Hearing the commotion, Andrew's previously calm expression changed, and he immediately lunged toward the communications station.
"All units, open fire immediately upon spotting unknown green creatures! Repeat! Open fire immediately! Do not let them get close! Deploy the Heavy bolters and Chimeras at once, hurry, hurry, hurry! It's fucking Greenhide Orks!"
Andrew's roar echoed throughout the command post, sending everyone into motion at once.
After shouting out his orders, Andrew grabbed the sergeant major. "Take Camelot, the Salamander Scouts, the Heavy Firepower Platoon, and the Anti-Aircraft Platoon to the front immediately. Organize a firepower counterattack at once. Don't let a single Greenhide Ork get close, understand?!"
"Yes!" The sergeant major had no idea why Andrew had suddenly become so agitated, but his excellent training made him carry out the order immediately.
The sergeant major had barely left when Andrew threw himself back at the communications station. "Mortar Platoon, deploy your positions immediately and prepare to support the front line, understand? Move!"
The communications sergeant watched as the company commander did all his work for him and was left rather dumbfounded.
Seeing his blank look, Andrew's anger flared. He rapped him on the head. "Hurry up and organize communications between all platoons. Shorten the intervals between scheduled check-ins, and report to me immediately if anyone loses contact!"
"Yes!" The communications sergeant immediately threw himself into his work.
Andrew looked around the company command post and found that everyone was already busy, having entered a combat-ready state. Only then did he relax slightly.
The battle in which he had "earned merit" had been against Greenhide Orks. Back then, an Ork boy had broken through the fire blockade and charged into the trench, hacking down half a platoon with a battered cleaver right in front of him.
He had only managed to kill that Ork boy by playing dead and launching a surprise attack, yet its final counterattack had still chopped off his entire left arm.
After that, he had been left behind on Badab by the Astra Militarum Regiment in the name of "meritorious service."
In reality, no one had cared about him, and there had been no medical assistance. He had relied on a little combat experience and sheer ruthlessness to survive in the Underhive.
Fortunately, he had kept himself clean. All he wanted was to save enough money for a prosthetic limb, and he had not done anything beastly. That was why he had been accepted into the Auxilia.
Then, once inside, he had been fitted with a prosthetic limb, force-fed a dose of Vitamin serum and a mouthful of Gene-seed, given an Exoskeleton and a Bolter, then thrown into the 6th Division and made a company commander.
While chatting with other soldiers, he discovered that this treatment was not special treatment reserved for Astra Militarum veterans like him. It was the basic treatment everyone received.
That was why he had complete confidence in his entire company's will to fight.
But no matter how strong their fighting spirit was, they could not possibly fight Ork boys in close combat with only their Exoskeletons. If the Greenhide Orks broke through the fire blockade, his small force would be wiped out in an instant.
Based on his past experience, Andrew's impression of the Greenhide Orks was still centered on their numerical advantage. That was why he had been so anxious.
The Abandoned waterway was over two hundred meters in diameter, with a complex network of pipes surrounding it. With his firepower advantage, he was confident in dealing with ordinary Xenos and Mutants, but against Greenhide Orks, the stuff of infantry nightmares, he could only feel the phantom pain in his left hand returning.
Just then, the company political commissar, who had gone to inspect the front line earlier, rushed into the command room.
He strode quickly up to Andrew. "What's the situation now?"
Only after speaking did he finally catch his breath.
There were more than six hundred meters between the company command post and the front line. Hearing the gunfire, he had sprinted back in under a minute.
"Greenhide Orks. Judging from the noise, there are quite a few of them," Andrew answered immediately. Then he suddenly realized something. "Good, you're back. I need to report to battalion command—no, directly to regiment command—and request reinforcements. What do you think?"
The political commissar froze for a moment. "Is that necessary? Why not report to battalion command first and have the 3rd Company behind us coordinate some personnel to come over? There's no need to report over their heads, is there?"
Although the Auxilia did not have the warlord habit of treating the soldiers under their command as private troops, reporting over one's superior also implied distrust of that superior. It was a very serious accusation. Unless the situation was extremely urgent, it was better to avoid doing that.
The political commissar did not think the situation was that serious yet, so he suggested discussing it with battalion command first.
"The Greenhide Orks are already charging us, and you say it's unnecessary?!" Andrew became a little emotional. "If the defensive line is breached, we don't even have enough men to fill their teeth, and you say it's unnecessary?!"
"But the battle situation has already stabilized. Haven't you noticed that the gunfire has weakened?" The political commissar gestured for him to calm down and assess the battlefield situation.
Only then did Andrew notice that the gunfire and cannon fire had gradually weakened, leaving only scattered shots.
His heart tightened. He instinctively assumed the defensive line had been breached, then hurried to the communications station and ordered every platoon to report immediately.
"First Platoon, all clear. Greenhide Orks eliminated. Burning the battlefield."
"Second Platoon, all clear. Greenhide Orks eliminated..."
Every front-line unit replied as normal, leaving Andrew rooted to the spot.
Greenhide Orks would not use that kind of deception, nor could they speak human language. In other words, the front line had already wiped out every Greenhide Ork in that brief span of time.
Only then did the political commissar pat him on the shoulder. "Calm down. The Auxilia is not the Astra Militarum. Our firepower advantage is immense."
"Sorry... I was wrong." Andrew then realized that if he had reported over his superiors' heads, disrupted regiment command's deployment, and then discovered that the Greenhide Orks had only made a big show of nothing, losing his command would have been the least of his worries. He might even have ended up before a military court.
"Not a big problem. Just pay attention next time." The political commissar walked over to the communications officer. "Communications officer, connect me to battalion command. Greenhide Orks have been discovered, numbers unknown. Request battalion command support, and state that we hope to continue reporting upward to request support from an Astartes company."
"Uh, didn't you say..." Having only just calmed down from his earlier agitation, Andrew's mind was still a little muddled.
The political commissar shrugged. "Not reporting over our superiors' heads doesn't mean we don't report at all. I don't want to lead our troops into a meat grinder against Greenhide Orks. Chapter Master Huron said we should play to our advantages: use numbers against fewer enemies, strength against weakness, superiority against inferiority, and avoid feeding troops into battle piecemeal. So why not call for backup? The Astartes Brothers haven't had any urgent tasks lately, either."
"Oh, right... I'll go take a look at the front line first. I'll leave command to you for now." Andrew took his guards and prepared to go clear his head at the front.
"Stay safe." The political commissar waved him off.
By the time Andrew reached First Platoon's position, a new wave of Ork boys had already charged forward.
The rising and falling cries of "Waaagh" were like an alarm clock, sending the soldiers who had been burning the Ork corpses scrambling back into cover.
A vast Green Tide surged out from the depths of the Deep Hive. Andrew estimated there were more than a hundred Ork boys, along with a large number of Gretchin.
The good news was that aside from a single Scrap bike, there were no other Vehicles. These Orks also seemed somewhat scrawny, perhaps because they had gone too long without fighting.
The Scrap bike took the lead in charging toward the Auxilia's position, its Ork rider waving a cleaver and screaming wildly.
Once it entered the two-hundred-meter range, the Auxilia opened fire.
Before you continue