This is our Warhammer journey

Chapter 500: Should we ask the original body?

slap~
Amber lights, indicating that the equipment was in operation, illuminated the interior of the command vehicle and the ridgeline of the armored ceiling. By the change in the engine tone and the slight tilt to starboard, Arek knew that they had entered the range of the Greenskin's artillery.

But this overwhelming barrage posed little threat to them, who were inside the Imperial command vehicle.

These Imperial command vehicles, which typically serve elite Astral Army legions such as the Cardia, are extremely large. They are equipped with Void Shield protective arrays capable of withstanding fleet attacks and can house an entire legion of Astral Army soldiers.

You can think of it as a mobile city site.

He opened the briefcase he always carried with him and carefully put away the documents and notes he had jotted down during his command trip.

He has been assessing the planet’s current defense capabilities and strength, and his data reports are very clear and rarely contain errors.

Even after the defenses of Armageddon and several surrounding star systems were cut off by the concentrated Orks, communication within Armageddon and connections between various communication nodes were maintained. The parties would communicate at fixed times and exchange information they considered important to each other within a short period of time.

Arek was even well aware of how he had been recommended and appointed to command the battlefield. The highest-ranking military officer in Armageddon had temporarily appointed him, making him qualified to lead the troops that had once seemed unattainable to him.

This flattered him, especially—

Arrek reassessed the battlefront.

Rumble~
His cerebellum and ears told him that the behemoth was rapidly rising in an upward motion. Through the blast shield hundreds of meters away, the sun shone brightly, and a creamy mist rose amidst the thick smoke and dust.

Because of the altitude granted to them by the Imperial Command Vehicle, they seemed to be high in the sky.

As the command vehicle tilted sharply behind the battle line and turned, the ground came into view.

The magnificent mountains, endless towers, streets, building complexes, squares and highways are all visible from below, slowly passing by, with smoke and dust rising and the flashes of gunfire never ceasing.

In the various contact zones, in the tunnels preserved beneath the ruins, far beyond the reach of unconventional artillery, the Greenskins and Imperial forces are engaged in fierce fighting. The Armageddon Steel Legion, renowned for its Imperial armored forces, often uses these contact zones to lead its armored forces into the enemy's rear, inflicting more efficient casualties on the Greenskin army.

The Battle of Armageddon began four years earlier when he organized the remaining troops and stabilized the front lines. In the second phase, the Imperial Army adopted positional warfare as its main form of combat and implemented a strategic policy of "protracted warfare and active defense." The defensive operations gradually shifted from a mobile nature to an offensive nature.

To enhance the stability of defensive positions, all units, under Arek's advice, attached great importance to the construction of fortifications. Tunnel fortifications had to be combined with field fortifications to form a complete system capable of eliminating the enemy, preserving themselves, being mobile, and facilitating daily life. This formed a combat mode that combined mobile defense with counterattacks, that is, active defense with short-range assaults.

This would greatly reduce the number of combatant Orks and limit these war-eating aliens from carrying their increasingly powerful bodies back to the Ork settlements on the other side of the planet.

But Arek was not satisfied with this stalemate, especially after he discovered that the Greenskins had made the planet their home.

As he perused the detailed intelligence obtained through the Astartes raid into the Greenskins' rear, the political commissar pondered a way to break the deadlock.

An instinctive sense of foreboding told him that this couldn't go on, and he didn't know what he was about to fall into.

Unless… of course, he knew, he was well aware of the consequences of adopting new tactics, new meant unstable, and unstable meant the possibility of catastrophic failure.

The War Council was quite satisfied with the current outcome. After all, it was rare to maintain the current front line given the Imperial Navy's disastrous miscalculation and the numerical disadvantage of the defending forces. As for the army, their role was to maintain control of Armageddon and prevent the Orks from having an easy time.

A swift victory is the navy's responsibility; the problem is that the navy is currently stuck in several node star systems around Amighiddon and cannot return.

