Sacrifice

Gult led the Space Marines of Stinger Squad as they pushed deeper into the transport ship.

Reaching a junction in the corridors, Gult pulled out a tactical tablet.

On the screen, several green dots were closing in on the transport ship from various directions; these were the other squads of Ultramarines.

As the team that had breached the transport first, Gult maintained ample caution and patience.

The squad searched the interior of the transport in a tactical formation, with Gult occasionally raising his hand to confirm the signal stability on his tactical panel.

Specifically, the stability of the teleportation coordinates.

Fortunately, judging by the feedback from the cruiser, the teleportation was functioning without issue, and the Sotharan stood ready at all times to beam the warriors back to the warship.

Fu Qinghai was positioned in the center of the formation, and as they advanced, he felt something was strange.

The Abominable Worm was a transport ship, and transport ships did not require as many servitors and crew members to operate as warships did.

But there were far too few people inside here.

Unlike the complex, makeshift fortifications and defensive lines the Word Bearers had constructed outside the ship using the terrain, Stinger Squad had not encountered any resistance inside the transport thus far; it was as if the enemy had deployed all their defensive strength to the outer perimeter of the transport ships.

This had turned the entire defensive perimeter on the surface into three hollow buns with thick crusts and sparse fillings.

Meanwhile, inside another transport ship, in the main control room.

Unlike the clamor of gunfire outside, it was unusually quiet here, and Klofa sat in his seat, thinking silently.

A Word Bearers warrior, his armor stained with blood, walked in, removed his helmet, knelt on one knee, and said:

"My lord, all the Ultramarines have broken through our outer defensive line."

"Very good, we can begin the next step of the plan." Klofa tapped his fingers on the armrest of his chair, saying with satisfaction.

The kneeling Word Bearer hesitated, asking:

"My lord... are we really going to sacrifice all of them?"

"Hmm?" Klofa's yellow, murky eyes turned sharp instantly. "Are you questioning my decision, Devitt?"

"No, no, it's not that..." The kneeling Word Bearer was somewhat flustered; he quickly denied it, glanced up cautiously at Klofa's expression, and said carefully:

"These people are the sacrifices specifically requested by Lord Erebus. If we sacrifice them here, I fear... I fear that on Lord Erebus's end..."

As Devitt spoke, he trailed off.

"Hmph." Klofa let out a cold snort. "Do you think I don't know the purpose of these sacrifices?"

Klofa's voice dropped low: "Listen to me, Devitt. I don't care what relationship you had with Erebus before; I am the commander of this transport fleet."

"Yes, yes... my lord." Devitt quickly lowered his head, not daring to meet Klofa's eyes.

"That's right, I know these sacrifices are items urgently needed at the front lines of Terra. Now, I ask you to use that rigid brain of yours and think: if we don't use these sacrifices, with the pathetic amount of troops we have and three transport ships that lack macro-cannons, lances, and torpedoes, how are we supposed to fight the Ultramarines? If the Ultramarines intercept them, or if we end up trapped on this damned planet along with these three transport ships, for Lord Erebus, who is in the Solar System... is there any difference!?"

When he reached the final sentence, Klofa was practically roaring.

"No, there is no difference..." Devitt's head sank even lower.

Watching the submissive Devitt before him, Klofa snorted coldly, stood up, paced back and forth a few times, and asked:

"Is the altar functioning normally?"

"The Tech-priest of the Dark Mechanicum is monitoring it; everything is normal."

"Are the sacrifices ready?"

"They are ready, my lord."

"Hmm..." Pacing back and forth, Klofa stroked his chin in thought and made another decision:

"Bring that psyker who can dampen teleportation sorcery to the main control room. As for the other psykers and mutants, arrange them at the ambush points. Oh, and screen them—those who are weaker and useless, sacrifice them as well."

"Yes, my lord." Devitt responded crisply, stood up, and went to carry out the order.

As Devitt walked out of the main control room's hatch, Klofa's low voice came from behind:

"Remember, Devitt, regardless of whether the Solar System is considered the front line of the war, for us, wherever the enemies of the Four Gods exist, that is the front line!"

Liaoxia Hong and the many reincarnators remained in a cabin.

