Warhammer 40k: Shattered Steel Soul

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"Their flesh must suffer, but you wish them to avoid these sufferings." - "The Book of Lorgar"

Morse pushed a group of chess pieces forward a little on the table, and the chess piece team symbolizing the Space Marines walked out of the rectangular range covered by the bunker.

The team's vision passed over the decorative angel statue placed in the center of the chessboard - this is the only angel in the normal sense on the table, facing the corner of the Randan angel-like alien monster hiding behind the floor on the other side of the chessboard.

"This group, all aim at this alien angel beast," Morse announced, "Ten-man team, thirty-two bolters and six cannons."

"Okay." The Emperor nodded, "You want to bet on a fatal blow?"

"Let's see." Morse shrugged, and all the dice in the dice plate floated up to a certain distance, and then fell like a rain of bullets, and after a crisp collision, they fell into the final calm.

"The first group of hit tests, a total of nine, one of which is six." Morse said calmly, "equivalent to a fatal blow. Three did not pass three. There are five left, and the damage will be tested later."

"I remember it." The Emperor said, staring at the dice rolling down Morse's dice plate.

After confirming that the craftsman did not cheat, the Emperor no longer worried that this group of shooting could cause substantial damage to the chess piece army in his hand.

In the end, they got a total of seven points of damage from the bolter and four points from the cannon - according to the rules of the characters in the Emperor's hands, the damage of the cannon was halved, that is, nine points of damage. Through special protection and painless filtering, this team scratched a small piece of skin of the behemoth in the Emperor's hand - a little damage, perhaps equivalent to knocking the behemoth's toes.

"Just like their attack, right," Morse raised his chin and smiled, "An attack with insufficient power is just a light scratch. Even if there are more people, it is inevitable to fall into disadvantage."

"The Word Bearers," the Emperor raised his eyebrows, "the attack in the WB-37 area."

"The first few times," Morse nodded,

"They almost lost. The firepower of the Word Bearers is more suitable for burning planets on the ground and large-scale executions; but for a behemoth flying in the void, even if they can dispatch tens of thousands of space warriors at a time, quantitative change is still far from qualitative change."

The Emperor nodded slightly and agreed with Morse's opinion, but at this moment, the craftsman changed his words slightly - this is also his common trick.

"I thought you didn't pay much attention to the battle in Randan, my Emperor," Morse said, turning a Space Marine chess piece on the table, rotating its front to face the Emperor, "I didn't expect you to be quite attentive to your sons."

The Emperor glanced at him, "I read the war report, Morse."

"I can't tell, but I believe you." Morse said briskly, with an upward tone at the end of his voice.

A trace of helplessness flashed across the Emperor's deep eyes, "Continue." The Lord of Mankind said.

The first round of shooting ended very quickly, and more than a dozen angels under the Emperor were damaged by about five points or less, except for the alien team facing the Dark Angels. The First Legion boldly adopted the full overload of ions, and at the slight loss caused by the danger of overload, an angel fell.

"The First Legion, the leader of the army," Morse commented, "What a heroic attack, so I will reward them for their individual penetration, quick turn, and cover transfer."

He moved several squads of the First Legion forward separately, and accurately bypassed the defense line formed by the alien angels, almost without entering the shooting range of any of them, or even the shooting range that could be reached after moving. A group of Deathwing Terminators served as the inevitable target of attack when arranging troops and deducing military forces, but their armor was not easy to be broken by the enemy.

The Emperor pondered, pinching his chin with his fingers, and his black hair fell on both sides of his shoulders.

"I assume," he said, "in this game of chess, you have not seen the ability of my chess pieces, nor should you know the range of their long-range attacks."

"But this is the First Legion," Morse replied, winking one eye playfully, "Lion El'Jonson's actions may be equivalent to a brilliant strategy in the eyes of his brothers, but can the truth of the matter be hidden from you?"

"He thinks it can," said the Emperor.

"How tolerant you are, respected Emperor." Morse shook his head and retracted his outstretched arm. "Like we agreed at the beginning, there will be no close combat - or characters that come within an inch of each other will be destroyed at the same time, plus an explosion test related to destruction. So, my decision is that I will not engage in close combat."

"Your decision." The Emperor repeated this phrase with an emphasis, "It's my turn."

He moved several alien angels forward a certain distance in turn to open up the field of view for shooting, and at the same time picked up a new alien angel from the table beside him. After observing it for a few times, the Emperor frowned.

"Why are there so many Space Marines in the backfield?" The Emperor asked questioningly, "This is not the number at the beginning."

"My dear Emperor," Morse said with a smile, "you should know that on our battlefield, the four Primarchs will not put all their military power on the surface at the first time. Now we have come In the second round, of course, some hidden preparations will come out. At least you plan to pull out some new angels from the warp, right? "

"I declared their existence from the beginning." The Emperor faintly condemned Morse for his unruly behavior. "And you didn't mention that you have a strategic reserve."

