I summoned the Fourth Scourge in Warhammer

Chapter 246 "The Sugar and Vegetable Waste"

Regan Montoya returned to the camp alone. His steps were unsteady, as if he were walking on cotton. The "unparalleled delicacy" made from Tyranid flesh, Ork fungi, and corpse starch churned in his mind, emitting a spiritual stench.

His hopes of bridging the gap and learning about the suicide plans through a meal together were completely dashed. Throughout the entire meal, he mechanically chewed the tasteless nutritional bar, crushing and swallowing the synthetic proteins and essential vitamins, without uttering a single question. He didn't even dare glance at the pot, fearing his curiosity would overcome his reason.

This could also be attributed to Regan having just graduated from the Commissar Academy and not yet having undergone much real combat experience. His knowledge is impeccable, and his will is as firm as steel, but his worldview is ultimately built within the framework of the Empire's military doctrine. If it were a seasoned commissar who had spent eight or ten years fighting on the battlefield, he would probably be able to sit calmly beside that pot of bubbling soup, calmly eating his energy bars while smiling and asking the players questions.

At the camp gate, the sentry who had been dozing off earlier had woken up and was standing ramrod straight. Seeing Regan approach alone, he even raised his hand in salute and said, "Good morning, Political Commissar."

This greeting finally pulled Regan back to reality from his chaotic thoughts. He stopped and looked the sentry up and down, trying to find even a trace of what a normal soldier should look like. He asked in a deep voice, "Aren't you surprised that I'm the only one who came back?"

“What else could it be?” the sentry said matter-of-factly, as if stating a fact. “Everyone else is dead.”

"..."

Ruiben wanted to take a deep breath to calm his nearly collapsing worldview, which had been repeatedly challenged by the deaths of those who had gone to their deaths. But just as the familiar air, carrying the smell of chemicals and decay, was about to fill his nostrils, he suddenly remembered—the air around him was also filled with trace amounts of poisonous gas. If he took that breath, he might die.

So in the end, he held back and simply walked past the sentry into the camp.

After all this commotion, Regan no longer intends to try to understand the fallen soldiers by contacting them. These guys are practically like Greenskins; their thinking and logic are eccentric. Trying to understand them with common sense will only lead to deeper confusion.

We need to change our approach.

He decided to go directly to the command post and make contact with the regiment's command. At least during their first meeting, the two men who called themselves the regimental commander and deputy commander seemed to be human beings capable of normal communication.

When Regan lifted the curtain of the command tent and went inside, he saw three people. In addition to Tang Ren and Cai Ji, whom he had met during their first meeting, there was a third person sitting imposingly at the tactical table, using an entrenching tool as a spoon and eating large mouthfuls of canned ant-cow food.

Regan's pupils contracted slightly; he immediately realized what was happening. So the guy he'd seen lying on the cot in command post, still not up even when the sun was high in the sky, was actually one of the regiment's command officers?! A lazybones who could sleep until noon in command post was one of the unit's commanders?

However, after experiencing so much in just a few hours, Regan felt his nerves had thickened enough that he no longer had the strength to show any surprise. He walked expressionlessly to the tactical table and said bluntly, "Let me see your mission briefing again."

Upon hearing that Regan wanted to see the mission briefing, Tang Ren's expression instantly brightened with joy, as if he had heard some incredibly good news. He immediately pulled out the paper from a pile of messy documents, handed it over with both hands, and his respectful attitude made Regan feel somewhat uncomfortable.

Just then, the man who had been shoveling ant-cow canned food into his mouth with his entrenching tool slammed down his "utensil" with a clatter. Sticky juice still clung to the blade, but he didn't seem to care, glaring at the other two: "Damn you two bastards, aren't you going to introduce me to the political commissar?" This reminder made Tang Ren and Cai Ji realize, their expressions showing a clear "Oh yeah, there's that too." Cai Ji quickly chuckled, pointing at the man and saying, "Political Commissar, look at our memory! This guy next to us is our regimental chief of staff, Fei Wu. You can just call him Old Fei Wu."

"Hmm." After the mental shock he had just experienced, Regan roughly understood that the people going to their deaths didn't seem to care much about those formalities, so he didn't show any excessive enthusiasm. He simply nodded indifferently as a greeting.

His attention was more focused on the paper in his hand. While quickly skimming through the mission details, he asked casually, "I heard before I came that your regiment has a military committee, right? Isn't the executive committee member here?"

“Hey, when the executive committee isn’t in a meeting, they’re just rank-and-file soldiers. What are they doing in the command post?” Tang Ren waved his hand and said in a “does that even need asking?” tone, “Right now they’re probably either cleaning guns or bragging to people.”

Regan nodded, not pressing the matter further. He quickly steered the conversation towards the mission itself: "Your mission doesn't seem complicated. It's simply a matter of driving Hellhound flamethrower tanks, in coordination with infantry armed with flamethrowers, to burn and purify the Tyranid-held areas that have already been cleared by the main force, ensuring no Tyranid plants remain. Theoretically, you shouldn't encounter any organized enemy units. Why did you insist on waiting for me, and why did you insist on me giving the orders?"

"Political Commissar, it's precisely because the mission is simple and straightforward, and we don't encounter many enemies, that we're waiting for you to come so you can give more orders and earn more merit!" Tang Ren said bluntly. "If the mission were a tough battle, one where we had to fight a lot of enemies, what would we be waiting for? We would definitely go straight in without hesitation."

"Damn it, how dare you say that!" Chief of Staff Fei Wu, who hadn't said much until now, was furious at the mention of this. He pointed his entrenching tool, still covered in meat sauce, at Tang Ren's nose. "If you hadn't insisted on having the three of us coordinate when you were naming our unit, creating some kind of 'Sugar, Vegetable, and Useless' combination, would our regiment have been unable to get any good missions? Once the higher-ups see the name of our command structure, would they dare entrust us with any tough battles?"

"Damn it, you two didn't object when I made this suggestion, did you? Now you're spouting hindsight nonsense!" Tang Ren retorted without hesitation, using a rather impolite word, "Who the hell knew this game... cough, who knew our people were so superstitious? That choosing a name really affects accepting quests? By the time we discovered this problem, we had already been playing for so long and were reluctant to switch accounts."

Seeing the atmosphere in the command post rapidly deteriorate, and the three of them threatening to come to blows if they continued arguing, Regan's eye twitched. He thought to himself, "This command tent is so cramped; if a fight breaks out, wouldn't I get dragged into it too?"

He slammed the papers on the table and said in a deep voice, "Alright! Quickly notify the troops to assemble. There's no time to lose. I'll issue the battle orders now!"

Sure enough, upon hearing this, the three who had been at each other's throats instantly broke into smiles, their anger vanishing without a trace, as if the argument had never happened. Tang Ren and Cai Ji immediately came over, and Fei Wu happily put away his entrenching tool.

"Alright! The political commissar is brilliant!"

"I'll get on it right away!"

Seeing the three of them completely forget about what happened before and excitedly preparing to take action... Regan felt that he had finally figured out a way to deal with these strange people.

(End of this chapter)