As the vehicles burst into the room, a barrage of lasers and automatic gunfire greeted them. The originally intact bulletproof glass of the windscreen shattered into countless cracks, the sounds of explosions and impacts ringing loudly against the vehicle's body while the tires rolled over traps and debris, causing further explosions.
However, the bulletproof glass, designed to withstand the fire of a Space Marine's bolt gun, remained intact despite shaking violently. It only broke when a grenade landed on the hood, the sudden explosion and shrapnel finally overwhelming it, turning it into sparkling fragments within the vehicle.
Before the cultists could breach Zhang Ge's Carapace Armor further, the Guardsmen poured in from the sides; their line, previously pushed back by the vehicle's force, was forced to regroup amidst the increasing number of bodies—over twenty now.
Without any extra words, the Guardsmen pressed upward, while on the rooftop, Amelia, hearing the gunfire below, began her own sweep of the area.
Caught in a two-pronged attack, despite the cultists' frenzied resistance to the last man, the fundamental differences in strength between the two sides became clear—especially with Amelia responsible for breaking through the first layer of defenses and eliminating heavy firepower. This resistance only highlighted their futility.
Both the Hellguns and Amelia's Longsword could easily shred their flesh, while the weapons in the cultists' hands posed little threat to the Carapace Armor or to Amelia herself.
Within just over twenty minutes, the chaotic sounds of gunfire began to fade.
As the soldiers continued to clear the remaining rooms, Zhang Ge and the others reached the rooftop.
Due to the power limitations of the equipment carried by the convoy, most precision instruments within the limited range were affected by Subspace Interference, leading to errors in long-distance detection. Therefore, reconnaissance returned to a more primitive form.
In the shadow of the wreckage, an Optical Telescope was being assembled piece by piece.
Certainly, while the structure of the telescope was primitive and simple, the process of its construction was far from it.
The lenses were simply made yet magnified to extreme levels. What seemed like an ordinary device from thousands of years ago actually had its optical lenses polished down to the atomic level.
Peering through the telescope, Zhang Ge could see the aforementioned areas of gunfire and the deployment of the Chaos forces in the distance.
On one hand, explosions from falling shells were continuously driving deeper into the Void Shield area, but the light from these explosions clearly indicated that they were not from the Chaos artillery.
The answer was obvious.
The Chaos offensive was advancing at a visibly rapid pace. Although the Nest Defense Forces were likely doing their utmost, they still could not stop the charge spearheaded by the Chaos Space Marines.
The front lines were gradually retreating, forcing their own artillery fire to adjust accordingly. Meanwhile, in the rear, countless visible cultists and traitorous civilians shielded the arrowhead of the offensive. Large numbers of Reinforcements, Daemons, Defiled Machines, and supplies were feeding into the frontline forces.
From a higher vantage point, it looked almost like a massive arrow.
The metal tip was formed by elite units like the Chaos Space Marines, while the arrow shaft was continuously lengthened by the relatively weaker cultists as the tip advanced.
This aligned with Zhang Ge's expectations; given that elite attacking forces could not simply materialize out of thin air, this division of strength was inevitable.
As Zhang Ge was about to hand the telescope to the Squad Leader for further observation of key enemy positions, Dominika, who had been rummaging through the debris on the rooftop, approached him with something in her hands.
"I think you should take a look at this," she said.
She presented him with an object that resembled a light bulb. Zhang Ge examined it closely, quickly finding the switch.
It seemed like it was just a light bulb?
After careful examination, he found nothing particularly special about it other than some blasphemous symbols.
Given that if this was indeed a light bulb, opening it at night on the top of the tower would be too conspicuous. So Zhang Ge refrained from turning it on for further confirmation.
Wait, conspicuous?
If it was just for breaking communication, there were two considerations: first, being close to enemy territory might lower their vigilance; second, with the interference this strong, it was not unusual for communications to drop for twenty or thirty minutes without special equipment.
Even if a few stragglers got through to alert the enemy, they had no long-range communications equipment, and there was no guarantee that they could safely return in time... it could take hours to travel back.
Therefore, even on the pessimistic side, there would still be a safe time of around an hour.
But what if the enemy had a double insurance?
Every so often, while confirming with communications devices, they could also use the bulb's brightness to confirm code signals. If the former failed, it could still be considered an accident, but if the latter failed, could it be that the person sending signals simply forgot?
As long as they remember to be more careful in the next life.
This scenario could very well mean their safe time was drastically reduced.
With this thought in mind, Zhang Ge asked Dominika: "Where did you find this?"
She pointed to a corpse and replied, "While I was finishing off the last of them, I noticed that corpse's hand pointing toward a small pile of rubble ahead, so I searched inside and found this."
After hearing her response, Zhang Ge didn't hesitate. He turned to Amelia and said, "You go ahead alone and have that noble bring all available Reinforcements over here quickly, then return to the cathedral and tell the person responsible for the First Mechanized Company to gather the troops to come here as well."
After confirming the identification information for the First Mechanized Company, Amelia quickly transformed into a shooting star, disappearing into the darkness.
Zhang Ge turned back to the Squad Leader, giving him a reassuring pat on the shoulder as he continued, "Let's go. No more looking around; get people ready. The Chaos Counterattack is coming soon."
The three had just left the top of the tower when the whistling of shells echoed in the sky.
The first round struck a Ceramite Wall, unleashing a spray of energy and blood from the shell.
The shockwave trembled across the entire tower, and after the blinding explosion, pale pink mist swirled downward. Countless small Daemons cheered and swarmed, emerging from the scattered pink flesh that clung to the outer walls, beginning to grow and crawl.
Then came the second and third rounds, which easily peeled away the Ceramite structure layer by layer as if it were paper. The deafening explosions reverberated within the tower's structure, their thunderous sounds mixed with blasphemous phrases striking everyone's eardrums.
With every explosion's roar and each flash of light, it felt as if the moonlight in the sky were being replaced by something else, like a gaze from above, watching all beneath.
———— 🌟🌟 ————
ps:Support and join my Patreon
patreon.c@om/chenc11 [Remove @]
You can read up to 20+ premium chapters.