The Emperor’s Angel of Death

Chapter 3192: Steel Teeth and Fangs (Part 1)

As the battle in orbit essentially spelled defeat for the Orks, these cunning green creatures immediately resorted to their time-honored tradition: bugging out!

However, with all the ships gone, the only place left for them to flee was the forge world itself, which the satellites were meant to protect.

Thus, a large number of crude, even primitive, aircraft and drop pods flew directly from the battlefields of the two satellites towards the surface of the forge world. Even Solzhenitsyn was amazed that the Orks had managed to cobble together such a large number of escape devices in such a short time, some of which were simply converted from huge storage tanks, with a thruster attached to make them escape pods.

Of course, a considerable number of Ork contraptions were incinerated upon entering the atmosphere, as makeshift things are always unstable, but quite a few still managed to land successfully. That's just how Orks are; you can never judge them by common sense.

After escaping to the ground, these Orks quickly joined forces with those who had already landed. Faced with the overwhelming offensive of the Eleventh Legion and the Ulan-Ude Allied Forces, they realized they couldn't resist and chose to retreat.

This also reflects another troublesome aspect of the Orks. It's easy to fight them, but if they're determined to run, it's equally difficult to keep them from doing so. There are few in the galaxy who are better at running away. When an Ork starts to run, he will bring all of his limited intelligence into full play. Therefore, for ten thousand years, the Imperium has found it easy to defeat and rout Orks, but very, very difficult to annihilate them. Even now, Armageddon still bears the remnants of the last invasion.

If these Orks were to establish a foothold on the forge world, subsequent handling would be extremely difficult. Moreover, the environment of this forge world is extremely complex, with both vast mining areas and extensive ancient ruins left over from past wars. Once the Orks burrow into them, it would take forever to find them.

Therefore, the current combat mission immediately became to encircle and annihilate the fleeing Orks as quickly as possible. This definitely couldn't be done by the Space Marines alone, because this task required a large force, especially an armored force, since you can't catch up with the Orks' vehicles on foot.

Fortunately, Solzhenitsyn had largely anticipated a similar situation, and not only brought in the Astartes, but also the auxiliary forces of the Naison system, especially 20 tank divisions. These were all veterans who had experienced the Tyranid War and had been fully equipped with Project 520 tanks, or Fearful Lion tanks. Since Solzhenitsyn himself couldn't stand the name Solzhenitsyn tank, he used the name of a large predator that existed thousands of years ago on Naison IV as a "code name."

With the help of the Randall's powerful communication and scanning arrays, Solzhenitsyn quickly established contact with the command structure of the forge world and the troops deployed on the ground, and established a command network covering the Ecclesiarchy Guard and the Astartes, deploying the combat plan at an extremely fast speed. Aiming at the direction of the Orks' escape, the Space Marines would be the main force to block them, the auxiliary armored forces would form a pincer encirclement from two directions, and the Ecclesiarchy Guard would closely follow the Orks' rear, gradually compressing their escape space.

The final battlefield that Solzhenitsyn chose was in a wasteland basin. This used to be a sewage lake, which was bombed during the civil war, evaporating the entire lake and leaving only the barren wasteland next to it, as well as the waste hills dotted among them, which was an unshielded killing ground.

With the plan completed, the operation began immediately—

"Captain Rusper, the entire company is ready."

Inside the dim vehicle compartment, a soldier who looked quite young, with some stubble on his chin, was looking at the screen, which marked the status of ten Fearful Lion tanks, all showing a healthy green.

"Roger, await instructions from the regimental headquarters."

While waiting, he raised the servo-skull observation device installed at the rear of the turret. It was called a servo-skull only out of habit; in fact, it was not skull-shaped, but a small reconnaissance device with a rotor and a miniature anti-gravity device. In fact, they were more accustomed to calling it a dragonfly, an ancient Terra beast.

As the dragonfly rose to a height of 100 meters, the scene on the battlefield appeared on the screen on his left hand. In the gray gravel wasteland, a hunting pack composed of 100 silver-gray Fearful Lion tanks, 45 Chimera armored vehicles of various models, 25 Buffaloes and Taurus, 9 Petrified Lizard self-propelled artillery with enclosed turrets, 9 Wyvern self-propelled mortars, and 9 Hydra anti-aircraft guns was quietly lurking in the occasionally rising wind and sand.

This was the entire strength of the 2nd Regiment of the 17th Armored Division of Pushtiban.

As the most elite unit of the Legion's auxiliary forces, the Pushtiban Tank Division was organized with three tank regiments, one mechanized infantry regiment, one command company, one artillery regiment, one anti-aircraft regiment, one armored destroyer battalion, one siege battalion, one reconnaissance battalion, one Valkyrie squadron, one communications battalion, one engineer battalion, one transport battalion, one maintenance battalion, and various logistics units.

The three tank regiments were the main combat force of the tank division, each equipped with 100 Fearful Lion tanks and 45 armored vehicles, and also had a mechanized infantry battalion, an anti-aircraft company, a self-propelled artillery battalion, and a maintenance support detachment, with a total strength of 2,000.

However, the most elite was the armored destroyer battalion, with 27 super-heavy tanks such as Stormblade, Doomsword, and Doomhammer, as well as 9 tank destroyers, such as the Valdor type.

Muller Rusper was the captain of the 3rd Company of the 2nd Regiment, and had just turned 30 this year.

It was unbelievable to many that he became the captain of a tank company at such a young age, but those who knew him knew that his future was not limited to this.

His father, Haisen Rusper, was the commander of the 9th Armored Division, and his grandfather, Kent Rusper, was even a man who could have his name engraved on the battle group's stone monument of merit, and was one of the earliest tank commanders of the Astral Knights. Before his death, he even received the title of senior servitor of the battle group and the Medal of Glorious Servitude.

It can be said that their family has been tank soldiers for three generations. His grandfather had three sons, and apart from one who died in the Maelstrom, the other two held important positions in the army. Muller also had siblings. He was the second youngest in the family. A few years ago, he married a lady from the Holy Fire Order, who was also from a large upper-class family of Naison IV and served as a medical sister in the Holy Fire Order. In addition to love, this marriage also had considerations of family status and interests, but Muller felt that it was okay. His wife had already given him a son and a daughter, and he was able to focus more on his duties.

His goal in the future was to be a division commander, or even a group army commander.

Then the camera zoomed out. Through the sound sensor, it was even possible to hear the thunder echoing in the wasteland full of toxic gas. It was the Valkyries and various combat aircraft whistling in the sky, wantonly bombing the chattering green tide. Even at such a distance, the impact of the explosion still made Muller feel the cushion under his butt tremble.