[Estimated time until the next battle: two hours.]
Looking at the large screen popping up on the gameboard, Caleb had already turned his gaze to the STC Construction Template rewarded by the system.
Of course, the most crucial thing was this Lasgun in his hand, Actually, the entire design of the rifle looked a bit crude, but the battery removed from the magazine was quite extraordinary.
A battery the size of a palm directly provided a 200-round magazine for the Lasgun in his hand.
The high-energy laser fired from within could even melt steel directly.
One must know that various countries are only just beginning research into laser weapons; current lasers are not only bulky but also low in power.
They simply couldn't compare to the laser weapon in his hand.
Moreover, such a small battery was actually equivalent to 200 rounds of ammunition, This directly increased the fire density and the amount of ammunition an individual soldier could carry.
To reduce the weight for soldiers, various countries today have even used plastic casings to lighten bullets.
However, the improvement in this area is still not significant.
After all, physical bullets simply cannot break through basic physical limitations.
"Though this is a good thing, it doesn't seem easy to hand over!"
"The police definitely won't handle this, and this thing isn't even considered a firearm; it wouldn't even trigger the standards for illegal possession of firearms!"
"This energy magazine battery, however, could be directly applied for a civilian patent, a battery with such high energy density would likely see development in other areas as well!"
"As for the weapon, let's see."
"Even if I hand it over, it probably won't attract attention immediately; some might even suspect I'm a scammer!"
"When the time is ripe, someone will naturally come looking for me!"
Caleb thought to himself; he wasn't in a hurry to get rich like other transmigrators.
Getting rich is something that happens naturally when conditions are right, not something that can be forced by rushing.
The only thing to do now is to put the opportunity out there and see who takes it, As for rushing to open a factory for mass-producing Lasgun batteries now...
Better to consider the consequences of such a battery exploding first!
Removing the magazine from the Lasgun, Caleb then tossed the 'fire poker' aside.
As long as the magazine and the firearm are stored separately, there's a high probability that accidental discharge won't occur.
He refocused his gaze on the gameboard.
By now, all of Armageddon was engulfed in the flames of war.
Not just this hive city, the vast majority of worlds had already suffered various degrees of demonic invasion.
Located on the barren wastelands, several Astra Militarum regiments had already organized defensive lines here.
The Planetary Governor had already sent out a distress signal, while the Inquisition also called for Grey Knights to come and support.
For a moment, all of Armageddon was precarious, they had to withstand the first wave of attack and wait for reinforcements to arrive.
The good news was that because Lion was still holding his ground.
The current Soladis hive city hadn't exploded like in the original story, and the vast majority of the population inside hadn't been sacrificed to the Blood God like in the original plot.
Therefore, the advance of the demonic forces was relatively slow, the Chaos cultists hadn't immediately swept across the entire planet as they had in the original timeline.
However, the Gate of the Red Angel located in realspace had already become a spawning point for Chaos.
A steady stream of demons, including Chaos war machines, would pass through this veil of reality into the Materium.
The Chaos army, numbering in the tens of thousands, was constantly growing, and mixed within them, the World Eaters and Traitor Astartes warbands were becoming more and more numerous.
When two full-strength warbands joined the fray, Lion understood, relying solely on the single Grand Company in his hands was no longer enough to counter this.
Late on the night of the sixth day, the soldiers on the defensive line did not receive the long-awaited rest they expected.
Instead, the Political Commissars behind them urged them to keep their eyes fixed on the front line; even with dark circles and exhaustion, they didn't dare to relax and doze off.
"Quickly, everyone get ready! The Angels of the Emperor tell us that the enemy is about to launch an attack on our positions!"
"If you want to survive, pick up your weapons and use your firepower to crush the heretics ahead!"
The political Commissars guarding the front even directly commanded the soldiers, they stood right on the positions, cheering the men on.
Having survived so many battles, none of the surviving political Commissars were cowards; the real cowards had long since fallen in the bright red Blood Realm.
On the defensive line, even though the enemy hadn't launched an attack, sporadic gunfire could still be heard occasionally.
But just by listening to the sound, one knew that some Political Commissars had already begun executing their own people.
This wasn't because these steadfast soldiers were fleeing, but because some people's minds couldn't take the strain and were being influenced by the power of Chaos.
