Ogedei's Armory

Inside Feiyi's parents' house.

Feiyi was crying, her tears falling like rain, yet she still had to help Fu Qinghai pack his luggage while sobbing.

"Why won't you take me with you? Why?" Feiyi said, her mouth pouting again as tears dripped down.

Fu Qinghai sighed helplessly and said, "Didn't I tell you? I'm going to war, not on a vacation. People die in war."

Facing the tears of such a beautiful girl, Fu Qinghai felt at a loss, not knowing how to comfort her.

"Why would you need to take me to war? You don't even know how to fight, you can't even beat Cedric and the others, and you still have to rely on me to protect you." Feiyi pouted, crying as she spoke.

That stings, little sister... But I, Fu Qinghai, am no longer who I was; I have gained the recognition of the Space Marines.

Fu Qinghai watched as Feiyi desperately stuffed clothes into the suitcase, as if that could make up for the regret of parting with him, and quickly tried to dissuade her:

"Alright, alright, stop stuffing it. I'm not moving house."

Hearing this, Feiyi put down the suitcase, turned around, and walked into her parents' cultivation room, coming out holding a pot of clawing, alien plant.

"Take this pot of Sharp-toothed Blood-sucking Fern with you. I remember you love eating its fruit the most."

What the hell... Isn't it just that I eat whatever you cut for me? When did I ever show any special preference?

Fu Qinghai was speechless and quickly walked over to take the plant from Feiyi's hands and set it down.

He cupped the girl's cheeks, his fingers interlaced in the hair at her temples, looking straight into her eyes.

Feiyi's originally lively, large eyes were now a bit red and swollen, tears dampening her long eyelashes, even causing bags to form under her eyes from crying.

"When I'm not here, you must protect yourself." Fu Qinghai said softly.

"Mm..." Feiyi, her face held by Fu Qinghai, let out a hum from her nose, the girl's warm, damp breath puffing onto Fu Qinghai's face.

Fu Qinghai lowered his head and pressed his lips gently against Feiyi's crystal-clear, soft lips—a fleeting touch, gone as soon as it landed.

The girl's eyes widened, and a blush instantly flooded her cheeks.

Although the two were as familiar as could be, this was truly the first time they had kissed, and Feiyi was suddenly a bit flustered.

Fu Qinghai, however, was very calm, helping Feiyi tidy up the slightly curled strands of hair stuck to her forehead.

He said calmly, "Wait for me to come back."

After saying this, he picked up the suitcase on the floor and turned to leave.

"A-Luo!" Feiyi's voice came from behind, "I put Mom's necklace in the suitcase."

Fu Qinghai didn't look back, just raised his hand to signal that he had heard.

Unlike the previous cycle of life, this reincarnation gave Fu Qinghai richer and deeper memories.

Memories about Feiyi.

This made it impossible for him to remain a bystander with the mindset of a passerby as he had in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. When facing beings as powerful as Space Marines, Fu Qinghai could step outside the world's frame of mind and think about ways to solve problems from the roots of the official Warhammer 40K novels.

However, when facing Feiyi, he could not treat her as an NPC in a game or novel.

She was a person of flesh and blood, and this flesh and blood grew upon Fu Qinghai's heart.

Fu Qinghai chose not to take Feiyi on the ship.

For one, Ogedei had not told Fu Qinghai that he could bring others; for another, the White Scars would not wander aimlessly in the universe. Once they departed, they would certainly go to find trouble with other traitor legions. They might even go to Terra to participate in the final showdown between the Loyalists and the Traitors. How could Fu Qinghai let Feiyi participate in such life-or-death struggles?

Fu Qinghai said he would return, but in this chaotic world where transportation was severed and communications were cut off, no one could guarantee or promise anything, especially since Fu Qinghai was, strictly speaking, an outsider from another universe.

Cheslatan was indeed a rare sanctuary in this burning galaxy, and this sanctuary should be left for Feiyi.

Fu Qinghai appeared in front of the Stormbird with his suitcase.

Directly facing him were two figures, one tall and one short, waiting for him.

The tall one was a towering warrior clad in full armor, and the short one was Ogedei, sitting in a wheelchair with his upper body exposed.

For such a large Stormbird, capable of carrying fifty fully armed Space Marines, there was only one person besides the pilot to pick up Ogedei to return to the ship.

From this small detail, Fu Qinghai saw the predicament the White Scars were currently facing—a severe shortage of manpower.

It made sense; at their peak, the White Scars only numbered about fifty thousand. After a few high-intensity civil wars, their numbers would be stretched thin. Meanwhile, the Ultramarines at their peak had three hundred thousand, backed by the Ultramar Five Hundred Worlds, which had developed productivity and a large population. When fighting a war of attrition, not only would they not run out of men, but they might even grow in number as they fought.

How wary was Warmaster Horus of Roboute Guilliman, the Primarch of the XIII Legion? Regarding Jaghatai Khan, the Primarch of the V Legion, whom he was unsure he could win over, Horus's choice during the conspiracy of the rebellion was to use the Warmaster's authority to transfer the White Scars to a remote star system to deal with the remnants of the Ork threat. In reality, this was just to keep the White Scars away. Regardless of what Jaghatai Khan chose, he would not be able to return to the core regions of the Imperium of Man in time to affect Horus's subsequent plans.

As for the Ultramarines, Horus and the traitor legions set one trap after another, aiming not only to slaughter the living strength of the Ultramarines but also to destroy the blood-making capacity of the Ultramar Five Hundred Worlds. The XIII and his massive Ultramarines Legion were truly the Warmaster's greatest concern.

Ogedei watched Fu Qinghai walk toward them with a faint smile on his face.

Fu Qinghai walked up to the two of them. It was clear that Ogedei was very satisfied with Fu Qinghai's choice, but he said nothing.

He only said faintly, "Let's go." Then he pushed his wheelchair and turned to board the Stormbird.

The Stormbird took off, the cabin shaking abnormally and accompanied by a deafening roar. Fu Qinghai strapped himself firmly into his seat, his hands gripping the seatbelts on both sides tightly.

Setting aside the vague memories of taking off from the Levant Hive, strictly speaking, this was Fu Qinghai's first time flying into space. He was so nervous that his toes were curled together, and his face was pale.

Yet Ogedei and the tall Space Marine sat quietly in their seats as if nothing were happening.

This seat was reserved specifically for Astartes clad in full armor, making it incredibly spacious; Fu Qinghai felt like a quail egg in an eagle's nest as he sank into it.

As the Stormbird accelerated, the immense G-force made Fu Qinghai's breathing shallow and left him feeling dizzy.

"Oh!" At this moment, Ogedei slapped his forehead as if he had just remembered, stood up, pulled a tube with a respirator valve from behind Fu Qinghai, and shoved it onto his face, smiling. "Forgot you were a mortal, my apologies."

With the respirator clamped over his nose and mouth, Fu Qinghai couldn't speak, but the look he gave Ogedei said it all—

You did this just to get back at me for shocking you, didn't you!

It was fortunate that Fu Qinghai was a space-faring human in this life; otherwise, in his previous life, not just anyone could have handled the rigors of space travel.

The Stormbird arrived safely at the warship docked in orbit.

Once the Stormbird came to a halt and the ramp lowered, the bustling boarding deck came into Fu Qinghai's view.

Bright lights illuminated the entire deck. The ground crew working there were ordinary humans just like Fu Qinghai, dressed in white and red uniforms, but there were no other Astartes in sight.

The rumble of passing tractors and the creaking of cranes filled Fu Qinghai's eardrums.

Fu Qinghai took one last look at the scene outside the boarding gate; beyond the shimmering haze of the void shields lay a massive, earth-yellow planet: Cheslatan.

The boarding gate slowly closed.

Fu Qinghai followed Ogedei and Talal toward the interior of the warship, and the crew members they passed all stopped to salute the two of them.

The status of an Astartes was evident.

Ogedei settled Fu Qinghai into his own private cabin before heading to the bridge with Talal.

Every Astartes on a warship had their own independent rest cabin and armory, regardless of rank.

Left alone in Ogedei's cabin, Fu Qinghai felt a bit bored.

The room was too simple and too clean, containing almost no personal items, let alone entertainment facilities.

There was only a small box, but Fu Qinghai didn't want to rummage through someone else's belongings.

After sitting stiffly on the chair for a while, Fu Qinghai thought: Although I don't know the internal regulations of the warship, I'm so close with Ogedei, it shouldn't be a problem to take a look around his armory, right?

With that, he stood up and walked toward the armory.

As soon as he pushed the door open, a massive green head came into view, and Fu Qinghai froze.

It was a giant head, at least three times the size of an average adult human's, with rough, thick skin that was an unnatural grey-green, likely treated with some kind of chemical agent. Two pairs of thick, white, upturned tusks hooked the upper lip, and there was sparse hair on the top of the head. Even in death, it retained a ferocious, snarling expression from its life, and its shriveled red eyes still held a lingering, bloodthirsty hunger, staring straight at whoever entered the armory.

So, Ogedei liked to keep battle trophies in his armory.

This was an Ork, one of the four great scourges of the Warhammer 40K universe, and before the rise of the Eye of Terror and the Tyranid invasion, it was once the primary threat to the galaxy.

Orks were a miraculous green-skinned species; they had no gender and were a sentient lifeform that was half-fungus and half-animal. They reproduced asexually via spores, and any skin flakes shed by an adult Ork could grow into an Ork tribe on a planet with suitable conditions. Their social structure was relatively simple compared to humans, but they were cruel, warlike, chaotic, and extremely aggressive. Combined with their unparalleled reproductive capacity across the galaxy, they were once the greatest nightmare for all other sentient races.

The first grand victory parade attended by all Legions after the Human Empire launched the Great Crusade took place during 544.M30, when The Emperor commemorated the defeat of an Ork Warlord named "Overfiend Urg." This Warlord had unified most of the Ork tribes in the galaxy and conquered the vast majority of its regions. Every Astartes Legion had participated in this protracted doomsday war against the Ork Empire, and both The Emperor and the later Warmaster Horus had personally fought on the front lines.

This was the "Ullanor Crusade," the battle that laid the foundation for the Human Empire to unify the galaxy. It was also after this war that The Emperor promoted Horus Lupercal, Primarch of the XVI Legion Luna Wolves, to "Warmaster," making him the supreme commander of all Human Empire armed forces except for the Custodes, while The Emperor himself returned to the underground laboratories of the Imperial Palace on Terra to conduct his secret experiments.

In other words, after dealing with the Ork Empire, The Emperor believed that the remaining unfinished Great Crusade could be handled by Horus, while he went off to busy himself with what he considered more important matters.

This served as a side confirmation of the Orks' formidable nature.

Although the Ork Warlords were defeated, vast numbers of Orks were slaughtered, and large swathes of land were purged, Orks still permeated every corner of the galaxy, including the remote Kondax system where the White Scars Legion had been ordered to conduct a purge.

Based on the Orks' half-plant, half-animal nature, the body size of their primary subspecies was not fixed within a range like humans. Orks could continue to grow throughout their entire lives; generally, the more powerful an individual Ork was in combat, the larger its stature. This body size was also directly related to their social status. The strongest Ork Warlords were even taller than a Primarch, with a single Ork rivaling a Knight Titan in size. Judging by the dimensions of the head in Ogedei's armory, it was at least a "Warboss."

Ogedei had single-handedly slain a Warboss? If it hadn't been a solo kill, he probably wouldn't have been embarrassed enough to hang it on his wall.

To be able to solo a Warboss, Ogedei's strength before his legs were severed must have been unfathomable... To be fair, although the Fifth Legion was small in number, White Scars warriors were generally quite strong in one-on-one combat, and their Primarch, Jaghatai Khan, was himself an unfathomable master of swordsmanship.

Fu Qinghai stroked his chin and muttered to himself: It's just that you have a bad habit, Ogedei; sawing off a tusk or cutting off an ear would have been enough. Ork heads take up so much space, how many can your armory even hold?

The armory was not large, and besides this Ork head, there were other body parts of alien species Fu Qinghai didn't recognize hanging on the walls as trophies. Such a passion for preserving the physical remains of enemies might stem from certain combat customs in the culture of Chogoris.

It also showed that Ogedei was indeed a veteran hardened by long years of warfare.

Fu Qinghai had little interest in xenobiology; what attracted him more were the other items in the armory.

In the corner were bits and pieces of armor polishing powder, maintenance oil, fiber rags, various models of bolters on the weapon racks, power mauls, and—

A complete set of MK4 Maximus Power Armor.

"Tsk tsk tsk..." Fu Qinghai reached out to touch this standard power armor, which was finely polished and well-maintained, clicking his tongue.

As the protagonist of the Warhammer 40K universe, the appearance of the Astartes' standard equipment—the power armor—was highly recognizable.

First were the two massive shoulder pauldrons, which could be considered the hallmark of Astartes power armor. They made the Astartes wearing the armor look incredibly broad and hulking, and the wide surface of the pauldrons was also where the Astartes painted their own Legion's unique heraldry and markings.

There was a reason the pauldrons were so large; beyond the thick layers of ceramite, the various servo-systems encased beneath them were key to the power armor's proper operation.

Compared to armor from other sci-fi IPs, the Warhammer 40K power armor, which prioritized defense, was undoubtedly a bit bulky compared to the form-fitting suits of Iron Man, Batman, and the like. This was also why many fans jokingly referred to Astartes as "cans."

But contrary to their menacing and massive appearance, Astartes in power armor were not clumsy; on the contrary, the power armor made the Astartes, whose agility was already far superior to mortals, even more nimble and fast.

The powerful power armor, made of ceramite and plasteel, could ensure that Astartes could advance toward the enemy through a hail of gunfire.

This brave and fearless characteristic led to the collapse of many armies from lost human civilizations when faced with the Astartes' assault during the Great Crusade to reclaim humanity's homeworlds.

After all, no one could fight an enemy that was impervious to blades and bullets.

Dome helmet: dual-lens eye pieces, respiratory grille arranged in diagonal symmetry, with the face protruding outward.

Power pack: The exhaust vents are spherical with nozzles facing backward, a design intended to provide stabilization and propulsion for Space Marines in zero-gravity environments.

The design of the arm, leg, and torso armor features cleaner, more fluid lines compared to previous generations of power armor. The layered plate armor has been eliminated in favor of a more integrated shell, with fewer exposed cables and almost no rivets.

The MK4 Maximus Power Armor can be called the first true next-generation combat suit of this era.

The MK1 Thunder Armor was the original power armor for warfare within Earth's atmosphere; the MK2 Crusade Armor was the first fully enclosed, integrated suit designed for the Great Crusade, though it still had many shortcomings in actual use; the MK3 Iron Armor was merely a modification of the MK2 that sacrificed mobility for enhanced defense, tailored for specific siege-specialist legions or assault units within a legion, with little overall change; whereas the MK4 Maximus was the new-generation suit optimized by the Adeptus Mechanicus of Mars, who absorbed the lessons of previous generations and incorporated various technologies from newly conquered worlds.

The MK4 had just been released when the Horus Heresy broke out. During the planning phase of the rebellion, Horus used his authority as Warmaster to order that this armor be prioritized for legions with potential rebellious intent, especially his own XVI Legion, the Sons of Horus, which resulted in it being difficult to see a complete set of MK4 Maximus Power Armor among loyalist legions during the early stages of the Great Rebellion.

What was more common was the MK5 Heresy Armor, cobbled together from scraps and manufactured on the spot.

Wait... Fu Qinghai narrowed his eyes. Why would Ogedei have the latest generation of MK4 armor?

Although it is not the early stage of the rebellion now, making it possible to have captured it, this armor is far too complete. Everyone else's spoils of war are pieced together—a MK2 chest plate paired with MK3 legs and MK4 arms, welded together with rivets and connected with chains.

But this is a complete, factory-original set.

Fu Qinghai's suspicious nature began to stir.

Ogedei... is it possible that he is a mole?

Fu Qinghai thought again, but when he saved Ogedei earlier, he clearly received a prompt about gaining assimilation points. If Ogedei were a mole planted by a rebel legion into the White Scars, according to his starting faction, the reincarnation world shouldn't have calculated assimilation points for him... Tsk, who knows how the rules of the reincarnation world are calculated anyway.

There is another possibility... Ogedei is not a mole, but this entire White Scars warship belongs to the rebel legions.

Hiss... Fu Qinghai felt a toothache. If that were the case, he was currently walking right into the lion's den; aside from his own worthless life, there was basically no hope of earning assimilation points.

Moving his gaze away from the brand-new MK4 armor, Fu Qinghai looked at the weapon rack to the side, where bolter rounds, mass-reactive shells, and subsonic rounds were all neatly arranged.

Guns and ammo are never separated; the authority of a Space Marine is truly immense.

How should he explain the issue of the MK4 power armor? Should he ask Ogedei directly, or test him first?

If Ogedei were truly a mole or a traitor, he shouldn't have let him come to his private quarters, as that would risk exposure. His openness suggests he is not a mole.

It is also possible that he considers him nothing more than an ignorant, non-threatening mortal who wouldn't expose his identity, and even if he did, he could crush him with one hand.

If Ogedei truly belongs to the traitor faction, why would he fight against the warriors of the Sons of Horus? The enemy of my enemy is my friend is an eternal truth.

But he didn't see him fight the Sons of Horus with his own eyes, and the fact that small detachments of White Scars and Sons of Horus were locked in a fierce battle in a godforsaken place like Cheslatan is also a point of suspicion.

Moreover, the rebel forces are not a monolith; for instance, the original motive for the Alpha Legion's betrayal was different from that of other rebel legions.

There are too many possibilities and too little information.

As he thought, almost instinctively, Fu Qinghai walked toward the small box by Ogedei's bed.

It wasn't locked, so Fu Qinghai gently opened the lid.

Among a pile of small items, a silver coin lay quietly.

It was a silver coin engraved with the Imperial Aquila, carrying a sense of ancient history.

Looking at this silver coin, Fu Qinghai narrowed his eyes once again.

PS: The orcs in Blizzard's famous Warcraft series, according to the original author, were inspired by the Orks of the British company GW. In terms of the timeline, Warhammer 40K predates the War series. However, there is no need to claim that Warhammer is the "father" of Warcraft or that Warcraft plagiarized Warhammer. As mentioned earlier, pop culture is, to put it nicely, mutually influential, borrowing from and paying homage to one another; to put it bluntly, it's mutual plagiarism. The Necrons in Warhammer 40K were originally called Chaos Androids. It wasn't until 1992, when James Cameron's Terminator series became a global hit, that GW officially launched the Necrons, with many settings and designs inspired by Terminator. Similarly, there are claims that the Tyranids of Warhammer 40K were inspired by the creatures in the movie Alien.

Regarding these pop culture IPs, everyone should just enjoy them. There is no need to incite conflict, nor is there any need to establish a hierarchy of superiority.