Chapter 350 Patience and Waiting

"Where is that?"

As one of the iconic ways of appearance of Astartes, airborne strikes obviously attracted the attention of other senior officers.

Sister Margarita, whose robe was marked with the bloody rose logo, turned around and asked the representative of the defense army the moment she saw the "iron rain" falling from the sky.

"Area C, visual distance, should be between defense zones 117-119."

Hornthorne scanned it in his mind and saved the equally confused commander of the defense army from the questioning of the battle sister.

"We will go to support immediately!"

The enthusiasm of the sisters for fighting is worthy of their name "bloody rose", but due to various concerns, Hornthorne still stopped her action.

"No need." The captain of the Imperial Fist said so.

Taking the data board from the guard behind him, Hornthorn pointed to the defense zone division diagram of the local defense force and explained to the leader of the battle sisters:

"That is the edge of the fortress group's air defense network, which is out of the direct range of the fortress group's firepower;

Without the rapid response support of heavy artillery, the static defense defense corps can't stop the first wave of attacks by the company-level battle monks..."

"So we can only watch them sacrifice?"

"I'm afraid that's the case. This is a long battle, and we need to concentrate all our strength to block the enemy outside the holy city."

"We can fight back!"

"We can't!" Hornthorn Thorn interrupted Margarita's speech and looked at the angry battle sister seriously:

"Once out of the absolute air defense firepower circle surrounding the Holy City, any troops above the company level will be attacked from orbit!

What do you want me to use to ensure the safety of the ground troops?

What do you want me to use to ensure the concealment of tactical operations?

Use the few remaining fighters of the Luhang troops?

That is our last trump card to deal with the enemy's surprise attack!"

"Battle sisters are not afraid of sacrifice!"

Margarita responded to Hornthorn's roar tit for tat, but the next sentence of the Imperial Fist Captain made her fall into shameful silence.

"What about the inner city? What about the inner city of nearly 100 square kilometers?

Of course I don't doubt your courage, but what about the defense of the inner city?

You have lost the holy relic once, what guarantee do you have that there is no one else lurking in the Holy City now?"

A group of high-ranking officers fell silent, and in the suffocating silence, the logo representing the defense force on the data board was slowly extinguished.

Boom!

The white light of thunder flashed across the sky, illuminating the trenches on the ground for a moment, and then dimmed in an instant.

The sound of muffled thunder broke through the heavy rain, causing the ears of the soldiers in the muddy trenches to ache slightly. Well, if there were any surviving soldiers.

Unfortunately, there were none.

60 kilometers southwest of the outer perimeter of the Holy City, defense number C-107.

The 65th Motorized Infantry Regiment of the Home Defense Army is 1 kilometer wide and 3.5 kilometers deep.

Now, except for the ruins and the bodies of the soldiers who resisted to the end, there are only the curled metal parts of the tanks and logging guns, which are still burning stubbornly in the pouring rain.

Puff...

The blue steel boots are like a cold millstone, crushing the head of a political commissar that is frozen with anger;

Under the dim light, these steel giants covered with snake scales are indifferently using the bolt guns in their hands to execute the scattered survivors on the battlefield.

In a fortification in the center of the position, the communication of the communicator is still rustling. Unfortunately, his master has been killed in the first wave of precise attacks by the enemy and is destined to be unable to respond to these calls...

It has been 30 minutes since the airborne strike. Normally, it would just be a training session for the soldiers after lunch. But for the soldiers of the 65th Motorized Infantry Regiment of the Defense Force, time has been frozen at this moment forever.

"Rustle... Eagle's Nest calling Saw-Scaled Viper... Eagle's Nest calling Saw-Scaled Viper..."

In the communicator of the Astartes team, the communication signal from above the orbit is being received. After the communication array captures the specific location of the ground troops, the noise in the channel is rapidly decreasing.

"This is Saw-Scaled Viper, please speak if you receive it."

Among the Chaos Space Marines on the march, an inconspicuous soldier stopped. The "officer" leading the team in front turned back and signaled, and continued to move forward after getting the former's permission.

"The detection array shows that there is no sign of support from the warthogs in the nest. Give up the hunting plan and lie in wait. Please repeat if you have received it."

"Understood, give up the hunting and lie in wait."

A few Astartes guarded the soldiers in a low voice, and issued the latest tactical instructions on the data terminal installed on the arm armor.

The Astartes who were marching in front began to hide on the spot, and the team members in the rear who were responsible for the tail turned around and moved closer to the airdrop cabin loaded with ammunition and supplies.

In a few minutes, the entire company completed the equipment replacement for the lurking operation with the supplies delivered together.

Before the retaliatory artillery coverage from the direction of the Holy City arrived, it disappeared in the vast rain.

——

Pull back to a few minutes ago.

As Hornthorn questioned the soul of Sister Margaret, in a corner of the distant City of Grace.

Farias, the mechanical priest who had just completed the identity verification, trembled all over and encountered an inexplicable system crash.

"Data abnormality..."

"Data self-check..."

"The main system is normal, and there is suspected interference from external data sources..."

Looking at the green data stream in the artificial pupil, the priest who came from Huangquan No. 8 Forging World stopped downloading the access rights to the inner city database and fell into a strange silence.

This body has been in its hands for hundreds of years, and it has been more than ten years since it was recently activated.

It has never encountered similar data errors in this body, and naturally has no experience in dealing with similar problems.

This visit to Ophelia No. 7 was purely impromptu. After all, in its long life, there have been countless fights around a certain holy relic.

But no matter how many times similar dramas are performed, they can still arouse its special attribute called "Fun People" that is completely different from its own kind.

As for the holy relic...

In his eyes, there is not much desire to collect it.

After all, as an ancient race with a long history, his collection is not short of similar or more precious items.

So what is the treasure that is truly worth collecting in the long river of time?

As a self-proclaimed collector with good taste, the mechanical priest, temporarily called Farias, was looking at the direction where the Emperor's angels were stationed with his interested eyes through the layers of steel in front of him.

"Wait a little longer, wait a little longer..." he whispered to himself.

Update.