A sticky aura constantly spread through the air; this cloyingly sweet scent of blood cast a shadow over everyone on the battlefield.
In this battle with an extremely high mortality rate, no one dared to be negligent, because once they were, what they sacrificed would most likely be their own lives.
"Blood for the Blood God, Skulls for the Skull Throne!"
Once again, Chaos launched a charge, this time the number of attackers was far greater than before.
The front of the position was instantly lit up with lasers of various colors, and weapons of different calibers began pouring fire toward the enemy ranks.
The Armageddon Steel Legion was to hold this defensive line with over 20,000 men, while the enemies they faced were likely dozens of times their number.
Fortunately, the Steel Legion wasn't without sufficiently powerful weapons.
During this time, with the help of the Tech-priests in the rear, this mortal legion had also managed to scrounge up some good gear.
Sixteen Basilisk Self-Propelled Artillery pieces were lined up, pouring their heavy shells toward the enemy positions.
The shells accurately slammed into the enemy ranks 50 kilometers away, subsequently, the shell fragments instantly wiped out a large number of Chaos cultists.
The power of the shells inside blasted a deep pit a full five meters wide into the ground, the surrounding area was also filled with various high-temperature thermal slags.
Those guys at Games Workshop, whose primary school math must have been a failure, wrote the range of this thing as 15 kilometers.
Even earlier versions were even shorter.
In reality, the firing range of truck-mounted guns in various countries generally exceeds 30 kilometers.
Looking at that blasted crater, Caleb developed extremely serious doubts about Games Workshop's mathematical abilities.
Well, the compulsory math education for the British 'useless' was indeed trashy to the core.
His own uncle in the UK had complained about this point before...
"Sigh, whatever!"
"Maybe the quality of weapons on Armageddon is just better?"
"Maybe their Basilisks can hit 50 kilometers, while the self-propelled artillery produced on other planets can only hit 15 kilometers!"
Caleb couldn't be bothered to nitpick these details, one could only say that except for the shells, the stats of this piece of junk might not even be as good as domestic truck-mounted howitzers.
If you threw the design blueprints of this thing to a weapon design bureau, they'd look down on it, even if they were interested, they'd probably only be interested in the engine and the tech inside.
The roaring artillery fire soon played its role in blocking the enemy's advance.
Combined with the nearby firing lines, this defensive line, which looked much like a World War I trench, actually managed to hold.
Behind the front-line positions were countless urban block defenses, and these block positions even had heavy weapons deployed.
The previous Astartes attack had taught this legion a great lesson, therefore, their defensive deployments were becoming increasingly similar to those of World War II or even the Cold War era.
"Not bad, this Commander actually has a brain and is willing to improve!"
"But facing Astartes like this will probably only serve as a delay, after all, the stats of the Astartes themselves are much more flexible and annoying than traditional armored units!"
Looking at those dense red dots, Caleb only felt his scalp go numb.
To be honest, this scale of battle had already exceeded his command limit, right now, he was doing nothing more than reporting information to Lion El'Jonson.
And then letting the Little Lion handle it herself.
"It looks like the enemy is planning to launch a general offensive!"
"Given the current scale of the battle, we cannot stay in the hive city forever!"
Lion frowned deeply; clearly, the current scale of combat had already exceeded the upper limit of what his strength could handle.
He didn't have many Astartes on hand and simply couldn't continue to expand the scale of the battle.
Even if they guarded to the death, being slowly ground down by the opponent was only a matter of time.
Connecting to the command communication channel, Lion then issued an order to Colonel Bokant.
"Colonel Bokant!"
"Prepare to organize the evacuation of the citizens inside the hive city!"
"Even if they die, they must be far away from the Blood Realm; we cannot let the people die upon the altars of blood!"
"But?" Colonel Bokant also saw the dense sand table; he understood that the command ability of the young woman before him was already beyond anything he could imagine.
"If we do this, it will force the citizens to cross the sub-continent of the wasteland; across such a vast distance, I'm afraid the vast majority of citizens simply won't be able to make it out alive!"
"I know!"
Lion's voice was heavy as he emphasized again: "That is why I said, even if they die, they cannot die on the altars of the heretics!"
"As many as can survive will survive; the only thing you can do is let the people out, and we will buy time!"
"As for how many can make it out alive, that is no longer a question we can consider!"
