40k: Midnight Blade.

Chapter 663 45. Interlude: Burning Kamas

"The Emperor bless us."

Captain 'Iron Man' Corell of the 1st Company of the 2nd Regiment of the Camas Defense Force muttered to himself.

When he said this, he was facing a burning sky. In his memory, the sky of Kamas had always been a very beautiful blue. He had never thought that this blue would disappear, but reality was reality, and the sky was broken. A huge explosion of indescribable size quietly erupted above the clouds, leaving painful spots on his retina one after another.

After that, the strong wind, raindrops and the wreckage of the warship came. The wind blew him so hard that he could not move. He could only hold on to the protruding wooden stakes on both sides of the trench. The swaying light flashed across the sky at a rapid speed. The heavy muffled sound like thunder forced him to open his eyes. He saw countless fighter planes, gunboats and various missiles.

Kamas's local air defense forces have been fully deployed, but he has no way of knowing the specific situation, and even cannot contact the combat command.
It all started thirty-six minutes ago, when he was making preparations for battle at the assembly point when a huge piece of debris fell from the sky and destroyed everything.

The object probably fell from the vacuum, most likely the wreckage of a ship that disintegrated after being hit by the weapon array of a battleship or space station. The gravity of Kamas caught it, and the fragment happily fell to the ground, hitting heavily about two kilometers to the right of the Second Regiment of the Defense Force.

It caused many horrific chain reactions, two of which dealt a fatal blow to the entire Second Regiment that was in the process of assembling.

It was simple. First, there was the earthquake, and second, there was the interruption of communications. The earthquake first paralyzed the transport lines and armored units at the edge of the assembly area. The engines of the vehicles, the grenades, ammunition and various weapons sealed in the crates
In the flames, they joined the destruction one after another, and the interruption of communications made the restoration of order a complete luxury.

Corell could only watch his company shake, pitch, and jolt as his regiment fell apart in a horrific disaster that lasted for more than thirty minutes—and they didn't even see the enemy.

This all sounds like a weird, terrible joke, doesn't it?

Iron Man sincerely hoped that this was a joke, and he tried to convince himself from the bottom of his heart that all this was just an illusion.

He suddenly had a mental illness attack. There was actually nothing wrong with the Second Regiment. He was sitting in the tent receiving treatment from the doctor and being insulted by the regiment commander Feldman.

The bald old man would probably call him an incompetent wimp. The war was imminent, Kamas was invaded by Chaos, and he, as the captain of the First Company, had a hysterical attack at this critical moment? How could he fail the Emperor like this?

"Wake up! You piece of shit!" Feldman yelled at him. "Hold your gun, Captain! The Emperor needs you!"

This sentence hit him like a bullet and saved him, as if Feldman was really standing behind him, pulling him back from the edge of the cliff. However, when Corell looked back, he didn't see anyone.

He grunted, felt a headache, and sticky blood spurted out of his nose and slid onto his clothes.

A hoarse voice sounded from behind him: "Captain, the first company has reassembled, a total of 222 people."

"How much?" Corell asked.

"Two hundred and twenty-two people," the man answered, his face dusty and his eyes bloodshot.

Looking at him, Krel's headache seemed to ease a little. He threw his bolter behind him, patted his head, and walked forward, still asking more questions.

"Where's the political commissar?"

“Dead,” his current deputy said. “But we have a new commissar, and he’s waiting for you.”

Without a word, Corell walked to the end of the trench, where his soldiers stood waiting for him. All of them were wounded, and many were even bleeding. A man wearing a commissar's coat and wiping his hat in his hand stood in front of everyone.

His left ear was missing and wrapped in a dirty bandage, his cheeks were tight and his expression was serious. Seeing Corell coming towards him, the man put on his hat and made the Sky Eagle Salute.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Captain. I'm Brak Mordo, the new political commissar of the former Sixth Company."