The fleets that forcibly broke in and referenced those around the satellites were almost annihilated by the Greenskin fleet as soon as they appeared at Mandeville point; the sector defense fleets didn't even have time to connect.

This delay not only meets the demands of the War Council, but is also what the Greenskin commander is pursuing.

Salazar the Bonebreaker, this greenskin, just like this highly purposeful greenskin invasion, is completely different from the greenskins of the past.

Arek shook his head, banishing those overly radical thoughts from his mind. The officers around him were busy preparing to deal with the enemies they were encountering on various local battlefields. An adjutant came forward and handed him, the commander, a series of paper documents.

Still impressive numbers.

The Empire's highly efficient communications, a combination of psionic energy and scientific technology, are extremely timely and resistant to interference. The untouchable forces, psionic units, and miniature Blackrock arrays stationed on each planet, such as Amegiddon, enable the local area to flexibly adopt countermeasures against different invaders.

This allows excellent commanders to exert influence over more areas, and the Imperial Army's execution capabilities have increased dramatically as a result.

It seems that things are not as bad as he thought or worried.

Click~
The steel gate behind them opened, and the pressure relief valve sprayed out gas.

The Space Wolves, who were originally stationed at the command post and responsible for ensuring the safety of the commanders, cheered and left with their arms around each other as the shift change arrived. More than ten dark green giants who took over their work walked into the command post.

Arek, who was looking around, narrowed his right eye and waved politely to the newcomer, while his prosthetic left eye flickered as his thoughts drifted.

The adjutant withdrew with a look of reverence.

Legend has it that Commissar Arrek's prosthetic eye can fire terrifying destructive lasers, capable of annihilating the strongest, most heavily armored leader of the Greenskins in an instant. Arrek's ability to stand here is not purely due to his command, but rather to his legendary killings in the early stages of the war.

The imperialists fall for that.

But logically this is impossible. Arek himself knows that his prosthetic eye is just an ordinary model that he picked up from the infirmary. In fact, the auxiliary computing servo system was installed on him by the sages of the Cult of Mechanics after he led the army.

But in fact, Arek can.

Whether it's shooting lasers with a prosthetic eye or killing the heavily armored leader.

His rise to prominence occurred early in the war when the orc general Ugghard launched a surprise attack on Furnas's lair and killed the heavily armored leader head-on.

A head-on, one-on-one duel.

Almost everyone, including the invading orcs, saw the orc warrior fall into the ruins of the hive city while entangled with Arek. However, when they reappeared, only Arek, who had been given a prosthetic eye, and the orc warrior, who had only a prosthetic hand and a head, with the cut showing signs of melting, remained.

But the reality is naturally not that exaggerated.

He merely understood the orcish language of the gossipy orc general, thereby grasping the opponent's psychological state. In the ruins of the shattered hive, he relied on his understanding of the defensive line and his strong, youthful body to defeat the opponent in the dim trenches.

As for his prosthetic eye, he was almost blinded by the chemical fumes from the explosion, and his left eye was also destroyed by the orc warrior's claws during the chase.

In order to regain his sense of perception, he found a prosthetic eye in an abandoned medical center after shaking off the orc warrior.

At that time, while praising the greatness of the Charter Fleet responsible for transporting these supplies and the distribution capabilities of the Dawnwing Direct Government, he fitted himself with a prosthetic eye.

Plug and play, Imperial Technology, isn't that amazing?
The final outcome was that he used his heat to prepare a great gift for the orc general, and then brought the general's remains back into the Empire's sights.

"My friend, you really are—"

As Arek's momentum grew stronger with the increasing scale of the Greenskins' attack, Tushan couldn't help but show a hint of surprise.

"I feel as if I am facing a battle brother who has walked the path of lava."

"Then I'm afraid I'm still missing the sacred skin that has been tempered by fire, like the Nocturne Star Warriors."

Arek replied, staring directly at Tushan's face, which appeared unusually ferocious due to his dark skin and scarlet eyes.

"Hahaha."

