Warhammer: Angron Training Manual

Chapter 510: The Tattooed Earl
……

Outside the Gugan galaxy, the fleets of various legions gathered near the forging engine.

Inside the cruisers of each legion, the Space Marines, who had also gathered, were advancing on the path to the drop bay.

A moment later, the Kramo Family warship leapt out of thin air and informed the Primarchs in the Steadfast Resolve of the results of their negotiations with the Hrud.

The Space Marines could only see the warships of the Kramo family through the portholes, and had no idea how they were communicating with their Primarch or what the outcome of the negotiations was.

But they soon found out.

The fleets of each legion entered combat status, and one mixed fleet after another dispersed and rushed in all directions, eventually entering the subspace at different Mandeville points.

After transporting the Primarchs except Angron back to their respective flagships, the Steadfast Resolve led the main fleet into the Gugan System.

The legions were still mixed as in the Battle of Ullanor, including the army, which would become the tradition of the expeditionary fleet led by Angron.

After the warp voyage, red lights flashed on the corridor inside the ship leading to where the drop pod was located.

In the White Knight battleship of the World Eaters Legion, it was not only the World Eaters who were rushing to the drop bay, but also the Space Marines of other legions.

Because the psychic power of the Lord of the White Knight is enough to allow the warship to break through the blockade of the Hrud fleet and directly launch an airborne attack on the planet Gugan, which is protected by an energy barrier, all the elite troops deployed by various legions in the Gugan war zone are assembled on the White Knight.

Orenst, the "Axe Champion" of the World Eaters Champions, stepped into the drop pod.

After the bracket suddenly dropped and fixed the back of the Terminator Tactical Dreadnought, a tactical briefing appeared in Orenst's field of vision.

Next to the rotating double-headed eagle logo, a message gradually popped up, showing that the Tomahawk Champion was temporarily arranged as the captain of the vanguard combat company of the first airborne landing force. He would lead the elite of the elite of other legions to directly assault the energy barrier device of the Hrud people.

"For Angron!" Orenst roared, pounding his chest after reading the briefing.

The World Eaters in the airdrop pod also roared.

The sound of a huge airdrop pod falling was heard, and the World Eaters around Orenst fell towards the planet Gugan.

The previous tactical briefing also briefly described the situation on Gugan: although the Hrud worldship that had previously separated from Gugan had left, other Hrud alien tribes later believed that Gugan was a strategic location, so they reoccupied this place during the human withdrawal from the Gugan system and made defensive deployments.

Orenst couldn't make sense of all this confusing information.

The Tomahawk Champion only knows two things.

First, for Angron.

Second, it was still for Angron.

The Champions approached the planet Gugan in an airdrop capsule. Before that, the White Knight had been driven by Qin Xia to make a short-distance subspace jump, directly bypassing the ongoing void war between the two sides and arriving above Gugan.

The drop pod penetrated the Hrud defense barrier.

It is a defensive technology that can quickly increase the entropy of all attacks to the point of being ineffective. Doing so before would be tantamount to suicide, because the Space Marines would be reduced to ashes along with the drop pods.

But now the anti-entropy increase device integrated inside the airdrop capsule has taken effect, and the Hrud people's defense is useless.

The torpedoes equipped with anti-entropy increase devices approached the surface earlier than the airdrop pods. The first torpedoes that arrived at the surface bombed all the defense facilities on the ground, and the last torpedoes that arrived at the surface were inserted into the ground. They released energy, formed resonance, and finally offset the effect of entropy increase within hundreds of kilometers.

The technological achievements of the Quadrant can even be used in reverse to utilize the entropy-increasing force field of the Hrud people to achieve anti-entropy.

When the surface combat environment approached what Orenst considered perfect, the airdrop capsule landed with a bang.

The Iron Warriors tied to the corner of the drop pod screamed as they transformed from old men or children back into normal Space Marines. After they stopped screaming, they were sent back to the White Knight by the drop pod.

"For Angron!" Orenst kicked open the airdrop pod and rushed into the crowd of Hrud warriors, swinging his battle axe and slashing wildly.

Behind the Battle Axe Champion followed his own team, which was wearing Iron Cavalry-type Terminator tactical dreadnought armor and all holding long-handled chain saw axes. These people were all World Eaters warriors like Orenst.

Having lost the advantage provided by the entropy field, the Hrud could only rely on their flintlocks when facing the Space Marines.

The drop pod landed right in the center of the Hrud garrison, and before they could organize an effective resistance they were shot or hacked to death by the Space Marines.

After Orenst killed every alien he saw, he looked around.

Thousands of Iron Warriors came, led by Felix, the Warsmith of the First Company.

The Iron Warriors and World Eaters were the main force of this assault, with a total of two thousand people, and the rest were Space Marines from other legions who were kept in a mixed state when they came down in the airdrop pods.

The most important of these are the Salamanders, who are responsible for suppressing the Hrud with firepower in tunnel battles. They are armed with flamethrowers invented by Vulkan. This flamethrower is different from the common promethium-fueled flamethrower. It is more deadly and has a longer range. It can melt Space Marines wearing ceramsite armor in flames.

The assault troops that came down in the airdrop capsules gradually gathered together, and then rushed to the tunnel entrance together. The energy barrier device they were responsible for dealing with was located underground like most of the Hrud.

Orenst habitually entered the most dangerous place ahead of everyone else, and advanced along the Hrud tunnel. He encountered the enemy after only a few steps.

