Warhammer: In the Name of Nirvana

"Do you feel like something's amiss here, Dantioch?"

"If you are referring to your warriors acting like a bunch of rookies in front of that group of Avalonians, believe me, brother, this is actually a normal situation."

"That's not what I meant...no!"

"Whose soldiers do you think are like rookies?"

"Whoever is angry belongs to whomever is angry."

"..."

How could this guy become so childish after spending decades in Avalon?

Kelvalen narrowed his eyes.

He endured it for a while.

But he still couldn't hold it back.

"Tell me, Dantioch, why are you so crazy that you actually listen to the request of that guy named Erwin and let his army become the defender of the first line of defense: obviously our camp Will do better.”

The Warsmith just chuckled.

"Then please tell me, brother: Erwin once applied for the support of two companies from us. Since you are worried, why don't you transfer two companies from your camp instead of staying here with me? How about borrowing one?"

"..."

The one-eyed warlord had nothing to say, as Dantioch's voice echoed in his ears.

"So, don't deceive yourself, Brother Kelvaren, you and I both know very well that among the three garrison forces in the world, the group of Avalonian mortals who seem to be so boastful are the ones with the highest military literacy. "

"After all, there are a lot of mortal veterans in their army who have served for forty or fifty years and have undergone rejuvenation and transformation surgeries, and the new blood of Salasmas under my command only served for an average of ten or twenty years. That’s all, as for your 77th Battalion, if I remember correctly, except for the company you sent out, the remaining companies are all newly recruited, right?”

"Yes, the new Olympia blood was just added last month."

"Do you remember how long these Olympian recruits have to train?"

"..."

Kelvaren lowered his head, and his only eye was focused on the thermal imaging instrument in front of him. As the sky gradually darkened, this instrument became the most reliable means of large-scale detection in the hands of the Iron Warriors.

"One year."

After a long time, he spit out the word.

"Yes, one year."

Dantioch nodded, his face contorted with sarcasm.

"It only takes six months of training and endless surgeries to make an Olympian go from a recruit to a soldier of the Iron Legion in less than a year, and become a force we have to use, and when such a Legion soldier stands on Those veterans with forty years of service experience, even if they are just in front of a mortal veteran, which one of them do you think is more worthy of our trust?"

"Don't confuse the concepts, Dantioch. Even an Astartes recruit who has only been trained for a year can easily twist off the heads of those elites you mentioned forty years, or take every fiber in their body. All the bones were broken.”

“But war cannot be solved by twisting heads or breaking bones.”

The war blacksmith shook his head. He seemed to want to argue with his battle brothers. When his eyes casually swept across the thermal imaging instrument in front of him, a blur of energy emerged in the blink of an eye. It took away the sight of the two war blacksmiths.

"What's this?"

"...I don't know. I can't see clearly. It's definitely not a good thing."

Kyle Valen responded. Before he spoke, the battle-hardened veteran habitually pressed the button next to him, causing various sensors, auspices and particle scanners to start running wildly.

As all the scanning instruments roared beyond their capacity, the vast land around the fortress revealed its true form in less than a second. The heat source twisting on the ground was like a signal. The two war blacksmiths watched helplessly as He emerged from beneath the surface. Then, as if a charge horn was sounded, in the blink of an eye, more heat sources, centered on the starter, emerged from the cave that was originally judged to be no threat. , pouring into the surface world continuously.

Dozens, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands...

Twisting, multiplying, multiplying, expanding their number at an incredible speed, like a strong wind blowing away the dark clouds in the night sky, allowing many cruel stars to release their light in an instant, and the scanning instruments release their light at microsecond intervals. The screams of a large number of enemies were detected, and when the two war blacksmiths finally exhaled heavy breaths, the thermal imaging instruments in front of them were already covered with distorted heat sources, like a large boiling swamp.

"The Emperor bless us."

After just a rough estimate of the number of these opponents, Kelvaren, who had a resolute face, couldn't help but whisper a prayer in his throat in despair.

"He can't bless anything."

On the other side, Dantioch, who looked more elegant, gritted his teeth, his smooth forehead was full of veins, and while talking, he pressed the alarm with his thick palm.

"Just trust the steel in your hands."

The next moment, the sharp siren pierced the dreams of thousands of people, followed by tiny sounds mixed in the night wind, as if thousands of rodents were carrying out malicious activities in the dark passage. Migration activities are mind-numbing to listen to.

