Forward

Bang! Bang! Bang!

A single precise shot from the boltgun instantly painted the entire floor and wall with the Chaos cultist who had been frantically firing from behind cover in the distance.

The marking function in the Astartes' helmet lenses displayed the enemies hiding behind cover one after another.

The squad had thirteen men in total, one of them carrying a Heavy Bolter. He planted his feet and held the trigger down without releasing it.

Bolts raced through the long ammunition belt! In some places, the bottoms of the casings even scraped against the weapon, throwing off tiny sparks.

The machine spirit was delighted!

The Battle-Brother who had opened fire first was named Altrance. Having served for more than a hundred years, he would be able to have a service stud—ordered long ago—implanted in his forehead after returning from this mission.

He had spent every moment of his century-long career in battle! By now, he had honed superb combat skills and pinpoint marksmanship.

Thus, when they had first landed and needed to clear the threats, his accurate fire had eliminated most of the dangerous heavy-weapons positions facing their advance.

That gave Vals, who carried the Heavy Bolter, ample room to set up and unleash sustained suppressive fire.

Even more astonishingly, the terrifying Heavy Bolter's rapid fire seemed to produce no recoil in his hands.

But a closer look revealed that his right hand, wrapped around the trigger farther back, was unlike a normal Astartes arm. The entire limb had been replaced with a mechanical prosthetic.

The Battle-Brothers behind them carried boarding shields and boltguns, rapidly forming a line at the front to create a makeshift barricade. They fended off the Chaos forces' attacks while beginning to fire in disciplined volleys.

In the blink of an eye, Quan Tiehua had only just stepped out of the Assault Boat with his boltgun when the battle at the landing zone was already over.

It seemed that, as a recruit, he still had plenty of training to do.

He was half a step behind. Looking at the battle that had ended within mere seconds, and at the blood and severed limbs covering the floor and walls,

he stood there blankly for a moment, then gave a speechless smile.

He glanced at the transparent panel in his mind. Suppressing his heavy mood, he hurried to catch up with the squad he had fallen behind.

At the same time, he did not forget to reach up and pull down the Melt Bomb his squad leader had fastened to his head. He placed it in a suitable position, lest a stray round blow his entire head off.

By then, fighting had already broken out in the corridor farther ahead.

The deafening roar of bolter fire reached the ears of everyone present.

As a Primaris Space Marine, Quan Tiehua was stronger than an ordinary Astartes, but he was still a recruit.

According to the plan, Quan Tiehua and four other Battle-Brothers were responsible for stopping the reinforcements and finding a safe position at the right moment to teleport in the follow-up forces.

The others would use the delay to rush toward the bridge.

As they rounded a corner, Quan Tiehua, who had already heard the footsteps clearly, pulled the trigger.

Several controlled bursts shattered the partially corrupted Chaos traitors hiding behind cover more than a hundred meters away, blowing them one by one into clouds of blood.

Quan Tiehua and the other four Battle-Brothers advanced toward the bridge while fighting, keeping all the enemy reinforcements attempting to surround them at bay.

But in a boarding action like this, simply waiting for reinforcements empty-handed was obviously not the Astartes' style.

After the servo-skull returned with its terrain survey and the Auspex detected the surroundings,

the five men formed a simple plan.

Quan Tiehua took something from a nearby Tech-Sergeant and, without hesitation, turned and sprinted toward the bridge! The servo-skull ahead accelerated its guidance as well.

His terrifying running speed made him resemble a roaring beast in the narrow corridor. Any Chaos traitor who appeared before him was either smashed apart by a shoulder charge or torn into chunks by his boltgun.

Or he would reach out in advance, grab the head of a Chaos traitor who had just appeared around the corner and had yet to react, and, with the momentum of his stride, rip the entire head and spinal column out by force.

As he ran, his hands never stopped moving. He pulled out the prepared Melt Bombs, tied them together with frag grenades, and placed them around the corners and in the nooks and crannies of various pipes.

As Quan Tiehua advanced, he had already drawn the bolt pistol at his waist, precisely picking off the Chaos traitors who had heard the commotion and hastily prepared an ambush.

The traditional kinetic weapons in their hands could not leave even a mark on Quan Tiehua's brand-new plasteel armor.

Several more thoroughly corrupted Chaos traitors even charged at him screaming, waving arms that had transformed into something resembling crab claws.

