Warhammer: In the Name of Ashes

"General?" The man was extremely stout, occupying the entire exit of the bunker.

11-25 squinted his eyes and raised his head slightly. In the backlight, he found a familiar red in the gray of national defense.

"Lieutenant Colonel, what should I call you?" 11-25 asked.

The man looked up when he heard the voice, and was confused after seeing the unfamiliar face.

"Lieutenant Colonel!" 11-25 emphasized again, and the star on his shoulder also made the other party sober.

"General!" He subconsciously stamped his chest, but this made 11-25's face worse.

"807 Panzer Grenadiers?" 11-25 asked, looking at the crossed grenades on the other party's collar.

"Yes! Emperor bless! Konev, the political commissar of the 807 Panzer Grenadiers, salutes you!" Konev answered loudly, and the tension in his voice was obvious.

"Konev? Or should I call you by your full name as you are used to?" 11-25 stood still and asked with a frown.

"No need, you can just call me by my title." Konev, the political commissar of the Star Army, replied.

He hesitated a little because the two of them were too close. But the rustling footsteps behind him sounded one after another, and they were Konev's accompanying guards.

"You just arrived?"

"Why has your corps not arrived at the designated position yet?"

"Where is your chief officer, why is it you who came to report to the headquarters?"

11-25's tone became more and more impatient, and his eyes looked at the other party more and more unfriendly. If the person in front of him can't give him a satisfactory answer, it's not uncommon to use his head to rectify discipline.

"Dead." Konev replied, and 11-25's hand reaching for his waist also paused.

"Our armored forces were hit by rails during the transfer at the station. All the members of the regiment headquarters, including the regiment commander and the combat staff, were killed. Only one company of the heavy armored forces was saved because they were unloaded in advance. Together with the infantry company and the regiment's direct troops, there are only four companies of troops now. I am the highest rank and the current commander." Konev explained.

"...How is the station now?" 11-25 asked with gritted teeth, thinking that the problem of logistics supply has been solved, but he would rather not know this news.

Because the troops of the Astra Militarum come from different places, the training and equipment levels they receive are also very different. From the cavalry regiments of the Middle Ages to the heavy armored regiments of the World War II period, they can be found.

The troops organized under the same Guards Cavalry Regiment can be a steel torrent equipped with hundreds of Leman Russ, or a Krieg beast wearing gray skin and riding a big horse.

Therefore, when the Military Affairs Department sends troops to the war zone, it will try to concentrate troops of the same nature. But this is always an ideal situation and cannot be achieved on every battlefield. (In fact, most of them cannot be realized.)

So considering the complexity of logistics supply, according to the experience summarized by the Astra Militarum, the campaign command will usually set up material transfer centers of different sizes in the rear of the legion cluster from hundreds of kilometers to tens of kilometers in accordance with the army group-corps-corps in the absence of the Imperial Navy airdrop.

And the problem this time is precisely the material transfer center of the legion group where 11-25 is located-it is also the only place with railway transportation that can realize the large-scale transfer of armored troops and heavy artillery.

Well, if 11-25 is allowed to choose, he would rather choose the latter between the armored corps and the Krieg livestock.

The former loses its combat effectiveness after losing its heavy equipment, while the latter can still serve as qualified line fillers in this vast frozen tundra even if most of its war horses die.

Well, elite armored troops are good, but the line filler cannon fodder corps is equally important. At least at this stage, the campaign goal given to him by the Primarch is to blockade the subcontinent to prevent the spread of disease and chaos there.

He could not count on the Emperor's angels to have time to support him for the time being, and was glad that there was no sign of an equal on the other side.

The war here still belonged to mortals for the time being, so he had to do everything he could to complete his mission before the Emperor recalled him. He would not reject any additional troops, even a single soldier. But the news brought by Konev made him give up hope for rear support.

"It was a mess, the railroad tracks were blown up, and the material storage center at the station was also on fire. We couldn't wait for orders, so we could only move forward with the people and equipment who could walk. At least after we left for dozens of kilometers, we could still see the smoke and dust rising from there."

The expression on Konev's face showed that it was definitely a disaster, but 11-25 knew that what was worse than this was that the follow-up supplies of the entire legion were gone.

All he could count on was the armored grenadiers in front of him, but even this remaining force had just experienced a long-distance raid, and the state of its heavy equipment was probably also worrying, and it urgently needed the maintenance and comfort of the mechanical priests.

Fortunately, there were not many tanks in front of the front line, and both the priests and the legion had a lot of spare parts in stock. He had read the previous battle records and knew that these priests were now idle and only had time to sneer at the rats in the ice trenches.

"Notify the legion's mechanical priests and ask them to cooperate with the engineers to repair... no, to appease the machine souls of the Leman Russ." 11-25 turned around and ordered, then looked back at Konev, who was covered in dust.

"You have a day and a night to rest." 11-25 recalled quickly, and then found the whereabouts of this armored corps in his mind.

"There is a farm at the junction of the 21st Motorized Infantry Regiment stationed in Corizon and the 22nd Corps in the grassland direction. According to the intelligence given by the nearest orbital detection array, it is likely to be the attack direction of the enemy's heavy armored forces."

11-25 looked at Konev, sighed helplessly and said: "Your mission is to get there before the enemy and use your remaining tanks to consolidate the defense there."

"Understood!" Konev raised his hand in salute, while 11-25 was still telling him: "For three days and nights, you must withstand at least three days and nights to create time for the two corps to shrink and defend. In any case, that joint cannot be destroyed. The enemy is torn apart, and if it fails..."

"The enemy will definitely pass through my body!" Konev replied, as a number of Leman Russ rumbled past in the distance, their thick muzzles pointed forward, as firm as his will at the moment.

"The Emperor's blessing!" 11-25 said.

"The Emperor's blessing!" Konev replied in the same way.

Both of them knew that this was almost a fatal mission. But no one complained, and there was no sentimentality among ordinary people.

The heavy snow fell silently, and the laughter of the soldiers in the trenches in the distance and the occasional roar of cold artillery in the sky were faintly visible.

Konev took a long breath, and then looked at the unfamiliar commander: "Is there anything else you want? I'm leaving."

"Oh, no." 11-25 replied seriously, his tall body motionless in place.

"Then, please go back, it is not safe here." Konev said.

"Oh, you first." 11-25 replied.

"Why?" Konev asked confused.

"..., you stepped on my foot." 11-25 replied.

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