Almost at the same time, a flare rose from the position of the Avalon Auxiliary Army. Morgan's soldiers did not need the reminder from the war blacksmith at all. Those unique purple eyes of Avalon narrowed slightly, adapting to the dark night. There was a sudden explosion of light, and there were also those twisted, ugly faces belonging to the Hrud people under the strong light: too many to count.

The next moment, war cries, roars, sharp whistles and alien hoarseness, as well as the resonance of thousands of guns and artillery fire, were released from the prison by the God of War. In this nameless world where the sky is always dark, a The sun, bathed in blood, is rising.

——————

They were wrong, they were all wrong.

Breathing the slightly smelly air, next to Dantioch's ears, apart from the rumbling sound of artillery fire in the distance, there was only the almost hysterical command, or roar, of Kelvaren. His voice alone was louder than a dozen There are even more for company commanders and junior officers combined.

But Dantioch didn't do that. He didn't need to. Just when he put on his helmet and put the bolt gun and power sword in place, his new blood of Salamas had already spontaneously entered the already arranged place. In a good defensive position, he didn't need to give orders at all. They were even about half a minute faster than the Olympian recruits who were driven by Kyle Valen's words: for the Astartes warriors, this was already too huge to be difficult. The gap is beyond imagination.

But Dantioch had no time to continue to compare in his mind. He used both halves of his brain to the extreme. While checking whether there were any loopholes in the fortress, he worriedly watched the battle situation on the other side of the river: Eyes. Every inch of land he touched worried him.

For the first time, the war blacksmith witnessed the power of the Hrud time weapons. He saw the fortress at the farthest end of the river bank defense line. The fortress he personally directed the construction of in the afternoon and boasted of its solidity. In front of the turbulent Hrud wave, it didn't even hold on for a second before it collapsed like an old mountain: This was definitely not the result of any attack or bombing, because except for the artillery of the Avalon auxiliary army, it collapsed in an instant. Apart from the constant roar, there is no long-range power worth mentioning on the battlefield.

Dantioch could see some thumb-thick energy beams in the dark brown frenzy of the Hrud people. He guessed that they might be weapons such as phase ions. These firearms were far inferior to those in the hands of the Avalon Auxiliary Army. Those firearms were more powerful, but there were so many that every salvo fired by the aliens was like a surging wave.

The war blacksmith didn't know how many Hrud were attacking the defense line on the other side of the river. There might be hundreds of thousands or a legion. From one end of the skyline to the other, they were all covered in the dirty robes of these aliens, and The greasy space-time vortex distortion phenomenon does not look like an interstellar civilization at all.

But just like the primitive and ferocious Germanic barbarian tribes in ancient times were able to overwhelm the Roman legion camps, the sheer numbers and madness, as well as the underground network extending in all directions, still allowed these aliens to uproot the auxiliary army's fortresses one by one. War Blacksmith almost watched the three front lines of defense fall in an instant, and just when he was about to mobilize his troops and cross the river to support, the roar of Kelvaren beside him brought him back to reality.

"What are they doing! Retreat!"

Hearing this, Dantioch also squeezed next to the augury, and understood the reason why the one-eyed warrior was so angry: after the first three lines of defense were lost, these mortal armies of Avalon not only did not take back Instead, under the cover of follow-up firepower, they withdrew the troops from the next few fortresses and trenches, blowing up the hard-earned defenses one after another, although this move successfully took away the lives of many Hrud people. , but compared to the disadvantages of losing the defense line, it is simply not worth mentioning.

However, it cannot be said that they retreated blindly. Many fronts that seemed to have been pushed to the limit by the Hrud did not collapse, but were able to launch ferocious counterattacks. These small-scale elastic defenses allowed Avalon's auxiliary army to They withdrew basically intact and still maintained the integrity of the front.

What are they doing?

Before Dantioch could figure out the answer to this question. The communicator Erwin left for him started ringing. Kelvalen grabbed it and connected it. The other end of the communicator was filled with rumbling artillery fire that made him frown slightly.

"The situation is still under control, you two."

Before the children of Perturabo took the initiative to ask questions, the mortal general of Avalon seemed to already know what they wanted to ask: it seemed that he had been questioned like this in battle before.

"The capabilities and numbers of the Hrud are more powerful than we imagined. Dozens of Hrud can collapse a fortress in an instant, and there are at least tens of thousands of them now. However, their abilities are also different. We found that the individuals at the front can only affect a range of less than two meters, but behind their battle lines, there are also advanced individuals with more abilities."

