The megalithic nests that had endured orbital bombardment were still emitting billowing black smoke. Collapsed towers and statues littered the landscape. The blazing inferno painted the sky a fiery red.
The city's ruins were a maelstrom of gunfire and tracers. The hail of bullets coiled into the air like iron snakes. Straight beams of energy cut the air. In the atmosphere, fighter planes were locked in a dogfight, their blazing weapon beams etching short-lived, shining constellations across the darkness.
"For the Emperor, charge!"
"Capture the Stone Hive at all costs!"
Colonel Griffin shouted, urging his men to get a move on. Armed with laser rifles, the soldiers advanced toward the rebel lines, riding atop Leman Russ tanks.
The heavy tanks rumbled forward, their tracks grinding the gravel underfoot. Their sturdy armored hulls tore through the charred wreckage of buildings.
The Leman Russ tank, the main battle tank of the Imperial Astra Militarum, was renowned for its tough armor and belligerent machine spirit. It could shrug off enemy firestorms in battle.
Its turret was highly versatile, fitted with a range of different weapon systems, including devastating anti-infantry weapons like the Punisher Gatling gun and high-armor-piercing anti-tank cannons.
As Colonel Griffin's troops breached the outer walls of the Stonehive and rolled into the rubble-covered streets, rebels suddenly appeared out of the woodwork on both sides, opening fire on the advancing Imperial soldiers. A thick rain of bullets and lasers poured down, causing ripples where they struck the tank armor and energy shields.
Imperial soldiers hit the dirt, hiding in bunkers or leveraging the tanks for cover as they returned fire. A fierce, knock-down, drag-out fight broke out.
The Leman Russ tanks pivoted their massive guns and took aim at the rebels' heavy weapons positions.
~Boom!
The rebel heavy weapons bunker went up in smoke, thick concrete slabs blasted to smithereens. Charred flesh and gore mixed with the shrapnel, scattered across the ground.
Then came the second, and the third. Every shot was dead on. The Leman Russ tanks, playing to their strengths, effortlessly vaporized the enemy's strongpoints.
The rebels lost their edge in firepower and were quickly put on the back foot by the Imperial soldiers.
Griffin yelled, "Close the gap! Move up, move up!" signaling the soldiers behind to fill the gap and continue advancing. In his eyes, human lives were just cold numbers. He didn't care one bit how many soldiers were sacrificed. All that mattered was the mission objective: capturing the Stone Hive.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the battlefield, Rigby, controlling the heavily armored Tomorrow III exoskeleton armor, spearheaded an attack with his teammates.
"Feel the wrath of Omnissiah!"
Armed to the teeth with excellent defense and firepower, they cut through the rebel lines like a hot knife through butter.
~Boom! ~Boom! ~Boom!
The multi-barreled bolter roared, obliterating every rebel soldier it hit. A few desperate rebels tried to close the distance and fire, but Rigby activated the exoskeleton armor's circular saw and diced them up.
"Cough! Cough!"
A rebel soldier, his chest shattered, was not dead yet, and fell to the charred battlefield, spitting up a fountain of blood. Rigby peered at the soldier through the exoskeleton armor's observation camera.
The rebel wasn't very old, probably just a young buck in his twenties. His skin was frighteningly pale, and his pupils were completely black—spooky and messed up. A bloody Chaos symbol was carved right into his face.
"Minions of the Corpse King, you will be dragged into hell!" The soldier vomited blood and spat out vicious curses.
Rigby muttered, "Be my guest." The mechanical limb of the exoskeleton armor lifted, then suddenly smashed down, crushing the rebel soldier's head like a tin can.
"Hey, I actually got a level up." Rigby was a little surprised. "I also learned a new skill: Humanoid Vehicle Machine Spirit Affinity. Says it makes it easier to get the machine spirit to like me."
"Machine spirit affinity?" The man with the ponytail, Jason, standing to Rigby's right, scoffed. "How can you call it stealing if Jihun Dayue does something that's fun for you?!"
