The End of the Universe Is Melee Combat

"Commendable courage, but utterly foolish."

"Human wave tactics are indeed an ancient philosophy of war. They would not become obsolete in the thirty-first millennium, nor even in the more distant future."

"It is a universal playing card that can produce good results when paired with any other card. But played alone, it is pure stupidity."

Through the scanning array, Lox saw the tide-like masses of enemies surging toward them and gave his assessment in an indifferent tone.

He found that these primitive Aeldari possessed an air entirely unlike that of the cunning Craftworld Aeldari.

There was the naive assumption that everything would go as expected, along with the simple-mindedness of knowing nothing about their enemy.

They thought that gathering an army of several million Pandora beasts would be enough to flatten humanity’s forward base? In human eyes, that was an exceedingly ridiculous joke.

All it would take was a single salvo from the massive long-range artillery at the rear, followed by the suppressive fire of Thunderhawk gunships and Tengu Mechs in the sky. No number of Pandora beasts could cross that line of death.

The Pandora creatures did possess their own unique qualities. Through dissection, Lox had discovered what made them special: their skeletons were generally composed of carbon-fiber material, and their average muscle density was ten times that of a human’s. That meant they were far more ferocious than most creatures humanity had encountered.

But what did that matter?

They had no way to withstand humanity’s saturated long-range firepower. Steel and flame would teach these brainless beasts what a generational gap in warfare truly meant.

Even for gene-enhanced warriors created by the Emperor, such as the Space Marines, their greatest strength was not the sheer toughness of their bodies, but their battlefield survivability, adaptability, and capacity to learn.

Lox did not even see a trace of psychic shields among these primitive Aeldari. These cousins of the Craftworld Aeldari seemed incapable of using psychic power, or unwilling to use the power they had been gifted with.

That might have been related to that Warp god. Lox clearly remembered the scene he had seen in Trazyn’s museum: the first cry of a Warp deity had buried the Aeldari Empire.

"Should we deploy ship-based neutron bombs? We have already targeted the center of their beast horde." Hill remained calm and composed as ever, speaking the coldest words in a gentle tone.

A neutron bomb was a nuclear weapon whose primary killing power came from high-energy neutron radiation. By the thirty-first millennium, humanity had long since turned nuclear weapons, superweapons born in the second millennium, into an endless variety of forms. Unlike nuclear weapons in the conventional sense, neutron bombs did not release much energy.

Whether in energy release, shockwaves, light radiation, thermal radiation, or radioactive contamination, they were all far inferior to the tactical man-portable miniature nuclear weapons used by Imperial forces.

The instant explosion released an immense amount of high-energy neutron radiation. Any carbon-based life struck by it would face the miserable fate of having its genetic chains disintegrate.

Enemies struck by neutron bombs would suffer genetic collapse, their cells and flesh coming apart in a horrifying spectacle. Their bodies would dissolve into pools of blood. They were devastating against living organisms yet had relatively little environmental impact, making them a comparatively "clean" tactical weapon.

It could be said that with a simple nod from Lox, a high-yield neutron bomb could fall from orbit and kill the overwhelming majority of the beast tide.

But he did not do so.

"While that would eliminate these enemies, their will to fight would remain. The surviving primitive Aeldari would hide in these forests and continue their stubborn resistance, waging guerrilla warfare against us."

"Not to mention the Craftworld Aeldari. I do not believe they would stand by and watch if the primitive Aeldari were about to be wiped out. Those damned bean sprouts are still quite united at times like this."

Lox had to consider more than merely defeating the enemy. More importantly, he needed to resolve the problem once and for all.

He had no desire to see these primitive Aeldari break into scattered groups and periodically return to harass and disrupt their production.

The best approach, then, was to grant the primitive Aeldari their wish and fight them in a brutal, honest war.

Did they not want to wage war with cavalry tactics combined with human wave tactics? Lox would oblige them.

He would utterly shatter their confidence and fighting spirit in the manner they wanted, in the field where they excelled most.