"So, what do you want to do?"

The war blacksmith tried his best to keep his voice as calm as possible. While observing the battle situation on the front line, he quickly calculated in his mind the distance between the main force of the Hrud and the auxiliary army positions. At the same time, he performed a series of mental calculations. The result was contacted to the fleet in low-Earth orbit through the nearby instrument, requesting timely fire support.

The calmness and logical ability derived from Perturabo in the blood of the war blacksmith were fully demonstrated at this moment. Dantioch just blinked and turned the vast and chaotic battlefield in front of him into countless data streams. , constantly pulling and pulling on the road to victory: and even if there are some errors in these thousands of calculation data, although Kyle Wallen next to him still maintains a irritable attitude, he can still point out every error in time. An inch of imperfection.

While Erwin took a few seconds to formulate his words, the two warsmiths had already ensured that their respective camps were on the right track to victory: the roar of artillery, the Sharpness of the Cape, and the support ships in orbit. Looking for the best firing position.

"I plan to abandon the trenches and fortresses at the front of the line. The current situation is different from what we expected when we designed it. There is no point in sticking to it."

As soon as these words came out, Kelvaren frowned, but Dantioch calmed him.

"Then what are you going to do?"

"Retreat, retreat to the river bank, retreat within the firepower range of the fortress, and gather the remaining troops. At the same time, I hope you can mobilize troops to support and concentrate all the artillery fire on the fortress on the other side of the river: fire splash can Effectively disrupting the Hrud's phalanx, as long as they do not form a numerical advantage in a certain area, today's battle can still be fought."

"All the firepower?"

Before Dantioch could speak, Kelvaren shouted: He had to shout, because the rumbling sound of artillery fire could almost cover up the roar in the heart of every soldier.

"What should we do here in the fortress? The Hrud people know how to fight in an underground manner."

"Didn't we detect it before? The soil under the fortress is not suitable for tunnel operations. They cannot dig inside at all: we need all the fire support because the current strength gap is really too big."

"But……"

"Listen to him, Kyle."

Dantioch raised his head and interrupted his battle brother. His voice was serious, and Kyle had to sigh. He saw what a firm, yet convincing light in Dantioch's pupils.

"I have been fighting side by side with them for decades. Kyle, believe me, they will be able to complete the mission. Order all artillery fire to be concentrated on the other side of the river: and you, General Irwin, are concentrating your After the troops, I need you to launch part of the counterattack. You won't be able to survive until dawn if you just defend."

"as you wish."

General Avalon seemed to be full of confidence in Dantioch's guarantee. He hung up the communicator without even listening to the ensuing argument, leaving only the two war blacksmiths who continued to look at each other: After a few seconds, Kai Ervalen also nodded silently, turned around, and went to carry out the order Dantioch had just given.

"call……"

The war blacksmith breathed a sigh of relief. He did not expect that when he was on the far eastern frontier, he could imitate the Lord of Avalon's posture and suppress his colleagues: but now is not the time to think about this.

His eyes were fixed on the battlefield, and he clearly captured the results of the moment: in the center of the trench, almost alone outside the defense line, there was a clear flash of light from a long-range artillery, which accurately hit Helu The core part of the Germans' violent craze, and then, the screams of these aliens could almost tear the sky apart, and many attackers even turned around and retreated.

The war blacksmith could see it clearly, so when he and his assembled recruits rushed to the battlefield, Dantioch's lips slightly raised: At this moment, he was finally sure that this battle was worth fighting. of.

Although……

It looks like a lot of people are going to die.

——————

"Many...many people..."

The company commander poked his head out of the newly reinforced trench and used night vision goggles to search the battlefield that had been quiet for a while: less than a few minutes ago, this place was filled with charging Herd troops, but now, these damned The alien seemed to be retreating again.

If the positions and communication areas close to them were not still echoing warnings of attack and calls for help, he almost thought that tonight's battle would be over.

After observing for a few seconds, he retracted his body back into the position and watched one of his men hurried from the other end of the trench: This man carried an answer, why did the aliens in front of their position suddenly retreat? The answer below.

The company commander caught this man, or more specifically, his artillery officer.

"Are you sure you got a hit?"

"OK! Sir!"

The artillery chief nodded, with a bit of excitement still remaining in his pupils.

"My artillery crew was very sure that it was a big guy. The shell landed almost right on top of its head. Although it couldn't be blown into pieces, it definitely wouldn't be able to get back alive, and all the trash around it would definitely be destroyed as well. ”

"High temperature, suffocation, shock wave: any one of them can kill it seven or eight times!"

