"Do we have a signal yet?"
Petrus looked at the vox-operator beside him and asked with a frown.
They had already fought their way a long distance from the front, clearing out only small groups of greenskins along the way.
If they kept going any farther, they might not make it back in time to defend the gap in the line. And if the Orks happened to break through at that moment, the whole front could be torn open.
If that happened, then the defensive result bought with the lives of countless soldiers would be lost, and they would bear the blame.
"Not... not yet."
The vox-operator answered between ragged breaths.
He had already marched several kilometers holding up the heavy long-range communications set, and in his headset the shrieks of those xenos were still ringing loud and clear:
"WAAAGH!"
And, whether it was his imagination or not, he felt as if that howling was getting stronger.
Petrus's face darkened to an extreme degree. By all logic, the distance they had reached should already have taken them beyond the radius of the greenskins' Waaagh! field interference.
So why was this intense disruption still present?
Could it be that another gigantic greenskin force was following them?
Ridiculous. How could something like that possi...
At that thought, Petrus's pupils trembled slightly.
A combat instinct born from countless battles told him that this seemingly absurd guess might actually be horrifyingly plausible.
He immediately stopped and shouted an order:
"All units, reverse the formation! Front becomes rear!"
"Find cover immediately! Armor units and engineers, build temporary fortifications! Artillery, hold the center! Recon squads, use the main force as the core and begin scouting the surrounding area!"
The Astra Militarum troops and the conscripts were baffled by an order that seemed to come out of nowhere, but their trust in Petrus's command made them move at once.
Gaia looked at Petrus's grim face in confusion.
With her superhuman senses, there was not even a mushroom nearby right now, much less greenskins howling loudly enough to be heard from several kilometers away.
Was this commander getting a little too jumpy?
Just as Gaia thought that, the corner of her eye caught small points of light appearing in the distant sky.
Turning to look, she saw sparse points of light scattered across the gray clouds like stars in the night.
Curious, Gaia narrowed her eyes and looked closer, then opened them wide in shock.
"WAAAGH! I told ya, if we paint da rockets purple and strap 'em on our backs, we can fly!"
"Heh heh heh, I fink you're right, but I'm wonderin'... how're we gonna land?"
It was a mob of Stormboyz carrying Ork rockets on their backs, screaming excitedly as they rode those suicidal contraptions on a one-way trip.
Like crooked fireworks, they streaked across the sky trailing sparks, then smashed into the horrified Astra Militarum lines and exploded into chunks of shredded mushroom.
Not one of those greenskin boyz survived. If they thought they would not die from the fall, the rocket on their backs blew them up. If they thought they would not die from the explosion, then the impact killed them instead.
Their behavior looked ridiculous and absurd.
But in reality, it dealt a heavy blow to the Astra Militarum.
Many artillery positions were struck by the Stormboyz' rockets, and the resulting chain explosions blasted huge numbers of soldiers nearby.
And the worst thing was that the Stormboyz were only a signal.
As the Stormboyz rained down from the sky, enormous clouds of dust rose on the horizon in the distance.
Gaia's gaze shook, because in her vision the number of Orks charging toward them was almost endless.
On top of that, all kinds of war machines crudely cobbled together from junk and scraps, things that made no sense according to any sane law of physics, were rolling onto the battlefield.
The mass appearance of those alien contraptions saturated with Waaagh! energy meant one terrifying thing.
The number of greenskins gathered here had reached the point of qualitative change.
If enough greenskins were gathered together and their thoughts aligned, then their power of "I fink" could distort the most basic laws of physics to a certain degree.
"Damn it. Mighty warrior, take our vox-operator and get out first. Before these Orks fully surround us, get the message out as fast as you can..."
Before Petrus could finish, the remnants of the recon squads brought terrible news.
"Greenskins! They're everywhere!"
"Then open fire everywhere, damn it!"
Petrus spat out an ancient curse.
At the same time, Gaia's senses confirmed that huge numbers of greenskins were closing in from all directions.
She took a deep breath, and the blood of battle sleeping in her body began to boil.
Clearly, the only option now was to carve out a path for the vox-operator so the information could be reported.
A bloodthirsty madness flashed in her eyes. If these xenos wanted to block her from saving this planet, then let her warhammer turn every one of them into fertilizer for the soil of Klaurund.
"Stay behind me!"
With a low roar, she stepped forward violently, using the twisting force of her waist to swing the warhammer in her hands into a beautiful crescent arc. Like a living meat grinder, she instantly smashed apart several choppa-wielding melee boyz charging at her.
Petrus gathered his most elite veterans and kept Nia and the vox-operator protected in the center, then directed every soldier still able to move to follow tightly behind Gaia.
As her warhammer danced, Ork boyz one after another were blasted into fragments of flying mushroom under their howling war cries, and for a moment it seemed as if an endless rain of mushrooms was falling around Gaia.
And in the middle of that immersive slaughter, her system objective steadily drew closer to completion.
[Kill count +1. Remaining to complete objective: 1,797]
[Kill count +2. Remaining to complete objective: 1,795]
And as more and more greenskin blood splashed across Gaia's fair face, the whispers that had somehow returned began filling her once-clear mind again:
"Kill. Lose yourself in killing."
"Enjoy the delight of slaughter. Listen to the wails of dying souls."
Far away, an enormous figure watched Gaia's nearly frenzied slaughter, and a trace of caution flashed in its eyes.
Its name was "Smart Head" Gala Gala, a Warboss that had evolved from one of the cleverest boyz during the many recent battles on Klaurund.
According to itself, it was the smartest, most Waaagh!, and hardest-hitting greenskin in history.
As it watched Gaia's ferocious rampage, a word that ordinary Orks rarely used flashed through its mind.
Troublesome.
"But I fink my boyz are all good ladz, so I probably don't need ta fight meself just yet. As da Warboss, makin' da grand entrance at da end is da most Waaagh! thing ta do."
At that thought, a crafty grin spread across its face.
"Boyz, get in there! Whoever kills dat humie becomes da new boss under me!"
(End of Chapter)
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