Chapter 157: On the Diversity of Species Among the Ultramarines (Patreon)

A Space Marine might try to talk you out of going somewhere. But tell him, "Since it's so dangerous, you all wait here in the safe spot and watch me put on a show," and to a Space Marine that is naked bullying.

Of course, Heydrich hadn't thought that deeply about it. With him leading the charge, what was there to be afraid of?

All he wanted right now was to fight to his heart's content. The past two weeks had been unbearably suppressive.

The Tyranid swarm was a truly terrifying threat, but there's an old saying: if you don't explode in silence, you go perverted in silence.

Heydrich clearly wasn't some Japanese guy stuck in a lousy life, so naturally he exploded in silence.

What's more, those few Tyranid flagships absolutely could not be allowed to escape. They still commanded a considerable force. Let them slip away to roam and hunt across the whole sector, and they might well spawn another fleet. As a traditional man of the Celestial Empire, Heydrich had only one thought: kill your whole… no, wrong line. Root out the weeds, root and all.

He had no intention of giving these Tyranid abominations a single way out. Since they'd come, they might as well stay.

…

Meanwhile, the battlefield below had fallen into an eerie silence, because on Heydrich's order the Titans and the artillery had ceased fire.

He had shut down the War Engines as well, and all long-range fire vanished in an instant.

Yet the battlefield didn't suffer for the loss of that support. These were units he had brought here himself, after all.

Heydrich couldn't bring himself to shell his own side, and besides, he had his principles.

Namely: never promise anything lightly, but once he promised, he would absolutely deliver.

Compared with the unruffled Heydrich, though, the reactions of many people on the battlefield were far more entertaining.

First was Phainon. He lowered his weapon, because the instant Heydrich activated his power, the endless stream of Tyranid bugs had turned around and gone straight for those not infected with the Memetic Virus.

Now there wasn't a single Tyranid left around Phainon. He looked back at the mountain of corpses piled behind him. He felt the old feeling of drawing his sword, glancing around, and finding his mind blank. As a young man, he had only one thought:

This is still the Tyranid swarm? This is still Warhammer?

Asmodai was just as bewildered. He had been attacking with everything he had a moment ago, and now he suddenly noticed a problem: there wasn't a single Tyranid swarm creature around him.

In particular, the Carnifex he had been duelling lane-to-lane was suddenly covered in blue paint and wearing a giant toilet seat. It backhanded an unchanged Tyranid Warrior to death, showed no further intention of attacking them, then turned and charged howling at the unconverted Tyranids.

He had seen Ultra-Orks once before, but watching the Tyranid transformation up close for the first time, Asmodai still felt something he could only describe as being unable to keep a straight face.

On top of that, Heydrich's order had been broadcast on the open channel, so they had all heard it. The main reason for cutting off the fire support was obviously to avoid blowing up these Ultra-Tyranids. Now Asmodai, and nearly everyone on the battlefield, looked in the same direction: toward the Lion, Lion El'Jonson.

After all, with Heydrich off to fight to his heart's content in space, the Lion was now the supreme commander on the field.

"Ahem, ahem, ahem. According to the deliberations and treatises of the Imperial Cult, this is a sacred act: the filthy xenos submitting to the radiance of Guil… of the Emperor."

At that moment Leandros had no choice but to step forward, as the highest-ranking Ultramarines priest present.

He could naturally speak for the Imperial Cult. Though a Space Marine chaplain and the Imperial Cult were two separate things, this was precisely the link between the Space Marine Chapters and the Imperial Cult, and he had taken part when the Ultramar Ecclesiarchy drafted these very treatises.

Now that such a situation had arisen, he had to step up and explain. One look at his face, like a man who had just swallowed a Typhus, told you everything.

Though he had bowed his head in the face of reality, he still couldn't get past the hurdle of his own reason and conscience.

They already had Ultra Greenskins, "Ultra Ribs," Ultra-Tyranids and the Great Ultra One. Would there be Ultra-Bloodthirsters and Ultra Greater Daemons next?

Leandros despaired just thinking about the picture. But whatever happened, for the glory of the Ultramarines and for Guilliman, he still had to come forward to vouch for it and clean up the mess. He even produced a document.

A copy of it had already been placed aboard Macragge's Honour. Once they returned to Holy Terra, it would be stamped and certified at the Imperial Cult headquarters at once.

All one could say was that the Ultramarines were truly rigorous about procedure, even if the whole thing was rather comical.

As for Leandros himself, he had decided to treat it all as a trial from the Emperor. He was atoning, atoning for reporting Titus across the system.

Though in his heart he really wanted to say: please grant me a glorious death in battle, instead of sending a pack of clowns to torment my mind.

"Sigh… Everyone, assist those… Ultra-Tyranids in utterly destroying the Tyranid horde."

The Lion let out a deep sigh. He was holding up all right. He was a man of Warhammer 30K, after all, and had never been poisoned by the Imperial Cult.

So he wasn't as sensitive about corruption. He found it absurd, but that was about as far as it went.

What mattered now was to wipe out the Tyranids' ground forces completely. So the moment the Lion gave the order, the field erupted.

The roar of countless vehicles rose up, and Heydrich's Titan legion emerged from cover. They began pushing back against the fire of the Tyranid Hierophants. These Hierophant Bio-Titans had been grown relatively early, so they hadn't been tainted.

Though still in a daze at this point, they were at least suppressing the Imperium's firepower. With no Titans deploying void shields at the front, a single blast from these things would kill a whole swath of the Imperium's troops.

Now, on the Lion's order, the legions formed by the Space Marine Chapters and Heydrich's auxiliary forces charged straight at the Tyranid swarm.

The Tyranids, meanwhile, were in a terrible state. The Great Devourer had effectively abandoned everything on the ground, so they lost unified command in an instant. They scattered like headless flies, unable to form any effective organization or concerted force, and you can imagine how the rest of the battle went.

[Author's Note: PS: I have something on today, so this chapter is out in the morning. There will be a big chapter update tonight.]