Infection

The transport ship Bloody Worm.

A squad of Ultramarines was fighting its way out.

As they hurried around a corridor corner,

one Ultramarine, his armor shattered and his body covered in blood, slumped weakly against the bulkhead, then slowly slid down and collapsed onto the floor.

One of his comrades grabbed his hand and shouted frantically into the comm channel:

"Apothecary, Apothecary! Someone's down!"

But the comm channel was still filled with nothing but a jumble of static.

"No..." The Ultramarine lying on the floor clutched his comrade and said weakly, "It's too late, sir. The teleport was interrupted. You have to go. It's too late."

His squad leader put his Meltagun back into the weapon holster at his waist, then reached down to pull his comrade to his feet.

"No..." His comrade knocked his hand away. "Don't worry about me. Go, find Lord Vlahos. I... I still have this."

As he spoke, he took a round krak grenade from his waist and gripped it in his palm.

His squad leader gave him a long look, then gritted his teeth and answered firmly, "All right."

Then he got up and led the squad down the passageway.

After the squad members had left, the Ultramarine lying on the floor yanked off his helmet and tossed it aside, revealing a face smeared with blood and grime.

His eyelids drooped as he breathed weakly.

He moved the krak grenade to his left hand, then discreetly tucked that hand behind his waist. With his right, he drew a Bolt Pistol from the side of his leg armor and aimed it at the entrance to the passageway.

After a while, the enemy he was waiting for still hadn't arrived.

Instead, a sneaky, middle-aged man with a reddish-brown beard crawled out of a nearby pipe.

The injured Ultramarine immediately pointed his pistol at him.

"Whoa, whoa... No, careful, careful, sir, don't shoot!"

The bearded man, who looked like a scholar, quickly raised one hand. With the other, he clutched a long gray metal canister to his chest, looking utterly ridiculous.

"Who are you?" The Ultramarine kept his weapon trained on the bearded man and stared at him coldly as he spoke.

"I'm a civilian held prisoner aboard this ship by those demons. I'm just a civilian, sir. I came to save you."

Belinsky hunched over and raised one hand as he slowly approached the injured Ultramarine, speaking with great caution.

As he spoke, he carefully lifted his head to study the Ultramarine's expression.

"Save me?" The Ultramarine frowned and pointed his gun at the metal canister in Belinsky's arms. "What's that?"

"Oh, oh... This? You mean this? It's a unique kind of medicine I made. It's what I'll use to save you," Belinsky stammered.

A civilian on a traitor Space Marine transport ship, carrying a strange canister and claiming he could save him?

The Ultramarine lying on the floor found the whole thing so bizarre that it almost felt like an insult to his intelligence.

He raised his weapon slightly and said coldly,

"Get back. I don't need you to save me."

Although the whole situation was suspicious, the Ultramarine still didn't shoot the civilian outright.

Seeing that his poor acting wasn't going to fool the injured Ultramarine, Belinsky gritted his teeth and hurried forward, saying,

"Sir, please, you have to let me—"

Bang!

The Bolt Pistol fired.

Belinsky was instantly blown apart, half his body blasted away.

"Ahhh..." Belinsky screamed, his upper body all that remained.

The instant he was hit, the metal canister flew from his hands and landed right in front of the Ultramarine.

A drop of thick black liquid splashed from its opening onto the Ultramarine's cracked, blood-soaked chestplate.

The Ultramarine paid no attention to the bearded man, who was left with only half his body and slowly bleeding out. He looked down in puzzlement at the drop of black liquid.

Then he saw it vanish into his wound in a flash, as if it were alive.

Something was wrong!

By the time the Ultramarine realized it, it was already too late.

His eyes rolled back, and after his body shuddered twice, he fell backward unconscious.

His left hand, which had just raised the krak grenade, slowly dropped too.

His gauntlet opened, and the spherical grenade rolled out.

It didn't detonate.

A short, hunched woman, her body wrapped in clothes, cautiously emerged from the pipe.

She came to the reddish-brown-bearded scholar's corpse and slowly closed the man's wide-open eyes.

"Rest in peace, Belinsky," a strange, hissing voice whispered.

Then she walked over to the unconscious Ultramarine and gently stroked his body, murmuring tenderly to herself,

"Come out, my children."

The unconscious Ultramarine's chest began to bulge strangely. The swelling rose and fell slightly, as if breathing.

Seeing this, the hunched woman grew even happier. She smiled and gently stroked the bulge, then pressed her mouth to it and whispered,

"What a bountiful hunting ground this is, my children. Everyone here is food for you. I mean... everyone."