Chapter 1899 Expeditionary Force Experience
Martilos, the commander of the First Legion of the Redemption Army, sat in the Grey Beetle Type VII chariot, listening to the information sent by the convoy ahead, while commanding the convoy to adjust the direction and avoid some dangerous areas.
Although his command was fast and orderly, his thoughts were actually on the target of this expedition, the city of knowledge, Satoran.
As a member of the Redemption Expeditionary Force that went to Satoran, he was one of the few intact survivors in the Redemption Order, and one of the few parties still alive.
That expedition happened when he was young, and that experience was also his most profound memory. To this day, he can still clearly remember everything he experienced that year.
He remembered that the expeditionary force was unstoppable on the way to Satoran, clearing the abyss vines of cities one by one, and recovering lost cities one by one. He remembered how high the morale of the expeditionary force was at that time. Everyone believed that they could recover Satoran, take out the fire of civilization stored there, and then restore world civilization to its pre-disaster appearance.
However, when they arrived outside Satoran, they saw the completely different Abyss vines and realized that things might be different from before.
Afterwards, the clergy of the accompanying order tried any method to remove the Abyss vines, but none of them worked, and some clergy even died for it.
If they could not remove the Abyss vines, they could not get close to Satoran, and their Spark Expedition Plan would fail. The commander of the expeditionary army and other senior officials at that time did not want to see this grand expedition plan end in this form, so they made a very risky plan.
They decided to select the most elite personnel from the expeditionary army, wear perfect isolation suits and oxygen cylinders, try to pass through the barrier of the Abyss vines, enter the vine encirclement, go to Satoran, inform the refugees of Satoran of the situation outside and the gospel of the Redemption Order, and then bring out some of the Sparks of Civilization from Satoran. In this way, even if the goal of retaking Satoran was not achieved, part of the task of retrieving the Sparks of Civilization had been completed, and part of the expedition plan was also completed, at least it was acceptable in terms of face.
Martilos was one of the selected expeditionary forces that year. They wore the best isolation equipment of the Redemption Order. In addition to the oxygen cylinders they carried with them, there were also several oxygen vehicles that could be replenished immediately after the oxygen cylinders were used up.
Afterwards, the selected people entered the bottom of the abyss vines, cutting the small vines with chainsaws to open up a path while guarding against the attacks of the vines.
At the beginning, the situation was still good. Although the spores released by the vines were extremely corrosive, the isolation protective clothing worn by everyone could withstand this corrosiveness, but when the team was in the middle of the march, an accident happened.
Everyone's ears heard some murmurs that felt like a dream, and at the same time, they saw countless illusions in front of their eyes. Emotions became complicated and extreme at the same time, sometimes shouting, sometimes laughing wildly, and a virus called madness began to spread in everyone's hearts and minds.
Most people took off their isolation suits in this crazy state and became fertilizer for the Abyss vines. Only a few people survived this kind of raving through firm belief, and Martilos was one of them.
Martilos never thought that he was a man of strong will, but he was absolutely sure that he was a man of pious faith, because it was in the madness and bewitching of the Abyss vines outside the city of Satoran that he felt the Lord of Redemption's response to his prayers. A mysterious power that refreshed the body and mind and cleared the madness from the spirit was transmitted from the holy emblem of the Lord of Redemption, protecting him, so that he did not die in the bewitching of the Abyss vines like other companions, but successfully passed through the giant wall formed by the Abyss vines. From that day on, he firmly believed in the Lord of Redemption.
However, passing through the giant wall does not mean that they have completed the mission. They also need to contact the residents of Satoran and take some fire from Satoran. However, these seemingly simple and non-dangerous missions ultimately failed, because when the survivors just saw the city of knowledge Satoran, they were not greeted by the cheers of the residents of Satoran, but by the powerful weapons before the disaster.
After a round of attacks, more than one hundred elite expeditionary forces who passed through the abyss vines died and only three people were left. The reason why Martilos and his three men survived was only because they found several plants that had become extinct in the outside world on the way, so they stopped and put the plants into storage tanks to take back for transplantation.
