Warhammer: In the Name of Ashes.

Chapter 433 Black and Red, Planning in the Shadows ([-]) The Trend of War
"For the Allfather and Russ!"

Amidst the thunderous roar, a giant in gray power armor was sweeping the chainsaw sword in his hand across the crowd.

Pieces of bodies were cut into pieces, black blood splashed everywhere like raindrops, the beeping sawtooth gradually became quiet as they lost their target, and in the darkness in the distance there was a huge figure attacking him with a heavy hammer in hand.

In the blood-blurred eyepiece, the purple skin and profane runes on the body were highlighted by the cursor. The giant in the slaying posture stood up, shouldered, raised the dark gun in the other hand, and locked it from a distance.

tom!
The glaring flames flickered on the thick muzzle of the gun, and the brass bullet case engraved with the inscription had not yet landed, and the purple giant dozens of meters away had already been knocked down.

The diamond-made warhead breaks the thick radius, then penetrates the well-developed chest muscles, ribs, and even internal organs, and finally tears the steel pillar behind the target and explodes.

The huge penetrating force shattered the mutant's entire arm, then stopped running, and finally fell to the ground full of industrial wastewater with a "bang".

He is alive, but only alive.

Bloodclaw Edro could see through the field of view through the eyepiece, through the fiber jacket unique to Bottomhive, that the fallen flesh was still twitching.

Especially the tentacles on the remaining arm were still stretching unconsciously in the night vision state.

But his spine had been broken, and his heart was crushed by the pressure of the bullet passing through the chamber. Amidst the dull metal impact, the green-armored giant stepped forward. He put down the gun in his hand while walking, and the other spare In his hand, the chainsaw sword used for execution has already begun to buzz.

Ok?
The instinct of crisis made the giant stop abruptly, and the mutant who fell to the ground in his sight also opened his eyes suddenly.

The infrared scanning array marked the warning on his abdominal cavity, and the mutant's left hand did not know when to press it there.

Law - bless!
High Gothic, accented by Terra, sounded behind the giant, and at the same time, a bright and deadly firework exploded in front of the giant.

The incandescent plasma flame emerged from nothing in front of the giant, then rose and bloomed, and a bluish transparent stand wall emerged from the void, separating the giant from the destructive flames that could melt pure gold.

The bursting plasma licked the psychic stand, and the latter stood still amidst the slight flickering. The subsequent shock wave pushed the giant along with the stand shield. He staggered back and forth, but in such a sinister and deadly Under the attack, after all, he survived unscathed.

"Nice job!" The giant stopped and looked back. On the same open space tens of meters away, a giant who was also gray but closer to the natural color of metal was slowly putting away the war halberd pointing here.

The latter only nodded slightly to his praise, and then replied in the battlefield communication:
"Attention, target characteristics, as far as possible, remote processing."

"Understood!" Edro raised his eyes after replying in the communication channel, just in time to see the teasing face of the veteran Kantu.

It is a trivial matter to be saved by a comrade in arms of a brother army, but it is very frustrating for him to be educated because of the details of battlefield handling.

"Close the team!" Cantu confirmed the progress of the task with the two gray knights, and then ordered the surrounding Astartes. The other three giants walked out from the dark corridor at the bottom of the Hive City, and the whole team began to go up to the upper floors. return.

Half an hour later, on the upper floor of the nest capital, a gray-gray storm eagle appeared from the black cumulonimbus clouds, and this improvised hunting group also waited in line.

The two Gray Knights walked at the end of the line, signaling to members of the local Inquisition before boarding the plane. With the roar of the Storm Eagle's engine, they embarked on a journey to another hive.

"It's only an hour earlier than expected." In the black cockpit of the Storm Eagle, Longtooth Kantu looked at the projector in front of him and said to the members of the hunting group.

"But it's still too late," said Gray Hunter Valko, the deputy of the hunting group.

The team's mission was carried out fairly smoothly, but the completion time was later than their own expectations.

The post-war summary is not a meeting for the hunting group, but if it can make the bloodclaws grow a little, it is not a waste of time.

"The mission location is too far away, and we wasted a lot of time on the road."

Edro didn't realize the purpose of this meeting. He was simply venting his disgust for the Bottom Hive environment. If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, it would be hard for him to imagine how he would live without the sky and the ocean.

"Second." The remaining bloodclaws came to the same conclusion, and after Kantu looked around all the members of the team, he finally looked at the two comrades in the "brother army".

"What about you?" Cantu asked, he was more curious about the views of these gray knights than the familiar comrades around him.

