Inside the fortress.

The number of intruders arriving through the underground passages is so large that even a missile that falls into a wave of chitin is like a pebble falling into the sea.

But under the guard of the Space Marines, these Tyranid creatures are difficult to advance.

Although they had crossed the fortress's protective walls, they were now facing another stronghold rampart made up of Space marines with ferocious firepower.

Some of the Stormbirds were used as platforms and fortresses, and some vehicles and tanks formed barricades to stop Tyranns' further advance with explosions and flames.

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Space Marines piloting dreadnoughts also join the fray, smashing smaller creatures with their giant feet while constantly attacking threatening xenomorphs with their storm guns and missile launchers.

The Space Marines, dressed in power armor and terminators, are also in unison against the incoming swarms.

The Terminator Warrior swept away the small hive creatures with the Blaster Gun and Flamethrower, and aimed the hot melt gun at the approaching large creature and pulled the trigger.

Some of the burrowers that were still digging underground were lured to the surface, and they were greeted by the Space Marines' heavy blasts and multi-tube hot melts.

Some Space Marines in normal power armor activated their jetpacks and galloped around to help those tight fronts, and then to support other fronts when the situation eased.

These Space Marines boosted the morale of the defenders with their actions, allowing the original troops in the fortress to defend against the Tyranids without fear of threat or loss.

There are enough Astral Troops to be equipped to fight side by side on the protective walls. Explosive bombs and lasers fired from every firing port destroyed many of the Tyranid creatures that rushed towards the fortress.

The corpses of the Tyranids in front of the fortress are piled up, but the Tyranid creatures are still like cold killing machines, only charging and not caring about death.

This is a strategy of the Hive Will. By piling up the corpses of Tyranid creatures to create a ramp that leads to the protective wall.

But Taryn couldn't get close to the wall.

Under the high intensity of firepower, Tyron's strategy did not work much.

While an embankment made of a pile of Tyranid corpses provides a small shelter for the advancing swarm, there is still a clear killing field between it and the walls of the fortress.

It takes a long time for them to move forward a few meters. The slopes of the hill of corpses, which are paved with the bones of Tyranid creatures, are strictly controlled in height.

The corpses of Tyranid creatures in the heights were cleared by concentrated flamethrows, plasma, and molten bombs to stop the corpses from piling higher and higher.

The fortress is inviolable, and the Tyranny, almost infinite.

The two sides are locked in a brutal war of attrition. But slowly, the swarm weakened.

"Concentrate your firepower and destroy that Creature Titan!"

Miles gave a loud order in the communication channel, marking the giant Tyranid creature in the tactical display system.

It was a biological weapon towering over the battlefield, covered in thorns, tendrils, and symbiotic forms.

It is one of the largest creatures humans have encountered in the Tyranids to date, if not counting the bio-warships in space, and rivals the Imperial Titans in size and strength.

Few creatures can grow to such terrifying sizes. Protists in the galaxy have a hard time bearing such heavy organs and limbs. Of course, there are creatures that blatantly ignore such limits – and the orc Scrouc Behemoth is.

This massive creature is also incredibly powerful, equipped with the thickest chitin armor among Tyranid creatures, and is able to withstand massive amounts of damage. The Imperial Soldier's bombs and lasers were no lethal threat to it.

And like some large Tyranid creatures, this bio-Titan appears to be a combination of several Tyranid creatures that are so deeply combined that it is difficult to distinguish between them.

As a composite creature, these bio-titans are difficult to kill completely. Even if it is severely damaged, the various normal systems in the body are still functioning normally.

However, the last thing the Astral Army lacks is heavy firepower attacks.

Not to mention the Bio-Titan, it was a bio-warship in planetary orbit that was larger than its size, and it was also broken into pieces of minced flesh under the weapons of the Empire, burning like a meteor across the sky of the Long River Star.

The defensive lasers that were supposed to destroy the swarms in orbit were redirected at Miles' command, and most of these powerful weapons could only be fired a few times a day, but when they fired, they always took away at least one biological warship.

This anti-battleship-level weapon, used to attack the Bio-Titan, can be said to be a piece of cake.

As the laser weapon is fully charged, the Bio-Titan is shattered by the defensive laser, emitting a piercing scream.

Then, Miles noticed that the Tyranid creatures that had gathered in a large area around the Bio-Titans had suddenly lost their orderly pace.

The Tyranid creatures, who didn't seem to know what death was, even appeared as "deserters", and some spearworms chose to flee to the rear.

However, this behavior soon faded as a group of large Tyranid creatures approached, as if what had just happened was an illusion.

But Miles knew that this was not an illusion, it was the Achilles' heel of the Tyranid Zerg, which had not yet been discovered by humans.

In the previous battle with the Tyranid creatures, Miles was keenly aware of some phenomena similar to what had just happened, and just now ordered the soldiers to gather fire to kill the biological Titans, also to confirm his conjecture.

It turns out that just like the orcs, when the "leader" dies, these Tyranid creatures will also have a demoralized breakdown and no will to fight.

If this is true, then Tylen's hazard assessment will need to be re-examined.

Miles shared his suspicions on the communication channel to his officers, telling them to focus on eliminating the large Tyranid creatures.

Compared to the swarms of small Tyranid creatures, there are very few large creatures in Tyranid creatures. Imperial soldiers kill them faster than they appear.

The attack of the swarm quickly weakened.

This made Miles regret how he hadn't found out about this information sooner.

But this is not to blame Miles, after all, who would have thought that the easiest way to repel these Tyranid creatures would be to repel the orcs.

