Meanwhile, on the planetary surface of Kharkov, Titus and his teammates were replenishing ammunition and resting during a lull in the fighting.
Although Space Marines can sustain combat for long periods, even if their bodies can endure it, their weapons, equipment, and Power Armor still require maintenance.
Furthermore, even though Space Marines have an organ called the Catalepsean Node implanted during their Reconstructive surgery (reconstructive surgery), which can 'shut down' different areas of a Space Marine's brain when experiencing sleep deprivation, thus allowing for rotating rest and enabling Space Marines to go 'without sleep' for extended periods.
While this doesn't entirely replace sleep, it allows Space Marines to extend their sustained combat time.
Of course, it also allows them to remain sufficiently vigilant even while sleeping and to react quickly when encountering danger.
(Hayek's Chosen)
Of course, the situation Titus and his teammates currently faced was not so dire as to require Astartes to engage in prolonged continuous combat, so they were still resting and replenishing ammunition in a relatively normal state.
Because the first wave of landing forces consisted almost entirely of Astartes, the supplies they carried were mostly Astartes weapons, ammunition, and specialized rations.
After removing the damaged Power Armor from Titus, a Tech-Priest immediately used his plasma torch to heat and melt the damaged ceramite armor, then poured ceramite powder into the gap and fused it with the molten layer.
Subsequently, he used a forging hammer to shape the repaired area, and finally, quenched and solidified it with sacred oil amidst binary canticles.
Ceramite is such a special material, possessing excellent heat and impact resistance while also being relatively lighter and having the characteristic of being quickly repairable on the battlefield.
This is why, with the combat situation not being urgent, this Tech-Priest could repair it so slowly.
If it were a truly urgent and dangerous combat situation, it might just be a blob of molten ceramite directly plastered onto the damaged armor layer for patching.
This material can even absorb and dissipate the most extreme heat and directed energy attacks, and it can conduct many other forms of electromagnetic and particle radiation, thereby dispersing them over a wide area and reducing the potential damage they might cause.
(Ceramite Armor: Making you a true man in a laser rain.)
Generally speaking, only large-caliber ammunition has a chance to penetrate the ceramite armor layer, and ceramite will not dent like metal.
Because of this, ceramite is widely used in the Imperial military, whether it's the Power Armor of a Space Marine, the armor plates of a leman russ, or even the elite units of the Astra Militarum, you can see the presence of ceramite armor on them.
Furthermore, the Astartes' rations even contain ceramite particles and other metal micro-particles, intended to supplement the Astartes' bones with special nutrients, giving them the same strength as ceramite.
However, currently, Titus and his teammates were still eating relatively normal nutrient gruel, which did not contain these 'high-tech' additives.
After all, generally speaking, Astartes only need to consume large amounts of this special ration during the growth phase immediately after their reconstructive surgery; normally, they only need small supplements to maintain their physical condition.
Moreover, rather than eating and drinking, Titus was more concerned with his weapons.
His Chainsword were being blessed by a Tech-Priest, who was calming the machine spirit fatigued by prolonged combat and replacing and repairing the worn-out teeth.
And his Bolter was the same; the Bolter, having run out of ammunition, also needed to be appeased.
A Servitor brought new magazines and Bolter rounds, and although there were already loaded magazines, Titus still preferred to personally press each round into the magazine one by one, which could both calm his somewhat irritable mind on the battlefield and make him feel more at ease.
This ensured that every magazine was fully loaded with rounds, avoiding the awkward situation of missing a round.
Bolter rounds are not like the automatic rifle ammunition of the Astra Militarum grunts; these special rounds are more like miniature rockets than bullets.
These are actually highly complex rocket-propelled rounds with adamantium warheads, tipped with diamond to enhance armor penetration, and some special armor-piercing rounds even have warheads made from the teeth of certain unique creatures.
(Various Bolter Rounds)
Furthermore, these warheads are not solid, but rather explosive warheads filled with metallic deuterium, which produce a small-scale explosion upon hitting an enemy, with enough power to penetrate the frontal armor of a main battle tank from the 3k era.
The base of the warhead also has a propellant base, which continuously provides kinetic energy to the warhead after it is fired, allowing its muzzle velocity to reach an estimated Mach eight.
The process of producing these rounds is also quite complex; various rare minerals need to be mined from mining worlds and then sent to the Forge World of the Adeptus Mechanicus for refinement, after which they are handcrafted by Tech-Priest.
Yes, you heard that right, this stuff is purely handmade.
And some special types of Bolter rounds require additional 'enchantments,' such as adding the ashes of untouchables, the ashes of unnamed saints, fragments of the Emperor's armor, and so on...
Compared to these extra enchanting materials, merely carving runes on the casing or soaking the rounds in the blood of good people seems trivial.
From some perspectives, saying that one Bolter round costs one life is truly not an exaggeration; sometimes, producing one Bolter round even costs more than one life.
This also means that even for a Space Marine, Bolter rounds are not something that can be fired indiscriminately.
While there is the issue of ammunition carrying capacity, the cost of precious Bolter rounds is also a huge problem.
Some relatively precious Bolter rounds even need to be used by the most elite marksmen of the Chapter, who all, without exception, possess the special honor badge of 'Marksman's Glory.'
(It is said that this thing is made by gold-plating a Bolter round used by a Primarch.)
Although Titus was once the Second Company Captain of the Ultramarines, he did not receive the honor of Marksman's Glory.
And currently, among the supplies they could obtain, the main ones were ordinary Bolter rounds, with no particularly precious ammunition.
After replenishing his ammunition and finishing his rations, Titus, with the assistance of a Tech-Priest and Servitor, put on his Power Armor again, then placed several loaded magazines into the ammunition pouches on his waist, and secured his weapons, before rejoining his teammates and returning to the battlefield.
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