Chapter 236: Like Water, Like Haze Always There

Don't fight a battle you are not sure of.

Keep the war moving, fight and run.

Make the enemy the main supplier of weapons.

Keep your whereabouts secret.

Military actions must be unexpected.

After seizing some power, immediately form a new column.

Generally speaking, the development of guerrilla warfare goes through three stages: strategic defense; the enemy's actions and the guerrillas' actions enter a stalemate; and finally completely destroy the enemy.

————————Che Guevara, excerpted from "On Guerrilla Warfare"

Many people think that guerrilla warfare within the scope of a building complex and a few kilometers is not possible, but a small enough team, a strong enough force and a firm will can cross that point, plus the continuous cover and supply of the Imperial Guard's outer camp, the situation faced by the Catachans is not as bad as people imagine.

For example, the dark environment there, even if the castle is in the continuous Lumen Tower, there are many blind spots, and the ground is wet and dark, which provides them with a lot of convenience.

Of course, danger still accompanies them, and if they are safe and not exposed, the radio is strictly controlled, and Catachan can rely on walking like a ghost in that poor area to get a chance.

Not far from the Space Marine camp, the notorious traitors' temporary defense in the thick reinforced concrete walls and guns is timid, terrible decorations or mutated skeletons, anyway, the most deadly is still those Space Marines standing on the wall like statues.

The Catachan Sergeant and his "water team" are lurking, holding a telescope in his legs, and wearing a piece of "Ghillie suit" picked up on the ground, which is a piece of broken iron sheet and cloth sewn together because of the war. To be precise, the equipment of the Ghillie cloak keeps itself quiet enough.

Absolutely quiet, behind the pipes made on the ground for heat dissipation, they look like a group of stable enough fragments, no different from other "brothers and sisters" fragments that appeared because of the war.

"There is only one group every 5 kilometers. The density of Astartes is not that high. Most of them are mortal defense lines composed of cultists." Sergeant Catachan reported to the boy Lightling beside him softly and emphasized.

"I don't need to follow them. They don't need to cook and will leave the camp area for a long time. The only way to contact the camp is regular supply distribution and flares. I insist on not coming back."

The boy Lightling answered. "He is small and hidden, and is proficient in drilling pipes. Secondly, his shooting level is far better than mine, sergeant. He knows that sub-humans like him are not welcome, especially Lightling has problems with touching comrades' supplies, but he swore to the Emperor that he needs to repay the Sun Lord."

"Let him help you, his brother." He said to Catachan heavily.

The sergeant was silent. He looked into the distance and said something completely different from the question of the boy Lightling. "The wall is about three meters high, not too much, but there is barbed wire on the back, so a frontal breakthrough is not possible. He thinks that the hot melt leg mine is good, it can melt the wall, but how to create a breakthrough?"

That's a Catachan-style mistake. If a Catachan shuts up with me like that (asking for tactical advice), then congratulations, I've been accepted by the toughest tough guy in the universe.

The Lightling kid hesitated, then smiled again, and answered as lively, friendly, and stinky as usual. "How about grenades? Use a single grenade with hot melt bombs to smash into the enemy's wall."

The Catachan sergeant shook his head. "No, it's a matter of equivalent. You need hot melt anti-tank mines as thick as a bouquet of flowers, but their best bomb legs only have a range of tens of meters."

The Lightling kid pondered. "If it's not sniping, then the enemy's losses are so great that they can't maintain the huge defense line. It's not difficult to pass through the weak manpower, but..." He didn't finish his words. The Catachan sergeant covered his little mouth. Then in the silence, the Space Marines in the distant defense line were chatting with several Mechanicus traitors.

The Catachan Sergeant couldn't hear their conversation, and he couldn't read the speech movements to infer the situation at that distance, but he still needed to pay attention to the situation there to determine the strategic goal.

In the blurred picture and the black and red high-definition night vision effect of the telescope, the Mechanicus servitors handed black boxes to the Space Marines one by one. After checking, the servitors sent the treasures to the towering fixed machine gun sentry tower.

"He dared to bet that it was a bomb. They needed to find out the supply line and then cut off those things." The sergeant said.

