Ogedei's Armory

At Feiyi's parents' house.

Feiyi was crying, tears streaming down her face, but she still helped Fu Qinghai pack his luggage as she sobbed.

"Why won't you take me with you? Why?" Feiyi said, her lips puckering as tears plopped down one after another.

Fu Qinghai sighed helplessly. "I told you, I'm going to war, not on vacation. People die in war."

Faced with such a beautiful girl crying, Fu Qinghai was at a loss, unsure how to comfort her.

"Why would you take me to war? I can't fight. I can't even beat Cedric and the others. I'd still have to rely on you to protect me." Feiyi pouted, sobbing as she spoke.

That hit hard, sis... But I, Fu Qinghai, am not who I used to be. I've earned the Space Marines' recognition.

Fu Qinghai watched Feiyi frantically stuff clothes into the box, as if that could make up for the sadness of parting with him. He hurriedly tried to stop her.

"That's enough, that's enough. You don't need to pack any more. I'm not moving house."

At that, Feiyi set down the box and went into her parents' greenhouse. She came back carrying a pot with an alien plant that looked ready to lash out at anything nearby.

"Take this pot of Sharp-toothed Blood-sucking Fern with you, too. I remember you love its fruit."

What the hell... Didn't I just eat whatever you cut up for me? When did I ever show a special preference?

Fu Qinghai was speechless. He hurried over and took the plant from Feiyi's hands, setting it aside.

He cupped the girl's cheeks, threading his fingers through the hair by her temples, and looked straight into her eyes.

Feiyi's bright, lively eyes were now puffy and red. Tears had soaked her long eyelashes, and she even had tear bags beneath her eyes.

"Take good care of yourself while I'm gone," Fu Qinghai said softly.

"Mm..." Feiyi murmured through her nose as he held her face, her warm, moist breath brushing against him.

Fu Qinghai lowered his head and lightly pressed his lips to Feiyi's soft, glistening ones. It was a fleeting touch, over almost as soon as it began.

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

Though they were already closer than close, this was truly their first kiss. Feiyi was suddenly flustered.

Fu Qinghai, however, stayed calm and gently straightened the slightly curled strands of hair stuck to her temple.

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

Then he picked up the box from the floor and turned to leave.

"A-Luo!" Feiyi called after him. "I put Mom's necklace in the box."

Fu Qinghai didn't turn around. He raised a hand to show he'd heard.

Unlike his previous life in the Reincarnation World, this time the world had given Fu Qinghai richer and more vivid memories.

Memories of Feiyi.

That made it impossible for him to participate with the detached, bystander's attitude he'd had in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Even when dealing with powerful Space Marines, Fu Qinghai could step outside the world's own frame of reference and think of ways to solve problems based on the source material of Warhammer 40K's official novels.

But he couldn't think of Feiyi as an NPC in a game or a novel.

She was a real person, with flesh and blood—and that flesh and blood had grown around Fu Qinghai's heart.

Fu Qinghai hadn't chosen to take Feiyi aboard with him.

For one thing, Ogedei hadn't told Fu Qinghai he could bring anyone else. For another, the White Scars wouldn't wander aimlessly through space. Once they set out, they would surely go after other Traitor Legions. They might even head to Terra for the decisive battle between the Loyalists and the Traitors. How could Fu Qinghai let Feiyi take part in a fight where they'd be gambling their lives on the edge of a blade?

Fu Qinghai had said he would return, but in this chaotic age, with travel routes cut off and communications down, no one could guarantee or promise anything. Besides, strictly speaking, Fu Qinghai was an outsider from beyond this universe.

Cheslatan was indeed one of the few refuges in this burning galaxy. He would leave that refuge for Feiyi.

Fu Qinghai appeared before the Stormbird with his box in hand.

Two figures waited for him: one tall, one short. The tall one was a towering warrior clad in armor, while the short one was Ogedei, seated in a wheelchair with only his upper body visible.

A Stormbird that large could carry fifty fully armed Space Marines. Yet, besides the pilot, only one person had come to escort Ogedei back to the ship.

From this small detail, Fu Qinghai could see the White Scars' current predicament: they were desperately short on manpower.

It made sense. At their peak, the White Scars had numbered only a little over fifty thousand. A few high-intensity civil wars could easily leave them struggling to fill their ranks. At their peak, the Ultramarines had numbered three hundred thousand. Backed by the prosperous industry and ample population of the Ultramar Five Hundred Worlds, they wouldn't just avoid running short of soldiers in a war of attrition—they might even grow in number as the war went on.