"That's it..."

The company commander nodded. He glanced at his artillery officer again. This man had been with him for more than thirty years. He had been promoted from the field army with him. He knew that this bastard never spoke big words: as long as he wanted to , he can accurately hit the nest built by sparrows with cannonballs from ten kilometers away.

"Go ahead."

Finally, the company commander waved his hand. After dismissing his artillery officer, he reluctantly glanced outside: the atmosphere of war was still strong, and the rumbling artillery fire and the noisy sound of fighting were not far away from them. It echoed thousands of meters away, and the silence in front of them might not last long.

But in this quietness, there is a treasure that makes him salivate.

"Do you want to take risks again, sir?"

The company commander turned around and found his company's political commissar leaning on the trench next to him. This gentle guy wearing glasses was also covered in dust and fully armed. This showed that he was not a showman: after all, he Like other political commissars of the Queen's Guards Corps, they are all voted by the grassroots soldiers. Those who have gone through advanced studies and then returned to the company to take up their posts are veterans themselves.

"You know, that's a big guy."

The company commander smiled. He had the same appearance as the Iron Warrior named Kelvaren in the fortress: they both had only one eye on their fierce faces. However, unlike Kelvaren who had empty eye sockets, Differently, the company commander has installed an electronic eye on himself, which can also kill enemies when necessary.

"Let me tell you, I have been fighting all kinds of aliens for more than forty years. In less than an hour with these Hruds, I almost figured out how fast these guys can run and how strong they are: they just The retreat will definitely not be able to take away those dead bodies in time, which means that the big guy’s body is very likely to be left there."

"Is that a high-level commander or a superior individual? I'm not sure, but it must be of great research value: we must have had more than one war with these guys. As long as we can bring this complete and important corpse back, it will be of great value for research. It will definitely be very useful in future wars."

"Believe me, political commissar, it will definitely be a first-class merit: we can receive this first-class merit alive!"

The political commissar seemed to hesitate, but in the end he did not say anything to stop him. He also knew very well that in this kind of military operation, it would be difficult for him to stop the company commander's intention, so he just watched the military commanders on the front put on the new layer. The [Emperor Style] tactical cloak issued.

The reason why it is called this is because this highly effective tactical cloak is said to be a gift from the Lord of Avalon from the Emperor. Its effect is just as its name suggests, and many soldiers have habitually used it. Wear it over their mortal power armor.

"So, how many people do you plan to bring?"

"Old rules, a small team."

The company commander smiled.

"You help me look at the front line. I'll touch it and take a look first. If it works, I'll use the gravity device to drag it back. If it doesn't work, I'll come back to pull the people back. This front line has been almost destroyed. Wait until I pull it back. After we retrieved that big thing, we just retreated to the rear defense line to reinforce the defense."

"……clear."

The political commissar nodded. Before he could finish his words, the company commander turned over and disappeared from the outside of the trench. Also disappearing with him was the silent tactical team beside him.

The political commissar watched them go away, muttering words of complaint: It was because of this seemingly incompatible recklessness that his boss, after forty years of military service, was still working here despite his illustrious military exploits. A company commander with the rank of major, although the company commander himself is content with it.

Then, the political commissar glanced at the rear of the battle line. He could hear the rumble of marching footsteps from the fortress on the other side of the river. That was the sound of the Iron Warriors crossing the river. They brought powerful fire support and several units. The engine of war and the clarion call for counterattack, but the commissar did not jump into it blindly. He gave his troops more time to rest.

When his eyes swept over other places in the trench, he saw with satisfaction that more than a hundred soldiers in the company were seizing the free time in an orderly manner. They were not at all shocked by the departure of their commander and were looking after themselves. He was doing his work freely, and the political commissar who was satisfied with all this also took out the data version in his arms. He also had something to do.

Encourage morale, inspect the trenches, check every detail, and listen to the soldiers' thoughts about the battle: there are always things more important than simple scolding and punishment, and in addition, facing the opponent he encountered for the first time, he also There is a modest additional task.

Thinking of this, the political commissar lowered his head and started recording on the data board as he walked, recording all the information they learned in the battle just now: these data must be handed in after the battle, and their hard work will be Fukuzawa's other brother troops, just like their company, have been using the information that other brother troops exchanged for their lives.

The commissar coughed and whispered.

"The Hrud people, suspected to be an unknown psychic race, have special time weapons..."