I am the Emperor of Humanity across the Multiverse

The threat was neutralized.

Second Squad of the Hunters escorted the four engineers into the open area, where they regrouped and advanced to the tightly sealed control room doors.

After a quick inspection, Vulkan tapped the door with his left hand, gauging its strength. He then gripped his frost hammer with both hands and reminded everyone, "Stay at a safe distance."

With that, Vulkan raised the hammer and slammed it into the gap between the doors.

Boom—Bang—!!!

The supposedly solid and sturdy doors were blown open by the sheer force of the hammer.

Thud! Thud!

The moment the door shattered, nine Hunters rushed into the control room, weapons at the ready.

Inside, the Reapers stationed at the control consoles—terrified by the breach—tried to flee.

Bang! Bang!

A few precise bursts from gauss rifles tore through the Reapers' limbs, disabling them instantly.

Though Reapers lacked vocal cords, their twisted, struggling bodies gave the impression of silent, heart-wrenching screams.

"Clear."

The Hunters, long accustomed to such scenes, simply reported the situation and spread out across the spacious control room to maintain security.

The reason they didn't finish off the Reapers was purely practical—those capable of piloting the mothership were valuable for research, and mercy had nothing to do with it.

Once the area was secured, the four engineers entered the control room one by one, pulling out military-grade tablets and laptops to begin the hacking process.

Thud, thud.

Vulkan slowly approached one of the engineers, glancing at the laptop screen, which was barely the size of his hand, and asked, "How much time do you need?"

"If we were just implanting a virus to disable the mothership's systems, it would only take thirty seconds. But we're aiming to take full control, so it'll be at least six minutes."

"Good. Continue," Vulkan said as he opened his internal comms. "Brother, everything is going smoothly on our end. Six more minutes."

"Understood."

Hearing Saint Giles' typically cold reply, Vulkan didn't say more. He turned and left the control room, coordinating with the elite members of First and Second Squad to defend the engineers and ensure a secure working environment.

Meanwhile...

The Reaper soldier ants from other parts of the ship tried to retake the area, but with Vulkan—a seemingly immovable "mountain"—their efforts ended in repeated failure.

At the same time, about 300 kilometers away, where the main strike force was engaged:

Boom! Boom!

Explosions echoed constantly.

Bang! Bang bang!

The sound of gunfire never ceased.

The defensive line, held by ODST and AECS elites, was gradually being compressed by the overwhelming, death-defying swarms of Reaper soldier ants.

Jains' platoon had already retreated from the right side of the tower and regrouped near the landing zone, using triangular, low-rise structures as cover while continuing their firefight with the approaching soldier ants less than a kilometer away.

At that moment...

"Medic! Medic, please!" a rifleman's pained cry echoed over the comms.

?

Hearing this, Jains, who was in the middle of reloading his BFG plasma rifle, glanced at the health monitor on his helmet's screen, which displayed his squad's status. Originally, there had been over 40 green icons, but now only 26 remained. The rest were either black, indicating death, or yellow and red, signifying serious or critical injuries.

Nearly half of them had been lost.

Though Jains had long accepted the realities of life and death, his anger was palpable.

Slamming the magazine into place and forcefully pulling the bolt, he leaned out from cover. Once his helmet's targeting system locked onto several enemies, he gritted his teeth, shouting, "Die! Just die, you bastards!!"

Pew! Pew! Pew!

Bright blue plasma bolts streaked across the battlefield, accurately piercing and melting through more than a dozen soldier ants.

Click. Click!

Hearing the empty chamber signal, Jains quickly pulled back behind cover.

He pressed the magazine release, letting the spent battery pack drop to the ground, and used his left hand to grab the last spare magazine from his utility pouch.

However, before firing again, Jains quickly relocated to where the rifleman who had cried out over comms was lying.

The soldier had fallen unconscious, his entire left arm and shoulder severely burned by energy rounds. Parts of the skin were charred black, with some tissues reduced to cinders. Turning to the medic, who wore white-marked shoulder armor, Jains asked, "How's he doing?"

"He'll live, but his arm is gone for good."

As the medic replied, he pulled out a spray bottle, applying a translucent foam gel to the rifleman's shoulder and arm to slow the worsening of the injury.

"..."

Jains nodded silently, then zoomed out his helmet's tactical map to assess the battlefield's overall situation.

They were now fully pinned down at the edge of the landing zone. The surrounding friendly forces were also struggling, with only a few green dots standing out in a sea of red.

One of those green dots was moving at an incredible speed, seemingly flying solo.

Switching to a shared drone feed, Jains could clearly see that those green dots represented Fulgrim, Leman, Angron, a reserve officer named Maggie Shaw (Queen Maeve), and a handful of superhuman AECS or ODST operatives, as well as the biologically enhanced soldier boys.

As for the "friendly" unit flying solo, it was a bioweaponized, mindless "Homelander."

Bzzzzt—!

Just as Jains switched to the drone's view, he witnessed Homelander lower his altitude and fire two laser beams, cutting down a swath of Reaper soldier ants.

However, Homelander had become a prime target, taking fire from tens of thousands of energy bolts.

Suddenly...

Boom—Boom!

Several massive energy blasts struck Homelander just as he attempted to ascend.

Green explosions consumed the bioweapon in an instant, and the plasma from the blast spread, forcing Jains to duck out of the way.

"Damn!" Jains cursed, quickly switching off the drone feed. He shouted over the comms, "All units, be advised! The enemy seems to have acquired heavy artillery support! Watch out for artillery strikes!"

He muttered to himself, "Damn it, I should've saved a couple of those metallic hydrogen missiles. Who would've thought those scum would keep spawning like they're endless—"

"Hey!"

Before he could finish venting, he was interrupted by a message over the public channel:

"This is Captain Haviro Noryan. The Reaper mothership's anti-air defenses have been completely disabled by the engineers. The Dawn's carrier-based aircraft are about to arrive above the landing zone, and they'll be delivering a bombing special to those scum. Hang in there!"

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