Warhammer: In the Name of Ashes

Chapter 442 Black and Red, Plans in the Shadows (Twenty-seven) Gray Hunter-Marsh

"I also want to know..." Luger didn't mean to dodge. He just lowered his head and recalled the bloody battles of the past few days.

The power armor servo on the neck began to scream reminders again, and noise blocking began to appear more and more frequently in the communicator.

The sound of the monitoring device means a warning that the wound on the abdominal cavity has opened again, and it goes without saying that the concealment of battlefield information must come from the handiwork of those depraved bastards.

The Mark VI power armor had obviously not been maintained after a fierce battle, and red blood was slowly seeping out from under the damaged airtight layer.

"What the hell..." Helm slowly relaxed his clenched fists. Following the direction of his sense of smell, he saw Luke's hidden wound. He turned his head to look in the direction of the pharmacist. The latter's slight nod made him Feel a little at ease.

It’s good that you’re not dead, it’s good that you’re not dead…

boom! Helm picked up the water cup on the table and had a drink, the cold glacier water dripping from his beard. The tingling pain in his stomach made Helm's mind clearer and clearer, but there were still too many details about the battle here that he had not asked about.

The sound at the door of the command room made the three people's eyes turn, and the rag curtain was also opened by a big hand.

"Dad! There's work to do!" Marsh's big head poked in from under the door curtain, but he obviously had no intention of going any further.

The two leaders made a lot of noise, and the ears of the wolf cubs were even more alert. If the enemy in front hadn't started to move again, Marsh would never have wanted to come in at this time.

Helm strode outside, signaling to the pharmacist who had no presence at all. Taking advantage of the latter's time to treat Luger's wound, he got out of the fortification first, and under the guidance of Marsh, headed towards the high point of the battle line. Click to go.

"What's the problem?" As the two of them were walking on the road, Helm calmly inspected the status of the position.

The veterans along the way gave him a tacit high-five, while the recruits were under the instructions of the veterans, carrying ammunition and supplies from the rear to the forward positions, and hiding them in some hidden positions according to the habits of hunting groups.

All the auxiliary troops and servitors had died in the last battle, but someone still had to do these rough jobs. The veterans were already troubled by the excessive energy of the new recruits, so the work of transporting these machines fell into the hands of the Blood Claws. inside.

Marsh was an exception. His performance in the last battle was acceptable. At least in the eyes of the veterans, his bravery was being replaced by calmness.

This is a good sign, as most recruits die in the Bloodclaw stage because they are "too brave". This disadvantage comes from their bloodline and is one of the inherent characteristics and growth stages of the Wolf Spiral.

Therefore, the hunting group has no other choice but to adopt a laissez-faire attitude.

When the surviving recruits grow to the next stage of the genetic module, the recruits who calm down will naturally have a higher survival rate.

And when they are lucky enough to survive until that time, they will also be given a more important battlefield function: the firepower of the team and the main force of the attack - the Gray Hunters.

But there are exceptions to everything, and Marsh, who was different from his peers during the Blood Claw period, is such a special example.

His desire for destruction on the battlefield was much more restrained than that of the Blood Claws of the same period, and he had obvious rationality at critical moments in several bloody battles. And he thought that no one knew about all this, but he didn't know that it was all within the sight of the veterans.

Wolf cubs who know how to act according to their ability can always live longer, and wolf cubs who know how to be cunning are more likely to become alpha wolves. Although the rules in the hunting group are cruel, after discovering this special "seed", they are still willing to provide better growth opportunities and better protection for the cubs who show similar characteristics.

So there was another person's name on the pamphlet in the hand of the alpha wolf Hoffman, and Helm and the Brotherhood members also made a tacit understanding to arrange this ignorant recruit to a position closer to the command in the next battle. .

But this is just a tendency and has nothing to do with doting.

Marsh's sufferings will never be less than those of other Blood Claws. On the contrary, he will face more cruel and harsh eyes in the rest of his service life.

This is the case for the descendants of Russ. Only when the young wolf proves its excellence with its fangs will it be recognized by the seniors in the hunting group, and thus have the opportunity to shoulder heavier responsibilities.

"Noncommissioned Officer's Assistant" is the product of this compromise.

It is not a fixed military rank, but if Marsh continues his current performance in the following battles, he will be only one step away from becoming a Gray Hunter decades in advance through the recognition of all brotherhood members. Already...

"The connection with the Dalian headquarters was cut off just ten minutes ago." Marsh said while picking up the important information.

"Tell me something I don't know!" Helm interrupted Marsh rudely, and the latter was used to his father's increasingly harsh attitude recently.

"Comrades who went to fetch water from the glacier behind reported that the melting rate of the glacier there was accelerating."

