40k: Midnight Blade

Chapter 642 25. Actual combat day (1, 7k)

I must admit, it felt weird to be back in the military. This is not simply to rework as a sailor, or to temporarily fill a fishing position on a fishing boat in Banjo-1.

This is the army, and the army is definitely not a gentle place. No general wants to have a group of "gentle and kind" soldiers under his command. If anyone really thinks so, I will laugh at him very bluntly.

However, I believe there are no such idiots in the world.

Say it back.

I quickly adapted to the position given to me by the Lions - sergeant major, and one of the instructors of the recruit company, a standard drudgery and guaranteed to be hated.

Except for those who are born soldiers, no one would like to have someone suddenly appear above them who can "dominate" them at will. Moreover, this person also holds the power of life and death over them, and corporal punishment and humiliation are commonplace.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not the type of instructor who loves to cause trouble for recruits, but a certain level of cruelty is necessary. The soldiers who come out of my hands must learn one thing before they step onto the battlefield for the first time: War does not treat anyone kindly.

If they can't learn this, I would rather they die in the training ground.

So, how did I do?

As you can see, I'm still feeling weird about being back in the military, but I've come to terms with who I am. In the past month, I trained the five hundred recruits assigned to me to exhaustion in several training grounds of the Blade of Reason.

These men and women from Caliban are of excellent quality and generally possess a strong will, but in my opinion this is not enough and they still have a long way to go. I intend to do my best to teach them everything a former Doom Guard has learned on the battlefield.

The Lions trust me, so I have to repay that trust. Furthermore, this is also a way of being loyal to the Emperor.

But, I didn’t expect the actual combat day to come so quickly.

In the training system within the empire, the actual combat day is a very important thing. No matter what army you are in, whether you believe in the bullshit training manual issued by the Ministry of Military Affairs or not, you are bound to experience this day.

Training is just training after all. Some people were elites before setting foot on the battlefield, ranked among the best, and won several excellent training medals. However, as soon as they set foot on the battlefield, they forgot everything and couldn't even hold a gun steady.

So yes, the actual combat day is the 'ultimate test' in the true sense. If you survive this level, you will be a real soldier.

You'll learn how to survive bombings, how to enjoy hardship, how to survive mosquito bites and the dead - and, most importantly, you'll learn the most important thing.

The killing itself requires no method.

The wild bull roared, and I was pretending to be restrained in my seat by two seat belts. A small silver emblem of the Caliban Auxiliary's Knights' unit was held in my hand.

Things have changed, and the Doom Guards are still in front of me, but I have joined a new army. Amidst the violent shaking, I lit a cigarette for myself.

It was still the familiar 'loyalty' type specially supplied by the Ministry of Military Affairs. The moment the smoke was inhaled into the lungs, it was like being punched into the lungs with a fist. It was so powerful.

I coughed and blew out smoke rings. The strange coexistence of unfamiliarity and proficiency made my adjutant Kessler look over. He hesitantly took out a small iron box from the sandwich of the bulletproof armor, opened it, and displayed the hand-rolled cigarettes inside. Gave it to me.

"Sir?"

"Keep it for yourself," I told him, my tone lazy. "And it's best to only smoke half a cigarette a day, Kessler, you have to learn to be frugal."

It's no fun squatting in a trench picking up cigarette butts with nothing to smoke.

I smiled and shook my head, put out my cigarette and put it back in my pocket. The bullet-proof knee pads were shaking and torturing my poor knees, causing bursts of pain, but to be honest, I didn't care about them anymore.

Over the past month, I have forced myself to live and train with the recruits. On the first day, I was as tired as a dead dog, but by the second day, I was back to before.

This will be very beneficial for what we are going to experience next

My thoughts were interrupted by a sudden violent jolt. If it were just that, I wouldn't be annoyed. However, my recruits were dizzy in their seats because of this.

Unlike me, they had all their seat belts on, six in total, almost like hostages tied to chairs.

