"They are as quick as poisonous snakes, as sharp as pine needles, and as tenacious as wild Grox beasts. They are one of the most skilled fighters under the throne, but they are not easy to get along with."————"Astra Militarum Handbook·Commissar"
"Chapter"
Looking at the Catachan who was a slovenly beggar but too strong to be human, Soshyan had a hard time connecting him with an officer of the Astra Militarum.
Soshyan has seen many Astra Militarum troops, and even officers from barbaric worlds will have traces of tameness on their bodies.
But in this man named Stryker, Soshyan could only see the purest barbarism and cruelty, as if everything from the civilized world was rejected by him.
This is the Catachan, and it is also the first Catachan that Soshyan saw.
Catachan is located in the Ultramarine Star Territory. Its surface is covered by dense jungles and swamps. The entire ecosystem of this planet seems to be consciously hostile to all alien creatures. Every native plant on this planet poses a real threat to humans.
Even Space Marines try to avoid this hellish place. Catachan doesn't even have its own planetary defense force, because the deadly plants on the planet are enough to make it impossible for the invaders to come back without the PDF taking action.
However, even though Catachan's ecosystem is so deadly, there are still a considerable number of humans living on this huge world. Due to the harsh ecological environment, the Catachan people are physically and mentally tougher than those elsewhere in the empire.
Unattainable.
Cunning, resourceful, and uncompromising, Catachan people can only survive to adulthood by becoming natural survival experts, so to Terra, Catachan's only valuable resource is the people who live on it.
For the finest men on this dead planet, the suffering of the protracted wars in the Imperium of Man was no greater than the suffering they faced every day, and so they proudly answered the Emperor's call.
Catachan provides the Astra Militarum with a large number of Guardsmen every year, and the skills of these soldiers are honed like sharp knives on their home world.
The factors that make the Catachans so outstanding also make them more proud, aggressive and isolated than other troops. Those individuals who prove their worth in the infantry regiment are awarded the title of jungle fighter, Katachans.
The Chang people also despise conventional life, and only a few traditions are considered sacrosanct, such as the wearing of red headbands and the blood oath that symbolizes each newly formed regiment.
Their rank and status is displayed through specific tattoos, or by earning themselves famous Catachan weapons such as the Demon Claw to display their glory, pragmatism is the creed of these livid warriors
One of their preferred strategies is to lay traps before attacking well-defended positions. Those unlucky ones who are not killed will soon fall to the light guns and promethium flames.
Compared with the maverick soldiers, Catachan officers are more unconventional. They disdain to use their privileges. Staying on the front line and advancing and retreating with the soldiers is a matter of pride among Catachan officers. Many Catachan officers are proud of it.
The commander can be said to have personally saved the lives of half of their company of soldiers.
Rather than simply treating their men as mindless pawns, Catachan officers prefer to use vulgar and joking language to direct battles, which masks the mutual respect of the soldiers, but if you delve deeper into the Catachan community,
, you will realize that the integration of officers and soldiers is no joke - of course, this is limited to the Catachans.
Although it is not certain whether this made the Catachans fight more efficiently, the only thing that is certain is that this leadership style made the situation of outsiders (such as political commissars) who joined the Catachans difficult and dangerous.
.
Therefore, rumors about the difficulty of getting along with a large number of Catachan people naturally spread.
"Colonel Stryker?"
This is the bridge of the Eternal Loyalty, a clean, tidy and sacred place, and standing opposite Soshyan is wearing a tattered jacket and military trousers, with tattoos on his chest and arms, and a dirty bandage wrapped around his head.
A man with stained red strips of cloth and a pair of worn-out boots full of mud and holes.
Hearing this majestic warrior calling his name, Stryker nodded.
"Yes, my lord."
"I heard that your nickname is Death, can you tell me its origin?"
Stryker lowered his head and was silent for a while, then raised his head and replied indifferently:
"Every adult Catachan must perform a hunting ceremony to hunt a prey that can prove themselves. A group of ten of us went to hunt a nest of Catachan demons. In the end, only I survived, and the others
People are dead, prey is dead, and everyone calls me death."
"I see, how long have you been serving?"
"I served in the army when I was eighteen years old. It has been nearly twenty years. I have forgotten the exact length."
Soshyan nodded, took a step forward, walked to Stryker's right side, lowered his head and smiled:
"Colonel Stryker, then you came to see me specially wearing this outfit and these boots, is it because you have forgotten about it, or is it out of soldier's pride."
Stryker's eyes wandered for a few seconds, and finally he pursed his lips slightly and responded:
"Both, my lord."
Soshyan chuckled twice and turned to look at Randall:
"You see, this Colonel Stryker is confident and arrogant, but you can see that he is a brave, tenacious and trustworthy man."
Randall also nodded with a smile.
"Yes, it would be a great pity if anything bad happened to such a person."
Soshyan looked back at Stryker.
"I hope you won't complain that we came too late."
"It's never too late, my lord, it's never too late for revenge."
"I can see that your fighting spirit is high, which is good. This time, I mainly hope to learn from you the specific situation of the Pai Mao Star. We are just here for the first time. To tell you the truth, Chapter Commander Randall and I are even
The first time I set foot in the extreme star field."
As Soshyan waved, a huge three-dimensional image of the planet emerged from the floor.
Stryker took a step forward and began to describe the various strange phenomena before the fall of Attica——
The two chapter leaders listened very carefully and remained silent. They would only occasionally point out questions when they encountered them, and Stryker would patiently answer them.
While they were consulting Stryker, the rest of the soldiers had begun to land on the ground one after another, and with the Resistance Army's stronghold as the center, they built a large number of fortifications as forward bases.
As for the Black Legion, no matter how slow they are, they should have understood that there are imperial forces involved in the war, but they have not taken any concrete actions yet, perhaps because they are frightened by the threat of orbital bombing.
The battle against the Death Star is changing to the second stage——