A month later, on the outskirts of Perditia hive city, in the designated scorched-earth quarantine zone.
The Valkyrie's cockpit was filled with the dull roar of the engine and the slight tremor of the fuselage. Through the reinforced glass canopy, the pilot's gaze swept over the boundless, nauseating green ocean below.
Hundreds of thousands of orks converged into a slow-moving torrent, their roars faintly audible even at high altitude. Countless crude War Machines spewed black smoke, leaving dirty trails in the massive army. This destructive wave was steadily creeping towards Perditia.
"This is it," the pilot murmured, his voice slightly distorted in his comms helmet. He adjusted his flight posture, tilting the fuselage slightly to more clearly lock onto the densest core area of the Green Tide below. "Anyway, with the power of a strategic nuclear bomb, a few tens of meters of error won't make much difference…"
With that, he lightly moved his finger, disarming the weapon on the control panel. Then, he steadily pulled up on the control stick, the Valkyrie's nose lifted slightly, and the bomb bay in its belly opened.
A huge, cylindrical object, painted with black and yellow warning stripes, detached from the fuselage with the silence of death.
Without a moment's hesitation, the pilot slammed the engine thrust to maximum. The Valkyrie let out a roar, its tail spewing scorching plasma, and fled towards the distant horizon at top speed.
Behind it, the bomb, pulled by gravity, became a rapidly falling black dot, accurately plunging into the unaware green ocean below.
An indescribable, pure and ultimate white light erupted violently on the horizon, as if a sun were rising from the ground. The light swept across the land at an unimaginable speed, instantly bleaching the earth, devouring all colors and shadows.
Immediately following was a destructive roar loud enough to tear eardrums and an earth-shattering shockwave.
The earth was gripped by an invisible giant hand, then violently shaken and torn. The orks, war vehicles, and even earth and stone on the ground were instantly vaporized, evaporated, reduced to their most primal particles. A gigantic fireball furiously expanded, engulfing everything around it, turning it into fuel.
On the ground, in the pre-set positions several kilometers from ground zero, tens of thousands of players had already assembled. They lay hidden behind hastily dug trenches and bunkers, feeling the violent, earthquake-like tremors coming from beneath their feet.
Mua'dib knelt on one knee, shielding his eyes from the blinding light that threatened to pierce them. When the light slightly diminished, he looked up and saw the slowly rising, sky-obscuring mushroom cloud in the distance, and grinned: "Hahahaha, the time has come! All troops, charge!"
As the horn sounded, RNGesus and Pyro unhesitatingly leaped out from their cover. Beside them, thousands of figures also charged simultaneously. The Helldivers, fearless and resolute, charged into the death zone that had just been ravaged by the nuclear blast and was overflowing with radiation.
"I can't believe I get to experience the Soviet army's combat plan from the Cold War era!" Pyro shouted excitedly as he ran, "Dropping nuclear bombs from the sky, and ground troops following the nuclear bomb's strong pressure… How cool is that?!"
"Don't talk while running," RNGesus glanced at him, "Be careful not to get a stitch."
"It's fine, I feel stronger the more I run!" Pyro's voice was full of exhilaration, "The medicine must be kicking in, I feel more and more excited! Do you think that new anti-radiation medicine will really work?"
"It will definitely be effective for at least a dozen hours," RNGesus said, taking a quick glance at the wildly jumping numbers on the portable Geiger counter on his wrist. "The tech-priests' technical level is still trustworthy."
"What's the reading?" Pyro, noticing his movement, asked curiously.
"Not much," RNGesus replied casually, "Just about the same as the radiation core zone during the Chernobyl leak."
"Holy moly!" Pyro shivered, startled out of his excitement by the comparison. He instinctively shuddered, "Do we really only have a dozen hours left to live?"
"You have to believe in the resilience of 40K humans," RNGesus replied calmly, his gaze already sweeping past the rolling smoke ahead, locking onto the surviving orks struggling and wailing at the edge of the nuclear blast. "There have been mortal armies that fought Nurgle's daemons for a month, so what is this radiation…"
RNGesus paused, then continued: "But in the future, we should be the Astra Militarum who are least afraid of coordinating operations with the Ecclesiarchy."
...And in the center of that scorched earth, burned by nuclear fire, the surviving orks were enduring unprecedented torment.
Radiation, this invisible killer, was silently eroding their rough and tough cellular structures.
"WAAAGH…"
The warboss recovered from the violent shockwave, its head, harder than steel, shook violently, trying to shake off the buzzing in its brain, as if ten thousand boy were screaming.
It propped itself up with its massive power axe, everything in its vision still twisting and swaying. The air was filled with a pungent, strange smell of ozone mixed with roasted meat.
"Boss…" Beside it, a boy, charred all over but barely surviving, stumbled over. He gasped for air, his voice weak, "Me… me feel so bad…"
Let alone this kid, even the warboss himself felt a deep weakness in his bones, as if a large part of his inexhaustible strength had been drained by something.
It furrowed its thick brow and, based on past experience, roared in its thunderous voice: "Get the Painboy to give you a 'Great Medicine' shot!"
But this time, the "Great Medicine," which had always worked, failed.
Several Painboys, holding their huge and dirty syringes, injected bubbling, strangely colored liquid into the boys' bodies. The familiar stimulating sensation indeed invigorated them, making them more excited and frenzied, but the deep-seated weakness remained like a persistent ulcer, showing no signs of diminishing.
The Painboys were also bewildered, scratching their heads, trying to figure out what was going on. If given enough time, with the orks' unique tech tree and biological instincts, they might have even figured out a solution to combat radiation. But… humans didn't give them that time.
"Sir! ummies! The ummies are charging!" A boy on lookout duty screamed, scrambling over from a distance.
"Hummies?" The warboss suddenly looked up, staring at the dust-rolling horizon. Against that hazy background, countless black, tiny figures were converging into a torrent, surging towards them. It instantly understood.
"So all of this was done by the ummies! It's the ummie's conspiracy!" Raging fury burned in its crimson eyes. "These cunning, despicable ummies!"
It raised its power axe, pointing at the charging black wave, and let out an earth-shattering roar: "Kill them all for me!!"
The next second, two waves representing different species and different wills crashed together. The black Helldivers Legion met the green ork tribe. However, the anticipated, equally matched, brutal slaughter did not occur.
The result was a one-sided massacre.
The black wave was like a hot iron, easily burning through the seemingly surging green tide.
Pyro led the charge, his cleaver buzzing. He collided head-on with an ork two heads taller than him. He roared, pouring all his strength into his arms, and brought his blade down fiercely!
"Clang—!"
The two weapons clashed violently in the air, sparks flying. Pyro had prepared to be knocked back by immense force, but to his surprise, the force from the opponent's weapon… was so weak.
In the first struggle, the tall and burly ork was actually staggered by his blow, clearly at a disadvantage!
Pyro was stunned at first, then realized that the radiation had taken effect, and a look of extreme arrogance appeared on his face, followed by a wild laugh.
"Hahahahaha!" He took the opportunity to stab his blade into the ork's abdomen, while mocking loudly, "Orks, put some effort into it! Didn't you eat?!"