But Quan Tiehua merely stood at the corner with his muzzle aimed at the enemy, then precisely painted them across the surrounding walls.

This chamber was the final hunting ground where they would surround the Chaos enemies coming to reinforce their comrades.

Although it was not the shortest route to the bridge, the other four Battle-Brothers would drive the Chaos prey here like a pack of wolves herding sheep.

Then they would provide support through the Legion's teleportation system, educating these Chaos fanatics with sixty bolts per second.

However, the five of them had all miscalculated one thing: the enemy's combat strength.

After Quan Tiehua effortlessly killed all the Chaos cannon fodder in the chamber, he pulled the locator beacon he had just taken from the Tech-Sergeant from the back of his waist.

He walked to the center of the chamber and was just about to secure it when an uncanny sensation pierced his heart like a needle.

The next instant, he had no time to worry about the locator beacon. He rolled aside while firing his bolt pistol at the surroundings.

Bang!

The spot where he had rolled away from had already been blasted into a crater filled with molten metal and searing heat.

He turned his head and saw the blurred figure of a beautiful woman appear in his vision.

But he did not relax his guard. Instead, he instinctively drew the Combat Dagger at his waist while adjusting the hand holding the bolt pistol.

Bang!

The sound of hard objects colliding rang out. A purple crab claw covered in spikes struck the Combat Dagger with perfect precision.

At that moment, the Omegan glands and neuroglial nodes in Quan Tiehua's body also took effect, restoring his focus in an instant and allowing him to see the disgusting creature before him clearly.

A Slaaneshi Daemonette!

His bolt pistol was already ready in his other hand. The instant he pulled the trigger, the Slaaneshi Daemonette—who had been about to unleash a sonic attack—was struck in her bulging, profane chest. A great spray of blood burst out, splattering rotten flesh everywhere, and her body staggered backward uncontrollably.

Quan Tiehua followed close behind. He tossed aside the bolt pistol, now empty, and as the final bolt struck the Slaaneshi Daemonette's body, he flipped through the air and mounted her neck. The presence of myofiber coils made his body extraordinarily agile.

He reversed the Combat Dagger in an instant and drove it straight into the Slaaneshi Daemonette's skull.

Then he exerted force through his waist, vaulted into the air, and landed in an open space nearby.

If the other Battle-Brothers had witnessed that sequence of movements, they certainly would have cried out in shock.

They would never have expected a Primaris Space Marine to be so agile. Yet they clearly would not have realized that these combat techniques belonged exclusively to none of the forces currently present in the galaxy.

The Slaaneshi Daemonette left behind was already horribly mutilated, but her formidable vitality let her twist her body wantonly, a body that would make any male's blood surge, while seductive moans continued to rise from her lips.

But with most of her torso destroyed and a lethal wound atop her skull, the Slaaneshi Daemonette had already lost her combat ability! The Chaos energy of the Warp, however, was slowly healing her flesh.

Quan Tiehua showed no mercy. He raised his boltgun and emptied the magazine into that disgusting yet alluring mass of rotten flesh, sending her back to the Warp.

He gave the Combat Dagger in his hand a sharp flick, shaking off the disgusting slime, then turned to check the locator beacon.

Meanwhile, aboard the strike cruiser Blood Angels, the Chapter Master, Chief Librarian, and a group of other Astartes were already standing in formation, waiting for orders!

But when the Chapter Master saw that the Tech-Sergeant still had not sent a signal, he could not help growing worried.

This mission involved Chaos, after all! It was their first battle since replenishing their resources, so naturally they had been assigned a difficult combat mission!

Of course, perhaps they had simply been lucky enough to be nearby!

After all, the hive-city nobles on the planet below had sent who knew how many distress signals, and who knew how long ago!

Judging from the Chapter's surviving battle records, every mission involving Chaos had been extraordinarily difficult without exception!

Chapter Master Affos looked at the Chief Librarian beside him. "So much time has passed without a signal. I don't think these are ordinary Chaos traitors anymore! It seems we'll have to strike hard!"

As he spoke, he looked toward the Tech-Sergeant, who was still receiving the locator beacon's signal. He was already worrying about the boarding squad's safety!

Quan Tiehua had already removed his helmet. His angular brows were tightly furrowed over a face carrying the gentle features of an Easterner, clearly expressing his current displeasure and helplessness.

He looked at the locator beacon, half-melted in the gradually cooling river of molten metal.

"Damn!"

A curse in ancient Terran!