Warhammer: Start with a dog.

Chapter 531 Mystery
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The Clough theatre of operations was known for Fort Clough, which served as its central headquarters.

Although it is called a fortress, in fact, the entire Cadia, as the planet that blocks the only stable route to the Eye of Terror, has long been built into a fortress world. In other words, here, the word "fortress (Kasr)" can actually be equivalent to "city", "hive", "arsenal", "barracks" and "cemetery" in other places, and there is nothing else.

Cadia once had urban planning that was as broad, beautiful and suitable for living as the original human colonial cities, but when they suffered the first Chaos invasion, these ordinary residential urban planning proved to be very unsuitable for delaying time, hiding, blocking and street fighting at the gate of the Eye of Terror, and they were easily destroyed.

Since then, all urban planning here has been reconsidered according to the design ideas of "delaying time", "hiding as much as possible" and "annihilating the enemy". The roads have become complex and tortuous, and the buildings have been cleverly planned in height and angle. This allows the residents and defenders here to rely on their tenacity and the specially built fortifications to hold on for much longer than the enemy expected - this is why Abaddon agreed to orbital bombardment. These fortresses, especially the Krave Fortress, have not only been repeatedly repaired and reinforced over thousands of years, but also have inner and outer moats and inner and outer walls. The walls are also thick and solid, and are equipped with a large number of fortifications and artillery defenses that exceed the scale of ordinary planetary cities. The implementation of any "normal" siege combat strategy will result in a large number of casualties in the siege.

This meant that after a traditional siege, the process of sending ground troops into the city to destroy the shield would inevitably result in the loss of so many troops that even the Sons of Horus would have to consider it carefully.

The Clough Fortress itself covers a large area and is also solid and cleverly designed. As the location of the last command post on Cadia, it is designed to confuse general artillery fire. Obviously, there must be some local, despicable and shameful traitors among them, or the Warmaster's intelligence personnel have quietly sneaked in and figured out their latest movements. The worst possibility is that both are true.

Otherwise, the traitor army would not have wiped out the highest level of Cadia's command at the parade on the Telok Plains, and now would not have so accurately tried to use the fortress railgun fire on the Krave Fortress first.

And now, with the protection of the Void Matrix above their heads, the rebels landed, reunited, arrived outside the city, and began to follow the guidance of the artillery observers in the city to try to wipe out the current supreme commander of Cadia again.

A part of Sergeant Garlan Kyle's mind was thinking so calmly and almost terrifyingly, maintaining his sanity, while many other parts of his mind were running, screaming, heating up, and swelling. Beads of sweat as big as beans seeped out of the hair on his steaming head, dripping along his tightly wrinkled forehead and tightly clenched jaw, and sprinkling on the dusty ruins of the command office.

The nails on his fingers were peeling and his fingertips were worn out from digging at the concrete and steel bars, but the flag officer was unaware. His eyes were red and bloodshot as he dug frantically until he saw the corner of a familiar military coat, covered in mud, appear in his field of vision.

Kyle felt his heart suddenly rise to his throat, burning and choking, while his brain fell into his stomach, feeling as cold as if it had been soaked in ice water.

He tensed his muscles again but carefully dug up more broken soil and rocks. At this time, other soldiers who came from a distance also began to help him dig.

"doctor!"

Creed's flag bearer roared from the ruins.

"Doctor! We need a doctor here! Now!"

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Nearly a hundred kilometers away, the Iron Warriors Potion Master looked thoughtfully in the direction of Kraff Fortress.

"what happened?"

In front of him, the Iron Warrior Undivided Chaos Lord Chrom Gate, wearing a gun steel helmet, asked.

"Nothing." The Master Potion Master's polite fake smile had long since disappeared, and now he put on a cold face that he was not used to but had worn for many years, and turned his eyes to the war blacksmith who suddenly appeared here. "I remember that the mission assigned to you by the Warmaster was in the north of the Clough Fortress. Why did you run to the south?"

