Warhammer: Start with a dog.

Chapter 844 Where do you think we are?
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Mr. Carlosini does have some basic knowledge of the universe, but not much, which is why he has been taking time to read the Ironblood Library's collection lately.

He knew that a psionicist of this caliber must be incredibly remarkable and rare, but what was even more fortunate for the two of them was that he knew virtually nothing about what a psionicist of this caliber should be able to do or what might happen to them.

Thanks to a certain Nottingham workshop for consuming their psionic rules and many branches of fate years ago, the consequence of which is that the relevant information in this universe is now scattered and there is no complete set of rules to read.

So Ramizann really didn't know how to treat Zaono according to "usual practice," so since he didn't know, he just did it his own way.

Can we still use psionic powers? Yes, we can.

Does it feel like things are getting out of control? No.

Did you feel unwell after using it? No.

Then use it first.

"Jungle warfare... Imperial army... ambush... our side... and rebels..."

“The rebels are lying in ambush with the Imperial army on the riverbank,” Zan’ao pointed out after thinking for a moment. “The Imperial army’s native guide is one of the rebels, but he doesn’t look human at all; his mind is full of green trees and mountains.”

"...The description of lush green trees sounds terrible. This makes me even more determined that we should still help the Imperial Army."

What are your plans?

The two of them are now squatting next to a clump of bushes on the riverbank.

The shields and camouflage of the activated LOGOS concealed them, and they saw a squad of Imperial troops carrying some kind of special equipment, dressed in jungle combat uniforms, cautiously advancing along the ancient stone bridge, seemingly preparing to move to the other side of the riverbank. The remaining handrails and vines on the stone bridge provided good cover for the soldiers.

Without the help of LOGOS positioning, it would be difficult to spot them with the naked eye; their movement is very deliberate.

Good news... They're all well-trained jungle warfare veterans, not some rookies who're just coasting along. That means there's a higher chance they have high-powered launchers or aircraft on standby.

"What kind of equipment is that?"

These crouching soldiers each carried a strange object on their backs that resembled a highly simplified Space Marine backpack reactor, but it certainly couldn't be a reactor backpack.

After capturing and comparing thirty snapshots, LOGOS told him that this was a "gravity parachute," indicating that these soldiers were quite elite and skilled at using flying vehicles such as Valkyrie gunships for movement and parachute assaults, giving the enemy a surprise attack.

"A surprise attack, huh? But the guide is problematic. Clearly, someone wants to lure them here and kill them... How should we warn them... Perhaps just firing a few shots at the ambushers would be enough to alert them?"

“I think it’s better not to, sir.” Zao’s hand gripped Ramizan’s arm guard again. “Look…”

Suddenly, a scene flashed before Ramizane's eyes: the three paratrooper squads had successfully laid an ambush along the ancient bridge, but the native with sticky green skin had caught the attention of the leading officer. It then leaped towards a pre-dug hiding place on the riverbank, followed by a barrage of gunfire from both sides like a deadly net… A more violent explosion occurred on the stone bridge… There were pre-planted bombs… Imperial soldiers scattered helplessly, falling into the relentless torrent below… Imprisoned… Ignite… Silvery white…

"I go!"

Ramizam shook his head abruptly, waking up from his reverie.

"What a complete trap! If we get there now..."

“You can’t save them all, sir.” Zao’s eyes reflected the ever-changing light of the river in the shadows of the jungle sunlight. “But if we stay here and don’t move, you can rescue the colonel who is in charge right here.”

The boy's voice mingled with the rustling whispers of the swaying forest leaves.

“Just wait here for a moment, without getting your hands dirty, and we will be their benefactors in their time of need. Why not, sir?”

--------

"Damn it! We've fallen for their trap! There's an ambush!"

When Colonel Fedorak turned around and saw the native guide Zul, whose green, slimy body had led them there, leaping rapidly toward the riverbank, he immediately realized what had happened.

"Quick!" he shouted into his communicator as he scaled the broken railing of the stone bridge. "Ambush! Jump down and open your parachute!"

With the colonel's roar, a dense array of firing positions lit up on both sides of the riverbank, and the interwoven network of fire relentlessly suppressed the Imperial troops on the bridge, who were like sitting ducks.

Fedorak activated his gravity parachute, the blue flames erupting from its nozzle helping him stabilize himself. He could only pray to the damned emperor that the river wasn't flowing as fast as it seemed—damn it, their Hellbringer Legion had been entangled with the cult in this godforsaken place for three hundred years. In recent years, the rebel forces had become particularly active and powerful, and the Hellbringer Legion, along with the city and its inhabitants they had protected for three hundred years, were in grave danger. And the damned Ministry of Military Affairs seemed not to have understood their plea for help; the last time they were even able to send out a distress signal was…

As Colonel Fedorak plummeted, he caught a glimpse of his most elite men and soldiers falling, their bodies splattered with blood and flames from the bombs exploding beneath the bridge.