"The Sixth Company is gone. They were a little too close to Promethium." Koril said dryly. "Now I invite you to join us. Before the attack, we received an order from the High Command. We are to garrison the Radadon River, where there are reports of Chaos sightings. I need a commissar."

Brack narrowed his eyes and nodded, "I'm in, Captain."

Without much talk, the First Company set out from the northwest corner of the assembly point and set out on the journey to the Radatun River. During this period, communications were occasionally restored, but more often than not, only noise came through the channel.

Corell seized those hard-earned opportunities. He learned that they were not the only ones in the Second Regiment who survived. Half of the armored company and several companies also survived.

However, due to the ground collapse caused by the earthquake, they were temporarily unable to join the First Company and could only hope to meet at the Radatun River. One hour and forty-four minutes later, the First Company, with all its members injured, arrived at its destination.

The Ladaton River was now stained red with blood, and countless corpses floated from the upper reaches to the lower reaches. On the other side of the river, flames were burning, and from time to time there were flashes of light. Some deformed mutants or hybrids would rush out and try to cross the river. The machine guns that had been set up on the firing positions would stop them and then smash them into pieces.

Seeing this scene, Corell finally breathed a sigh of relief - the Radadadon River position was still firmly in the hands of the Kamas people, which meant that the support line had been established.

As long as the communication is restored, we can contact the rear forces to carry out targeted bombing. By then, the position can be really stabilized. This is great news for several cities in the rear.
"Something is wrong." The new political commissar he invited to join suddenly said seriously.

"Really? What do you think?" Corell asked as he grabbed his gun and jumped into the trench designated for the First Company by the garrison command.

He walked hurriedly, looking around to see if the place was up to standard. Brack Modo followed closely behind him, the chainsaw sword on his waist swinging violently, while the soldiers of the first company set up their weapons, cleaned the observation holes, and prepared grenades. The series of actions were orderly, and the rigorous training on weekdays came in handy at this time.

"I don't believe that Chaos, which has officially launched an attack, would only send these pathetic and hateful bastards to fight against us. They are cannon fodder at best, Captain." "Moreover, the Supreme Command has clearly stated that the enemy we will face in this war is a group of traitors who are used to being space pirates. The war has now spread to the surface of Kamas, where are they? Even if this is just a decoy to attract our attention, how long can this group of cannon fodder last?"

Corell turned around, was silent for a few seconds, and asked again: "So, what you mean-"

He was unable to finish his words when a loud noise from the sky interrupted their conversation. Corell immediately looked up, but was squinted by a gust of wind. At the same time, a similar burning pain as before struck his retina again.

In the last moment before he closed his eyes, what he saw was a huge, brilliant, distorted, lavender mist that looked like a diseased organ in the human body.
Then came the rain, a rain of indescribable filth.

Political Commissar Black roared from his chest and dragged Corell into a sunken fortification. At the same time, gunfire broke out from the other end of the position.

Continuous screams rang out from the temporary communication network built with some instruments. They were not reports from officers or signalmen, but another kind of voice. Just listening to them made Corell, who still had his eyes closed, feel cold all over.

He ignored Black's obstruction, rubbed his eyes, and crawled out of the fortifications with bloodshot eyes. However, he never expected that the explosion would come again, and this time, it was even more horrifying than the last time.

Corell had a splitting headache. For the second time in his life, he felt like he was really going crazy. He couldn't stand it anymore. Otherwise, how could he see the commissar and the soldiers in front of him as a mixture of flesh and blood with human skin torn off? Otherwise, how could he identify the explosion as a long scream full of pain and pleasure?
He raised his head frantically, his face blurred with tears and blood, and a falling figure was captured by his rapidly rotating and trembling eyeballs.

In his eyes, the man's face was pale, and his eyes were as dark as a ghost. A naked beast was being stepped on by him, and its chest had been cut open by something, and blood, internal organs and other things flew out under the force of gravity.

This person only appeared for less than a second before disappearing completely. No matter how hard Corey looked for him, he could not find any trace of him. It was as if it was just his imagination, but the beast was real, and there was definitely more than one of them.