"Oh. Yes, yes, we were originally assigned to the Elysian Monolith. But things didn't go so well," the Warsmith replied, and Honsou felt his colleague looking him and Mercurys up and down with a look of extreme suspicion and dislike. Finally, he said, "There we found two full companies of Dark Angels and Space Wolves waiting to attack us from both sides."

"...Although the alliance of the Dark Angels and Space Wolves sounds so magical that people don't want to touch them, this is no excuse for the Iron Warriors to retreat in front of them. Even if they form an alliance, choosing to retreat directly is totally not our style." Boss Hong Suo pointed out bluntly, "And there are more than 500 heavy vehicles and war engines behind you. They look so clean, with almost no new signs of fighting. Don't you just run away when you see them... Wait a minute."

Although he had not experienced the days when the Legion needed to build fortifications and cities to defend the conquered worlds, as a person who had survived for centuries among a group of thousand-year-old veteran Iron Warriors and was able to make a name for himself, Hong Suo had seen pigs run even though he had never eaten pork.

"Why do your vehicles have so many less guns and so many more giant drills, chainsaws, and engineering servo arms? Are you crazy enough to give up your precious old main guns or secondary weapon mounts just to install these? No wonder you run away when you see them!"

Gate was still very calm, and seemed not to realize that Hong Suo was hinting at him to desert the battlefield. He glanced at Hong Suo from behind his eyepiece again. The master of medicine could feel the other party trying to find his weakness before launching an attack. "It's not that I'm crazy. Obviously, if it was my own idea, I would not choose to replace these engineering machines for my heavy vehicles when I knew that a war was going to start."

"Abaddon... I mean, did the Warmaster ask your troops to change into these engineering equipment?" Robert Mercury Guilliman had already put down his great axe and leaned on the ground. Around him, the new Iron Warriors held their weapons and formed a beautiful semicircular encirclement, obviously guarding against the sudden attack of the Khorne champion. "I'm curious, what mission did you have to do with this strange change of equipment?"

"Yes," the Warsmith replied, turning his helmet visor toward the red-armored, scripture-covered warrior beside Honsou, but he did not answer his last question, even though that was one of the main ones.

Guilliman could clearly feel the other party's gaze flickering across his forehead, but the Thirteenth Primarch actually felt okay for the time being about Gate and his army - they were like their overlord, still maintaining the paint habit of the Fourth Legion, and although they were partly painted black due to the Black Legion, they did not look bad at all. The Astartes in this unit were the same as Guilliman had felt about Chrom Gate, extremely cold, ruthless, concise and orderly, and Guilliman even saw some subtle tactical formations from the Great Crusade era in their movements with a little nostalgia.

"I thought your powerful champion was, as they say, a product of bioengineering technology that you completely control. It seems that the rumors are not credible after all." Gate said, "I see that he can even interrupt our conversation."

"Oh." Hong Suo shrugged. "Things that are completely controlled can only be dead forever, Gate. A truly powerful and excellent warrior must have subjective initiative to exert his greatest ability."

"That's true." The Warsmith nodded slightly. "But since he is not completely under your control as rumored, can he be trusted?" The red goggles flashed. "I mean, he is not like you and me, wearing armor and having a heart of steel. He is wearing the skin of those unpleasant, lying snakes. Even if he is the Champion of the Blood God, I can't forget this fact."

"Why does it matter whether he can be trusted or not?" the Master Potion Master asked bluntly. "At a time like this, on the front lines of intense fighting, when something could fall on our heads and blow us up at any time, do you have to stand here and be a sitting duck and tell me riddles?" "Makes sense." The Warsmith looked around. "Why, are you two here alone? You've taken down so many Black Templars? You don't even have vehicles? Where are the rest of your warband? Where's the extra support the Warmaster sent you?"

