Warhammer: I am the Hammer of the Empire.

Chapter 160 Servo Skull Discovery Base, Prelude to War

People spend far more energy avoiding their fears than fighting for what they want.

————Dan Brown
The hot wind and the dust of the wilderness are always accompanied by the clean-up operations of the Imperial Guard, but those orcs seem to have no command, but they are very capable of escaping. They have a planned escape route in advance, and they also have additional modifications such as injectors or turbochargers. However, Alan Bayer couldn't be sure what kind of substance was burning to make those orcs run extremely fast, maybe it was excrement, those guys could do anything.

After all, that smell can hardly be smelled, and the strange black fog can even have the effect of covering up the vision of the vehicles behind. Looking at the rumbling garbage truck in front of him, Alan Bayer is a little irritable.

"Give it to me, I'll shoot." The Salamander Commander Tank is an imperial war engine equipped with a storm bomb and a promethium flamethrower. Lambier was not an ordinary person, he held his breath, and the storm bomb was held down by his superhuman arm strength and shot.

If you want to evaluate the feeling, it is stable. Even if it is erected on the car, few people can hold down and shoot, and the barrel of the gun will be red. You know, this thing is a heavy bomb!

Bang bang bang, bang bang bang, roaring like thunder exploded in the wilderness, and other members of the reconnaissance vehicle team were already chatting with each other. "The leader is performing his stunts again." The driver looked at the narrow field of view of the vehicle, the heavy bombs fell like raindrops, and the dust that was kicked up, said casually.

The gunner who rested rubbed his biceps, and he looked at the commander's strong but not exaggerated arm, it was hard to understand how he did it.

The staff officer fiddled with the button of the communicator, and then said something suddenly. "about there."

After his words fell, the violent gunfire stopped, the driver turned sharply suddenly, the orc engine also burst due to the tires under the shooting, the engine smoked, the weak parts of the armor were beaten into a hornet's nest, and the grit was dead, etc. But it broke down and stopped suddenly, allowing the driver to dodge again and again.

But judging by the proficiency of the pilot, it seems that this is not the first time. Alan Bayer took off the goggles he was wearing and yawned. "Which one is today? Staff."

The staff officer replied. "Seventh station, the orcs around here are basically killed." The staff officer stepped out of the car, wearing a scarf, and shot at the parked car of the orcs, one shot at a time, no matter whether there was any injury or not, no matter whether it could move or not, Whether they surrendered or not, even corpses would be shot, making those pretending to be dead scream.

That's what the Emperor's bombs are for. Just one shot can penetrate the skin and muscles of the orcs, hit their cores, and then burst open.

In the end, the crew turned the car around, and the promethium flamethrower pointed at the orc vehicle, and because it was lunch time, those people took out the cans and watched while eating, the flames sprayed, and there were a few living or dying orcs hiding in the vehicle Inside, there were those wailing screams and the smell of burning and carbonized muscles.

More villains than villains, that's probably how it feels, but empires are not a good thing in the first place. For human beings, they have already tried their best to survive, and they can only do so, only so.

What is right or wrong and morality, in this cruel universe, there is nothing to judge, Alan Bayer thought so, put the can he just opened on the pipe of the flamethrower to heat, the orc wanted to burn it thoroughly, and sprayed it for a while, according to His experience is enough to make this delicious canned food leak.

Others choose to put cans on the hood of their cars, since there are no living things in this world, and there are no so-called vultures.

The staff officer looked around with a telescope, and then waited for his lunch to be heated by natural energy, and the stars also conscientiously served their "masters", at least Alan Baier thought so, a little Ah Q spirit, obviously for this universe In other words, they are nothing.

Alan Bayer picked up the oily canned meat, chewed the starchy lumps lightly, stared at the auspicious instrument, and he actually noticed something just now, that is, the orcs seemed to be deliberately avoiding the points near the West District. It's probably close to the enemy camp here.

During this period of time, the traitor interstellar fighters carried out several relocations and guerrilla warfare to maintain mobility and concealment, which also prevented Alan Bair from finding their base. It has been almost two days since such a large-scale siege at this moment, and the entire wilderness Almost all have been explored by the Imperial Guard, and the location of the enemy has gradually become clear.

Alan Baier felt that it was almost the same. "After eating, let's explore to the west." He said, stirring the soft meat, if he can solve all the problems from today to tomorrow, then he can start planning how to take back the Pangea sub-star region planned.

Although he is not a navy, there is no doubt that the land force will also be one of the core operations.

Taking back a planet for the Emperor would make things a little easier for humanity in this universe, so he wouldn't hesitate on the matter.

He yelled when the last piece of starch was stained with gravy. "Start, target the west, carpet search, staff, contact other members of our reconnaissance company."

"Almost, start the engine, sing the hymn, follow the imperial infantry prayer guide, maintain the best condition, and then, approach that side."

After Alan Bayer's order was over, the soldiers of the Imperial Guard began to prepare in an orderly manner. The prayer and the roar of the engine slowly surrounded the narrow space inside the car body.

"Slow down, hide and move forward, rely on craters and protrusions to move forward slowly." Alan Bayer leaned out of the car body, took a telescope and began to investigate the situation here, and the bird divination instrument on the car body is also exploring the situation here all the time .

But here it looks quiet, very quiet, making people feel like an ordinary, hot wilderness with nothing in it.

The car body moved forward for about two hours, and it was almost near the occupied area of ​​the Mechanicus city. It was so far away that it surpassed the area where orcs often appeared. This is not the place where the battleship landed. Alan Baier's people also had to ask. "Are there really enemies of the Empire here?"

It's no wonder that he doubts such a thing, after all, there is really nothing to cover up in this endless wilderness, but Alan Bayer is still looking at the map here engrossed.

"No, no, orcs are definitely in this direction..."

Alan Baier has no doubts about the methods he learned from a colonel of the Imperial Guard. Anyway, he has not suffered in this area. As long as the number of enemies is large enough and the data they bring is enough, they will be able to analyze them one day , but at the moment it seems to be wrong...

Are there too few enemies?The orcs killed by the imperial guards in the past two days can feed a single hive world for a long time, which is not a lot, but why is this wilderness still so quiet, even a little cautious.

His intuition felt that something was wrong here, but after the vehicle walked around this place three or four times, he could only give up. Although there are spiritualistic things related to spiritual energy in this world, he can't follow his intuition for everything. .

However, whether it is intuition or physical position guessing, it meets the requirements, but the enemy is not seen. This matter still makes Alan Baier a little concerned.

"Save one of the servo skulls and tell him to bury him in the sand and wait."

said the staff officer. "It will burn out, and the sand will easily sink into its neurons. Running the tiny anti-gravity engine for a long time will cause a lot of burden."

Alan Baier replied. "Bury it. We will cut it off three hours after we leave if there is no situation. During this time, we will build a command camp nearby to monitor the footage of the skull. Of course, we will cut it off if it detects that the temperature is too high."

The staff officer said suspiciously. "Is the cost too high? A set of related equipment and a servo skull may lose everything."

Skulls are the legacy of loyalists. Complicated machinery and endless injections allow donors to devote themselves to the empire after death. In a way, Alan Bayer's plan is to get a loyal The risk of complete death of the victim in exchange for illusory clues.

And any resource is also a precious treasure for the empire, it is the currency of the emperor, and even an officer cannot squander it. This time, the staff officer stood in front of Alan Bayer and said. "No, Commander."

Alan Baier looked at the seemingly empty wilderness in the distance, and he looked at the drawing with three arcs drawn in his hand. Did he believe in his own plan or the judgment of the staff?
He didn't quite know that the Chief of Staff of the Imperial Guard in front of him followed him to so many places, defeated many enemies, and even defeated countless empires. Although he often paralyzed himself, even Alan Bayer forgot, A staff officer is a position that exists for the empire.

"I understand, this time I plan to..."

"I won't give up. I have to believe in my inspiration and my choice. If I don't do it, things will get worse. Staff, give me the communicator!" also answer.

"No... I'll come, if there's nothing really weird about this matter, if you don't find any heretics or aliens, I will record this plan intact and hand it over to Terra's Military Affairs Headquarters after the war ’” replied the officer.

