RNP Page 130
Page 130
The news about Gabriel Seth exploded in his already exhausted mind, giving him a slight headache.
The orcs and Chaos are at war, and the orcs have dispatched their main fleet...
Lin Qi's first reaction upon hearing this was that it was outrageous. After all, if the orcs were the MVP in terms of resisting confusion at the end of a battle, anyone would be unable to hold back.
But in reality, this is still reasonable.
After all, as a warlike race, orcs don't care who their opponents are; what they care about is whether their opponents can ignite their fighting spirit.
And living in the depths of the Great Vortex as their neighbor, with the Chaos forces whose strength has recently surged due to the Black Legion's aid, naturally becomes a good choice.
The only problem is...
According to Seth's reaction, the powerful orc warlord who unified the Vortex orc forces is currently motionless on the orc's homeworld.
It's quite unusual for orcs to stay on their planet instead of fighting.
Lin Qi frowned, pondered for a long time, but ultimately failed to come up with an answer.
After all, there are too many answers and too little time and information, making it impossible to describe everything in detail.
However, one thing is certain.
That's the orc warlord. If nothing unexpected happens, either the Imperial Guard will take care of it, or... he'll have to take action himself.
Chapter 159 Target – Orc Prime Planet
The orc warships turned into meteors, falling one after another, exploding on the asteroid outposts that seemed incomprehensible to them—outposts that could stimulate the electronic brains of mechanical priests to the point of smoking—becoming silent fireworks in the dark void.
The battle raged quickly. After all, compared to the massive fleet assembled by Lynch and his men, the orcs' mere dozen or so ships, mainly composed of escort vessels, were utterly incapable of resistance. The defensive firepower at the outpost was pitifully weak, unable to even penetrate the void shields of the sword-class escort ships.
The first landing force consisted of squads piloting orc warships—they fought their way out of the ship's wreckage, with veterans clad in Ironclad Terminators leading the charge, their invisible force field shielding them from the orcs' desperate, frenzied attacks. Some of the Terminator veterans activated the grenade launchers on their backs, unleashing a barrage of fireworks and explosions that erupted around the orcs in a deafening display of fire and shockwaves.
Behind the Terminator veterans were ordinary soldiers in standard power armor, who used explosives and plasmas to fire in short bursts, finishing off the orcs who hadn't died under the veterans' firepower.
Inside the outpost, the orc leader in charge gathered his last forces. He let out a desperate roar, then opened the final steel gate and launched a final charge against his enemies.
Unfortunately, the moment it stepped out from behind the steel gate, it was spotted by another apex predator.
From the shadows, a massive, swaying figure noticed the creature, whose size far surpassed that of the other orcs. A cold smile appeared on its狰狞 (zhengning - ferocious/hideous) face. A third of a second later, the shark bared its fangs, carrying the stench of blood from its battles, and viciously bit at its enemy.
The orc leader's pupils constricted sharply, as if inspired by its second brother, and it immediately realized that something deadly was approaching. This prompted it to take immediate emergency action—it grabbed the boys beside it, detonated the bombs on their bodies, and threw them around recklessly.
boom!
The boy and the bomb were engulfed in flames, and from the smoke and dust, a massive figure emerged. Crimson Scar Tiberius wore a brand-new, custom-made Hades-type Terminator power armor, and the power blades on his relic power gauntlets, "Hunger" and "Thirst," were flashing with deadly blue lightning.
The helmet's visor glowed with a blinding red light, obscuring the face beneath, but even by guesswork, one could tell how terrifying it must be.
The orc leader stood frozen in place, never before feeling such fear and helplessness overwhelming its innate warlike instincts. Instinctively, it turned away, abandoning its subordinates, and fled for its life like a stray dog.
The orc boys watched helplessly as their leader fled, their morale collapsing completely in seconds. They howled and tried to scatter, but at that very moment, the man-eating sharks, now revealed from the dust, began to wobble again.
The speed was disproportionate to its massive size; the silver-gray figure tore a path of flesh and blood through the orc horde. Every strike was incredibly precise, hitting the enemy's vitals, not merely a product of rage.
The orc leader listened to the wails of his minions behind him and ran faster and faster, but at that moment, he felt a sense of disappointment and that some of the attention had left him.
Damn it! Those damn shrimps! It's all their fault! Why can't they just stay in their own territory?! They have to come...
Before the curses he was internally hurling at the shrimp could be finished, the orc leader felt a sharp pain in his back. His body flew forward a short distance, and upon landing heavily, he felt a strange sensation between his legs and torso.
Desperately turning his head, the orc leader saw that his lower body was completely bare, and ten meters away, next to him, stood the legs of a large shrimp.
This...this...
The giant shrimp began to move, its powerful, imposing claws gleaming with a dangerous light. The orc leader used his hands to propel his body, letting blood flow freely, leaving a long trail of blood on the ground.
As long as, as long as we can get to that place...
puff.
Tiberius raised his left hand, a heart hanging from the power blade of his gauntlet, still beating powerfully thanks to its oxygen-rich structure.
The orc leader was dead. Tiberius threw the heart off the blade, then turned and walked away without looking back.
Te Kahulangi looked at the chapter commander who came out, his tone slightly teasing.
"How does it feel?"
"Generally speaking... these aliens are too weak, not even enough to warm up."
"I'm referring to the new Terminator suit you're wearing."
Te Kahulangi looked at Tiberius.
"Lord Lynch is indeed generous. Not only has he equipped each of the participating battle groups with a company of Iron Cavalry and Netherworld Terminators, but he has also specially provided each of you battle group commanders with a set of suitable power armor."
