Vera III is not just jungle. In fact, there are many rivers and drier plateaus divided between different jungles.
In order to expand the scope of reconnaissance and early warning, Armin decided to lead the team to a higher place.
"Understood, sir."
Armin said into the communicator:
"We will continue to detect enemy movements."
When the recruit company commander turned off his communicator, Bahram was waiting expectantly, and then Armin, dressed in silver-gray armor, slowly walked across the grass towards the team of recruits waiting there.
"Any new orders for us?"
Hao Mo asked excitedly. The last time he fought with the greenskins, in his words, he couldn't even warm up.
"No, we have to continue patrolling the outside of the battlefield. The chapter leader has just eliminated a large group of greenskins, but there may still be some wandering greenskin troops nearby heading towards the jungle canyon."
"But...we haven't encountered a greenskin in half an hour."
"Don't you think this is an excellent opportunity to test your reconnaissance skills? When you become official battle brothers, you must obey the discipline to perform certain tedious but necessary tasks. Maybe you are more willing to perform them. Something else, a more honorable order?"
Armin glared at Kaoma.
"Remember, recruit, orders are not to be read! They are to be followed, remember that."
They made their way up from the rainforest to the dry land on the east side. The rocky plateau gave way to a gentle slope at the base of the dormant volcano. The recruits followed the road to higher altitudes, passing many gravel beaches on the way.
Low-hanging clouds swept over the mountainside, giving everything the color of slate.
Bahram could even hear the chirping of birds and the rustling of other animals feeding, and the sound of insects buzzing across the tops of the grass - something that even Astartes, even for so long, often amazed him. own keen senses.
From time to time there is a brief westerly breeze blowing gently, and on the leeward side of the rock shelter, thorny shrubs grow irregularly.
From time to time he could smell a smell dissipating in the air, the rotting corpses of those who had lost their fangs and claws in order to survive.
The edges of the road were littered with debris from the greenskins: piles of dung, abandoned bones and food scraps, broken teeth, rotten leather, and various other rags of unknown origin and purpose.
In a sense, the road itself is a scar left by the greenskins—the tracks of heavy footprints and hooves have pockmarked its surface and even caused cave-ins in some places.
The smell of green leather is everywhere here, lingering in the air for a long time, rushing into the nose and sticking to clothes.
Suddenly, Armin smelled something emitting a foul smell in the distance, so he waved the recruits off the road and headed north to find the source of the smell.
"Report to the company commander that something has been discovered!"
A few hundred meters away from the broad-grained rock, Haoma signaled that he had found something.
Oscar and Zod stood on both sides with their sniper rifles on guard, while the others went to investigate the grass.
The place had been trampled by many boots, no doubt a group of greenskins had passed through here.
Over the next few minutes, Armin discovered a green-skinned corpse, face down on the grass, insects buzzing around it.
Except for a few pieces of leather, the body had been stripped naked. In addition to various tattoos, the exposed skin on the arms and back was also covered with more than a dozen bloody wounds. It seemed that the green-skinned head had been attacked by many enemies.
"it stink."
Armin turned the alien over with his feet in disgust, and a stench instantly gushed out from its chest and abdomen, causing the recruits to turn around in disgust.
"Look at this!"
Armin snapped, and the recruits obeyed, covering their mouths and noses with their hands.
"What did you see?"
The recruits gathered hesitantly around the body.
"It's dead."
Hao Mo spoke boldly.
"Are you sure?"
Armin stared at him and asked.
"Yes, although the green skin's vitality is very tough, it has begun to fester. The investigation report on alien biology says... The wounds of the living green skin will not be infected. There is a certain substance in their blood. Planting stuff can stop gangrene and other blood poisoning, and they can even expose wounds directly to strong radiation, which is one of the reasons why they are such dangerous enemies, they can survive in almost any environment without fear of injury."
"very good."
Armin looked at the others.
"anything else?"
"Its teeth are missing."
Robin spoke up as the recruit bent closer to the creature's face and pulled its lips apart, exposing the exposed gums.
"Not even a tooth left."
"So who took the tooth?"
"The greenskins have no economy and no concept of currency, but they still engage in transactions. In addition to bartering, their most common equivalent is teeth."
Robin replied calmly.
"And all the weapons on it were stripped away. In addition, it looked like it had been killed, rather than being plundered after it fell down and died."
"There was a strange layer of substance on the wound."
Bahram went on to say that he took out his short knife and scraped off a layer of something from the wound on the green skin's chest. The white fibrous substance immediately stuck to the blade.
"spore."
Armin nodded in approval of Bahram's discovery.
"You will find it on all dead green-skinned creatures, whether they are two-legged or four-legged. Once these spores seep into the earth, there will be hundreds of times more greenskins than there are now in the next year. This is Greenskins can become the real cause of galactic pollution! So the bodies of greenskins must be burned to ensure that the spores do not spread!
“Are these spores the tissue cells of green skin, or reproductive products like plant pollen?”
one of the new recruits asked.
But Armin did not answer, but looked at the winding road through the trampled grass.
Maybe greenskins, or a group of orcs, wandered here and were attacked.
After the robbery, the survivors returned to the main force, which may have some important meaning.
"Continue patrolling east, we'll follow this road until dark."
"What are these spores for, Captain?"
The recruit asked again as the team crossed an uneven patch of waist-deep grass.
"I don't know, I'm not a biological sage."
Armin replied impatiently.
"But one thing is for sure, the aliens reproduce in various ways, and it will always be necessary to eradicate the traces of their existence after victory: their corpses, their buildings, their weapons, their culture! Only by completely destroying these will we not bring regrets to the future, do you understand?"
"clear!"
The recruit then looked at the dead greenskin with disgust.
When the clouds covered the sun, their team set off again.
