Chapter 984: The Siege of Terra (Part 2)
Zhao Zian and his team have fallen into a desperate situation.
But it seems that fate always takes a turn at this time.
When their only remaining plasma weapon destroyed the demon engine-driven battering ram again in a desperate overload salvo, and evaporated a large circle of enemies around it, the huge casualties seemed to finally pry open the minds of the Khorne believers, which were filled with murderous desire.
The subsequent surge was not as crazy and fearless as before, especially when they found that those stubborn points on the city wall were still sporadically spewing out deadly fire.
The frenzied followers of the Blood God retreated temporarily like a tide, leaving behind piles of corpses and almost abandoned fortifications on and below the city walls.
Zhao Zian, panting and in pain all over, had only one thought in his mind:
"Win?"
Why did the enemy retreat?
He was a little confused.
It was obvious that if those Khorne believers fought again, they would not be able to hold on.
There are obviously still a lot of enemies.
As for morale... Khorne's troops do have moments of morale collapse, but they are relatively rare.
At least that shouldn't be the case right now.
Was this fate's favor? Was it the Emperor's blessing? Was it their courage that repelled the demonic attack?
Even though he was full of doubts, he decided to take a break.
Zhao Zian slowly slid down to the ground, leaning against a broken wall. His helmet automatically removed, revealing his blood-stained face and deep fatigue.
He glanced around and saw less than ten soldiers still standing, some seriously injured and leaning against cover, still able to pull the trigger. He used the communicator to contact the various companies, but received only a few responses.
All in all, out of the entire elite guard regiment he brought with him, three thousand soldiers, perhaps only a hundred are left now.
A regimental commander was demoted to a company commander.
The air was filled with a sickening smell of burnt flesh, flowing blood, and thick gun smoke.
What flowed in the moat below the city wall was no longer stagnant water, but a sticky stream of blood that collected countless limbs and broken arms of both sides.
"Count the number of people...bandage the wounded..." Zhao Zian's voice was dry and hoarse, but it was somewhat filled with relief at having survived the disaster.
But soon, this relief was gone.
Fate played a pretty big joke on me.
The terrifying onslaught of Khorne's followers was certainly repelled, but...
The soldiers on the city wall were calling him.
He climbed to the top of the city wall and looked into the distance at a glance.
The smoke was not all dust and gun smoke raised by the fierce battle. The remaining Khorne believers were being killed.
Their angry roars were no longer clear as they reached the distance. They were fighting desperately.
But those who attacked them were definitely not reinforcements.
In the devastated battlefield left behind by the temporary retreat of the Khorne believers, a new, thicker, yellow-green smoke with a suffocating stench was swelling and spreading from the depths of the earth.
The earth has become corrupt.
On the quagmire, figures staggered, their bodies bloated and festering, battling the followers of Khorne. Countless swollen pustules rolled and burst beneath their skin, oozing foul-smelling pus. The stench of corruption even overwhelmed the blood and smoke of the battlefield.
Those festering bodies were draped with torn fragments of the Solar Legion's uniforms, mixed with the crude clothing of countless Hive City civilians.
It was Nurgle's walking corpses! Their numbers were so great, like an endless tide of maggots surging from a corrupt swamp, covering the mountains and plains with no end in sight. They far outnumbered the Khorne Legion that had just nearly annihilated them!
After "devouring" the remnant of Khorne's army, which was far smaller in number than theirs, they continued to march towards the walls of the Terra Palace.
They held guns in their hands, and behind them were filthy and smelly Nurgle siege machines and plague cannons.
despair.
A despair deeper and thicker than the one they had just faced with the followers of Khorne gripped the hearts of every surviving guard.
Were the followers of Khorne repelled by them?
Apparently, that's not the case.
These new enemies that emerged from behind them were probably the reason why the Khorne believers collapsed and retreated.
And now, it is their turn, this miserable remnant of the army, to face an enemy even more powerful than before.
Zhao Zian smiled bitterly and put his helmet back on.
…
At this moment, in the combat command center of the Terra Palace, the suffering Yan Xinzhen experienced was no easier than that on the front line.
The vast hemispherical dome was divided into countless flickering screens of light, each representing a node in the outer defense zone of the imperial palace. The anvil, representing Zhao Zian's regiment, the third gate block, had just been covered by a glaring blood-red fall mark. Mere seconds later, the surveillance signal representing that area was completely extinguished due to severe interference, leaving only darkness and a piercing busy tone.
"Pressure surges in the main gate section of the 'Diamond Barrier'! Approaching Titan-class biosignals detected!"
"Massive teleportation reaction detected in Wing C of the Corridor of Sighs! Confirmed to be a Tzeentch wizard!"
"The Emperor's Crown observatory artillery position is being bombarded by a saturation bombardment from a cluster of aerial demon engines, severely damaging the anti-aircraft firepower network!"
