Searching for Flayed Ones

"Everyone move it! Seal off this block!" Rachel barked, as a group of Planetary Defense Force soldiers in body armor set up barricades and heavy weapons at the street entrance.

After receiving Chen Xi's orders, Rachel didn't dare delay. She immediately found General Gregory of the Planetary Defense Force and had him mobilize the PDF to seal off area A7-012.

She herself led a team of elites, intending to delve deep into area A7-012 to search for the aliens Chen Xi mentioned.

Despite her position as Chamberlain, Rachel still retained the habits she'd developed as a PDF Commissar, leading from the front in combat missions.

To that end, she put on her old Commissar's coat and carapace armor, and grabbed her Laspistol and Chainsword.

These two items were family heirlooms, equipment from her father's time as a Commissar in the Astra Militarum.

When that Astra Militarum regiment collectively retired on this planet, Rachel's father, as the regimental Commissar, stayed behind as well, and later became the first Commissar of the Planetary Defense Force.

Not only that, but he also trained his daughter to be a qualified Commissar, and let her take over his position and weapons.

For Rachel, these two items were not just heirlooms, but also a symbol of honor and responsibility.

And because of this, when she equipped these two weapons, it also meant that she was staking her own and her family's honor, allowing no failure.

"Madam Rachel, the surrounding six blocks have been sealed off! Please advise on the next course of action!" A PDF lieutenant ran up to Rachel and reported on the current situation.

"Conduct a carpet search of all blocks! Everyone must operate in squads. Your target is to search for aliens! Kill any non-human targets without exception!" Rachel issued the iron-blooded order.

For a Commissar of the Imperium of Man, there are only two kinds of enemies: dead ones and those who aren't dead yet.

Now that the enemy had been identified, there was naturally no possibility of holding back.

Moreover, the heinous homicides that had occurred in this area had had a very bad impact since the previous Planetary Governor was in office.

At that time, Rachel had been ordered by the previous Planetary Governor to clean up the area, but that time her target was cultists, and she hadn't noticed that the matter was actually the work of aliens.

This meant that her operation had not achieved any results. Although she had indeed cleaned up the cultists in the area and uprooted a small gang with heretical behavior, using the blood of some people to bring temporary stability to the entire area.

But that could hardly be called an achievement, or to put it bluntly, it was just using that small gang as a scapegoat to suppress the matter.

Originally, Rachel thought this was an inconclusive cold case, and although this kind of thing was detrimental to her honor, it was unavoidable.

After all, although Rostov II was just an ordinary Imperial colony world, billions of people lived in its two cities. If there were really cultists trying to hide themselves, it would be difficult to find them.

Perhaps a professional Inquisitor could find them through various other means, but 'ordinary people' like Rachel did not have such talent.

But now, she understood that this was all her misjudgment. The homicides that had occurred at that time were the work of aliens, which undoubtedly brought her great shame, because not only had she failed to catch the culprit and solve the problem, but she had even mistaken the real killer.

This made Rachel feel that her family's honor had been tarnished.

And because of this, after receiving Chen Xi's order, she had personally brought people here, eagerly hoping that she could wash away this shame.

The Planetary Defense Force began to search the blocks of area A7-012 according to Rachel's orders. Although it was unlikely that they would catch aliens on the streets, the PDF soldiers meticulously searched all possible hiding places for aliens.

Rachel herself led a team of elite guards to the city's sewers.

Although in a sense this was also a kind of routine, the sewers of a city that could accommodate hundreds of millions of people were indeed an excellent place to hide dirt and grime.

After all, in order for the sewers to meet the needs of hundreds of millions of people, they had to be built wide enough, and this undoubtedly provided soil for some shady activities.

Besides these reasons, another very important factor for Rachel to lock onto this place was that in the previous reports she received, the discovered corpses almost all appeared in or near the sewer entrances.

That was why Rachel had mistakenly judged that this was the work of cultists last time.

Cultists and sewers, this could also be considered a kind of bound CP.

Entering the sewer from the opened maintenance tunnel, the stench that hit her face almost made Rachel take a step back, but fortunately she took out her respirator in time and put it on her face.

"Everyone put on respirators, operate in squads, and strictly prohibit going solo! Each squad must strictly maintain smooth communication, and check communication every fifteen minutes! Open your eyes wide and search carefully, be sure to find the aliens!" Rachel's voice was somewhat muffled by the respirator, but it was still clearly transmitted to the ears of the soldiers she brought.

After the soldiers put on their respirators, they began to act, and Rachel also led a team of elite guards to search the depths of the sewer.

Such a large-scale operation had the air of beating the grass to scare the snake, which naturally alarmed some existences in the depths of the sewer.

Pairs of scarlet eyes opened, scimitar-like claws opened and closed, tattered human skin was draped over metallic bodies, and already rotten fat and dried blood stuck these tattered skins to the surface of the metallic bodies, looking cruel and bloody.

These were the Flayed Ones, a group of cursed soulless machines.

Their flesh and souls had once been devoured by the Star Gods, and the remaining shadows had become mechanical undead.

And now, cursed by the Star Gods and unable to suppress their own hunger and twisted mutations, they had already lost even their last vestiges of self.

"Randou... Gore..." These Flayed Ones murmured a certain name, and the hunger for flesh that could never be satisfied made them begin to act.

They moved in groups of two or three, traveling through the shadows of the sewer with a strange speed.

In this sewer that was originally a place to hide dirt and grime, the Flayed Ones and the PDF were like hunters and prey, launching a hunt against each other.

As for who was the hunter and who was the prey, I'm afraid it would only be clear when one side fell.