Whether it's covering the enemy with artillery fire in the face of a large number of enemies, or decapitating the enemy's "leader" to break the enemy's morale, the Empire's combat experience accumulated in the war with the orcs can be perfectly applied to the Tyranid Zerg from beyond the galaxy.

As Tyranid's creature retreated, Miles prepared to report his findings to his superiors.

............

Orcs emit a large number of reproductive spores into their surroundings at all times.

If an orc appears on a planet, the reproductive spores emitted by the orc will enter the soil and begin to reproduce.

The fungal communities produced by these reproductive spores have a self-consistent ecosystem, so that even lifeless planets that the Empire has determined to be dead can give birth to orcs.

When orc spores enter the topsoil, they begin to produce fungal hyphae that absorb essential nutrients, and then the first to break through the soil is the greenskin, and then Scrooge and the fart spirits crawl out of the mushrooms in batches.

The orcs take longer to mature, during which time the farts will keep the nutritious Scroog in captivity for the orcs to eat.

The birth of an orc is not only the birth of an orc, but also the birth of an ecological environment suitable for the survival of orcs.

Even in those worlds of the dead where the environment is extremely harsh, as the orc spores grow, the whole planet will eventually become "green".

The entire planet is covered with greenskins, and a steady stream of orcs grows out of the ground.

Let's call the series of behaviors of orc reproductive spores to modify the planetary environment "orcification" or "greenskinization".

So let's take a look at the Tyranid Zerg now.

If orcs can barely be called a civilization, then the Tyranids can only be called beasts, beasts driven by hunger.

They have no language, no faith, no technology. Instead of using any metal or plastic materials to build their ships and weapons, they use organic matter obtained from the world they devour.

Every organism weapon they use, every gland, and even every shelling projectile is an organism that exists in a unique form within the swarm.

In an invasion, everything from spores that pollution captures the target planet's atmosphere to strange spiral-shaped towers that rise from the twisted earth.

Fighting the Tyranid creatures is like fighting a tidal wave of pervasive alien ecosystems, each with its own way of killing people, from microbes to behemoths.

The alien microspores released by the Tyranids have continuously poisoned the entire planet, gradually transforming the entire planet into a restaurant suitable for the "meal" of the Tyranid creatures.

This kind of Tyranid modification of the planet's environment is what we call "Tyranidization".

At present, the Long River Star is in the process of this "Tyranization".

Each of the Tyranid Hive fleet's biochemical warships spawn an infinite number of simple variants of spore creatures, each adapting to perform one of many missions.

These creatures may lack the adaptability and predatory intelligence of more advanced biomorphic forms, but they are just as deadly to the prey of hive fleets.

From the most basic level, tiny pollutant spores released into the planet's atmosphere are enough to degrade the air itself, which matures to the point where it is digested and absorbed by the hive fleet.

And as Tylen creatures kept dropping airdrop sacs and spores on the Long River Star, some spore smoke sacs grew on the Long River Star.

They are made up of a group of fast-growing colonies that draw nutrients from the planet's epidermis and minerals from the floor rock layers to form a coral-like skeletal structure on which the thallus grows.

Mature fungal colonies will expel fist-sized, tight-skinned spheres. They burst when they are fully mature, scattering millions of spores into the wind.

Spore sacs can grow up to hundreds of meters, allowing the spores to travel far away with the wind. The behavior of insects and birds also accelerates the spread of this spores across the planet.

This spore will play a variety of roles in the Tarranization process of the planet.

For example, when in contact with any form of flora, the spores will operate in a catalytic mode. This will stimulate growth hormone in the plant, which will increase the plant's ability to divide cells exponentially.

The spores are also able to establish a symbiotic relationship to infect plant fruits in a manner similar to that of a virus. At the same time, this mechanism also stimulates the Tyranid plant lifeforms, which are also decomposing matter on the planet.

Under the action of spores, plants absorb nutrients from the soil at an alarming rate and grow. It is then harvested by swarms of rippers. But they will soon grow again until all the essential minerals and nutrients have been extracted from the soil.

In addition to the catalytic mode for plants, these spores also have harvesting patterns for animals.

In harvest mode, necrotic spores are extremely dangerous for fauna, and if inhaled, they take root in the animal's respiratory system, replicate themselves at an alarming rate, and suffocate the animal in a short period of time.

Larger animals can also become infected with spores by eating infected fruits or hosts. They attack their host through the gastrointestinal tract.

Excessive thirst appears to be a symptom of the final stages of infection, causing these organisms, which have become hosts and spread spores, to congregate around drinking water sources.

But soon the drinking water will be poisoned by algae and the infected animals will be forced to find new sources of water.

Eventually, these animals will die as the fungus continues to digest and grow their bodies, or they will desperately find the Tyranid digester due to thirst, and then be thrown into it by the Tyranid creatures.

General Wadez was infected by this spor.

If he dies as a result of the spores, the spores in his body will dig a taproot deep into the ground and begin to grow towards the sky.

As a result, with each death, hundreds or thousands of spore infected people spread from their original source, and the radius of influence expands.

The rate of spread depends on the resistance of local organisms to spores, as well as how lively the atmosphere of the area is. But it can develop at a rapid pace on many carriers and has an extremely strong diffusion ability.

In addition to these, the spores of some Tyranid creatures pose a threat to the Empire's mechanical or electronic devices.

During the battle with the Tyranid creatures, some Imperial soldiers will display clusters of impurity-like spots on their displays, and the engines of some aerial gunboats or warplanes will make abnormal noises due to Tyranid microbes blocking the air intakes.

They corrupt and erode the Empire's equipment, causing the sophisticated weapons in the hands of the Empire's soldiers to malfunction frequently.

How to deal with this kind of "Tyranization" of the entire planet is a problem that Changhe Star has to consider.