Just how wary was Warmaster Horus of Roboute Guilliman, Primarch of the Thirteenth Legion? When it came to Jaghatai Khan, Primarch of the V Legion, whose allegiance Horus wasn't sure he could win, Horus had used his authority as Warmaster during the conspiracy to send the White Scars to a remote star system to deal with the remaining Orks. In reality, he was simply getting them out of the way. Whatever Jaghatai Khan chose, he wouldn't be able to return to the heart of the Imperium of Man in time to interfere with Horus's plans.

As for the Ultramarines, Horus and the Traitor Legions laid trap after trap for them. They meant not only to wipe out the Ultramarines' fighting strength, but to destroy the productive capacity of the Ultramar Five Hundred Worlds as well. The Thirteenth Primarch and his enormous Legion were truly the Warmaster's greatest threat.

Ogedei watched Fu Qinghai approach, a faint smile on his face.

Fu Qinghai stopped before the two of them. It was clear Ogedei was pleased with his choice, but he said nothing about it.

"Let's go," he said simply, then wheeled himself around and boarded the Stormbird.

The Stormbird took off. The cabin jolted violently, and deafening noise filled the air. Fu Qinghai strapped himself firmly into his seat, gripping the safety harness on either side with both hands.

Aside from the hazy memory of taking off from Levant Hive, this was technically Fu Qinghai's first time flying into space. He was so nervous his toes curled, and his face turned pale.

Ogedei and the towering Space Marine sat quietly in their seats as if nothing was happening.

The seats had been designed for fully armored Space Marines and were exceptionally spacious. Fu Qinghai sank into one like a quail egg in an eagle's nest.

As the Stormbird accelerated, the immense force made Fu Qinghai breathe rapidly. His head spun.

"Oh!" Ogedei slapped his forehead as if he'd just remembered something. He got up, pulled a tube with a breathing valve out from behind Fu Qinghai, and pushed it against his face. Grinning, he said, "I forgot you were a mortal. Sorry."

With the breathing valve covering his nose and mouth, Fu Qinghai couldn't speak. But his glare at Ogedei said everything:

You did that on purpose to get back at me for electrocuting you, didn't you?!

It was a good thing Fu Qinghai was a Void-born Human in this life. In his previous life, becoming an astronaut wasn't something just anyone could do.

The Stormbird reached the warship in orbit without incident.

Once it had settled and the hatch opened, the busy embarkation deck came into view.

Bright lights illuminated the entire deck. The ground crew hurrying about were all ordinary people like Fu Qinghai, wearing red-and-white crew uniforms. There were no other Space Marines in sight.

The rumble of towing vehicles and the creak of cranes filled Fu Qinghai's ears.

Fu Qinghai took one last look outside the boarding hatch. Beyond the blurred shimmer of the Void Shield was a huge, yellow-brown planet: Cheslatan.

The hatch slowly closed.

Fu Qinghai followed Ogedei and Talal deeper into the warship. Along the way, crew members stopped and saluted the two of them.

It was clear how high the Space Marines' status was.

Ogedei settled Fu Qinghai in his own private cabin, then went with Talal to the bridge.

Every Space Marine aboard a warship had a private living quarters and an armory, regardless of rank.

Left alone in Ogedei's quarters, Fu Qinghai was rather bored.

The room was too plain and tidy, with almost no personal belongings, let alone any entertainment.

There was only one small box, but Fu Qinghai didn't want to go rifling through someone else's things.

After sitting idly in a chair for a while, Fu Qinghai thought, I don't know what the warship's internal rules are, but Ogedei and I are so close that it can't hurt to look around his armory.

Then he got up and headed for the armory.

The moment he pushed open the door, a huge green head filled his view. Fu Qinghai froze.

The head was three times the size of an ordinary adult's. Its coarse, thick skin was an unnatural gray-green, likely treated with some kind of chemical. Two pairs of thick white tusks curled upward, lifting its upper lip. Sparse hair sprouted from its scalp. Even in death, it wore the same savage expression it must have had in life, baring its teeth. A trace of bloodlust remained in its shriveled red eyes, which stared straight at anyone who entered the armory.

So Ogedei liked to keep mementos of his battles in the armory.

This was an Ork, one of the four great scourges of the Warhammer universe. Before the rise of the Eye of Terror and the Tyranid invasion, they had once been the greatest scourge in the galaxy.

Orks were remarkable green-skinned creatures. They had no sex and were intelligent beings, half fungus and half animal. They reproduced asexually through spores. Even a flake of skin shed by an adult Ork could give rise to an entire Ork tribe on a suitable planet. Their social structure was relatively simple compared with humanity's, but they were cruel, warlike, chaotic, and highly aggressive. Combined with a reproductive capacity unmatched anywhere in the galaxy, they had once posed a grave threat to every other intelligent species.

