The plan of the refugee camp transmitted back by the geostationary satellite station shows that the refugee camp, composed of thousands of crooked buildings, stretches for one mile, with almost no viable roads and no lights. It is best here
The houses are newly built wooden lofts and cabins, and a faint firelight can be seen through the windows.
The problem of war refugees has been around for a long time, and the residents of every warring planet are the most direct victims of the battlefield. The Terran federal government is unwilling to invest resources in hosting refugees on planets where wars are fierce and cities are constantly changing hands.
As for the Kaimorians, their predatory and nomadic colonization method determines that the number of their colonial planets is much smaller than that of the Tyranid Federation. The ones with the largest population are only a few core worlds. Most of the wars took place in
The war started within the borders of the Federation, so that most of the Tyranids on the edge planets became refugees.
The Camorian Federation is martial in nature, and all the people are soldiers. Adult Camorian who have lost their homes will join the army.
Turasis is a mineral-rich planet with relatively scarce high-energy gas resources. Before the war, most of them relied on imports. During the war, the trade routes of the Tyranid Federation were greatly affected, which also affected local residents, especially refugees.
life becomes more difficult.
The Kaimorian warships are far less bulky and armored than those of the Terran Confederacy, but their more maneuverable assault ships and star speeders can use wolf pack tactics to attack caravans and leave before the furious Federation fleet arrives.
With the support of the Caymorian Conglomerate Guild, many of the Caymorian fleet have become professional pirates.
The sharp reduction in imported goods has plunged Turasis into a fuel crisis and a local food crisis, because all gas refineries and mines on the planet must supply the front lines.
This also caused civilian trains, cars and most of the means of transportation to come to a standstill. Seeders, harvesters and agricultural robots were unable to work normally. Famine began to break out in many places in Turasis, which could only achieve self-sufficiency.
Take Pork Pride, the first city Augustus garrisoned after arriving in Turasis, as an example. More than one million residents of Pork Pride died in the first year of the war.
When the war came, the city's grain reserves were forcibly requisitioned. In order to keep urban residents away from the war and ensure their safety, soldiers with guns drove out of their homes federal citizens who abided by the law and paid taxes on time, many of whom had not even had time to bring them with them.
Clothes and blankets.
Officials from the city hall told them that there was a built refugee camp outside the city, but in fact there was just a deserted open space.
The Tarsonis government only issued an order to evacuate civilians, and boasted about its achievements in media such as UNN, but did not build a shelter for those civilians.
The senior government officials and senators who pretended to be deaf were unwilling to pay more money, and people's lives were not worth mentioning in their eyes. They only temporarily remembered that a group of people needed to be evacuated, and after a while, because of "
Too busy" and completely forgot about it.
Neither the federal government nor the founding family of Tarsonis behind them wants to spend even a penny on refugees. Because this money must be invested in weapons manufacturing and other monopoly industries that have flourished due to the war, and are used to plunder
More profits.
The war continued, and Turasis' planetary governor and military headquarters were indifferent to the refugees and turned a deaf ear.
The local Refugee Management Bureau was set up just to silence the media. It only has a dozen civilian staff and cheap security guards hired locally. The federal government will only approve allocations to pay the salaries of these employees. This department actually
It has neither power nor funds at its disposal.
In the increasingly bloated administrative system of the Terran Federation, this has become a means for corrupt officials to defraud funds.
When winter came that year, most of the people who were driven out of Pork Pride either starved to death or froze to death.
"We need some guides."
Augustus took a few steps on the snow-covered land, and the only sound in his ears was the rotation of the servo system and the sound of the wind outside the helmet. The landing point was in an open space outside the refugee camp, with no shelter around it and only some garbage.
and cinders.
"Find them."
The Marines behind him immediately divided into two groups and walked into the refugee camp from his left and right, turning into the gaps between the houses. The searchlights were extremely dazzling in the vast darkness.
Zander and Renault fell into the hands of a group of gangsters and could be killed at any time. Augustus didn't have time to make a broadcast with a loudspeaker and ask who was willing to cooperate with the federal marines.
There was a burst of exclamations and shouts from the house in front, but they soon subsided. A few minutes later, Augustus's demons from heaven returned to them with several men wearing long coats and thick coats.
in front of the commander.
"We are the federal marines who are here to wipe out the gang forces in the area. I am Staff Sergeant Mengsk. As long as any of you can provide intelligence about the gangs, in the name of Christ Jesus, I guarantee that you will be able to return home safely after this.
"Augustus looked at the refugees in front of him.
"As a thank you, my soldiers will give you some emergency rations and clean water."
"I know...I know..." they immediately scrambled to answer.
"Speak first." Augustus looked at one of them.
"There is only one big gang here, and they call themselves the Free Revolutionary Army." A man wearing a shabby coat said.
"It's a very famous name, but that's not important." Augustus interrupted him: "Tell me how many people they have and where their base is."
"There are about two hundred of them, and some of them are wearing a suit of armor just like you." The refugee, whose face was covered with frostbite, seemed to have recalled something, gasping for breath and sucking in the cold air into his lungs.
"The Free Revolutionary Army's stronghold is not here." He said: "They mainly operate at Fenner Crossing, a small town about seven miles away from here."
"Do you know where exactly their stronghold is at Fenner's Crossing?" Although he asked this, Augustus didn't hold out much hope.
However, the information obtained by Augustus is still very useful, that is, this gang is likely to be connected with the Camorians or even the Federation's own army. During this period, the chance of power armor falling into the hands of civilian armed forces is very small.
.
Although Fenner's Crossing is only a small town, its population has exceeded 50,000. This is a town built on rare mineral deposits, and the residents there have been miners who need to dig underground to make a living for three generations.
