Warhammer 40: Shattered Steel Soul

Chapter 356 The battalion commander and sergeant digging the soil
"Father always praises you as a master in building fortifications."

Zolan muttered in a low voice, squeezed a pair of gauntlets into the cracks of the rock, and then pressed hard to the outside, causing the sand and gravel to fall down.

For a moment, his movements suddenly became extremely fast, and then slowed down counterintuitively. The gravel slowly bounced from the ground. If there was a glimmer of light in this dark corridor, it would leave an afterimage like a time delay.

"I heard that your model of the fortress was the chief exhibit at the Masons' Club for a week, the venerable Barabas Dantioch," he continued.

"What's wrong?" Dantioch asked through his helmet, disassembling his own bolter. He just wanted to use it to blast open a crack in the collapsed tunnel blocking the road in front of him, but the bullet suddenly jammed.

Trusting the products of the Iron Warriors' own arsenal, he suspected that this was one of the many anomalous consequences of the Hrud's entropic fields.

"Battlecamp Commander, this shows that you understand how to build an underground bunker, right?" Zolan said, digging out two more stones and throwing them at his feet. "Can you tell me, based on common sense, how much longer do I have to dig? It feels like we have been hungry here for many days. I miss the echinoderms in the cafeteria."

"According to imperial common sense, if this is a fortress built under my personal supervision, you don't need to continue digging. A gun will pop out of the wall soon to relieve you of your suffering."

Dantioch disassembled the bolter, and in the darkness, inspected the interior for severe corrosion and broken parts that had never been seen before, feeling dumbfounded in his heart.

As long as you exert a little effort, the parts inside will fly away.

He coughed heavily, straightened his helmet, walked to Zoran, and dug with his bare hands.

Before they encountered this wall, the sabers they carried turned into part of the sand and stone in the tunnel. In the end, it was the flesh and blood of the Astartes that was most useful.

"What about Hrud's common sense?" Zoran sighed dejectedly, his voice echoing in the long and narrow passage. This unexpected path must have been blocked for many years, otherwise the two of them would have made all these noises here without being surrounded by piles of Hrud.

"Herud's common sense says that you should bring half a set of stasis grenades less, and use the empty space to replace them with ordinary grenades."

The words fell steadily, and Dantioch received no response for a moment. He patted the sergeant next to him in the dark, and received a close combat response that the sergeant subconsciously made under good training.

Dantioch simply dismantled the opponent's three punches and two kicks: "Why don't you answer?"

"Your voice doesn't sound right," Zoran said. "It's probably a problem with the flow of time. It's fine now. By the way, I still have a quarter of a basic grenade in my bag. I'm at your command, boss."

Dantioch cleared his throat, calmly finding his younger voice.

He carefully stroked the wall with his gauntlet, feeling every weak vibration coming from the wall, and judging from it the weak points of the wall and what was brewing in the surrounding rumbling strata.

Judging from the regular tremors in the ground, Dantioch suspected that there was some kind of giant instrument that worked intermittently nearby, or that it was a scheduled take-off and landing place for some mechanical vehicles.

"But how did you know that my model was on display?" the battalion commander asked.

Zoran also cleared his throat, "My brother-in-law is the commander of the second battalion, sir. You should know him from the Masons Club. This time it's true."

Even though he couldn't see Zoran, Dantioch still gave him a symbolic sideways glance: "I'll ask when I get back. Eric's personality has nothing in common with yours."

The movement of his hand stopped, and a tremor on the wall gave him an empirical intuition.

"Here," Dantioch said, tapping the spot he judged.

Zoran identified the location through the sound and found the location guided by Dantioch: "Here?"

"Correct."

Zoran poked at the soil and rocks near the spot, and there was a natural indentation there. He opened his backpack, dug out the only ordinary grenade in the dark, and weighed it in his hand.

Then, he made two gestures and asked again: "Are you sure?" Dantioch calculated the load-bearing and stress conditions in the surrounding tunnel environment for the last time, and exhaled slowly. "Sure."

Zoran held down the handle and said, "Stand back first, battalion commander."

Dantioch walked back along the tunnel until he was sure he was far enough away. "Okay," he roared, his voice echoing in the corridor.

Zoran stepped back a short distance, pulled the safety bolt, and remembering the position marked by Dantioch before, he aimed the grenade at the notch and threw it suddenly, then turned around and ran away.

The handle fell off, the firing pin pushed out sparks on the flash cap, and the fuse quickly lit the detonator. Four seconds later, a roar caused a series of small-scale collapses, and wisps of green light came from the gaps caused by the chain reaction. Come, like a long needle piercing a tunnel, chasing Zoran's footsteps.

The consequences of this were one level greater than Dantioch had expected. After all, his estimation in the dark was not comprehensive enough. "Come here," he murmured.

"Batalion Commander!" Zoran shouted and fell to the ground. Dantioch's heart sank suddenly, until Zoran immediately pulled himself up by the rock wall, rushed out for a while, and finally fell beside him, gasping for air with great effort.

The smoke spreads behind, and the particles float in the air, becoming sharply defined. From the collapsed hole, dim light poured out, illuminating the armor on Zolan's back.

Dantioch silently knelt down and helped Zoran up. The two of them sat in the gravel together, quietly calming the beating of their four hearts.

"Batalion Commander..." Zoran muttered vaguely, spit out a mouthful of blood in his helmet, and groped for the battalion commander's hand. Dantioch smelled the rust.

"It's my fault," Dantioch said, feeling his words hollow and weak.

"No," Zoran struggled to squeeze out more words, "the tunnel... is open, isn't it?"

His fingers grabbed the soil on the ground, and then put it down painfully, letting the sand flow through his fingers. At the same time, he coughed hard, and every cough was painful.

"Zoran," Dantioch called his name.

"Batalion Commander——" Zolan slowly turned his head, "I'm sorry...I..."

Dantioch narrowed his eyes in his helmet, shook off Zoran's hand, and stood up first.

"Zoran," he said with a sharp warning in his voice. "Stand up for me."

"Pull me..."

Dantioch lifted Zoran from the ground. "Stand up straight," he growled, "Is your tongue sore affecting your ability to walk?"

"But... I really, hess, bit my tongue..." Zoran jumped up happily, and accompanied Dantioch to look into the light-transmitting tunnel.

After blasting through that barrier, a vibration like a heartbeat was buzzing in the air around them. The unique light of the special crystals used by the Hrud people to supply energy may not appear strong to the naked eye, but the feeling it brings to them has never been so strong. It is like a viscous black fluid that pours into their stomachs. , causing a strong feeling of nausea.

"Is this their... hiss, energy core?" Zoran spoke smoothly again. "Could entropy fields have anything to do with this?"

"Go and see," said Dantioch. "You still have one set missing a stasis grenade, don't you?"

　Answers two days before publication:
　　The day before yesterday: Bazi Tuan, the Angel of Atonement.

　　Yesterday: 1 is Tie Yong, 2 is Tie Shou.

　　I didn't expect it.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)