"What else?" The two of them talked and walked to the high point of the position. The blood claw on the observation post stepped away from the instrument knowingly, and secretly exchanged glances with Marsh.

"How is Dad feeling?"

"Not good, very irritable..."

Marsh lowered his head to cut off the brief exchange, picked up the latest news from the data pad and continued to report.

"Someone from the defense force in the front position just came to report that the fortress stationed by the 139th Motorized Rifle Regiment on the left has lost contact."

"Huh?" Helm put down the instrument in his hand, turned his head and followed Marsh's fingers to find the fortress on the data pad.

After thinking for a moment, he looked up and asked Marsh: "How long?"

"Two hours ago." Marsh said, and that happened to be when the battle here in Luke just ended.

Having just left the team's field of vision, he didn't understand the significance of this piece of information, but he still vaguely sensed the crisis.

Helm, on the other hand, knew much better about the consequences of this news. He figured it out almost instantly and began to make simple measurements with his knuckles on the map displayed on the data board...

This is a trap.

Ruger's victory in the previous battle was false, and the enemy's target should be Helm's last mobile force and the entire position at the southern foot of the Fermara Mountains.

The tactical position of the high-point fortress on the left wing is not important, and there is nothing to blame for the regimental-level Astra Militarum garrisoning it.

But this fortress has a problem that no one thought of before the war. After six days of orbital bombing, the original glaciers that originally accumulated on the back of the fortress have disappeared.

And what changes will this bring?

If Helm had guessed correctly, after this originally unimportant fortress was lost, there would be a road that could go all the way up the ridge to the back of Helm's position without alerting any air defense arrays.

Then what?

Then there was a demolition team with melta bombs, which took more than ten minutes to install the bombs on the remaining glacier at the end of the canyon.

Then there was a boom, and the entire core position at the southern foot of the Fermara Mountains was melted, and the debris flow formed by melting came down from the top of the mountain, squeezing all the remaining glaciers in the canyon along the way, and taking them away in a wave.

"Why did you report it?"

Helm turned and walked towards the command post, and while asking Marsh, he used hand signals to signal "emergency evacuation" to the old wolves along the way.

The old wolves did not ask the reason, obviously they were used to such emergencies. They didn't even make eye contact. They just started to assemble their respective teams while keeping their tone unchanged.

As for those supplies just now? It's not important at this time.

"The regiment's communication station was blown up, and the mechanical priest accompanying the regiment was also sniped. They sent the information manually, so it was very slow..."

Marsh was still trying to interpret the information on the data pad, but he followed Helm's footsteps and collided with Helm.

"Listen!" Marsh raised his head, just in time to see Helm's face on his forehead.

His father's uncharacteristic seriousness made him feel a sense of panic that he had not seen for a long time, and the veterans who had gathered around him from unknown time made him even more at a loss what to do.

It was a scrutinizing gaze from a hunting group, and the meaning behind this gaze caught him off guard, and at the same time, there was a heavy feeling that made him panic...

"The alpha wolf is not here and there is no time for the ceremony. Let's just go through the process briefly." Helm said calmly.

"Second." Another long-toothed veteran looked at Marsh, then nodded in agreement.

"Second." The other two Longtusks also expressed their stance, while the Gray Hunters expressed their attitude with silence.

"Okay, the four of us agree to go to the next step."

As Helm spoke, he took off a badge that marked his military rank from his chest, then spread his hands to show it, while looking at the others and asked:

"I propose to promote the recruit in front of me. His merits are enough, and the calmness in his blood is enough to restrain the meaningless blood bravery.

Under the watchful eyes of Allfather and Ruth, and under the witness of the Brotherhood, do you agree to this proposal? "

"Second!" Everyone responded in unison. Even Luger didn't know when he arrived. The wild wolves in the entire camp witnessed Marsh's promotion. Only he himself was still confused.

Helm hung the bronze emblem on the recruit's chest.

"Listen, recruit! I'm here to approve your promotion proposal on behalf of Russ, Alpha Wolf, in the name of the Brotherhood.

From now on, you are a Gray Hunter. "

"Huh?" Marsh looked at Helm blankly, then slowly and stiffly turned his neck to look around.

He instinctively sensed the meaning behind this promotion on the battlefield, and then tried to remember the appearance of all his comrades at this moment.

Mitchell, Hobson, Alyochev, Burrows...

The veterans looked at him no differently than before. If there must be a change, it might be that their expectations have turned into a more rigorous scrutiny.

But Helm did not give him more time to appreciate it. Instead, he pointed to the end of the canyon behind the position and said to Gray Hunter Marsh:

"Go there and hold there until we come back."

renew.