Nightmare

Mortal forces were weak, but the saying that enough ants could bring down an elephant was not without basis.

In an open battlefield, things had been manageable. When they retreated, those mortals who had already foreseen their fate had volunteered to stay behind and hold off the Chaos traitors, allowing the remaining personnel to withdraw safely to the hive city.

But after everyone had withdrawn, they discovered that this had been an even quieter, yet far more brutal, battle.

Everyone entered through the underhive, but in that environment, all kinds of xenos and Mutants lived in squalor.

Leaving the xenos aside, the Mutants had been thoroughly corrupted by Chaos.

When the hive's security personnel evacuated the civilians, they had also tried to descend into the underhive. However, the xenos within and the Mutants who were intensely hostile toward Imperial rule had forcibly driven them back.

On top of the environment they lived in, these Mutants had needed only the slightest temptation from Chaos to fall rapidly.

Along the way, all kinds of corrupted Mutants ambushed and attacked the column.

Fewer than one-tenth of the mortal soldiers had made it back into the hive intact. Even Foul Sigilite, the Planetary Governor who had once been a political commissar, had fallen beneath a crude kinetic firearm made by a Mutant.

Nearly every mortal was injured. Combined with the corrupted Mutants of the underhive and the harsh environment, their wounds had already begun to fester and take on an abnormal appearance.

But those narrow-minded mortals did not think anything of it. They merely had the logistics personnel hastily apply medicine and bandage them before rushing to their respective positions.

Chapter Master Affos still remembered what Quan Tiehua had said before the battle began.

Therefore, even during the retreat, he had kept the column in formation. He had placed Quan Tiehua in the middle of the formation.

There was nothing wrong with returning one's soul to the Throne. But if there was still a chance to live, who would want to die?

Yet at that moment, Chapter Master Affos's expression was heavy. The brothers around him all noticed the change.

"What happened?" Tylert was directing the construction of defensive fortifications for the street fighting. When he saw that something was wrong with Chapter Master Affos's expression, his heart tightened, and he hurried over to ask in a low voice.

"A large-scale zombie invasion has broken out in the agricultural region in the south of the planet." Tylert was wearing his helmet, so it was impossible to see his expression, but his voice remained as steady as ever.

"What is the specific situation?"

"Very bad. Without our support, a large-scale collapse and infection have already occurred there." Chapter Master Affos looked at the soldiers who were still carrying supplies and conducting security patrols. His voice grew even quieter, and he even put on his helmet.

The exchange between the two instantly rang out across the Battle-Brothers' communication channel. "That's the agricultural region. Even if the population from the northern hemisphere withdrew there, the settlements are separated by vast expanses of farmland. How could it have fallen in just over a day?"

"That is precisely the problem. According to the last report, all the food was infected. After eating the food harvested there, everyone became infected and turned into zombies."

Quan Tiehua lowered the boltgun he had been cleaning in his arms. The other Battle-Brothers also stopped what they were doing.

"So that means the only people left alive on this planet are the more than one hundred thousand of us here?"

"Yes. I have ordered the ships remaining in orbit to carry out an Orbital Bombardment. It should ease the pressure on us somewhat. But as for the agricultural region, I think we should abandon it. The planet's ultimate fate will probably be an extermination order. After all, the entire southern hemisphere has been contaminated by the forces of Chaos."

Quan Tiehua remained silent, merely looking once more at the system's progress bar panel in his mind.

A fully developed, beautiful, and prosperous planet with a population of several billion had been reduced to little more than one hundred thousand normal people in the span of a single Terran month.

Even the word "normal" deserved quotation marks. If they won this war, ninety-five percent of the normal population would be executed outright by the Imperium's Inquisition, because they had directly faced Chaos and risked being corrupted and falling.

If they lost, every person who remained—including the entire Battle-Brothers' chapter—would be corrupted and fall to Chaos.

By then, Chapter Master Affos and Tylert had finished their conversation. Neither made any unnecessary movements; they simply stood in silence, watching one another.

They had already lost far too much in this war.

"Chapter Master." Quan Tiehua's sudden voice abruptly broke the silence over the Battle-Brothers' communication channel.

Every brother turned to look. Quan Tiehua had walked over to the two of them, but the communication channel remained silent.

Every brother knew that the time had come for the chapter master to make a decision.

"Hold the line and await reinforcements."

With those words, everyone began checking their weapons, ammunition, and equipment.

It was not that he did not want to withdraw immediately and preserve the chapter's fighting strength. He simply felt that matters had not yet reached the point of no return.

"Ahhh!"

A sudden scream startled everyone and instantly shattered the tension gripping the room.

The mortal soldiers who had been staring intently at the entrance were caught off guard by the sudden fright and immediately pulled their triggers. Once one person opened fire, countless others followed. In an instant, a storm of fire poured into the hollow, pitch-black passage.

The Astartes reacted with incredible speed. They immediately locked onto the source of the scream, only to see the man sit bolt upright in panic, drenched in sweat.

For a moment, countless gun muzzles pointed at him.

He looked exactly like someone who had been frightened awake by a nightmare.

Just as the Astartes were about to ask what had happened,

a fierce barrage erupted from the defensive position at the frontline entrance.

At the same time, all kinds of howls rose one after another.

"Everyone, prepare for battle!" With a ringing command, everyone entered combat readiness and rushed to their assigned positions.

No one paid any more attention to the bewildered mortal, whose eyes held a trace of anger and lingering shock.

By then, fighting had already broken out at the entrance.

A dense mass of bald, green-skinned humans raised their weapons and charged madly toward them, shouting, "For the Four-Armed Emperor!"

"Genestealers."

Talk about an unlikely coincidence. A mortal's nightmare had startled everyone. A mortal soldier whose nerves were already stretched taut had reflexively pulled the trigger after being frightened, directly setting off a chain reaction.

The group of Genestealers that had been sneaking toward this place at the time, trying to break through the blockade, had suffered an entirely undeserved calamity.

They had assumed they had been discovered, but who could have imagined it was all an accident?

The battle erupted in an instant.

In a place unseen by everyone else, the mortal who had been startled awake by the nightmare wore an expression of anger, his eyes bloodshot.