Warp Transmission

"...Something's not right. I can sense the stench of a plot."

Leonardo swung his Guardian Spear. Its power blade flashed like a streak of light, piercing a Chaos Space Marine through the neck in an instant. Then he spoke in a low voice.

A bolt of Psy-lightning streaked past him, blazing brightly enough to illuminate the dim ship's interior for a moment. The remaining enemies were reduced to charred husks.

The Inquisitor flourished his sword, then sheathed his Force Sword and immediately replied,

"Exactly. In my experience, the resistance put up by these Heretic rebels is very suspicious. It's so weak that it puts me on my guard."

That was right. It certainly was.

Rowan's team was now strong enough that the vast majority of ships in the Galaxy simply couldn't stop them from launching a Boarding Action. This Strike Cruiser was no exception.

But that was no reason to give up all resistance.

After taking care of the group of Chaos Cultists earlier, Rowan and the others had thought the next ambush team might offer them a little excitement.

But they hadn't expected that all the enemies waiting ahead would be a large number of Cultists and a handful of Chaos Astartes. That combination might have posed a serious threat to a conventional boarding party, but unfortunately, they couldn't even slow Rowan's group down.

Rowan turned his head and glanced to the side at the Executioner's main gun, still concealed by optical camouflage and yet to fire a single shot.

He rubbed his chin, pondering for a moment. "...It's been eight minutes since we entered this ship, and we still haven't encountered anything like a Helbrute or a heavy vehicle such as a Daemon Engine. It's all basic infantry."

These attacks were completely pointless.

It couldn't be that the enemy still hadn't sensed the danger, could it?

After all, their group had chosen the shortest route to the Bridge and charged straight through. If the enemy hadn't noticed them by now, they were hopelessly incompetent.

Continuing forward, Rowan paused and asked Sibyl,

"Have you searched the memories of the Chaos Space Marines we killed?"

Sibyl nodded. "I did, but I didn't find anything useful. They came to stop us after receiving orders from their superiors. They knew nothing else."

"Good. It seems there are only two possibilities."

Rowan spoke up. "First, that Chaos Lord saw things going badly and ran. Maybe he's already aboard a small shuttle. As for the second possibility..."

He broke off without explaining the second possibility, but his meaning was already clear.

Everyone present understood what Rowan meant.

"Or he's confident enough to defeat us at the Bridge in one fell swoop, and doesn't want to waste lives."

The Living Saint Lucia beat her softly glowing golden wings, her voice calm.

"Let's pick up the pace. We may still have a tough fight ahead of us."

Rowan waved his hand.

Their brief discussion over, they immediately sprinted through the ship at full speed.

They did encounter resistance along the way, but the forces sent to intercept them were too weak in both numbers and quality to pose a threat. The team simply crushed them underfoot like speed bumps.

In the ship's corridors, Bolter fire mingled with the crackle of surging psychic energy. The way ahead was clear, leaving only a trail of mangled corpses behind them.

At last, after climbing a flight of stairs, they reached the ship's highest level.

The Bridge lay just a short distance ahead. It was the heart of any ship; destroy it, and the entire vessel would suffer damage akin to the destruction of a human's nervous system. The consequences were obvious.

Outside the Bridge doors, beneath lights turned crimson by the influence of the Warp, roughly twenty Noise Marines stood in neat formation. They wore power armor daubed in vivid colors and carried strange-looking sonic cannons—a style that was decidedly un-Slaaneshi.

These specialized Slaanesh Astartes were known for wielding devastating sonic weapons. Every sonic cannon had considerable penetrating power, and all were trained on the corridor entrance as the Noise Marines stood ready.

At that moment, a Chaos Sorcerer named Batalia stood behind the formation.

He spread out his psychic energy, probing through layers of steel plates in an attempt to locate the intruders, while complaining to himself.

"Malven, that bastard sure knows how to order people around."

Batalia had been in his room, absorbed in experimenting with his "masterpiece" and exploring its "beauty," when the War Band's leader, the Chaos Lord, had summoned him with a deafening Vox Array Communication.

"But if the job is only to stall them for a few minutes, it should be easy enough."

The Sorcerer thought to himself.

It was difficult for people to imagine things they had never seen. He truly couldn't conceive of any enemy capable of breaking through so many Noise Marines in a narrow corridor in such a short time.

At the Sorcerer's will, the psychic tide grew more turbulent, surging toward the depths of the corridor as it sought to pinpoint the intruders.

The next second, he was stunned.

What was that?

It felt as if a sledgehammer had struck his brain. Psychic energy roared like a tsunami from beyond the corridor, forcibly driving his own power back at him.

Faced with this overwhelming psychic force, the profound techniques he'd spent nearly two hundred years studying seemed like a joke. He was utterly crushed.

"No, that's impossible!"

Batalia could no longer spare any thought for anything else. He began to struggle desperately, his body rising into the air as a pink-purple psychic glow radiated from him.

But none of it made any difference.

???

Hearing the tremendous commotion, his Astartes bodyguards immediately turned to look at Batalia. His expression had suddenly become as calm as a lake, and a strange blue light shone in his eyes. Confusion welled up in their minds.

What was happening?

Unfortunately, that brief hesitation extinguished their last chance of survival.

Batalia's face turned ashen, like a skull, while a dazzling light began to build within him, too bright to be concealed by his Power Armor.

Then it erupted!

A violent shock wave spread out, swallowing all the Chaos Astartes in an instant and blasting them away like rubbish. They tumbled in every direction.

When the blast wave faded, the Noise Marines struggled to their feet. At the center of the explosion, they saw a towering golden-armored figure, over three meters tall, holding a Guardian Spear.

It was over.

That was the first thought to cross the minds of every Astartes present.

It was also the last thought of their lives.

A minute later, the three of them arrived and met up with Leonardo, who had just reached them first through Warp transmission.

All resistance had been completely wiped out. The four of them came to a stop before the Bridge doors.

Without needing a reminder, Sibyl spoke first.

"Let me handle this."

Then, once again, she deftly summoned her psychic power. Her gaze pierced the thick doors and looked inside the Bridge.