Warhammer: Start with a dog.

Chapter 743 Long live the Iron Lord!
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The narrators stood on the other side of a bottomless ravine, with a breastwork of trenches and sandbags left behind by Valvarus's auxiliary legions after a six-week tug-of-war with the enemy.

Despite the distance, they could still see the Terminator squad, chosen by Loken as the spearhead of the assault, advancing slowly, steadily, and unstoppably toward the enemy's fortress.

Within an hour of landing, the three hundred Shadow Moon Wolves of the Tenth Company had assembled and quickly launched an attack on the rebel fortress located on the mountainside opposite the stone bridge.

The enemy's defenses and weaponry were indeed as excellent as Ramizane had described. Unlike the alien civilizations or primitive human civilizations that the previous expeditions had defeated, the commander of the 63-19 army was clearly professionally trained and knew exactly what to do when facing a human enemy.

They built semi-permanent fortifications on the opposite side of the stone bridge using rocks, ice, and concrete blocks. The fortifications included barbed wire, trenches, bunkers, firing positions, anti-personnel mines, and other things. In addition, there was thick snow outside the fortress, the only passage across the mountain and deep ravine, and according to intelligence, the fortress had an internal water source.

Judging from these facts alone, it's really not surprising that Valvarus's mortal subordinates couldn't conquer the city after such a long siege.

Although Ramizane, as a 3K Seresian, also had some opinions: for example, since they already had orbital air superiority, why not just use a servo skull to guide a beyond-visual-range orbital bombardment and then have the infantry clean up the mess? Why waste the lives of thousands of auxiliary troops in a strong attack and then send out three hundred Astartes? This is not some important cultural heritage site or research base that cannot be bombed—and even if it were, the expeditionary force has bombed it quite a few times.

However, the terrain here meant that the defenders had not considered installing larger caliber firepower beforehand, so their existing artillery was completely inadequate in the face of Shadowmoon Wolf's new equipment.

Therefore, whether it was low-velocity ammunition, high-velocity rapid-fire bullets, or dumdum bullets, hitting the Terminators' thick terracotta defenses could only leave behind the marks of explosions or burn away the white paint coating. They could only watch in despair as these giants, several meters tall, continued to advance until they began to make contact with the fortifications at the bridgehead.

Then, accompanied by the sound of metal scraping against stone, the Terminators began to turn sideways and use their heaviest shoulder armor to push aside or pry open the stones and concrete blocking their path. At the same time, flames spewed from their heads, wrists, and shoulders, suppressing the enemy's attempt to retake the bridgehead from inside the fortress.

Flanking and behind the rumbling Shadowmoon Wolves, which advanced like miniature humanoid tanks, were the Astartes elite squads, ready to reap the first wave of glory.

From the squad list that Loken had just formally passed on to them at Ramizann's request, the narrators learned that this was the first squad, led by Dr. Zavoye Zhu, and their code name was "Poison Rose".

Other squads have different names such as "Wizards" or "Nemesis," or, like Sergeant Russell's Terminator Squad, they are named after their proud new equipment.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

“That’s still a bit far,” Carl Casey muttered, while trying to shrink himself as much as possible and raising his binoculars to observe the battle.

"It's alright for my camera, but just standing here doesn't really allow me to take any good photos."

Euphrates Kira said, glancing questioningly at the chief reporter sitting in the back, who was receiving oxygen, "Are you alright, Sindman? Did they say when we can follow them in?"

As soon as he landed, Sindman came here to meet the narrators. The tall, thin old man looked breathless and dizzy, and was also terribly pale, as if he might faint at any moment.

The old man seemed to be in a daze for a moment before he understood what the female photographer meant. He shook his head under the breathing mask, his deep voice sounding muffled through the mask.

"The permit is mainly issued to...that one. We ourselves are not authorized to run around, Euphrates." "By Terra, that lord wouldn't just abandon us and run off alone, would he? I was hoping to get some leeway from him for my filming!"

“You’re really brave,” Carl Casey said. “No matter how easy he is to get along with, he’s still…that kind of person. If he were here as he really is, I don’t think you’d even entertain the thought of him.”

“That’s true,” Qi Le agreed, a rare occurrence for her.

"If that person were here in his true form, I would definitely start taking pictures of him and this magnificent background. His eyes are colder than the glaciers here, so... a beauty that looks down on all living beings without any compassion, which complements this natural sacred mountain perfectly. I have a feeling that it would be a very amazing image."

"He's here!" Messadi exclaimed in surprise as he stood on tiptoe and peered out of the bunker.

At her call, a figure hurriedly ran into their bunker, and even stomped his feet to brush off the thin layer of mountain mist clinging to him.

“I took a look when I arrived,” Ramizan said. “The Terminators are already blasting open the fortress gates with power axes and molten metal bombs—their flypack squads are ready, and I estimate they’ll start blasting open the exposed rooftops within a minute.”

As if to prove his words, a series of huge explosions came from the direction of the attack, and chunks of broken mountain peaks, along with fragments of years of ice and snow and the outer bricks of the fortress, cascaded down the mountain stream like a gray-white waterfall.

"The fact that these people don't seem to consider avalanches at all when they fight like this is probably because they rely on (beep) that damn common sense."

Karl-Kathy, who was closest, heard Ramizan mutter incoherently, but his attention was immediately drawn to the next sentence the other man was about to say, so much so that he didn't even think about the meaning behind the previous sentence.

"We can go and film now! I just got the latest defensive gear that someone brought down! Come on! Everyone get one! With this, we don't have to worry about stray bullets or snipers at all!"

"Long live the Iron Lord!"

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After the wolves' precise raid, Gavial Locken slowly stepped into the breached fortress, littered with corpses. Instead of activating his kill counter, he was struck by what he saw and lamented that the people here, bound by the tyrant's deception and the limitations of their own culture, insisted on waging a futile resistance against the Empire, ultimately only to incur the wrath of the Emperor from Astartes.

The distinctive bangs of the bolt guns and the dying screams of the victims still echoed from the deeper tunnels. This apocalypse was the rebels' own fault, so why were they still so stubborn and unwilling to surrender? If it were him, he would have already handed over the surrender document and accepted the rule of the empire.

As he pondered why the other side acted this way, and how such a war could convey its correct and universal truths to the other side, a message from a comrade-in-arms made his brain feel a surge of pressure.

"What is that mortal doing with them again?!"

(End of this chapter)