Chapter 1724 Unfavorable start
“The situation does not seem very optimistic.”
In the command bridge of the Tiens Chapter’s flagship, the battle barge Sakalen, there are soldiers wearing different uniforms The regiment's servants and staff were busy working or walking around. The regiment's command and senior officers of the Astra Militarum were gathered around the huge display. On it was a slowly rotating green projection of the planet, with each unit accurately marked. The location of the enemy's stronghold and the location of the enemy's stronghold are now no longer dazzling red on the planet.
As he spoke, the war leader Saul pointed to an area marked gray on the imager.
“Although the enemy’s core stronghold group on Glory III has been removed, there are still some underground bunkers that the army is clearing. In this general attack, the Cadian Legion suffered approximately 190,000 casualties. The Krieg Legion suffered approximately 360,000 casualties, and other Astra Militarum forces also suffered 210,000 casualties. In addition to the losses caused by attacking other strongholds on the planet, after two weeks of fighting, the Astra Militarum had a total of approximately 2.1 million casualties, of which approximately 1.1 million were killed. , 300,000 people were severely disabled.”
As the number of casualties was reported, the dim light reflected by the continuously rotating imaging device also made the expression of Commander Raif Mensah, the chapter leader of the Tianshi Chapter and the commander of the Maelstrom Second Theater, look gloomy. The weather is uncertain.
“.And the brothers of the chapter also lost 39 people, mainly the second and third companies.”
After hearing this, Raif Mensah couldn’t bear it anymore. The fist hit the edge of the imaging device, causing the metal frame to make a dull sound and making the entire display blurry.
The staff on the bridge briefly glanced at the monitor at that moment. They had never seen the gentle Chapter Master so angry, but they immediately looked back, Continue your almost endless work.
“Damn it! How could there be so many casualties!”
"Chapter Commander, let's just say that the enemy is at the core of Glory III. This is a huge fortress group with a diameter of more than fifty kilometers. Not only does it have solid fortifications, void shield generators, and high-power laser sequences on the surface, but it also has complex underground structures. The transportation network reaches a maximum depth of 3 kilometers and is connected by rails, allowing its troops to be mobilized quickly. Although the naval force bombed it for a long time and destroyed a considerable part of the ground facilities, the underground part still exists. The enemy is guarding every inch of the land, and the soldiers' attack will cost a lot."
At this time, the war leader Wakambe also said:
"And after these two weeks. Observing, I found that the enemy's tactics were very strange. They did not concentrate their forces to counterattack our landing troops, or they concentrated on the main strongholds. Almost every stronghold was defended by relatively complete forces, and their defensive strategy was not to defend any place. , all deployments are to kill people as much as possible, even their heretical space warriors will not show up before the stronghold falls. It is not until the stronghold is almost fallen that they suddenly rush out and use the narrow terrain to kill us, such as the Kree The 912th Regiment was ambushed by Heretic Space Marines from underground passages when attacking a medium-sized stronghold. Although the enemy was finally eliminated, the entire army was almost wiped out. I feel that the enemy's core strategy is to use all means to kill and injure our personnel. , It seems that they have known for a long time that they cannot defend here."
"In fact, we should not send troops to attack many strongholds at all."
War leader Dakenlai crossed his arms and calmly. express their opinions.
"Erase it directly with orbital bombardment, so as to avoid unnecessary attrition of personnel."
Dakambi, the war leader in charge of the chapter's fleet strength, shook his head.
“The existing orbital force alone is only enough to carry out bombing support for the enemy’s core stronghold groups, and cannot achieve global orbital bombing. Moreover, the Red Pirates have really spent a lot of money to build slightly larger strongholds. They have all deployed void shield generators, which means that only attacks from capital ships can pose a threat to them. We don’t have that many capital ships on hand right now. Also, don’t forget that those scattered strongholds are not without threats. They are all deployed inside. With the Heretic Space Marines, this dispersion strategy is very effective against orbital bombardment. We cannot turn a blind eye to the Heretics that may appear behind us at any time when attacking the enemy's main area."
