Chapter 109: Yuejia'er Flyer

Jorginho roared as he charged out of the assault boat, plunged into the cobalt-blue haze, tumbled once, and then burst out of the lake surface.

With a strange howl, countless massive Xenos coiled upward.

The Yuejia'er were about 4.5 meters tall, spreading three legs and three arms like flower petals.

Jorginho saw that the Xenos' entire limbs had been replaced with dark metal and black carbon curves, shimmering.

The three legs on the lower body of the Yuejia'er were like spokes on a wheel, allowing them to stand steadily in the chemical lake, their three arms raised.

Jorginho saw that the hands at the ends of their arms had six fingers; there were no weapons held in his hands.

The next moment, the projection guns built into the Yuejia'er's arms fired.

The lightning emitted by the electrostatic weapons struck several Order Shadow members trapped in the chemical sludge, knocking down the Astartes' superhuman bodies.

Jorginho raised his bolter in anger, the hardened diamond warheads striking the Yuejia'er's joints with precision.

The skin there was like a lizard's, covered in scales and tiny bone spurs; it was one of the few places on the Xenos that still retained biological characteristics.

Amidst the explosions, the Yuejia'er's long neck collapsed limply, falling into the chemical lake and splashing up a large amount of lake water.

A melee Yuejia'er leaped up violently, waving its blade-like prosthetic claws, slashing toward Jorginho's head.

The "Fury of the People" roared in anger, his left arm releasing the bolter, and he leaped out of the lake water with a jolt.

"Fury Strike" allowed him to concentrate the power of the Astartes superhuman body into his swinging fist, smashing it hard against the Yuejia'er's sunken, wet eyes.

Accompanied by a booming sound, the Xenos' head was shattered by this violent blow.

While the Yuejia'er were distracted by the Company Captain, the Order Shadow members formed a combat formation, raised their bolters, and launched a volley.

The exquisite marksmanship of the Vostonia descendants became even more precise after becoming Astartes and inheriting the Gene-Father's sensory capabilities.

Dozens of bolts shot into the Xenos' sunken muzzles, shattering their egg-shaped heads.

Most of Jorginho's subordinates gathered behind the Company Captain.

They waded forward with steady, rhythmic steps.

Jorginho noticed that every Xenos he encountered, from the prime-aged Warrior to the frail elderly, was equipped with implanted instruments or electronic replacement machinery.

Spring Piston Legs, feet replaced with wheels and rollers, subcutaneous armor plating, television cameras built into the eye sockets...

The Company Captain immediately recalled that his father had mentioned in the archives that the Yuejia'er were even more radical in their mechanical limb modifications than many Tech-Priests.

Jorginho led his men to advance steadily; the slender, long, and clawing enemies could not stop the disciplined advance of the Order Shadow.

They attempted to launch melee attacks, but the Order Shadow members on the perimeter drew the Power Swords at their waists, activated the runes, and blocked them.

The Order Shadow members sensed that the Yuejia'er's brain and central nervous system were not located in the head, but in the torso.

They simultaneously launched precise attacks on the enemy's weak points according to Article 23 of "Osberh-Waya".

The shimmering blue energy light easily cut through their scaled flesh torsos.

The Order Shadow members flicked their blades, shaking off the foul-smelling, deep-red blood pumped out by the circulatory system.

Jorginho led his team to the lakeside, directing a portion of the Order Shadow to provide covering fire to hold back the tide of incoming Yuejia'er.

Another group of Warriors liberated the battle-brothers trapped in the chemical sludge.

Jorginho's azure eyes turned black under the influence of Ninglu's powerful genes; he looked up and locked onto the Lingchongli Zoulang in the center of the Yuejia'er Shijiejian.

"Follow me."

He was the first to step onto the peak of the dune made of crystal particles, the grains crunching beneath his feet.

On the other side of the chemical lake, Mikhailovsky, the "Midnight Poet," who was slightly slower in movement but possessed stronger intuition, also locked onto the Lingchongli Zoulang.

Just as he was about to lead his team up the crystal particle dune, he saw a large number of Yuejia'er flyers coming in swarms, wearing shiny green armor and wrapped in straps.

All the aerial Xenos had used mechanical surgery to remove two arms, replacing them with wings of sharp metal feathers, the edges as sharp as razors.

Their feet had turned into curved talons, and their joints were equipped with more lethal arc-jet guns than their ground-dwelling kin, with excellent range.

The Yuejia'er flyers whistled down, arcs of electricity flickering and illuminating the blue lake surface.

"Fire!"

A wall of fire composed of bolts and high-energy plasma instantly engulfed the Xenos.

The Yuejia'er died one after another, falling into the lake.

But this was only the beginning; more green dots appeared in the air, and they dove rapidly, throwing Needle Ballistic Weapons from their skeletons toward the Order Shadow.

Mikhailovsky noticed a battle-brother being focused by over a dozen Yuejia'er flyers; countless needles pierced his ceramite armor, riddling him with holes.

Another battle-brother was covered by the roaring Xenos lightning, and he smelled the scent of charred human flesh.

The "Midnight Poet" looked up in anger and chanted loudly.

"Amber moonlight congeals amidst the pine resin;

Factory stone walls peel away the prayers of the Old Night;

Sleep, the strings of Szczecin rust into sand in the wind;

Every grain of sand is an unsent letter home;

The knight's armor sleeps at the bottom of the Underhive river;

Let the black moon take away your final clarity."

His Spirituality was consumed rapidly, but the effect was obvious; the Yuejia'er flyers launching a new round of dives seemed to hear a lullaby, light and ethereal.

The Xenos could not understand the words chanted by the "Midnight Poet," but their spirits felt dazed, as if they saw the quiet moonlight and the peacefully rippling lake surface.

The eyelids of the Yuejia'er flyers grew heavy rapidly, as if even the flight airflow could not keep them awake.

Several Xenos crashed into the chemical lake, and the remaining Yuejia'er flyers were torn apart by the angry fire of the Order Shadow while dizzy.

Having broken through the defense and successfully boarded the Lingchongli Zoulang, Mikhailovsky worked closely with the other Jorginho, piercing through the yellow chemical clouds and climbing toward the Bridge.

At the same moment, Ninglu led the Honor Guard to rout the Yuejia'er and cross the crystal dunes; before them appeared a tall, tree-like jungle interwoven with some kind of coarse fiber.

Gabriel inspected his Auspex and found that the virtual compass had difficulty distinguishing the internal architecture of the Yuejia'er Shijiejian; he switched to the tactical map and made a discovery.

"Father, the tactical map shows a heat source in this direction that is two orders of magnitude higher than other buildings."

"It is a Yuejia'er Fuhuchang; it is not only a nursery, but also a place for modification."

"There are not only armed adult Xenos there, but also hatchlings that possess psychic powers."

After Ninglu finished speaking, he had already locked onto the location with his superhuman senses, and he took the lead to move forward.

The deeper they went into the fiber "forest," the denser and more orderly the arrangement of the stalks became, with huge gray spheres hanging from them.

(End of this chapter)