Feeling the deadly hostility, the three Martilos had to give up the mission and return to the expeditionary camp through the abyss vines from the original route, but when they returned to the camp, they saw that the camp was in a mess and there was no one.
When they followed the obvious retreat traces on the snow and caught up with the expeditionary team, they found that there were less than a thousand people left in the expeditionary team of tens of thousands. It turned out that when they were suffering from the madness and bewitching in the abyss vines, the bewitching power that directly acted on their minds also spread to the expeditionary camp. The unprepared expeditionary army was immediately hit, and only a few expeditionary soldiers regained their sanity in Melina's loud prayers.
And these sober people were unable to rescue their companions who had lost their minds. The only thing they could do was to pray under Melina's leadership to keep their minds normal while abandoning the camp and retreating to a safer place on the periphery.
The expeditionary plan ended in failure, which was a serious blow to the Redemption Order at that time. Naturally, the survivors of the expedition, such as Martilos, were not treated as heroes. After returning to the Holy City, they were directly taken to the Inquisition Court for the most stringent interrogation. Many survivors committed suicide because they could not bear the invisible pressure brought by the interrogation, but some of them mutated, proving that the concerns of the Inquisition Court were correct. Martilos survived all the interrogation projects with his devout belief in the Lord of Redemption.
Although he survived the interrogation projects, those cruel interrogation methods also brought a lot of pain to his body and mind. These pains still remain in him, and occasionally pop up to stimulate him, making him involuntarily recall the past of the expedition.
Interestingly, although the culprit for the failure of the plan to recapture Satoran was the Abyss Vine, Martilos did not have much hatred for the Abyss Vine. Instead, he hated Satoran immensely. In his opinion, if Satoran had not attacked the surviving elite of the expeditionary army and refused to contact the expeditionary army, they might have been able to take back some of the fire from Satoran. Then, they would have been treated as heroes after returning to the Holy City, and there would not have been those painful interrogations. So he believed that the death of his comrades was due to Satoran.
It was because of this hatred that had been engraved in his bones that he had been fantasizing about destroying the city of Satoran all the time for so many years. When he got the news that the Holy City was recruiting expeditionary forces again and preparing to completely recapture Satoran, he volunteered without hesitation to become the vanguard of this expeditionary force.
The current Redemption Order is very different from the previous one, not only in terms of personnel size, but also in terms of weapons and equipment. The Redemption Army's First Legion, which is the vanguard this time, is equipped with hot melt weapons jointly developed by the Order's Technology Department and Weapons and Equipment Department. This weapon is specially used to deal with the Abyss Vines. It has been tested in several lost cities before and the effect is very good. The only disadvantage is that the destructive power is too great and it is indiscriminate destruction. Often after a round of attack, most of the Abyss Vines are destroyed and the city is destroyed to the point of being worthless.
The reason why it was used this time is mainly based on the intelligence obtained last time. The Abyss Vines Giant Wall is still some distance away from Satoran City, and the use of hot melt weapons will not cause damage to Satoran.
Martilos's mission this time is to use hot melt weapons to destroy the ground part of the Abyss Vines to the greatest extent. The underground part will be handled by the Purification Monks of the Redemption Order later. After the cleanup of the Abyss Vines is handed over to the Purification Monks, the First Legion will be responsible for building camps for the subsequent expeditionary forces and will no longer be responsible for the subsequent recovery attack on Satoran.
After receiving his mission instructions, Martilos immediately understood that this arrangement was to prevent him from launching a destructive attack on the City of Knowledge because of his hatred for Satoran, and then causing irreparable damage to the fire of civilization stored in the city.
In this regard, he felt that the concerns of the Pope and other high-level officials were not unreasonable, because when he received the reorganization of the expeditionary force, the idea that emerged in his mind was to use his First Legion's artillery regiment to bomb Satoran without limit and raze Satoran to the ground.
Now that he has received a clear order, he has no intention of disobeying the order, but he decided to modify the order slightly without affecting the plan, such as the First Legion staying to build the camp, while he, the legion commander, will take his own guards and carry light weapons that are not very destructive to buildings to attack Satoran first.