"That's really strange, Red Pirates. How do you make those heretic space warriors stay in those death strongholds? This is not at all the discipline that heretic space warriors should have. I feel that there must be something wrong here. "
Raif. ·Mensah turned to look at a naval officer.
"What is the situation on the navy side?"
"Report to the commander, there are always signs of enemy fleet activities in the surrounding star field, so the strike fleet can only search for the enemy as much as possible to avoid them posing a threat to the landing fleet, and also It is impossible to carry out long-term orbital bombing missions, because this will easily give the enemy an opportunity. The Supreme Lord Commander has emphasized many times that the strike fleet needs to maintain a deterrent effect as much as possible rather than rashly engage in decisive battles with the enemy."
Although Ze was annoyed at the casualties of the ground troops, Raif Mensah knew that this was not the fault of the navy. After all, the imperial fleet could not be said to have an overwhelming advantage over the Red Corsairs. Both sides had already broken out several times around the Badab sector. In this small-scale contact naval battle, each side has its own victory or defeat. Now both sides are not sure where the other side's main fleet is, so they are very cautious.
The execution of orbital bombing means that the naval fleet must be restrained by the gravity of the planet for a period of time. During this period, if the enemy fleet suddenly attacks, it will be very dangerous.
Many fleets were destroyed in the orbit of the planet.
"Moreover, the commander of the regiment, what's more serious is that in order to attack the fortress and reduce casualties, each unit adopts the strategy of over-delivering firepower, which causes the consumption of our ammunition and equipment to rise sharply, and the armor and vehicles of some regiments are also at a loss. The huge losses and the large number of casualties have also caused the inventory of medicines and synthetic pharmaceutical raw materials to drop rapidly, which need to be replenished immediately. "
Saul's words gave Raif Mensah a headache. He looked at an officer in charge of logistics.
“When will the next batch of supplies arrive?”
“Report to the commander, it should be five standard Terra days later, but this batch of supplies is based on the original ration , I’m afraid it cannot meet the existing needs.”
At this time, Zukara, the Death Whisperer of the Chapter, hesitated for a moment and whispered to Raif:
"Chapter Commander, we need to apply for more troops and equipment from the General Headquarters. And the fleet.”
Raif shook his head.
"How long has it been since the war began? We have to ask for help from the rear. What will other theaters think of us? Aren't we betraying the trust of Commander-in-Chief Soshyan."
"But the reality is In this way, we have already lost nearly a quarter of our ground troops in the first few days of the war, and there are still three worlds in the Decabulus system that need to be conquered. With our current strength alone, let alone forcing the Red Pirates to come for reinforcements, can we deal with the Red Pirates? Possible counterattacks are a problem. If we withdraw from the galaxy hastily, then the strategy formulated by the general headquarters may be "
"Speaking of it."
The war leader Wakambe stared at the planet map and said:
"The Red Pirates are not without reinforcements. Even when we first started to besiege Glory Three, they There are also transport ships that rush directly to orbit to drop troops in a suicidal way. However, the Red Pirates' support method seems to be a small-unit drop mode, rather than the large-scale support we imagined. I always feel that the other party's commander has seen through it. ""
"When the strategy was first formulated, the headquarters told us that if the enemy abandons the Decabulus system, we will quickly occupy it and use it as a springboard. Directly attack the Badab Galaxy."
"This is the strange thing. The enemy did not give up directly, but did not provide large-scale support. It seems that it is..."
"It's consuming."
Raif thought for a moment and shook his head.
“No, or it’s more like delaying, waiting.”
“In other words, when we attack, according to the plan, the first theater should launch a threatening attack on the enemy, but It seems that the Red Pirates were not disturbed. What were they doing during this period?"
Raif took out a briefing and entered it on the monitor, and then the situation in the first theater appeared to everyone. In front of you.
"They attacked the Eschuna system on one side and defended the Isin system on the other, but the situation on both sides was not good, and their casualties were also very high. Although there were two battle groups, the actual number of space warriors was less. Now Sa Muir has given up the attack on the Eschuna system and is using all his strength to expel the enemies attacking the Isin system."
Everyone fell silent for a moment.
After a long time, Raif sighed and said:
"That's it, report our situation to the headquarters."
(End of this chapter)