Warhammer: I am the Hammer of the Empire.

Chapter 236 Like Water, Like Haze
Do not fight uncertain battles.

Keep fighting in motion, hit and run.

Let the enemy become the supplier of the main weapon.

Keep your whereabouts hidden.

Military action must be taken by surprise.

After seizing some power, a new column should be formed immediately.

Generally speaking, the development of guerrilla warfare will go through three stages: strategic defense; enemy actions and guerrilla actions entering into a stalemate; and finally the complete elimination of the enemy.

——————— Che Guevara, excerpted from "On Guerrilla Warfare"

Many people think that guerrilla warfare within a complex and only a few kilometers is impossible, but a small enough team, enough elite troops and a firm will can overcome this point, coupled with the continuous cover of the Imperial Guard's internal camp And supplies, the situation facing the Catachans is not as bad as people imagined.

For example, the dark environment here, even the continuous lumen towers on the castle have many dead spots, and the underground is wet and dark, which provides them with a lot of convenience.

Of course, danger still accompanies them, and with radios strictly controlled for safety and exposure, Catachan has no choice but to walk ghostly in this wretched area for his chances.

Not far from the Space Marine camp, the notorious traitor's temporary defenses are daunting with thick reinforced concrete walls and guns. Horrible decorations or mutated bones, in any case, the deadliest are still those who stand on the wall. Statue-like Space Marines.

Sergeant Catachan and his "Water Team" are lurking. He is holding a binoculars and wearing a piece of "auspicious suit" found on the ground, which is broken by the war and stitched with cloth. Devices that are said to be auspicious cloaks keep themselves quiet enough.

Absolutely quiet, behind the pipes made for heat removal on the ground, they looked like a group of fragments that were stable enough, no different from those other "brothers and sisters" fragments that appeared because of the war.

"A group is only about 5 kilometers away. The density of Astartes is not that high. Most of them are mortal defense lines composed of cultists." Sergeant Catachan reported softly to the Raitlin boy beside him, and emphasized.

"You don't need to follow us. We have no cooking needs, and we will leave the camp area for a long time. The only way to contact the camp is regular supply distribution and signal flares. You can't hold on."

The Raitling Kid simply replied. "I'm small and stealthy, and I'm proficient in drilling pipes. Secondly, my shooting level is far better than yours. Master Chief, I understand that demihumans like me are not welcome, especially Leitlin has the problem of touching the supplies of his comrades, but I have no problem with that." The Emperor swears, I need to pay back to the Sun Lord."

"Let me help you, my brother," he said emphatically to Catachan.

The Master Chief was silent, he looked into the distance, and said something completely different from the Raitlin Kid's question. "The wall is about three meters high, which is not too much, but there is barbed wire on it, and it is impossible to break through from the front. I think the melta grenade is good, it can melt the wall, but how to create a breakthrough?"

This is Catachan style conversation, if a Catachan talks to you like this (asking for tactical advice) then congratulations, you've been accepted by the toughest tough guy in the universe.

The Raitlin boy hesitated for a moment, then smiled again, and replied with his usual lively, kind, and stinky answer. "How about a grenade, use a personal grenade to smash into the enemy's wall with a melta bomb."

Sergeant Catachan shook his head. "No, the equivalent is a problem. It needs a thick bouquet of melta anti-tank mines, but our best bombardiers only have a range of tens of meters."

The Raitlin kid pondered for a moment. "That's still a sniper handle. As long as the enemy's losses are too great to maintain a huge defense line, it's not difficult to pass through weak manpower, but..." Before he finished speaking, Sergeant Catachan covered his small mouth, and the next In the silence, the space warriors on the distant defense line were chatting with several Mechanicus traitors.

Sergeant Chief Catachan couldn't hear their conversation, and at this distance he couldn't read articulate movements to infer the situation, but he still needed to be quiet to focus on the situation here to judge the strategic goal.

In the blurry picture and the black-and-white high-contrast night vision effect of the telescope, the mechanical servants handed the black boxes to the space fighters one by one. After checking, the servants sent the treasures to the towering fixed machine gun sentry tower .

