Is This Tinboy Genuine?

When Romulus stepped into the chamber, all he saw were mutilated corpses scattered across the floor, still spraying blood.

Chaos Space Marines.

Judging by the skull decorations on their armor and the crimson paintwork, they were most likely a Chaos warband devoted to one of the four Chaos Gods—Khorne.

After efficiently killing the enemy, Arthur sheathed his blade and lifted a dead warrior in black armor from the floor. After confirming the Crimson Fists insignia on the warrior's shoulder pad, he examined the armor more closely and frowned.

The Kill Team members were not Primaris Space Marines. It seemed Guilliman, Regent of the Imperium, had not yet awakened.

He then cocked his head and listened.

Other than war cries offering blood to the Blood God and the sound of axe blades biting into flesh, there were no further signs of combat in the chamber. Combined with the Deathwatch corpses on the floor and the Chaos Space Marines who had attacked them, it all indicated that the defenders inside had lost their ability to fight.

"Looks like we came too late?"

The heavy stench of blood rushed at him. Arthur knew perfectly well that this was definitely some kind of Warp influence.

The self-contained circulation system in his armor had never come into contact with the outside world.

"Not too late."

Romulus's gaze fell upon the dead warriors' necks and chests. Two savage holes remained there, as if some sharp tool had violently dug out certain organs.

"Chaos Space Marines and Demons aren't on the same side. Before they've eaten their fill, they won't let those Demons steal their spoils."

"...That's true."

Arthur remembered that as well and set down the Deathwatch warrior's body.

As super-soldiers enhanced through nineteen surgical procedures, every Space Marine possessed something called Gene-seed, organs used to create more Space Marines.

Once the eighteenth procedure, implantation of the Progenoid Gland, was complete, a Space Marine's Gene-seed would develop alongside his body. After five years, the seed in his neck would mature and could be harvested. After ten years, the seed in his chest would mature and could be harvested.

The former was usually extracted regularly, both for Gene-seed tithes and Chapter reserves. The latter was generally recovered by an Apothecary after a Space Marine died.

Gene-seed was the foundation of a Chapter. Should malignant mutations arise or too much of it be lost, the Chapter could practically be declared dead, unless it received aid from its parent Chapter and the Imperium.

For Chaos Space Marines who had embraced Chaos, suffered severe physical mutations, and lost Imperial supplies, stealing the Gene-seed of Loyalist Space Marines was one of their few means of replenishing their numbers.

Likewise, because of a certain Nob who rejected the Warp while stuffing plenty of Warp tricks into the creation of Space Marines, Gene-seed was also highly sought after among Warp Demons, a super-rare premium offering in all kinds of blasphemous rituals.

That was why it made sense that the Chaos Space Marines assaulting the Geller Field Generator had not immediately destroyed the Geller Field. After all, why would a cheetah share its prey with hyenas?

After the battle, they might even seize this ship and fly off in it, leaving the Demons outside staring helplessly.

With his knowledge of this world's many secrets, Arthur quickly understood the crux of the matter.

But—

"Are two people enough?"

Arthur asked, indicating that perhaps they should wait a little for the Sisters of Battle.

At their expected speed, they should arrive in another minute. These female warriors, clad in Power Armor, subjected to advanced bodily enhancements, and blessed by the Emperor due to their fanatical faith, had always been ideal assistants for Space Marines.

His superhuman mind told him that the battle marks in this section of the chamber alone had been caused by a sixteen-man squad. What they would face next were Space Marines, not the worthless trash from earlier who could not even react to their movements.

"Two people?"

Romulus snorted.

"Who said there are only two of us?"

"?"

Arthur tilted his head, but when he glanced aside, a whole group of blue-armored Ultramarines seemed to grow out of the shadows behind him.

"Hiss, it really works. Why are souls so damned expensive, though?"

Romulus muttered under his breath.

"Huh?"

As Arthur stared at the Ultramarines, who looked as though Romulus had pulled them straight out of his pants, all he could feel was an entire Milky Way appearing in his mind.

"I scanned this guy and directly used the copies. Since we're going for speed, we might as well take it all the way."

Seeing Arthur's confusion, Romulus pointed at a Space Marine on the ground whose shoulder marking bore an Ω with a skull beneath it, then patted the shoulder plate of an Ultramarine beside him.

"Standard Firstborn Space Marine physical capabilities, but souls are absurdly expensive, and I'd have to write them myself, so I didn't install them. I can only manually control them for now, but they'll do."

"I'm almost certain we aren't being watched by a Chaos God."

Arthur examined the Ultramarines, who seemed almost mechanical, and slowly shook his head. His speculation that their abnormalities were a "blessing" from Warp power wavered somewhat.

If the Chaos Gods could directly mass-produce Space Marine bodies for Demons to inhabit, why would they bother whispering endlessly into the ears of those High Lords and fooling them into launching Penitent Crusades every so often to deliver fresh meat to Chaos?

Of course, it was possible that Chaos was offering subsidies, hoping to earn something greater back from them. Judging from how Tzeentch had lured the Primarch Magnus, the four masters of the Immaterium lacked neither the capital for such investment nor the patience to wait.

Even gene-enhanced Primarchs with superhuman intellects could be deceived. Arthur was only a young man raised in a greenhouse in the third millennium. He did not believe he possessed the wisdom to discern such abnormalities, nor did he have the nerve to gamble on it.

In short, until they left the Warp and found a Blank to verify whether their abnormalities had anything to do with the Warp, they would doubt first and doubt again.

"Indeed."

Romulus nodded and gave Arthur a shove.

"You go draw their fire. Your buddy's got more than a dozen guns trained on them."

The maneuverable space inside a warship was cramped. Combat came down to who fired first, and whose firepower could kill the enemy before the enemy killed them.

That was why the side with greater firepower held the advantage in warship encounters, and why Astartes were often traded for ordinary humans.

With more than a dozen Bolters and Melta weapons behind them, smashing poorly supplied heretics would be easy.

"Fine. Move quickly."

Rolling his neck, Arthur focused his attention ahead. Bracing his shield, he advanced rapidly through the chamber in a half-crouch, searching the area.

There had to be more lurking Chaos Space Marines than the one from before.

But the heretics, having already won the battle, naturally would not be wary of a force that should not have been here. Many Chaos Space Marines leaping at Arthur with overhead strikes could only stare in disbelief when they saw the line of blue-armored Nobs behind him.

Chaos had granted them powerful bodies and combat instincts, but those instincts could not let them withstand saturated Bolter fire in such confined quarters.

Arthur, meanwhile, remained intensely focused, maintaining the best defensive posture as he pushed forward.

He advanced all the way to the base of the generator, where the space became somewhat wider.

At that moment, the nauseating smell of blood reached its peak.