Traitors are the most prone to suspecting others of betrayal, and the Traitor Legions did not fully trust this group of psykers and mutants who had shown up on their own claiming to be believers of the Four Gods.

Although they were on the same transport ship, they were not allowed to move about freely.

The sounds of the Ultramarines' battle to breach the transport ship could already be heard faintly, and some of the weaker reincarnators had already begun to tremble.

At this moment, the cabin door opened, and a blood-stained Devitt, accompanied by the acrid scent of gunpowder smoke fresh from the battlefield, stepped into the room with several Word Bearers warriors.

Two or three reincarnators stood up hurriedly, looking at Devitt with fawning expressions, like dogs waiting for their master's orders.

Devitt's cold goggles swept across the room, and his voice emanated from the speaker on his gorget:

"You, you, and you—follow him to the ambush point."

Devitt raised a hand and pointed at several of the reincarnators.

Among them was the woman in black carrying a cloth-wrapped, rod-shaped object on her back.

Several people stood up and followed a Word Bearers warrior out of the hatch.

"You, go to Lord Klofa's main control room."

Devitt pointed at Liaoxia Hong.

Liaoxia Hong hurriedly stood up as well and followed a Word Bearers warrior out.

"The rest of you, follow me." After saying this, Devitt turned and walked out of the cabin.

The remaining reincarnators looked at each other, hesitating before following Devitt out of the hatch.

The brown-bearded Belinsky and the hunchbacked masked woman were among those who remained.

Belinsky never forgot to clutch his long metal canister tightly wherever he went, and the hunched, masked woman followed quietly behind him.

The few reincarnators followed Devitt, walking through the dim corridor where the pale lights overhead flickered uncertainly, casting the tall silhouette of the Space Marine ahead in and out of view.

As they walked.

"Something's wrong, Belinsky, this isn't right!" The hunchbacked masked woman suddenly grabbed the middle-aged man with the beard, lowering her voice to speak in Polish.

Belinsky stopped in his tracks, turned his head, and asked:

"Hm? What is it? What's wrong?"

The hunchbacked masked woman slowed her pace, her vigilant eyes beneath the veil staring fixedly at the Word Bearers Space Marine leading them, and said:

"I don't know, but my intuition tells me this is very wrong."

She turned her hunched, protruding head from side to side, a "hissing" sound escaping her lips.

"The smell of blood is getting stronger; we are heading toward a place thick with the scent of blood," the hunchbacked woman whispered into Belinsky's ear.

Belinsky froze, unsure for a moment whether they should continue.

The hunchbacked masked woman, however, looked around alertly. Before Devitt could turn to check on the situation, she grabbed Belinsky's hand and dove headfirst into a hole in a nearby pipe.

Belinsky was pulled off balance by the woman, stumbling into the narrow pipe and landing against the wall.

The hunchbacked woman moved on all fours in a bizarre, agile, and rapid manner, like an animal, not forgetting to look back and shout:

"Get up, run, Belinsky, run!"

The bearded man, who was only an ordinary person, scrambled to his feet in a panic. Clutching his long metal canister with one hand, he crawled forward on his hands and knees.

Devitt, who had turned to check on the situation behind him, happened to witness the woman pulling the bearded man into the hole in the pipe.

A Word Bearers Space Marine beside him saw it too; he immediately drew his Bolter and asked:

"Sir?"

Devitt raised a hand to stop his subordinate from moving forward, standing still as he said:

"Let them go. The sacrifice is what matters; do not waste time on these two."

As mentioned before, the internal passages and conduits of a starship are incredibly complex and intricate. Many narrow areas can only accommodate Servitors and mortals crawling through; they were far too small for a Space Marine's stature.

Now that some Ultramarines had already fought their way into the transport ship, it was better to focus on the task at hand than to waste time and manpower searching for two insignificant mortals.

The subordinate nodded and retreated to the end of the line. The two of them, one in front and one behind, continued to escort the remaining reincarnators forward.

The sudden turn of events left the remaining reincarnators looking at each other in confusion. They didn't know why those two had suddenly fled, but they felt it couldn't be a good sign.

However, caught between two fully armed Astartes, they had no choice but to continue walking forward in silence.

And so, the bearded middle-aged scholar and the hunchbacked masked woman vanished into the deep, labyrinthine pipes of the transport ship.