Warhammer: Lord of the Endless Monster Horde [186]

After entering the designated attack orbit, the Orks' crude, gigantic, and ramshackle ships began launching landing pods.

An Ork landing pod is basically a chunk of space debris with some minor modifications, a few machines slapped on, and a few dozen Ork Boyz stuffed inside, then just hurled at the ground.

There's not much technical sophistication involved. Whether the Ork Boyz survives the landing depends on the protection of Nobz and Painboyz.

But even if they die, they'll just make a big green explosion, and more Ork Boyz will sprout up from the ground.

On the battlefield, Ork Boyz grows up at an astonishing speed.

Countless Ork Boyz burst out, roaring, wielding all sorts of cobbled-together, crude rifles, and charged toward the enemy ahead.

"WAAAGH!!"

"WAAAGH!!"

The Ork Greenskins erupted with an unimaginable fighting spirit, wielding all sorts of ramshackle weapons as they rushed into battle.

This time, to serve as a training exercise, Rhodes didn't deploy any King Joe or his big monsters. The Astartes would be the main force throughout.

"Brothers, for the gene-father."

A Primaris Space Marine raised his chainsword and cleaved an oncoming Ork Boy in half.

"For the gene-father!"

"Kill all these filthy xenos!"

"Exterminate them, leave none alive."

"Carry out the great gene-father's will!"

Pedanium ray rifles and bolters fired together, tearing countless Ork Boyz to pieces. Although this was the first battle for these new-generation Astartes, they had already run countless combat simulations in their cogitator-spirits and blood-intelligence programs—including scenarios against Orks.

They naturally knew the strength of these green monsters. Their physical stats had all been modeled after the original Space Marines' data.

When facing Ork Boyz, they could easily crush them. What's more, they had now completed a full upgrade to Primaris Space Marines.

The great gene-father had granted them the ability to survive in the void of space and terrifyingly violent transformations. These Ork Boyz couldn't stand a chance against the new-generation Astartes; they'd be wiped out at first contact.

A single new-generation Astartes could sweep away a dozen Ork Boyz with a chainsword. Their physical strength was on par with the Custodes.

Even without power armor, they could tear these greenskins apart with their bare hands.

A few million Ork Boyz were airdropped from the Ork fleet, but this number wasn't nearly enough for the Astartes to kill.

Even larger drop pods smashed down from the Ork fleet, and all kinds of Killa Kans appeared on the battlefield.

Driving these Killa Kans were Gretchin who had had their limbs sawn off and been fused completely into the machine.

Behind them were ancient, gigantic Ork walkers five or six meters tall, piloted by Orks—these were the true main force of the Ork army.

"Ah ha! Ah ha ha!"

Countless Killa Kans let out crazed, maniacal laughter as they charged into the ranks of Space Marines.

"Eliminate these disgusting things! Brothers, wipe them out! Let the gene-father witness our victory today. We can't afford a single casualty," Titus shouted, swinging his chainsword.

Titus had now been promoted to company commander of the Rhodes Legion's First Company, with tens of thousands of Astartes under his command.

They had to win this war perfectly, and beautifully.

"Eliminate them!"

Rhodes' lips curled into a satisfied smile. As he had guessed, after using his gene-seed, the enemies killed by his gene-sons would become credits for his system.

These Orks turned into system coins, which Rhodes absorbed continuously.

After spending three months fixing the Golden Throne for the Imperium, getting over 400,000 Astartes was a fantastic deal.

The Ork fleet's warboss was also wildly excited, ordering his Weirdboyz to teleport him, his retinue, and a large squad of Ork Nobz down to the battlefield.

More and more Ork warships were arriving, and the Ork ships in the sky also attacked the Mechanicus Ark.

Belisarius Cawl's Mechanicus Ark raised a massive void shield, and its guns aimed at the Ork ships. But Rhodes ordered a ceasefire—nobody could steal his kills. All these Orks were his.

At this moment, behind the Mechanicus Ark, Rhodes' space fortress emerged. Hundreds of Pedanium ray cannons aimed at the Ork ships.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Golden-red beams shot out.

