The Emperor’s Angel of Death

With the loss of their homes and all their fixed assets, many refugees were breaking their heads to get a militia position. The two militia regiments that had previously cooperated with Hayes' company were actually retained and even expanded. The two temporary regimental commanders seemed to have been officially promoted, but the militia regiments had no military ranks, so they were still not considered formal soldiers of the Empire. To supplement combat power, these militias also had no independent chain of command and were all assigned to Vashti's various divisions as logistical support and temporary line fillers.

Thus, such a bizarre scene appeared: Hayes, although a company commander, actually commanded more than six thousand people—because most of the officers in the regiment felt that the militiamen were difficult to communicate with and useless, even mocking them as beggars and vagrants who had lost their land. Only Hayes got along better with the militiamen, so the regimental commander simply threw the militiamen to him to command.

"Donnit!"

Hearing Hayes' call, a young warrior immediately ran over and saluted.

"Sir!"

"Take a few people to drive the Taurus to send twenty boxes of ammunition and two boxes of first aid supplies to the First Regiment."

"Yes!"

"Wait! Bring three more boxes of grenades and five sets of rocket launchers."

"But... Sir, we don't have many grenades and rocket launchers either."

"Their firepower is weak, and without these, the casualties will be too great. We have other things. Okay, don't waste time, go quickly!"

"Yes!"

When Hayes came out of the room and walked onto the balcony, a heavy bolter, removed from a scrapped Chimera, opened fire on the roof above Hayes, blasting several Warrior bugs to pieces.

As the weapon roared, Hayes' eardrums were almost torn apart, and he quickly put on his noise-canceling earmuffs.

After picking up the binoculars, he looked to the west of the position, where there were also many enemies, but the commander of the defending Second Regiment was a smart man. He found a lot of combustibles in advance, cleared the firing zone, and greeted the Tyranids with a wall of fire.

The ignited Ripper swarmed, screaming as they ran through the flames. When they rushed out, they were met with bullets.

"Warriors, hold on a little longer!"

Hayes' voice was transmitted through the loudspeaker, even drowning out the roar of the heavy bolter.

One group, two groups, a large pile of Tyranids were still rushing forward regardless of casualties. They subsequently released their own ranged weapons. Flying beetles pierced through body armor and clothing, drilled into human bodies, and pulled out blood.

Boom—

Suddenly, Hayes heard continuous explosions. He picked up the binoculars, but his vision was blocked by the building. He could only guess that the Tyranid creatures had broken through the outer defenses of the large shopping mall, forcing the defenders to detonate the minefield.

Hayes then tuned into the signals from the video recorders scattered throughout the defense line. A blurred defensive image was displayed on the data slate.

The situation was not optimistic. The defense line of one regiment had already been breached.

"Company Commander! There's a situation!"

When Little Fitton's voice howled in the communicator, Hayes knew that big trouble was coming again. The last time Little Fitton howled like this was when a huge Hierophant bio-titan appeared, but fortunately it was solved by the Titans. That was also the first time Hayes had seen such a terrifying God Machine. Little Fitton, needless to say, kept asking who could pilot the Titans.

Hayes quickly looked at the location marked by Little Fitton. The defense line piled up with various construction wastes by the First Regiment had been crushed by a pair of huge clawed feet. A terrifying beast stood on the open space it had created for itself, supported by two huge hind legs. The four arms combined various weapons such as bone blades, whips, and acid cannons. The six plumes of smoke rising from its back were extremely conspicuous even in the light of the flares.

Not long after it appeared, four more beasts appeared with heavy steps. They had the thickest armor, and their huge pincers were full of violent intent.

"Damn it, why are they targeting us!"

Hayes immediately called through the remote communicator.

"Regimental HQ! This is Third Company! Hive Tyrant and Tyrant Guard have appeared! Immediate reinforcements are needed! Heavy equipment reinforcements are urgently needed!"

A few seconds later, a disturbed voice came, it was their regimental commander.

"Hayes, we are about to retreat. Withdraw your people from the front line and leave some support weapons to those militiamen to hold them off for a while."

Hearing these words, Hayes' heart suddenly turned cold. Although he knew that most people in the regiment didn't like the militiamen very much, it shouldn't be to the point of abandoning them on the battlefield.

"Sir! But... they have fought alongside us after all."

"The defense line is tight everywhere now, and the regiment has no power to reinforce. There are fifteen minutes left until the evacuation time. Do what you think is best."

Hayes didn't listen to the rest, but immediately left the command post and called people to go to the breached area.

When he arrived there, broken corpses were piled around the fortifications like terrible sandbags. Hayes strode over them, even occasionally hearing the sound of bones cracking under his feet. A terrible sense of tremor then surged into his heart.

Although he had experienced many life-and-death situations, it still made him very sad to see those energetic young people lying on the ground in a mess like weeds rolled over by a harvester.

"Officer Hayes! Officer Hayes, you're here!"

A hoarse voice came. Hayes turned his head and saw Palru of the First Regiment. This regimental commander could be said to be covered in blood. His head was wrapped in bandages, and his left eye was covered. His right arm was hung on his chest with blood-stained gauze. The left leg below the knee was gone, but it was only temporarily bandaged, and blood was still dripping. Only his youngest son could help him walk over.

"Regimental Commander Palru! You—"

Seeing Hayes, the militia regimental commander burst into tears.

"It's too miserable. We have tried our best, but we can't stop them, Officer Hayes! Just a few Carnifexes, we organized nine waves of suicide squads, a full fifty young men, tied with explosives and rushed up, and almost couldn't resist... Our machine gun bullets are all gone, and many young men can only use bayonets, shovels, and even kitchen knives to fight the damned Tyranids! Kaknus (his eldest son) was torn to pieces by a Warrior bug, and in the end I only found one of his right legs—"

As he spoke, his blood-stained hand tightly grasped Hayes' hand.

"Officer Hayes, I only ask you for one thing, please have pity on this old man who has lost his homeland, take Alar away, I only have this one son left, my wife, my daughter need someone to take care of them!"

Hayes also grabbed the other party's hand tightly with both hands.

"Regimental Commander Palru, their sacrifices will be remembered. It's okay, it's okay, we're about to evacuate."

Then he looked at Palru's youngest son.

"Alar, take your father to my car and go to the company to find Medic Fitton, quickly, go now, leave it to me here."

As he spoke, he took out a tube of emergency medicine mixed with painkiller and hemostatic agent from his first aid kit, gave Palru an injection, and then patted him on the shoulder.

"Don't worry, I will take them away."