Chapter 523 The Arrival of the Big Predator (5K4)
-
Salva Gent took a piece of cardboard from his deputy.
This is a light yellow card, beautifully printed, with the Imperial Eagle and the emblem of the Supreme Military Council of Cadia on it. The holder's appearance and identity information are written below. More importantly, It stated the ration quota that the holder could collect from the regional central strategic warehouse where wartime rationing had been implemented. Normally, injured and disabled soldiers or people with civilian occupations can only get 40% or even 30% of their rations at this time, but this card has the words 90% printed on it.
"It's printed well." He turned the card over and over to look at the light, and finally threw the card back into the open wooden box aside - there was a whole box of such cards in the box, and this one There are dozens of large boxes like this next to the wooden box.
His deputy Carl Petzen laughed, "Of course, boss, after all we are using 'real' templates. Those fools probably thought that the transport truck was hit by a stray bullet on the way to the mint." "
Gent snorted coldly. "Have all the bodies of those soldiers been disposed of?"
Patzen nodded, "It's wartime now, there's chaos everywhere, and there's a lack of security inside the city and factory areas. It's too easy to dispose of them. ."
"That's good." Gent took a final look at the boxes, "Karl, let's hide half of them first, and we can trade the other half along the way."
" Okay. But boss, if you hide it..."
He didn't finish his sentence.
Because he was bold, had a keen sense of smell, and had been carrying their leader who had recently made a fortune. For the first time, an emotion close to "awe" appeared in his eyes, and at the same time he noticed that his Something seemed to be covering behind him.
He turned around.
A look of awe and panic also appeared on the face of this notorious and cruel thug.
————————————
Captain Marda Helske, along with her commander Colonel Baratus, were asked to lead their Cadian 24th Regiment in the Delvian Gorge.
Static defense, non-active attack, is what Creed said, because this is the Clough War Zone, or in other words, the only transportation link to the west of Clough Fort - in Cadia's terms - Road, easy to defend but difficult to attack, if any enemy tries to attack from the west Cloughburg, then they would definitely choose to go this route, which is fine, it would give Captain Heilsk the heroic fighting she wanted - except it's very cold here, and the 24th Regiment still hasn't recovered since it set out and was stationed there. I have seen any winter military uniform approved by the Ministry of Military Affairs.
Despite this, they still followed the training they had received, building fortifications in an orderly manner, setting up machine guns and barbed wire, and arranging patrols and lookout posts. The rest braved the cold wind and carried guns on their backs. Foxholes and trenches were dug with difficulty with shovels on the frozen soil.
Captain Hailske is supervising the excavation work of her subordinates. She is still a little uneasy. On the one hand, it is too cold here. On the other hand, she is also very aware of the strength of her troops. The 24th Regiment The men and women were good people, but they started too hastily.
The 24th Regiment was originally responsible for guarding the interior of the city, so they actually did not have many heavy weapons, but a lot of light weapons and street fighting fortifications. Moreover, they especially lacked the mobile fire support of various large vehicles. They are all light infantry, and this is also reflected in their regimental flag. This is a very ordinary regimental flag without distinction or honor. Only the number "XXIV" on it can represent the 24th regiment.
Captain Helske knew that Colonel Baratus had tried to protest to the High Lord Creed, but it was obvious that the latter's will and pressure were stronger and heavier.
So until just now, they were freezing in the cold wind here with runny noses, while waiting for the enemy or the logistics supplies to come to warm them up first.
But there is no suspense about this matter now. Colonel Baratus has just summoned them and announced what they will face next: "The Voskani Heavy Armored Corps, our opponent, Tai The murderer of Rock Plain, the traitor and murderer who killed Governor Polska. Lord Creed told me that our opponents are them."
All soldiers who are tired from hunger and cold. The eyes are brightened and they join the fight. This is what every Cadian has been instilled in them since they were young. They are not afraid of fighting, and it would be better if the opponent is such a notorious traitor regiment, maybe. The 24th Regiment can add something to their flag after this battle.
“...He gave each of us great greetings and firm confidence. He believed that our 24th Regiment could hold the key pass on this highway...The strength of the Voskani was approximately Twenty thousand, maybe thirty thousand, fast attack cavalry and light armored vehicles.”
The excited discussion below decreased. The 24th Regiment only had 3,000 officers, which meant that it was almost ten to one. Although the Cadians were not afraid of fighting or enemies, this ratio was a bit too high.
"They once received military training in Cadia, so they know our tactics very well, which will also make it very difficult for them," Baratus coughed here, Captain Helsk's brain Humming, she felt that the colonel was also asking the soldiers listening below to digest, because she also felt that they needed to digest, "...If Creed's judgment is correct, our air support will not be deployed. In other words, We're going to hold this on our own until the last laser, the last grenade, the last man, and if necessary, the last foxhole, which is critical to holding the west side of the wall, and he believes we can hold it. "
Colonel Baratus smiled, and the old man's gray hair was slightly exposed under his military cap.
He coughed and took out a roll of crumpled paper from the brim of his military cap. "As everyone knows, I am sometimes sentimental and will poison everyone's ears with poetry."
