The Astropath director frowned at the Catachan's name.
"There's not much we can do with those Catachan barbarians."
Sherazade's words were cold, but it wasn't that she underestimated Colonel Stryker and his soldiers, but that recent events gave her some kind of terrible premonition.
It wasn't just physical, she had nightmares and a bad feeling in her stomach for months, which started when she first received a long-distance distress call from close space. Signal.
All these signals were muttering that the Star Torch was missing, which was ridiculous, but fragments of the message kept coming.
Then the transport ship that was supposed to arrive on time never showed up.
Nothing like this has ever happened to the planet Pavilion since records began - more than 5,000 standard years.
And in the past month, unknown lights have begun to appear in the night sky. First they flickered like shooting stars, and then there were strange green and purple ripples, which made people unable to sleep. Somehow, they could even penetrate the closed blinds. The situation began. It looks very much like the universe has folded in on itself.
"Okay, let's all go back to our respective posts. That's the end of today's meeting. We don't need any formality... Secretary, once Colonel Stryker returns, please notify me immediately. I need to talk to him alone." Let’s talk.”
Everyone started to take action, but only the Astropath representative still seemed indifferent and indifferent.
"What can you expect from him, Governor, he's just a soldier."
Adisak turned around.
"Don't you think we're going to be fighting soon?"
The Astropath didn't respond, just shook his head.
"Ma'am, the perseverance and bravery of Catachan soldiers are rarely matched in the empire. I believe in them and I believe that Attica can survive this disaster."
"hope so."
————————
"Something's going to happen in this damn place."
'Death' Stryker, the commander of the 183rd Catachan Regiment, pondered the recent events painfully as his second-in-command, Dax the Hedgehog, sat with him on the rickety floating barge, passing through The death jungle and death swamp are all over the planet Paihua.
As usual, the window was blurred by the endless wind.
From the appearance, there is no doubt that Colonel Stryker is a standard Catachan man, with a rock-hard face, muscles swollen like an Astartes, and a long scar on his face. In one inch, you can see the cruel death jungle of Catachan at a glance.
But Stryker only felt hot, and his armpits and leather jacket were dirty. This world had not arranged proper defenses. Their survival all depended on the rapid response of the system's naval power. All that was needed was The idea is to keep the Astropaths happy, maintain a basic defense team, buy some time if something goes wrong, and keep the communications station staffed.
The worst thing that had happened in the thousands of years since the colony had been in operation on Papi was a certain alien raid about a thousand years ago, and now that was just a legend, an old story they could entertain in the mess hall.
But when Stryker heard that he was being sent here, he almost thought he was exiled. Although the climate and terrain here were almost the same as his not-so-warm and pleasant hometown, if he just wanted to stay at home, Why join the army?
He just wants to fuck hard! Kill some powerful things! Fuck the alien bitch hard! Instead of waiting for death in a marginal world where the emperor's grandpa can't take a hot lick even after he pooped.
"We should try to contact the Navy."
When the dilapidated floating barge was stumbling forward in the wind, Dax suddenly said:
"They might be able to explain it all."
Stryker shook his head.
"I don't think this will work."
"Should give it a try, they should be here according to the schedule."
"They won't come, Hedgehog. I'm afraid there aren't any navies left out there, at least in this sub-sector."
Dax cast a confused glance.
"Your throne, well, I'm not sure that's it."
By now, Attica was looming in the clouds, the command center's lights flashing in the wind, and it looked remarkably sturdy—heavy guardrails dotted the scaffolding of the main communications tower.
The large landing field is located to the east of it, and the hangar where the floating barge is parked is only a few hundred meters adjacent to it. Everything looks old and broken, just like this forgotten world.
The barge flew to the other side of the tarmac and came to a shuddering stop.
As the door of the barge opened, strong men with explosive muscles, red ribbons on their heads, camouflage all over their bodies and camouflage jackets lazily walked out of the barge.
Although their postures were very relaxed, they all carried some trophies on their bodies, such as blood-stained ears and fingers.
Just a hundred people had just suppressed a cultist rebellion, killing more than seven hundred people, without any casualties.
As soon as Stryker got off the boat, he saw the governor's secretary waiting for him in the wind, with several assistants standing beside him, all wrapped in layers of thermal clothing.
After seeing Stryker, the secretary came over.
"The Governor has been trying to contact you!"
she shouted against the roar of the wind.
"What's the bad news again? Well, it doesn't matter anymore."
"The Governor wants you to see him."
"I haven't put any perfume on my body yet."
Stryker didn't seem to be joking at all. He said this because when he first came to the planet, the Governor once hinted that he had a strange smell. After that, he almost never spent time alone with the Governor again. .
The secretary didn't know what to say, but at least Stryker understood the importance and went with him to see the governor.
Seeing Stryker again, Adisak's mood was a bit complicated.
After so many years together, he knew that Stryker deserved a higher power than this. Although he didn't know the whole story, the colonel must have offended someone in power somewhere. If there was any justice, he He was supposed to be serving in the Astra Militarum, commanding a capable force.
It's unclear how Adisak ended up on the planet, but given his personality it seems unlikely that he would have volunteered for the position.
Still, he shouldered the responsibility well.
Stryker's predecessor was a drunkard and thug who was killed in a brawl involving dozens of his men.
Ever since Stryker came to replace him, things had calmed down in the barracks. The soldiers no longer drank endlessly and their posture straightened.
Another thing that Stryker did was to use local equipment to make a lot of temporary equipment, because Pai Ma has not been to the Ministry of Military Affairs for nearly fifty years to replenish supplies. Even the Office of the Ministry of Military Affairs is empty all year round, but the Catachan Regiment They had to carry out training missions frequently, but staying in the wild for more than an hour might erode the rare and excellent equipment they had. Therefore, Stryker had to use local resources to build equipment.
The secretary took Stryker to a building on the top floor of the Attica Dome. As they walked, Stryker heard the dull banging sound of heavy equipment being moved. He guessed that it was a large fort trying to Startup sound.
