How can a retired savior be considered retired if his price drops to 40,000?

Chapter 421: Letter K

Peralis Orbital Defense Fortress.

During the preliminary survey at a distance of ten kilometers from the target, Captain Thun, who had briefly taken a look at the battlefield through the auspicious instrument integrated into his helmet, soon realized that most of the plans they had discussed and prepared on the way here were useless in the real environment.

As we all know, Macragge is a mountainous world, so it is not difficult to understand that an orbital defense center-level fortress on its surface is also located on a mountain ridge, just like the Ultramarines' Chapter Monastery.

At first, although the Macragge people had obviously been prepared for similar tactics when they were building, Thun still believed, based on the terrain intelligence he had obtained from Dorne's battlefield sand table, that he might be able to send out assault teams to use jump packs to airdrop and launch surprise attacks from unexpected directions through the several take-off and landing platforms extending from the fortress itself, or other relatively low hills nearby. But it was obvious that the strategies that the Imperial Astartes could think of could not be thought of by the Chaos Astartes either - during the field survey, Thun was not very surprised to find that these surprise attack points that originally appeared on the terrain map and could only be regarded as "barely usable" had now completely disappeared.

Although he had expected that the information he received from the headquarters would be significantly delayed due to the intermittent battlefield communications, he never expected that the actual situation would be even more extreme than he had expected. The Iron Warriors were indeed famous for their large number of heavy artillery and their willingness to implement fire coverage tactics, and the Phoenix Sons had witnessed this directly before. However, the experience gained from small, unimportant local battlefields still had obvious limitations, and the current situation still surprised Captain Thun:
In order to fire shells into orbit, as the most basic function of an orbital defense fortress, the Fortress of Polaris was built by the Macragge people after they flattened the most suitable hilltops in the nearby mountains. As early as 10,000 years ago, the humans in the empire had already had a lot of experience with similar technologies. In addition to being equipped with a certain degree of short-range anti-aircraft firepower, they would habitually build a classic plank road with only one entrance and exit in front of such fortresses, which was easy to defend and difficult to attack. Now, this classic plank road that should have existed in theory has only a rough slope left, and its original location is already covered with craters, rubble, armor fragments, corpses, and scrapped war engine wreckage. Thun didn't know how tragic the battle that had taken place here before they arrived, but these remaining battlefields that had not yet been cleaned up, as well as a standard road that had been completely wiped out by the flames of war, silently made very good annotations for this.

It wasn't just a road and a few barely usable assault points that had changed, the fortress itself had also undergone considerable changes during the previous attacks and defenses. As a rebellious Astartes known for trench warfare, siege warfare, and defensive warfare, the Iron Warriors' experience and considerations in defending the fortress were obviously much better than the Macragge people who built it - or perhaps, they simply didn't think they had to consider many things other than war effectiveness like those who were born and raised here:
From the historical data that Toon received, the Peralis Fortress was once a building that looked magnificent and majestic from a distance, full of beauty and artistry. But in the eyes of the Iron Warriors, these beauty and artistry should naturally give way to practicality: the temporary and simple fortifications built around it destroyed the original elegant outline of the building, and the gun muzzles on the walls, which were much more than those recorded, were like ferocious claws, making the fortress reveal its true nature as a war machine without any concealment. In addition, there are other arrangements that are almost blatantly placed on the ground -

"Minefield." Captain Zadek Gradian of the Fourth Company marked the survey results of the technical sergeant on the map and shared it with the commander of the nearby chapter through the wireless transmission protocol. "Considering that they occupied this place for a maximum of two hours and forty-seven minutes, I have to say that these bastards who deserve to be burned by the Emperor's fire forever have achieved gratifying results in causing trouble for us."

"Who said it wasn't?" Toon frowned under his helmet, looking at the densely packed red dots added by the technical sergeant on the retinal projection along the path to the fortress. At the same time, he quickly analyzed the enemy's possible traps and our feasible tactics in his mind. "And the most important question is: we haven't found where the Titan is yet."

This is a very important point. The battlefield intelligence provided to the Primarch should have been verified by many parties, and the possibility of error is very small; the large traces of molten earth and rocks near the battlefield are obviously caused by high-powered hot melt cannons, a few vehicle wreckages that were directly crushed, and the fragments of Chaos Knight mechas that fell in the artillery fire also clearly indicate that at least one Titan has indeed appeared in the vicinity and led its guards to fight some battles. But the question is, where was this thing hidden?

