Chapter 107: Thor and Knight
Edgar advanced with the troops, his gaze constantly drawn to the two Knights.
The Knight Gallant had shed all its ranged weaponry, specializing in melee; there was nothing that could block its swinging giant chainsword. The other, a Knight Styrix, could easily saturate a large area with its massive conflagration cannon.
And this Knight was doing just that.
The huge cannon muzzle spewed lethal flames, instantly turning the buildings and all living things in the target area to ash.
The dropped forces were all infantry; they had no weapons in their hands that could threaten this Knight.
The man-portable anti-vehicle weapons they fired were insufficient to breach its armor.
And at this moment, within the throne mechanum of that Knight Styrix, a man with a savage expression sat enthroned.
His consciousness was linked to this Knight mech's machine spirit. It wasn't just him; the machine spirit of this Questoris-class Knight was also filled with a bloodthirsty madness.
Even without being corrupted by Khorne, the machine spirits of the Styrix-pattern were notoriously bloodthirsty, which made it even more susceptible to corruption at this moment.
Many orthodox Imperial Knight Houses were even unwilling to use this type of Knight; the machine spirit within could even influence the operator.
It was contrary to the knightly virtues.
"Kill them, Lancelot! Control my body, kill them all! I want more blood! I want to fight!"
The corrupted machine spirit continuously transmitted its will into the mind of the pilot, named Lancelot.
Whether the pilot had influenced the machine spirit, or the machine spirit had corrupted the pilot, was no longer known.
Watching that Knight running rampant, Edgar knew it was useless, but he still fired his C-14 at the massive Knight.
"Retreat! This is a pointless sacrifice!"
Edgar shouted towards the surrounding Raiders, but as he held no military command authority, he found that no one listened to his orders.
"By the God-Emperor, are you all mad? Sacrifice is acceptable, but it shouldn't be sacrificed in this way!"
Just as Edgar was about to find an officer to issue a retreat order, a voice came through his combat suit's communicator.
"A gift for those traitors is on its way! Hold on, brothers!"
"A gift?"
Edgar looked up and saw four giant Thors rapidly descending towards the ground.
Edgar blinked hard; he thought he was seeing things.
He had seen these giant mechs before, but he had never expected them to be deployed in this manner.
At this moment, Medivacs from StarCraft were carrying these Thors.
Just like in the game, these aerial vehicles could provide long-range healing for soldiers on the battlefield and could act as troop transports. They could even carry massive Siege Tanks and Thors directly on their underbelly for rapid maneuvers.
In the game, if your micro was good enough, you could continuously pick up, drop, pick up, and drop a Thor to evade a large amount of damage and achieve a terrifying kill-to-loss ratio.
The Thors continued their descent.
Edgar had heard that the Mechanicus even had specialized ships for transporting Titans, but he had never seen one. And wasn't this a bit too agile?
This was not something that should appear in a Rogue Trader Dynasty.
And when the in-game effect intertwined with reality, it produced an unexpected result.
In the game, you had to place the Thor on the ground before it could fire.
But here, even while being carried, the Thors could still provide covering fire on ground targets.
Before the Thors even landed, they began to saturate the two corrupted Knights with firepower.
And Lancelot, piloting his Knight, was dumbfounded.
The Knight's conflagration weapon had just fired and was still cooling down and recharging.
This created a brief gap in his firepower, and it was precisely this gap that allowed him to be hit by a terrifying barrage.
A large number of missiles shot out from the Thors' missile pods, and the "Thor's Hammer" cannons in their hands also continuously spat fire serpents. One shell after another slammed heavily into the bodies of the two Knights.
After a round of artillery coverage, the four Thors landed smoothly on the ground.
If not for the cannon's recoil being too great for the Medivacs to handle for a long time, the Thors might not have even needed to land.
Their taller stature, compared to these Knights, allowed them to overwhelm the opponent in both numbers and presence.
The four Thors, with a style completely different from the Knights of Warhammer, seemed so out of place with the surrounding medieval style.
They were much more technologically advanced.
The machine spirit of the Knight Styrix wailed. Its long-range firepower had made it a priority target. The Knight Gallant, after weathering a round of artillery fire, began its charge.
The Knight's movement speed was much faster than the Thor's; this was a design issue. The Thor's structure was not suitable for running.
But no matter how fast you ran, you still had to be able to get close to the Thor.
The charging Knight instantly became the target of concentrated fire. At this time, the Thors were not just equipped with StarCraft weapons.
Their modular nature had long since allowed Pavian to modify these Thors.
Although the attempt to load melee weapons had failed, it had allowed Pavian to focus all his efforts on strengthening their ranged firepower as much as possible.
One "Thor's Hammer" cannon had been removed and replaced with a massive Plasma Annihilator.
The Thor's reactor was sufficient to power these energy weapons.
However, these modifications had not yet been popularized on all Thors. The cost of buying these parts made even Lucan's heart ache.
Manufacturing a Thor was simple, but the subsequent custom modifications were exceptionally expensive.
There was nothing a single plasma shot couldn't solve. If not, then two shots. If that still wasn't enough, it just meant your caliber was still too small.
Faced with the concentrated fire of four Thors, this Knight Gallant was hit in the face by several plasma blasts just as it began to run, and was completely reduced to scrap metal.
And the fate of the remaining Knight Styrix was also sealed. Although it still tried to fight back, the shoulder-mounted cannons on its body firing at the Thors, its conflagration weapon even managed to burn away half of one Thor's body.
However, accompanying the Thors to the ground were also SCVs dropped by the Medivacs. The moment a Thor was hit, SCVs were simultaneously repairing them.
If they couldn't directly destroy the Thor or kill the pilot, they could fight almost indefinitely.
The Knight Styrix's armor was torn apart, its engine was destroyed, until finally, the throne mechanum protecting the pilot was also completely torn to shreds by the artillery fire.
"We won?"
Edgar felt a sense of unreality… Since when did the Astra Militarum have Knights… an outsider might have thought this was the Tech-Guard from some forge world.
How did they feel even stronger than actual Knights…
Let alone Edgar seeing this for the first time, this was also the first time the Thors had been deployed into battle.
There was originally an easier way to deal with these Knights, but it would have been a pity not to use such a rare opportunity to test the Thor's combat performance in the Warhammer world.
The Tech-Priests recorded all the data that had just occurred.
And this data would all be sent back to Agathos at the first opportunity.
And the remaining traitor Knights on this planet also noticed the warships that had suddenly appeared in orbit.
The High King here began to gather all the Knights.
But now, they would not only have to face the Thors, but also the warships in orbit.
And the Gorgons, which could enter the atmosphere, would let them know that war has no room for knightly spirit… the backward will be beaten.
Lucan felt his Psy-crystal "water level" steadily rising and knew his advance force must have engaged the enemy.
(End of Chapter)
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