Orks Attacking, but the Opponents Are Little Astartes

Hearing this commotion, Andrew, whose expression had previously been calm and relaxed, changed color and instantly dashed over to the communications console.

"All units, open fire the moment you spot green unidentified creatures! Repeat! Open fire immediately! Do not let them close in! Deploy heavy bolters and Chimeras right now, move, move, move! They're f***ing Orks!"

Andrew's roar echoed throughout the command post, instantly snapping everyone into action.

Finished roaring his orders, Andrew grabbed the sergeant by the collar: "Take Camelot, the Salamander Scout, the heavy fire squad, and the anti-air squad to the front line immediately. Organize a counterattack right away and don't let a single Ork get close, do you hear?!"

"Sir!" The sergeant did not know why Andrew had suddenly grown so frantic, but his fine training and discipline caused him to execute the order at once.

The moment the sergeant left, Andrew lunged back toward the communications console: "Mortar squad, deploy your positions immediately and prepare to provide front-line support, do you hear? Fast!"

The communications officer watched the company commander do his entire job for him, looking somewhat dazed.

Seeing the man's vacant expression, Andrew felt a surge of anger and flicked him on the forehead: "Quickly organize communication with each platoon, shorten the intervals for scheduled contact, and report to me the moment anyone loses connection!"

"Sir!" The communications officer immediately threw himself into his work.

Andrew raised his head to survey the company command, noticing that everyone in the post was already busy and had entered a combat state, which allowed him to relax just a fraction.

The combat that earned him his "meritorious service" had been fought against Orks. At the time, an Ork boy had broken through the firepower blockade, charged into a trench, and used a ragged chopper to hack half a platoon to death right in front of him.

He had only managed to kill that Ork boy by playing dead and launching a sneak attack, and even then, its dying counter-attack had lopped off his entire left arm.

Afterward, under the pretext of his "meritorious service," he was left behind in Badab by the Astra Militarum.

As it turned out, absolutely no one cared about him, and there was no medical aid. He survived in the underhive solely on a bit of combat experience and a willingness to fight viciously.

Fortunately, he had kept his nose clean, thinking only of saving up for a prosthetic limb and committing no atrocities, which led to him being absorbed into the Auxilia.

Once inside, he was immediately fitted with a prosthetic limb, forced to swallow a gulp of vitamin serum, had a mouthful of gene-seed shoved down his throat, and was thrown into the 6th Division wearing an exoskeleton and shouldering a bolter, rising to the rank of company commander.

Chatting casually with other soldiers, he discovered that this kind of treatment was not some special privilege reserved for Astra Militarum veterans, but rather the baseline treatment for everyone.

Because of this, he held full confidence in the entire company's fighting spirit.

Yet no matter how strong their fighting spirit, they could hardly engage in melee combat against Ork boys relying merely on exoskeletons. The moment the Orks broke through the firepower blockade, his handful of men would likely be wiped out instantly.

Drawing from past experience, Andrew's impression of Orks was still stuck on their numerical advantage, which was why he was in such a panic.

The abandoned waterway was over two hundred meters in diameter and featured a complex network of pipes all around. Relying on their firepower advantage, he felt confident dealing with ordinary xenos and mutants, but facing Ork boys—who deserved the title of an infantryman's nightmare—he only felt his left hand starting to suffer from phantom pain.

Right at that moment, the company commissar, who had previously gone to inspect the front lines, rushed into the command room.

He strode up to Andrew: "What's the situation now?"

Only then did he pause to catch his breath.

The company command and the front lines were over six hundred meters apart; upon hearing the sound of gunfire, he had run all the way back in well under a minute.

"It's Orks, and judging by the sound, there are quite a few of them," Andrew replied immediately, then snapped out of it. "Just in time—you're back. I need to report to the battalion headquarters, no, directly report to the regimental headquarters and request support. What's your opinion?"

The commissar paused: "Is that necessary? Why not report to the battalion headquarters first and have them coordinate a portion of personnel from 3rd Company behind us? There's no need to bypass the chain of command, is there?"

Although the Auxilia lacked petty warlord habits and did not treat their subordinates as private armies, bypassing the chain of command also implied a lack of trust in superiors and constituted a severe accusation. Barring extremely urgent situations, such a maneuver was best kept to a minimum.

The commissar felt the situation wasn't that dire, so he advised discussing it with the battalion headquarters first.

"The Orks are already charging right up, and you say it's not necessary?!" Andrew's emotions ran somewhat high. "In case the defense line is breached, our meager force won't even be enough between their teeth, and you say it's not necessary?!"

"But the battle has already stabilized. Didn't you notice the gunfire has quieted down?" The commissar gestured for him to calm down and sense the battlefield situation.

Only then did Andrew notice that the roar of gunfire had gradually faded away, leaving only sporadic cracks of fire.

His heart tightened. Subconsciously assuming the defense line had broken, he strode over to the communications console and ordered every platoon to report immediately.

"First platoon, all normal. Ork boys eliminated, currently burning the battlefield."

"Second platoon, all normal. Ork boys eliminated..."

Every front-line unit replied routinely, leaving Andrew frozen in place.

Ork boys were incapable of staging such a cleanup, nor could they speak human words. That meant the front lines had cleared out every single Ork in this brief span of time.

Only then did the commissar pat him on the shoulder: "Calm down. The Auxilia is not the Astra Militarum; our firepower advantage is massive."

"Sorry... I was wrong." Andrew then realized that had he directly bypassed the chain of command and disrupted regimental deployment, only to find out the Orks were all bark and bite, losing his rank would be the least of his worries—he might well face a military tribunal.

"Minor issue, just watch it next time." The commissar approached the communications officer: "Operator, connect to battalion headquarters. Orks spotted, numbers unknown, requesting battalion support, while expressing the desire to escalate the report upward and request support from the Astartes company."

"Uh, didn't you just say..." Having just snapped out of his previous emotional state, Andrew's head felt a bit muddled.

The commissar shrugged: "Not bypassing the chain of command doesn't mean not reporting at all. I have no desire to lead troops into a meat grinder with Orks. Chapter Master Huron himself said to leverage our advantages, fight superiority with inferiority, strength with weakness, and excellence with mediocrity, and to avoid getting dragged into a piecemeal war of attrition. So why not call for reinforcements? The Astartes brothers don't have any pressing missions lately anyway."

"Oh, oh... Then I'll head to the front lines to take a look, command is temporarily handed over to you." Andrew led his guards, intending to go forward and clear his head.

"Watch your safety." The commissar waved a hand.

By the time Andrew reached the first platoon's position, a fresh wave of Ork boys came charging forward.

The rising and falling cries of "WAAAGH!" acted like an alarm clock, causing the soldiers currently burning Ork corpses to scramble straight back into their cover.

A vast, churning green tide poured forth from the depths of the deep hive. Visually estimating, Andrew projected there were over a hundred Ork boys, alongside a massive quantity of Gretchin.

The good news was that aside from a single scrap bike, there were no other vehicles, and these Orks appeared somewhat scrawny, likely due to a prolonged lack of fighting.

The scrap bike spearheaded the charge toward the Auxilia's position, the Ork atop it brandishing a chopper and screaming wildly.

Once it entered a two-hundred-meter range, the Auxilia opened fire.