I frowned, unbuckled my seatbelt, stood up, and started walking in the crowded rear cabin despite the shaking.

A Wild Bull can only seat ten people. This old-fashioned model has six hatches and a heavy timber mounted on the top. It is not a tank, nor is it a treasure. It is not as good as the Chimera that I have long been accustomed to. .

However, since this kind of old antique can serve in a force directly affiliated with the Dark Angels, such as the Squire Knights, it naturally has its own special features. I haven't seen that particular spot yet, but I have a rough guess as to what it is.

I walked towards the cockpit and knocked hard on the thick door. The observation window on the door was opened. A pair of green eyes stared at me from behind, and then stammered a greeting.

"Sir! Sorry! We encountered a deep ditch!"

I resisted the urge to curse and yelled: "Come on, sir, sir, Cora, how did you two drive? By the Emperor, we were just driving from the landing point to the camp!"

"Sorry, sir!"

I shook my head at him and knocked on the hatch twice again: "Try to avoid those damn ditches and drive smoothly!"

"As you command, sir!"

It doesn't matter that he didn't hear my first sentence at all.

I returned to my seat and put on my helmet, but the bump just now was not completely gone. It brought a certain sense of ominousness, lingering in my heart.

I am not superstitious, and I am not one of those people who believe in various ‘omens’. However, I am a former Doomsday Guard after all. I have fought too many battles, which allows me to understand the character of the old guys who have been born and died with me very well.

Take the 'Trench Killer' M-K-21 combat shotgun in my hand. It weighs four pounds and has a large magazine of 25 rounds. One shot can turn people into fireworks. This thing's nickname Its purpose is more intuitively expressed than its model number.

Then there was the Wild Bull armored vehicle sitting under my butt.

I have already mentioned that it is an old antique, but it is very cheap and can be equipped with additional armor or weapons at any time according to the commander's requirements, which gives it an extremely valuable tactical ability - adapting to local conditions.

However, even the most primitive version of wild bulls, their tracks should not withstand such bumps on this plain, unless some idiot in the second company passing in front of us fired a cannon and blasted a hole. .

And there is absolutely no chance of this happening, because we are the vanguard of this armored force.

I squinted my eyes, stood up with the Trench Killer in hand, and sent a simple tactical code to all the crews through the company's internal communication. Soon, the rumbling sound suddenly stopped.

My recruits looked at each other and quickly realized what was happening. They unbuckled their seatbelts and quickly and silently approached the hatch nearest them with their guns in hand as if they were in training, ready to fire at any time after the hatch was lowered. Take a shot.

I went to the panoramic viewing window of the Wild Bull's rear hatch and began to peek out through the heavy machinery. The world around me comes into my eyes like a ball, causing me a slight dizziness

The slightly blue sky, the empty plains, and the forest not far away. Everything seemed fine, but I quickly noticed something - it was so quiet.

The peep window comes with a sound capture component, which allows me to hear the chirping of insects and birds in the forest. Although the process is very uncomfortable, it's like putting two bugs into my ears and letting them poop.

But this time, the two bugs peeking out of the window didn't poop in my ears. They were as quiet as dead.

Oh shit.

I pressed the right side of the helmet and switched the communication channel. The identity information was successfully verified. After a short beep, a voice from our destination sounded in my ears.

"Sergeant Major Hayid, what happened?" Company Commander Mabus, who arrived at Camp No. 3 before us, asked.

I told the story quickly.

"Understood, prepare for battle, the gunboat is preparing to take off." He replied briefly. "Let's meet these aliens."

"Roger that," I said.

Gunship I took a deep breath and felt an undue envy. The squire knights are really extremely rich. They own separate battleships and can enjoy a series of things that can bring tactical advantages such as remote sensing and mapping before landing.

After the general situation has been explored, the well-trained scouts will operate in small groups to open camps and investigate the enemy's situation. After that, transport aircraft and armored units entered the scene, as well as various types of heavy firepower, such as gunboats and tanks.

