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Page 345
"She probably won't be able to hold on for much longer."
On the surface of Planet Istvan III, Casca, piloting a surface-to-air weapon, watched with a grave expression as the Sons of the Emperor's fleet was besieged in the sky.
When Abaddon chose to betray them and turn his spear against them, the chances of the Emperor's Son winning this battle were already slim.
There is no chance of winning.
With the next salvo from the Iron Hand fleet, the Void Shield, which was barely holding on in the sky, was on the verge of breaking.
Moreover, even more surface troops are heading straight for the heavily guarded Void Shield generator location after the Stormbird fighter formation completes its ground landing.
Under the firepower of the loyalists Shadowmoon Wolf and the Emperor's Prince, the mechanical bodies from the Steel Hand showed no fear whatsoever—even though their numbers would inevitably be overwhelmed by the loyalists' firepower in an instant, they did not hesitate in the slightest.
It's like a chess piece deliberately placed to draw their firepower.
The area where more fighter groups were forced to land and surrounded... was the landing site where the first Steel Hand Space Marines' drop pods crashed!
—Philus wants to purge all the loyalists within the legion here!
"Send a communication request to the first group of Steel Hands to land!"
Casca called out into the communication device, "Hey, Gabriel Santo! Get back to me as soon as you get this!"
“I’m here…what is it, Casgar?”
Amidst the deafening explosions, the faint, flickering reply in Casca's ear was unusually quiet.
"Mobilize your troops to prepare for a breakout. I'm sending another batch of troops to rescue you. Hold on."
"We will win."
Although the words of comfort sounded so weak, Casca still put them at the end.
"...I'm sorry, brother, I might have to disappoint you."
Santo's reply before hanging up was filled with heavy sorrow.
He's had enough.
Let's just end it all here.
He looked around and saw that the mechanical warriors surrounding him no longer resisted.
Or rather, resistance has lost its meaning.
They were abandoned like trash by the Primarch and surrounded by countless former comrades-in-arms, now a force of mechanical iron men.
Under the combined bombardment of the Shadowmoon Wolf and the Steel Hand fleet, he had no choice but to die a swift death.
"Since this is Lady Phyllis's pronouncement of my fate, then... so be it."
[Hospital target detected, elimination operation underway]
Watching the remaining loyalists of the Steel Hand descend from all directions, aiming at its center, as the mechanical warriors raised their plasma cannons...
Santo closed his eyes resignedly.
.......
boom!
A barrage of artillery fire rained down on them, unleashing the first volley.
Is this the feeling of death...?
But it doesn't quite look like it.
He felt a force lifting him up. He was running, he was moving.
Santo felt the wind on his cheeks.
It was a long-lost sense of freshness, even right in the middle of a battlefield filled with the smoke of gunpowder.
Gabriel...
He heard a deep, electronic voice, seemingly calling his name.
Santo opened his eyes again.
He witnessed something unimaginable.
That was... a war machine that had been completely modified, and before the modification, its name was Moen.
He was Gabriel Santo's comrade-in-arms.
"Moen!!!"
But... how is that possible?
His brain is now completely dominated by commands; in other words, he is no different from a large-sized servant—or even less human!
How did he defy the Primarch's annihilation orders and rescue him from the battlefield?
Santo stared in disbelief at the broken steel structure and cables on the mechanical body—his back had been hit by several plasma cannon shots in order to rescue Santo—if it weren't for the modified steel body, he would never have been able to withstand the firepower and rescue Santo from the battlefield.
"Moen, how are you? Can you hear me?"
"Moen!"
As if it had exhausted its last bit of strength, the steel machine fell straight forward.
Santo struggled a few times to get off his back, looked around to make sure no other mechanical troops were targeting him, and then struggled to lift the other's body up.
“Moen…”
[Battle...]
The sound array was noisy and distorted, as if it were speaking to him like a dying person.
He seemed to see the souls of his former comrades-in-arms within this steel body.
Gabriel...alive...fighting...
The cold, mechanical hand slowly rose towards Santo's eyes, but just a few centimeters off the ground, it came to a complete stop, like his broken body.
What's this?
Santo could hardly believe what was happening before his eyes.
[The fugitive has been located and a cleanup process is underway.]
But Santo didn't have much time left for him to continue feeling sentimental.
The moment he paused, even more mechanical troops caught up with him from behind.
"Lie down!"
It was another familiar sound, and the instant the plasma cannon fired, a pale blue protective shield opened up in front of him.