Above it, more filth followed.
Yes, it is raining.

"Did you see it?" Corell asked tremblingly.

Black didn't answer, but just pulled him down forcefully and pulled out the bolt pistol from his waist.

It's funny, at this moment, Corell found that the pistol was well maintained, and the barrel was even specially treated. That kind of brilliance can't be deceived - so he wants to shoot me? Because I saw something I shouldn't have seen?

The captain's wild thoughts were answered a second later. The political commissar exerted force again and pulled him up. Then, gunshots rang out.

Corell turned his head and saw through the blurry observation window that a large group of demons were rushing towards them like a tide. The machine guns that had been set up long ago and the soldiers on the major positions were all firing. The rain of bullets and lasers blocked their first wave of charge, and the mortars that were easy to use also opened fire right after them.

Smoke and dust flew everywhere, blood and flesh splattered, and Corell instinctively pulled his bolter from behind him, turned off the safety, aimed at the magic tide, and pulled the trigger all the way down in one breath - but, he didn't know if he was really crazy, the hallucination came back again.

He saw the ghost again. The first bullet was fired from the gun barrel, and a flash of fire appeared. The ghost stood in a corner of the battlefield. The shell fell to the ground, and Corell instinctively began to exert force to resist the recoil of the bolt gun, and the ghost disappeared on the spot.

The second and third bombs were fired at the demonic tide. The images captured by Corell's eyes were finally transmitted to his brain. The biological signals were analyzed, and the existence of ghosts once again began to tear at his sanity.

He widened his eyes and turned his neck to look at the right end of the front line, just in time to see a piece of broken limbs flying into the air.
All of this happened in just three seconds. In the fourth second, Corell had emptied his magazine. In the fifth second, he returned to the fortifications and began to gasp for air.

"I'm crazy!" he shouted to Commissar Black. "I saw a--"

"--a what?!" the Commissar shouted at him.

Corell didn't say anything. He suddenly thought that if the ghost was killing demons, then he was not someone he should be afraid of. With a click, a new magazine was loaded, and the captain of the first company stared and instinctively completed the loading action.

He stood up again and faced the enemy again, but he did not use up all his ammunition in one go. He just aimed at the demons rushing forward and fired short bursts. Within eleven seconds, he emptied a magazine again, but did not see the shadow of the ghost again.

Just when he suspected that he was really crazy, large flakes of rain suddenly flew up from behind the demonic tide?
Rain? No, I'm afraid not, there was no rain with broken bones and flesh.

Corell was stunned, awakened by the sharp roars of the demons. A gust of bloody wind blew in his face, hitting him like a fist, making him retreat repeatedly and almost fall. He staggered against the cold wall, his back aching, but he found that the gunshots gradually stopped.

What's going on? Are they coming? He looked around, but there was no sign of close combat on the battlefield. The gunfire had only subsided because the soldiers had stopped shooting.
He looked across the riverbed, past the bloody ravine filled with dead bodies, and saw a faint white mist and countless twisted shadows surging in it.

Those were the shadows of demons, there was no doubt about that, but they were falling one by one. There was no gunfire, no bombing, no roar of chainsaw weapons, only the continuous sound of flesh being torn apart.

The noise was so loud that it could reach from the other side of the riverbed to the front of the position. At least Corell heard it clearly, and for some reason, he didn't feel scared.

Thinking back to that pale face, he didn't feel any fear at all.

After a few minutes, the fog slowly began to dissipate. The soldiers raised their guns again and aimed at the other side. However, this time, what appeared before their eyes was not a demon, but a man covered in blood.

He was not wearing any armor, but a shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows in a ridiculous way, as if he had been working. He glanced across the river and quickly disappeared.

Corey let out a sigh of relief. He didn't know whether other people saw the Sky Eagle emblem pinned on the man's right chest as he did. But he did see it, and it was very clear. It was definitely not an illusion.

(End of this chapter)