Quan Tiehua installed the dismantled, crudely modified Melt Bombs step by step.
He had plenty of energy left, and used most of it to completely fill all the armoured corridors and decks beneath the entire bridge.
After completing the final step, Quan Tiehua nodded in satisfaction, picked up his weapon, and went to support the Chapter Master and the others.
But the silence along the way made him increasingly wary. Even if this was a Chaos vessel, no matter how thoroughly the danger had been cleared, it was impossible for it to be as silent as a soundproof room, without the slightest noise.
Even the sound of his Magnetic Boots striking the deck carried a long way. The closer he got to the bridge, the more intense this feeling became.
His instincts made him stop. At this moment, apart from the dozen or so Battle-Brothers left behind to hold the fort, nearly the entire Chapter had come aboard this Chaos vessel.
Based on the intelligence they had obtained before the battle, they had initially thought this was merely an ordinary Chaos-corruption mission. Sending a dozen or so Astartes should have been enough to resolve it.
It would also give this Trueborn Space Marine a chance to train and see some blood. After all, the bulk of the Chapter's main mission was taking place on the planet below.
But who could have expected that plans would fail to keep up with changes? Leonster and the others had probably encountered powerful units. Otherwise, the Chapter Master would not have personally led nearly all the Battle-Brothers aboard this warship.
Moreover, almost the entire Chapter was now gathered around the bridge and its surrounding areas, engaged in fierce combat with these Chaos enemies.
Anyone with eyes could see that this was a conspiracy.
Quan Tiehua shook his head and turned away again. But he was not running away. Instead, he found a place to conceal himself.
The Astartes might have enormous bodies, but with their superhuman overall abilities, as long as they truly wanted to accomplish something within the bounds of human capability, there was nothing they could not do.
Of course, they could accomplish things beyond the bounds of humanity as well.
Crack!
The crisp sound of thin ice breaking underfoot rang out, making Quan Tiehua, who had shut down his Power Armour's systems while hiding in the gap between the wall panels, freeze.
No matter what kind of warship it was, once the enemy boarded it in space, the air throughout the vessel would circulate faster and even grow thinner.
At the points where the enemy had broken through, various patching materials would be used as filler to maintain the air pressure inside the ship.
Although the damage had been crudely repaired, there was still one problem.
Temperature!
The temperature in space was extremely low. Even at a breach that had undergone a simple repair, several areas around it could freeze over and form frost, with the damaged point as the centre.
A person stepping on it would produce this kind of cracking sound.
But it would not sound as heavy or as chaotic as those footsteps did now.
Sure enough, in the next second, a dozen or so tall figures flashed past. Their Power Armour was covered in savage spikes and twisted Chaos runes. The Chaos Astartes radiated a cold, evil presence in the dim light controlled for combat conditions aboard the warship.
Their iconic helmets had grotesque, exaggerated designs. Horn-like structures jutted abruptly from both sides, their surfaces covered in fine spikes, as though they were demons crawling out of the abyss. Beneath the helmets, several slender tentacles could faintly be seen writhing wildly. From time to time, crimson eyes flickered through the helmet's gaps, cold and mad.
In addition, they tightly gripped their distinctive sonic weapons. The weapons' casings had likewise been twisted and reshaped by Chaos, writhing as though alive, their metallic surfaces rising and falling irregularly.
Every detail clearly marked them as a group of fallen Emperor's Children—Noise Marines.
As they ran, the equipment on their bodies collided, producing sharp scraping noises that mingled with the bizarre, unceasing background music. When they passed Quan Tiehua, it gave him the strange sensation that his buttocks had tightened.
All right, that was just goosebumps.
But that instinctive muscular reaction also reminded him of a joke from his previous life.
They had pledged themselves to Slaanesh? In theory, as Space Marines, they had no needs in that area. But this group of Emperor's Children...
And Fulgrim's nickname had turned into "Furry"...
Could it be that they...
Or, to put it another way, who was the top and who was the bottom?
But that did not quite seem right either... After all, Furry was such a huge guy, while the Emperor's Children were so small.
Quan Tiehua stared blankly at the departing Noise Marines... If that was the case, how many of them would have to die?
The wicked scene that sprang into his mind made him shudder, as if Slaanesh itself were cackling mockingly in his ear.
At the same time, he somewhat understood why the Emperor had treated Fulgrim that way.
After all, what parent could see their good son together with their grandson... Ahem, ahem, ahem.
It was unspeakable. Better not to say another word.
At that thought, he instinctively made an Amitabha gesture and began muttering, "Amit..."—but halfway through, he realised something was wrong and changed it to an Aquila Salute. "May the Emperor protect us."
Meanwhile, the Sea of Souls in the warp was churning more and more violently.
The sun had even caused the surrounding warp to freeze over with a layer of frost.
Snowflakes were actually falling over the Imperial Palace on Terra in weather like this.
Something practically unprecedented had appeared on Terra once again. It was nothing short of a miracle.
For a time, priests of the Ecclesiarchy began offering praises and alms. The faithful knelt upon the ground, offering the most devout prayers toward the throne.
But the Adeptus Custodes of the Terra Imperial Palace, as well as Guilliman, who was chattering away in front of his father, inexplicably felt a chill run down their backs and a tightening in their buttocks at the same time.
Nearly everyone instinctively glanced around, afraid that their brothers might notice. After all, the Adeptus Custodes' overall abilities were even greater than those of the Astartes. Such a tiny "anal-clenching" movement could basically be detected.
If their brothers saw something like that, they might be mocked for it for who knew how many years.
After confirming that none of their brothers had noticed, they buried this nearly shameful behaviour deep in their hearts.
But Quan Tiehua could no longer afford to worry about anything else. Looking at the Noise Marines, who had already vanished at the end of the corridor—
he was now one hundred percent certain that the Chapter's people had been deliberately lured to the bridge, where these Chaos Astartes had then encircled them from the outside and wiped them out in one stroke.
When the brothers had first boarded the ship and cleared the threats from each compartment, they had not discovered these Noise Marines. The group had probably not been aboard the vessel at that time. Most likely, they had just entered after opening Teleportation Gates to the warp in various corners of the ship.
As he spoke, he was about to connect to the Chapter's communications when a sudden psychic shockwave blasted him directly to the ground.
His heart clenched. This was bad. As static crackled through the communications channel, his heart sank to the bottom.
"Damn it. We're screwed. Fuck you, Fulgrim. Fulgrim, I really want to bend you over and give you a beating." Cursing under his breath, he still activated his jump pack, picked up his weapon, gathered the various types of ammunition he had picked up along the way, and followed after them toward the bridge.
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