Chapter 142

That massive strike cruiser did not hover in place; instead, after sailing out of the Warp rift, it headed toward the firmament at high speed.

This was the most appropriate course of action!

Otherwise, if it had hovered over the surface, the Watchers Chapter's strike cruiser in orbit would have soon taught it what a strike from the Emperor meant!

But, before departing, the Chaos strike cruiser directly deployed hundreds of drop pods toward the frontline position, carrying a massive force that descended!

Boom!!!

The firmament was ignited, and drop pods like meteors, trailing dazzling fire, plummeted toward the frontline!

Then, the Chaos Space Marines who stepped out from them were clad in power armor that looked like brass but was severely corroded, and the Aquila emblem on their chests, symbolizing the Empire, had long been twisted by the power of Chaos into the bloody skull symbol of Khorne!

Their weapons were mostly melee weapons like chainswords, power swords, power axes, chain axes, and so on, emitting terrifying roars and howls that shook the surroundings!

"It's the World Eaters!"

After precisely locking onto the enemy with the auspex, Yan Liang's heart sank directly to the bottom.

No one knew better than them what kind of Chaos warband this was; it could even be traced back to the original legions of the Great Crusade era, and its Primarch was 'Angron,' who had fallen to Chaos and ascended as a Daemon Prince of Khorne!

The Chaos World Eaters Legion was famous for its cruel style of favoring melee slaughter and collecting enemy skulls, and even among the many traitorous Chaos legions, they were a particularly thorny type!

But the biggest problem was still... the numbers!

The Chaos side had directly deployed the equivalent of several full-strength Astartes companies, slamming them directly onto the frontline.

The already crumbling defensive line had completely turned into a 'Maginot' line; the enemy only needed to gather their strength for one charge to easily crush the defenses they had set up!

Even though Yan Liang was already a veteran who could recite the *Codex Astartes* and keep the Primarch's teachings in mind, he couldn't help but curse out loud: "What the fuck, where did so many Chaos Space Marines come from?!"

Their rescue mission this time had only brought one company, and even counting everyone, it was only about a hundred people; even if they counted the mortal auxiliary troops on the strike cruiser, it was impossible to block several companies of Chaos Space Marines!

Furthermore...

Yan Liang looked at the starry sky with worry; that strike cruiser had already ascended, and if things went as expected... what awaited the company would be boarding actions by Chaos Space Marines!

"My... my lord, do we have any more support?"

Aluman the Tech-Priest had participated in the Cadian campaign and naturally knew what would happen next; he was practically on the verge of tears.

Loser... truly is a place of outstanding people!

Heretics were one thing, and the Tzeentch and Khorne demon armies were another, but now, suddenly, an entire Chaos Space Marine warband had popped up—was this meant to reenact the Cadian campaign?

"Less talk, continue repairing the communication array!" Yan Liang glared at Aluman; if the timing hadn't been so inappropriate, he would have slapped him across the face—what kind of bullshit questions were those!

"Kurs, Roman, Fass, immediately lead your squads to construct defensive positions at the factory frontline!"

Although Yan Liang knew deep down that the possibility of them holding out was extremely low, he still had to persist until the very last moment: "For the Emperor, for the Primarch, never retreat a single step!!!"

At this moment.

Every Astartes already understood clearly.

They would die in battle, die to Chaos, but they must never retreat half a step and bring shame to the Primarch's face!

"Courage! Honor!"

"Fight to the death, never retreat!!!"

Astartes were, after all, not mortal troops; even on an extremely desperate battlefield, they never lacked the courage to draw their blades and kill the enemy!

The only good news was that they hadn't seen the enemy deploy Terminators yet; otherwise, they would truly be finished.

Yan Liang analyzed the battle situation nervously; he guessed that the 'World Eaters' intended to use their Terminators as an advantage for boarding actions to quickly capture the Watchers' strike cruiser in orbit.

Therefore, they had to contact those above as soon as possible.

"Get the meltaguns in the factory set up for me!" Yan Liang roared viciously: "Give these damn Chaos heretics a surprise!"

This factory was originally a Loser arsenal, and many of its internal facilities had been severely damaged, but fortunately... what they were best at was repairing simple weapon equipment.

Moreover, with the help of Aluman, an excellent Tech-Priest, they soon restored several heavy weapons!

"Try to avoid letting them get close!"

Yan Liang issued orders nervously.

This wasn't out of fear of Chaos, but to avoid their own weaknesses and play to their strengths; unless one was insane, no one would go into melee combat with World Eaters!

Although, under the constraints of the *Codex Astartes*, the Astartes legions had undergone multiple divisions by the Empire, transforming from the original legions into the form of Chapters.

But... the gene-seed of every Chapter, tracing back to its Primarch and even the style of the original legion, still remained and deeply influenced the successor Chapters that were split off after various founding eras.

Taking the 'Watchers' Chapter as an example, their gene-seed could be traced back to the 'Ultramarines' Legion, all originating from the Five Hundred Worlds of Ultramar; the genes remaining in their bones made them more adept at politics, operations, and similar work.

Of course, this didn't mean that the Ultramarines' gene-seed wasn't adept at combat; it was just that compared to other legions, the 'Ultramarines' were more inclined toward those aspects.

After all, to put it without exaggeration, within the current borders of the Empire, the descendants of the Ultramarines were the most numerous, and their gene-seed was also recognized as the most stable, possessing the greatest say—truly an endless line of blue sons and grandsons.

The sudden addition of the World Eaters forced the Astartes of the Watchers Chapter to consider pulling the mortal auxiliary troops back to avoid the defensive line being torn apart instantly.

Take, Alvin, and a group of auxiliary troops retreated back into the factory, responsible for operating the newly repaired equipment and responsible for striking at those World Eaters in the distance, as well as positions attempting to break through the defensive line.

"Kid, it looks like... you won't be able to escape."

Take seemed very happy, wiping the blood from his face, operating a heavy twin-linked bolter turret, and roaring as he fired into the distance: "Then die in battle with us!"

"If you want to die, go die yourself; I don't want to die!"

Alvin wiped the sweat from his face, a bloody color faintly emerging in the depths of his eyes, veins bulging on his forehead, and he growled ferociously: "I definitely won't die! Definitely!!!"

A strike cruiser?

Fine, fine, fine; since you, Khorne, aren't playing by the rules, don't blame me for playing dirty with you!

"System, stop playing dead!"

Alvin roared internally: "Show me, how much energy is needed to bring the 'Key of the Covenant' over!"

【Respected Navigator, to pull the 'Key of the Covenant' from the Xenomorph universe to the main universe, it will consume 30,000 energy units.】

"Take, where is there a large amount of energy here?" Alvin turned his head viciously to look at Take beside him.

"What are you doing?!"

Take felt his hair stand on end from Alvin's crazy gaze.

"Don't worry about it!"

Alvin's heart was bleeding, but he still gritted his teeth and said: "I'm going to give those Chaos bastards a surprise!"

No more hiding!

If he kept hiding, everyone would be dead!

Once people are dead, nothing else matters; besides, with a family backing him that had a 'Conqueror-class' warship, what was he afraid of? Anyway, there were no Inquisitors here!