I, Superman, the Supreme Commander

Chapter 212: Reconnaissance Operations and Brutal Strategy

"Congratulations, rookies. You are now officially Ember Claw recruits."

On the battle deck of the Flamingo, Second Captain Julius briefly briefed the recruits on the current situation of the Persephone hive world.

"...That's the situation. I won't say any more nonsense."

"You will go to the armory later to collect the new recruits' equipment and start adaptation training."

"I'll only give you two hours. In two hours, the spaceship will arrive at the battlefield and everyone will immediately join the battle!"

The three hundred recruits were divided into thirty teams, each with ten people. They would be led by a leadership team of three Astartes veterans to enter different hives to perform reconnaissance missions.

The Flamingo will make a decision based on the results of the reconnaissance: if the hive can still be saved and the ground forces may still be able to recapture the hive, then the Astartes will be dispatched to support the battlefield and organize mortal forces to fight.

If there is no hope, conduct orbital bombardment to completely destroy the enemy and its nest!

As for the survivors in the hive, I'm sorry, the war between humans and aliens is so cruel.

For the imperial army, necessary sacrifices were acceptable in order to achieve victory.

Whether this is necessary depends entirely on the commander.

Sometimes, in order to achieve victory, a dozen planets and trillions of human beings can be abandoned.

For example, sometimes in order to prevent certain strategic locations from falling into the hands of the enemy, the empire would blow up an entire planet, along with the billions of humans on the planet.

Sometimes some planets are not even invaded by the enemy, but are just on the enemy's invasion route, and the empire does not have the spare energy to defend the planet.

In order to prevent the planet from falling into the hands of the enemy and thus strengthening the enemy's power, the Empire will first exterminate the planet and its inhabitants.

——Just to defend the city and clear the countryside, they can brutally kill tens of billions of their own kind.

According to incomplete statistics, in many wars with aliens, it was not the aliens that killed the most humans, but the human army itself...

These are an important reason for the constant rebellion within the Empire, including many human armies that have joined Chaos. They believe that the Empire is too cruel and cold-blooded, without humanity, and can sacrifice civilians at will in order to protect itself, and is no better than demons or aliens.

Therefore, they would rather surrender to Chaos, or break away from the Empire and establish themselves as kings, or even join the alien forces.

The Ash Claws were one of them. They were defectors who broke away from the Empire but did not defect to other factions. In the eyes of the Empire, they were probably the equivalent of bandits who ruled the mountains.

But sometimes the bandits often have more conscience and higher moral bottom line than the government troops.

There are many cases in history where officials and soldiers became corrupt and bandits turned into rebels.

Send out elite troops to conduct reconnaissance, destroy the fallen nests, and reduce the size of the plague troops as much as possible. This is the best tactic that the Ash Claw Second Company, which has limited personnel, can adopt.

Because their small number of people filling the ground battlefield cannot change the situation at all. The correct strategy is to rely on the advantage of air supremacy and destroy the enemy's living forces on a large scale.

After receiving Persephone's request for help, the 2nd Company of the Ash Claws quickly assembled all Astartes warriors and recalled three hundred new recruits.

The Flamingo reached Persephone at top speed.

The recruits were equipped with power armor and weapons specially made for Astartes recruits. These equipment were roughly equivalent to the customized equipment equipped by the elite troops of the Imperial Guard. They were not as powerful as the equipment of the Astartes, but were significantly better than the general equipment of the Imperial Guard.

The power armor can support long-term combat in a vacuum environment. The strength enhancement system inside the power armor can double the strength of new recruits and greatly reduce physical exertion during combat.

Light bolt weapons such as bolt pistols and bolt submachine guns are too weak for Astartes and too powerful for mortals, so they are just right for recruits.

Each recruit is also equipped with a finely crafted chainsword, ensuring that the recruits have an overwhelming advantage in close combat.

When the Flamingo landed in Persephone's space orbit, ninety Ash Claw Astartes monks and three hundred Astartes recruits had already put on their armor and weapons, carried their ammunition and supplies, and sat in the drop capsule.

(Before leaving, the commander of the Ash Claws transferred soldiers from other companies to fill the gap in the Second Company.)

"set off!"

At the command of the Second Captain, thirty ships loaded with Space Marines were fired from the bottom of the battleship like cannonballs, and were fired towards the surface of the planet at a speed comparable to that of hypersonic weapons breaking through the atmosphere again.

With the precise calculations of the technicians and the Thinker system, the thirty airdrop pods all arrived at their respective destinations accurately and landed with a roar on the open space in the spire area.

"Everyone, search for the resistance in the Spire area."

In Hive No. 101, three Astartes veterans led ten recruits to search the spire area.

Theoretically, the military force in the top area is the strongest in the entire hive. If there are still resistance forces here, they are most likely here.

"The elevator is broken."

"Kratos, take three men to repair the generator."

"Reno, see if you can use the communications equipment here to contact the resistance headquarters."

"Others, follow me to clear out the threats on this floor."

Due to his outstanding performance in the recruit trial, Quito was given the privilege of leading a team alone to carry out the mission.

Although there were only two soldiers, Kratos had no complaints, because he knew that the three-person team was the most basic combat unit of the Astartes, and was the combat method that could best bring out the advantages of the Astartes' elite soldiers.

"Stay alert and watch out for corners."

Kratos calmly reminded his team members and led them to move quickly down the steel stairs.

As soon as they entered the lower level, they were warmly welcomed by a group of plague zombies.

"Bang bang bang!"

Accurate single-shot bursts, every shot is a headshot, and every bullet can kill an enemy.

After the number of zombies dropped from more than a hundred to more than ten, Kratos ordered a ceasefire.

"Save ammunition."

As he said this, he rushed forward with his combat blade in hand and quickly dealt with the remaining zombies.

The three of them moved on.

The road was littered with mutilated corpses of all ages and genders, blood and pus were everywhere, and the stench of corruption was so strong that it could be smelled even through the fully enclosed helmet.

The intact corpses turned into undead zombies, pouncing on living people when they saw them.

The three of them moved towards the target while eliminating the interfering zombies, and soon arrived at the target power station.

A ghostly shadow flashed in the darkness, and a soldier raised his gun to shoot, but Kratos raised the muzzle of the gun and the shot missed.

"No, don't kill me!"

There were screams of terror in the darkness.

"Look carefully, it's a living person."

Kratos said to the warrior. Order those hiding in the darkness to show themselves.

Two men in engineer uniforms shrank out, their faces filled with fear.

"Are you engineers from the power station?"

“Yes…yes.”

"Can you fix it? I need you to help me restore the power here."

"Yes, sure. The fuse is blown, just replace it."

"Act now!"

"Yes Yes!"

Facing the threat of the gun, the two men took action. At this time, the roar of zombies and the sound of chaotic running came from the darkness.

"They're coming!"

"Ahhh! I don't want to die!"

"Shut up!"

"Get to work! Leave those monsters to us!"

Flames and gunshots bloomed in the darkness, and the roar of chainsaws and the sound of flesh being torn echoed in the empty room.

Hiss.

There was a flash of electric sparks, and the upper elevator regained power and started running again with a roar.