Chapter 683 07.682: “Heretical tunnel invasion detected”

Balls of deep blue flames lingered and jumped around Horatio like will-o’-the-wisp, emitting a strange and cold light.

“Damn, where is this?” Horatio cursed under his breath as he looked for an exit.

The blue fire seemed to be attracted by some mysterious force, gradually gathering together and finally attaching to a tall Astartes with a dark blue body.

The style of that set of armor is extremely unique, with a strong ancient Egyptian style. The intricate patterns and mysterious symbols seem to be telling some past events that have long been buried by time.

Horatio’s eyes suddenly widened, and his alertness instantly turned into a fight – the one in front of him was actually a Thousand Sons wizard!
Almost instantly, Horatio’s hand instinctively reached for the sword at his waist, but his hand grabbed nothing.

He then realized that he had no weapons on him, and even his attempt to summon weapons from the Iron Hand had no effect.

[Oops!]
A tingling sense of crisis flashed through his mind, but soon, he thought of another question: [No! Wasn’t I sleeping?]
While he was stunned, the Thousand Sons wizard approached at an extremely fast speed, and instantly rushed forward, pressing a hand emitting faint light on Horatio’s body.

Horatio felt a chill run down his touched skin.

His eyes flew open, filled with shock and anger.

He sat up instinctively, and what came into view was a pitch-black gas mask, looking at him through the pitch-black lens that prevented him from seeing the face behind it.

“What’s wrong, soldier?” Horatio asked hoarsely, panting and suppressing the stress reaction of waving his iron hands.

The grenadier said nothing, but silently pointed outside the room, then turned around and walked towards the gate with steady steps.

Although Horatio was full of doubts, his years of military experience made him act quickly. After putting on his equipment neatly, he quickly caught up with the grenadiers.

He knew in his heart that there must have been an emergency, so someone came to wake him up.

They passed through several winding and muddy communication trenches. The soil on both sides of the trenches was scorched black by the war, and the air was filled with gunpowder smoke and the stench of decay.

Horatio followed the grenadiers closely and came to the front of the position.

At this time, many soldiers were already standing on the spot, ready for battle. They stood straight, like silent statues.

Seeing Horatio coming, Staff Officer Clausewitz hurried forward. He pointed his finger at a basin on the ground with a serious expression.

“What’s wrong? This basin of water looks clean.”

Horatio initially thought that the enemy had used poison gas, so he leaned over cautiously and looked closely at the liquid in the basin.

There was no sign of any abnormal pollution except for some dust floating on the water surface. However, after staring at the water surface for a long time, his brows gradually frowned – he found that the water surface was shaking slightly.

Horatio keenly sensed that something was wrong.

The night was unusually quiet, with no reconnaissance planes buzzing in the sky and no roar of artillery fire on the ground.

The battlefield was dead silent, with only the occasional sound of the wind.

But the water in the basin was swaying slightly, visible to the naked eye.

Horatio immediately raised his head and looked at the staff officer. He took a deep breath and said in a low and firm voice: “Someone is digging a tunnel?!”

The staff officer nodded slightly, confirming his guess.

Without any hesitation, Horatio immediately picked up the walkie-talkie and quickly dialed the headquarters of the 1314th Regiment.

After a long while, Farida’s sleepy voice came from the other end of the phone: “Well, what’s wrong?”

At this moment, Farida was just awakened from her sleep by the sound of the communication ring. She sat up from the standard bunk bed, holding the receiver in one hand and trying to comb her messy hair with the other hand, with fatigue still in her eyes.

Louise, who was sleeping on the upper bunk, sat up almost immediately and looked down.

“Warn your frontline soldiers that the enemy is probably digging a tunnel.” Horatio’s voice was serious and urgent. Upon hearing the words “the enemy is digging a tunnel”, Farida’s sleepiness instantly disappeared. Her eyes were immediately full of alertness, and she quickly regained her usual competence and decisiveness: “Got it. I will go to the front line to check it myself.”

Before she finished speaking, Louise jumped off the bed and put on her boots and pants. After taking care of her military appearance, Farida immediately walked out of the command trench with her sword in hand.

After hanging up the phone, Horatio turned to the staff officer and asked, “How can we determine where the enemy is digging the tunnel from?”

The staff officer replied calmly: “We have placed basins of water all along the front and hung empty cans on the wire.

Once the enemy digs close enough, the ripples in the basin will become more noticeable and the empty cans will rattle.”

Horatio nodded slightly, and then asked, “By the way, is there any copper listening device here?”

“Bronze stethoscope?” The staff officer looked confused, obviously not quite understanding what Horatio meant.

30 minutes later, a Skyhawk shuttle swooped down from the outer orbit like a meteor. Its body rubbed violently with the atmosphere, making a shrill scream.

When it was about to reach its destination, the recoil rocket was activated and the aircraft began to gradually slow down from a high speed of twenty times the speed of sound. This was already the maximum speed its body could withstand, and it was also the fastest speed that the Imperial Navy could break through the atmosphere to deliver important personnel.

Even on the Swift Aquila, there are only two such shuttles, usually used by the captain or fleet commander.

However, this time, the person who walked out of the shuttle was neither the captain nor the fleet commander, but an ordinary-looking, even a little sloppy old man.

He was thin and shriveled, his clothes were slightly worn, and his hair was messy.

The old man was followed by several people, all members of the damage control team.

“Oh my goodness! I’m so scared, so scared.” Old man Qiao walked out of the cabin tremblingly, stroking his chest and breathing heavily.

Before he could recover from the shock, he looked up and saw a row of Astra Militarum soldiers wearing gas masks standing in front of him. They were tall and exuded a cold and terrifying aura, and he was frightened again on the spot.

“Ouch!!…” He took a breath, and this action immediately caused a huge protest from his lungs.

Old man Qiao coughed as he looked at the dark battlefield in front of him. No words of emotion could stop him from expressing his cough.

After fully acclimating to the environment after getting off the plane, Old Man Joe and his companions put on gas masks and, under the guidance of Krieg soldiers, walked into the dirty and muddy trenches.

The trench was filled with a pungent smell, and the soil underfoot was so soft that every step splashed up mud and water.

“Closer.” Horatio whispered, staring at the increasingly obvious ripples in the basin.

“Boss… Boss?” After many twists and turns, they finally arrived here. Old man Joe could no longer recognize Horatio who had changed his clothes and was wearing a gas mask. He could only see the rank insignia of a naval colonel on Horatio’s back and greeted him uncertainly.

After working in the Imperial Navy for a year or so, Old Man Joe had some understanding of the military ranks of the adults.

He knew that anyone with three stars with skulls on them represented a powerful person on the ship, either a colonel or an admiral.

“Old Joe, you read that right, it’s me. Take out your copper stethoscopes.” Horatio’s voice came from behind the gas mask, deep and powerful: “I want you to find out where the enemy is digging the tunnel.”

The copper stethoscope is a common tool used by the Imperial Navy’s damage control team. It is often used to check for invisible cracks in components or to determine if an engine is malfunctioning.

The principle is to insert a conical copper part into the object and use the feedback sound when knocking to determine whether the parts are damaged, or to check whether there are abnormal noises inside the engine.

Old man Qiao understood instantly. When he was in his nest in Abyss Harbor, he also placed a copper listening device used for car repair against the wall to avoid being searched by gang members.

“We who eat will never make any mistakes.” Old man Qiao responded while skillfully sticking the copper stud into the soil.

Sound propagates more efficiently in soil than in air, and this way it is possible to determine well where the enemy will dig trenches and launch an attack.

(End of this chapter)