Kommandos

"This was because the beings I was about to hunt were likely too powerful for me to match with my current strength alone. If I wanted to achieve my objective, I had to unite every available force and ensure nothing could go wrong in the end."

Rowan explained.

The C'tan Shards he was about to hunt were no easy targets.

No, that might not have been quite accurate...

It would be more accurate to say that among the C'tan Shards, Rowan instead had to seek out sufficiently powerful ones in order to meet his requirements.

Take the Burning One C'tan Shard on Fenris, for instance. It was the sort that a Necron like Trazyn the Infinite could directly smash to pieces.

Without question, that could not meet Rowan's requirements.

As for the remaining unclaimed shards, whether it was the Void Dragon beneath Mars's surface, capable of going toe-to-toe with some great god of a Warp domain, or the Transcendent C'tan within the core of the Pharos Lighthouse, neither was someone to be trifled with.

In any case, Rowan could not beat them.

By comparison, the World Shaper C'tan Shard within the World Engine was already the most suitable target.

But even so, if he wanted to successfully take down the World Engine and utterly defeat and kill the World Shaper, he would need the Imperium's considerable military strength as fundamental support—especially those grease monkeys with all their black tech.

His current strength alone was clearly nowhere near enough.

Of course, this was only a preliminary attempt for now. Next, Rowan would need to make contact with other Magi of the Adeptus Mechanicus.

"Right, speaking of Magi..."

As though she had suddenly remembered something, Inquisitor Sibyl said, "I recall the Custodes mentioning that intelligence indicated an Archmagos from Mars should be on this planet."

"Huh?"

Rowan froze slightly.

Why had she never mentioned this before?

After obtaining the Inquisitor's consent, he immediately used his Reality Warping Ability to rapidly search through Sibyl's memories, seeing the contents of her earlier conversation with the Custodes on the Bridge.

"Fine."

Rowan was somewhat speechless. He had actually made such an embarrassing blunder, though fortunately it had not truly delayed anything.

"Once we kill that Ork Warboss, we'll try to find that Magos of the Mars Mechanicus."

As he spoke, Rowan suddenly seemed to think of something and muttered to himself in surprise, "Could it really be Archmagos Cawl?"

At that very moment, within that camp, Belisarius Cawl's body emitted another hum of mechanical operation.

What was going on?

Again?

Confusion and incomprehension filled his mind, as well as every personality fragment within it.

Armageddon Steel Legion Command Headquarters.

"Mortal, this is the fourth time you have covertly observed me with your eyes. If there is a problem, simply speak."

Leonardo, clad in ornate Terminator Armor and holding sword and shield, stood silently to one side as he spoke in a calm voice.

Ever since receiving Rowan's orders, he had followed Yarrick to the command headquarters, watching firsthand as the other man arranged every command matter in perfect order.

As an Emperor's Custodes who excelled at everything, Leonardo had to admit that this mortal was truly in a class of his own when it came to command.

"...My apologies, my lord. It's nothing."

Yarrick sighed.

Damn it, he simply could not control his curiosity.

The knowledge he had learned at the Schola Progenium meant that, unlike those ignorant citizens of the Imperium, he was not wholly unfamiliar with its various departments. As a Commissar of the Astra Militarum, he at least possessed a rough understanding of them.

But precisely because he understood, he found it all the more inconceivable.

The Emperor's Custodes held an extraordinary position throughout the Imperium. They were the guardians of the Imperial Palace and the Golden Throne, possessing political independence unmatched across the entire Imperium. Other than the Emperor, they needed answer to no one.

In theory, if they wished, they could even dismiss the High Lords of Terra.

Yet such figures were actually taking orders from an ordinary mortal?

When Yarrick had truly heard that this Custodes had accepted Rowan's orders as a matter of course, the tumult in his heart had been beyond words.

Still, in the end, his instinct for survival overcame his thirst for knowledge.

Yarrick forced himself to stop dwelling on the reasons behind it all.

Looking on the bright side, the arrival of these reinforcements had already completely made up for the Imperium's gap with the Orks in terms of elite combat strength—and perhaps even surpassed them.

Suddenly, a strange sensation flickered through his heart.

Yarrick narrowed his eyes slightly and, without drawing attention, reached for the bolt pistol at his waist.

Almost at the same moment, the Custodes shifted his stance and assumed a guarded posture.

"Oh?"

He had noticed it too?

The thought rose in both their minds at the same time.

Yarrick was relatively composed, but Leonardo was utterly astonished.

How had this mortal managed it? Even with his superhuman senses, he had only just caught that trace of something unusual.

Where exactly was the enemy?

Without betraying any emotion, the Adeptus Custodes turned his head, rapidly scanning the surroundings.

The environment was utterly quiet. Everything appeared perfectly normal.

But the next moment, the deathly silence was shattered by a violent burst of gunfire.

With almost no warning, Yarrick drew his bolt pistol and pulled the trigger.

A storm of explosive rounds shot forth, instantly covering a dark corner as sprays of blood erupted one after another!

Inside his tactical helmet, Leonardo narrowed his eyes dangerously.

Six furtive Ork Boyz had appeared in his field of vision.

They all wore crude combat uniforms, with nothing but a seemingly ordinary piece of blue cloth draped over themselves.

Yet this simple disguise had somehow deceived everyone's eyes and the sentries outside, allowing them to sneak all the way here.

And the purpose of these Greenskins was self-evident.

"Waaaaagh!"

A roar rang out as the remaining Kommandos that had not been killed by the Bolter rounds lunged forward, the curved blades in their hands flashing coldly through the air.

Yarrick was about to return fire when he heard a fierce gust sweep past his side.

The massive, gold-armored figure standing over three meters tall completely blocked him from view.

Slash—

A flash of sword light passed through the air, and nearly all the Greenskins became corpses at the same instant.

With the battle over, Leonardo carefully checked every corner once more before turning to Yarrick. "Those just now were... Greenskin Kommandos? I've seen records about them in texts passed down by the Adeptus Custodes. I never expected their stealth effect to be this good."

"No. Under normal circumstances, Kommandos shouldn't be capable of such powerful concealment."

Yarrick shook his head. He crouched down and carefully examined the blue cloth draped over the Greenskins' bodies.

To ordinary eyes, it was merely a plain piece of blue cloth, utterly unremarkable.

But Yarrick had managed to spot a crucial clue.

Thoughtfully, he said, "It seems we'll have to move even faster. Those Greenskins are clearly up to something very bad."