"Brother Hayes, what are these muscular barbarians so proud of?"
After struggling to move a box that was more than two meters long to the stacking place, Winter let out a long breath, then wiped the sweat from his forehead with his sleeves, and then looked at the people sitting around the lit oil drum, who seemed to be drinking.
The Catachan, who was drinking some kind of alcohol, frowned and complained.
"You're such a big guy, don't you know how to help? This is their thing!"
Hayes raised a finger and whispered:
"Forget it, how many people do they have? It looks like it's less than two thousand. A regiment normally doesn't have that few people. They must have suffered a defeat. You don't have to be like them -"
"If you had been to the hell of Badab, you wouldn't say that."
A cold voice sounded from the shadows, startling the two of them.
Hayes looked over carefully and found that there was actually a man sitting in a pile of crates. His back was to the two of them. He looked far less strong than the other Catachan barbarians. He was wearing a dark green vest and a military uniform.
Trousers, a crew cut, and a broad and strong back.
Then, the man raised a hand, and the two of them were shocked to find that there was a finger bone in the man's hand, but the thickness did not look like that of a normal human being. Basically, only Ogryn or Astartes could do that.
With such thick fingers, the man's other hand held a short knife, which seemed to be carving something on the phalanges. After looking at it for a while, he continued his work in the darkness.
"Badab?"
Hayes said the name in confusion. For some reason, he felt that this mysterious Catachan had a different temperament from other Catachans, like cold obsidian hidden in a pile of magma.
"Isn't that place captured a long time ago? Are you from Badab? What happened there?"
"what happened."
The Catachan man's voice was cold, but he didn't seem to mind that the two were not part of the audience.
"Normally, for ordinary people, it is a veritable hell. The bombing makes every piece of soil there scald people. The enemies are madmen who only want death rather than survival. They aim their machine guns behind their defense lines.
, they will fire when someone crosses over, but this is just child's play compared to the underground. Those underground passages are 10,000 times more complicated than this little mud ball. Whenever we attack, they have countless traps, and every stone there is.
Maybe they are all transformed by demons, and every breath may bring about twisted mutation. When you are drowsy, demons will whisper and sing in your ears, luring you into hell, and there are countless others.
There are underground fortresses, layer upon layer of bunkers, and even Space Marines who have fallen into Chaos are willing to bury themselves in the mud just to ambush a group of passing soldiers."
Hayes swallowed his throat, it was indeed not the battlefield he could have imagined.
"We lost the 722nd Regiment in the first week of the attack, with less than 200 men left. The survivors were merged into the 31st Regiment. After the 31st Regiment had less than 300 men left, they eventually became members of the 2nd Regiment.
Partly, the war has become a simple problem of attrition, but it won't be long before such problems reappear on this mud ball, and I can already smell the stench of the subspace permeating the air."
"Uh, you mean, this place will be the same as Badab?"
Hayes seemed very cautious, and he even doubted whether this guy was from Catachan, because the other person's words were too calm and cruel, and he didn't have the flamboyant style of other Catachans at all.
"Of course, if you ask your commander, he will tell you that the war here is for victory, which is correct, but if you don't know anything about what is happening outside, you cannot understand the essence of this war for you.
It’s actually a matter of survival.”
"Outside. There should be a naval battle outside. We just need to guard this place. It should be very safe."
"What does security mean to you? The biggest shortcoming of most guardsmen is that they like to deceive themselves. You'd better forget those illusions that can kill a general. You make things too simple. Astartes commanders don't
They would put a motionless ball of mud on the battlefield for no reason. It was not a sight worth risking. They would let heretics come to this ball of mud, and then those heretics would just want to kill everyone.
, the reason is very simple, they are born for this, nothing more, so think about your real mission, it is actually just to survive."
"Mabo, you're scaring these meatheads again."
A rough voice sounded, and Hayes turned his head and saw a strong, one-eyed Catachan walking over. There was a terrifying scar on his head that almost peeled off his entire face from his skull.
Hayes also had some impressions of this man. He once saw the other party using a Habri heavy bomb that could only be lifted with both hands as a dumbbell with one hand, which once made him wonder if this man was a Space Marine without armor.
Hearing this man's voice, the Catachan named Mabo paused for a moment, and the atmosphere suddenly became tense. Hayes and Winter changed their positions uneasily, as if they suddenly felt uncomfortable, and considered whether to leave.
Then, the man who had been facing away from them tilted his head slightly. From the side, his hard face seemed to be carved out of rock. Then the corners of his lips curled up into a meaningful smile, and he spoke again.
"Huck, I didn't scare them, I just told them something they should know."
"Ha, when did you have such a leisurely mind? You can't fart even a single thing on weekdays."
"His hair."
Mabo pointed the knife at Hayes, who had taken off his helmet because it was too hot to carry things.
Huck looked at Hayes' head, then nodded in realization.
"Oh, I remember you said that thirteen is your lucky number. I said why are you so obsessed with these two fatheads? Hey, this guy's hair style is quite interesting. I'll get it done one day too."
Hayes and Question stood there awkwardly, then Hayes coughed lightly and said:
"If nothing happens, then let's go first."
"etc."
Ma Bo stopped him.
"I've told you so much, but you don't even introduce your name?"
"Ah uh, my name is Hayes and his name is Winter."
"Hayes, well, although I already have enough baggage in my head, I wouldn't mind learning things that might be written on the tombstone. Do you want me to remember your name? If you can survive
, just tell me again, and by then, maybe it will be worth knowing."
The other party's tone made Hayes very uncomfortable, as if he was destined to die, so he retorted:
"What about your name? Maybe I can also remember the names of those who died bravely in the expedition manual."
Huck suddenly laughed, and then Marble laughed too, but he still answered: