Chapter 668 07.667: “The Darkest Land (asking for a monthly ticket!)”

call out!
The Skyhawk shuttle suddenly made an emergency evasive maneuver, and the two fuselages just barely brushed past each other, passing by in a thrilling manner.

At this moment, Horatio finally saw the appearance of the homemade plane.

It looks like a bomber that has traveled through time from World War I. It has a very simple structure, made up of a pile of rusted steel plates and plywood.

The main power is provided by three propellers, and a booster rocket disassembled from a civilian thruster is installed at the tail. Such a brutal transformation will obviously cause great indignation among the Mechanicus personnel and win continuous cheers from the Greenskins.

Hanging beneath the plane were civilian cameras and some improvised bombs made from liquid promethium gas canisters.

However, at this moment, the plane had been hit by an armor-piercing incendiary bomb from the Krieg’s Hydra. The fuselage was engulfed in flames, trailing a long trail of black smoke as it rapidly fell towards the position below.

The bombs mounted on the wings were also hastily thrown down by the crazy rebel pilots, landing on the charred and bumpy black ground, and instantly exploding into golden flowers symbolizing death.

Horatio looked up at the sky. The Krieg’s aircraft were also unremarkable, but their armaments were obviously of Imperial standard.

Their homemade aircraft were painted gray all over, and their main function was to drop a large number of mortar shells with homemade metal tail fins, or to take photos and conduct reconnaissance of enemy positions at night.

However, this gave Horatio a sense of novelty.

Although it is unclear who pioneered this innovation, it is clear that the Kriegers are not as rigid and conservative as they are rumored to be.

They can also flexibly absorb and apply the tactics adopted by the rebels according to local conditions.

Horatio tried to see the ground clearly, but all he saw was deep darkness.

On that dark scorched earth, there were endless trenches winding around, as if every place that the engineer’s shovel could reach had been dug and built into a trench.

The same was true on the rebel positions. The dense trenches that spread out like a spider web formed gullies on the cracked ground that were difficult for people to cross, and the gullies were filled with the living and the dead.

As the shuttle gradually lowered its altitude, while briefly passing over the no-man’s land under anti-aircraft fire, Horatio finally saw the situation of both the enemy and our side in the trenches.

The rebel soldiers were either sitting or standing, staring at the sky with dull and wooden eyes.

Most of them had the mark or tattoo of the Chaos Eight-pointed Star on their bodies and wore various modified gas masks on their faces. There was no uniform standard at all, and the eight-pointed star pattern was their only unified symbol.

At this moment, the rebel artillery opened fire from the distant horizon.

One shell after another whistled through the night sky, pouring down towards the Krieg positions with a sharp whistling sound.

Soon, the Kriegs’ counterattack was not to be outdone. After a slight delay, the artillery positions of varying sizes launched a fierce counterattack against the enemy’s artillery positions.

The earth, which had temporarily fallen into peace due to the falling night, began to tremble violently again.

Due to prior communication with the Kriegs, their anti-aircraft guns deliberately avoided the real-time position of the Skyhawk shuttle, so Horatio was not shot down from the sky.

“I have to admit that this is, well, one of the most thrilling atmospheric breakthroughs I have ever experienced.” Anya Fasha drove the shuttle to a safe area and began to slow down. She let out a long sigh and spoke slowly.

“If you don’t count the orbital assault of the Hell’s Vanguard, it’s also mine.” Horatio unbuckled his seat belt and adjusted the shoulder tassels that were thrown into a mess.

call out–

As the shuttle slowly landed on the Krieg’s rear landing yard, accompanied by a slight tremor in the ground, Horatio walked down the charred land.

The hatch slowly opened, and a mixture of strong stench of corpses, gunpowder smoke and burnt smells blew in the air. If you sniffed carefully, you could even smell a pungent smell of sulfuric acid.

The smell instantly made Horatio feel a slight burning pain in his lungs.

Previously, in the Skyhawk shuttle, he did not smell this terrible smell because of the internal circulation air system.

“Ah, it’s like throwing us into a sewer full of rotting corpses, ugh!” Farida frowned as she walked down from the shuttle. She couldn’t help but raise her hand to touch her lips, “God Emperor, this smell is too disgusting, ugh!”

dong dong dong.

A man with an indistinct face, wearing a black and red military inspector’s wide-brimmed hat, a military affairs department-issued breastplate, and an imperial-issued gas mask, strode towards them with his left hand on the hilt of his power sword.