.
Augustus realized that he had made the right choice by asking Warfield for an extra platoon, and his usual caution helped him.
"I don't know, sir," said the refugee. "That's all I know."
"Who else knows more?" Augustus continued.
"No one knows where the headquarters of the Free Revolutionary Army is. They have many enemies." Another refugee immediately said: "But as long as we catch one of their leaders, everything will be solved."
"All the gang members were residents of Fenner's Crossing, and their boss was Silas Tasker. Tasker liked to go out wearing gold necklaces and gold watches, and often drove around in an open-top Terra hover car.
"
"Hmm..." Augustus nodded. He waited for a while and saw no one spoke again: "I know. Heck!"
Later, at the instruction of Augustus, Corporal Heck, the leader of the second squad, handed each of them an M2 backpack filled with food and water. Augustus was not prepared to give them too much food, as they were surrounded by
Hungry refugees, hunger and greed will turn them into evil spirits.
When Lundstein rushed back with the first squadron, Tychus and Harnak were following him.
"Boss, I finally met you..." Hanak gasped as he ran all the way.
"What did you ask?" Tychus pointed at the refugees running away.
"We might have to go to Fenner's Crossing," Augustus said. "Jim and Zander may not be there, but as long as we uproot this gang."
"Perhaps, I know where they are." Tychus showed a proud expression and picked up his personal terminal. What was displayed on it was a blurry satellite map, with a red line connecting two points crookedly.
"You installed a tracker on the truck." Augustus' eyes lit up: "Tychus, you did a good job. But I don't understand why you did this, unless you knew there were robbers."
"A lot of people are always right. I have been in the army for more than ten years, and I have learned something." Tychus chuckled: "I have noticed that someone is following us furtively.
, and those bastards will never know that there is a satellite positioning tracker the size of a fingernail hidden in the gap in the bed of one of the trucks."
"But I still want to remind you, think of the worst possible scenario in everything. Maybe these two guys are already dead, and we just went to collect their bodies." Tychus said a little sentimentally.
explain.
"Sigh... I will miss Jim. This kid is still young. I didn't expect that he would pass away earlier than an old guy like me."
"That's not necessarily the case." Augustus waved his hand, and his men immediately lined up towards the landing transport ship.
"Jim and Zander must have been targeted when they were buying food in the small town of Howe. They spent too much money at once. And the road the truck drove to the refugee camp was too long, so they didn't want to be caught.
It’s hard for people to pay attention.”
"But it may have saved the lives of both of them... Those gangsters knew that they were very rich, so they had to spend time to torture the bank password, and finally contacted their family members to get money to redeem them," Augustus said.
"Come on, do you want me to give you a gun?"
"What, you expect me to bite off the enemy's butt with my teeth?" Tychus showed a fierce expression.
"I thought you didn't want to go." Augustus chuckled, threw his rifle to Tychus, and took a shotgun from Lundstein.
"Go to hell, they have spent all their money after buying food... I rented these two trucks, God knows how much I have to pay." Tychus's heart was bleeding, this was how he installed tracking
The real reason for losing the weapon - fear of losing it.
"I won't be able to see Kleina, Susan, Mitty and Ann Sophie from Ole Town for at least half a month!"
"..." Augustus was silent.
Carrying the electromagnetic rifle on his back, Tychus said as he followed Augustus to the gangway of the transport ship: "Do you have a cigar?"
"No, you know I never smoke."
"Hold it in."
…
Wayne Ranch, three miles north of Fenner's Crossing.
The pasture was originally used by locals to herd Turasis reindeer - creatures that feed on thorny shrubs in the planet's cold zone, but look more like some kind of four-legged reptile than reindeer.
Nowadays, the place has long been abandoned, but there are more than a dozen brightly lit prefabricated panels and reinforced concrete buildings in an open space surrounded by wooden fences. A dozen gang members armed with electromagnetic rifles are patrolling back and forth between the houses.
Behind one of the four-story concrete buildings, there is a ten-foot-deep circular pit. The bottom and inner walls of the pit are made of concrete. There are two people in the pit, the kidnapped Renault and Zander.
There were four or five gang members standing on the edge watching them.
"It's twenty degrees below zero, kind gentlemen."
Silas Tasker was standing on the edge of the pit, looking at the "guest" he invited with a smile. Different from his usual nouveau riche dress, Tasker was now only wearing a somewhat worn fur coat, greasy.
His hair hung listlessly on his forehead.
Tasker is a very smart man. Almost everyone thinks that the base camp of the Free Revolutionary Army is within Fenner Crossing, but that is just a cover. In fact, he has five different strongholds.
"I only need to pour a bucket of water, and you will freeze an arm or a leg." He said: "You'd better tell me the rest of your bank account and password."
"All our bank account numbers and passwords have been told to you." Renault made a gesture of turning his pants pockets.
"We have no money."
"You're lying!" Tusker suddenly shouted: "How could someone spend all their money to buy food and give it to a bunch of unrelated refugees?"
"This is impossible!"
"Mr. Renault," he emphasized again, "my patience is very limited."
"I don't know what you can expect from a pauper?" Reno said, "I'm so broke that my pants are down."
"If I were the boss, I would definitely be one who couldn't even pay my employees' wages."
"You are eloquent, Mr. Renault, ha...but I will soon shut you up forever." Tasker had to accept the fact that Renault was really a pauper, and he began to become extremely angry.
"I know you two are Marines, but don't think that our Free Revolutionary Army is afraid of you federal lackeys! What about the Marines? The Marines are just a bunch of trash!"
"The world belongs to the workers, the world belongs to Camorion!"