You damn emperor! You bastard, you can't possibly deliver your so-called divine punishment! You damn emperor, if you can hear me! Show yourself and strike me dead right now! Cleave me and everything here damn thing dead! End this long, hopeless farce! Do you hear me?! If you have the guts, come and strike me dead…

Of course, as always, the colonel's rebellious and fervent expectations did not receive any divine punishment from the emperor—

The colonel chuckled self-deprecatingly, relieved to see that his adjutant, Sergeant Malak, had also jumped down with him. Now, the next step was to quickly contact the survivors…

"Crack!"

The air was thick with the smell of ozone. A thick bolt of lightning, like a giant platinum serpent, suddenly shot up from the riverbank, carrying with it black remnants of wind and clouds. The explosion and falling rocks sparked on the scales of the lightning serpent. Colonel Fedorak's old adversary, the witch named Gulin, was roaring and raising her staff in an attempt to fight against the strange serpentine lightning from the crowd surrounding her at the bridgehead.

Her efforts were in vain, but the eerie bolt of lightning seemed uninterested in her.

In Fedorak's wide-open eyes, he saw what appeared to be a giant clad in silver armor, resembling a god, charging towards him from within the lightning bolts emanating from the serpent's head.

In the colonel's rapidly contracting pupils, he saw the truth of the universe surrounding the giant's head, the gears of order meshing around Him to form the blueprint for all things. Civilization was the vessel He sought for the material body, while cognition was the key He created for the spirit of living beings...

Why does he look so anxious and panicked? God Emperor, Colonel Fedorak unconsciously raised his arm, trying to wipe away the anxious wrinkles between the other's brows.

"Stop being in a daze!"

The giant had already charged in front of the colonel, the seemingly terrifying bolts of lightning supporting the mortal bodies without harming them.

"Get out of here first!"

Before Colonel Fedorak could recover from the shock of witnessing the true face of the universe, he was swept away by the Seres dragon formed from lightning, along with his soldiers, and disappeared into the depths of the jungle, leaving behind only the rebel witch leader, whose plan had failed, shouting in shock and anger.

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"We all need to rest immediately. Do you have somewhere to go back to?"

Moments later, dozens of kilometers downstream in the misty jungle river, the more than one hundred surviving veterans of the elite assault squad of the "Hellbringers" 145th Regiment had regained their senses and gathered alertly on the riverbank. Standing before them was Colonel Fedorak, who still looked somewhat dazed.

“Terra…I thought…I once believed…that God did not exist…”

Sergeant Malak gasped and quickly stepped forward to tug at the colonel's belted uniform. "Sir! You can't say that! The Emperor is a god..."

"It's alright. But he's your superior, right? Can he speak to me normally now?"

The giant who had saved them, wearing silver armor they had never seen before, waved his hand, seemingly unconcerned about the offense, and asked anxiously.

"I think it's okay... Colonel! Colonel?! Sir! Wake up!"

The sergeant didn't care about anything else and quickly shook his superior officer vigorously.

"I'm sorry... sir!"

"Snapped!"

The latter finally snapped out of his daze with a loud slap that made Ramizann and Zao secretly scratch their toes.

"Hiss—that was quite a force, Malak."

His adjutant lowered his hand, shrugged, and looked relieved. "Otherwise, how could I be your adjutant, sir?"

Colonel Fedorak straightened his collar, trying to put his wet hair and other things back in place, and then gave the other party a military salute.

"On behalf of the 145th Regiment of the Hellbringers, I thank you for saving us, Your Excellency Astartes. I am Colonel Fedorak, and I am the commander of the 145th Regiment of the Hellbringers in Adulrim."

Colonel Fedorak was clearly aware of the existence of the Space Marines and immediately showed them the respect due to him.

"Excellent! So you have a city as a rear base from which you can return?"

“Yes, sir, our headquarters is stationed in Adulim. But I’m afraid the situation is not optimistic. The rebel leader, Gu Lin—that old hag who just appeared at the bridge—it seems that the storms she’s stirred up here over the past ten years have finally gained momentum this year. The report we received before we came out said that Adulim may soon be besieged by multiple rebel forces. Once the city is surrounded, we don’t have enough Valkyrie gunboats to evacuate everyone.”

The colonel, being a hereditary military officer, skillfully left the message unsaid.

