The Bizarre Adventures of Cloud Hammer

Everyone is indeed in the Ultima Thule now, but it is a long way from Macragge.

Macragge is located in the southeast of the Empire, close to the edge of the Ultima Segmentum, while everyone is in the northern part of the Ultima Segmentum, half a star field away from Macragge. Their location is actually closer to the Blood Angels' home planet Baal, and if they go northeast, they can reach the Ghoul Stars.

"The planet is called Artorius, and it's an Imperial Knight world."

After determining the location, Gloria combined the data on the star map to find information about the planet in front of her.

Luochen: "Oh~ Master Knight, no wonder the environment is so good."

The Imperial Knights, a group with strong martial virtues in the Warhammer 40k universe, can trace their origins back to the first large-scale colonization of mankind in the Dark Age of Technology. Today, they are an important part of the armed forces of the human empire.

The prototypes of these noble lords certainly include elements of European medieval knights, but unlike medieval knights, the knights in Warhammer 40k do not wear full body plate armor to fight in person, but instead drive bipedal war machines called knight mechs into the battlefield.

Knight mechas, the mounts of these nobles were once the "lumberjacks" of humans in the dark technological age, but they cut down plants that could fight, run, and eat people, as well as strange-looking carnivores and aliens.

These war machines have many similarities with the Mechanicus Titans. For example, they are all ground combat mechas equipped with powerful firepower. However, the Knight Mechas are Titan-level units, but they themselves have long been expelled from the Titan class.

There's also a significant difference in size between Knight Mechs and Titans. The Acastos-class, the largest of the Knight Mechs, is nicknamed the Ball Titan by the Hammersmiths due to its larger size and appearance, but is actually about the same size as the smallest Titan, the Warhound-class Titan (or Dog Titan). (The Rapier-class Titan is actually the smallest, but it's been eliminated by the 40k era.)

However, the relatively small size also makes the Knight mecha more maneuverable, and only one person is needed to control the entire mecha. As long as the pilot's level is high enough, it is not uncommon for a Knight to kill a Titan. (Although most of them are dog Tai)

But if your level is not enough, there is nothing to say. No matter how good the mecha is, it is useless if you can't even drive it. What's the point of talking about its performance?

The Knight World is the fiefdom of one or more Knight families. It is usually a feudal world with rich land/minerals and advanced technology. These advanced technologies are naturally controlled by the nobles. The life of the common people is not much different from that of the European Middle Ages. Coupled with the psychics (wizards/witches) that appear from time to time and the unique wild animals (Warcraft) on the planet, it makes it more like a kind of magical Middle Ages.

It is precisely because of this that the Knight World has a widely circulated novel chapter format:

Chapter One - Travel through the magical Middle Ages and prepare to give the noble lord some modern shocks.

Chapter 9 - What is a Knight Mech?

When the time traveler was full of confidence and ready to rebel with the musket he had made, but saw the knights coming out driving a nine-meter-long combat mecha, I wonder how desperate he would feel in his heart.

Apu: "Can you figure out what time it is?"

Although everyone wanted to go down to this knight world to take a look, they had to first confirm the current time. They all flew directly to the extreme star field, and the time was estimated to have changed significantly.

"No, the turbulence in the warp has disrupted my calculation of time."

Gloria was unable to know the exact time, which was the consequence of forcibly breaking out of the warp storm.

Xianyu: "Can we ask someone for the time?"

"Maybe. I scanned two battleship units on the other side of the planet. Do you want to go over there?" Gloria pointed out two targets on the map.

Apu: "I think it's okay. If it's an enemy, we can just run away."

"On the way."

The Blue Silver Sword flew towards the other end of the planet, and soon everyone saw two warships of the Human Empire, a Space Marine strike cruiser and a Tyrant-class cruiser.

There is a wolf-shaped emblem on the strike cruiser, which means that this warship belongs to the Space Wolves, one of the founding chapters.

Another Tyrant-class cruiser also does not belong to the Imperial Navy. There is a shark-like emblem printed on its hull, which is the symbol of the Space Marine Chapter - Carcharodon/Space Sharks.

"Wild wolves and sharks? There's an animal party going on." This magical combination made Ou Ge curious. How could these two Space Marine regiments appear here at the same time?

"There was a space battle here."

Apu noticed that neither of the two battleships was in the planet's low-Earth orbit. There were a lot of battleship fragments floating not far from the battleships, and the shapes of some of the fragments clearly did not belong to the Human Empire.

"Look at the surface of the planet."

Awei asked everyone to look at the planet below. A sudden green color covered almost half of the continent. In the Warhammer 40k universe, there is more than one force represented by green, but there is only one that spreads like a fungal blanket.

Greenskin - Orks.

