The attack force of the Sixth Theater of the Imperial Expeditionary Force has occupied this world for more than a month. Commanded by the White Templar Chapter Master Arash, it is a force composed of the Astra Militarum, the Planetary Guard, and fanatical Jihadists.
.
That's right, Soshyan handed over these religious "non-combatants" to the Sixth War Zone, allowing Arash to make full use of their fanaticism.
This also brought the size of the entire offensive force in the Sixth Theater to 300 million. Although sufficient troops allowed Arash to use human sea tactics to quickly flood the world occupied by the heretics, it also caused serious logistical problems. In addition, those of the state religion
The jihadists will burn every stronghold and house they see. Anyone or anything that has anything to do with the Red Pirates will be thrown into the sea of fire. On Lamptan Prime alone, more than 500 million people were burned alive.
, so that the entire planet seemed to have turned into a huge crematorium. Burnt corpses of heretics nailed to crosses could be seen everywhere on the land and roads, almost becoming like street lamps.
As early as the Badab War, Lamptan was an important rear town for the Star Claw rebels. It was not only an important material and manpower supply point for the rebels, but also the warehouse where Star Claw stored the gene seeds harvested in the war.
The Salamanders Chapter's strike force launched a raid from Lamptan and fought with a company of the Minotaur Chapter, quickly occupying the world and regaining the gene-seed obtained by the Starclaw on the battlefield.
To establish a stronghold, launch an offensive deep into the rebel territory.
Because the Salamanders were relatively light, Lamptan Prime was not severely damaged. The local industrial facilities and a small amount of agricultural industries were preserved, including a population of 10 billion, and there were not many casualties. However, as Huron painstakingly managed
One of the territories, the people here obviously loved the monarch of Badab more than the imperial bureaucrats. As soon as the Hurons re-emerged, a large-scale rebellion broke out in Lamptan, and they soon returned to the hands of their former masters.
, and Huron did not make many changes to the planet. He even strictly prohibited his Chaos Space Marines from entering the planet. He simply allowed them to provide materials and manpower. Even the managers were selected by the locals themselves or were loyal to the Star Claw.
family, so that many residents of the Underhive don't even know that their world has rebelled against the Empire.
Until the arrival of the Imperial Army of Justice.
For Arash, burning heretics is not a big problem, but the key point is that the fanatical jihadist army will also burn the things used by heretics and even their residences. This makes the expeditionary force almost only a piece of scorched earth, which is difficult to obtain.
What kind of effective extra supplies, these people even destroyed the factory. Although Arash had repeatedly issued orders not to destroy facilities, this had no effect on religious people.
Because the expeditionary force wasted too much time on Lamptan Prime, the Red Pirates' defenses in other areas of the Lamptan system were also strengthened. The Imperial Navy failed to win a fierce battle for a while, and the two sides were temporarily in a stalemate. What Arash needs now is not
military strength, but logistics and naval power.
During the pause, the attacking troops also took a temporary rest on the planet that was almost reduced to scorched earth.
Among them, naturally included Hayes and his comrades.
They were lucky enough to avoid the fiercest battle. They simply attacked a small stronghold and killed about a hundred heretics, who might just be farmers, because that place was called a stronghold, but in fact it was more like a farm.
And those heretics seemed to be just farmers who took up guns to protect their property and farmland. As for the old people, women and children inside, although they did not fight, they were still treated as prisoners and handed over to the above. As for this group of people in the end
Hayes couldn't figure out what his fate was. He probably just did some hard work.
In fact, this was the first time that Hayes realized that the so-called "heretics" seemed to live the same life as humans in other worlds, and they also needed to eat and sleep.
But no matter what, they at least captured a good place, which was much better than a nest filled with the smell of corpses and fanatic believers, and they also seized a large amount of food hidden in the cellar.
Unfortunately, they had been eating corpse starch for four months and were not able to enjoy those fresh fruits and vegetables, because the supplies here were soon requisitioned by their group leader to hold a banquet to invite his friends.
The banquet was held in the manor owner's mansion.
Hayes was lucky enough to be called to the scene, because his regimental commander wanted the officers from other regiments to see their regiment's "little lucky star". Of course, everyone was amazed at his thirteen hairs, and then he was
He was sent to guard the door of the restaurant.
"Come on, let's have a drink!"
Listening to the noise coming from the door next to him, Hayes puffed out his chest and stood as straight as a javelin, but this was just to hide his hungry and shriveled stomach.
Due to logistical difficulties, the rations of their ordinary soldiers have been reduced by one-third. Now it is difficult to even eat corpse starch. Everyone has begun to capture wild animals. Unfortunately, there are not many wild animals to eat on this planet.
There are some plants that are difficult to swallow, so some people have invented a way to eat them by mashing the plants to remove the crude fiber, then mixing them with corpse starch and baking them into cakes, which are euphemistically called loyalty cakes.
But Hayes had been here for a long time today without even eating a bite of the loyalty cake. It was his strong willpower that held him up until he didn't faint.
However, there are still things trying to defeat him.
Accompanied by hurried footsteps, the cooks and waiters wearing white bibs walked up the stairs carrying huge dinner plates, and then passed in front of Hayes one by one. The huge meat chunks full of soup on the dinner plates were grilled.
Crispy-skinned poultry, brightly colored soups, verdant vegetables and exquisite baked desserts, everything smells like a bolter in the hands of an Astartes, aimed at Hayes' fragile nerves
shooting.
"I'm not hungry! I'm not hungry! I'm not hungry!"
Hayes kept hypnotizing himself like this in his mind, but his growling belly was still a little loose even if he tightened the belt as tight as possible.
Taking advantage of the opportunity when the last waiter walked in with a dinner plate, Hayes glanced through the crack in the door.
I saw many people in officer uniforms sitting at a large table covered with white tablecloth, eating and drinking with their mouths full of oil.
When he saw a man roughly pulling off a leg from a roasted, golden and crispy bird, the splash of juice seemed to splash on Hayes' tongue instantly, causing him to salivate crazily.
"It's not easy for everyone to be together alive. For all the good luck, come and have a drink!"
Their leader, Arni Morales, wiped his mouth, smiled and picked up the goblet, which was filled with light red wine. Seeing this, the others also raised their glasses.
These people are all young aristocratic children from Sagan. Although their friendship in the past was mediocre, after joining the army, they became closer because of geography and hometown. This time Arni held a hometown gathering, and they immediately left their respective residences.