The Zerg Overmind was furious, and the consequences would be severe.
A tiny agricultural world with a population of only a few tens of millions—how did these cultists have the nerve to be so arrogant?
How many legions does he even have?!
When the main force of the Swarm arrived at the planet, they were clearly affected by a Psi Emitter. Although the Overmind had designated a specific direction for the Swarm to push forward, whenever he looked away, the Swarm would instinctively begin to converge toward another point.
Undoubtedly, that was the location of the Psi Emitter.
Fine, then that direction gets hit first!
Even if a Titan Legion were to manifest out of thin air in that direction, the Overmind would flatten it regardless!!!
The Swarm began to advance. Wheat fields and orchards were trampled by Zerglings and Roaches, and Creep spread rapidly beneath them, carving a violet-black trail of death.
To be honest, this dense formation wasn't ideal; it was easy bait for high-yield weaponry.
Sure enough, just as the Swarm was about to reach the city, the thunderous roar of artillery echoed across the distant plains. A massive plume of fire erupted within the Swarm; a single shell blasted away at least a triple-digit number of Zerglings, and one unlucky Roach took a direct hit, leaving not a single intact organ behind.
"That's not right!"
The Overmind noted the explosive yield; it didn't look like the power of standard Imperial artillery.
Wait, it couldn't be that, could it?
An Overseer immediately extended its vision to scout the distance, quickly locating the source of the blast.
It was a specialized tank. Unlike ordinary tanks, this one had stabilizing braces deployed at its four corners to negate the recoil of its cannon.
It was a Siege Tank—but what on earth had they done to it?!
The chassis was clearly that of a Terran Dominion Siege Tank, but the turret mounted on top was a large-caliber cannon from the Warhammer 40K Imperium of Man. It looked utterly grotesque and out of place.
"I thought I was going to fight a StarCraft II Zerg-vs-Terran civil war, and instead you pull out this 'neither-fish-nor-fowl' monstrosity? The humans here have no sense of order!!!"
The Overmind wouldn't have been this angry if he had seen an actual Siege Tank; it was the "jerry-rigged" nature of it that rankled. It proved the planet lacked stable Heavy Factory production and had to resort to these crude modifications to get by.
It was likely another world connected to the Terran Dominion that had been absorbed by the Imperium of Man, and the humans had intermingled. You can see why the Overmind was annoyed.
The Swarm had now reached the city. This planet only had one small Hive City, roughly a third the size of a standard one, and it lacked a Sub-hive.
The entire city was surrounded by towering walls with only a few specific entry points. Now that the Swarm was blocked by the walls, various cannons atop the battlements began pouring fire into the Zerg ranks.
As the casualty numbers skyrocketed, the Overmind remained indifferent.
Kill them. Let them kill.
The Overmind took the opportunity to observe the humans' weaponry. These defenders were all cult members, their banners fluttering conspicuously on the walls.
Furthermore, they used a chaotic variety of weapons. From what the Overmind could see, there were standard-issue rifles, scrap guns, lasguns, bolters, and even standard-issue infantry weapons from StarCraft II.
Not the C-14 Gauss Rifles of the Marines, but the rifles used by Mengsk's Troopers.
There were quite a few of them; on the section of the wall the Overmind was watching, these weapons accounted for about a tenth of the arsenal. That was a staggering number.
"Well, those guns aren't important."
The power of those rifles was comparable to the Imperium's standard rifles; the difference was negligible.
Given the quantity, it was likely there was no armory capable of mass-producing them, otherwise, any smart person would have churned them out. The power was similar, but their stability surely crushed anything in the Warhammer universe.
Of course, "smart people" were in short supply in Warhammer.
"Nuisance of a wall... tear a hole in it for me!!!"
The wall was high—at least fifty meters. Completely destroying it would be difficult, but punching a hole was doable.
This time, the Overmind didn't call for a Nydus Worm. Instead, an Ultralisk soon reached the front lines, launching a fearless charge through the hail of fire.
Artillery fire that could easily flip Roaches and Zerglings only left faint scuff marks on the Ultralisk's multi-layered chitinous plates. It couldn't break the beast's defense.
The Ultralisk's stats were simply too broken.
THOOM!
The Ultralisk slammed heavily into the wall, but it didn't break on the first hit.
The Imperials really didn't skimp on materials, the Overmind thought. It didn't break in one go, but no matter; I expected that.
Even if the impact didn't work, the Ultralisk's twin Kaiser Blades weren't just for show.
The blades sliced through the thick wall with ease. Those monomolecular blades could carve through Protoss structures; their "stat weight" was absolute authority.
After several successive slashes, the Ultralisk finally hacked a large enough fissure into the wall. Zerglings surged in first, engaging in fierce combat within and behind the breach.
The Ultralisk backed up slightly and then accelerated, ramming the wall again.
This time, a chunk of the wall ten meters wide was sent flying, crashing down onto the positions of the Imperials—no, the Chaos Cultists.
"I said, I want them alive."
Infestors that had been lurking underground immediately followed, using their long parasitic tendrils to mind-control a group of cultists before retreating to the rear.
Because these parasitized cultists were still alive, the Overmind could look into their memories.
Most of the memories were useless and were quickly bypassed by the Overmind's powerful psychic will, but there were some useful bits of intelligence.
First, the Terran Dominion units and modifications seen earlier were indeed produced locally on this planet.
The Overmind even saw a building in one cultist's memory that looked like a Heavy Factory, though its interior had since been converted into civilian housing.
The Terran Dominion had indeed colonized this planet, but... for some reason, these humans had regressed.
These people were the descendants of both Terran Dominion and Imperium of Man humans. Over their long history, they had lost the Dominion's technology, which is why the Overmind saw those "Frankenstein" units.
But they hadn't forgotten everything; they still retained bits of technology, similar to the situation on other planets the Overmind had encountered.
"Hmm, I need more memories. Preferably from the high-ranking officials."
The Overmind looked at the city before him. The signal from the Psi Emitter had not weakened.
"By the way, why did those guys turn on a Psi Emitter? Or has that thing been running for years, and it's only recently that the Zerg Swarm was able to detect it?"
The Overmind didn't understand. Sometimes, you really couldn't use common logic when dealing with the locals of the Warhammer world.