As a race created by the Ancients, the Orks are actually a kind of "animal and plant". Their reproduction does not rely on any Sexual behavior, but on the spores emitted from their bodies. These spores will grow into mushrooms soon after they fall to the ground. It can be said that as long as one Ork appears on the planet, countless Orcs will continue to grow from the ground in the future.

And when the Orc-boys, the Fart-lings, and the Squiggles leap out of the mushrooms, the Orcs begin their endless WAAAGH! No race is more worthy of the title of fighting race than the Orks. Every Ork is either in combat or on their way to combat. Combat is their nourishment, and with each battle, they grow stronger, their size growing ever larger. The power of thought is truly a source of endless surprises.

"Oh my god, there's a greenskin."

Apu, Ou Ge and Luochen understood what happened on the planet at a glance. The green-skinned orcs invaded this knight world. The knight families above were unable to solve the threat of the greenskins alone, so they called for reinforcements.

Gloria also received astropathic communication from the planet, and the knight family on it continued to call for reinforcements.

It now seems that the Astra Militarum may have arrived long ago. Among the floating debris are fragments of Imperial warships, and later the Space Wolves and Maneaters also arrived here.

"Should we remove our invisibility and contact them?" Gloria asked everyone.

Brother Ou: "Don't worry, is the battleship's transformation CD ready?"

"It's already good. Do you want to change your appearance?"

"The strike cruiser is too small for us now. The Inquisitor had doubts about it before."

As an Astartes Chapter with over 300 men, the Nebula Hammers were not worthy of a strike cruiser. Credien had asked before why Oge, as the Chapter Master, was on a strike cruiser instead of a battle barge. At that time, Oge had found an excuse to fool him. Now, facing two Chapters, they had to pay more attention to these details.

"What do you want me to become?"

"A battle barge will do."

Chapter 31: Wolves and Sharks

Eivor Nakarim picked up the wine jug beside him and poured it into his mouth. After pouring for a long time, not a drop of liquid came out of the bottle. Then Eivor remembered that the mead brought from Fenris had been almost finished many days ago, but he still habitually wanted to take a sip to "refresh himself".

"Can't these wolf cubs save some money for me?"

Eivor threw the flagon aside. A Fenris man without wine is like a Chogris man without a motorcycle. Life will never be complete.

He stood up and walked out of the temporary camp, wondering whether he should go to the Star Army and the knight nobles to get some wine to drink, but human wine is no different from water to the wild wolf. It would be better to eat more meat to fill his stomach. At least these knight masters will definitely have enough meat.

A year ago, Eivor and more than sixty brothers from the same company received a call for help from the Knight World of Artorius and came here.

As one of the founding Legions, the Space Wolves did not adhere to the Codex Astartes formulated by Roboute Guilliman after the end of the Heresy. Although the Wolves used the title of Chapter, due to their own genetic defects and the severe losses they suffered during the Heresy, they did not split the Legion into individual Sub-Regiments (in fact, they did split one), but instead divided the Legion into twelve Grand Companies.

Each Grand Company of the Space Wolves is a completely independent army, equipped with all the personnel, vehicles, equipment and warships needed to wage a war. The number of people in each Grand Company exceeds the company number stipulated by the Codex. Even so, the total number of Space Wolves in the 40th century is still far less than that of the Legion period.

Two years before the arrival of the Wild Wolves, the 191st Regiment from the Armageddon Iron Legion arrived here, which surprised Eivor. How come those good-for-nothings in the Imperial Internal Affairs were so efficient this time? Upon asking, he learned that the 191st Regiment was stationed in a nearby galaxy at the time, and quickly rushed to Artorius after receiving the transfer order.

Arterius is of great value as a world of knights. The knight family above it, the Farran family, often provides assistance to the Astra Militarum. Currently, more than half of the knights of the Farran family are following the Astra Militarum troops to fight in all directions. It is for this reason that the Extreme Star Domain Military Affairs Department attaches great importance to the safety of Arterius and immediately ordered the 191st Regiment, which is the nearest, to set off. Other troops will be dispatched to provide support based on the battle situation.

The greenskin forces that invaded Artorius were very powerful. They had a considerable number of war machines, not just a large number of armored vehicles. In the first attack, the orcs dispatched their Titan units (Gargant, commonly known as the ancient giants).

After landing on the surface of the central continent of Atreus via meteorites, these green-skinned orcs quickly occupied a large amount of territory. Although the knights had knight mechas to fight against the orcs' war machines, their soldiers (vassal troops, which can be regarded as an alternative PDF) were far fewer in number than the green-skin army. This resulted in even if the knights could gain the upper hand in the battle with the orcs' machines, the vassal troops under them could not stop the advance of the green tide.

When the knights' army was defeated by the orcs, the green-skinned boys would cooperate with their war machines to attack the knights' mechas that had lost their support. The cunning orcs seized the character flaws of the knight nobles and set up a plan to pretend to be defeated, luring the arrogant and merit-seeking knights to chase them, and then encircled and suppressed the knights after they were left alone.