He recognized the man who had protected him.
"Amal!"
"Go! Our mission shouldn't end here! We must continue fighting, Gabriel!!!"
Continue the fight...
That's right, keep fighting!
Santo quietly laid down the motionless steel body, the confusion in his eyes vanishing completely at that moment.
"That's right, brother."
"I promise you, I will fight to the very last moment."
Perhaps everyone would assume that the guy who had his brain replaced after being mechanically modified died at that moment.
Only Gabriel Santo himself knew that his brother, Moen, had died today.
.......
"Head towards Chorus City! That's where our remaining loyal surface forces are!"
Amal gathered his spiritual power, turned around and struck with lightning, paralyzing the nearest pursuer, before running wildly with Santo once again.
The mechanical legion behind them continued to press forward relentlessly.
Even before the main force of the Iron Hands had landed on the ground, these fully mechanized Space Marines alone were enough to scatter and flee their remaining loyal Iron Hands forces.
Every step they took forward, every volley they fired, seemed to be echoing the words that Phyllis insisted on.
[Frail and weak]
Yes, flesh and blood are fragile...
But now, that's not necessarily true!
Santo turned around and saw the mechanical army charging blindly forward.
They were stepping into a trench subtly marked as the son of the emperor, completely unaware of it.
It seemed that even Philus didn't spend much effort directing them in battle.
cannon fodder.
Santo couldn't help but think.
But even cannon fodder are not enemies they can easily defeat.
"Cover our troops' withdrawal!!"
"Sons of the Emperor, First Company, fire!"
At that very moment, Santo saw his comrades-in-arms who had come to greet him.
Julius Caesaron.
The emperor's son's company commander, a comrade-in-arms he knew well.
“Come quickly,” his smile remained firm, “we don’t have much time left.”
Kasoron gestured for his opponent to look at the Void Shield in the sky, which was about to overload.
"Quickly, after the Void Shield overloads, quickly hide in the nearby trench!"
"The enemy's virus bomb is about to strike!"
Just as the Void Shield was on the verge of overload, Kasgar's voice reached the ears of every loyalist fighter who was fighting on the surface.
Under Casgar's command, most of the surface warriors abandoned the ongoing surface-to-air counterattack and took refuge in the pre-laid trenches, bunkers, and underground defenses west of Chorus City, awaiting the first round of bombing.
With a muffled hum in the sky, the void shield that had been covering everyone's heads completely overloaded in the next moment.
Immediately afterwards, the formal orbital bombardment began.
The Life Eater, a deadly viral bomb, exploded on the surface of the planet Eastfan III.
Chapter 209 The Final Battle, Istvan (Part 2)
The viral bomb from the spirit of vengeance covered the entire surface in an instant.
Within minutes, the highly corrosive gas leaking from the viral bomb spread across the entire planet's surface. The virus penetrated the Space Marines' powered armor and ventilation systems, causing any biomass to rot and decompose into a pool of sludge in an extremely short time.
Not only the jungles and forests on the surface of Planet Istvan III, but all organic matter will soon rot into a muddy lake. The rapid decomposition of organic matter releases large amounts of flammable gases.
Within minutes, the entire planet's atmosphere was completely enveloped by combustible gas.
This is how they prepared for their next move.
With another volley of laser spears fired by the Steel Fist, the lasers ignited the entire planet in an instant, turning it into a sea of fire.
The apocalyptic fire ignited by the light spear swept across the entire planet, burning the surface to bare rock and consuming all the oxygen in the atmosphere.
"Casca!"
Although they already knew in advance that the enemy had built a high-temperature-resistant, airtight defensive facility underground that could survive independently for several years, the first wave of attack should not have caused them much serious damage.
As he watched the entire planet engulfed in flames under the relentless bombardment of viral bombs and light spears, Vograim, unable to contain his worry, cried out.
Now, the Imperial Pride in the Void Sea Battle is also in a difficult situation.
Faced with the Iron Hand fleet's completely revamped and invincible arsenal, even though the Imperial Pride embodied the culmination of Vogrim's own efforts, and even though this warship had once served as the Imperial Warmaster's vessel, the most glorious flagship of the entire Empire besides the Emperor's own…
But at this moment, its Void Shield protection could only groan under the enemy's powerful firepower.
If the rebel coalition fleet hadn't focused its main targets and firepower on the planet's surface, the Imperial Pride might already be shattered to pieces.