Alan Baier is a little unhappy. He has been emphasizing that he must have clean hands and feet if he wants to spend his old age peacefully, but the closest person is like this, but the staff still has not quit, which shows that he believes in Alan Baier's judgment.

The staff officer took out his servo skull and said. "It's BT-34721, my former comrade-in-arms, use it."

Alan Baier looked at this severely modified levitating bone, the sky eye of the empire, but he could feel the heaviness in it, but he quickly came back to his senses. He believed in his own judgment, no matter when and where...or, He has to believe.

The staff officer manipulated the skull and buried it in the high temperature and sand. This was done as concealed as possible, even if it looked stupid from the outside, like a war with the air.

The vehicles of the Imperial Guard also drove away slowly. Not far away, about a few hundred meters away, simple fully enclosed tents were used to set up temporary command points that were so hot that people were dehydrated to connect to the skull monitors.

It took two hours to build the camp, and there was only one hour left for monitoring. No one knew if there would be any changes in this time, but Alan Bayer didn't want the loyalist's skull to be destroyed by him.

The engineering team is constantly adjusting those screens and transistors. Compared with the holographic projection equipment often used in the command room, this is just an ordinary LCD screen that cannot estimate the size, length, and depth of the target, and it is even black and white. , even though it is simple, it is better than portability.

Covered by a thick all-terrain sealed tent, the indoor temperature has reached around 34, which is probably distillation. Compared with the water molecules outside, it will not dissipate so fast, but the stuffy heat makes people more prone to heatstroke, even the correspondents. Have to change every 10 minutes, or even 5 minutes.

But Alan Bayer and the staff officer let sweat flow down their foreheads as if nothing happened, just staring at the screen that was not bright enough and covered with gravel around the edge, as if the skull was his head.

Drinking a glass of water barely relieved the consumption. In just one hour, Alan Bayer was unwilling to give up any chance, not to mention that the skull was also enduring the terrible temperature.

As time passed by, the heat resistance of the skull began to deteriorate, and the outside temperature may have been around 40-50, which is enough to melt the core of a small electronic device that is running, not to mention that it is still buried in the hot, covered In the gravel that has been baked for a day, it is a gift of the machine soul that there has been no failure for such a long time, and the people in the engineering department can only evaluate it in this way.

"Captain, it's almost time, there's no time."

Alan Baier looked at the screen anxiously, still not saying a word. He wanted to delay this for a longer time, because he didn't want to return without success, but the staff had reached the limit. "Let my companion come back, that's fine, Captain, I order you in the name of the senior chief of staff."

Alan Baier replied. "10 minutes, another 10 minutes...it can't be wrong, it's just that those orcs are still vigilant..."

The staff officer replied. "Don't say such crazy words, the temperature that the skull is enduring is something that a mortal body like you can't bear for a few minutes, it's like being scorched by flames!"

"Don't let the clean son of the Emperor be yours..." He paused for a moment, and then said that sentence. "Stupid pay!"

Alan Baier's complexion was completely bad. "Stupid...yeah...I'm getting a little paranoid to get the skull back..."

"Keep it out of the sand..." He gave up, he got his luck, he lost his life, he couldn't force things to happen, and nothing would really be smooth sailing... What can't be found is not found.

The staff officer raised his holy emblem of control at this moment, and the controller with the kraft paper and the small electronic seal of the empire could call the skull back after receiving instructions.

At this moment, the video screen also began to wobble and fly up, but at this moment, whether it was an illusion or reality, an orc vehicle slowly crawled out of the sand dunes in front of the skull.

Alan Baier yelled in surprise. "found it!"

The staff officer also immediately stopped calling, looking at the bunkers and concealments made by the heretics that were uncovered in the screen.

"God Emperor..." He couldn't help sighing, because unless he saw that kind of thing, he really couldn't believe it. Countless orcs were using steel to make many terrible war engines in a hollowed out hill, orc cans, and those It's nothing, the real horror is a dark, terrifying metal dragon covered in armor, and a monster tens of meters high is crawling in it.

Alan Baier said immediately. "I found it, this is what made the entire area unable to start the machine that day!"

(End of this chapter)