My old army didn't have this kind of treatment.

"Get ready for battle." I switched the communication channel again and told my recruits. "Follow your training, understand? The Emperor is watching you, don't let Him down."

I got a nervous response, which was okay, they should be nervous. I lowered my head and started checking on the Trench Killer.

This is a new gun, and it has only been in my hands for twenty days, so it is in very good condition. I prepared four magazines for it. In addition, I also have a short "Poison Needle" submachine gun, which is sitting quietly behind my waist.

The body of the little thing is unremarkable, not much bigger than a pistol, and its power is not much stronger than an ordinary light gun, but it only has one firing mode: full automatic.

Moreover, it has a very long magazine that is linked to its tail.

Did I mention I once used it to beat a traitor to dust? I mean, bit by bit, head to leg.

You can probably see what the idea is behind the weapons I prepared for myself - but you may also want to ask, what kind of enemy is worthy of such an extreme choice of weapons?

Well, the answer is simple, Eldar pirates.

Thin, dark, a bunch of bastards.

We received news three days ago that a distress signal was sent from a galaxy called Minoris near Banjo-1.

Their governor firmly believed that his agricultural world was being invaded by the Eldar. Although he did not provide any definite evidence, the three standard armored regiments of the squire knights and seventy-five Dark Angels came anyway.

This is part of the agreement or oath that has been running here for tens of thousands of years. People live and work in peace and contentment and pay taxes. When in danger, they send out a signal to call their protector.

I have never experienced anything like this in the past, because the Doom Guards are always moved around, and we often appear in the most dangerous battlefields.

Ah, speaking of this, I have met a noble lord from Ventria twice on different battlefields. They are similar to us, always running around in hell.

The only difference is that we came here under orders, while they paid to send themselves here.

They are really a group of respectable lunatics.

I held the gun and calmly pressed a red button on the wall of the Wild Bull. The bottom hatch began to open. Before it was fully opened, I raised my right hand and made a tactical gesture of standing guard to the recruits in the same car with me.

We have been stopped in place for almost four minutes. The armored troops will not rest in place on the road. And those alien scum are not stupid. They know the difference. I think they have probably guessed something.

But it doesn't matter. I know their habits.

If possible, they would rather drag us out of the armored vehicles and torture us to death one by one. This or similar ideas have a fatal attraction to them.

So I still have a certain degree of tactical advantage, enough to support a small adventure.

The bottom hatch made a soft bang.

I pulled out the half-smoked cigarette and lit it for myself. I took a long drag, then pretended to unbuckle my belt with my left hand and staggered to the bottom opening.

The smell of mud seeped into my nostrils, and I squinted my eyes, pretended to pee, pulled my pants with my left hand, and spit out the cigarette.

Then I pulled the trigger with my right hand.

The trench killer made a heavy muffled sound, the fire jumped, and a scream came from the opening of the bottom hatch, like the screams of the dead in hell. I continued to pull the trigger indifferently until the pieces of meat and bones flew across my face, and then I stopped.

There is one thing you need to know - they don’t like wearing armor very much. They are fast and deadly, yes, but they just don’t like wearing armor.

So they deserved to die.

I quickly backed away, holding my gun, while still pulling up my pants and fastening my belt.

My recruits stared at me in amazement, Kessler was particularly shocked, but he was my adjutant after all, so he reacted before them - he started to pull the trigger, just like me.

This incident saved us, and also brought a devastating blow to the two dark shadows that jumped out of the bottom hatch. The smell of minced meat and burnt meat filled the entire cabin, and the two broken bodies staggered and fell. The remaining people woke up as if from a dream and immediately began to be alert.

I ignored them and just went back to the peephole to continue observing. At this time, there were already some shadowy things in the forest next to me.

Come on, bastards, I whispered, and issued combat orders in the communication channel.