The boy Leitlin asked. "But they are outside the encirclement, how can they hit the people outside?"

"The dam can easily block the river but will not block the raindrops. They are few in number and can enter the periphery through the pipeline. The pipelines there are interconnected and it is not difficult to get out, so the large army cannot evacuate." Sergeant Catachan replied.

"Isn't that his strength?" said the boy Lightling.

Yes, there are many pipelines in that place. Compared with the giant buildings of the Empire, those things are blood vessels and trachea, which are interconnected and practically useful, but that place seems to absorb heat from the center of the earth to generate electricity. In other words, if they find the wrong pipeline, they will be burned into charcoal by the heat of the earth.

This task is heavy and terrible. People without experience cannot tell. The boy Lightling should be the best candidate to lead the guerrillas out of the encirclement. At this moment, Sergeant Catachan saw that the enemy reconnaissance team was changing shifts, so he stood up and walked to the vicinity with the troops very quickly to leave that area.

The Ratling boy pointed out the entrance to the nearby cocoa pipeline, which should be hidden enough. The Catachans moved forward very quickly and quietly, and they soon came to the location pointed out by the Lytling, a tunnel heading east and hidden in a semi-protruding ground. The east water pipe carries waste liquid outside.

The Letling boy stroked the blurry words on the mouth of the pipe. It looked like it was hundreds or thousands of years old? "Should there be gray water (recycled water) pipes? They are not corrosive or radioactive. It is a rare good thing."

"How do I tell the difference?" a Catachan recruit asked in a fuss. As a hive man, he couldn't be sure that there was a pipe in that location. Even if there was, he couldn't understand whether the thing discharged radioactive water.

"He can feel the history of a pipe when he touches it. Sir, he is different from people like me. He was born in it and spent most of his life. He knows all the common pipes in the empire." A rare thing for a Letling boy. Proud to say this loudly to elites like Catachan, it is normal for the environment outside the empire to worship force.

But there were only a few months in Catachan where Chi Qi was able to show off his power. No matter how difficult the guerrilla war from the East was, the boy Leitlin felt that it was worth it at this moment. Getting hungry and getting yelled at by the Master Chief because of that. "Don't eat! They are a week away from Toji's supply!"

The boy Letling touched his backpack. There were about 15 kilograms of food and a carbine. Without a body armor, it was a full 40 kilograms, but would it last a week?

His habitual need to eat breakfast, brunch, lunch, lunch, dinner, tea, and dinner is completely different. Usually he can eat the entire backpack of food alone in one day, although the individual soldier rations there are not high enough. Measuring, a small stick in his leg has 400 calories, but it would be painful for a Letling boy not to eat!

He regretted it, he regretted it very much, but he carefully put away those things. However, he did not retreat, but instead moved forward as a soldier with his new compatriots who were not of his own blood. He was born in the pipeline and walked into that dark and gloomy place. The place felt like he was back in his hometown, with the constant patter of military boots on the ground. He immediately took the lead and carved his own path through the intricate pipelines like a blind guide dog.

The pipeline is not for humans to walk through. It is winding and has strange bones. It is very life-threatening, but it doesn't matter to the boy Letling. Even if he doesn't have equipment, he can still use his legs to finger it. The fuzz is climbing on those things, no matter how smooth the moss-covered pipe wall is, it can climb like a spider.

His exploration is very useful, and when he comes back he will bring a lot of rodents to fill the food gap of the troops, because Catachan is struggling in the pipeline, and those animals also alleviate the supply problem very well, although on the two-day journey The Letling boy still lost a lot of weight during the journey.

It’s hard to imagine that other than a slightly bulging belly, that little body has anything to do with gluttony. But in reality, the food consumption of the Lytlin people is greater than that of ordinary people. The good news is that the Lytlin boy had a lot to do with gluttony when Pan Lan was around. Just because he endured hunger for a long time due to crowding and riots, lack of food did not make him lose his fighting ability.

And his strong will was indeed recognized by the Catachans. The forest warriors also proposed to give food to the Ratling boys, but the Ratling boys, who knew how much they asked for food, all refused. It is hard to imagine that outside the empire, A Letling known for petty theft would do something like that.

