RNP Page 68
Page 68
During the three Terran campaigns, Horus issued command orders to hundreds of ships through Lynch. These orders were perfectly coordinated, achieving an effect far exceeding the sum of its parts.
More importantly, every order Horus gave was carried out by his ships, regardless of their capabilities, except for a minor mishap that occurred with the Weeping Ones.
Lynch didn't think that the little mishap was Horus's command error, but rather that the Weeping Ones' bad luck had come into play. Otherwise, they, who were originally assigned to attack the enemy from the flank, should never have become the target of an enemy squad's ambush.
Fortunately, for the fully armed Weepers, who now have ample equipment and supplies, these Whisperers squads will not cause any trouble on the ship and will be completely wiped out.
Lynch took a deep breath. At this moment, he truly had a new understanding of the Primarch and understood why Horus was chosen by everyone as the Warmaster.
Such formidable battlefield command capabilities are beyond human capabilities. It's not just about overall strategic direction; it's about utilizing a mindset far beyond human capabilities, even bordering on godlike, and perfectly making the most of every resource, pushing tactical micro-management to its limits.
Horus, the master of micro-management.
Lynch's assessment was not intended to be derogatory in any way.
"Ryan, how are our landing forces doing?"
"We have already engaged in combat with the enemy on the surface of α13... Sir, I now really think you are being a bit too cautious."
The priest stood beside Lynch and gave him a strange report on the battle.
"According to the information from Company Commander Leo and Company Commander Gus, if the ground forces are just the traitors Astartes, then their numbers are only about one hundred, and they have basically been dealt with."
"Hmm, isn't that similar to our intelligence? Is there a problem?"
"...I simply think you're being a bit too cautious."
Ryan spoke in this way, his tone filled with a somewhat inexplicable emotion.
"With the reinforcements, our entire battle group has basically arrived here, but judging from the current situation, there will be no more fighting after they arrive."
Lynch understood Ryan's meaning at this point; it wasn't that Ryan felt he was being overly cautious, but rather...
I was worried that the people behind me would make a wasted trip.
Thinking of this, Lin Qi sighed slightly, a helpless expression appearing on his face. He looked at the projected void sand table and, following Horus's instructions, silently adjusted the position of one of the escort ships fifty kilometers to the left before ordering the enemy's light spears to fire.
An enemy frigate successfully overloaded its void shield under the effect of the light spear, and was then focused by the macro cannon, turning into a dazzling, silent flame in the void.
After completing this micro-operation, he turned his head to look at Ryan, his expression becoming serious.
“Don’t worry, Ryan,” Lynch said. “You know, there’s a shortage of everything in this galaxy, but there’s one thing we’ll never lack.”
Ryan looked at Lynch and immediately understood what he meant, and also knew what that "thing" really was.
"war."
This time, it wasn't just Lynch who spoke; Horus, who was beside him, also spoke up, softly uttering the word.
"In this galaxy, there is only eternal war, which will never be absent from the table of every race."
Chapter 88 The Battle of Alpha (Part 3) [The Era of the Primarchs Has Ended!!!]
Alcino Carras never imagined he would face such a situation one day.
At this moment, he stood on the bridge of his warship's mothership, his face grim as he looked out the porthole at the boundless void.
He watched as the cannonballs traced their trails in the void before exploding abruptly before his eyes, creating ripples on the invisible shield, and his expression grew increasingly grim.
At his feet knelt a trembling man in a red robe, his body twisted flesh and indescribable steel structures—a member of the Dark Mechanicus and the employer for Alchino's warband's recent mission.
However, just now, this employer was severely beaten by his own employee. He almost had his soul extracted and fed to the ship's mechanical spirit as a final meal before his death.
"You'd better give me an explanation later."
Alcino gritted his teeth and uttered those words. The red-robed man's body trembled violently, and then he began to frantically kowtow to this former angel of death, now a lackey of chaos.
"My lord! I don't know! I don't know why the Star Claws and the Wailers' traitorous lackeys are here! I really didn't give you false information at the beginning, my lord!"
"Shut up! Take him away! These rotting corpses, born from hooks, never utter a word of truth!"
Two crew members approached; one had three arms, and the other had four eyes and eight legs. They reached out, one grabbing a corner of the red-robed man's body, and then dragged him away from the bridge as if he were a corpse.
Alchino took a deep breath, and his mind gradually calmed down. He knew that if he didn't do something now, he would surely die. So he looked at a psionicist beside him and tried to make his voice sound calm.
Have you made contact with the ground?
"Not yet, my lord."
The psionicist answered, his head, missing the upper half of his skull, exposing his cerebrum, the surface of which had a texture that gave the impression of a smile.
damn it.
Alcino knew that the troops on the ground led by Rick and Saka were likely doomed. He had personally witnessed the airdrop pods and Thunderhawks that the supporting fleet had deployed. Their sheer number was far beyond what a hundred Astartes and several thousand mortal auxiliary troops and cultists could contend with.
Boom!
The ship suddenly shook violently, and an ominous crimson light began to flash rapidly inside the bridge.
This is a warning from the Machine Soul: the Void Shield is about to collapse under the strain and could break down completely at any moment due to the enemy's next attack.
At that point, the warships would become sitting ducks for the enemy, and after a concentrated barrage of fire, they would be completely obliterated in the cold void.
