Yarrick was now observing the battle for Hades Hive from a bunker in a temporary position on the outskirts of the Dehalan Industrial Zone. As a senior commissar, he had no need to visit the front personally, but if Yarrick had learned anything most important over his long military career, it was how to maintain his soldiers' high morale.
At the Schola Progenium, they taught you how to handle relations between soldiers and officers, but unfortunately, many commissars preferred the simpler punitive approach to maintaining morale: shooting cowards and punishing violators of discipline.
Yarrick had seen quite a few such stubborn commissars and had tried to teach them his own experience as a commissar. Unfortunately, although these green youngsters always said all the right things, few actually changed in private—until they were blown skyward by friendly artillery fire amid the chaos of battle.
By staying on the front line, Yarrick hoped not only to appear before the soldiers and inspire them, but to let them know their commander had not fled. He was, like them, fearlessly scorning the enemy's artillery fire. From the current situation, this action had proven highly effective. One only had to look at the soldiers excitedly saluting Commissar Yarrick from their trenches to see how they felt.
The entire upper surface of Hades Hive had been flooded by the Ork tide, and the Dehalan Industrial Zone—the only area they had failed to dismantle—had become a crucial point both sides were determined to seize.
In their battle against the Titan Legion, the Orks had lost nearly all their heavy armored units. Gu Juji had become history as well. They desperately lacked the materials needed to sustain their war industries in the rear.
The red blocks on the holographic map represented the Ork forces and their directions of