"Hehe, they were airdropped to the rear as requested by the Warmaster. Due to the severe lack of vehicles, it will take some time for them to get here." This time everyone could hear the sarcasm in Mercury's mouth. "But I would advise them not to get here in time, because there is a high probability that as soon as the mysterious protective measures here are destroyed by any ground force, the girl with the mobile interface of the Blackstone Fortress will be happy to blow all of us and this fortress to ashes in the name of Abaddon."

"I must say that his way of speaking is quite consistent with our style, Honso." Gate looked at Mercury with slight surprise again, and seemed to say something to his own command channel. A huge tank slowly drove towards them from the rear of the column and stopped in front of them. It opened the rear hatch, and a ramp formed by the armored door panels appeared in front of them.

"Come up, and we'll talk while we head toward the inner wall?"

Hong Suo looked at Gate suspiciously, and the latter pointed at the hatch. "As you said, we should not stand here as a sitting duck. The Dark Angels' company has certainly not moved, but I'm not sure if the Wolves will follow after they escape from the smoke bomb I threw. Also, I don't want to be reported by the Warmaster's Alpha Intelligence Officer at this time."

The master potion master nodded, but paused and looked at the neatly stacked hill of black ceramic steel.

"These... um... fresh ones... can't fit in one vehicle." Gate pointed to the back, "But don't worry, because of the mission I was assigned, at least my troops have enough vehicles."

Mercury closed his mouth again. He glanced at the vehicle and said with some surprise and nostalgia, "Typhon. I didn't expect that they are still in use today."

Gate's eyepiece took another look at the red-armored champion.

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There are some really funny things in the conversation just now.

The Thirteenth Primarch, who had keenly sensed something, thought to himself.

There is definitely something wrong with this Colom Gate. Ha, it seems that the traitors are not all the same. Let's see what he is trying to say.

Then he grasped the axe by its handle and followed them up the ancient Typhon heavy siege tank.

The Iron Warriors brought by Gate were busy carrying the unconscious body of the Black Templar on the ground and pushing it into the troop carrier behind.

Not long after, this steel torrent slowly started up again and headed towards the southern gate of Fortress Clave.

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A fireball fell on the Clough Plain with a shocking noise.

When the high-temperature flames generated by friction on its exterior had not yet completely extinguished, there was a being that kicked open the white-hot airdrop cabin and jumped out of it, not caring at all about the impact of the scorching flames and other things.

Urkanthos, Abaddon's former fleet master and leader of Abaddon's hounds, was content and eager to allow himself to be dropped in this area first, because there was a target that might not be so important to others, but was quite useful to him: the monastery of those young witches, the brides of the Corpse King, and their temple was located here.

Obviously, it can be seen from this that the Warmaster still favors him very much, otherwise these juicy and delicious blood foods would not be allocated to him first. As long as he kills and offers the blood and skulls of these corpse-witch believers, and finally ends the dedication by defiled their temple with blood, then Urkanthos is sure that he can get rid of this embarrassing situation of unfinished promotion and successfully transform into a true ascendant, a Khorne Demon Prince.

He swore that those damned Zara Feston and Devram Koda must have shown mocking and gloating expressions when they saw him become like this. These two bitches who only knew how to hide behind others and make trouble on the high-altitude track! When he completely completes his promotion, he will definitely make these two guys who haven't been promoted look good!

As for how he would accomplish such an important promotion...

He turned his gaze toward the temple before him, guarded by the nuns.

From the walls and gleaming spires of the Temple of Santa Morica, countless tiny figures in black armor and red robes were rising: the jetpacks behind them glowed with flames, and soon, these flying witches, called Seraphim, would leave the protection of the temple shield and launch an active attack on Urcanthos' landing force.

The Demon Prince candidate licked his teeth, which had half turned into sharp fangs, and felt different fresh blood flowing through every inch of his bones and joints.

He is eager to complete his transformation like a butterfly in a cocoon.

He was about to drink the blood of Khorne.

"Praise the Blood God."

(End of this chapter)