Warhammer 40: From the League of Humans to Warhammer

Page 50

Indeed, the remains of many saints are widely revered.

The Khorne cultists exploited this to bring a series of blasphemous artifacts to the Throne World, and now that the Star Torch has been removed from their suppression, they are beginning to take effect.

Amidst a torrential downpour of crimson blood, the bloodthirsty army of the evil god Khorne tore through the veil of reality, and once again, this formidable enemy brought the flames of war to the holy Terra.

This was an army of 88 demons led by 8 Khorne Archdemons. These blood-soaked evil creatures roared and charged toward the Lion Gate of the palace as soon as they appeared.

The Khorne demons revere bloody close-quarters combat; they despise ranged attacks and deny the concept of guns and cannons.

Unless a powerful psychic intervenes, guns and cannons are unlikely to have any effect on them.

Even the Titan Legion's turbo lasers and the salvo from the Old Hundred Legion's Astral Army could only cause very minor damage to them.

The image of the Blood God has taken root in the most sacred place in humankind.

This is what Zhou Qing and Guilliman faced after leaving the throne room.

Zhou Qing hadn't even made any plans after stepping out of the throne room and becoming the Sun Lord of the Empire when the demons arrived at his doorstep.

Now, as the new Warlord of the Empire, Sun Lord, Zhou Qing will lead the defense of the Lion's Gate in Terra.

Zhou Qing stood on the palace grounds, looking at the sky. The blasphemous power of the subspace turned the sky into a blood-red, unclean, chaotic light that shone outside the Lion's Gate.

After Zhou Qing became the Sun Lord, his planetary defense forces received orders to head to the Lion's Gate to participate in the defense.

Four hundred soldiers of the Psionic Legion have also been deployed at the Lion's Gate, ready to welcome the arrival of the Khorne demon army.

Now, seeing the blood-red sky on the horizon, Zhou Qing's anger naturally welled up from the bottom of his heart.

However, due to the spiritual energy he had consumed in the Terra Palace, Zhou Qing was unable to dispel this problem.

Otherwise, Zhou Qing would definitely take action to remove the influence of the sky caused by the Great Demon Khorne, at least to restore morale.

Defensive battles do not require Zhou Qing to command everything.

Terra Palace has its own defense system and command mechanism, so the turrets and turbo lasers began their attack as soon as the endless army of Khorne appeared outside the Lion's Gate.

Squadrons of combat aircraft also flew out of the palace, accurately raining down devastating bullets on the ravaged land.

If you could observe them up close, you would clearly see that the demons did not suffer much damage; they were simply knocked down or blasted to the ground.

Those who fail among the demons will be devoured immediately by their advancing demon brethren, who will then continue their advance.

The barrage of fire from Terra Palace was like pebbles thrown into a stream, utterly unable to stop the advance of this demonic army.

It wasn't just the city defenses on Terra Palace that opened fire; the planetary defense forces brought by Zhou Qing were also firing at full force.

The Gauss rifle's power was constantly being demonstrated, but its effect was not significant.

Since Zhou Qing was unable to expel the influence of the subspace at this time, he denied the concept of the Khorne Demons with guns and cannons, and the casualties under such attacks were not high.

Normally, a Gauss rifle should be able to kill hundreds or even thousands of targets with a single shot, but now it can only take down a dozen.

The only force that could be effectively utilized was Zhou Qing's psionic legion.

Each time their psionic lightning struck the Khorne army, it effectively cleared a large chunk of them, wiping them out completely.

However, the number and number of members of the Psionic Legion are too small to be effective.

The demon army can at most be delayed, but cannot be effectively stopped.

These creatures will soon reach the foundation of the Lion's Gate and, like a spreading swarm of ants, completely engulf the entire Lion's Gate.

Zhou Qing saw everything on the field. Although his spiritual power could no longer dispel all the subspace energy, he could still observe the battlefield performance.

Zhou Qing astutely realized that the concept of guns and cannons seemed to have little effect on the Khorne demon.

Because of this matter, Zhou Qing turned to ask Trajan, the commander of the Imperial Guards who was beside him.

"Could you explain to me why those Khorne demons haven't fallen to our guns?"

"I can sense that there seems to be a law in the subspace that reduces the damage from gunfire. Could you explain it to me in detail?"

"Lord of the Sun, the demons of Khorne are not immune to guns and cannons, but rather 'deny' them." Trajan was naturally willing to explain to Zhou Qing.

Zhou Qing frowned slightly, his gaze sweeping across the battlefield—

Those roaring, bloodthirsty berserkers charged forward under heavy artillery fire. Turbo lasers scorched their bodies, leaving burn marks, but could not completely destroy them.

While the Gauss rifle can easily eliminate an ordinary demon, its original powerful penetrating ability is no longer present.

Compared to being able to penetrate hundreds or thousands of Greenskins at once when eliminating them, when dealing with Demons, they can only take down a dozen or so with a single shot.

Only attacks from psionicists can truly shatter their very essence.

Only psionicists could sweep away these demon armies in droves, as if clearing a field.

However, the psychic power of a psionicist will eventually run out, which is not appropriate.

Trajan continued to explain:

"Khorne hates cowardice and ranged killing; His laws make His minions most vulnerable in 'melee'—"

Ironically, this 'vulnerability' is actually their strongest moment. Because only by facing direct combat with swords can these creatures be effectively eliminated.