"The age of the Aeldari is over. If they willingly leave this territory that belongs to humanity, perhaps I can spare them. But since they refuse, they should obediently go die."

Lox waved a hand, and Hill immediately began deploying the warriors within the forward base according to his intentions.

Still, one could despise the enemy strategically while respecting them tactically. Lox was also concerned that these legendary descendants of the creators might produce some unexpected special means.

The Aeldari were an ancient race that had once fought the Necrons. After assessing their odds of victory, the rulers of the Necron dynasties had even chosen to avoid their edge, entering slumber and waiting for the Aeldari to destroy themselves through their own corruption.

Perhaps they themselves had been weapons of war created by the creators, though the primitive Aeldari might have been the weakest, most ignorant, and most naive kind among those weapons.

"Oh, and have the Psyker squads from the Troy Librarius and our anti-psyker squads remain on standby. I do not know whether the Craftworld Aeldari will show up again to stir the pot as they always do."

The Craftworld Aeldari had a long record of misdeeds. Those mysterious figures often appeared in certain places for no apparent reason, then carried out inscrutable actions according to their prophecies.

To be safe, Lox decided to keep the trump cards in his hand hidden for a while longer. If the Craftworld Aeldari failed to recognize what was good for them, then they could only fight a battle here as well.

Humanity had answered the primitive Aeldari’s challenge. The war had begun.

The unquestioned main force on the frontal battlefield was the Ultramarines. Guilliman had dispatched a full thousand elite Ultramarines, all powerful warriors clad in adamantine power armor and armed to the teeth.

Aside from the Ultramarines still stationed aboard the orbital cruisers, more than nine hundred elite veterans now held the ground battlefield.

Hill commanded these combat operations. Even while fighting, his multithreaded mind could direct the entire battle at once.

The Ultramarines held their iconic storm shields in one hand. These iron bulwarks, forged from adamantine alloyed with ceramite, had brutally repelled the World Eaters’ assault during the Battle of Amattra.

At the outer edge of humanity’s forward base, the enormous craters blasted out by orbital bombardment had become the first line of defense. The defenders had linked them together, forming a trench line resembling the moats of ancient times.

War fortresses built from steel and high-strength concrete were spread across the rear. These large strongpoints were firmly nailed onto the map, creating an arcing defensive line capable of drawing the enemy in.

Numerous high-powered sentry guns turned their barrels around. These guns could destroy troop-carrier-class vehicles and, when elevated, could even shoot down Thunderhawk gunships. Using them against flesh-and-blood beasts now was complete overkill.

To inflict the greatest possible losses upon the enemy in this largest-scale meat grinder war, Lox had specifically constructed Tesla Arc towers crackling with blinding electricity atop several highlands, along with prism towers that constantly rotated and could refract and focus lasers.

The White Scars had all boarded their Tengu Mechs. They prowled the high skies in groups, guarding against the enemy’s vast swarms of flying beasts.

At the limit of human sight, a tall figure riding a bipedal dragon slowly appeared. He wore fully enclosed power armor belonging to the primitive Aeldari, and two antler-like horns extended from the helmet over his forehead. One hand gripped the reins on the dragon’s back, while the other held a massive lance.

Some kind of psychic device seemed to have amplified his voice, for the dragon rider’s roars and demands even carried into humanity’s forward base.

Somewhat unexpectedly, the primitive Aeldari spoke High Gothic, the standard language of the Imperium. His pronunciation and intonation were even superior to those of most Imperial civilians. At the very least, Lox could not hear a single strange accent.

"Humans, Pandora is our homeland. You are not welcome here."

"You are hateful and shameless invaders. All of this is unjust."

The dragon rider’s voice was crisp and resounding, his breath long and steady. Their powerful physical constitution made even ordinary speech sound like a solemn declaration.

He raised the dragon lance in his hand and pointed it toward the surging beast tide stretching beyond sight behind him.

"Everything on this planet—its creatures, its land, its air—will resist to the end. You will gain nothing, while we, the brave primitive Aeldari, will win this righteous war of defense."

Lox merely sighed. Language could not resolve the conflict between them.

Now, only war remained.