The Imperium of Man's first grand victory parade involving every Legion after the launch of the Great Crusade had taken place in 544.M30, when the Emperor commemorated the defeat of an Ork warlord called Overlord Urrlak Urg. This warlord had united most of the Ork tribes in the galaxy and conquered the vast majority of its territories. Every one of the Legiones Astartes had taken part in the long, apocalyptic war against the Ork Empire. The Emperor and the future Warmaster Horus had both fought on the front lines at various points.

This was the Ullanor Crusade. The campaign laid the foundation for the Imperium of Man's unification of the galaxy. After the war, the Emperor promoted Horus Lupercal, Primarch of the XVI Legion, the Luna Wolves, to the rank of "Warmaster." He became the supreme commander of all the Imperium's armed forces except for the Adeptus Custodes. The Emperor himself returned to the underground laboratories of the Imperial Palace on Terra and resumed his secret experiments.

In other words, after dealing with the Ork Empire, the Emperor had decided Horus could finish the rest of the Great Crusade. He went off to deal with what he considered more important matters.

That was further proof of the Orks' strength.

Though the Ork warlord had been defeated, countless Orks slaughtered, and vast territories cleansed, Orks still infested every corner of the galaxy. That included Kondax, the remote star system the White Scars Legion had now been ordered to purge.

Because of their half-plant, half-animal nature, the bodies of the Orks' dominant subspecies didn't fall within a fixed size range like humans'. An Ork could keep growing throughout its life. In general, the stronger an Ork was as an individual fighter, the bigger it became. Its size was also directly tied to its social status. The most powerful Ork warlords could even tower over Primarchs. A single Ork might be as formidable as a Knight Titan. Judging by the size of the head in Ogedei's armory, it had to have belonged to at least a Warboss.

Had Ogedei slain a Warboss in single combat? If he hadn't, he probably wouldn't have felt right hanging its head on his wall.

If he'd killed a Warboss alone, Ogedei must have been incredibly powerful before his legs were cut off... To be fair, the V Legion might have been small, but the White Scars were generally strong in one-on-one combat. Their Primarch, Jaghatai Khan, was also a master swordsman of unfathomable skill.

Fu Qinghai rubbed his chin and muttered to himself, Ogedei, you really should break this habit. A tusk or an ear would be enough. Ork heads take up so much space—how many could you fit in your armory?

The armory wasn't large. Besides the Ork's head, parts from other alien species Fu Qinghai didn't recognize had been hung on the walls as mementos. His love of preserving pieces of his enemies might have come from some battle custom in Chogoris culture.

It also showed that Ogedei was a veteran who had seen plenty of battles.

Fu Qinghai wasn't interested in alien taxonomy. What drew his attention more were the other things in the armory.

In the corner were scattered bits of armor-polishing powder, maintenance oil, and fiber cloths. The weapon rack held bolters of various models, Power Hammers, and—

A complete set of MK4 Maximus Power Armor.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk..." Fu Qinghai ran his hand over the finely polished, well-maintained standard armor, making appreciative noises.

As the protagonists of the Warhammer 40K universe, Space Marines were instantly recognizable by their standard equipment: Power Armor.

First came the enormous shoulder pads, the hallmark of Space Marine Power Armor. They made Space Marines look broad and imposing, and the wide surfaces were where they painted the colors and insignia of their Legions.

Those shoulder pads were so large for a reason. Besides their thick Ceramite plating, they housed various servo systems essential to the armor's operation.

Compared with armor from other sci-fi franchises, Warhammer 40K Power Armor placed its emphasis on defense. Its shape was undeniably more bulky than the close-fitting suits worn by Iron Man, Batman, and others. That was why many fans jokingly called Space Marines "cans."

Despite their savage, hulking appearance, however, Space Marines in Power Armor weren't clumsy. On the contrary, the armor made them even more agile and swift than the already far nimbler mortals.

Made of Ceramite and Plasteel, the formidable Power Armor let Space Marines advance through a storm of gunfire.

During the Great Crusade's reconquest of humanity's lost worlds, this fearless quality had caused many armies from isolated human civilizations to collapse as soon as Space Marines charged.

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

Domed helmet: binocular lenses, a diagonally symmetrical arrangement of breathing grilles, and a faceplate that projected outward.

Power pack: spherical exhaust ports faced backward. This design was intended to help Space Marines maintain balance and propulsion in zero gravity.

