Agathos's Current Situation

The wait was agonizing. The intermittent reports coming back from Agathos told Gao Yi that the situation was deteriorating by the hour.

These Chaos Cults spread fast. Once the corruption took full hold, he'd have no choice but to bomb the Hive City whether he wanted to or not.

The moment the last Wraith was produced, Gao Yi ordered the force to move out.

Meanwhile, inside the Hive City of Agathos.

The Throne District, at the spire's peak.

Planetary Governor Rebecca was holed up in her governor's mansion, directing the loyalist defense.

She looked at the mountain of documents piled on her desk, then pulled a vial of stimms from the drawer and jabbed it into her neck.

The neural stimulants flooded her system, washing away the exhaustion. She hadn't slept in ten days, and the drugs were losing their edge.

The news of the Rogue Trader's return had lifted the loyalists' spirits—they could see the fleet in orbit above them. But they also saw the planetary defense batteries drive those ships away.

That only made their hearts sink deeper.

Rebecca never imagined this power struggle would escalate into all-out war. Her family wasn't part of the Mongert Dynasty's bloodline; they'd joined after the dynasty was founded, earning the Rogue Trader's favor.

On the other side, leading the coup, were the dynasty's Blood Kin families. They carried the same proud blood of the Mongert Dynasty in their veins, yet they chose rebellion—even resorting to the power of the Warp.

And precisely because they'd been part of the dynasty since its founding, their grip on Agathos ran far deeper than Rebecca had ever realized.

When they decided to launch their armed coup, they swept through every department of Agathos in an instant. The most fatal blow was to the main military force: the Planetary Defense Force.

From the moment the coup began, at least half the troops Rebecca could command were gone. Over the dynasty's long years, the rebel Blood Kin families had grown into a monstrous entity, their numbers terrifying. Countless offspring from those families had joined the military, rising to officer ranks through influence, giving the rebels control over a significant portion of the army.

The loyalist fighting force now split into four groups. First, the former Enforcers—they belonged to the Adeptus Arbites. These Enforcers were even tougher than her Planetary Defense Force.

Outside the Mongert political system, they'd escaped rebel infiltration and still held their combat effectiveness. They kept order as always and joined the fight when needed.

Second were the Planetary Defense Force units loyal to the family—they formed the mainstay of the front lines.

Third were civilians hastily conscripted from the refugees. Lacking proper military training, they could only grab weapons and throw themselves into the brutal war.

Fourth were the clergy of the Ecclesiarchy's Saint Drusus Church.

This church worshipped Saint Drusus, a saint blessed by the God-Emperor. He was the pioneer of the Calixis Sector, the Terminator of xenos. Legend said Saint Drusus's blood could even banish greater daemons.

When the internal power struggle began, the clergy stood by and watched. They weren't under Mongert's jurisdiction and held an exalted position in the Imperium. As long as you still worshipped the God-Emperor, who ruled the planet didn't matter to them.

But when the armed coup started and enemy soldiers began appearing with heretics who blasphemed the God-Emperor, the nature of the conflict changed entirely.

Those gentle, refined Priests who usually led prayers in the Church erupted with unimaginable combat power against the heretics. They wouldn't retreat, shouting the God-Emperor's name as they drove out all impurity. They took heavy losses, but in the chaos's early days, they held the line.

And it was these Priests who made people believe the God-Emperor hadn't abandoned Agathos.

The Ecclesiarchy here also commanded an Adepta Sororitas.

This force of one hundred holy Sisters abandoned their defensive positions in the Upper Hive and plunged straight into the Lower Hive. They aimed to find the source of the Chaos corruption and purify it.

At first, they were still reachable after leaving the Upper Hive. But the deeper they went, the more Rebecca lost contact with them. All she could do was pray to the God-Emperor for them.

From the start of the power struggle, Rebecca had been stockpiling weapons, food, and essential supplies, always preparing for the worst. It was thanks to those years of hoarding that she could still hold the Upper Hive.

But as negative emotions piled up, problems kept cropping up. She could only hope that Gao Yi, the new Rogue Trader, would find a way out.

Compared to the Upper Hive's population, the Lower Hive—even the bottomless depths of the Underhive—held a vast sea of people that served as the rebels' recruitment pool. Even if just one percent willingly or forcibly joined the Chaos, the numbers would be overwhelming.

Rebecca knew they couldn't win a war of attrition. It wasn't just the gap in troop numbers—the enemy was growing more vicious and more insane by the day.

The Psykers from the Astropathic Choir saw the Warp's shadow beginning to envelop Agathos. Great terror was coming.

The rebel families had always belonged to the Upper Hive. They'd lived there longer than anyone and knew every defensive emplacement and hidden passage.

Now, deep in the Lower Hive of Agathos.

The DT-31 factory zone.

Once a facility producing supplies for the dynasty, it had been converted into a blasphemous workshop of the Dark Mechanicus.

Workers who once worshipped the God-Emperor now lay on operating tables, eyes rolled white.

Even as their bodies were vivisected, life-support systems kept them alive. Priests who had devoted themselves to the Dark Gods were using every kind of heretical technology to remodel them.

They seemed to have lost all sense of pain, murmuring over and over: "For the End of Dawn."

"Dawn. These Combat Servitors will be refitted soon. In the next assault, they'll help you break through the False Emperor's faithful. My Priests will keep the ground defenses locked down so those fleet ships can't get close."

"You've done well. I provide all the resources—there are plenty of living bodies here for modification."

Watching the humans being transformed, the man called Dawn was pleased with what the Dark Mechanicus Priests had accomplished. If not for them seizing control of the gun batteries, letting the Rogue Trader's fleet arrive would have changed the battle entirely.

He and these Blasphemous Priests of the Dark Mechanicus were merely allies. They worshipped different Dark Gods.

At first, these Dark Mechanicus Priests only supplied them with weapons. But a few days ago, they seemed to receive a divine decree from their patron god.

They threw themselves into the war without reservation, even joining the fighting personally. Dawn didn't know the exact reason, but he welcomed it.

As the two discussed, a soldier walked in.

"Patriarch Valentin, those Sisters hit another of our outposts!"

"I told you, I'm no longer Valentin Mongert. Call me Dawn."

"S-sorry. Lord Dawn!" The soldier trembled with fear, couldn't help glancing at the blasphemous modification scene, then quickly looked away.

Both Gao Yi and Rebecca had gotten it wrong. It wasn't that the rebel Blood Kin families had allied with the Chaos Cults—they were the Chaos Cults themselves.