Fu Yongxin: Are You Loyal?

Before Fu Qinghai lay a scene of utter devastation: collapsed walls, twisted steel walkways, and mangled corpses scattered everywhere. A small giant in filthy white Power Armour sat slumped before the rubble. Dried blood and half-dried fresh gore spread out before him like a dark red carpet. His lower body was pinned beneath a massive metal pipe, and his legs were visibly twisted out of shape, broken leg armour mixed with flesh and bone.

Yet he seemed not to feel any pain at all. The thickset man had a hairstyle like that of the famous Brazilian footballer Ronaldo. If Fu Qinghai had been familiar with Chogorian culture, he would have known it was called a topknot.

The topknotted little giant looked in confusion at Fu Qinghai, who held an electroshock spear. It was like watching an ant raise a toothpick.

"So... after all that preparation, you're planning to use that thing against me?" he finally said in that hoarse, rough, unpleasant voice.

"It's for self-defense, sir," Fu Qinghai replied calmly. He didn't move any closer, instead beginning to study the man.

Though his Power Armour was covered in laser scorch marks and all manner of cuts, and his Legion insignia had blurred beyond recognition, Fu Qinghai still identified it by its bone-white base, blood-red trim accented with pale gold lines, and the decorative rope on its shoulder plate.

White Scars, V Legion.

"Are you from Chogoris?" The thickset little giant frowned as he studied Fu Qinghai's distinctly Eastern features.

"No, I'm from Levant Hive." As he replied, Fu Qinghai watched the Space Marine's hands.

They were empty. No boltgun, no Power Sword.

"Same place as them." Fu Qinghai lifted his chin toward the mangled corpses on the ground and added, "I noticed."

He had already recognized the torn-up bodies. They were Cedric and the others.

The Space Marine followed Fu Qinghai's gaze down to the bodies and laughed. "Hahaha! So you're just like them. Planning to take something from a warrior whose legs are trapped and who's unarmed?"

"No. I just want to talk to you."

Fu Qinghai wasn't stupid. An unarmed Space Marine was still a Space Marine. Even with his bare hands, he could tear Hive City thugs like Cedric in half as easily as tearing paper—literally.

Fu Qinghai had also figured out that the Space Marine was cunning. With his legs pinned and his ability to move limited, Cedric and the others should have been safe as long as they kept their distance. Yet they had all been wiped out. The most likely explanation was that he had pretended to be helpless, lured them close, then torn them apart with his bare hands, one by one.

That was also why Ladrall had managed to escape back to their hideout before dying, despite facing a Space Marine.

"You're a White Scars warrior." As he spoke, Fu Qinghai examined the Space Marine's legs, crushed beneath the metal pipe.

An ordinary person would have died long ago from blood loss caused by the major arteries in his legs being severed. Fu Qinghai couldn't help marveling at the Space Marines' vitality. Of course, the Power Armour's life-support system had helped repair some of the damage. He could see coagulated haemostatic gel where the leg armour had broken, but it hadn't stopped some blood and bodily fluids from flowing onto the floor and mingling with the half-dried gore in front of him.

"You know a fair bit." The Space Marine studied Fu Qinghai with interest.

"What should I call you?" Fu Qinghai lowered the spear tip slightly and relaxed a little. He edged one small step forward, but remained on guard.

"Ogedei. Ogedei Mangnut. If you were a soldier in our Legion, you could call me Noyan-Khan Ogedei." The thickset giant answered with the same relaxed expression, even the faintest hint of a smile tugging at his lips.

Oh, an officer. A company commander.

The Imperium's Space Marine Legions naturally had established combat formations, from squad-level units to company-level formations. But each Legion had its own divisions and terminology, shaped by the tactical habits and cultural traditions of its Primarch.

For example, the White Scars called their companies brotherhoods, and their company commanders Noyan-Khans.

These names came from the native customs of the White Scars' home world and primary recruiting world, Chogoris.

Fu Qinghai knew that the White Scars had remained loyal to the Emperor throughout the Horus Heresy, but he still didn't dare let down his guard.

He also knew that, early in the Horus Heresy, nearly half the White Scars had secretly sided with the Warmaster. They had planned a coup, intending to seize control of the Legion fleet while their Primarch, Jaghatai Khan, was on the surface of Prospero.

Although they had ultimately failed, it showed that the White Scars weren't united. Plenty of turncoats refused to follow their Primarch's orders. Who knew whether the White Scars warrior before him was one of the rebels?

Fu Qinghai took another small step forward and spoke.

"Uh, well... respected Noyan-Khan Ogedei, as I said, I'm an ordinary, lawful citizen of the Imperium, from the Cheslatan colonial settlement. I mean you no harm. I've noticed your predicament, and I hope I can help you get out of it."

"But," Fu Qinghai continued before Ogedei could speak, "before that, I have one last question."

Fu Qinghai drew a deep breath, looked Ogedei straight in the eyes, and asked in a low voice:

"Are you loyal?"

At those words, the White Scars warrior's previously indifferent expression changed abruptly. His brow furrowed, his sharp gaze fixed on Fu Qinghai's eyes, and his deep voice rasped from between his throat and teeth, each word deliberate.

"Boy, I've fought for the Imperium and the Khan for two hundred years. It wasn't so some ridiculous mortal like you could question my loyalty!"

By the end of the sentence, he was practically roaring.

The question seemed to have struck a nerve. He went on shouting, "We fought from Ullanor to Prospero. We hunted down every traitor ship and every traitor aboard them. My brothers' bodies are still floating in the void above your head!"

"And you! A wretched, pitiful mortal with a glorified lighter in your hands, dare to doubt me? To judge me?"

The White Scars warrior angrily grabbed a severed arm beside him and raised it, preparing to hurl it at Fu Qinghai.

"I..." Ogedei hadn't finished cursing when Fu Qinghai thrust the tip of his electroshock spear into the half-dried gore in front of him.

"Crackle!" The powerful current from the warship's power supply tore through the blood and connected directly to Ogedei's lower body, soaked in blood, bodily fluids, and gel.

"AAAAAAAH!" The Space Marine screamed in shock, his voice trembling with a chattering rattle.

He had, of course, seen the electroshock spear in Fu Qinghai's hand. But its slender shaft had led the White Scars warrior to assume that the thing could at most make a Space Marine's body twitch. It couldn't possibly cause any real harm.

It was just a civilian animal trap, not even technically a weapon.

He'd let his guard down.

"Hiss..." A plume of white smoke rose from the end of the shaft. After a single discharge, the electroshock spear burned out, just as expected.

Ogedei stopped shaking, sitting dazed on the floor, his eyes unfocused.

The severed arm he'd raised slipped from his hand and hit the ground with a soft thud.

"Phew..." Fu Qinghai let out a breath of relief. From Ogedei's tone, he had judged that the Space Marine was probably loyal. But his own small frame couldn't withstand a Space Marine's furious throw, so he'd had to calm him down first.

A few seconds later, Ogedei blinked and finally came around.

He glared at Fu Qinghai. "You little..."

"Don't, don't! Calm down, Khan. I was just trying to calm you down!" Fu Qinghai hastily raised both hands and tossed the electroshock spear to the ground, showing that he was unarmed.

"I'm a loyal citizen of the Imperium. I'm on your side. I hate Horus too. I love the Emperor as I love my own father!" Fu Qinghai rattled off the words as fast as he could.

"Please, calm down. You're in terrible shape. To prove my sincerity, I'll find a way to get you out of here." As he spoke, Fu Qinghai began backing away.

"You..." Ogedei was a little stunned as he watched Fu Qinghai turn and dash through the doorway.

Not long afterward, he heard the roar of a Jetbike engine.

Ogedei saw Fu Qinghai drag in a long iron chain. Fu Qinghai went to one end of the metal pipe, crouched down, and worked to fasten the chain around it.

Ogedei understood what he was trying to do.

A girl poked her head around the doorway, peering inside. She saw the bodies, severed limbs, and blood, clapped a hand over her mouth, and gagged before quickly ducking back out of sight.

Once he'd tied it off, Fu Qinghai gave the chain a firm tug to make sure it was secure. Then he went to Ogedei and said, "Brace yourself."

"Hmph." Ogedei gave a disdainful snort. "I'm an Astartes. Do you think I'm afraid of pain?"

You seem to have forgotten how badly you screamed just now... Fu Qinghai thought, but said nothing. He turned and walked outside.

The engine roared to life again, and the chain instantly pulled taut.

It bent around the corner of the doorway. As the Jetbike outside pulled, the links clanked one after another as they were dragged through the doorway.

The metal pipe began to shift slowly too, its weight grinding over the Space Marine's legs like a millstone.

"Hsss..." Though the flesh in his legs had long since died, the agony of being dragged like this tugged at the nerves near his hips. Ogedei still couldn't help hissing in pain.

At last, the metal pipe was pulled away.

Cold sweat covered Ogedei's forehead. The sedatives and painkillers built into his Power Armour had run out during the earlier fighting. Now he was enduring the pain through sheer force of will.

"Hah..." Ogedei breathed heavily, looking at his legs, crushed beyond recognition. They'll probably put me in a Dreadnought...

Fu Qinghai came back inside.

[You saved the life of Ogedei Mangnut, a White Scars Space Marine. Milestone event achieved!]

That familiar, icy voice rang out once more.

[Calculating Assimilation Points... 209 points]

OJBK! Fu Qinghai praised himself inwardly. He'd successfully earned Assimilation Points.

Ogedei, who had been staring at his legs, looked up at Fu Qinghai and said, "I can't stand, and I can't walk."

"That's fine. I'll make a metal plate and drag you on it," Fu Qinghai said, explaining his plan.

Ogedei considered it for a moment. "That'll work. But first, I need you to do something for me. There should be a few Sons of Horus bodies behind the wall behind me. Bring one over. And if they have any Power Weapons, bring those too."

Fu Qinghai followed his instructions and went around the wall behind Ogedei. Sure enough, two Space Marine corpses in grey-green armour lay behind it. They both wore helmets, and one was half-buried beneath the collapsed rubble.

Fu Qinghai felt reassured. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. The Sons of Horus were almost all staunch Warmaster supporters, with only a tiny minority loyal to the Emperor. A White Scars warrior who had fought against them was almost certainly loyalist.

Fu Qinghai found a Power Sword lying beside one of the Sons of Horus.

From its design, it was a broad-bladed longsword with a curved crossguard and a long hilt, long enough for Fu Qinghai to grip with both hands. But compared with the size of a Space Marine's hands, and judging by the proportions of the hilt and blade, it was clearly a one-handed sword.

The hilt and crossguard were decorated with only simple patterns. Runes in Low Gothic bore the name of the Forge World where it had been made. It wasn't a finely crafted weapon, suggesting its owner hadn't been an officer.

Fu Qinghai struggled to lift the Power Sword. It was so heavy that he could barely swing it. After all, it had been designed for a Space Marine.

Fu Qinghai found it hard to put down. From the moment he'd seen the sword, the sea of consciousness within him had been stirring. He gently pressed a button on the hilt.

"Bzzz..." A barely audible hum sounded as a hazy blue field instantly enveloped the entire blade. Thin white arcs of electricity flickered around it, and its blue glow faintly illuminated the dark compartment.

The sword's Power Field generator still worked.

"Careful, kid. Don't touch that blue glow, or you'll cut your own head off," Ogedei's hoarse voice came from behind him.

Ogedei had heard the Power Sword activate. A sound like that was all too familiar to a Space Marine.

Fu Qinghai wasn't stupid enough to touch the blue energy field with his bare hands.

The Power Field was the heart of a Power Weapon. It could disrupt the molecular bonds of any solid matter it touched, and could almost dissolve any solid substance. Power Weapons were standard equipment for Space Marines and were also issued to a few high-ranking mortal officers. But the technology wasn't commonplace. Many xenos species couldn't manufacture Power Weapons, and even many human Forge Worlds no longer had the ability to make them forty thousand years later.

A standard Power Sword like this would have fetched a very high price in Levant Hive, where Fu Qinghai had originally lived.

Fu Qinghai switched off the Power Field generator, carried the sword back to Ogedei, and set it beside him. Then he returned behind the wall and, with all his strength, dragged one of the Sons of Horus corpses over to Ogedei.

Ogedei picked up the Power Sword and expertly swung it twice. Then he gave Fu Qinghai an order. "In the power pack on the body's back, there's a storage compartment in the life-support system. Find it. It's, it's... damn it, his armour's a pieced-together MK5. I thought it was on the side. Try looking for..."

"Is this it?" Before he could finish, Fu Qinghai pulled a compartment containing several tubes of unfamiliar liquids from the side of the power pack.

"Huh? You... have you worked with Power Armour before?" Ogedei looked Fu Qinghai up and down in surprise.

His torso, hands, and feet were all flesh and blood. He didn't look like a Tech-Priest of the Adeptus Mechanicus...

"First time. You can call it a knack," Fu Qinghai casually explained.

Fu Qinghai carried the life-support compartment over to Ogedei, found the matching compartment, and pulled it out. Its tubes were empty. He inserted the compartment from the Son of Horus in its place.

"Vrrrm..." Ogedei's power pack shuddered. Hot air puffed from the two spherical exhaust vents behind his shoulders, and the power pack's motor began to run.

Then Ogedei sighed, his face relaxing with relief.

Fu Qinghai guessed that painkillers, medication, and hormones were now being injected into Ogedei's body through the Power Armour.

Beginning with the second-generation MK2 Crusade Pattern Power Armour, the massive power pack on the backs of Space Marine suits integrated a miniature plasma reactor, life-support systems, automatic medical equipment, air filtration systems, liquid circulation systems, and more.

"You could apply to be a Legion Apothecary," Ogedei joked, his endless pain easing a little.

He was, of course, only joking. Leaving aside the medical expertise required of a Legion Apothecary, there was one simple fact: a Space Marine Apothecary was a Space Marine too.

"And then there's just you." As he spoke, Ogedei activated the Power Sword's Power Field and lowered his gaze to his shattered legs.

Holy shit, you're not going to... Fu Qinghai's heart jumped at the sight.

Ogedei held the Power Sword against his legs, judged the angle, then suddenly swung down.

The blue Power Field sliced cleanly through Ogedei's legs, broken armour and all, as smoothly as a hot knife through butter.

Ogedei grunted. Blood spurted out, but the armour's life-support system immediately covered the wound with haemostatic gel. Blood clotted visibly around his upper thighs, then quickly scabbed over. Cells from the Larraman organ in the Space Marine's chest had spread through his bloodstream and were acting at remarkable speed.

He's amputating his own legs. Are all Space Marines this brutal? Fu Qinghai thought.

Just then, out of the corner of his eye, Fu Qinghai noticed a strange wound on the arm of one of Cedric's corpses scattered on the ground.

Unable to contain his curiosity, Fu Qinghai crouched down to take a closer look.

It was a bite mark.

Fu Qinghai's eyes widened. He abruptly looked up at Ogedei and quietly took two steps back.

"You eat people?" Fu Qinghai asked in a low voice.

Ogedei raised his head and met Fu Qinghai's eyes calmly. "The nutrients in my life-support system were only enough to keep me alive for three days. My stomach can digest many kinds of organic matter to provide my body with the energy it needs. That includes the corpses of my enemies."

The corpses of his enemies... Ogedei's frankness left Fu Qinghai momentarily at a loss for words. The moral standards of the Warhammer 40K universe were very different from those of his previous life on Earth. At first, Fu Qinghai had struggled to accept the practice of removing living people's frontal lobes and turning them into Servitors, but people here treated it as commonplace.

All Fu Qinghai could do was nod. "All right."

It was true. A seasoned Space Marine couldn't just let himself starve to death. That would be pathetic.

Over the next while, Fu Qinghai picked through the parts of the warship wreckage that were safe to explore, finding suitable materials to make a sled that could be towed behind the Jetbike. Although Ogedei had lost his legs, his Space Marine build was still far larger than an ordinary person's, so there was no way to fit him on the Jetbike.

The sled had no wheels. It was simply a curved steel plate set on the ground.

While making it, Fu Qinghai had to admit that an indestructible Power Sword made an excellent cutting tool. Even if he wasn't using it to chop people up, it was extremely efficient as a tool for manufacturing things.

After searching the ruins for a few usable weapons and supplies, the three of them prepared to head back to the colonial settlement.

Ogedei braced himself on his hands and lowered himself onto the sled Fu Qinghai had built. He gripped its edges tightly and looked at Fu Qinghai with suspicion.

Fu Qinghai reassured him. "Don't worry. I'll tell Feiyi to go slowly."

"Rumble..." The girl twisted the throttle, and the Jetbike started up.

Ogedei sat on the sled, his legs gone, and felt a little nervous. For some reason, he thought of the first time he'd taken part in a boarding action, then the first time he'd taken part in an orbital drop...