2:40 in the morning, or one quarter and eight minutes according to Imperial time. In the Irina Valley, Outpost No. 55, a former Imperial Guard and current Chaos rebel camp.
"Wake up, Edmund. It's your team's turn to go on duty!"
"Wake up, I'm telling you to wake up!"
Bang!
Sergeant Ehorn, who cried out for failure, angrily brought his big feet into close contact with the other person's face exposed outside the sleeping bag.
"Hiss! You are sick, aren't you..." The other party finally woke up from the hangover from the previous night under Ehorn's "forceful call for service".
"The leader called you, it's your team's turn to be on duty."
Seeing that the other party had regained consciousness, Sergeant Ehorn said these words, turned around and walked out of the dilapidated marching tent with the laser gun in his hand.
"You've already left the empire, and you're still on duty. You're on duty! It's been so long since the political commissar has been dead. Who do you show it to? It's time for you to wake up! The boss of the Military Command has no control over us!"
Edmund shouted at the other person's leaving figure, but Sergeant Ehorn seemed not to hear him and left without looking back.
Complaints were complaints, but Edmund, who had sobered up, still endured the hangover headache and woke up everyone around him one by one.
In fifteen minutes, Edmund and his six men will put on their equipment and climb out of their tent.
Just after they left their tents, the soldiers who were supposed to be waiting for their shift at the outpost couldn't wait to walk into the tent, unfolded their own sleeping bags, and then got in to enjoy their rest time.
Yes, this outpost is the former 9th Imperial Guard Oman Regiment that the Military Command planned to station here, and is now the 9th Company of the Arenal Hyena Regiment.
The Chapter Astartes they originally followed to be loyal to had already abandoned everything here after the first defensive war that they tried to station here failed.
A considerable part of the "intangible heritage" that was abandoned included the 9th Oman Guards Regiment of the Imperial Guard, which was shattered and almost destroyed during the fierce battle on the front line against the charge of the Chaos warband. Please note here that it is a close guard, not a royal guard.
The latter means that they belong directly to the mortal auxiliary army establishment of the glorious and great Sun Star Domain. From weapons to equipment, from personnel allocation to armor configuration, they are directly supplied by the Imperial Military Command Headquarters.
The Guardsmen are as wealthy as they want, and they have been a symbol of loyalty and combat effectiveness since ancient times.
The former is simply poor.
We need guns but not guns, we need cannons but not cannons, we need armored vehicles but not equipped vehicles; the ceiling of heavy firepower for the entire regiment is a few heavy logging guns that have been out of use for who knows how long, and we have to save bullets for these bullets.
Therefore, the tactical positioning of the entire regiment is just to defend the area, or close guard for short.
There is no way, this army has never been rich since its establishment.
Not to mention them, even their theoretical master, the sub-group that was not even recognized by the mother group of the Ultramarines, was a poor man, let alone a group of unlucky guys like them who were recruited and formed on the spot. The current remnants of the 9th Omani Guards Regiment, oh no, it is the 9th Company of the Arena Hyena Regiment that received a new designation after the surrender. It should have 76 people, but the actual number is 75. (Even the cook, Old Hunter, the first one
I just had a cerebral hemorrhage and died because I secretly drank too much industrial alcohol that night.)
The reason why so many people survived on the Chaos battlefield is because their resistance, although fierce in their own eyes, was truly scratchy in the eyes of the Chaos Space Marines who were crushing them head-on.
All are indebted.
The Chaos warbands who were busy looting the arsenals of the Astartes Chapters stationed here by the Empire had no time at all and did not bother to take the trouble to slaughter them all.
The remnants of this kind of waste group are not taken seriously no matter where they are, and the same is true here in Chaos.
In other words, Chaos, which does not have a stable base to produce necessary supplies and relies on robbing the entire army for food and drink, actually has higher requirements for vassals.
Therefore, in the eyes of the Chaos Lords of the Skull Reavers, this kind of thing, which has no use except for collecting KPI of heads during festivals, is only worthy of guarding this kind of garbage outpost that does not even have a fixed water source.
The remaining six companies occupied some traffic arteries and oases in the desert as checkpoints.
Yes, you read that right, the Skull Reavers warband has a total of 8 companies of auxiliary troops stationed on this planet.
The reason why Company 9 is called Company 9 is simply because the Skull Snatchers were worried that giving them the number 8 Company with the number eight, the sacred number of the Skull Lord, would make people feel that they were disrespectful to the Lord of the Skull.<
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Under the cold moonlight, Edmund and his six men walked to the already deserted sentry post.
The surrounding environment seems a little different, but not different.
"It's so cold...ah..."
