The Emperor’s Angel of Death

Corresponding to the massive infantry was an equally massive armored and artillery force. The heavy tanks alone, including the Carnodon tanks, Leman Russ tanks, and Krieg's unique Doomsday Arquebus tanks, numbered 12,911. Light armored vehicles, such as Chimeras, totaled 31,221. There were 20,178 towed heavy artillery pieces of various types, 12,387 self-propelled artillery vehicles, including Basilisk and Wyvern self-propelled mortars, and 4,184 Hydra flak guns. Additionally, there were 2,200 super-heavy tanks of various models. It could be said that all of the armored forces Sotha Nul could mobilize were deployed on Amara Prime, with only militias, their light weapons, and some support weapons remaining on the other planets.

But even with such formidable firepower, and having prepared for bombing and air raids in advance, over 5 million troops were directly annihilated in their garrisons and bunkers by the Necron's air raids and incursions within the first 8 hours of the attack. In the subsequent defensive battles, the casualty figures soared to over 20 million. By the end of the counter-offensive phase, the estimated number of ground troops killed on Amara Prime exceeded 17 million, with over 21 million wounded and disabled. This meant a casualty rate approaching 50%. However, this was only an estimate, as the currently accounted-for units represented less than 40% of the original force, so the actual casualty rate was certainly higher than 50%.

Accompanying the personnel losses was a massive loss of equipment. Over half of the heavy tanks were lost, and only one-third of the artillery remained. Even cherished assets like super-heavy tanks suffered a quarter loss.

Compared to the ground forces, the aviation units fared even more tragically, as they had to face the enemy's fierce air raids in the earliest stages of the invasion, and had to proactively launch attacks with absolutely inferior performance to alleviate the pressure on the ground as much as possible.

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Before the war, the 41 large air bases on Amara Prime deployed over 4,600 aircraft of various types, mainly older Thunderbolt and Lightning fighters. After 42 hours of combat, all the air bases combined had only 415 aircraft remaining. Blood spilled in the sky was not just a metaphor, but a real occurrence. Even after the battle had continued for 38 hours, to compensate for the drastically reduced air power, some students from the Amara Aviation Academy who had not yet graduated flew the only training aircraft they had to the battlefield, and all 122 trainees ultimately died in combat.

But what truly infuriated Sotha Nul was that, despite the aviators' valor and fearlessness, the results were not very good. The recorded or witnessed Necron aircraft kill record was only 17.

Yes, the lives of several thousand human pilots may have only resulted in the loss of fewer than 20 enemy aircraft.

In other words, it was more like a one-sided massacre.

Human courage could not overcome the enormous difference in aircraft performance, which was what made Sotha Nul most angry and pained.

Things should not have been like this!

This was not only reflected in aviation, but in almost every battlefield. Humanity had won, but it was an ugly and painful victory.

In naval battles, only 36 enemy ships were marked as sunk, yes, a mere 36 ships, including that crashed Tomb Ship.

The enemy-to-friendly loss ratio was close to 8:1!

And the Imperium was still the defender, with the advantage of local defense facilities and having made sufficient preparations, yet it still produced a loss ratio that chilled the blood of every Imperial Navy commander. If the tonnage difference was taken into account, then the number would only be uglier.

The ground combat situation was also not good. Although the enemy's casualties were difficult to count, there was a rough estimate of the number of enemy equipment destroyed.

The number of Obelisks witnessed being destroyed was less than 60, and the large constructs were even fewer, only 31. The number of gunboats and anti-gravity transport vehicles destroyed, after scattered statistics, was only about 200. Compared to the Imperium's thousands of armored vehicle losses, this was almost less than a fraction. And the destruction of those small infantry and constructs was meaningless, like scarabs, killing as many as you want is useless.

This was the truth of the victory, they simply drowned their opponents in blood.

But Sotha Nul could not accept it!

This was completely shameful! They should rack their brains to research and manufacture more powerful aircraft! More powerful warships! Better individual equipment and vehicles! Don't let this happen again!

However, Sotha Nul despairingly discovered that he seemed unable to do it.

The Imperium couldn't do it either.

Apart from praising sacrifices, erecting a few monuments, and promoting a few heroes, they could do nothing.

A new weapon, a new design, a new concept, seemed simple, but faced one insurmountable obstacle after another, including not only technical ones, but also political and even religious ones.

Even if Sotha Nul could do it, how could he prevent this from happening elsewhere in the Imperium?

He had also tried to promote the Carnodon tank, but in the past three years, Mars had issued seven written inquiries about the incident and the "unapproved and irregular equipment production" and other issues. If there had not been enough kickbacks, the matter might have been on the High Lords of Terra's table. But if Sotha Nul continued to promote the weapon to the Astra Militarum, Mars would turn hostile sooner or later.

This was the dilemma of doing anything in the Imperium, while in the Eternal Kingdom, he only needed a word to put wheels on all anti-gravity tanks!

Therefore, power was so tempting, whether the base or the noble needed it so much, the former needed it to achieve benefits, and the latter needed it to realize ideals.

Therefore, even more frustrated, Sotha Nul had to "gloss over the truth" in the short term when the technological gap could not be solved. He had to conceal the truth of the losses from the people, exaggerate the enemy's losses, reduce his own losses, portray the enemy as vulnerable, and make the people believe that the Necrons had been destroyed by the Imperium, and that they were scurrying away like the ridiculous villains in the stories.

Most people would enjoy the rest of their lives in ignorant bliss, while those of them who had to live long enough would face a dark future and the heaviest pressure.

So what else could be done?

Only carry on.

The only thing to be thankful for was that the Titan Legions performed well, and they also played a key role in the battle. Because of the relatively cautious deployment, their losses were relatively small. The Peregrine Lost one Warhound, mainly hit by the Nemesor constructs. These constructs were also witnessed for the first time, and the name was given by the Adeptus Mechanicus. Don't look at their size, which is about the same as a Knight, but their firepower is very exaggerated. According to research and judgment, the weapon is likely to be a singularity type, which in layman's terms is a black hole.

That's right, they used black hole weapons, which was very exaggerated, and thus could pose a threat to the Titans. Fortunately, the psychic properties of the void shields gave it some resistance to this weapon.

This also gave Sotha Nul a reminder that the void shield was the most effective means of defense against the Necrons. In the future, Orpheus must persist in resistance, and the primary task was to expand the production of void shield generators, as well as the research and expansion of related equipment.

The Phantom Legion also lost three engines, all Warhound class. As the Titan Legion of Ulannhuda, this was also the first time they appeared in public, but they hung the flags of other forge worlds. As for the slightly unique shape, it could only be explained as legion characteristics. Anyway, it was all trivial to Sotha Nul now.