There was sparse laughter from below, but Captain Hailske saw the tears in the corners of the old man's eyes.
"But I hope this poem will serve as a comfort and peace of mind to you, so that your souls will not be disturbed by the orders we have received."
Then he began to speak to the box that his lieutenant had brought for him. The hymn loudspeaker chants:
“This is no foxhole,
This is the fertile soil of my home world.
I scatter this fertile soil in my On top of the soldier's coffin in front of him
Those soldiers standing on the embankment, holding laser guns,
and telling the eyes that it cannot own our future.
This is not a foxhole, this is Minecraft.
This is not a foxhole, this is my home.
A place where I live and laugh together with my comrades,
It is a void, but it will never feel empty within it, for we have filled it with light and courage,
It is here that I watch as we, you, and them, return to the glory of the Emperor.
This is not a foxhole, this is my home.
This is not a foxhole, this is my fortress.
It is home, it is the world, it is the bastion dug by my own hands,
It is a legacy passed down to me, allowing me to face the sharp edge of the enemy,
As we always do, I will not turn away from it, I will not abandon it,
I will not take a step back, For I have dug my fortress and I will hold it.
Because this isn't a foxhole - this is my grave. "
After Colonel Baratus finished reading, there was silence. Captain Helske felt adrenaline pouring into her blood vessels and making her boil, while the chill of death gripped her stomach, making her scalp numb and widened. Eyes.
It was a really good poem, and at this time, indeed, the soldiers were shaken.
Captain Helske realized that she should seize this moment.
She strode forward and shouted, "Twenty-four regiments! Fight!" Thousands of eyes stared at her, she repeated it again, and this time there was a response, "Twenty-four regiments! Regiment!"
"Speak louder! Let the enemies on the track hear it! We are the 24th Regiment of Cadia!"< br>
The voice became excited, "Twenty-fourth regiment! Fight!"
But this passionate note failed to bring a perfect ending. The soldiers closed their mouths and stared at the sky on the horizon.
Captain Halsk turned around hastily——
At first, she thought she saw a good omen, the Eye of Terror—the ominous thing that the Cadian people could see day and night. Composed of light, it began to disappear for the first time in her memory, changing like the sun in a total solar eclipse...
Perhaps the Emperor—the Holy Emperor took action—? He heard their prayers, He exerted His divine power, He turned off the Eye of Fear... They may not have to-
But then, above their heads, representatives began to burn from the edge. The orbital platform of red flames of destruction and carnage, and the increasingly obvious and huge thing behind it, covering the entire southern sky with its ominous silhouette -
Eight-pointed star shape.
Blackstone Fortress.
The big plunderer is coming.
————————————
The scene with Abaddon was more like a warlord bragging about his results, force and the depth of his depravity (they called it When the so-called war meeting finally ended, Robert Guilliman, or in other words, "Mercurius" admitted that he was relieved and hurriedly followed Honso out of the conference room door.
——Although from the bottom of his heart, he wanted it more——he wanted it very much——he felt that at this distance of just one conference hall, even if he did not have his own armor of reason and dagger of glory, Guilliman felt that He was also able to rush to the Great Reaver before any traitor heretic could stop him, and smash his blasphemous head, engraved with the eight-pointed star of Chaos, with a single blow of his fist.
The Potion Master obviously guessed part of the original body's thoughts. He looked back and pretended to be his own champion, adjusting the drug delivery pipe of the power armor - Guilliman felt a slight coolness like a summer day. Like spring water pouring into his veins from the injection port on his wrist, he calmed down and patted the Iron Warrior Apothecary's gauntlet to signal that he understood.
Honso is right. Killing Abaddon will only make the situation develop in a more confusing direction. So it is better to fish in troubled waters in the current relatively clear and general situation and see what you can do. What - Others may often ignore the name Shiron, but Guilliman has a very good memory. He always remembers that there is a ninth lord under Abaddon - Shiron, and he judges that Shiron is most likely a spy. Master, or rather, member of the Alpha Legion.
It is worse that the members of the Alpha Legion are not in the conference hall at this moment than in the conference hall.
They are heading to the hangar, preparing to board the Thunderhawk back to the Indomitable Star Fortress. The reason they gave others for leaving is that "they need to go back first to prepare the airborne and offensive forces."
This is also natural, because the resolutions of the just-concluded meeting except that Urkanthos couldn't wait to be the vanguard to airborne to kill, but was stopped by Abaddon's voice with the power of the four gods (this gave Guilliman Also left a deep impression), other things can basically be summarized as follows:
1. The Daughter of the Black Stone or the Shadow Witch - the fortress interaction controller girl who implanted a large number of black stones, proposed that she can make the eternal will The ship was fully charged, and fired a subspace beam main gun orbital shot at Cadia's main defense area - the same main gun that vaporized most of the fleet when they came. According to her assurance to the Warmaster, she said that the power of the cannon was only half at that time. As long as one shot was fired at the headquarters and the main defense of Clough Castle, the void shield would not be able to withstand such a terrifying and pure subspace torrent. , after destroying the headquarters, they can get twice the result with half the effort and land on Cadia to do whatever they want.