The Tomahawk Champion was irritable and belligerent, but not stupid. After he naturally made way, the Salamanders came from behind, holding flamethrowers and firing at the front in turns.

An entire corridor about two hundred meters long was quickly cleared, and the corpses of the Hrud aliens melted in the flames before being melted by the neurotoxins they secreted.

The Space Marines continued to move forward, and when they came to a fork in the road, they naturally split into several groups according to the number of forks in the road and continued to move forward.

At this time, the anti-entropy devices in the surface torpedoes can no longer work in the underground structure, but some of the Salamanders wearing special Terminator armor can carry the devices and continue to protect friendly forces from the effects of entropy increase. The armor built by Vulcan has armed his offspring into a "small dreadnought mecha" whose head can be attached to the top of the tunnel, which is more than enough to carry a device.

After fighting and advancing like this for a while, Orenst was about to move forward when he was stopped by a Night Lord.

"In this kind of crushing battle in narrow terrain, why is it necessary for us, the Midnight Lords, to join the team?"

Orenst looked at the other party.

As the Night Lord spoke on the public communication channel, Orenst saw his portrait in the lower right corner of his field of vision.

"An idiot with a tattoo on his face." Orenst judged the appearance of the Night Lord in his mind.

"Zando, the Primarch's order is for us to follow the Warmaster's arrangements." The Midnight Lord named Shen stepped forward and said.

Orenst looked at Shen.

He found that the Midnight Lords seemed to be very undisciplined, and Shen, as the core figure of the Midnight Lords Legion besides Sevatar, seemed to have no control over his subordinates.

"If you were in the World Eaters, the flag bearer would have pulled off the tattoo and flesh on your face when you reached out to me just now!" Orenst used his shoulder to push away the Night Lord named Jandor and continued forward.

The battle continued, but this time Orenst had to talk with Shen.

"His name is Jando Skarevok," Shen said. "Don't pay any attention to him. This guy nicknamed the Tattooed Count is just as abnormal as his subordinates."

Orenst did not reply.

As the group went deeper into the underground lair of the Hrud aliens, more and more Space Marines were sent out to clear the forks in the road, until finally even Orenst himself had to participate in the operation of clearing the rooms on both sides of the tunnel.

The Salamander stood in the front, burning the tunnel. Orenst stepped into the rooms on the left and right of the tunnel and immediately saw Jando.

The Tattooed Count stood in front of the Hrud aliens and their human slaves, looking at this group of unarmed guys while reloading his grenade launcher.

Orenst rushed forward and hacked at the alien.

Jando fired at the aliens, but when he and Orenst killed all the aliens, he immediately aimed at the human slaves, pulled the second trigger, and used up all the explosive bullets.

However, there was no smile on Jando's face.

Orenst stood in front of the human slaves and used the defensive force field of his armor to block all the bombs.

"I knew you would do this." Orenst slowly turned around and looked at the Tattooed Count.

"You're actually so smart, you really gave me a surprise!" Zhan Duo said sarcastically, "How come these slaves who have been running dogs for the aliens for so many years are worthy of protection?"

Orenst ignored Jandor and turned to the human slaves. "According to the rules of the World Eaters, I will now invite you to accept the protection of the World Eaters."

Some of the human slaves stood up hesitantly, walked around and went behind Orenst.

The remaining slaves did not seem to be hesitating, or even thinking about whether or not to accept protection, but instead stared at the people in the room.

When two more World Eaters walked in, the slaves suddenly stood up, but before they could pull out something flashing red from their backs and press a button, Orenst cut all the slaves in front of him in half with his battle axe.

"Look," Jando said to his men, "he doesn't really care about the lives of those bastards. He just follows those bullshit rules out of instinct."

“Don’t say that, Master.” The Night Lords Space Marine sneered in response, “I heard that this fellow is quite skilled. Plus, World Eaters are naturally hot-tempered. If he starts a fight with you…”

"I can deal with ten reckless men like this at the same time. Even if I am unarmed, I can strangle him to death with his intestines." Zhan Duo walked out of the room with a laugh.

Orenst still did not refute, because after thinking about it, he had to admit that Jando's judgment of him was not wrong.

I didn't want to save those slaves, nor did I reach out to them out of pity. I just wanted to abide by the rules set by the Primarch. It was that simple.

The slaves who chose to accept the protection of the Battle Axe Champion in silence were led away by two World Eaters.

"I don't even know what this is worth." Jando stopped outside the room and looked at all the Night Lords' battle brothers in front of him. "A bunch of ants whose lives are as insignificant as ants died, so what else can we do about it? To me, the little warmaster's ideas and the rules he made are as worthless and meaningless as this war itself."

This statement was not made on the public comms channel, but rather on the Night Lords internal comms, where no World Eaters could hear it.

"Shut up." Shen scolded.

But it was just a scolding, because Shen didn't know what to do in this situation.

Killing Jando? He was a member of the Legion, a captain, a battle brother.

Doing nothing? That doesn't seem appropriate.

But Zhan Duo didn't care at all and walked past Shen.

The flag-bearing officer of the Champions Group at the side immediately saw Shen's predicament and concluded that the discipline of the Midnight Lords was lax and there were not even any punishment rules applicable to specific situations... or perhaps there were, but because the rules had been ignored, they were equivalent to nothing.

But this is an internal matter of the Night Lords, and unless Curze formally makes a request at the weekly expedition fleet meeting, the World Eaters have no way of interfering in any of their affairs.

(End of this chapter)