New Mission and New Toys

The Stormbird on the return trip was as bumpy as always.

Talal tilted his head toward Fu Qinghai beside him and asked, "So, what was the problem with that woman?"

Fu Qinghai said, "She killed a Night Lords soldier using the same method she used on you. I suspect that is why the Night Lords were carrying out a massacre in the city."

"Oh." Talal nodded, turned his head away, and said nothing more.

For a mortal woman, even if she relied on a surprise assassination, being able to kill a soldier from an Astartes legion was quite courageous and impressive.

One could not ask for more from her. That was Talal's view.

The changes brought to the frigate Dagger by this brief landing operation were visible to the naked eye.

Fu Qinghai did not participate in the damage control and repairs, but judging by the smile on Captain Konrad Adenauer's face, the frigate's condition had improved somewhat after this replenishment.

For Fu Qinghai, the most intuitive change was that the tray in front of him no longer held the standard Space Marine ration—a bowl of ammonia-scented porridge mixed with plasteel pellets—but instead a whole roasted hind leg of a Grox.

Fu Qinghai picked up the leg, which was almost the size of a Power Axe, and for a moment, he didn't know where to take a bite.

He found a spot to sink his teeth in, and juices overflowed; the sensation of his teeth quickly slicing through muscle fibers provided a pleasant texture, and the frigate chef's perfectly timed roasting had preserved the moisture within the meat.

A large chunk of meat, still carrying blood, was torn off by Fu Qinghai and swallowed after a few chews.

Fu Qinghai carefully savored the meat of this creature; it was somewhat like the curried crocodile he had eaten while traveling in Vietnam in his previous life—a texture mixed between chicken and fish, with almost no large chunks of fat, yet the meat was very succulent.

Reptilian meat certainly had a distinct texture.

The Grox was a livestock animal similar to a large dinosaur and was a distant relative of the crocodile. It was widely raised on various Agri Worlds of the Imperium of Man. It produced a large amount of meat and tasted delicious; the downside was that its temperament was extremely irritable. Generally, Agri Worlds would remove a portion of its brain tissue to control its aggressive and combative nature.

The Space Marines were all tucking in, and soon, Talal wiped his mouth, stood up, sat down next to Fu Qinghai, and asked:

"How about it, Qingshan, how does it feel to fight for the first time?"

Fu Qinghai shook his head and said, "Not great. It didn't feel as satisfying as beating up Albuslang in the training cage."

Albuslang, who was burying his head in his meat across from them, looked up: "You say that again, beating up who?"

Talal laughed, patted Fu Qinghai on the shoulder, and said, "A primitive planet that was just pacified doesn't have the same intensity as a training cage, but don't worry. We have entered a combat zone and will encounter real enemies soon."

Before he could finish, Ogedei's booming voice rang out over the intercom:

"Astartes, assemble in the briefing room!"

The Space Marines at the table stood up one after another.

Briefing room.

A messy asteroid belt appeared on the holographic projection in the center of the table.

Ogedei didn't waste words. Seeing that everyone had arrived, he swiped his fingers to zoom in on the projection, revealing two ships within the asteroid belt.

They were docked together in a strange posture.

Captain Konrad Adenauer spoke first: "We received a distress signal from one of these two ships and have locked onto their location."

"Pirates?" Talal looked at the hologram in front of him and asked with a frown.

"Very likely." Konrad Adenauer nodded. "But we heard some other information in the distress signal."

As he spoke, he tapped the table, and a recording played intermittently:

"Static... static... mayday, this is the Imperial merchant ship... Val... static... lon, we have been attacked by pirates, I am the captain..."

"The enemy has... static... psykers... sorcerers, the Throne protect us... what am I seeing? Melee sorcerers wielding daggers? They are slaughtering my crew..."

The audio ended there.

Melee sorcerers wielding daggers? The people in the briefing room looked at each other.

"Ahem..." Ogedei, in his wheelchair, coughed lightly and said, "First, we can be certain that there are unregistered, illegal psykers on the pirate ship. As for the method they choose to fight with, that is not something we should be concerned about."

The Imperium of Man had seen all kinds of psykers, some of which were extremely dangerous, but generally speaking, psykers were not known for their physical fitness or raw physical strength. From the perspective of playing to one's strengths and avoiding weaknesses, most psykers would not engage in melee combat.

Especially veterans like Ogedei and Talal, who had participated in suppressing psyker riots, understood that if a Space Marine managed to get within three meters, a psyker was as good as dead.

At this moment, Talal glanced at Ogedei. Ogedei understood what he meant and waved his hand:

"Our primary mission is still to escort Master Kunto to Mars. Although these two ships are blocking our path, exterminating space pirates is not our job."

"But the Auspex shows that another ship jumped into the vicinity an hour ago and is heading this way. It is highly likely to be a warship, so..."

Ogedei suddenly looked at Fu Qinghai and said in a deep voice, "Qingshan! I am dispatching you to use a torpedo to board the merchant ship to investigate the situation and set up a Teleport Homer, so that we can teleport the Terminator Tactical Dreadnought Armour over if necessary."

Fu Qinghai, suddenly being called upon, gave a start and quickly stood straight to acknowledge the order.

Teleportation—yes, this was the correct way to deploy Terminators on the battlefield. Making Terminators run on their own two legs on the planet Moradigan was not the proper way to use such heavy and slow tactical armor. Using teleportation technology to deploy directly to the front line of a siege was the standard method.

Teleportation was not without conditions; it required a Teleport Homer to be set up in advance by scouts, Imperial Army personnel, or other Astartes.

If the Teleport Homer was inaccurate, there was a high probability of someone getting stuck inside a wall.

Ogedei continued, "As for the rest of us, we will stand by on the frigate and prepare to welcome the arrival of that warship."

Talal frowned and asked, "Can't we just avoid..."

Konrad Adenauer shook his head and said, "We can't. They have already discovered us and sent a signal requesting our identification."

After speaking, the black-bearded man with a bitter expression added, "It is a Lunar-class cruiser."

The latter part of that statement was what mattered.

A Lunar-class cruiser, the standard capital ship of the Imperial Navy, was five kilometers long and carried a crew of over ninety thousand. With its numerous macro-cannon batteries, lance arrays, and torpedo tubes, its classification far exceeded that of a series of light cruisers, let alone an ancient Falchion-class frigate like the Dagger.

Most crucially, cruisers were known for their speed; if that Lunar-class cruiser decided to pursue, the Dagger would have no chance of escaping.

Talal nodded, understanding the situation. Ogedei had sent the recruit Fu Qinghai to handle the pirates while keeping all the main Space Marines behind to deal with the Lunar-class cruiser, which meant the crux of the problem was not the pirate ship, but the Lunar-class cruiser drawn in by the distress signal.

Ogedei said, "Everyone, to your stations. Qingshan, take your new toy and stand by at the torpedo tubes."

Everyone rose and acknowledged the order.