If the uniform is new and clean, it will look as majestic as ever.

However, at this moment, it was already covered with mud spots, and the long leather boots commonly seen by military supervisors were replaced with leather shoes with leggings. The outer layer of the leggings was covered with thick black mud, emitting an unpleasant smell. These practical battlefield-specific attire made the officer look even more dangerous.

Behind him followed a squad of Krieg Guards, who were obviously selected from the Grenadiers.

They wore full-coverage breathing masks and helmets with skull symbols on their heads. The air supply pipe of the mask was connected to a filter device on the back. They held Lucius MK.2 laser carbines in their hands, with multi-functional bayonets hanging on the guns.

These soldiers were silent. It was impossible to see their expressions or tell their gender. All one could hear was the muffled breathing coming from behind the gas masks.

Their bodies were equally filthy, covered in mud and water, and emitting a disgusting corpse stench.

Some people’s uniforms even had several bullet holes and blood stains, which seemed to suggest that the uniforms had been worn by multiple owners.

“Welcome to Carpathia, Colonel.

Our conditions are limited and we cannot provide a grand welcome ceremony, so we can only temporarily dispatch an infantry squad to provide escort.”

The man stepped forward, offered Horatio his hand, and introduced himself, “I am Karl Philipp von Clausewitz, Staff Officer of Krieg’s 15th Siege Army.”

“Nice to meet you, Staff Officer Clausewitz.” Horatio looked him up and down, wondering, “Hmm? You used to be the Military Supervisor of the Ministry of War?”

“You are not mistaken, Colonel.

I was sent here as a military supervisor of the Military Affairs Department. I am not a Krieg, but one of the few “outsiders” in this corps.” The man’s tone was serious but with a rare hint of humor.

Perhaps he was once a serious military supervisor, but after working with the extremely dull Krieg people for a long time, even the most serious person would inevitably need to replenish himself with relaxing emotions, otherwise he would be swallowed up by mental depression sooner or later.

“I am Colonel Horatio Cochrane, Honorary Knight of Macragge, Lord of the Empire.

As we said in our communication with Ground Command in orbit, I am here by military order to take me to the highest commander of the Krieg here.”

“No problem, Colonel. It’s just that the command trench is a little further ahead. From here, the straight-line distance is 4.2 kilometers. To get to the trench area by car, you have to walk 1.2 kilometers inside.

But you know that trenches are not built in a straight line.” The man looked at Horatio’s neat clothes and looked worried. “I’m worried that your neat and decent military uniform will get dirty after this trip.”

Horatio looked down at his clothes and shook his head slightly, “If you really want a neat uniform on the battlefield, I’m sure your fingers will go to the bolter first. Lead the way.”

“Colonel, do I need to go with you?” Fasha stepped forward and asked.

“You stay in the shuttle and turn on the air circulation. I’ll take Commissioner Farida and Captain Louise and be back soon, and then we’ll make follow-up plans.” Horatio looked at the other two and nodded. They nodded in return.

“Yes!” Fasha saluted and returned to the shuttle.

Horatio walked up to the staff officer, and Farida and Louise followed behind him.

He secretly thanked his lucky that the people who came to greet him were not Kriegs, otherwise he couldn’t imagine how miserable this period would be.

“Staff officer, where is your hometown?” While walking, Horatio planned to chat with the staff officer to find out some information.

Of course, he did not intend to ask about official business directly, but instead used his hometown as a starting point and opened the conversation in a relaxed tone as if he was making friends.

“My hometown is not far from Krieg, and we share the same language, so many of the selected people were chosen by the Military Affairs Department to serve as military supervisors for the Krieg people.”

“I used to have an attack ship captain under me, and he was also from your place. His name was Reinhard Hardegen.”

“Hardegen? Really?” The man’s tone flashed with surprise. “He and I entered Zhongsi Academy in the same year. We both came from the same village destroyed by war. But later, he joined the Imperial Navy, and I went to the Military Supervision Department.”

“He was an excellent and ruthless captain who caused great panic among the enemy during Operation Drumbeat.”

“I’m glad to hear your good news. I’ve been stuck in this quagmire for two years, but the situation is gradually improving. Well, if we ignore the decreasing support.”

“What is the current situation in the Carpathians?”

“Our General Staff has drawn up a detailed offensive plan, but the Ministry of the Interior’s adjustments to our logistics and supplies have made it impossible for us to support the execution of the plan, which is why the situation has become what it is now.”

(End of this chapter)