“…Oh.” The other person fell into thought, his black hair reflecting the orange light of the sky. Only then did Colonel Fedorak notice that more than half of the other person’s hair was actually black with implanted cables, but they were so delicate and well hidden that they looked like braids.

"So the reason you just took the risk of using such a small airborne squad to ambush the enemy leader was because you received intelligence and planned to try to break the deadlock with a decapitation strike, is that right?"

"exactly."

"Then, unfortunately, the guide turned out to be a rebel, which was a reverse strategy."

"...That's right, sir."

"Alright, since you all came here by air..."

"We will meet the gunboat that will come to pick us up at the pre-arranged location in four hours." The colonel pointed upstream in the direction where they were rescued, "but the rendezvous point is still close to there."

“I see.” The divine soldier who had descended from the heavens, the silver-glowing Imperial Angel, pondered for a moment, then looked down at a net bag on his chest. Fedorak had initially thought it was a concealment net used by the soldiers of the Hellbringers to hide in the jungle, but then he was surprised to see a boy’s head pop out of it, grabbing the Imperial Angel’s arm guard and closing his eyes, then opening them again. The two of them whispered to each other for a moment.

What is this doing?
Before sitting back down in the net, the boy seemed a little surprised and glanced at the colonel, then smiled and hid himself back inside.

"The abnormal psionic fluctuations over there are still very strong."

Although he didn't quite understand the meaning of those words, Fedorak could roughly tell that something was wrong.

"But it shouldn't last too long. We'll be there once the fluctuations subside."

The Emperor's Angel Super casually stretched his arms, revealing two wrists fully loaded with twin Stormblaster guns and heavy ammunition belts.

...With just these two rapid-fire guns, the rebel firepower at both bridgeheads could be completely suppressed. Colonel Fedorak wondered to himself, could it be that his group was looked down upon by the Imperial Angels because of their performance just now?
“Sir, we would be happy to serve you. I just saw the rebel leader Gu Lin there. If we can get behind them like we did just now, and with your firepower suppressing them, it would be entirely feasible to catch them off guard.”

"Uh, cough."

The Emperor Angel's captivating blue eyes looked again at the net on the breastplate, and the boy reached out and placed his hand on the other's arm armor.

The colonel blinked. Had something been passed between them? This was insane. He might have suffered a concussion or something from the fall; he hadn't been feeling well since this morning.

"...My...bird divination device, yes, the results of the bird divination device scan indicate an extremely high energy disturbance, the kind that no ordinary rebel army could produce. There is likely something else. We need to return to the city to regroup before coming back."

Since the divine emperor's envoy who had descended from the heavens to save them had said so, no one had any further objections.

During the wait before departure, the Space Marine was incredibly approachable. He cleaned everyone's wounds and shared precious medicines and drinks that they had never seen before, an act that immediately won him unanimous praise from all the 145th Regiment's veteran assault soldiers.

“Truly worthy of being the God-Emperor’s angel…” Sergeant Malak quietly approached Colonel Fedorak.

"Indeed, but I don't know what that boy on his chest is for."

“What boy?” Sergeant Malak stared at his superior.

“It’s the one in the net pocket on his chest.” Fedorak frowned: Malak was his trusted lieutenant, who had served among the Hellbringers for over twenty years; he wouldn’t lie.

“I didn’t see any boys, sir,” Malak said doubtfully. “There were only hiding nets hanging down.”

Perhaps my sanity is indeed on the verge of madness. I've stayed in this godforsaken place for too long and dealt with the superstitious natives too much.

Colonel Fedorak thought so.

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As they finally began their trek along the riverbank toward the rendezvous point and were nearing it, Ramizan couldn't help but ask a question that he was actually quite concerned about, but which would easily expose his true feelings.

"Is Adulim, the city we're heading back to later, one of the major cities in this area?"

"In fact, sir, Adulrim, located at the mouth of the Amissama Delta, was originally the capital of this planet."

Although Colonel Fedorak's complexion, like the other soldiers, showed an abnormal yellowish-white due to excessive drug use, their jungle experience allowed them to march quite smoothly.

“Great, it seems my landing coordinates aren’t too far off. My locator broke during landing,” he said, feigning concern. “Tell me the exact coordinates of the galaxy, planets, and location here. I need to recalibrate it.”

The colonel raised an eyebrow, but still rattled off a string of numbers and names, “We are heading up the river northeast of Adulim City, Sabathius, 3.11889° south latitude, 60.02167° west longitude. Welcome to the Prospero system, sir.”

What?! Where are you referring to?!
(End of this chapter)