Warhammer 40: Gods Of Mortals

Chapter 1173 I Will Take Care of Them

"Pull the battle line to the mountain defense line."

Horus gave his first order.

The so-called mountain defense line refers to the area in the center of the Achaemenid Empire's territory, which is composed of dense and steep mountains.

That area was enough to drive the Pan-Pacific Empire's armored forces to despair. When the infantry reached the imperial capital, their armored forces were still dawdling in the mountain defenses until they were defeated by Dorn's legions.

Behind the mountain defenses established by the Achaemenids thousands of years ago was the capital, which meant that the legion had to give up a large area that had already been recaptured by the Achaemenids.

The Primarchs considered this a strategic necessity.

The Achaemenids were also more rational. Unlike the barbarians who would shit on the dining table, they did not insist on forcing their allies fighting away from home to defend the plains outside the mountain defense line.

So there was no objection to this order.

"Dorn, Angron." Horus pointed to the tactical table and the supply circle around the capital set up by the Achaemenids behind the mountain defense line. "I need you to reorganize your troops here and get ready. After we have crushed the enemy's attack, you will be the main force of the counterattack and launch a counterattack when the various legions on the defense line take a short rest."

Dorn and Angron nodded.

Dorne's legions are tough, brave and good at attacking.

Angron's legions were drawn from dangerous groups, and they were certainly good at attacking.

"What will happen to the civilians after we shrink our defenses?" Guilliman raised his hand and asked, "Those who were rescued from the occupied areas are resting at the front. If we choose to shrink the front, they will not be able to keep up with our retreat speed."

"You, Lorgar, and Ferrus stay there to delay the enemy."

Horus had already thought of the arrangements.

Then he looked back at Perturabo.

"Perturabo, I need you to consolidate the defense line after withdrawing to the mountain defense line and build a large number of fortresses and military facilities."

"Thanks to the assistance of engineering machinery, you don't need too many people to build the project brick by brick. Your people will be responsible for protecting the civilians and retreating to the mountain defense line, and then placing them in various fortresses in the mountain defense line until they have rested and are able to continue retreating."

After hearing Horus's arrangement for him, Perturabo frowned and asked, "Why am I responsible for protecting the civilians' retreat? Are Guilliman and Lorgar the only ones, Ferrus and Dorn and Angron participating in this war? Why can't someone else be assigned to take charge?"

"Whether they are rescued civilians or civilians fleeing the war, they are already gathered in large numbers in the fortresses in the war zone you are responsible for. Of course you have to be responsible," Horus said.

Perturabo had a stern face and looked unhappy, but he didn't know how to refute.

Indeed, civilians gathered in large numbers in the theater of operations under the Fourth Army's responsibility.

On the entire front line, not all legions fought together, but each legion was responsible for one war zone.

Except for Guilliman, Lorgar, and Ferrus, everyone else had to retreat, and it was not easy for them to rush over to help the Fourth Legion.

That was the truth, but Perturabo just didn't agree.

"If you are willing to carry out this command, speak and say that you are willing," said Horus.

Perturabo remained silent and turned away.

His shadow walked outwards and became fainter and fainter.

"You must promise to do so!" Horus shouted.

"Don't talk nonsense!" Perturabo responded sharply. "I will!"

……

When Perturabo's projection disappeared in the rear command center.

The Primarch walked out of a converted Achaemenid fortress and announced what to do next to the legionnaires who had gathered outside.

"We are responsible for protecting the civilians... Father, this must not be your wish." The legion commander saluted Perturabo, then sneered at the civilians who were watching the Fourth Legion. "It took them hundreds of years to build a shabby fortress. It will probably take them the same amount of time to retreat to the rear."

Hearing this, Perturabo did not respond immediately, but walked towards his legion commander. The tall primarch looked down at the dwarf in front of him.

On the metallic helmet, the scarlet observer stared at the face of the legion commander covered by the helmet.

When the Legion Master tried to express that if the Primarch was willing to carry out this order, then the Fourth Legion would definitely not have any objections.

The Primarch's body moved, and then the legion commander was knocked to the ground, with his helmet fixings damaged and rolling to the side.

"I don't know how the weak are treated in your dirty and cold-blooded culture of Albia, and I don't care."

Perturabo looked down coldly at the legion commander lying on the ground.

"If we are destroyed because of these civilians, or if we are too late to execute an order, I will abandon them."

“But on the contrary, I will take care of them.”

After saying this, Perturabo grabbed the legion commander by the hair and pulled him up from the ground, then walked forward.

The warriors of the IVth Legion made way for the Primarch to pass.

"The First Battalion will go ahead and set up supply stations along the way."

"Other large camps supervise civilians."

The Primarch's cold voice reached the ears of every Astartes of the IVth Legion.

"Do as I say."

When the Primarch issued the order in his own name, no one raised any objections.

In the cold silence, the Second Battalion under the Legion took the lead, while the other battalions carried out the Primarch's orders in detail under the orders of their respective officers.

Civilians were forced to abandon any items they were carrying that might affect their physical strength and movement speed.

The Fourth Legion and the civilians traveled four kilometers before hearing the sound of artillery fire far behind them.

The Thirteenth Legion, the Seventeenth Legion, and the Tenth Legion, under the leadership of their respective Primarchs, have already engaged the enemy.

But this war behind him had nothing to do with the Fourth Legion.

After traveling four kilometers, the Astartes of the Fourth Legion had already observed who had better physical strength and walked faster, and who had worse physical strength and walked slower.

The former were organized into more rigid and orderly formations, while the latter were stuffed into the vehicles of the 4th Legion's armored battalion.

The Astartes who had been staying in the armored vehicles now had to come out and walk with the group.

But the experience of riding the vehicle is not really good.

The slower-moving civilians were roughly stuffed by the Astartes into any space in the vehicles that could accommodate them, until no vehicle could accommodate even a child.

The remaining slow-moving people who could not fit into the vehicle were simply tied to the vehicle with iron chains.

The Astartes modified the vehicle in the first four kilometers of the journey, adding steel nails to fix the iron chains and opening an oxygen supply port on the vehicle.

The team will stop when they reach a supply station along the way.

The people inside and outside the vehicle were pulled out and replaced by civilians who were unlikely to walk all the way to the next supply station.

The rest of the people ate some dry food and then continued on their way under the threat.

Horus' decision was not wrong. It was right to let the Fourth Legion be in charge of the civilians.

Although from an individual perspective this journey is only better than being massacred, the result is good. There are all kinds of people, young and old, sick and disabled, but no one is left behind or missing. There are as many people as when they set out as when they reach the end.

(End of this chapter)