"Many sensors in the Hugong River embankment system have failed! We suspect Nurgle corrosion is damaging the infrastructure!"
The warnings were like dense drumbeats beating on everyone's nerves.
Across the entire panoramic battle map, red warning lights representing intense firefights spread like a plague. Over seventy percent of the palace's outer defense nodes lit up with orange-red lights signifying "critical" or "imminent collapse." However, the golden bright spots in the center, representing the Imperial Guard's mobile reserve forces, were pitifully few, and most of them were frantically jumping around the map, rushing from one crisis point to another, each intervention like a drop in the bucket.
A combat staff officer's voice trembled imperceptibly. "Marshal! The Anvil has been confirmed to have fallen. The Nurgle Plague Legion is bypassing the gap and outflanking the Stone Fortress! Wing B of the Corridor of Sighs was attacked by a group of blasphemous sorcerers. Some of the defenders rebelled under their evil magic, causing us heavy losses! Half of the generator nodes of the outer protective energy grid have been destroyed or contaminated by the plague and turned into pieces of flesh..."
Each piece of news told Yan Xinzhen a fact that made him and all the imperial guards extremely painful: the imperial palace walls that they had defended for thousands of years were about to be lost on a large scale.
A cruel decision, like an ice pick piercing his heart, then spewed out of his mouth.
He had no choice but to abandon the vast outer defense circle that had been built for thousands of years and engraved with countless legends and epics, and to withdraw the limited and precious imperial guards to the central ring of the palace wall.
No, probably not even Central.
He was short of soldiers and generals. Facing an enemy of such a scale, if he insisted on defending an area that he could not defend, it would only dilute his strength in vain and then he would be defeated everywhere.
He couldn't defend Central either.
For a long time, the Custodians had looked down upon the Golden Knights Chapter stationed with them on Holy Terra.
It's not that they have anything against the Golden Knights, they just look down on all Space Marines equally.
But now, he wished the Golden Knights were here.
Although a thousand more Space Marines cannot reverse the situation, it would be good to relieve some of the pressure.
Giving up the outer ring, the middle ring, a total of sixteen intricate circular walls and countless fortresses, and handing them over to others was a very difficult decision to make.
But Yan Xinzhen still did it.
He had to gather the scarce military forces he had and deploy them to the inner wall of the palace, which was smaller, had better defensive conditions, and was much more important than the outer wall.
He really wanted to die.
In the past ten thousand years, which marshal of the imperial guards could have lost 70% of the area while guarding the imperial palace?
shame!
He must reflect on whether the tradition that he has led the Imperial Guards to uphold during the thousand years as the Marshal of the Imperial Guards is wrong?
Wouldn’t it be better for the imperial guards to just stay in the palace?
Without the empire, where would the palace exist?
This should be a very obvious truth. So obvious that even a three-year-old could figure it out, let alone the self-proclaimed perfect human beings of the Custodians.
But they have been adhering to the traditional "stay-at-home" lifestyle for ten thousand years.
Their arrogance made them never imagine that the scene they were seeing would actually happen.
Now, it's time to pay the price.
The order to abandon and retreat was passed down after a brief shock to all the personnel in the command center.
Yan Xin really knew how humiliated and determined the faces of those blood-soaked warriors on the outer layer would be when they received the order to retreat with their backs to the palace wall, or when they were ordered to hold their ground and delay the enemy.
And he had no time for sentimentality.
He no longer cared about honor, pride, or anything like that.
He connected to the highest-authority encrypted communication channel with the moon.
After the screen flickered steadily, Robert's resolute face, which was now also covered with fatigue and anxiety, appeared.
"Your Highness, the Regent." Yan Xinzhen's voice was devoid of any greeting. "The outer defenses of the Terra Palace are collapsing. I have ordered the outer defense circle to be abandoned. I anticipate that the central ring will also be abandoned, and the core defense line will be contracted."
Robert's pupils on the other side of the screen suddenly contracted.
The combat command center behind him was in chaos. It was obvious that the fierce battle in orbit and the preparations for multiple landings on the ground were still going on in a tense manner.
"...So soon?" Robert's voice was filled with sorrow.
"The enemy has been planning this for a long time." Yan Xinzhen spoke quickly, time was of the essence. "Khorne has opened the first gaping hole, and Nurgle's army has poured out from the corpses and plague, far outnumbering Khorne's legions. Tzeentch's sorcery is creating distortion and chaos within the interior and communication nodes, and Slaanesh's whispers are shaking the will of the remaining defenders... Your Highness, Regent, we need your legions!
"No matter what the cost, we need you or the Alliance's legion to arrive at the Terra Palace, and immediately!"
"The inner circle of the Imperial Palace, where the Emperor's Golden Throne resides, must not be lost."
(End of this chapter)
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