "Mutter"]
[Every 100 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter Drop]
[Thanks for Reading!]