But is it true? As a soulless person, his life has rarely been exposed to mainstream Letling society, and stealing is rare. He is not one of those notorious guys, but the birth given to him by the Emperor is like this. , and full of disgusting elements.

The method is destined. He is no different from the rodents in the pipeline. Just like his birth, he is destined to be ostracized and hated by others. But Cady is different, the Sun Lord is different, and the war is different. The empire will unconditionally appreciate those sacrifices at this moment. The Emperor will protect those who fight for the Empire on the battlefield, even if they are born in the East.

Is that what most soldiers in the empire think? The Imperial Guard has given them the opportunity to change, from waste in the hive to independent veterans, to express their value to the emperor, to prove their existence to the empire, to express all their resentments and gifts. come out.

At every bend in the pipeline, the Letling boys would use tellurium metal pipes to carve out marks that could be distinguished by touch to record the road. Therefore, they could avoid many places and continue to trial and error in the maze-like pipes. He could easily pass The touch while carving discerns the nature of the pipe.

Therefore, he promised that when he returned, the Imperial Guard would be able to cross there in less than one-tenth of the time now. Of course, it would be no problem if he could understand the mark.

And when the last ray of light from the long journey shone in front of them, it was not the sunshine that made people warm and comfortable, but the light of the Lumen Tower that made people sick. The lack of ultraviolet light made people uncomfortable, even though most people in the hive city It's a mistake to take that feeling for granted.

He didn't go into the wrong pipe, and the two-day march was now paying off. There was no doubt whether the boy Letling was a hero or a miracle, but people usually wouldn't cheer for him. But tomorrow, when he poked his head out of the pipe, he was hit by a gun. Just hold it down with your thick legs and arms, and the magnetic voice said. ‘Well done, brother. "

Whether it was Catachan's voice or Catachan's recognition, after three years, the team once again accepted outsiders. Compared with the despair at that time, the situation was much better.

When the Catachans left the outside of the pipeline, it was either the rear of the front line or the free world that the Skadi people were dreaming of. However, their strength was not enough to break through the enemy's encirclement and return to the ground to transmit intelligence. They could not study the situation in an orderly manner in the empty cave that looked like a broken metal garbage dump.

They quickly found a road that was cleared by humans. It was wide enough to pass the Emperor's poison blade. The tires on the road told them that many things had passed there, such as transport vehicles.

"It's right there." The sergeant crawled like a hound to judge the time. "It's been about a day. There has been no vehicle passing there for a day, but there may be traces of something left the day before yesterday or the day before yesterday."

"Is it the convoy of the Mechanicus?" asked the boy Lightling.

"Almost. Even if it's not, it may be transporting food or something." After the sergeant finished speaking, the boy Lightling's stomach gurgled. The boy Lightling immediately shrank his head for fear of being scolded. The sergeant looked at the skinny guy and sighed.

"Go to the pipeline and use promethium and iron buckets to make a smokeless fire and prepare food for them." Then he took out his own supplies, canned meat, starch, canned beans, salt, sugar, etc.

"Use the food there, his physique is better than mine carrying 20 kilograms more." The sergeant took out the emergency food and reserves, which was not rational, but he was soft-hearted. Secondly, the Lightling boy knew the secret of their return, or replenishing energy and maintaining morale, cooking and rest were also very important.

Everyone knew that he was making excuses. The man who had cared about them all his life showed weak feelings for his brothers and compatriots for the first time, which turned into lame excuses. Facts proved that there was no superman in the world.

No matter how strong and powerful I am, my spirit and will are still not human beings can't help but have feelings for something and care about things around them, and the whole universe is not just about war.

As the pipes began to flame, the Lightling boy wiped the liquid out of the pipes, made the place dry and comfortable, used iron sheets to make frying pans, used iron buckets as pots, made soup with beans, and made steaks with canned food and starch.

Catachan and Lightling, two groups of people who have never been in harmony, shook hands in the home of Skadi. At this moment, the rats and apes walked in the metal cave and shared food.

Damn, I forgot to change the title (I typed it randomly)

That chapter should be called Apes and Rats