Within twelve seconds, the deafening sound of gunfire broke out at the same time, and every gun and every cannon had opened fire.

The battle began. The recruits riding the Chimera could shoot out through the observation hole, but the Wild Bull we were riding could not. It was not designed for this purpose. Besides, lowering the hatch was obviously not a good idea.

I didn't want my men to be hit by the poison guns of the Eldar. That would be worse than death.

Fortunately, I had another thing to deal with now.

I threw the trench killer to Kessler, tore off the helmet and stuffed it into his hand, pulled out the poison needle behind my waist, and jumped down the hatch that brought the attacker. As I expected, the bump just now was not caused by nature, but by them.

I found some round devices placed by the aliens on the chassis and tracks on both sides of the Wild Bull.

I don't know what they are, but I think they are definitely not good things. This is an unexpected discovery, but it is definitely not a surprise-damn, I almost broke my teeth.

Although I knew that these sons of bitches were cunning and always liked to launch surprise attacks, how did they arrange these things and ambushes under our feet without us noticing?

I crawled back angrily, took back my helmet, closed the hatch, reported the situation, and issued orders-three minutes later, under the cover of artillery fire, all of us left the armored vehicle.

The maintenance team began to check the specific situation, and I got very bad news.

Almost half of the armored vehicles in the entire recruit company were installed with alien devices without our knowledge. They could not remove them, and they could only know that it was an explosive through inspection.

So, the situation is now clear: we were ambushed, the aliens installed explosives on our armored vehicles in some way, and sent three people to hide under my wild bull, probably to launch a surprise attack.

They should have arranged it for every armored vehicle, I feel sorry for them.

Then, I quickly changed the order: abandon all armored vehicles that have been equipped with explosives, and the remaining armored vehicles continue to move forward, keeping a slow speed, as a cover for the rest of us. My order was quickly executed, and the attack followed closely.

The first recruit to fall was named Harget, a man who was always tired, and his legs were cut off by some sharp metal bullets.

He just fell to the ground, the shadow cast by a Chimera enveloped him, and the gap between the tracks was not blocked, so more bullets flew in and smashed him into pieces.

A piece of his intestines flew to my feet, followed by more bullets. They were extremely dense, flying out from the gaps between tracks or vehicles, hitting my recruits accurately.

"Take cover!" I yelled. "Change the direction and automatically lock the enemy's fire mode! Driver, run me towards the forest!"

Two minutes later, we took over. In this forest on Minoris 2, we began to have ‘close contact’ with them. They looked tall and thin, almost as unrecognizable as shadows.

They are smiling, their pale faces full of contentment, as if they have already eaten us, and their teeth are shining behind their thin lips.

Their strategy is to rely on speed to descend from the sky and launch close assaults to avoid the firepower of our armored vehicles.

But they don't know that I exist, nor do they know that I give each of my recruits at least one powerful firearm - the Dark Angels have enough weapons to do this, and they are very encouraging Soldiers do this.

Therefore, this group of bastards noticed something was wrong a minute after engaging us. I can see the confusion on some of their dead faces: What's going on? Why are these humans not stupid?

I sneered and tightened my grip on the Trench Killer, aiming at the forest and firing continuously. I didn't need to aim, because there was no way I could follow them with my naked eyes, but I didn't need to.

They are very sensitive, but they only have one way to retreat, and I just need to aim and fire at that way.

Four minutes after engaging the enemy, five Vulture gunboats appeared above us and targeted the depths of the forest for bombing in accordance with my request. The flames ignited, the ground shook, and I let out a sigh of relief.

Two hours later, as it was getting dark, we arrived at Camp Three. When I set out, I took five hundred people with me, but now there are only three hundred and twenty-nine people left.

Leading the new recruits into an encounter with a group of Eldar and still having so many people survive should be a victory worth celebrating, right?

At least that's what my commander, Mabuse, thought. He came to the infirmary specially to congratulate me, but I couldn't be happier.

I even felt guilty.

