The acid swamp effectively prevented the Tyranid Swarm from recovering biomass, while the pervasive toxic mist continuously weakened their perception and combat effectiveness. The Helldivers, however, were completely at ease.
Like emotionless war machines, they engaged in the most brutal exchanges of life with the enemy amidst the toxic mist and acid swamps. For them, this war of attrition, which maximized the consumption of the enemy's living forces, was precisely what they most desired to see.
But for the Hive Mind, this was somewhat irritating.
These bipedal creatures, encountered for the first time, seemed to know their habits inside and out. From the start of the battle until now, the Tyranid Swarm had suffered considerable casualties but had not consumed any decent "meat." Most of the corpses had been corroded by toxic gas and acid, and occasionally, when one or two live ones were caught, the enemy would detonate internal bombs without hesitation.
They hadn't eaten fresh meat, but they had consumed mouthfuls of high explosives and melta charges. All of the enemy's actions seemed to have only one purpose—to prevent them from absorbing enough biomass.
The tyranid was enraged! The Hive Mind decided to deploy more power; it had to eliminate these annoying creatures that dared to interfere with its feeding!
Inside the command center, Joker, who was constantly receiving intelligence from all over the battlefield, saw a freshly printed report full of complex curves and data. His expression changed slightly, and he immediately handed it to Dimitry. Boni and Leonid also curiously gathered around.
The data source for the report was a prototype seismic detector crafted by Dimitry himself. Its detection range was only a radius of several tens of kilometers, which was clearly insufficient for true geological exploration, and Dimitry himself admitted it needed urgent improvement.
But if it were brought to the battlefield to measure potential underground attacks by the Tyranid Swarm, this range would be more than enough. However, because it was a prototype, it would only output the most original of vibration waves and density change data, and only senior scholars could determine exactly what was happening based on this data. This was also why Joker immediately handed it to Dimitry—he simply couldn't understand it.
"Something is digging tunnels underground," Dimitry concluded in just one second. He looked up and asked, "Do we still have reserves?"
Joker looked troubled: "The Tyranid Swarm have been continuously assaulting our fortress. The main reason we've been able to hold out for so long is…"
At this point, Joker subconsciously glanced at Wick and finally said, "...mainly because a large number of fire points are automated, saving a lot of manpower. But if we absolutely had to redeploy, we could at most pull out a hundred people."
"A hundred people?" Hearing this number, Dimitry shook his head, then said in an undeniable tone, "We'll go."
Wick immediately stepped forward: "I'll go with you."
The group ignored the guards' attempts to stop them and strode deep into the fortress. Under Joker's firm stance, the hundred Helldivers who had just rotated off the secondary defense line still followed. At the same time, Wick also summoned all of his Skitarii Guard through the data link.
They finally arrived at a large, empty structural support layer at the bottom of the fortress. Dimitry looked around, and countless data streams flashed in his metallic pupils. He observed for less than ten seconds before quickly beginning to issue commands.
"Heavy weapons squad, go to that T-junction. Use the main support column as the core to establish a crossfire. Snipers, go to the second-level maintenance passage, free fire. Wick, your Skitarii Guard are responsible for flanking support, using their arc rifles to interfere with any large creatures that might appear. Everyone else, form a fan-shaped defensive position centered on me, prepare to engage the enemy!"
His instructions were clear, swift, and undeniable. Over a hundred Helldivers and Skitarii Guard, without any hesitation, immediately acted like precise mechanical parts, rapidly constructing a simple yet deadly trap in their respective positions.
Everyone held their breath for several minutes behind their pre-set positions. In the oppressive silence, only the faint sound of distant frontline artillery could be heard.
Suddenly, the ground began to tremble slightly.
This was not the impact of frontline artillery; everyone present easily discerned this. It was a deep hum coming from deep beneath their feet, continuous and increasing in frequency. Something was about to burst out from underground.
Boom—!
Accompanied by a deafening roar, the concrete floor beneath their feet suddenly exploded. Large amounts of soil, rubble, and twisted rebar shot into the sky, crashing heavily against the ceiling. Amidst the rising dust, several massive figures leaped out of the newly formed crater.
Appearing before everyone were a dozen Digger Serpents, their bodies like giant pythons, with four huge scythe-like claws, and a massive individual at least two to three stories tall. It had four grotesque limbs; the upper two were enormous bone scythes, its lower left limb gripped a greatsword seemingly compressed from countless skeletons, and its lower right limb was a flexible and deadly long whip.
"My God!" Boni's shout revealed its identity, "A Hive Tyrant! It seems the tyranids truly hate us!"
The tyrant's appearance was extraordinary. Before it had even fully landed, its long lower right bone whip suddenly lashed out, tearing through the air with a whistling sound, striking an entire Helldivers infantry squad on the flank of the defensive position, along with their concrete cover, into a splatter of flesh and fragments.
"Fire!"
Everyone desperately poured fire onto it. Lasguns, arc rifles, heavy bolters, and even autocannons roared without restraint, weaving a curtain of death. But most attacks were faithfully blocked by the Digger Serpents surrounding the Hive Tyrant.
Occasionally, a few heavy bolter rounds luckily landed on the Tyrant's carapace, only causing its massive body to tremble slightly before having no further effect. Arcs and lasers could only spark feebly against its thick, armor-like bio-chitin.
"Leonid, where the hell is your melta?!" Boni roared towards the side and rear, while blasting an pouncing Digger Serpent in half with his bolter.
No sooner had Boni spoken than a dazzling crimson flash of light erupted from behind the position, shooting towards the Hive Tyrant with unstoppable force. Many Digger Serpents attempting to block were directly pierced and vaporized like paper in the face of this deadly beam.
The Hive Tyrant's reaction speed was unimaginably fast; it rolled quickly to the side with an agility unbefitting its massive size, allowing the deadly melta ray to destroy its entire right side's two limbs and nearly 20% of its body mass, thereby avoiding a fatal direct hit to the head.
Immediately after, the heavily wounded Tyrant let out an ear-splitting shriek. An invisible psychic shockwave instantly swept across the entire area, precisely striking Leonid, who had just fired the melta. His body suddenly stiffened, the heat erupting from his mechanical prosthetics immediately ceased, the hum of his internal mechanical parts gradually fell silent, and he finally collapsed helplessly to the ground.
Wick shouted in disbelief: "Leonid?!"
Dimitry grabbed Wick, who was about to rush over, and shouted to the other side: "Boni, go to the nuclear reactor!"
Boni was stunned for a moment, then understood something: "Now? Right here?!"
Dimitry didn't answer. Instead, he pulled Wick and ran deeper into the fortress without looking back, answering Boni's question with his actions. Seeing this, Boni cursed and quickly turned to follow.
The Hive Tyrant, now with only two limbs, after neatly tearing the remaining Helldivers and Skitarii Guard into pieces like disassembling cheap toys, its crimson compound eyes flickered.
After a moment's thought between reinforcing the front line and pursuing these two targets, it ultimately chose the latter, dragging its injured body and taking heavy strides to give chase.