Landing

As the drop pod slammed down.

Chapter Master Affos was the first to charge out. Looking at the cheering PDFs in the defensive position, he shouted, "Mortals, hold your posts. Leave the enemy on the battlefield to us now."

As he spoke, he charged ahead, a bolter in one hand and a Power Sword in the other.

Behind him, the drop pods continued crashing down one after another. Their hatches opened, and Astartes poured out, raising their bolters and unleashing a furious barrage at the distant mass of Chaos enemies.

Quan Tiehua charged out as well. Although he was firing and constantly killing the Chaos mortal followers rushing toward them in the distance,

most of his attention was now fixed on the progress bar in the system.

Within the transparent blue panel, the progress bar in the very center was completely filled. Behind it was the number 100%.

What especially weighed on his heart was the line of numbers displayed below. His entire mood grew heavy once more, and his current state had become completely different from his battle aboard the ship.

Fortunately, the enemies they faced now were extremely weak. Even though he was distracted, his performance still failed to reveal anything unusual to those around him.

After all, every shot hit the head, and not a single bullet missed.

In Quan Tiehua's mind, the line of text below the progress bar read:

"Energy fully charged. Would you like to activate reincarnation?"

Yes.

No.

To be honest, he naturally understood the meaning of the word "reincarnation." But in the current world, its ambiguous implications left him deep in thought.

After all, Little Blue Bird had plenty of tricks up its sleeve.

Moreover, during the previous battle aboard the ship, the daemon's clear words had explicitly stated that Slaanesh in the Warp wanted him to go there.

Of course, that probably wasn't anything good.

Therefore, it was safe to conclude that the peddlers of the Warp had already learned of his existence.

And if he dared to speculate further, perhaps even the Emperor was silently watching him.

After all, he had offended the old man rather badly with his earlier boastful remarks.

Once he thought of that, even as a Codex Astartes Space Marine, he could not stop a cold sweat from breaking out on his back.

"Could it be that I'm about to be held accountable?"

He silently mourned for a moment, but immediately afterward, he felt terribly wronged—more wronged than Dou E herself. If what fell from the sky now had been snow instead of Orbital Bombardment, he might have dropped to his knees and cried on the spot, then asked the Emperor to come out and judge the matter fairly.

But his wandering thoughts immediately made him wonder: since the Emperor had existed as an immortal from the dawn of humanity, did he know the story of Dou E?

That sudden leap in thought instantly relaxed his previously foul mood. He directly muttered to himself, "What the hell are you thinking?"

As he spoke, he began slaughtering the traitors before him even more efficiently.

With the arrival of fresh forces, the cultists' assault was driven back once again. Cheers from the PDFs rang out through the trenches in waves.

The few mortal auxiliaries also began arriving at various points along the defensive line aboard Centaur multipurpose vehicles, serving as junior officers and coordinating the planetary defense forces.

They were accompanied by large quantities of logistical supplies and ammunition.

Of course, that was all they were: logistical supplies and ammunition. There was not a single piece of heavy equipment or heavy weaponry.

Quan Tiehua watched box after box of ammunition being unloaded, along with flak armor and laser-gun power packs for the mortal auxiliaries, grenades for individual soldiers, and several small rapid-fire cannons.

There was also some... corpse starch.

Naturally, there were no corpses in it. It had been synthesized from certain "organic materials."

Quan Tiehua was speechless. The entire chapter was so poor that it did not even possess a single heavy laser cannon or twin-linked Woodcutter.

It was basically the whole force armed with millet, rifles, and grenades... just without a heavy machine gun.

He turned to look at Chapter Master Affos, who was speaking with the Planetary Governor in the distance. For a moment, his face clouded with worry.

At that moment, in the command trench farther away, Chapter Master Affos and Foul Sigilite were staring at a paper map as they began laying out the defensive line.

"Planet Les is near the Ghoul Stars and the Eastern Fringe. It can be said to lie at the junction of two star regions. How could such a massive Chaos force have invaded?"

Foul Sigilite gave a bitter smile and shook his head. As a mortal, he knew nothing about the matter.

"Lord Angel, I don't know anything about this either. As soon as the disturbance began, I dispatched the defense forces and security regiments to search every hive city. We did not even spare the lower levels. But aside from discovering some Mutants and xenos, we found no signs of Chaos infiltration or sacrificial rituals at all."

As he spoke, he raised his head and looked toward the sky. "But this war began more than a month ago. Ever since that Rogue Trader arrived, we have indeed conducted many transactions with them. Yet those dealings were limited to food, supplies, and the materials we had traditionally needed. As for the Chaos invasion, they seemed to appear out of thin air. Now, almost half of the entire planet has fallen into Chaos's hands. Nearly a billion Imperial citizens are wailing beneath the Chaos forces."

Chapter Master Affos did not lie. Instead, he stared at the markers representing both sides on the map. "Foul Sigilite, those excuse-like complaints should not be directed at me. Once the Inquisition personnel arrive, you can see whether they sympathize with you. What we need to do now is reinforce the defenses, then drag out the mortals who have already fallen under Chaos's influence and execute them by firing squad on the spot. Otherwise, when the critical moment comes, they will absolutely affect our battle."

"Yes, my lord." As he spoke, he gave the Aquila Salute.

Meanwhile, outside, Quan Tiehua turned his back to everyone. Suddenly, his body trembled. Then, subconsciously, he wiggled his butt.

His entire body abruptly stiffened, as though he had suddenly realized something. His muscles nearly made him die of embarrassment on the spot after he finally reacted.

He had naturally just relieved himself.

No matter how formidable the Astartes were, they still retained some physiological behaviors as human beings.

For example, going to the bathroom.

As superhuman beings who had undergone enhanced modifications, Astartes naturally still possessed such functions.

In GW's official books in his previous life, Quan Tiehua had seen descriptions of this more than once.

One of those books had gone into particular detail about a female Inquisitor seeing a Grey Knight bathing.

She could not help teasing him, saying, "Such extraordinary natural gifts, yet you have taken on such a great responsibility. What a terrible waste."

Of course, the book did not specifically describe the female Inquisitor's thoughts.

But considering the temperament of those Westerners, along with the environment of Warhammer 40k, Quan Tiehua had every reason to suspect that the female Inquisitor's thoughts had been... ahem.

That was why almost none of the Astartes in the various Legions had undergone surgery to remove that part of their anatomy.

They merely reduced its urges and eliminated its reproductive ability.

Otherwise, would the Children of Noise and their daddy not have lost many forms of entertainment?

Of course, as for the Iron Hands, Quan Tiehua did not dare to comment recklessly.

Brothers, I'm about to travel to another world. Where do you think I should go? The worlds I'm considering are Pacific Rim 1, Nano Core, and Ling Cage.

What do you all think, big brothers?

The previous chapter got flagged again. I'm seriously speechless. Why does writing a big chapter of four thousand words always make it likely to get reviewed?