Compared with previous generations of Power Armor, the arms, legs, chest, and abdomen had cleaner, more streamlined lines. The layered plate armor had been removed, the armor was more unified, and it had fewer exposed cables and almost no rivets.

The fourth-generation MK4 Power Armor could be called a truly new generation of armor for its time.

The MK1 Thunder Armor was the original Power Armor, designed for warfare within Earth's atmosphere. The MK2 Crusade Armor was the first fully enclosed, integrated suit, designed for the Great Crusade, but proved to have many shortcomings in practice. The MK3 Iron Armor only strengthened the defense of the MK2 at the cost of mobility. It was intended for Legions that specialized in defense, or for siege specialists within a Legion, and otherwise involved few changes. The MK4 Maximus Armor, by contrast, was a new generation of armor optimized by the Adeptus Mechanicus on Mars. They had learned from the shortcomings of earlier generations and incorporated various technologies from newly conquered worlds.

The MK4 had barely been introduced when the Horus Heresy began. During the planning stages of the rebellion, Horus had used his authority as Warmaster to give this armor priority to Legions with potential rebellious intentions, especially his own XVI Legion, the Sons of Horus. As a result, complete suits of MK4 Maximus Armor were hard to find among the Loyalist Legions at the start of the Horus Heresy.

Most had to make do with MK5 Heresy Armor, cobbled together from spare parts or assembled on the spot.

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

The rebellion was no longer in its early stages, so it was possible the armor had been captured. But this suit was far too complete. Other people's spoils were usually cobbled together: an MK2 breastplate, MK3 greaves, and MK4 arm guards, all riveted or chained together.

But this was an entire suit of factory-made armor.

Fu Qinghai's suspicion was roused.

Could Ogedei... be a spy?

Fu Qinghai thought of something else. When he'd saved Ogedei earlier, he'd received a notification that he'd gained Assimilation Points. If Ogedei were a spy planted among the White Scars by a Traitor Legion, then given my starting faction, the Reincarnation World shouldn't have awarded me Assimilation Points... Tsk, who knew how the Reincarnation World's rules worked?

There was another possibility... Ogedei wasn't a spy. Instead, this entire White Scars warship belonged to a Traitor Legion.

Tch... Fu Qinghai's teeth hurt a little. If that was the case, then he was walking right into a trap. Other than his miserable life, he'd have no way of earning Assimilation Points.

He looked away from the gleaming MK4 armor and at the weapon rack beside it. Bolters, Mass-reactive Bolter Shells, Subsonic Rounds, and other ammunition types were all neatly arranged.

The guns and ammunition were stored together. Space Marines had some serious privileges.

What was the explanation for Ogedei having MK4 Power Armor? Should he ask him outright, or test the waters first?

If Ogedei really were a spy or a traitor, he shouldn't have let me come to his quarters. That could expose him. The fact that he was so open about it was proof he wasn't a spy.

It was also possible he thought I was just a clueless, harmless mortal who couldn't expose him—or that if I did, he could crush me with one hand.

If Ogedei really belonged to the Traitor faction, why would he fight Sons of Horus warriors? The enemy of my enemy is my friend—that's an eternal truth.

But I hadn't seen him fight the Sons of Horus with my own eyes. It was also suspicious that the White Scars and the Sons of Horus had fought a small skirmish in the middle of nowhere, on Cheslatan.

Besides, the Traitors weren't all of one mind. The Alpha Legion, for example, had rebelled for reasons different from those of the other Traitor Legions.

Too many possibilities, too little information.

As he thought, Fu Qinghai somehow found himself walking toward the small box beside Ogedei's bed.

It wasn't locked. Fu Qinghai gently lifted the lid.

Among a pile of small objects lay a silver coin.

It bore the Imperial Aquila and had an antique look to it.

Looking at the coin, Fu Qinghai narrowed his eyes once more.

PS: The Orc race in Blizzard's famous Warcraft series was, according to its original creator, inspired by the Orks of Games Workshop in Britain. Chronologically, Warhammer 40K came before the Warcraft series. But there's no need to claim that Warhammer is Warcraft's daddy, or that Warcraft copied Warhammer, and so on. As mentioned earlier, popular culture has always influenced and borrowed from itself—or, to put it less politely, copied from itself. The Necrons in Warhammer 40K were originally called Chaos Androids. When James Cameron's Terminator series became a global hit in 1992, Games Workshop officially introduced the Necrons, whose designs and concepts borrowed heavily from Terminator. Likewise, there's a theory that the Tyranids in Warhammer 40K borrowed their appearance from the movie Alien.

Just enjoy these popular culture franchises. There's no need to start a flame war or build a hierarchy of superiority between them.