Chapter 63: Missiles, Nuclear Weapons, Orbital Bombing
The Titan Legion, prepared in advance by the Imperial Army, marched step by step through countless tank formations like moving mountains.
The god-like machines, each over thirty meters tall, shook the earth with every step, making the five- or six-meter-tall tanks seem insignificant beside them.
The Titan army ranged from Reaver-class Titans standing over ten meters tall, to Warhound-class Titans over twenty meters, to Warlord-class Titans towering over thirty meters.
The Titan army and the Orks' mech forces, led by Dreadnoughts and Gagants, clashed directly. The Orks roared with excitement at the sight of these behemoths, and a magnificent mech battle unfolded across the plains before all observers.
Tens of thousands of Alpha Legion Space Marines, armed with bolters, entered the battlefield to eliminate the remaining Orks.
Omega, wielding his power sword, slashed through Ork Gagant mechs several meters tall while the tank army's shells bombarded the Dreadnoughts. He charged directly toward seven Ork leaders.
The seven Ork leaders had transformed into massive forms, some into ancient giants over thirty meters tall, others into Great Gagants equally imposing. Countless machine guns, cannons, and ion cannons, combined with force field defenses, made them into terrible war machines.
One magnificent Gagant mech unleashed endless torrents of flame, crushing surrounding Warhound-class Titans with its power claws and knocking down Reaver-class Titans like toys beneath its feet.
The sound of explosions echoed for hundreds of meters around, and the ground itself was torn upside down from the impacts.
Just as the Great Gagant seemed invincible, a figure in power armor appeared in mid-air before it. A power sword full of energy drove through the Ork leader's location.
Omega crashed directly onto the towering thirty-meter Great Gagant mech, slamming it to the ground with a deafening roar.
After delivering several more devastating blows to the immobilized machine, Omega turned to attack another leader. Across the battlefield, one after another, massive mechs, each over thirty meters tall, fell.
As the last Ork Boy fell, the Alpha Legion stood atop the wreckage of the Ork army, their cheers of victory echoing across the scorched terrain.
This great battle annihilated an army of over 15 million Orks, proving the Alpha Legion's preparations were thorough and efficient. The Imperial Army forces shone brilliantly in this campaign.
Endless missiles and artillery shells had worn down the enemy before being annihilated.
This method consumed vast quantities of ammunition, but the advantage was undeniable; casualties remained very small, boosting the entire legion's confidence in victory against the Ork forces.
With the Ork army of over 15 million eliminated, the greenskins on Veredian were severely depleted across half the planet. The legion rapidly seized control of territory spanning tens of thousands of miles.
Humanity swiftly constructed war bases during this period, establishing powerful force-field defense systems to form permanent war fortresses.
Countless supplies were continuously dropped from orbit into the war fortresses, and the Imperial Army's mobile legions and Space Marine companies formed vast armies to clear out surrounding Ork strongholds.
A month later, the entire Alpha Legion swiftly repositioned its battle lines tens of thousands of miles away to engage the next decisive battle against a massive Ork army of twenty million that was gradually approaching from across half the planet.
The Alpha Legion pushed the front line to a vast desert, constantly building fortifications to strengthen defenses.
From orbit, looking down at the planet's surface, one could see a massive green tide of Orks advancing steadily toward the Legion's position, with vanguard mobile forces already arriving and nearing the far side of the desert.
On the bridge of the warship, Omega observed the massive horde of green-skinned beasts advancing inexorably across the planetary display.
They no longer factored in nuclear contamination when calculating missile consumption. Conventional missiles were far too weak for planetary-scale warfare; a rocket a little over a meter tall was only good for destroying a single structure, essentially a large projectile. On the vast surface of a planet, its power was negligible.
The cumulative power of millions of missiles approached that of a single nuclear warhead, but the manpower and logistical costs required for the two were entirely different.
Previously, more than ten million missiles had been launched, and many missile crews had collapsed from exhaustion. After the campaign, countless more fell ill from the strain.
The difference between launching a missile and deploying a nuclear warhead was like the difference between a soldier fighting with a spear and wielding an autocannon. Missiles should be used for targeted elimination after a strategic strike, not for large-scale bombardment campaigns.
From a military efficiency standpoint, nuclear weapons were extraordinarily effective. They could easily devastate a city with a kill radius of tens of kilometers, requiring little personnel or resources.