According to common sense, given the huge scale of the God Machine, even the Iron Warriors could not clear a space inside the fortress to hide it in such a short time. Considering that the fortress is surrounded by a mountainous environment with a narrow range of movement, it is indeed not conducive to the relatively large Titan to exert its full power. After conquering the fortress, it is likely that it was transferred and relocated to a battlefield more suitable for it. This is a very reasonable conjecture. Toon believes that if his team moves closer, the servo skulls that are still spinning in the sky can verify the authenticity of this conjecture for them by scanning and analyzing the traces of the battlefield.

"The Titan may have left," Gradian said, agreeing with Thun's guess. He then added, "That's disappointing—at least it could have left behind some knights to escort it."

The attitude of the Fourth Captain did not surprise Thun. Gradian always valued the honor of the entire Chapter. After the series of events not long ago, he was about to explode under the ups and downs of emotions, and he urgently needed a suitable outlet. In his opinion, such a seemingly impossible feat as "destroying a Titan without the help of the War Engine" was just right. No matter who in the Chapter successfully won this victory, it would be enough to wash away the dust on the name of the Son of the Phoenix due to the Primarch's "denial".

As the Chapter Master, Thun was more rational than Gladion in looking at this problem. This prevented him from being completely disappointed because he had lost one of the greatest goals he had expected in this campaign (of course, that doesn't mean he wasn't disappointed at all), and he thought a little more than Gladion: Where did that thing go? Was there any deeper meaning behind the enemy's move?
He could not come up with credible answers to these questions by his own thoughts alone, so further action was necessary. No preparation could be perfect, and no war would be without losses and sacrifices. Thun had long been accustomed to this.

"Ask the technical sergeant to prepare the 'consumables'." As the Chapter Master, he gave the order, "We must get closer."

Regardless of the era, the most economical and fastest way to clear mines on the battlefield is to walk up to them and press them. Of course, as a relatively more precious Imperial asset, Space Marines generally will not sacrifice their lives to do so. For the Sons of the Phoenix, who are accustomed to fighting with mortals in a certain sense, their usual practice is to detain and reserve those mortal followers who have committed crimes and consume them at the right time like the current situation. With the order of Chapter Master Thun, the whipping servitors activated by the technical sergeants began to move, driving the flocks that were destined to purify their crimes with painful deaths, stepping forward in fear and hesitation.

Of course, mortals alone are not enough. Although they should "sacrifice their lives and souls for the Emperor to atone for their sins" in this case, their physiological signals and weight under natural conditions have significant limitations, making them insufficient to trigger the many special mines set up for Space Marines and vehicles on the battlefield. In order to deal with this problem, the technical sergeants will pick out some of the most sinful of these criminals, and use some cheap parts to transform them into servitors in advance, ready for one-time use in such a situation.

Such things naturally existed in the team, and because of the loss of self-awareness and increased stride after the transformation, they soon left the others behind. These servitors, whose bodies were purposefully enlarged and weighted by the technical sergeants, moved staggeringly and with difficulty on the bumpy slope. Apart from being specially strengthened to a relatively strong degree in terms of defense, they had no other outstanding features. No one had any unrealistic expectations for these disposable consumables - they were not even equipped with any kind of weapons. As long as these things could pave a relatively safe path for the troops that were about to move forward, they would be considered to have retired. But things developed beyond expectations: at the beginning, everything was normal. The servitors and sinners slowly moved forward, and stepped on some mines on this necessary road, and of course their lives ended due to various forms of explosions. The technical sergeants who were operating the whipping servitors at the end of the team were willing to perfunctorily wish "May your soul return to the throne" in an emotionless voice, even though they did not believe in the state religion first, and secondly, they did not think highly of these sinners from the bottom of their hearts. Five hundred meters, one thousand meters, this team, which absolutely violated the Geneva Convention, was not completely willing to move forward and enter the fortress's firing range. For efficiency reasons, the Iron Warriors should open fire at this distance to prevent the minefield from being meaninglessly consumed by the enemy's low-value units.

But the main gate of the fortress suddenly opened at this moment. The beast-like roar of the war engine came from behind the adamantine gate raised by the winch, and it was clearly accompanied by the hissing and echoing of the warp. Three knight mechs with terrifying sharp horns, many skulls hanging on the shell, and painted with eight-pointed stars and Khorne symbols rushed out with a team of servant mechs slightly smaller than them. They rushed out regardless of the roars that did not seem to be made by normal machines, and rushed towards the consumption mechs sent by the Son of Phoenix, which were only overly large in size and actually had no combat capabilities - and by the way, they stepped on the minefields closer to the Peralis Fortress.

