Warhammer: In the Name of Ashes

"For Allfather and Ruth!"

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

Pieces of bodies were chopped into pieces, and black blood splashed everywhere like raindrops. The buzzing saw gradually became quiet as it lost its target. In the darkness in the distance, there was a huge figure holding a heavy hammer and attacking him.

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

Boo!

The dazzling flames flickered on the thick muzzle of the gun. The brass bullet case with the inscription had not yet hit the ground. The purple giant dozens of meters away had been knocked down.

The diamond-made warhead broke the thick radius bone, then penetrated the well-developed chest muscles, ribs and even organs, and finally tore a hole in the steel pillar behind the target before exploding.

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

He was alive, but only alive.

Edro the Bloodclaw could see through the eyepiece's field of view and through the unique fiber blouse of the Undernest that the fallen body was still twitching.

Especially the limb on the remaining arm that had been transformed into a tentacle-like limb was still flexing 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 his chest. Amidst the dull metal collision, the green-armored giant stepped forward. As he walked, he put down the gun in his hand and used his free other one. In his hand, the chain sword used for execution has begun to buzz.

Um?

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

The infrared scanning array placed a warning mark on his abdominal cavity, and the mutant's remaining left hand did not know when it was pressed there.

Laws and Orders - Bless!

High Gothic with a Terran accent sounded behind the giant, and at the same time, a bright and deadly firework exploded in front of the giant.

The incandescent plasma flames emerged from nothing in front of the giant, then rose and bloomed. A bluish transparent wall emerged from the void, isolating the flames of destruction that could melt fine gold from the giant.

The bursting plasma licked the psychic stance, and the latter stood still in the slight flicker. The shock wave pushed the giant together with the stance shield. He staggered back again and again, but in such an insidious and fatal situation, Despite the attack, he survived without any injuries.

"Well done!" The giant stopped and looked back. In the open space dozens of meters away, a giant who was also gray but closer to the color of metal was slowly putting away the halberd pointed here.

The latter just nodded slightly to his compliment, and then replied in the battlefield communication:

"Pay attention to the target characteristics and deal with it as far away as possible."

"Understood!" Edro replied muffledly in the communication channel and then looked up, just in time to see the teasing look on veteran Cantu's face.

It was a small thing to be saved by a comrade in the brother army, but being educated on the details of battlefield handling was very frustrating to him.

"Close the team!" Cantu confirmed the progress of the mission with the two Gray Knights, and then ordered the surrounding Astartes. The other three giants walked out of the dark corridor at the bottom of the hive, and the entire team began to make their way upwards. return.

Half an hour later, on the upper level of the hive, blue-gray Storm Eagles emerged from the black cumulonimbus clouds, and this makeshift hunting group also lined up and waited.

The two Gray Knights walked at the end of the queue, signaling to the members of the local Tribunal before boarding the plane. With the roar of the Storm Eagle engine, they set off on their way to another hive.

"Only one hour earlier than expected." In the black cockpit of the Storm Eagle, Longtooth Cantu said to the members of the hunting group while looking at the projector in front of him.

"But it's still too late." The second-in-command of the hunting group, Gray Hunter Valko said.

The team's mission went smoothly, but it was completed later than they expected.

The post-war summary is not a sharing meeting for the hunting group, but if it can make the Blood Claws 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 was not aware of the purpose of this meeting. He was simply venting his disgust for the environment in the bottom nest. 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 looking around at all the members of the team, Cantu finally looked at the two comrades in the "brotherly unit".

"What about you?" Cantu asked. He was more curious about the views of these Gray Knights than the familiar comrades around him.

Whether it's a fresh interpretation of the battlefield or a distinctive personal opinion, he's always welcome. And if someone could use words to flog these young wolves for him, that would be an even better 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 so insincere!" Before Cantu could speak, Edro could no longer bear his temper.

"..." There was another brief silence, and then a Gray Knight spoke:

"The curtain is being weakened, and there will be more and more psychic awakeners, the kind of targets you just met..."

——

"The curtain is being weakened..."

Thousands of light years away in the northern part of the Jan Moro sector, on the bridge of the Enduring Crusade on the front line of the war, Calvin was making the same conclusion in a meeting.

This is the border between the central jurisdiction of the star region and the northern galaxies. It is also the gathering place for the main fleet of the Tribunal after the three northern galaxies lost contact one after another.

The Inquisition's intelligence station here has been recovered by them, and the opponents of this battle have finally revealed their true colors.

"The Word Bearers, the Dark Council..." Chasov, the scholar of the Inquisition, read this name, while David, the commander of the Exorcist Chapter, took up what the original body just said.

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

"Will there be a large number?" Ragnar asked, looking at the heavy-faced people. The first wave of battle reports of the frontline team had been compiled, and he also intuitively understood this existential threat.

Supernatural forces are clearly a problem in Astartes combat, as the Space Wolves lack the experience and knowledge to identify or deal with them.

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

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

Once this kind of unit appears, combined with the help of some Fallen in a complex battlefield environment, it will become a dangerous existence that can threaten the lives of Astartes.

"There are also the 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 outstanding in the context of the Great Expedition. Its frontal combat effectiveness 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 master a huge demon army.

The Word Bearers are not scary. What is scary is that once they appear, the demonic legion surges behind them like a tidal wave.

Unlike the Black Legion of the Eye of Terror, they rarely appeared as an organization after the Great Rebellion. However, even those Word Bearers who fought in warbands and squads could often control the rule of the empire with the help of the huge demon legion. pose a serious threat.