Huge Pedanium ray blasts struck the Ork warships, instantly ripping one into pieces.

Such terrifying firepower didn't frighten the Orks; instead, it only made them more excited. More Ork fleets were arriving from the void.

This was a mighty Ork warboss who had conquered multiple planets, launching a great WAAAGH!!

Unlike the Orks that had just hatched on the Ork ranch, this was a battle-hardened Ork army.

Each individual even provided more system coins.

Rhodes ordered the Mechanicus Ark to the other side of the planet, while his space fortress stayed to fight the Ork fleet.

Huge energy shields held off the Ork artillery. Only half the Pedanium ray cannons fired, and none at full power.

Rhodes didn't want to wipe out the Orks too quickly. When you fight Orks, nearby Ork warbosses will sense the battle and rush to join in—bringing even more system coins!

In the original story, Belisarius Cawl and his forces fought bitterly with the Orks, soon breaking out of the encirclement and heading for the Cadia Fortress World, but Rhodes intended to make this war ever bigger.

On the ground, Primaris Space Marines fought the Ork landing troops; in space, Rhodes' fortress fought the Ork fleet. And so the battle raged.

Under Rhodes' orders, the Primaris Space Marine forces split into three groups.

Each group had 150,000 men—one fought, two rested, rotating every 24 hours for ample sleep and stamina, so they could slaughter Orks to their hearts' content.

Once they realized they held absolute superiority on both land and in space, Belisarius Cawl happily dove underground to begin drilling and searching for blackstone fragments.

Do these blackstone fragments have any connection to the blackstone fortresses?

Are they related to blackstone obelisks elsewhere?

As an Archmagos of the Mechanicus, he had to figure it out.

Why did the Chaos Warmaster care about these blackstone constructs?

At the same time as Rhodes started this war, the Ork ranch, after over three months of breeding, also matured.

Rhodes' big monsters were sent en masse to the Ork ranch, where they began clearing out the Ork forces.

...

Time flew by; in the blink of an eye, both sides had been fighting for five days and nights.

Rhodes' Primaris Marines, rotating every eight hours, slaughtered Orks like mad. So far, not a single Primaris Marine had been killed.

When tired, they rested. If injured, they went to the rear, climbed into a med-pod for treatment, and then returned to the front.

This Astartes legion was slaughtering Orks at a terrifying rate, honing their combat experience.

If not for Rhodes' orders, all the Orks on the planet might have been wiped out by now.

After the war raged for five days and nights, another Ork fleet arrived in space to join the siege against Rhodes.

Because of Rhodes' intervention, a certain Harlequin Troupe Master was unable to reach the ruins and contact Belisarius Cawl.

Nor was he able to tell Cawl the function of the blackstone obelisks, and guide him to Cadia to stop the forces of Chaos from destroying them.

Belisarius Cawl remained focused on studying the blackstone fragments, trying to figure out what they were for.

Ten more days quickly passed, and now the war on the planet had raged for fifteen days.

At that time, four more Ork fleets had been drawn in.

There is no word for a retreat in the Ork dictionary. Even now, while at an overwhelming disadvantage, with countless ships destroyed and Orks killed by Rhodes, the Orks just kept coming!

When Rhodes' energy shield reached its limit, he immediately switched to void shields. Up to now, his space fortress hadn't suffered a scratch.

Belisarius Cawl was right: installing two shield generators for alternating use did indeed provide maximum protection for the ship.

Another five days passed. Now, the last Ork fleet in planetary orbit was wiped out by Rhodes.

And the Ork Boyz below had been slaughtered to the last by the Primaris Astartes.

"Lord Rhodes! I've finished assessing these blackstone fragments. These fragments are used to suppress the power of the warp!

Abaddon, the Chaos Warmaster, is deliberately destroying these obelisks. He wants to tear open realspace and let the energies of the warp flood into the material universe.

His target is the Cadia Fortress World. We'd best hurry there," said Belisarius Cawl anxiously.

He'd wasted a lot of time—over twenty days—before finally figuring out the true purpose of the blackstone fragments.