The salamander warriors responded with good-natured laughter to the teasing about their skin color.

They quickly dispersed and took up their posts, ready to respond to any emergencies. Arek could hear the demigods' whispered prayers, spoken in the native language of Nocturne.

He was able to pick up on some of the familiar words: 'Primarch,' 'Wings of Dawn,' 'Return,' and so on.
Arek has a good aptitude for languages. He can even learn the Greenskins' language through contact with them on the battlefield, and he can even imitate their way of thinking, anticipating their tactics based on behaviors that seem nonsensical to ordinary people.

This made him invincible in the battles against the Greenskins, often able to annihilate large numbers of enemies with small units, and thus rose to prominence rapidly.

That's war; if you have enough talent, you can rise quickly.

No matter how elaborate your daily drills are, or how perfect your plans are, only when you actually arrive on the battlefield, the front lines and casualties will tell you whether you are qualified to lead a great battle.

All they knew was that under Commissar Arek's command, the avalanche-like front was stabilized, and they made full use of the planet's existing resources to maintain stability in the production area and air superiority over the orbit of Amigiddon.

"Thank goodness for the green skin."

Arek chuckled as he solemnly saluted Tushan, who had just returned from the enemy's rear.

During the war, the Greenskins will exhibit a psionic stance known as the 'WA Stance'. This stance enhances the Greenskins, making them stronger, bigger, and smarter. It also carries a somewhat peculiar connotation, enabling them to accomplish things that were previously impossible.

For example, it can enable ordinary prosthetic eyes to fire destructive lasers, and make slow-moving battlefield mechs extremely fast after being painted red.

As the core of this stance, the green-skinned leaders are often the biggest beneficiaries of the 'WA stance'. When the kids think their leader is awesome, the leader really does become awesome, until the leader meets an even more awesome leader and loses in the fight. Then the kids will go and recognize an even more awesome leader.

The more powerful the leader is, the more powerful the leader will be.

In research on the Greenskins, under certain special circumstances, as long as the Greenskins reach a consensus, the 'Wa stance' will even grant the same bonuses to their opponents.

No matter how dramatic Arek's killing of the strongest general under the Bonecrushers was, the end result was that all the greenskins thought he was very strong and awesome.

Then, on this battlefield almost submerged in a green tide, Arek truly became very powerful.

In the past, such an anomaly would have likely caused chaos among the various censorship forces within the empire.

However, the Department of Military Affairs now has detailed and publicly available records regarding the alien content, and even has a practice of actively creating such conditions when necessary.

Of course, to ensure the safety of the commander, there must be untouchables on standby around the commander affected by the WA field.

"Don't deny the courage and wisdom you've shown, Political Commissar."

Tushan said seriously, "This political commissar was a mere mortal when he killed the orc general. We cannot deny his abilities just because he is powerful now."

The chapter commander, who was a head taller than a typical Astartes, approached Arek's side, and the servo skull floating beside him quickly input its data into the command terminal.

"This is an investigation report from the Greenskins. Combined with the fact that Amegiddon is the Orcish Empire's capital, Ulanor, your guess is correct, Commissar."

Tushan spoke to Arrek, while simultaneously explaining the situation behind the green skin to Arrek in detail, relying on the images in his memory.

While salamanders may be slightly less neurotic than their combat brethren, they possess a unique trait called 'thermal vision,' which allows them to replicate past events in an area through residual heat radiation in the environment.

After Tushan and his team conducted on-site reconnaissance of the area, they confirmed that the remaining Greenskins who had participated in the main battles had concentrated in these settlements.

They were assigned better weapons, weapons that were quite different from the usual greenskin style.

Tushan found records of these psionic and laser weapons in the Beast Wars archives kept by the chapter. At the same time, a fierce civil war broke out. The victors abandoned this area and concentrated in a settlement deeper in the subcontinent of Amegadoton, like a selection mechanism that was filtering people out layer by layer.

And humans are the sieve in this selection process. "As expected."

Arek's gaze grew increasingly serious.

