After leaving the church, Lieutenant Marcus Aurelius vanished without a trace in a few flashes.
Cohen and Katerina, who rushed out of the church, only caught a glimpse of a few afterimages and had no time to speak.
"What do we do now, Miss Katerina?" Cohen respectfully stood aside and asked.
Katerina's face was somewhat grim. As the daughter of the Avarax Governor, albeit an illegitimate one, she had never had her request rejected so cleanly and decisively. If it were peacetime, and if the other party wasn't Astra Militarum, Katerina would have long since dismembered Marcus and thrown him into the depths of the Hive City to feed the mutants.
Unfortunately, the Tyranid were invading in force, and the other party was an Astra Militarum officer. Not to mention her, an illegitimate daughter of the Governor, even if the Governor himself came, he would not have the authority to command an Astra Militarum officer.
"What else can we do? Go back and wait, wait for my damned father to send someone to pick me up."
Saying this, Katerina glared fiercely at Cohen beside her. In the conversation with Marcus just now, Cohen seemed to hold the dominant position between the two of them, but in reality, they were master and servant. Everything Cohen did, including wearing a priest's robe, was at Katerina's command, all to try and use that identity to gain Marcus's trust. Unfortunately, Marcus had keenly seen through it.
Helpless, the two did not linger outside the church and returned to the secret passage. Now they could only hope Marcus would keep his word.
Inside a residential building 800 meters from the church, Marcus carefully observed the route ahead through the window. For Lieutenant Marcus now, directly crossing the combat zone was still too dangerous.
So, he planned to first head to a nearby Astra Militarum position to see if he could contact Titus Squad from there. That position was two blocks away from Marcus's current location.
After adjusting his communicator to the Astra Militarum's dedicated channel, Marcus tried to contact the nearby Astra Militarum position.
"Calling, calling, this is Lieutenant Marcus Aurelius of Cadia Eighth. Troops in E8 area, respond if you receive."
After a burst of static, a voice came through the communicator.
"Lieutenant Marcus Aurelius!?"
A voice that sounded somewhat familiar to Marcus came from the communicator.
"This is the Fourth and Fifth Platoons of Cadia Eighth! I am the acting Commander, Sergeant Butler."
Hearing this, Marcus finally remembered that when he had first transmigrated and killed a Tyranid Warrior with Titus and the others, Major Sarkaana of Cadia Eighth had indeed given him a platoon of subordinates. He just hadn't expected to encounter them here again. He had thought these people had long since died on Kadaku. He smiled...
"Sergeant Butler, report the current situation."
"Lieutenant, we currently have forty people left and are holding a fortified facility according to Major Sarkaana's orders, awaiting counterattack orders."
Butler's voice came through the communicator, accompanied by the faint roars of the Tyranids, and the continuous firing of other Astra Militarum.
"Continue to hold, I will come to support you."
With that, Marcus flipped onto the rooftop and looked towards the Astra Militarum position. Standing on the rooftop, Marcus , with his superhuman vision, could see that a massive number of Tyranids were surging towards the Astra Militarum position. Most of them were cannon fodder units like Hormagaunt and Gun Worm, with a small number of Tyranid Warrior overseeing the command. Marcus did not find any special units like neurothrope or biovore.
Marcus looked around, confirmed there were no other Imperial friendly units nearby, and then opened his system panel. Immediately after, a ferocious lictor appeared before Marcus .
"Go hunt the Tyranid Warrior in the within the hive."
Upon receiving the order, the lictor's skin quickly entered stealth mode, then swiftly left its original position and rushed towards the Tyranid not far away. Even Marcus' enhanced superhuman vision could only vaguely discern the distorted scene around the lictor as it moved at high speed.
Gazing at the Astra Militarum fortress not far away, Marcus flashed downstairs, preparing to approach the Astra Militarum position from another direction. Since the lictor was doing the hunting, he didn't need to take action and waste precious ammunition.
Among the Tyranid, a Tyranid Warrior holding a Venom Cannon was roaring at the sky, summoning more cannon fodder units. Around it, more than a dozen Hormagaunt were guarding, poised for action. Almost all the Tyranid present had only one thought: to destroy the fortress in front of them and devour more biomass.
Only one Tyranid was an exception.
In the shadows of the surrounding buildings, a stealthy figure was constantly approaching the center of the Tyranid. The next second, the head of the Tyranid Warrior, which had been roaring at the sky, flew into the air and fell to the ground. Its massive body also collapsed powerlessly.
With just one strike, the lictor instantly killed a Tyranid Warrior. After shaking off the residual Tyranid ichor from its massive claws, the lictor re-entered stealth mode, waiting for its next prey.
After losing the Tyranid Warrior's command, the dozens of Hormagaunt that had been guarding the Tyranid Warrior immediately lost their synaptic control and fell into disarray. Even the previously orderly Tyranid began to show signs of confusion.
Sergeant Butler, the acting Commander in the Astra Militarum position, seized the opportunity. He immediately ordered the mortar team in his squad to precisely attack the confused Tyranids. After a few high-explosive rounds, hundreds of Tyranids were reduced to ash.
Not only that, in various parts of the frontlines, Tyranid Warriors were constantly being ambushed and killed by the lictor summoned by Marcus . Large numbers of subordinate Hormagaunt and Gun Worm were falling into disarray, either standing dumbfounded, or screaming and trying to retreat, and some of the Hormagaunt even began to fight each other.
The previously aggressive Tyranids instantly became a disorganized mess. The people in the position did not know that this was the lictor's doing, and they were also confused by the current situation. But this did not prevent them from seizing the opportunity to launch a counterattack.
After clearing out the nearby Tyranid with their limited high-explosive ammunition, dozens of Astra Militarum soldiers, led by Sergeant Butler, charged out of the position and launched a counter-charge against the confused Tyranid. Without the coordinated command of the Tyranid Warrior, the disorganized Hormagaunt and Gun Worm were completely unable to stop the surging Astra Militarum soldiers, and were quickly cleared out by more than half, forced to retreat several blocks away.
The Astra Militarum soldiers, taking advantage of this hard-won opportunity, laid a large number of landmines on the Tyranid's attack route, and began to build defenses at an extremely fast pace and reorganize their military supplies.
Butler, who was in charge of the command, had just returned to his command post when he saw Marcus standing nearby, having taken off his helmet.