"Then just think I don't want to behave," Morse said briskly, ignoring the Emperor's look. In a way, he did manage to ignore a part of the Emperor... that 'sad look'.

"All in all, there's no point in my backfield that's three inches away from any army, unless you're willing to land here."

The craftsman pointed to a corner of the table.

"No," the Emperor said slowly.

That corner is guarded by the Iron Warrior, and with just a few additional commands or additional abilities, the angel in his hand will probably not be able to scratch even a single toe of the opponent.

The Lord of Humanity made some calculations and gave up on teleporting the angels in the reserve team to the battlefield this round.

"The shooting phase." The Emperor said, stretched out his finger and pointed at the chassis of an angel on the table. "First, it attacks..."

He paused for a second and made the best choice from his perspective, "The Word Bearers."

"Wait a minute," Morse raised a finger. "The Word Bearers are like an apparition that deceives the enemy, returning to the position before leaving the fortress amid fire and smoke."

He moved a group of chess pieces on the table and placed a group of Space Marines back within the confines of the bunker.

"It's still WB-37." The emperor looked up and found the corresponding real case, "Lorgar chose a strategic retreat."

"Lorgar Aurelion is certainly loyal to you and everything you symbolize, and is willing to give the blood of countless Word Bearers in exchange for your favor, but he is not a fool. After encountering new weapons and heavy defenses, He also understands how to establish multiple defense depths, command troops to disperse and attack, achieve an effective encirclement, and gradually weaken the enemy's defenses."

Having said this, Morse folded his hands in front of him and placed them flat on the table.

"And what about Perturabo's advice?" asked the Emperor.

"That's right." A sincere smile appeared on Morse's face. "And it's more than that."

He took out a group of Iron Warriors from the other end of the bunker, "Under the leadership of Perturabo, the Iron Warriors Legion relied on precise long-range fire support to cover the retreat of the Word Bearers. Our Iron Lord personally commanded, through Complex calculations and sophisticated instruments - of course made by himself, direct the artillery and missiles to hit the enemy's key positions accurately. Under his beautiful command, our firepower covers the entire battlefield. Let's try the damage, Emperor. Emperor.”

"And I haven't even targeted them yet." The Emperor sighed.

"This is the warning of the Iron Warriors, my dear emperor." Morse picked up the water glass at hand, and at the same time lifted the kettle, refilled a glass of water for himself, and took a slow sip.

They conducted another round of damage testing. Even though the total number of guns rolled was lower than that of the Word Bearers in the previous round, the missile hit rate, gun power, and armor-piercing ability of the Iron Warriors Legion were all significantly higher than those of the Word Bearers. . Under the negative conditions of being on alert and being forced to fight, the Iron Warriors still managed to take down half of Ran Dan's alien health.

"But it's impossible for you to know every move of Angel Randan. That's why..." The emperor's voice gradually became lower, and his expression remained calm and unpredictable, even though Leon El'Jonson did not communicate with the emperor. How long they have been together, but there is indeed a shadow of the Emperor in Leon's inscrutable nature.

"These legions will suffer damage." Morse said proactively and clicked a few times on the chessboard. Some chess pieces fell down. Except for the Dark Angel who was alone in the deep, there were losses in the other three armies.

"Your warriors are dying," the craftsman commented, pointing to his backfield. "Fortunately, there are still a lot of them."

"Don't say that." The emperor responded calmly. Morse followed the method of mathematical expectations and directly completed the shooting and damage test of several Randan angels. Although this was quick, it did make the chess game lose its flavor. .

But neither of them particularly cared about this.

"It's your turn." The Emperor nodded.

"Okay, first..." Morse snapped his fingers, and a pair of infiltrators painted in pearl white appeared in the backfield of Ran Dan's alien. Since most Randan angels are giant beasts, and the Emperor has not yet started cheating, their number is not large. This leaves the infiltrator with a wide opening to invade.

"An abandoned outpost, one of the few ground areas that still retains intact metal structures, and the lucky Horus Luperkar." Morse smiled and calmly read out the name of the Lord of the Luna Wolves. of every syllable.

"During this infiltration and invasion work, they regretfully confirmed that these aliens did not require any logistics, and the blocking work was naturally difficult to implement. But these angels seemed to have some way of communicating with each other, and they also further confirmed that the angels There are different groups within it, and a collective commander should be the leader of the corresponding group—the leader controls the angels, and the angels control the mixed consciousness within them.”

"LW-55," the Emperor announced the corresponding battle number, "My warriors launched a precise strike. His flexible tactics and excellent surprise attack helped him weaken an entire small Randan tribe."