War is not actually that complicated, especially for the commander who leads a war.

Detailed data calculations, down to the deployment of squads in trenches and close combat, and the mobilization of logistical resources—these are all handled by the server system, battlefield command, and logistics officers.

The real task of battlefield command is to combine existing information to guess the enemy's strategic deployment, and then take countermeasures, while also preventing the enemy from guessing yours.

"They're training troops, and these weapons—are they definitely dug from underground?"

Arek never imagined that so many things were buried beneath the land where he had lived for almost thirty years.

"Precisely because it is Ulanno."

Tu Shan pronounces words very heavily.

Salamanders have extremely poor senses of this planet, after all, during the War of the Beasts, their Primarch, Vorkan, disappeared once again on this planet.

The true identity of this planet is no secret to the Empire's high command. After all, the members of the Mechanicus, who are now stationed on the desolate continent in the northern part of the planet and have completely converted to the 'Primal Power' faith, will not let go of this opportunity to attack Mars.

It's important to know that after the Pyrrhic victory in the War of the Beasts, the Empire handed over Armageddon to the Martian Mechanicus for final research and ordered them to destroy the planet after completing the research.

As it turned out, Mars didn't have much time to allocate for research, so considering the need for long-term development, they simply gave everyone a job.

Hey, why don't I just move Ulanno to another place and change its name?
This is a huge scandal.

Especially now, planets like Huangquan No. 8, Agrippina, Ras Star, Riza, and Steel Ball, which have begun openly confronting Mars under the direction of the Dawn Wings, will not let this opportunity pass them by.

The Empire ordered you to destroy it, but not only did you refuse, you placed the planet on a critical shipping lane and allowed the Empire to colonize it.

No wonder the Greenskin scourge in this sector has been relentless since 33k, and there has even been a major event like the Angron invasion. It's all because Mars disobeyed orders, causing the Imperium to suffer such heavy losses.

Now things are much better. The Greenskins have landed on Amegadoton, and they can dig out and use those weapons that you can't even handle underground. If Amegadoton falls, it's Mars' fault.

It can be said that the blame for the First War of Armageddon, the historical Greenskin invasion, and this current War of Armageddon has all been placed on Mars.

However, these political struggles were not something Arek needed to concern himself with.

He wanted to ensure that Armageddon could survive the invasion, or even win the battle.

Especially after receiving the detailed information brought back by Tushan, the radical option that had been lingering in Arek's mind had become an option that had to be taken.

Tushan and Arrek observed the battle together.

What are so many reserve teams doing here?

Faced with the waste caused by such a large reserve force gathering, he asked Arek in a low voice.

After all, they are the Salamander Chapter, one of the Astragalist Chapters that the Astragalists like to cooperate with the most. They have the most direct understanding of the combat capabilities of each Astragalist Chapter.

The main force of the Armageddon Steel Legion is almost second only to the Astral Legion of the Cardiacs, and even performs better in terms of mechanized defense.

"fine."

Arek whispered, "We need to preserve these fighting forces."

Tushan's palm passed through the holographic projection used to store supplies, and eighteen dark-skinned monks stood gently to the side, occasionally providing the adjutants with calculation assistance.

The attendant looked at the 3D projection and raised his hand to zoom in on one of the images.

"Nineteen Armageddon-class siege engines, salvaged when the satellite foundry was destroyed."

"Arek said."

"awesome."

Tu Shan was secretly amazed, never expecting that the other side could still salvage so many strategic resources even when the war was so intense.

"Arek, this is quite a big operation."

He switched to another image.

"Three Great General Cannons—"

Arek began to speak.

"Really"

Tu Shan was speechless, never expecting that this almost sealed-off planet still contained so much combat supplies.

"These are all critical supplies."

“Quite significant.”

Arek said in a low voice, "Especially considering that to make these facilities fully operational, a total of six million people are needed, including technicians, air power, and supporting commando teams. The demand for secondary supplies is even more considerable, but the rear factories can handle those supplies. Just considering these strategic resources and the personnel who can control them, Armageddon cannot organize a second concentrated offensive like this."