And this time? How many of them showed up?

The fog of war prevented Calvin from getting exact figures, but just from this huge subspace storm, it can be known that they invested considerable resources here.

The development of Gian Moreau's war also corresponded 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 Inquisition or the Imperial Navy, failed to send out any effective information.

And the absence of information is, in a sense, information.

Blocking battlefield information at the galaxy level is extremely difficult. It is not something that can be easily accomplished by the imperial army, let alone the Chaos War Gang, which is famous for its chaos.

Judging from Calvin's experience, this was at least a joint operation of several warbands. Even taking a broad view, it was the entire Word Bearers Legion, and even the fate of the fallen demon Primarch himself was unknown.

And if such an enemy is in front of him, Calvin will have even less time to rectify his rear.

Judging from the current battle reports, these polluters who were 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 will only be a matter of time before more powerful psykers are captured by the warp.

The Tribunal's information itself has a lag effect, and there is a long period of time between receipt and processing.

If the current approach is followed, both the restrained troops and resources will be unacceptable to the Inquisition.

Moreover, non-registered psykers are not within the sight of the empire. Typical scenes such as the bottom of the hive city will become time bombs with huge threats once pollution spreads.

The Astartes commanders present had all cooperated with the Inquisition and were naturally familiar with this situation. A few outsiders, such as Ragnar, also understood the reasons for the original body's worries under the explanation of scholar Chasov.

There are a total of nineteen galaxies the size of Gian Moreau, and there are hundreds of hive cities in nearly a hundred planetary worlds. Just think about the number of psykers that may exist in them to know that they are simply not something they can clean up. engineering.

what to do? After thoroughly understanding the difficulties faced by the original body and the Inquisition, the alpha wolf Ragnar did not rush to express his position, but looked in the direction of Calvin.

This was the first time that he looked at the problem from the perspective of the Inquisition, and it was also the first time that he so thoroughly understood the serious harm that Chaos pollution posed to the empire.

"If you kill someone by mistake, don't let him go." This principle of the Inquisition that he had scorned in the past had become the best way to deal with it at this time.

"We still have to find a solution from the source." Sensing the gaze of the alpha wolf, the original body nodded first, and then looked at the holographic projection in front of him.

From the capital of the Gian Moro sector to the north, several galaxies in the middle are still under control, but from the Fermat galaxy where the forging world Hep is located, and the adjacent Hubble galaxy, there is a huge blank.

The three lost galaxies of Padilla, Hess, and Shadow in the north and the two industrial galaxies of Alto-1 and Alto-2 where Calvin is currently located, which are mainly engaged in mining, separately form the northern part of Gian Moreau. constellations.

The original body turned to look at Tebos, who was in charge of diplomacy: "What is the situation in the Heper Forge World? There is no response yet?"

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

This is not right. Calvin instinctively senses the problem of the forging world. The two galaxies of Alto-1 and Alto-2 are the main sources of raw materials for Hepper. The oil man has never been so indifferent to his own wealth.

"Where are the troops I want?" Calvin then asked.

"The two knight families and the attached guard corps, this is the greatest support they give."

"Two knight families?" Calvin looked at the local galaxy information provided by the Inquisition, and sure enough he found the names of these two families on the garrison lists of the two galaxies.

"Shadowsong family, Hadley family?"

"Yes." Tabers confirmed.

Local troops? Does that mean there is no support?

Calvin looked at the list without saying a word, but unconsciously rubbed his chin with his ceramite gauntlet.

People who knew him well knew that this was a manifestation of his anger, but he finally suppressed this emotion and decided to pay a solo visit to this forge world after the war.

"Understood, send a team of people over in the name of our representative, at least to ensure that we have the possibility to intervene at any time." Calvin gave the order to Tabos, and this was just an insurance measure.

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

"Let the Honor Guard go! Remember to bring the teleportation beacon."

"clear!"

Tybos walked towards the Astropath deck with the Primarch's orders, while everyone present was still waiting for the next order.

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

The geographical locations of the two galaxies are pretty good, especially with the local production of metal ores. Their planetary defense systems are very low-cost to build, and are naturally carefully constructed by Heper's mechanical priests.

And if these two passages leading to the center of Gian Moro are blocked, there will be only one way left for the enemy, that world that has been abandoned since 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 from the enemy is also considerable. Because this demonic tide created by investing countless souls cannot compete with the rules of the universe and will fade away sooner or later.

As the party that paid this heavy price, those slaves of Chaos would definitely launch a substantial attack on the defense line he was stationed in before the demonic tide receded.

"Ragnar," the Primarch whispered.

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

"The Alto-1 system on the left wing is your defense zone. Take your direct troops there, and the local Imperial Navy and Defense Force will also be included in your command sequence.

I have only one request. Without the help of any reinforcements, you must defend until the last soldier. Can you do it? "

"As you wish!" The alpha wolf stood up and clenched his fist hard towards his heart.

The original body looked at him and just nodded, then watched him turn and leave.

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

"Take your manpower to take over the defense of Alto-2. My request remains unchanged. Without any reinforcements, we will defend there until the last soldier."

"Understood." The two partners of the Tribunal followed the order and left.

The only ones left on the bridge were the headquarters of the Gray Knights, the Sea Wolf Dalian Hoffman of the Space Wolves, and a chapter representative who had been subconsciously ignored by Calvin - the Blood Ravens.

Update, Kavin, large wars are so difficult to write...