This was a development that no one had expected. Thun was stunned for half a second at this sudden incident. He thought that the Iron Warriors guarding the lumber guns and machine guns inside the fortress should be similar. A few useless shots were fired symbolically in the fortress, and then it fell silent again. Perhaps those Chaos Astartes had decided to give up saving the situation and chose to wait and see, and simply handed this position that was still at the edge of the range to the disobedient Khorne Knights to deal with. But for the Phoenix Sons, whether it was the previous minefield or the knight mecha that was about to rush in front of them, they were all urgent problems that needed to be solved.

"That's more like what you're saying." Facing the difficult and urgent situation before him, Gradian sounded excited. He even took the opportunity to give his chapter leader a suggestion before he had to go into battle: "No offense, sir, but I think that since the Titans haven't really appeared yet, we don't need to call for air support for the time being."

Thun glanced at him from under his helmet, making no comment on this obvious suggestion, but urged him to return to his position and dispatch the vehicles and heavy plasma or melta weapons in the team.

However, he did feel a little regretful: the bolter that belonged to Solomon Demetrius ten thousand years ago and was given to the Chapter Master as a gift was still hanging on his tactical belt in a magnetic way, but he was afraid that in this battle, there would not be a place where it could immediately shine.
-
Illyrimlin, suburbs.

According to the data, the 117th Armored Regiment of the Ultramar Auxiliary Army was stationed here, and the specific equipment of this regiment was specialized to a certain extent according to the mountainous environment. But when Captain Vilan led his team to the vicinity of the city, the first people they came into contact with were the local militia of Illy Rimlin.

Although, looking back at Macragge's history in the past period of time, we can know that although the core planets of the 500 worlds of Ultramar are under the careful governance of the Ultramarines, the living conditions are still excellent, but in fact they are not stable. It is normal for a world that can be called a battleground to breed people with strong martial virtues and strong spirits, but at least in the impression of Chapter Captain Vilan, the "toughness" of the people of the Empire should not be like that of the Illyrium people... uh...

Vilan didn't know how to comment. However, when he just found the "man in charge" of the militia escorting civilians out of the city, this dark-skinned rough man raised his only intact eye outside the emergency artificial skin spray, and looked at the young man in front of him who was quite young among the Space Marines without any goodwill, and spat on the ground in front of him: "So, the rulers of Macragge haven't forgotten us insignificant people who were thrown on the mountains?"

Vilan didn't know how to react, just as he didn't know how to evaluate these people. The Celestial Lions were not the kind of Astartes that would deliberately keep their distance from mortals. On the contrary, they were traditionally happy to fight together with mortal auxiliaries. When Vilan still had predecessors in the chapter, he had personally come into contact with these amiable and respectable mortal soldiers, fought with them, supplied them with supplies, talked with them, and told stories with them - but in his shallow experience, he had indeed never met someone like the mountain dweller in front of him.

Most mortals would show either awe or fear when they first saw an Astartes. But this rule that Vilan had summed up through his own experience was completely ineffective on the militia captain in front of him. This man, who had obviously just experienced a fierce battle not long ago, showed an emotion of resentment - both towards the enemy who invaded their hometown and towards the belated support.

"If you don't want to come to support us, you don't have to force yourself." The militia captain's words were not a suggestion, but a thorn in his words. Even a Space Marine like Vilan, who was not sensitive to other people's emotions, could easily hear this from his tone. "The Illyrians can take care of themselves. No matter what happens, we can always struggle to survive."

Weilan keenly felt that there was a story here, and it was a long story containing all kinds of complicated emotions and old grudges, but now was obviously not a good time to ask about the story. The only thing that made him fortunate was that Sigismund was not by his side at the moment, so he still had some chance to change the topic back to the serious direction:
"Watch your words, mortal." Weilan used his pretended dissatisfaction to cover up his brief confusion, and then forced the topic to turn to the current situation. "I need to know the current situation in the city and what kind of enemy attacks you have suffered."

The mortal captain briefly showed an expression close to disappointment on his face, but after looking back at the civilian army that was obviously still in shock, he restrained his emotions and demonstrated a certain degree of professionalism: "What else could it be - at the beginning, what was thrown down from the cracked sky was the abominable machinery unique to the traitors, as if it had drilled out of the warp, spewing fire where it shouldn't be, grabbing living people as if they had their own consciousness, and chopping them into pieces no matter who they were. The auxiliary army's regiment is full of good guys, they react quickly, but they can't completely stop those monsters. I followed the emergency evacuation regulations and took those who could still move to run first. I'm not sure what happened on the front line, but even we can feel that as the blood of the dead increases, something is different..."

(End of this chapter)