After he finished speaking, he switched the image again.

"Two thousand four hundred artillery units, including mobile artillery, plasma weapons and missiles."

He said, "Including ammunition and personnel, the continued bombardment of the Wall of Fornas and the western salient wall area means a huge demand for supplies."

"Furnas and the western salient are the two strongest sections of the wall on the defensive line, and the Greenskins are also deliberately guarding against our breakthrough."

Tu Shan subconsciously shook his head.

"You want us to attack this place and go deeper? That's not a good suggestion. Even if we had ten Astartes combat companies, the best ten of them, plus the Space Wolves, we still wouldn't be able to take it down."

"I agree."

Arek felt he didn't get along well with the Space Wolves, who were wild and unrestrained and often had their own opinions on the battle.

Perhaps they could unintentionally create unprecedented miracles like in the First Battle of Armageddon, but at least under such rigorous and meticulous command, the wolves were an extremely unstable factor.

Arek said, "But I will not send this force to attack Fornas or the Western Bulge."

"but--"

"This is a feint, sir. This is a massive feint. We must mobilize all the resources we have within the Greenskins' sights."

Arek leaned forward, rotating the map, and pointed to a small dot on the subcontinent of Amegidodon that belonged to the Greenskin settlement.

"That's my goal."

He said.

"But here—here it is just as impregnable."

Tushan said.

They attempted many raids behind enemy lines, and the deeper they went, the stronger the Greenskins' fighting force became.

"It's not as indestructible as you think."

Arek said, "Or rather, they're not as invincible as others think, especially the Greenskins. Every second is their weakest moment, even though they're always stronger in the next moment than in the last. As long as we can organize our troops armed with strategic weapons before they realize it, thankfully the Empire's air superiority guarantees this."

Okay, another foreshadowing.

Tushan was amazed by Arrek's battlefield response. Without his insistence on abandoning the surrounding satellites and concentrating the star sector defense fleet to protect Amegidon's airspace at the beginning of the war, the movements of the Imperial forces would not be so easily concealed now.

Commanding defensive operations, rescuing war materials, developing battlefields behind enemy lines, and organizing and training reserve forces.
How did he manage to accomplish so much in just a few short years after hastily taking over command?

"This is difficult; perhaps we should wait."

Tushan subconsciously didn't want to favor a strategy that could easily result in heavy casualties, but as a staff officer, he simply suggested in a calm tone: "The great victory of Badab has already spread throughout the galaxy, and the Primarchs' support will arrive soon."

It depends on what Commander Arek chooses.

"That's why I believe we can't delay any longer. Our Astral Army has the capability to execute and the fighting power. My education has made me very aware that this force is completely different from anything recorded in the past thousands of years. I trust them."

Arek whispered, “We can’t leave the Primarch with another fully armed Ulanor.”

Badab's victory was precisely the reason he dared to make such a radical decision. He sincerely believed that dragging it out would only make the bomb explode even bigger, and that it would be much better to use the garrison of Amighiddon to detonate it in advance than to keep delaying.

If this home planet is indeed Ulanno, then the ground beneath their feet cannot be considered safe at this moment.

Ulanor is a true fortress planet. The entire surface of the planet can change according to the controller's will under the operation of the energy source that supports its operation. The scene of the Beast Wars using the manipulation of the planet's landmass to crush a million landing troops is still in the history records.

Had the Primarch Vokhan's battle with the beasts not completely destroyed the planet's energy core, bringing it to a standstill, the Empire would likely still be quite far from victory.

Since this landing force of greenskins can utilize those weapons, if they can restore the superplanet's power...
Tushan's face turned serious.

"Not as good as——"

Tushan pondered for a moment, gave Arek a focused look, and finally seemed to have made up his mind.

He reached out and summoned the chapter's think tank, then turned to Arek for a question.

"How about asking the Primarch for his opinion?"

"?"

(End of this chapter)