However, Omega had always been wary of orbital bombardment destroying a planet's environment, based on his long experience bombing Ork worlds during the Crusade.
Gazing at the massive green-skinned beast army displayed on the bridge's planetary data display, an army of tens of millions ideally suited for orbital bombardment, Omega, under the watchful eyes of several Magi, activated the bridge communication channel and issued a direct order.
"Initiate orbital bombardment. Ten strikes against the Ork army concentrations and their primary cities."
The generals on the bridge of the Imperial Army flagship became visibly excited upon hearing this command. They had long wanted to authorize orbital bombardment but had not dared to suggest it.
A middle-aged Imperial Army general in dress uniform saluted toward the distant Legion flagship and replied with firm certainty.
"Yes, understood!"
Before long, the order propagated through the fleet. Ten warships, each ten kilometers in length, maneuvered into position and revealed the massive muzzles of their plasma cannons, all trained on the locations of the Ork army and Ork cities on the planet's surface far below.
Buzz!
Intensely condensed plasma bolts brighter than the sun shot downward.
Ten orbital bombardment strikes, each hundreds of meters in diameter, blasted down toward the planet's surface, piercing the atmosphere like ten beams of divine judgment descending from heaven.
Boom!
The entire planet seemed to freeze at that moment. Explosions erupted from ten locations across its surface.
The orbital bombardment reduced everything within hundreds of kilometers to ash and slag. Even the nine once-prosperous Ork cities, despite possessing energy shields, could not withstand the powerful, densely concentrated plasma energy of orbital bombardment.
The energy defenses surrounding the ten Ork army concentrations shattered within seconds under the onslaught.
Amidst the surging tide of twenty million Orks sprawling across the continent, orbital bombardment descended from the heavens and detonated directly at the army's center.
The entire Ork force, spanning hundreds of kilometers across, was engulfed in an enormous explosion of blinding light.
Countless Orks within a radius of thousands of miles were caught in the shockwave, a loud blast that threw numerous Ork bodies into the air, their physiology no match for the raw thermic force.
Thousands of kilometers away at the human legion's fortress, countless soldiers watched the explosive light shoot straight up into the sky. The powerful shockwave stirred a sandstorm across the desert.
Still, all the soldiers cheered at the raw, overwhelming power of this orbital bombardment, a display of Imperial might that no Ork could comprehend or survive.
After the ten orbital strikes concluded, Omega quietly watched the planet from the bridge, awaiting results. Based on his experience bombing worlds, a planet could withstand 10 orbital bombardments, but 100 strikes in rapid succession could cause measurable environmental degradation.
Large-scale bombardment in compressed timeframes would raise massive quantities of dust into the atmosphere, creating clouds that would alter the planet's climate.
A day later, the results of the orbital bombardment emerged. Because the strikes had directly hit the areas of highest Ork concentration, the effect exceeded expectations, killing more than 30 million Ork soldiers and conserving enormous quantities of ammunition.
This success was partly due to the Ork population density. Although the Orks had many cities, they rarely exceeded certain thresholds. Once sufficient numbers were reached, the Orks would establish a separate settlement elsewhere.
Magos Julius spoke solemnly, his augmented voice carrying the weight of tactical analysis,
"While the bombardment against the twenty million Ork army was effective, our estimates suggest only a little over ten million were killed in direct strikes. This higher total is primarily because the orbital bombardment generated an extremely powerful shockwave covering a vast area."
"The Orks' physical abilities are formidable. As long as they survive the direct impact, they can endure considerable periods and continue advancing."
"The remaining Ork army has begun splitting into hundreds of separate units, advancing toward the great desert. They are estimated to reach the legion's fortress in approximately one month."
Omega nodded after hearing this. The Magos's meaning was clear; he was suggesting continued orbital bombardment to whittle the greenskin numbers further.
The effectiveness was obvious to everyone: orbital bombardment was highly efficient, and compared to the rapid annihilation of the Ork army, the environmental damage from nuclear contamination remained within acceptable tolerances.
An estimated 30 million Orks still remained on the planet.
Omega considered these numbers manageable and decided against continuing orbital bombardment. Better to preserve the world's viability and test the Legion's ground capabilities.
The Orks would break eventually; they always did.
[End of Chapter]
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