"But that group is not so similar to the human concept of angels," Morse said, "and it is also older than angels. I don't know where they evolved from. Anyway, they are not Grox beasts, and they probably are not. Just because they have little fear of pain doesn’t mean they are a herd of ant-cows.”

"Only you would think that."

"Maybe, it's not important." Morse said, moving some of the Luna Wolf chess pieces, "Let's have a round of shooting."

One Randan angel died as a result.

The Emperor shook his head.

"His behavior also heightened the aliens' vigilance, and the defenses became tighter. Some aliens evolved stronger armor on the spot. Therefore, your subsequent shooting hit results will be reduced by one, and the aliens' armor protection results will be increased by one."

The Emperor described, and as he finished speaking, gray-white carapace appeared on the surface of some chess pieces. At the same time, their bodies seemed to be illuminated with a layer of holographic projection, which was used to obscure the aiming of missiles and the observation of gunners.

"Throughout the entire scene?" Morse asked. "Good, now we're all cheating."

He stretched out his hand, fingers wrapped with black cloth, pointing at an army of Iron Warriors.

"As new difficulties have arisen, their long-range fire support mission has become more difficult and the effect has been greatly reduced. Perturabo decided to change the strategy and increase the concentration of firepower. After several precision strikes, they destroyed some of the Defend against the linked Ran Dan Angel, and figure out the basic principles of the opponent's armor.

"The entire fleet is intensifying research on more suitable weapons of war - which is why our fire support has begun to play a role again. After that, our shooting hit results will be exempt from the impact of correction."

"IW-68," the Emperor said, a hint of appreciation in his voice.

"After that, led by the Word Bearers, they launched an attack. The Luna Wolves, Iron Warriors, and Word Bearers Legion worked closely together to break through the enemy's heavy defense line.

"They took joint actions, combined their respective advantages, and gradually disintegrated the enemy's defense through intensive offensive tactics.

"Horus Luperkar declared his power, dispelling all the inexplicable mourning effects caused by the battle with the Angels of Randan; Lorgar Aurelion prayed in the sept, the Word Bearers were unparalleled in their bravery - Seriously, didn't you protect them? I even had my doubts. The Iron Warriors crossed the 27th line of defense on the north side and defended along the line, allowing others to attack Randan Angel under its cover.

"In the end, they captured twelve planets - planets in the middle of Randan."

The Alien Angel's chess pieces were dismembered and shattered in the torrent of ammunition that surged forward, and were scattered deep in the starry sky.

"As a counterattack," the emperor said, pushing two chess pieces into the crowd, almost within an inch of close combat distance, "the Randan aliens turned to attack from two directions at the same time, organizing a denser battle formation."

Morse took over. "The Iron Warriors guarding the defense line did not retreat, even though Aurelion made suggestions in this regard. Part of the battalion continued to move towards the forward area, while the remaining battalion held its position, attracting the firepower of Randan's advance detachment. In Finally, an explosion occurred on this line of defense..."

He gently pressed his fingers on the top of the bunker on the table, and the building immediately collapsed and exploded into a ruin with only partial defense capabilities. The Iron Warriors and Randan aliens hidden in the building's bunker were all buried inside.

“They were in danger of self-destruction,” Morse whispered, “but they expected it.”

He lifted up a floor board, took out the Iron Warriors chess pieces one by one, put them in the palm of his hand, and gently placed them back on the table. This batch of chess pieces was seriously damaged, but only one chess piece had its head knocked off, and the rest probably had some broken arms and legs.

"They need to be fixed, see you in a few rounds."

Morse placed them temporarily on the low table nearby.

"Where is the Dark Angel?" the Emperor reminded.

"They slowed down, did not declare a charge, but organized a rally to restore the health of the Legion." Morse said. "As the Randan alien rushed towards them, Leon El'Jonson organized a perfect The counterattack first obtained the priority of attack, and then defeated a Ran Dan tribe. "

"However, a group of Randan aliens broke in," the emperor said. "Just as the war was going on, a new group of people appeared among the defeated Randan people."

He took out several silver bipedal angels and placed them inside the Ran Dan group facing the Dark Angel.

"Do you still remember the special rules for our game, my emperor?" Morse tilted his head. "To come within an inch of each other's enemies will lead to mutual destruction."

As his words fell, a cluster of dark fire swept across the table, burning the silver angels to ashes along with the other Randan angels adjacent to them.

A dice spun around, finally settling on six o'clock.

"One explosion," the Emperor said, "three fatal points of cumulative damage within six inches."

"Isn't this in a sense," Morse deliberately pretended to think about the words for a while, and then clapped his hands, "even though he is dead, he is still effective?"

The emperor lowered his eyes and did not answer.

In his silence, the decorative angel statue in the center of the table collapsed piece by piece, disappeared in the swirling dust, and returned to the invisible dust.