A breeze blew over Edmund's body, and he shivered greatly from the cold, and then with a slight "click" sound, he lost consciousness forever...
The surrounding scenes slowly returned to reality in strange distortions. The Gray Knights, who had taken off the disguise of psychic hypnosis, carefully piled aside the mortals whose necks were broken in their hands.
Following Calvin's command, the entire Gray Knights team began to move towards the high point inside the checkpoint.
After controlling this high point, they can safely "clean" the entire camp slowly and under as quiet a condition as possible.
The whole process went very smoothly, which also benefited from the extraordinary ability of these Gray Knights to control their own bodies.
When necessary, they can uncharacteristically control the noise caused by their huge weight to be as quiet and deadly as big cats.
The magnetic boots, which are lightly wrapped in psychic energy, do not stir up a trace of dust when they land on the ground. Together with the single-molecule power dagger used for close execution, the whole killing looks with a different kind of beauty.
However, accidents will always happen. Tasks without accidents will make people feel boring and boring just like dance music without variations.
All the surrounding tents in the entire camp have been cleared away, except for the main tent in the center.
A psyker, or rather the only psyker in the group, walked out of the largest tent in the center of the camp.
The sound in the tent was so noisy.
It seems that its function is not limited to the headquarters during the day. When night comes, it is also a great place for these mortal soldiers who have lost their discipline and faith to gamble.
Before the psyker who opened the tent curtain could take a breath of fresh air, what he saw was the surrounding killing scene and the Gray Knights watching him silently.
Frightened, he subconsciously grasped the staff in his hand, and the spiritual energy that arose in an instant was about to send a signal to his comrades behind him.
It was too late to silence him. The distance of more than ten steps and the unique strength of will of the psyker meant that the Gray Knights had no good way to respond to his imminent warning.
There was a glimmer of pride in the psyker's eyes, and a lifetime of frustration and frustration seemed to be understood in the current scene:
"No matter how powerful you are, you still can't stop me from fighting to the death."
This proud mood lasted until he saw Calvin.
When his eyes glanced around subconsciously, a huge figure with only icy blue eyes slowly walked out of the darkness.
The psyker's eyes have been glued to him since they saw this figure.
In his psychic vision, there was no human being here! A gigantic spirit of unknown size walked towards him from the starry sky.
The other party's body was so towering like a cloud that he couldn't even see his face clearly; the other party's figure was so sacred that his eyes felt stinging just by looking at it.
At this moment, the crown-like halo on this figure's head is oppressing him directly to his soul:
This terrifying scene that challenged the limits of his cognition pushed his sanity to the limit, while countless souls he had never seen before were flying around the giant spirit while sending out blasts to him that could shatter his soul.
Scream.
These voices could not be heard in reality, but they surged overwhelmingly in his soul:
"You are guilty!"
"You are guilty!"
"God said, you must atone for your sins!"
"You should die to apologize!"
Such a strong collision of consciousness caused the corners of the psychic's eyes to split instantly, and blood and tears flowed from his eyes like springs.
The cry for help he held in his mouth was delayed because of the oppression at the soul level.
"I'm not guilty... I'm... not..." His will struggled to resist in the storm for less than half a second, and then died.
The dimension of time in the spiritual world is far faster than reality, not to mention that this kind of battle can be called a short battle in the spiritual world.
Such a result is reflected in reality, that is, under Calvin's distant gaze, a psychic's head explodes like a watermelon just because of the collision of his eyes.
This is a battle between psykers. Once the difference in power between each other is too large, the balance will be instantly unbalanced and the loser will pay the full price.
And under the even more outrageous contrast in power between Calvin and this psyker, once the souls of both parties collide, the scene will definitely be as cruel and fierce as it is now.
The so-called "Thousands of people point to it, but it ends without a cure." This is truly reflected in this idealistic universe.
The alarm is lifted and the operation continues.
The surrounding Gray Knights continued to march. After they surrounded the central tent, they threw two special concussion grenades into it.
As the gaps in the tent lit up twice with white light, the Gray Knights rushed in and cleaned up the remaining people in the tent who had lost the ability to resist one by one.
On the other side of the camp, Calvin, who was supporting the entire operation from a high place, looked thoughtfully at the target direction of the mission in the distance.
Mechanic Priest Constantine, who was watching the whole battle beside him, was using the data pad in his hand to confirm the remaining distance and marching time.
"At the current speed, we should see the target location in two hours." Constantine's voice came from behind Calvin.
Calvin looked at the sky that was starting to turn white in the distance and responded without looking back:
"Notify everyone and speed up the cleanup. We don't have much time left. I have a hunch that this operation will not go so smoothly."