The blue-and-gold Mk X power armor, together with the iconic Ʊ-shaped insignia on both shoulder pauldrons, made it immediately clear who the newcomers were.
They were Ultramarines—arguably the most famous Space Marine Chapter in the entire Imperium, and perhaps in all of Warhammer 40,000.
The moment the six Ultramarines landed, they began clearing the swarming Tyranids around them with roaring chainswords and disciplined bolter fire.
The power of a finely crafted bolter was far beyond anything a standard lasgun in the hands of the Astra Militarum could match.
The Ultramarines did not even need to aim for weak points. A single bolt round was enough to blow basic Tyranid organisms like Hormagaunts and Termagants into bloody fragments. Their chitinous carapaces seemed as fragile as paper before the explosive force of the bolts.
Under the fire of the six Ultramarines, the charging swarm was instantly torn apart into a storm of shattered limbs and foul ichor.
Even when a few Hormagaunts managed to close the distance and leap at them, they were split in half midair by the screaming teeth of chainswords.
As for the bone spikes and fleshborer beetles fired by the Termagants, most were avoided with movements that seemed impossibly agile for warriors of such size.
And even when a shot struck true, it did little more than add another scar to their ceramite armor.
This was what a Space Marine was.
After undergoing twenty-two superhuman implantations and being transformed with two hearts, three lungs, and a host of additional organs beyond mortal men, then armed with the finest weapons and armor the Imperium could provide, they became the sharpest blades of mankind—warriors made to slaughter all who threatened the Emperor's realm.
The combat power displayed by the Ultramarines in such a short span of time left Adrian inwardly amazed.
Even after being enhanced by the Super Soldier Serum, his physical abilities were still only within the limits of humanity. He was nowhere near a Space Marine, a being that could rip enemies apart with bare hands and even spit corrosive acid strong enough to eat through restraints.
To put it simply, even a newly created Space Marine possessed strength measured in tons and a running speed that far surpassed any normal human.
Adrian's enhanced strength was only around half that level, and his speed was the same.
And that was without even considering a Space Marine's absurd resilience and capacity to survive wounds that would kill any ordinary man several times over.
Without equipment, an ordinary Space Marine could probably kill ten of the current Adrian.
In the trench, Adrian drove his bayonet into the neck of a Hormagaunt, then shoved the twitching corpse aside and rose to his feet, splattered with filthy Tyranid blood.
He looked around.
Although the Ultramarines had arrived in time, of the dozen or so Astra Militarum soldiers who had originally held the trench, only Adrian and the Guardsman beside him were still alive.
The rest had been torn to pieces within minutes.
"Excellent… the Astartes! The Emperor's angels! We're saved!"
The Guardsman Adrian had rescued earlier immediately dropped to one knee and offered a standard Aquila salute the moment he saw the Ultramarines.
Adrian also gave the Aquila, though he did not kneel.
As for the six Space Marines, they merely spared the two surviving Guardsmen a brief glance—little more than acknowledgment for two lucky survivors—before charging straight back into the Tyranids.
Their heavy ceramite armor and transhuman physiques were enough to smash through nearly anything in their path.
As the Space Marines advanced, hundreds of Cadian soldiers surged out from the Imperial lines behind the trench.
They pushed forward to reclaim ground and provided vital supporting fire for the Ultramarines.
The few remaining Leman Russ tanks of the Cadian 8th also rumbled toward the front under infantry cover, sweeping the Tyranids with battle cannon fire and heavy bolters.
This, too, was one of the functions of the Space Marines.
On the battlefield, they were far from invincible—but their presence alone was enough to ignite the courage of every Imperial soldier around them, allowing exhausted men to fight harder and hold longer.
Of course, that usually also meant the situation had already deteriorated to the point where ordinary Astra Militarum forces could no longer contain it alone.
As the Imperial counterattack gathered momentum, the Tyranids' advance was finally checked.
Seeing the tide begin to turn, the larger Tyranid Warriors within the swarm gave shrill, commanding roars and led the lesser organisms back into the fight.
These Tyranid Warriors were not only the node-beasts directing Hormagaunts and Termagants—they were also the backbone of the swarm. Armed with symbiotic weapons and wrapped in heavy chitin, they were dangerous opponents even for Space Marines.
When Titus had been carrying the virus bomb earlier, Ulfar, the Space Wolf from his kill team, had been slain by a Tyranid Warrior armed with bone blades.
True, Ulfar had already survived a crash and fought through a mass of Hormagaunts before facing it.
Even so, that was enough to show how dangerous a Tyranid Warrior truly was.
One of Adrian's current mission objectives was to kill a Tyranid Warrior.
If he wanted to complete that objective, then his first priority was obvious:
He needed a stronger weapon.
The moment that thought crossed his mind, Adrian immediately looked toward where the Astra Militarum sergeant who had shouted orders earlier had been standing.
The sergeant had already been reduced to a mangled heap by the Hormagaunts' assault.
But his plasma pistol had survived.
Adrian stepped forward, picked it up, and after only a brief moment of thought, made a bold decision.
He vaulted out of the trench.
Following in the Ultramarines' wake, he threw himself into the brutal close-quarters slaughter against the Tyranids.
Of course, Adrian was not stupid enough to rush ahead of the Space Marines.
Instead, he stayed close behind them, using the plasma pistol and his bayonet to pick off distant Termagants and kill any Hormagaunts that tried to slip past the Ultramarines and strike from the flanks.
The enhanced vision and reaction speed granted by the Super-Soldier Serum made his aim frighteningly precise.
Nearly every shot landed.
Each blast of plasma struck a Termagant's head and vaporized it on the spot.
As for the occasional Hormagaunt that slipped through the Ultramarines' attacks, Adrian met it with his knife, driving steel through skull and eye socket with efficient precision.
For some reason, despite standing in the middle of a battlefield where he could be torn apart by the enemy—or blasted apart by friendly fire—at any moment, Adrian found himself inexplicably enjoying the sensation.
It felt like dancing on the edge of a blade.
All six Ultramarines noticed the Cadian soldier who had dared to follow in their charge.
One of them, a warrior with a mechanical right arm, split a leaping Hormagaunt in half with his chainsword and said, "Soldier. Return to your post."
Adrian recognized him as Chairon from Titus' squad and immediately replied,
"Sir, it is my honor to fight at your side and crush these damned xenos—even if my soul must return to the Golden Throne for it."
Perhaps satisfied with the answer, Chairon said nothing more and simply continued cutting down the Tyranids ahead.
Adrian, however, was pleased.
The reason he had left the relatively safe trench to join this deadly melee was not simply recklessness.
First, he needed to complete the system objective of killing a Tyranid Warrior.
Second, and more importantly, he needed to attract the attention of Titus and his squad.
Only then could he hope to complete the system's main quest:
[Assist Titus' squad in reactivating the giant plasma cannon on the surface of Kadaku]
If he could not even get close to Titus' squad, how was he supposed to help them?