Although Martilos will definitely be punished for doing this, and may even be sent to the military court of the Order, he doesn't care, because he already feels that his body is about to fail and it is difficult to survive this year. If he loses this opportunity to fulfill his long-cherished wish for revenge, then he will die with regret, which he is absolutely unwilling to accept.
In this way, while commanding the army to march quickly in the snow, he repeatedly deduced the way the guards would attack Satoran in the command vehicle. A set of tactical plans kept coming up in his mind, integrating and integrating, and finally formed a set of tactical offensive plans that he felt was the most perfect.
When Satoran's garrison was solved by his tactical offensive plan for the 45th time, the convoy suddenly stopped, and Martilos opened his glasses and looked at the satellite scanning azimuth map hanging on the chariot, confirming that he had arrived at the outskirts of Satoran.
At this time, there was a huge noise coming from outside the chariot. Although Martilos could not hear the specific content because the sound was too noisy, he could imagine that the soldiers of the legion should be shocked by the giant wall of abyss vines, because when they, the expeditionary army, saw the giant wall composed of abyss vines, they had the same reaction.
He did not pick up the microphone on the chariot to stop the soldiers outside the chariot, but stood up from the chair slowly, changed into combat uniform with the help of the attendant, and then took the necklace of the Holy Emblem of Redemption enshrined in front of the statue of the Lord of Redemption, put it on his neck, and then kissed the Holy Emblem with great piety, put the Holy Emblem into his clothes, and recited the Lord of Redemption prayer.
As the attendant opened the chariot door, a strong cold air penetrated into the chariot, dispersing the warmth in the chariot, and at the same time freezing the moisture in the car, turning it into snowflakes and falling on the ground.
After taking off his military cap and putting it on, Martilos walked out of the chariot. The noise outside the chariot did not stop, which made him a little unhappy. However, when he turned his head to look in the direction of Satoran, looking at the abyss vine giant wall that appeared countless times in his memory, he was stunned, as if the low temperature around him instantly froze him into ice, because the abyss vine giant wall with a hideous appearance and towering into the sky was gone.
Martilos soon recovered from the shock. He turned around and pushed away the attendant who wanted to help him, walked quickly to the chariot ladder, and climbed to the top of the chariot with his old body. He pulled away the lookout on the top of the chariot, put his head in front of the chariot telescope, and looked at the root of the abyss vine.
Only a huge pit like the Abyss Canyon was left on the land where the roots of the Abyss vines were supposed to grow. A rough estimate is that the distance between the two sides is about 300 to 400 meters. The depth is still unknown, but according to the depth of the roots of the Abyss vines, it should be hundreds of meters deep. There is no doubt that the giant wall of Abyss vines that he has been thinking about for many years has indeed disappeared.
After moving his head away from the telescope, the shocked expression on Martilos's face did not weaken much, and the puzzled expression had spread.
Although the recovery plan failed and the expeditionary force suffered heavy losses, the Redemption Order's attention to Satoran has not weakened much. Since decades ago, the order has built an observation station near Satoran, and detailed observation reports are sent to the Holy City every month, and these observation reports are also Martilos's monthly must-read documents.
He remembered that the last observation report was more than a month ago. The content of the report was no different from the previous reports, that is, the growth of the abyss vines, the spread of the dark sky, etc. However, in just over a month, all the observation items mentioned in the report disappeared. Not only did the abyss vines disappear, but even the dark sky turned normal. This made him extremely confused and he couldn't help but think of a rumor.
The rumor was about the mysterious savior. It was said that the savior left the Holy City and went to Satoran to help the Order to recapture Satoran.
At that time, he didn't care about the rumor, nor did he think that the savior had any ability. After all, the savior was just reading books in the Holy City and didn't do anything useful to the Order, so he didn't think that the savior could recapture Satoran, and even thought that the savior was just a trick of some people in the Order, but now he found that he was wrong. Everything in front of him was evidence, making him realize that the savior might really exist.
The turbulent heart made Martilos couldn't help but take out the Holy Emblem of Redemption worn on his neck again, put it on his forehead and prayed in a low voice.