In the first year of the war, many knights were swallowed up by the orcs' offensive, which dealt a serious blow to the Fran family, which already had less than half of its knights left. In order to prevent the knights from continuing to fight each other in the territory, the Supreme King of the Fran family ordered the knights to assemble to fight against the green-skinned orcs, and sent out an astropathic communication to ask for help from the empire.

As soon as the 191st Regiment arrived at Artorius, it was immediately warmly welcomed by the Orks, but the Orcs' cunning was far beyond the Imperials' imagination. Shortly after the 191st Regiment landed, the Imperial warships in orbit were attacked by Ork warships hidden in the nearby space. Although the space station ended with the victory of the Imperial Navy, the Imperial Navy also suffered heavy losses. The damage to the warships forced the Imperial Navy to go to other worlds for repairs, and the 191st Regiment and the Knights lost orbital support and supplies.

Without the support of battleships, the 191st Regiment could only resist the greenskins' attack on the ground with the knights. They pushed back part of the orcs' line, but could not go any further. Over time, they were once again in a stalemate with the orcs.

By the time the Space Wolves arrived, the Orks had already built orbital defense turrets in the occupied areas, preventing the Space Wolves' warships from staying in low-Earth orbit to provide support.

Coincidentally, the Armageddon Iron Legion and the Great Company where Eivor is located are both troops known for their steel torrents and mechanized infantry, and the main enemy they are facing now is the greenskin iron army.

With the help of the Space Wolves, the Imperial forces advanced again, but they were still unable to break through the solid defense line built by the Ork war machines. After a back-and-forth battle, the situation once again reached a stalemate.

More than half a year after the Space Wolves arrived, another Space Marine Chapter arrived in Artorius in Tyrant-class cruisers. They were the 3rd Company of the Carcharhinus Chapter.

The Carcharhinus, a fleet-based Astartes Chapter, was founded in M32 and has an "unknown origin" chapter with a special connection to the Raven Guard (actually the Raven Guard). They are active in the extrasolar black domain all year round, eliminating unknown aliens that threaten the empire.

For a long time, the Carcharodon Legion was unknown to the public. It was the Badab War in early M41.900 that really brought the Carcharodon into the public eye and fame. Their brutal and cruel behavior and fighting style left a deep impression (mostly negative) on the Loyalist Space Marines.

In addition to their own style, the Carcharodon has another strange characteristic - 'poor'. But if we really talk about being poor, the Carcharodon can produce a bunch of relics from the Great Crusade. The Third Company alone has three Contemptor Dreadnoughts. But apart from these relics, they really lack everything. They lack people, armor, ammunition, vehicles, and various consumables. Because they have no home world and the intense consumption outside the domain, the Carcharodon will use 'gray tax' and 'blood tax' to replenish themselves.

'Gray Tax' is the technological relics found outside the domain that the Sharknado trades with the Oil Man in exchange for the various equipment and gene seeds it needs.

'Blood tax' is the collection of required personnel by the Sharks on non-strategic Imperial planets with the Empire's permission, and the Sharks often directly take away the entire young generation on the planet.

The Third Company of the Carcharhinus was the company in the regiment responsible for collecting blood tax. They were originally heading to another world to collect blood tax, and received a distress signal from Artorius on the way.

With the idea of making a fortune from these wealthy knights after providing support, the 3rd Company arrived at Artorius in their battleship Pale Maw. However, they did not expect that an Astartes Chapter had already arrived, and it was one of the founding chapters, the Space Wolves.

Seeing that there was a startup group here, the 3rd Company of the Carcharodon thought about just running away, but how could the Space Wolves let their helpers who came here get away? Since they were already here, they might as well stay and fight the greenskins together.

The Sharks couldn't refuse, as the founders were the bosses. With no connections (the Raven King's Order?) or backing (the Mechanicum could barely count?), the Sharks couldn't afford to offend the Space Wolves. Furthermore, their situation was unique, so the Third Company had no choice but to stay and help. (At this time, the Sharks hadn't even been identified as loyalists yet.)

In the following months of combat, the Wolves confirmed that the Man-Eating Sharks were indeed a loyal group. They were very satisfied with the Sharks' fighting ability, but they were not happy with the Sharks' attitude of not taking mortal lives seriously. However, this was tolerable because the Man-Eating Sharks simply did not care about mortal casualties, and did not actively attack mortals. (I'm referring to you, Flesh Tearers)

Furthermore, the Wild Wolves noticed that their cousins seemed... a bit down and out. Many of the warriors' power armor had been repaired countless times, with different types of armor mixed and matched. Their bolters were from who knows how many times, the rifling probably almost worn flat. Only the Third Captain's armor and equipment looked relatively new.