The chief think tank member of the Man-Eating Shark spoke with a hint of sourness.
"We don't have any like that."
"hehe."
Tiberius sneered and walked right past Te Kahulangi.
"Send a message to the Wolf: the outpost has been taken over. We can notify the mechanics to come down and modify it."
After saying that, he suddenly stopped, turned around, and looked at his think tank.
"But you're right, this new Terminator outfit really feels great to wear."
-------
946M41, asteroid belt, Wolf Shepherd
After receiving the battle report from the front, Lin Qi breathed a long sigh of relief, satisfied with the progress of the battle and the casualty ratio.
This time, a total of 1,242 elite Astartes veterans from various warbands were deployed to target the orc outposts and fleets.
Until the end of the battle, there were no casualties. Only fifty-two people suffered injuries of varying degrees. The most seriously injured were buried in their own Dreadnought under the arrangement of the technical sergeants.
But at least you're still alive, aren't you?
Lynch let out a long breath. The Mechanicus had already descended upon the orcs' outpost under their arrangement. They would spend the next two days modifying it to quickly transform it into a qualified logistical hub for the upcoming battles.
But the main force cannot stop yet.
Lin Qi stood up from his office chair and walked to the bridge. He looked up at the empty space, pondering the intelligence gathered from various sources.
This orc warlord, who unified the orc forces of the Great Vortex, was known among the orcs as the Ripper. His name came from the fact that his weapons were a huge cleaver and mechanical claws, and his favorite thing to do on the battlefield was to use them to tear his enemies in half.
The rise of this orc warlord was strange. It is said that he was originally an orc leader but was severely injured by another, bigger and stronger orc leader and could only lie in his own camp, dying.
But just a few days later, he reappeared before all the orcs, lively and energetic. He now possessed the mechanical claws that would later become his trademark, and his body had grown larger and stronger, naturally making him even more powerful.
Then, it swept through the world like a whirlwind, unifying its own planet in just one year, and then spent several years unifying the other orc warlords.
The orcs all say that the Ripper is the chosen one selected by Brother Mao, and will become the leader of the orcs in this era, just like the Bonebreaker, leading them to launch an unprecedented Waghhhh.
This is a very dangerous enemy. Any competent commander would make this judgment about this strange orc that is rising rapidly.
Furthermore, based on Lynch's assessment, this orc's strength was likely extraordinary. Back then, there were many orc warlords within the Great Vortex, many of whom possessed strength comparable to ordinary Astartes chapter commanders. Yet, the Ripper was able to defeat them time and again, absorbing their power...
In this process, the Ripper itself also continues to grow stronger.
According to the latest intelligence obtained, the Ripper is now nearly four meters tall.
This height surpasses that of the Imperial Guards and reaches the physical realm of Primarchs. Currently, only Lin Qi in the group can be considered a comparable figure.
Even Lin Qi was half a head shorter.
However, height does not fully represent combat strength. Although a larger physique does represent greater strength, the Imperial Guards can still contend with or kill the Rippers if they hunt in small teams or if Lynch uses psionic energy.
The problem now is...
Lin Qi pondered. The Ripper had sent his main fleet into the depths of the Great Vortex to fight against Chaos, while he himself remained on the Orcs' home planet, doing who knows what.
This was undoubtedly an opportunity, a chance for Lynch to use blitzkrieg to decapitate Ripper.
Decapitation strikes are incredibly effective against orcs, no matter how powerful their army. Once the leading orc is killed, his army automatically descends into chaos.
Powerful orcs will begin to fight for power and profit, even disregarding their enemies on the battlefield, and will start killing each other on the spot.
Needless to say, the weaker orcs, as previous experience has repeatedly shown, after the death of their orc leader, their first reaction is often not to organize a counterattack, but to scatter and flee.
So initially, Lynch's plan was to decapitate the Ripper.
However, the decapitation plan was carried out sequentially, with each chapter leader and chapter champion as the core, decapitating the leaders of each orc team, gradually paralyzing the orc command system, and finally forming a siege against the orc homeworld.
Finally, a squad consisting of Lynch and the Imperial Guard will be airdropped directly to Ripper to carry out a decapitation strike against it, which has no more generals available.
However, the current changing situation allows this plan to proceed directly to its final stage.
They besieged the Orc homeworld, and then beheaded the Ripper.
Could it be a scam?
Lin Qi thought to himself, however, that the orcs would never cooperate with Chaos. The life-or-death struggle between the two sides was almost certain, and the force capable of confronting Chaos's side would undoubtedly be the orcs' main fleet.
All intelligence indicates that the orcs' home planet is wide open, and if Lynch is willing, he can immediately seize their orbit, find the Ripper's location, cut off his head, and achieve the first phase of the campaign's objective.
“Horus,” Lynch called out. “What do you think?”
Horus emerged from the warp and appeared behind Lynch. He looked somewhat tired, as if he had just gone through something very exhausting.
"What did you do?"
"To keep the children of Sanguis from going mad... that Gabriel Seth is one of them. He almost went mad last time, and I saved him."
"Why didn't you tell me before?"
"You didn't ask."
Lynch fell silent, only then realizing that Horus had often looked tired, not just today, but also in the days leading up to it.
It seems that he was already helping the angelic offspring suppress the dark rage at that time.
"My oversight." Lynch sighed. Lately, so much had happened that his attention to Horus had inevitably waned. "Let's get down to business. What are your thoughts on the current situation?"
Horus understood Lynch's confusion and needs. He stroked his chin, his brow furrowed slightly, and after three seconds, he shared his opinion.
"I think... we should fight."
Do you think we should launch a direct attack on the Ripper's home planet?
Horus nodded.