Alchino felt agitated again. As a veteran of the Word Bearers for millennia, he had led his men to carve out a place for themselves in the Chaos forces, so his command ability was naturally not bad.
He had clashed with many famous figures and strategists in the empire before, but at most he had only suffered slight setbacks. He had never imagined that he would be suppressed like this today, as if...
No, there have been.
A thought suddenly flashed through the Mindkeeper's mind, and this thought took him back ten thousand years to the Great Rebellion, when he was still under the command of his Primarch and faced an opponent.
That was another Primarch, the Gale in the Shadows, a being who, in this day and age, could no longer be called a "human," but rather a "monster."
but........
How can it be?
Alchino chuckled for a moment at his own inner thought, knowing full well that it was impossible, after all...
The era of the Primarchs has ended.
Opposite them might be a brilliant tactical commander, a little-known naval tactical mastermind in the Empire, one of Rufus Huron's hidden subordinates, an Astartes as a surprise force.
But no matter what, he is definitely not a Primarch.
Looking at the battlefield projection in front of him, Alchino suddenly noticed a gap in the enemy's encirclement to the southeast.
This gave him a pleasant surprise. After confirming with his men several times, he immediately led his ships and a few escort vessels straight into the gap.
See? How could the Primarch make such a mistake, leaving an opening for the enemy?
As Alchino thought this, he was completely unaware that two Firestorm-class frigates, armed with light lances, had silently appeared in the blind spot behind his ship.
------
gap?
Lin Qi watched the Word Bearer warship rushing towards the "gap" and couldn't help but find it somewhat amusing.
He thought of the Gastrin Terminators who faced the "gap" during the Siege of Terra, and considering the current situation, he found it even more ridiculous.
However, compared to ten thousand years ago, the current commander of the Word Bearers appears rather pitiful.
After all, the opponent had no idea that the one he was tactically fighting against was a Primarch; otherwise, based on his previous performance, he would never have dared to charge into that gap.
However, information asymmetry is often a key factor in winning a battle.
“It’s over,” Horus said. “But what follows is far from over.”
"Yes, there's more to it than that."
Lynch responded to Horus with a sigh, knowing exactly what the other was referring to.
This group of three hundred Word Bearers was nothing special, and Lynch and Horus did not go to gather a large force to deal with them.
Their true objective was to guard against the Word Bearer demon world located deep within the Great Vortex, and to prevent the traitors from sending out their forces once they realized something was amiss.
A demonic world... who knows how many Word Bearers reside within it.
As one of the most well-organized traitor legions after the Great Rebellion, the Word Bearers possess an internal structure with a rigor rarely seen in the Chaos Realm.
A rigorous structure means it has strong cohesion and can easily gather a large number of people.
This is the kind of thing that Lynch and Horus are both worried about.
The Firestorm-class frigate fired its light spears, and two dazzling beams of light flashed in the boundless void. Then, accompanied by a violent explosion, the Void Shield of the Word Bearer, which had desecrated the ship, was completely overloaded.
Lin Qi turned around, no longer looking at the situation on the battlefield. In other words, in any naval battle, once one side's Void Shield is overloaded first, the outcome of the subsequent battle is already obvious.
"Ryan, what's the situation on the ground?"
"There were two traitors who escaped with one alien prisoner and we don't know where they are. The remaining traitors were completely wiped out by us, and we also took over several of their alien prisoners."
"What alien captives?"
Lin Qi asked the question, but the next moment he realized that it was a bit redundant.
Since they are prisoners, they are most likely not orcs, but rather dark elves with pointed ears.
"The Eldar, according to the classification of those aliens themselves, should still be the type called the Dark Eldar."
"Have you made contact with the survivors of the α13 mining station? That's the key to our operation. What did Father Tal and Sage Salo say?"
"They have reached the surface, but for some reason, Sage Salo's calls have not been answered. Leo and the others are now considering whether to go directly into the underground fortress. Sage Salo thinks it is very likely due to some misunderstanding... Sage Evelyn probably thinks that our leader is still Huron, so she has been hesitant to respond."
It's Huron again.
Lynch felt a headache coming on. He took a deep breath and, ignoring his fatigue from just commanding a naval battle with Horus, strode toward the hangar.
"Prepare the Thunderhawks, I need to go to the surface of α13."
Chapter 89 The Battle of Alpha (Part 4) [I'm not exactly an ambitious person...]
Gravity surged, impacting the walls. The steel trembled, and the internal air pressure rose rapidly in an instant. But all of this lasted only seven seconds. Seven seconds later, the Thunder Eagle broke through the atmosphere and landed smoothly on the surface of the planet where the α13 mining station was located.
The hatch opened, and scorching heat rushed into the cabin from the outside. Ryan looked down with some concern at Lynch, who seemed calm and unaffected by the high temperature, before finally letting out a slight sigh of relief.
Lynch stepped into the yellow sand. His psionic energy was circulating, helping him maintain his body temperature, allowing this mortal body to move freely across this almost burning land even without proper protection.
Outside of Thunderhawk, the first wave of landing troops had already formed a welcoming formation. Leading them were two company commanders, both bearing the marks of battle. Right at Guts' feet lay an orc head, which, judging from the marks, had undoubtedly been violently torn off.
"Has the enemy been eliminated?"
Without any pleasantries, Lynch went straight to the point. Leo and Gus nodded in agreement.