"I bet it's a bomb, we need to figure out this supply line and cut that stuff," the Master Chief said.

asked Raitlin Kid. "But we are inside the encirclement, how can we hit people outside?"

"The dam is easy to resist the river but will not hinder the raindrops. We are small in number and can enter the periphery through pipelines. The pipelines here extend in all directions, so it is not difficult to get out, but it is impossible for large troops to evacuate." Sergeant Catachan replied.

"Isn't that my strong point?" Raiterin said.

That's right, there are many pipes in this place. For the giant buildings of the empire, those things are blood vessels, windpipes, extending in all directions and are actually useful, but this place seems to absorb heat from the center of the earth to generate electricity. In other words, if you find the wrong pipes they will It will be burned into coke by underground heat.

This task is very heavy and terrifying, and inexperienced people can't tell the difference. Kid Raitlin should be the best candidate, the one who led the guerrillas out of the encirclement. Sergeant Catachan watched the enemy's reconnaissance team change shifts, so he stood up, He quickly led the troops to the vicinity and left this area.

The Ratling boy pointed out the possible entrance of the nearby pipeline, and it should be sufficiently concealed. The Catachans moved forward very quickly and quietly. They soon came to the position pointed out by the Ratling man, a downward and hidden in the semi-protruding ground. The sewer pipe discharges the waste liquid to the outside.

Raitling kid stroked the blurred words at the mouth of the pipe. It seemed hundreds or thousands of years old? "It should be reclaimed water (recycled water) pipes, without corrosion or radiation, a rare good thing."

"How did you tell?" A Catachan recruit asked fussily. As a Hive Capitalist, he couldn't be sure that there was a pipe in this location, and even if there was, he couldn't understand whether it was radiated water or not.

"I can feel its history by touching the pipe. Sir, I am different from people like you. I was born in it and spent most of the years. I know the common pipes of the empire." The Leitlin boy is rare Proud to say so loudly to an elite like Catachan, this is normal in an environment that worships force within the empire.

There are not many days to be able to dominate in front of Catachan. No matter how hard the next guerrilla warfare is, the Raitlin kid thinks it is worth it at this moment, until he subconsciously opens his individual energy bar. Hungry, then scolded by the Master Chief. "Don't eat! We're a week away from our next resupply!"

The Leitlin boy touched his backpack, about 15 kilograms of food, and a carbine, a full 40 kilograms without body armor, but a week?
He habitually needs to eat breakfast, brunch, lunch, lunch and dinner, afternoon tea, and dinner. His living habits are completely different. Usually, he can eat a whole backpack of food in one day, although the individual rations here are all high-energy, A small stick in his hand has 400 calories, but for Leitlin kid, not being able to eat is a pain!
Regretted, he regretted it quite a bit, but he just carefully put away those things, but he didn’t retreat, instead, he moved forward as a soldier with his new kin who was not of blood. He was born in a pipeline and walked into this dark and dark place As if returning to his hometown, the sound of military boots stepping on the ground continued, and he took the lead like a guide dog to open his own path in the intricate pipeline.

And the pipeline is not for human beings, it is crooked, with strange bones, up and down, very terrible, but it is nothing to Raitlin kid, even if he does not have equipment, he can climb those through the fluff on his fingers The thing is, no matter how smooth the mossy pipe wall is, he can climb it like a climbing spider.

His questing was useful, and he would bring a lot of rodents to fill the food gaps of the troops, because Catachan was struggling in the pipes, and the animals also eased the supply problem very well, although during the two-day journey On the way, Raitlin still lost a lot of weight.

It's hard to imagine that the small body has anything to do with gluttony other than a slightly bulging stomach, but the reality is that the food consumption of Raitlins is far greater than that of ordinary people. Just because of crowding and riots, he endured hunger for a long time, and the lack of food did not make him lose his fighting power.

