He fell in his dream——
But the Septons Astartes rarely dreamed.
Thinking back to the strange memory, he saw himself standing on an arid plain under a dark cloudy sky.
In the distance he could see a jagged and barren mountain, its summit hollowed out to form a vast basin.
Sunlight penetrated the clouds overhead, illuminating the rain of iron and blood.
Countless corpses fell from the sky into the mountains.
People kept falling from the sky like raindrops, hitting the top of the mountain and filling the valley with flesh and blood.
They have only one thing in common, they are both Astartes.
Black, purple, gray, white——
And, somehow, he knew he was among them.
Soon, the air of the planet called Istvaansan turned into flames. He could not see the horizon. He could only see a storm of fire rolling up and surrounding the atmosphere.
The integrity and heat alarms of his armor had ceased minutes ago, and he could feel the coldness spreading over his flesh, and he was breathing in the smoke but couldn't smell them.
Even though he was enveloped in flames, he felt as if he was shaking.
He knew what that meant. The air—in his lungs, in his nose, in his throat—was burning him from the inside.
The fire was seeping in and he was being cooked within his armor.
He is dying.
He failed, that much was clear.
Besieged, betrayed and outnumbered, they were still able to bite back.
He should have anticipated how they would respond, he should have planned differently, he should-
He was supposed to die from the first salvo of virus bombs.
This was the reward for his weakness, but if he died, it would be the result of once again proving his weakness.
Suddenly, Soshyan's voice brought him back to reality.
"One more minute, brothers, in the fire of battle, we are full of determination."
"We are determined."
Thor's mouth automatically echoed the voices of the battle brothers around him - even though his brothers had long since perished and twisted into monsters.
"We fell from the sky straight into hell."
"Fight to the death."
the warriors chanted.
"One breath is still there."
"The warband lives on forever!"
Thor turned his headband and looked at Soshyan.
He stood alone, with his head bent forward. His face was somewhat unclear under the projection of the red landing light, but his determined eyes were shining.
Soshiyang's armored hands tightly grasped the Shengyan Sword, a powerful and exquisitely crafted power weapon.
Like his brother, the war gave him determination.
At this time, there was a rumbling collision sound, and Thor realized that the Thunderhawk's back turret had opened fire.
After a while, a familiar vibration indicated that the Thunderhawk's automatic turret had also fired.
Then the cracking sound of metal revealed that not all of the shots were theirs.
He glanced at his team, their faces behind their helmets, before turning his attention to his own equipment.
The fully blessed and anointed bolter was locked at his side, the armor's automatic senses on standby, ready to connect to the weapon when he grabbed hold of it, and the icon monitoring his health meter showed a steady display.
He rubbed against the restraints, satisfied with the firmness of the connection.
"We will eliminate the green-skinned leader as soon as possible."
Soshyan raised his head and said, Sol looked into his cold black eyes and nodded in response.
There was no time to say anything more.
The engine's pitch began to rise, and the turbulence indicated that it was heading toward the landing site at full speed.
The protective straps on their backs trembled automatically as the warriors stood together, bolters unlocked and magnetic shoes locked for the final moment.
Thor said a final prayer to his ancient sword as the armor's automatic feel bound to its targeting system and ammo counter.
They are still falling.
Outside noise could be heard over the reducer, no doubt the hammering of the foundry war,
The greenskins fight with thunderous roars as their enemies outnumber them by the hundreds.
They attack directly at the heart of the invaders, directly and truly realizing the emperor's just judgment.
"brother."
The word sent a buzz of pain through his body, and the echoes of Istvan's dream faded from his mind.
The next second, the landing ramp opened.
Thor clutched his bolter, his lips chanting the battle oath.
In front of him, there was a row of green boys rushing toward Thunderhawk under a hazy dust cloud.
Even sealed in power armor, the rage from the threat of attack still covered him, pounding on his nerves.
As the stunned Greenskins try to preemptively attack, the only thing the Thunderhawk can do to the enemy is to pound away with heavy bolters and laser cannons, delivering death to the Greenskins at point-blank range.
After the Thunder Eagle lowered its altitude and crushed more than a hundred enemies, they began to flee in fear.
Soshyan was the first to jump out of the cabin and the first to open fire.
The nearest greenskins fell and burst into pieces under the hail of bolts, even their loathsomely tough greenskin bodies unable to withstand the sacred fire of the blessed weapons in the hands of the Astartes.
The warriors were spread out on either side of the Chapter Master, spread out around the Thunderhawk to protect the landing zone.
The Thunderhawks above them supported them with thunderous firepower.
The battle-brothers' unquenchable rage forced the roaring greenskins back.
"move forward."
Soshyan's voice rang in the team channel.
The leader of the vanguard group of Orks was nearby, easily identifiable by the size of the Orks - looming over the heads of his minions just a hundred meters before the landing point.
As Soshyan reloaded, the Ork leader roared and led the charge towards the Space Marines.
As we all know, there are two things that greenskins cannot tolerate: one is a challenge to authority, and the other is fierce combat.
The Astral Knights will also satisfy these beasts.
"Maintain the front."
Soshyan's voice echoed across the channel.
The next second, the space between him and the Ork leader was filled with bullets again.
The greenskins took the blow and fought back, rudimentary bullets slamming into the Astartes armor, and the air was filled with dry, dusty, sizzling metal.
The health index panels of the three warriors in the squad showed that they had suffered minor injuries.
Completely surrounded and exposed, they could not hold their small front for more than ten minutes.
They must move at the right time.
The Thunderhawk's engines roared into the sky, its protruding turret weapons spinning toward the Orks heading for the first squadron.
Not far away, the Ork leader and his bodyguards dealt with the boys in front of them with punches and kicks, and cursed their subordinates with their roars.
The Ork leader himself was a giant beast with dark green muscles and a layered heavy yellow deck. His small, round eyes were full of anger and stared at Soshyan - obviously it also Recognized Xiami’s leader.
It pushed and trampled those of its kind in front of him, rushed all the way to him, roared in challenge, and extended a huge mechanical claw towards Soshiyang's head.
"Back off first."
Soshyan dodged the blow and exited his previous position.
He kept shooting, punching holes in the green-skinned bodyguards following the leader, switching from one target to the next with practiced ease.
The remaining warriors held the line, pouring ammunition into the growing horde like an unquenchable green tide.
Only Soshyan retreated.
Only the Ork leader followed into the team's encirclement.
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