2. Abaddon seemed to have finally agreed to the proposal, but he also explained the original plan as a backup plan in case the Eternal Will's main gun failed. This plan is very simple and not difficult. Lords Even the most brainless beastmen in the world can understand: Attacks are carried out from all directions around the Cloughburg area, from southeast to northwest. Each team has been arranged by the warmaster to have one or two people on the Cadia ground to defend in the corresponding direction. combat opponent.
3. The Warmaster did not mention the next movements of his own team of elite terminators, but he did allow Urkanthos to be the first to lead the Abaddon Hounds warband to attack the gang first. Cadia's orbital defense platform to give the Eternal Will and subsequent airdrop pods the best shooting view; then everyone else received their landing sites and the names of their opponents, as Red Pirate reinforcements rather than Black Legion's One of them, unlike Honso who had never fought alongside or against the Sons of Horus, Robert Mercurius Guilliman's first instant reaction when he heard the name Abaddon assigned to their opponent was "As expected."
4. The landing point and targets of Colom Gate, who is also a war blacksmith, were announced very vaguely, only saying that they would carry out their own missions. This made Guilliman keenly feel that something was not right, but Honso said that he was not familiar with this Iron Warrior - the Iron Warriors had too many great companies at that time, more than a hundred, maybe even two hundred. , he was born after the rebellion. It would be strange if he rashly tried to establish relations here, so Guilliman gave up.
------------------- If the situation of fighting on their own continues like this, they will definitely lose."
Having obtained some combat data from Abaddon, Honso obtained it as quickly as possible and in some less honorable ways when he returned. After some additional memory information, Guilliman came to this conclusion by combining the array scan data at the scene and the communication data they secretly intercepted using the Indomitable's Imperial code that had not yet expired.
“Their current Supreme Lord is more like a commander who could only command operations with a smaller number of personnel. Although I can see that he has talent, indeed, he has to come up with no experience. Commanding such a large-scale battle, and the opponent is Abaddon... I don't know which side is more... bad."
"You should not be more cruel to our 'enemies' and our 'allies'. Be more confident instead of being so pessimistic? ”
The War Blacksmith is issuing orders to his Iron Warriors and Sword Dancers. The Pirate Queen has also followed them this time. Her fleet now serves as the escort of the Indomitable, like small fish next to the giant whale shark. The same surrounds the Star Castle.
Guilliman glared at Honso in annoyance and amusement, and the latter bowed politely to the Primarch.
"For example, here." The original body with the appearance of the devil's apostle adjusted the display light of the holographic sand table to vertical, then enlarged certain areas and showed it to the war blacksmith by pointing with his fingertips.
“Only infantry is arranged here but not a heavy firepower team of the Adeptus Astartes... It is very unreasonable and shows that the commander is inexperienced or has other problems.”
“ Maybe it’s because I was in a hurry and my relationships and relationships haven’t had time to develop.”
"But this is the army! This is war! I'm just...and here...it's just crazy. What's the point of deploying so many fighter groups swarming over this plain? Horrible scheduling design, I bet they don't There is no general dispatcher to stipulate a basic route occupancy map, and the poor officers who make decisions have no understanding of the actual operations of the airport ground handling front line. Operational efficiency!"
"Oh, poor Imperial birds, what model is this? Valkyrie? There are some Avengers attack aircraft, right?"
Honsou also came over. As a commander who, although he did not know it himself, actually had the talent to command sector-level battles, he could immediately see it as long as Guilliman gave him a little clue. "Their approach will make these fighter jets unable to enter the field in time to replace pilots and replenish ammunition after releasing their weapons and ammunition. They can only hover in the sky and consume air. At the same time, they will be unable to face the enemy's air power." Fight back, and because there is no replenishment of ammunition, it is impossible to support the surrounding areas that need support. This large-scale air battle looks beautiful, but in fact it is all The flaw of wishful thinking."
"Yes," Guilliman said grimly, "and what Abaddon has in store for them is..."
Honso grunted, "It's a bird of prey. , those ferocious, bloodthirsty and extremely flexible mutant birds of the Night Lords - I haven't had time to get one or two, they are too flexible, but I saw them."
The Primarch of the Ultramarines snorted from his nostrils in as disrespectful a voice as a Primarch could allow. Apparently, there was some ancient grudge between him and the Eighth Legion unknown to Honso.
"The pathetic and depraved children of Curz, like their father..."
The Potion Master interrupted the Primarch's growl just in time, "We have been assigned to the landing site It's the attack zone south of the city wall. What do you think?"
The Primarch of the Ultramarines glanced at him quickly, and a bad feeling came to the Warsmith's mind.
“What are you going to do?!”
"I can't stand it anymore. Soldiers should die from bullets fired from the front on the battlefield, not from hidden guns from behind. - I want to save what I can save."
"Oh, no, steel The supreme roar of the Lord." Hongsuo murmured. He punched his medical-gauntleted hand hard.
And one of the most incredible and greatest strategic calculation minds in the galaxy could not wait to bend down and let Hestian, the wise angel next to him, reopen multiple holographic sandboxes and start preparing for their "enemy" "Carefully look for any unobtrusive possibility of victory despite defeat.
(End of this chapter)