Whether it is an interpretation of the battlefield from a fresh perspective, or a personal opinion with a distinctive personality, he never refuses to come.And if someone could whip these young wolves with words for him, that would be an even more wonderful thing.

"There's nothing to say." The two gray knights looked at each other, and then gave an answer that Cantu didn't expect.

"Hey! We just fought side by side, this is too insincere!" Before Cantu could speak, Edro could no longer hold back his temper.

"..." There was another brief silence, and then a gray knight spoke:
"The curtain is being weakened, there will be more and more psychic awakeners, the kind of targets you just met..."
-
"The veil is being weakened..."

Thousands of light years away, in the northern part of the Jan Morrow star sector, on the bridge of the Indefatigable Jihad on the front line of the war, Calvin was making the same conclusion at the meeting.

This is the border between the central jurisdiction of the star area and the northern galaxies, and it is also the gathering place for the main fleet of the Inquisition after the three northern galaxies lost contact one after another.

The intelligence station of the Tribunal here has been recovered by them, and the opponent of this battle has finally revealed his true colors.

"Word Bearers, Dark Council..." Inquisition Scholar Chasov pronounced the name, and David, Commander of the Exorcist Chapter, picked up what the Primarch had just said.

"The power of the subspace is increasing, and more people with psionic physiques will be captured."

"There will be a lot of them?" Ragnar asked looking at the heavy-faced people. The first wave of battle reports from the frontline team has been compiled, and he also intuitively understands this existential threat.

Supernatural forces were clearly a problem in Astartes combat, and the Space Wolves lacked the specific experience and knowledge to either identify or deal with them.

"There are a lot of them, and they are very troublesome," said David, the commander of the Exorcist Squad.

The mutants that appear at this stage are not serious, but it is only a matter of time. As the tide of demons intensifies, more powerful mutants and even demonic hosts may appear.

And once this kind of unit appears, with the help of some fallen people in a complex battlefield environment, it will be a dangerous existence that can threaten the life of Astartes.

"There are also Word Bearers, they will speed up this process." Chasov picked up the topic, and directly pointed out the threat of the dark apostles.

This legion was not prominent in the context of the Great Expedition era, and its frontal combat power was not even among the top ten, but what they were best at was the spread of various beliefs and religious rituals.

This characteristic had already appeared when they were loyal to the empire, and after falling into chaos, it became the core factor for them to control a huge demon army.

The Word Bearers aren't scary, what's scary is that once they appear, the demon army behind them is like a tidal wave.

They are different from the Black Legion of the Eye of Terror. After the Great Rebellion, they seldom appear as an organization, but even those Word Bearers who fight in warbands and small groups can also, with the help of a huge demon army, often rule the empire. pose a serious threat.

And this time?How many of them show up?

The fog of war prevented Calvin from getting the exact number, but just from this huge warp space storm, it can be known that they have invested quite a lot of resources here.

And the development of Zhan Morrow's war also conformed to Calvin's conjecture. Several galaxies fell one after another in a short period of time, and the local imperial forces, whether it was the Tribunal or the Imperial Navy, failed to send out any effective information.

And no information, in a sense is information.

Obscuring battlefield information at the galaxy level is extremely difficult, and it is not something that can be easily done in the imperial army, let alone the Chaos War Gang, which is known for its chaos.

Judging from Calvin's experience, this is at least a joint operation of several warbands, and even the entire Word Bearers Legion, and even the fallen demon Primarch himself is unknown.

And if such an enemy was face to face, Calvin would have even less time to rectify the rear.

Judging from the current battle reports, these polluters who have been discovered and dealt with are still relatively weak, and their mutated forms are also within the range that can be dealt with.

But if the warp tide continues, it's only a matter of time before more powerful psykers are captured by the warp.

And the information of the Tribunal itself has a lag effect, and there is a quite long time interval between receiving it and processing it.

If it is handled according to the current method, then whether it is the diverted troops or resources, it will be unacceptable to the Tribunal.

Moreover, non-registered psykers are not within the empire's field of vision, such as the typical scene at the bottom of the hive capital. Once the pollution spreads, it will be a time bomb with a huge threat.

The Astartes commanders present had all cooperated with the Inquisition, and naturally had a better understanding of this situation.A few outsiders like Ragnar also understood the reasons for the primarch's worries under the explanation of the scholar Chasov.