Ponytail killed a rebel soldier and glanced over at the Griffin troops rushing the enemy line. "Man, these NPCs are really going all out."
"The Great Devourer hasn't arrived yet, so these 'loyal' schmucks must be fierce as all get out." As an old player, Rigby knew from the jump that the troops chosen as the vanguard were the cunning ones.
"'Orks die for the country, these guys guard the borders.' Warhammer logic, I gotta say, that's some next-level 666."
"These guys are just the small fry; there's still a whole mess of pure-bloods in Tyrian Hive. After this battle, we'll have to go back to Tyrian for Round Two."
"Is the guide still making us fight those chumps?"
"No kidding! Those guys' corruption abilities are off the charts. If we don't put a stop to them sooner rather than later, they'll be a huge headache."
"..."
Rigby and the other players communicated through the exoskeleton armor's team channel. The 'cunning' soldiers couldn't hear a word of it. Even if they did catch the players' comms, it would be just white noise—they'd have no clue what was up.
Under the combined charge of the players and the 'loyalists,' the rebels' defenses crumbled one by one, showing signs of a complete collapse.
"These guys are hitting us so hard, we can't catch a break!" Svid's face was a sight to behold as he looked at the panicked soldier begging for help. "These loyalists are just too much; they can't be stopped."
He scratched his sparse hair, clearly at his wits' end. "Grab that useless Sam and get over here! Go ask those damn cultists how the ceremony preparations are coming along! Tell them we're hanging by a thread!"
The rebel soldier who received the order barely made it out of the command center. A crystal-like shard of aether flew past and instantly blew his head off. Other rebel soldiers were instantly taken out the same way, their heads exploding like grapes.
Svid saw this and his face went white as a ghost. Realizing the enemy was practically knocking at the door, his first thought was to bolt. The moment he ran out of the command center, he saw Imperial soldiers in exoskeleton armor surrounding the building from all sides.
With nowhere to run, Svid hit rock bottom in despair.
"'First one to bag the rebel leader gets a hundred gold coins and a Marquis title! You heard me, boys—hit 'em!'"
"Seriously? You psycho, did you just come out of a bad movie?"
"Cut the chatter, let's flank them! Don't let the big fish slip the hook."
The assault team, led by veteran players Yuji and Niebaren, was the fastest. They blew past the enemy's defenses, making a beeline for the headquarters.
"Explosions are an art, and exploding heads? That's the Sistine Chapel."
Psychic energy surged in Yuji's hands. As he clenched them, the heads of distant rebel soldiers, still firing their guns, popped like watermelons. The soldiers around Svid were dropping like flies. Ultimately, he found himself boxed in by the players.
He didn't surrender; he chose to fight tooth and nail to the bitter end. Finally, his lower body was shredded by a bomb, and he fell into a pool of blood.
"Bummer, we couldn't take him alive." Yuji sighed, a hint of regret in his voice.
"You can't win," Svid gasped. "The Father's Angel is coming down to this world any minute now!"
With that, he kicked the bucket.
The players looked at each other, a little out of sorts, trying to figure out what was what. Yuji suddenly screamed. Horrible visions came flooding into his mind: countless Nurgle demons screaming. Then, a golden sun appeared in Yuji's mind. The terrifying visions and the demonic screams vanished in a flash.
After recovering from the mental shock, Yuji looked at his teammates and swallowed hard.
"I can hear Nurgle's minions screaming. They're making a beeline for us."
The moment he finished, a terrifying psychic storm went off deep within the Stone hivecity. The sky was twisting up, emitting a strange, sickly glow. The majestic spires seemed to shimmer and glitch, like an unstable phantom slide. The players' expressions all changed. They were all veteran Warhammer fans, and they knew exactly what the score was.
"This is a full-blown Daemon invasion."
WrongHammer stared deep into the hive. "We gotta put the brakes on this. Request another round of orbital bombardment from the Guide. If the Nurgle army sets foot in the real world, this whole planet is a goner."