Infected armored vehicles had their advantages, and purestrained Genestealers had theirs.
The Hunter Killers suddenly heard heavy footsteps coming from the ventilation shaft above. They looked up and unleashed a barrage of bone spike projectiles, but the duct burst open. A four-armed Genestealer smashed through the pipe and dropped from above, landing directly on one of the Hunter Killers.
What followed was brutal close-quarters combat. Although these Genestealers were atavistic purestrains, their strength was still not to be underestimated.
The Hunter Killers, caught off guard by the sudden assault, found themselves at a disadvantage.
But the bigger problem was on Izsha's side. Over a dozen purestrains had infiltrated through the ducts and burst into her position.
The female cult leader, seeing the ten Hunter Killers guarding Izsha, immediately realized that she was the alien commander. Without hesitation, she ordered, "Kill it!"
The Genestealers charged at Izsha. The Hunter Killers beside her extended their claws and engaged the purestrains in melee combat.
Several purestrains slipped past the Hunter Killers and lunged at Izsha.
Faced with a Brood Queen far larger than themselves, the Genestealers showed no fear. They leaped high, claws flashing—but they had severely underestimated her.
Suddenly, a wave of psychic energy erupted from Izsha, sending the Genestealers flying backward.
"A psyker?!"
The female cult leader was stunned.
This creature was a psyker?
Although psychic powers in Warhammer and StarCraft functioned differently, their manifestations were similar—telekinesis, psychic shockwaves, psychic lightning. Both universes favored these abilities.
"So what if she's a psyker? You're still no match for the blessed cult! Tear her apart!"
The Genestealers recovered and charged Izsha once more.
But this time, Izsha was truly angered.
"You look down on me."
The Brood Queen Izsha launched spines from her body, perforating the head of one purestrain. A second Genestealer closed in, its four arms tearing four gashes across her body, but Izsha's own claws lashed out, sending its head flying.
As the remaining Genestealers neared her, Izsha unleashed another burst of psychic energy, freezing them in place.
"Before the supreme power granted to me by the Overmind, you are insignificant!"
Crack—! Crack—! Crack—!
One by one, the heads of the Genestealers exploded under the crushing force of her psychic power. The strength of a psyker was on full display—controlled, stable, utterly unlike the wild, unstable psykers prone to losing control.
Meanwhile, the battle between the Hunter Killers and the Genestealers had reached its conclusion. After losing six Hunter Killers, the purestrain assault force was completely wiped out.
At that moment, the female cult leader felt a deep, chilling dread. What kind of alien force was this?
But this was merely a skirmish.
The Brood Queen was only a command unit above the Nydus Broodlord. Above her existed the Cerebrates, and above them—the Overmind.
Yet even the Swarm Overmind understood that this was merely one world among countless in the vast Imperium of Man's galactic domain. The Imperium's territory was too immense—so vast that even the Imperium itself could not keep track of every world.
The Zerg Swarm might hold the advantage in sector-level battles, but once a war expanded to subsector or segmentum levels, their numbers would struggle against the great powers of the galaxy.
†Ha, just a few Genestealers daring to go after a command-unit Brood Queen? Don't they know what a hero unit is?†
At the end of the day, these purestrains were too young. If it had been the original Patriarch, the outcome would have been far less certain.
"Damn it, damn it... What do we do now?"
The cult leader was beginning to panic.
The cultists were outnumbered by the infected.
Their armored vehicles had been parasitically controlled one by one, turned against them.
They had finally located the enemy leader, attempted a decapitation strike—and were annihilated.
At this point, the cult had exhausted most of its options, yet the battle remained far from over.
If this continued, they would be completely wiped out.
"No, no, no... We cannot fail the God-Emperor. He watches over us. We cannot disappoint Him."
But the more she clung to that faith, the more she felt the crushing despair of their situation.
The cultists were being surrounded, torn apart, devoured, shot down. The infected were even more twisted and grotesque than they were.
"No!!!"
The female cult leader's anguished cry echoed through the chapel.
And then—
The statue behind her moved.
"!!!"
Sensing the anomaly, the cult leader turned to look at the statue.
The statue, which had remained motionless for over two centuries, slowly opened its eyes.
Revealing yellow pupils.
The original purestrain—centuries old—had awoken.
"The God-Emperor has manifested!"
This purestrain Genestealer was enormous, nearly two or three times the size of its kin.
Its thick chitinous carapace was exceptionally durable. Its claws gleamed with a cold light in the darkness. Its grotesque maw was filled with rows of serrated teeth, and a long purple tongue licked across its face.
The cult leader could feel the raw, primal savagery lurking within the creature's mind.
As if sensing that its brood was in peril, it had roused itself from its centuries-long slumber.
It said nothing. Silently, it began walking toward the chapel's exit.
"The God-Emperor be praised! You have not abandoned us!"
Tears streamed down the cult leader's face. She knelt in devout prayer, her faith absolute.
"Praise the God-Emperor!"
The only problem was—if the Emperor could hear this prayer, He would probably say: *What the fuck?*
This kind of heretical, warped worship had long since made the Emperor something He no longer recognized.
When the ancient purestrain Patriarch appeared on the battlefield, it carved through the infected like an unstoppable force.
The infected's autoguns failed to penetrate its carapace—this thing had defenses on par with heavy units.
Armored vehicles could barely scratch it. But the Patriarch was not about to ignore them. In an instant, it flipped an armored vehicle onto its side.
A single sweep of its claws tore through the vehicle's armor, crushing the infected inside into paste.
It rampaged toward Izsha's position with overwhelming momentum. Several Hunter Killers attempted to intercept it—they now lay strewn along its path as corpses.
The Genestealer Patriarch finally stood before Izsha.
Izsha gazed at the colossal beast—and there was no fear in her eyes.
†Commander against commander, general against general. Izsha… can you take this one?†
"By your command, Overmind."
It was beginning.
It was beginning.
Warhammer's most sacred tradition—the 1v1 duel—had begun.