"Choo... psst psst..." Amidst the unique whistle of the steam train, a train that looked no different from an ordinary ore transport train began to depart from the Tower's ore recycling center, heading towards the miners' camp.
This was a very common scene on Lycaeus; with the sunrise and sunset, transport trains constantly shuttled between various mining sites and the Tower's ore recycling center. The thick dust accumulated on the mottled trains had almost solidified into solid dirt, and even the oldest miner couldn't remember how long these ancient trains had existed.
The train slowly moved eastward towards the largest mine. Several dark figures, taking advantage of the train's initial movement, climbed onto the smoke-spewing train unnoticed. The dark figures moved without a word, searching forward either from the roof or along the sides of the carriages. Unlike the vast area of the Tower, on the train they only needed to move forward to find the heavy mortar's location. Its immense size made it easy to spot for anyone who wasn't blind.
Choo Choo Choo...
The speeding train let out another muffled whistle, indicating that it had entered the deceleration phase.
"Found it!!" Nekser's face showed a cold glint. Upon finding the carriage behind the locomotive, they finally located the heavy mortar and the two teams of overseers.
"Kill them all!" Nekser didn't have the bad habit of villains dying from talking too much. The moment he found his target, he immediately chose to act. The advantage of time was not on their side; acting one second earlier could mean one more brother surviving. As for where the other weapons and equipment, enough to arm a squad of overseers, had gone, that was not his concern.
The instant Nekser gave the order, the Shadow Assassins, hanging from the carriages or on the roof, descended like ghosts, some leaping from the roof, others flipping in from the sides of the carriages. Armed with combat daggers crafted from adamantium and power claws, they instantly tore through the armed overseers who were nervously adjusting firing parameters.
"Enemy attack!"
The remaining overseers immediately issued a warning, simultaneously raising their short-barreled laser guns and opening fire on the sudden appearance of enemies. Although these overseers reacted quickly, they were still slower than the battle-hardened Shadow Assassins.
"Whoosh..." The unique sound of the short-barreled laser gun echoed, and scorching laser beams cut a straight trajectory through the air. The powerful laser guns instantly left deep scars inside the thick steel carriages. The high temperature from where the laser guns struck even distorted the air inside the carriage. If it were just ordinary sheet metal carriages, the laser guns could easily penetrate several layers. However, these were special carriages for transporting iron ore, designed primarily for ruggedness and durability.
The moment the strong overseer raised his gun to fire, Nekser bent low and sprinted. A high-energy laser beam almost grazed his back, causing his clothes to instantly catch fire. In a daze, he could already smell the acrid odor of roasting flesh.
Crack!!!!
Nekser's face showed no sign of pain, as if the injury was merely to a piece of rough rubber. The combat knife in his hand directly pierced the opponent's head from below, going up through the jaw.
"Detonate these shells, kill everyone else on the train!" After his other teammates had killed the overseers, Nekser casually issued a new order. Although the heavy mortars could cause widespread casualties among the miners, their effect on the Tower was negligible; they couldn't even break the Tower's shields. The Tower was equipped with a fortress-grade Void Shield system here.
The Void Shield is an ancient technology from the Imperium of Man. This powerful shield, equipped on heavy vehicles, starships, and fortresses, can shunt powerful energy weapons and high-velocity solid-shot weapons into the Warp. There are two ways to destroy this shield. Either rely on overwhelming firepower to directly overload the Void Shield system, or use boarding torpedoes or other vehicles to breach the interior and sever the functional cables. The existence of the Void Shield system meant that both space naval battles and fortress sieges required a very long time to determine a victor. Many demons traveling through the Warp would even suddenly find themselves splattered with melta or plasma, shunted in by the Void Shield, and then enjoy a loading screen revival in the Warp.
In such situations, these demons could only blame their bad luck. Although they had considerable resistance to long-range firepower, it depended on the level of the weapon. Everything has a limit; demons could resist bolter fire, but that didn't mean they could withstand the bombardment of a tank's main cannon.
"Go, you all go help the other brothers." Nekser left his teammates outside to assist the miners who were already engaging the patrolling overseers, while he himself continued to advance towards the Tower. As the leader of the Shadow Assassins, the most powerful force under Swain, after dealing with the heavy mortars that posed an existential threat to the camp, he naturally wouldn't be absent from the battle for the Tower.
"Hey, lads, check your gear, get ready for patrol, and keep sharp!" As the leader of this team, Derek once again gave his daily admonition. As for how much the others listened, that was entirely up to them. He, for one, felt that the atmosphere on Lycaeus had been a bit off recently. As someone at the bottom, he always trusted his instincts, especially since the deaths of so many overseers could not be kept secret within the overseer community.
"Got it, boss." The other team members responded, some joking, some perfunctorily checking their gear. To this, Derek could only express that he had said all he could.
The group quickly began their routine patrol mission according to their normal daily work procedures.
"Get out, get out!" Upon reaching their destination, the group began to patrol and supervise areas where vehicles could not enter. However, beyond their sight, several pairs of eyes were already watching their prey secretly, like hunters ready for the hunt, as they walked into the meticulously prepared trap.
The armed overseers patrolled as usual, carrying their whips. When they saw miners with little ore in front of them, their whips would swing without question, giving a stern warning. Whipped and flayed overseers were commonplace. As the date for the Second Dome's deployment approached, these overseers also began to revert to their usual arrogant style of behavior.
"What are you looking at? If you don't hand in enough ore today, I'll skin you alive!" An overseer under Derek's command harshly whipped a miner slave beside him, who appeared stronger than usual. The snake-skin whip lashed against the flesh, drawing a gush of blood. The way the other person looked at him made him extremely uncomfortable. It was a gaze devoid of any emotion, hollow, numb, as if looking at a dead person. But clearly, you are the ones who should be dead, the overseer thought with great irritation.
The miner slave did not beg for mercy, nor did he fawningly promise to complete the day's task like the other miners. The surrounding miners simply continued to dig their ore calmly. Apart from the clanging sounds of their tools, the atmosphere throughout the mine tunnel was exceptionally oppressive.
"Hurry up and dig, or you'll be in for it!" Seeing the particularly chilling gazes of the miners here, the overseer, putting on a brave face, waved his whip, creating sharp sonic booms in the air.
"Drip... drip... drip-drip." Just as the overseer was waving his whip to bolster his courage, a sound he had never heard before suddenly echoed in the mine tunnel. Confused, the overseer only saw the ground getting closer and closer to him? It was about to poke him in the face when he realized that his head had fallen off, and then his consciousness plunged into darkness.
Thud... The dull sound of flesh hitting the ground, accompanied by the gushing of blood from the severed neck, meant that the overseer died without knowing why these slaves suddenly attacked. Didn't they fear the Tower's retaliation?
"Take their weapons, let's go!" Medan threw down his shovel.