Zhou Qing understood instantly.

"So, the reason guns and cannons are ineffective is not because they don't cause enough damage, but because they 'do not conform to the rules of Khorne'?"

“Exactly.” Trajan nodded. “In the realm of Khorne, bullets are ‘despicable ambushes,’ while the roar of the chainsword is ‘a glorious challenge.’”

The more intense our firepower, the more rampant the demons will become—unless we suppress their laws with a sufficiently powerful 'concept'.

Zhou Qing nodded. So it was close combat. That made things easier. He couldn't understand who he would be afraid of in close combat, considering his guard robots...

Could these pathetic Khorne demons withstand a force of hundreds of millions of tons?

Chapter 72 The Khorne Demon can only rely on ranged attacks, which he despises the most.

Just before coming here, Zhou Qing had created a number of engineering robots to repair Guilliman's dilapidated Imperial warships.

Because they can only be used in melee combat, deploying either bodyguard robots or military robots in this kind of war would be a huge waste.

At the same time, because their power was too great—and they could potentially destroy the entire Lionsgate if they went all out—Zhou Qing set his sights on their industrial robots.

Some of the industrial robots were handcrafted by Zhou Qing using materials from Warhammer. They only used secondary alloys, so the physical force of each of these industrial robots is only 10 tons.

Although the combined weight of both hands is a staggering 28 tons, that's not the point.

The most important point is that compared to those military combat robots that weigh hundreds of millions of tons, they are already a very suitable unit.

These industrial robots are cheap and their combat effectiveness is just right. Why not use them?

Industrial robots are designed for industrial applications, so they carry industrial mining lasers and industrial phase decomposition blades.

Zhou Qing didn't care about the role and function of industrial mining lasers in this battle; he was more concerned about these phase decomposition knives.

Seeing the hordes of Khorne demons sweeping towards his sect, Zhou Qing didn't hesitate. He released all 20 industrial robots from his small backpack and then gave the order.

"Open the Lion Gate, all planetary defense forces, cease fire now."

Grab your phase bayonets and draw your power swords, prepare to fight the enemy to the death!

Zhou Qing used his psionic powers to transmit his words throughout the entire Lionsgate defense force.

As is well known, Terra is the capital of the human empire, and there is no planetary defense force deployed in this capital.

Terra, the capital of the Empire, was defended by Space Marines, Imperial Guard, and Astronauts, but notably by Planetary Defense Forces.

When Zhou Qing’s order was relayed throughout the Lionsgate team, everyone was stunned.

Where did this planetary defense force come from? How come they don't know about it?

But their doubts were soon answered.

Those canned men deployed around them, whom the Star Guardians considered Space Marines, pulled out their weapons.

The phase bayonet was mounted on the Gauss rifle, with the phase bayonet in the left hand and the power sword in the right.

One by one, the cans pulled out their weapons.

The question was answered, but the Astronauts, looking at these cans of food and recalling the orders they had heard earlier, drew their weapons...

Okay, okay, so this is the Planetary Defense Force, right? Then what are they? Are they the Beggars' Army?

Not only were the Star Forces bewildered, but the Hundred Regiments and the Imperial Fist Chapter stationed there were also stunned.

Among the crowd, only the members of the expeditionary force remained calm, since they already knew about these troops before they came; they called themselves PDFs.

However, in a fight, it often takes two ordinary Ultra Warriors to take down one PDF, and their equipment is extremely good.

As the defenders prepared for battle, they drew their power swords and raised their phase bayonets, ready to charge.

Immediately afterwards, the gates of Lionsgate were opened, and 20 industrial robots were deployed by Zhou Qing to the front lines to launch a counterattack against the Khorne demon army.

These industrial robots are different from those bodyguard robots; they do not possess excellent bionic skin.

Each industrial robot is 9 meters tall, with a mechanical style that makes them look like miniature Titans.

Behind them were 10 Warmaster-class Titans.

During the Battle of Lionsgate, the Empire's loyalists gathered 50 Titans, but Zhou Qing did not mobilize these 50 Titans; he only mobilized the 10 Warmaster-class Titans under his command.

Although Zhou Qing was directly appointed as the Sun Lord by the Emperor, he felt he should flex his muscles a bit.

This was to ensure that he would not outwardly comply but inwardly defy orders when commanding the army in the future.

Therefore, in the first counterattack of this round, he only mobilized his own troops and did not mobilize other imperial troops to participate in the battle.

To ensure an absolute chance of victory in the war, Zhou Qing not only deployed these industrial robots, but also mobilized 2000 bodyguard robots and 100 military combat robots to wait at the Lion Gate.

If the situation deteriorates in any way, these dedicated combat robots will also be deployed to the battlefield.

As for the damage to Lionsgate, we'll deal with that later. Anyway, the Human Empire has plenty of manpower and money.

We can always rebuild.

These powerful combat robots will then show Chaos what physical force measured in billions of tons truly means.

In Zhou Qing's view, Khorne was the weakest of the four Chaos Gods because it believed in physical warfare.

In close combat, who can defeat Zhou Qing's mechanical legion at this moment?

In the physical universe, apart from a few special beings, who else is like the machine army under Zhou Qing's command?

Who can so readily use hundreds of millions of tons as a unit of measurement for strength?