Another thing is that the white sharks like close combat like many wild wolves, but close combat is the specialty and hobby of wild wolves, while close combat of sharks is somewhat helpless because their bombs really have to be counted.

It was precisely because of the situation of the Man-Eating Sharks that the Wolves allowed the Man-Eating Sharks' warriors to enter the battlefield after the Greenskins' armored forces were defeated. It was really too difficult for the Sharks to let a company of Landers and Rhinos (Predators are also Rhinos variants) that could not produce many units fight an armored battle with the Greenskins.

But losses were unavoidable. The 191st Regiment had lost a large number of troops in the past three years. The Space Wolves had lost more than a dozen warriors and many vehicles in a year, and the Sharks had also lost several warriors.

Now the offensive of the Empire's soldiers has come to a standstill again. The Empire can't break through, and the Greenskins can't attack. Both sides are wasting time like this, and a fight breaks out from time to time.

This situation is absolutely disadvantageous to the empire. Due to the characteristics of the orcs, their troops will be continuously replenished. With the power of my imagination, their armored vehicles can be knocked out of scrap metal. Although the quality is not so-so, the advantage is that they can be replenished.

But the Empire is in a bad situation. With each soldier dying, their number is reduced. With each vehicle destroyed, their numbers are reduced. For now, they can still fight against the orcs on equal terms, but if this continues, they will be worn out by the orcs sooner or later. And it is unknown when the Empire's support will come. The situation is not optimistic.

"Oh, my old friend, are you listening to the sound of the wind again today?"

With nothing to do, Eivor approached the Rune Priest in their team - Hake Bitterwind, the think tank of the Space Wolves. Both of them had served in the Space Wolves for nearly two hundred years.

"Eivor, you should be on the battlefield now, not here with me."

Hake sat cross-legged on the ground with his eyes closed, holding the rune staff in his hand. He used the natural power bestowed by the gods of Fenris within him to feel the guidance of the wind of Fenris. (This is actually perception and prophecy.)

"We just repelled a wave of greenskin attacks a few days ago. These aliens won't be coming back in the short term."

"Never underestimate these dangerous enemies. This is what Russ taught us."

"I know. It's fine as long as there are mortal troops and other brothers watching over the position. I was just bored, so I wanted to come and talk to you."

"Then why don't you go to Brother Freed, but come to me?"

Fried Grayfang is the wolf priest (pharmacist + priest) of this group of wild wolves. He has a bad temper. If you offend him, you will suffer when you are injured and need treatment.

"Brother Freed is busy these days, it's not a good idea to disturb him."

"So you came to bother me?"

"Don't say that. What's the relationship between us? In the entire wolf pack, there will never be another good brother like you and me."

"Is that so? Then could you please take your dog paws off my wine flask!"

Hake struck Eivor's dishonest right hand with his staff. Did he really think that he couldn't feel what the people around him were doing with his eyes closed? After talking nonsense for a long time, he just wanted to steal the remaining mead on him.

"Just one sip, alright. I haven't had any mead these past few days and I feel like a kraken is crawling on me."

"Who told you to be so unrestrained? The mead we brought here was enough for several years, but you drank almost all of it in just one year. Now there's no more for you. You are not allowed to touch the remaining stock on the ship after the war!"

"No, if there's no mead, I..."

"?"

Huck was guarding his wine jug, and suddenly he looked up at the sky and asked a question.

"What's wrong?" Seeing Huck like this, Eivor stopped making a fuss.

"The direction of the wind...has changed."

Not long after Hake finished speaking, a communication came from their temporary camp saying that the strike cruiser in space had discovered that a battle barge of the Astartes Legion had arrived here.

"Another Astartes regiment?" Eivor said. Including them and the Carcharhinus, there were already three regiments from Artorius.

Eivor and Hake returned to the temporary camp. The wolf priest Friede mentioned earlier also came here. He asked the communicator:

"What warband is coming?"

"The cruiser is making inquiries... and there's a response. They call themselves the Nebula Hammers, a successor chapter of the Ultramarines."

"Ultramarines!"

Eivor's eyes lit up. Speaking of the Ultramarines, what other features are worth mentioning besides the toilet paper written by these Smurf Primarchs?

The answer is - money!

As long as they aren't some off-the-beaten-path chapter (Scythes of the Emperor?), most of the Sons of Guilliman chapters aren't that broke, because they really know how to run things, and when they split up, the parent chapter also gave away a lot of good stuff (like the Nemesis Chapter got the Glorious Queen).

"Let's go! Call the shark brothers, let's go meet Guilliman's son." Eivor pulled Hake and Fried, and headed to the landing site excitedly.

I hope this Nebula Hammer Regiment can bring changes to the stalemate in Artorius.

Space Marine armored vehicles and tanks mentioned and appearing later:

(You can clearly see the Rhino chassis used by the Predator)