The entire Zhan Morrow has a total of nineteen galaxies, among which there are hundreds of hive cities in nearly a hundred planetary worlds. You only need to think about the number of psykers that may exist in them, which is beyond their ability to clean up. engineering.

what to do?After thoroughly understanding the difficulties faced by the Primarch and the Inquisition, Ragnar the Chief Wolf did not rush to make a statement, but looked in the direction of Calvin.

It was the first time for him to look at the problem from the perspective of the trial court, and it was also the first time that he understood so thoroughly the serious harm of chaos pollution to the empire.

"If there is a wrongful killing, don't let it go." The principle of the trial court that he sneered at in the past has become the best way to deal with it at this time.

"We still have to find a way from the source." The primarch felt the gaze of the wolf and nodded first, then looked at the holographic projection in front of him.

From the capital of the Zhan Morrow star area to the north, several galaxies in the middle are still under control, but from the Fermat galaxy where the foundry world Hepper is located, and the adjacent Hubble galaxy, there is a huge blank space.

The three galaxies of Padilla, Hess, and Phantom that fell in the north, and the two industrial galaxies of Alto-1 and Alto-2 where Calvin is now, which are mainly engaged in mining, constitute the northern part of Zhan Morrow alone. constellation.

The Primarch turned to look at Tibbers, who was in charge of diplomatic work: "How is the situation in Hepper's foundry world, has there been no reply yet?"

"Yes, they still refuse our entry, but they said they can support our material needs." Tabers replied.

That's not right. Calvin instinctively sensed the problem of the foundry world. The Alto-1 and Alto-2 galaxies are the main sources of Hepper's raw materials. The oil guy has never been so indifferent to his own wealth.

"Where's the troops I want?" Calvin then asked.

"The two knight families and the attached guard legion, this is the greatest support they have given."

"Two knight families?" Calvin looked at the local galaxy information provided by the trial court, and found the names of these two families on the garrison lists of the two galaxy.

"Shadowsong family, Hadley family?"

"Yes." Tabers confirmed.

Local troops?Does that mean there is no support?
Calvin looked at the list without making a sound, but unconsciously rubbed his chin with the ceramic steel gauntlet.

Those who knew him well knew that this was a manifestation of his anger, but he finally pressed his emotions and decided to visit this forge world alone after the war.

"Understood, send a team in the name of our representative, at least to ensure that we can intervene at any time." Calvin issued an order to Tibers, and this was just an insurance measure.

"Understood, but we don't have any spare troops now..."

"Let the honor guard go! Remember to bring the teleportation beacon."

"understand!"

Tibers walked towards the Astropathic deck with the Primarch's order, while everyone present was still waiting for the next order.

Calvin looked down at the map of the entire star region again. After temporarily ignoring Hepper's position, he estimated the remaining troops in his hand and examined the positions between galaxies.

The geographical locations of the two galaxies are not bad, especially in the context of the local production of metal ore. The construction cost of their planetary defense system is very low, and it is naturally carefully constructed by Hepper's mechanical priests.

And if these two passages leading to Zhan Morrow's center are blocked, there is only one road left for the enemy, the world that was abandoned after the Great Rebellion - Moro.

Well, this is the only way to arrange it, Calvin thought to himself.

It is difficult for him, and the pressure of the enemy is also not small.Because the magic tide created by betting on countless souls is no match for the rules of the universe after all, and it will fade away sooner or later.

And as the party that paid this heavy price, those servants of Chaos will definitely rush to launch a substantial attack on the defense line where he is stationed before the tide of magic recedes.

"Ragnar," the primarch said softly.

"I'm here." The wolf looked at Calvin's burly figure, waiting for his order.

"The Alto-1 galaxy on the left is your defense zone, go there with your direct troops, and the local imperial navy and defense forces will also be included in your command sequence.

I have only one request, without the help of any reinforcements, you must stand by the last soldier.Can you do it? "

"As you wish!" The wolf stood up, clenched his fists hard and patted his heart.

The primarch just nodded at him, then watched him turn and leave.

"David, Savillian..." Calvin turned his attention to the leader of the exorcists and dark hunters, and the two also stood up and waited for orders.

"Take your manpower to take over the defense of Alto-2. My request remains the same. There will be no reinforcements. Stay there until the last soldier."

"Understood." The two partners of the Tribunal led the way.

And the only ones left on the bridge are the headquarters of the Gray Knights, the sea wolf Dalian Hoffman of the Space Wolves, and a representative of the Chapter that Calvin has been subconsciously neglecting——Blood Raven.

　Update, Carvin, how hard is it to write a big war...

　　
　
(End of this chapter)