And his strong will was indeed recognized by the Catachans. Those forest warriors also proposed to give food to the Raitlin boy, but the Raitlin boy who knew how important food was all rejected it. It is hard to imagine a thief in the empire. The Leitling people named Xiao Mo would do such a thing.

But the reality is that as a soulless man, his life rarely touches the mainstream Raitling society, and stealing is not common. Full of disgusting elements.

The method is destined, he is no different from the rodents in the pipeline, just like he was born, destined to be excluded and hated, but Skadi is different, the Sun Lord is different, the war is different, the empire will love those sacrifices unconditionally at this moment Man, the Emperor protects those who fight for the Empire on the battlefield, even if he is born lowly.

This is the thinking of most soldiers in the empire. It is the imperial guards who have given them the opportunity to change. From hive waste to independent veterans, they can express their value to the emperor, prove their existence to the empire, and express those resentments and gifts come out.

The Leitlin boy will use a knife to carve marks on the metal pipe that can only be distinguished by touch to record the road when he passes by every bend in the pipe, so they can avoid many places and continue to trial and error in the maze-like pipes. He can still pass The touch when sculpting distinguishes the nature of the pipe.

Therefore, he promised that when he came back, the Imperial Guard would be able to cross here in less than one-tenth of the time now. Of course, it is also a problem that only he can understand this mark.

And when the last ray of light from the long journey shone in front of them, it was a pity that it was not the warm and comfortable sunshine but the disgusting light of the lumen tower. This feeling is normal.

He didn't go into the wrong pipe, and the two-day march paid off at this moment. There is no doubt that Boy Leitlin is a hero and a miracle, but people usually don't cheer for him, but today, his head sticking out of the pipe was killed by a The thick arm held it down, and the magnetic voice said. "Well done, brother."

That was Catachan's voice, that was Catachan's approval. After three years, the team accepted outsiders again, but the situation was much better than the despair at that time.

And when the Catachans leave the inside of the pipeline, this is the rear of the battle line, and it is also the free world that the Skadi people are currently dreaming of, but their strength cannot break through the enemy's encirclement and return to the ground to launch intelligence. Study the situation in an underground cavity that looks like a metal garbage dump.

They quickly found a road that had been artificially cleared. It was wide enough to pass through the Emperor's Baneblade. The tires on it told them that many things passed here, such as transport vehicles.

"It's here." The Master Chief crawled like a hound to judge the time. "It's been more than a day. There hasn't been a car body here for a day, but there are traces left the day before yesterday or the day before yesterday."

"Is that the Mechanics' team?" Raitlin asked.

"Basically, even if it wasn't for transporting food or something." After the Master Chief finished speaking, Raitlin's stomach rumbled, and Raiterin immediately shrank his head for fear of being scolded, but the Master Chief looked at this skinny guy and sighed. tone.

"Go to the pipe and make a smokeless fire with promethium and iron barrels, and prepare food for us." Then pull out your own supplies, canned meat, starch, canned beans, salt, sugar and so on.

"Using the food here, my physique is as if I carried 20 kilograms more than you." The Master Chief took out the emergency food and reserves, which is not rational, but he rarely softened his heart, and secondly, Raitlin Kid was the secret to their return. , or replenish physical strength and maintain morale, cooking and rest are also crucial.

But everyone understands that he is looking for an excuse. This man who has grown up and never cared about others showed his weak feelings towards his brothers and compatriots for the first time. In the end, it turned into words with only lame excuses. There is no Superman.

No matter how strong and powerful you are, as long as your spirit and will are still human, you can't help but have feelings for something and care about things around you, and the whole universe is not just about war.

As the pipes rose to flames, the Raitling boy wiped the liquid from the pipes, and made a dry and comfortable place here, using iron sheets for frying pans, iron buckets for pots, beans for thick soup, canned food and starch for steaks.

Catachan and Lytrin, two groups of people who could never get along, shook hands in the Skadi homeland, and now the ratmen and apes were sitting in metal caves sharing food.

　Damn, I forgot to change the title (I typed it casually)

　　This chapter should be called Apes and Mice

　　
　
(End of this chapter)