Mabuse seemed to see my true emotions hidden behind my words of thanks, so he brought up another matter.

"There is a commander who wants to see you, Sergeant Major Hayid."

I was taken aback.

"He's already in my tent—"

I stood up quickly, not giving him a chance to continue.

The doctor who examined me looked at me angrily and had to pull out the unfinished injection. Then, he slapped the gauze stained with disinfectant on my back, causing me to stagger.

I smiled apologetically at him, then immediately put on my military uniform, straightened my appearance, and followed him into his tent. Here, I saw a familiar face.

Khalil Lohars nodded to me: "It's nice to see you again, Hayid."

"My lord, no, sir?"

Wearing a black and red coat, he smiled at me: "Don't worry about the title, it's okay to just call me Khalil."

"Your Majesty Judge, how could we go so far?" my superior said in fear.

"Then just call me the Inquisitor - anyway, you two, I am here on the order of the Lion." As he said this, he took out a rolled-up military order with his right hand.

Mabuse reached out and took it, read it for a moment, handed it back, and immediately saluted an aquila. I followed him to salute, but I had a lot of thoughts in my mind. My commander doesn't know who this person is, but I...

Well, to be honest, I actually don’t know who he is.

But I know that he must be a very senior judge and a friend of the Lion. The conversation they had in the House of the Stupid Fisherman was exactly the kind of chat that only happens between old friends.

He returned the courtesy to us, and then got straight to the point: "How is the current defense strength of Camp No. 3? Is it still sufficient?"

"Very abundant, sir. All members of the second company are already stationed here. The armored forces are ready to leave at any time. Our gunboats are patrolling back and forth in the sky, and the reconnaissance team is exploring the surrounding area."

"Very good." He nodded. "Now please listen to me. The specific situation on Minoris Two has been found out. We are indeed going to fight a group of Eldar."

"According to past experience, their number is not very large, and most of them will retreat after realizing our strength. But they have already captured the lord of this planet, Absia Fawn, one step ahead of us."

"He is the 31st lord of the Fawn family and has considerable political power. Therefore, if possible, we hope that he is alive."

"Understood, my lord," said Mabuse. "What are we going to do?"

Khalil Lohars smiled again: "We need a commando team."

Thirty minutes later, he found me in my tent.

Thanks to my status as sergeant major, I was given the same private camp as Mabuse. It's not big, but the conditions are good enough. My back still hurts, and I'm not sure if it's because of the fall on my back to avoid the attack, or the doctor's slap.

I wanted to go to bed as early as possible so that my head wouldn't hurt when I got up early tomorrow. But he came in, so I put on my coat and stood up from the cot, standing at attention and saluting.

"Calm down, Sergeant Major Hayid," he said to me in a joking tone.

I couldn't help laughing - Emperor, if there was an officer in my former unit who talked to his subordinates like this, Colonel Madman would definitely eat him alive.

"I think you can tell that I'm talking nonsense just now?" he asked me again.

Isn't this nonsense? Of course I can hear it. I believe my superior Mabuse can hear it too, otherwise he wouldn't have kept that serious expression of deep hatred.

Seriously, a noble with considerable political power needs to be saved?

If he is really so important, how can this burden fall on us? What about the seventy-five Dark Angels who came with us? I don't think they really landed on the dark side of the planet to kill the Eldar.

I nodded.

"Then it's easy." He said with a smile. "The truth is actually very simple, Sergeant. In short, Abusia Faan does exist, and he, his wife, children, and half of the civilians in the city have indeed been captured."

"One of the purposes of our trip is to rescue them. The Dark Angels who have liberated three cities and the local defense forces will attack this Eldar conspiracy group head-on and cover us. However, our primary target is not him."

"My lord, I just need to know what the mission is." I took a deep breath and told him.

He looked at me in surprise, then nodded gently: "Okay, the mission is to rescue Abusia Faan, and capture his wife."

I saluted.