Seeing that a heavy fire point of the ummie had been successfully destroyed, Redeye's face twisted into a savage grin. He was pleased with the result, but still turned and roared at the Painboy beside him, "Good! Have the boyz quickly dismantle that junk and move it to a farther spot on the left to reassemble it!"
A boy, responsible for relaying orders, widened his eyes, looking perplexed. "Uh, warboss, what does that mean?"
Smack!
Redeye backhanded him, sending the boy spinning twice in place, a few of his teeth flying out.
"Just do what I tell you to do!" Redeye roared impatiently. "Where's all the chatter coming from?!"
Under the absolute deterrence of their warboss, the Painboys dared not delay in the slightest. They immediately directed a group of boyz to frantically begin dismantling the Squigg launchers. They carried the heavy parts, grunting and groaning, to the back of a sand dune several hundred meters to the left flank. Just as they began clanging to reassemble them, a sharp whistling sound descended from the sky.
A dozen shells landed precisely where they had been moments before, the violent explosions raising towering plumes of sand and fire. But because they had already retreated, this round of shelling had no effect other than pulverizing a few unlucky boy into green pulp.
The surrounding boyz were all stunned, their eyes wide as they looked at their warboss. "Warboss, how did you know the ummie's shells were coming?!"
"Hmph hmph hmph…" Redeye puffed out his chest proudly, patting his thick breastplate with his massive metal gauntlet. "Otherwise, how could I be your warboss?"
At this, the surrounding boyz completely erupted. They raised their weapons, using their meager vocabulary to praise their leader:
"Our warboss is brilliant and mighty!"
"Our warboss is unrivaled!"
"Our warboss is a brilliant strategist!"
Redeye smugly enjoyed the boyz' flattery for a while, but soon noticed the silence around him. He glared. "Keep going! Is that all the words you have to describe your warboss?!"
Although Redeye's intimidation made the boyz terrified, making them tremble, due to their limited cultural level, they racked their brains but simply couldn't think of any new words to praise their great warboss.
Then, in this awkward silence, the chilling whistle of shells came again.
After an even more earth-shattering explosion than before, the area where they had just begun reassembling the launchers was completely engulfed in dense fire. The newly assembled launchers, the commanding Painboy, and the hardworking boyz were instantly reduced to dust, with not even a recognizable piece of wreckage to be found.
"Awooo—!!!"
This time, Redeye was truly enraged. He trembled all over, the veins on his neck bulging, and he let out an angry roar at the sky, "Why are the ummie's shells coming so fast?!"
The surrounding boyz huddled together, none daring to speak. At such a time, it was best not to make any sound, otherwise the warboss' wrath might very well be poured upon them.
Redeye, of course, didn't know that humans had long since calibrated fire on an entire area ahead, and drawn up firing tables. With coordinates, the artillery positions could conduct precise saturation shelling in a very short time. As for where the coordinates came from… forward reconnaissance outposts, of course, were not just the one or two that had been wiped out. More hidden reconnaissance outposts had calmly reported every move of the ork to the rear without firing a single shot.
After his outburst, Redeye gradually calmed down. Regardless of how the humans had destroyed his launchers, the facts had proven that he couldn't beat them in the "artillery game." This round of tactical engagement was another point for the humans.
"Have the Boarboys prepare!" Redeye ordered. "Have the Painboys inject them with the super-steroids! I will personally lead the charge and flatten these ummie who only know how to play with cannons!"
Behind the ork lines, the ground began to vibrate rhythmically. Dinosaur Squiggs, moving like small hills, were herded forward. They carried crude combat platforms on their backs, crowded with boyz wielding choppas.
The Painboys cackled, pulling out huge syringes filled with Super-Steroids from metal boxes. Ignoring the boyz' struggles and screams, they brutally injected the eerily bubbling concoction into their muscles. The effects were immediate; the injected boyz' eyes turned bloodshot, their veins bulged, and they let out roars mixed with pain and fury, their bodies seemingly growing a size larger.
The forward observation post immediately relayed this critical intelligence back to command. On the holographic sand table, several large red threat icons slowly began to move towards the player's defensive line.
The atmosphere in the command post suddenly grew tense, but Joker's expression remained unchanged, as if all of this was already within his expectations. He merely spoke into the communicator, giving an order in his usual calm tone: "Have the heavy bolters and autocannons ready."
Behind the simple order were anti-heavy armor fire units already deployed. Those weapon platforms hidden on the reverse slopes of the sand dunes finally awaited their targets.
After giving the order, he turned to Archer beside him and said, "Go get that tactical nuclear warhead. If that ork warboss tries to charge directly at our command post, detonate it."
"…I feel like tactical nukes have become some kind of conventional weapon under our use," Archer couldn't help but quip. He shook his head, yet without any hesitation, he turned and quickly left the command post.
Joker's plan was simple: he had reason to believe that after a conventional charge was repelled, the ork warboss, overly confident in his strength, would likely resort to a "decapitation strike," relying on his powerful individual strength to directly assault the player's command center, attempting to paralyze the entire defensive line.
If things truly developed to that point, it would actually be simpler.
Joker would not hesitate to detonate this ten-kiloton tactical nuclear warhead, wiping the entire command post, along with that ork warboss, off the planet.
In such a scenario, players with subordinate command nodes would mostly still be able to respawn near their squad leaders, Platoon Leaders, and company commanders. The command system might fall into temporary chaos, but relying on the players' autonomy and the pre-established command chains at various levels, the defensive line would not instantly collapse.
But orks were different.
Joker believed that losing their warboss would deal a far greater blow to the morale of the entire ork race than players losing their commanders. The core of a WAAAGH! was the warboss himself. Once the warboss was instantly vaporized by some force, the entire ork tribe would likely immediately descend into collapse and infighting.