Colonel Bokant looked at the map in silence; after leaving the hive city, the nearest human settlement was at least a thousand kilometers away.
And that town was simply not enough to support such a massive migration.
And the hive city beyond that was already nearly 5,000 kilometers away.
Under the continuous fighting, only over a billion people remained inside the hive city.
Even without counting the scavengers at the bottom, it was conservatively estimated that several hundred million people would need to evacuate.
"I understand, give me half a day!"
"I will open the rear evacuation tracks and let the people evacuate!"
Colonel Bokant seemed to have made some kind of decision; he seemed to already know his own fate as he walked toward the core district.
There, he issued the final order to his subordinates, which was to follow the instructions of the Dark Angels Chapter Master and strictly execute his orders.
In an instant, a large number of the low-level population heard the news that the hive city was about to fall.
They were like madmen, all rushing toward the southern gates; the moment several gates opened, a massive population surged out like a tide toward the nearby wasteland.
A vast array of various transport vehicles sped across this cold and lonely wasteland.
From large hover-cars to small, tattered motorcycles pieced together from parts—everything was there.
But the vast majority of the lower-level residents could only run on their own two legs.
Their frail bodies simply couldn't run very far, some hadn't even run for long before dying in stampedes.
"Sigh, what a shame!"
"These skin-and-bone bodies are simply one living corpse after another!"
"The people of the Imperium living like this is truly beyond saving..."
Caleb looked at these lower-level citizens constantly fleeing for their lives, his heart couldn't help but feel sorrow for their fate.
The Primarchs' loyalty to the Emperor lasted less than a thousand years before rebellion broke out.
This was far inferior to the time the Iron Men remained loyal to humanity; if Caleb were to say it, it would be better to just open up AI technology.
If the Imperium were even slightly more automated, it wouldn't be mocked by those Tau Imperium neighbors who had only recently evolved.
Never mind how many hidden dangers AI has; the Ancestor Cores of the Leagues of Votann and the Tau Imperium's AI can both be used, which is already a slap in the Imperium's face.
Time passed minute by minute, Caleb saw that the pieces in his hand were also constantly increasing!
That's right, the Terminators eventually suffered combat losses.
Even though they had extremely thick armor, the combat intensity was simply too high, and losses were inevitable.
One, two, three...
As a Terminator squad was wiped out in a brilliant explosion.
Caleb's hand held a few more broken pieces.
These pieces all had different degrees of damage; the better ones might look acceptable after a repaint and some touch-ups.
But the worse ones could really only become materials for kitbashers.
"Damn it, why hasn't the sun risen yet!"
"What do you mean only two hours have passed? I feel like this one night has been incredibly long!"
While Lion was personally on the battlefield, he even had to command the battle, he could only use his brain to memorize the enemy positions sent to him by Caleb.
Although his memory was excellent and every tactical deployment remained incredibly precise, this act of calculating the battlefield while fighting others at the same time...
...was simply too much pressure on his brain. He didn't know how Guilliman managed such things.
"Motherfucker!"
"To hell with commanding, charge!"
"Detonate the hive city core as soon as it's dawn!"
"I want those damn heretics to get nothing!"
Finally, under the continuous strain of battle command, Lion chose to go on a hissing charge.
Watching his elite 'cubs' being surrounded and devoured by the enemy was simply too painful for his as a Primarch.
Clearly knowing the enemy's deployment direction, clearly knowing the physical condition of his cubs...
...yet as a Primarch, he could only watch like an incompetent husband as the children were eaten.
This was simply the enemy's mockery of her, blatant mockery.
He had to personally take the field and cut down these damn traitors, as for the rear positions.
Just blow them up along with the hive city after dawn.
When the first ray of starlight swept across the land, the seven-day defense mission was finally over.
The panacea Caleb had been looking forward to arrived as scheduled, but while issuing the prize, the system also announced the next stage of the mission.
[Blow up Soladis hive city and complete the Armageddon campaign mission.]
[Upon completion of this mission, 2000 Deployment Points will be added, at the same time, you can directly reach out and capture pieces from the losing side.]
"Whoa!"
Caleb slapped the table, instantly becoming interested!
If he waited for a key enemy unit to appear and then directly snatched it away, wouldn't that be wonderful?
When the time comes, let Khorne experience what it's like to be a cuck husband by snatching his Greater Daemon right in front of the Blood God's face!