Masterpiece-Level Creature

The night.

As news of the day's decapitation strike victory was just announced, the frontline had already advanced a hundred kilometers.

Duncan's composite regiment, due to its rapid advance, had to halt at dusk to wait for friendly forces.

For the ground troops, today was undoubtedly a good day, as they had indeed achieved victory.

But as they sat around the campfire waiting for food, everyone's faces showed a sense of daze mixed with excitement.

"Did we win a little too easily?"

"I thought this was supposed to be a fight to the death."

"The Emperor protects, but regardless, we did achieve victory."

While his subordinates discussed the battle's outcome, Duncan recalled the events of the day.

Advance.

These two words were enough to summarize the entire day, the first victory since the full-scale counteroffensive began.

Initially, the rebel resistance was fierce, then it became exceptionally fierce, and then their lines suddenly collapsed, with only crazed rebels fleeing along the advance route.

If Duncan were to write a memoir, he could only write one sentence:

We advanced, under the cover of artillery drones and numerous drones, we advanced relentlessly, we cleared out the remnants of the enemy from the bombing, we occupied one key area after another.

"When we have powerful firepower and are fully prepared, our battles should be this smooth. I don't believe in genius command tactics and strategies, nor do I like to gamble with the enemy in war. I only believe in the strongest weapons and equipment, the fiercest firepower, and the most robust armor."

A voice interrupted the discussion.

The soldiers sitting around all the campfires heard the voice and immediately stood up, their gazes turning in the direction of the sound.

Qin Mo and his guards, clad in Terminator Power Armor, were walking over from not too far away.

Everyone immediately gathered around Qin Mo, respectfully giving him the Aquila salute.

Qin Mo's gaze swept over everyone, finally settling on Duncan: "I heard about your valiant performance today. You were the first to lead your troops this far, and you annihilated many rebels in formation along the way. Well done."

"Your recognition brings great honor to myself and my soldiers." Duncan was very pleased to receive the acknowledgment. "We already know about your decapitation operation. If you hadn't annihilated the rebel leaders, we wouldn't have been able to advance so smoothly."

"I must admit that's true." Qin Mo nodded with a smile, then began to observe the others present and continued to walk forward.

Duncan followed behind silently, pondering why Qin Mo had come in person.

It must be for an important combat mission.

"Do you have any needs?" Qin Mo turned back and asked Duncan.

"We just need to annihilate more rebels," Duncan replied.

"That's your thought. You are not a psyker, you cannot discern the thoughts of all your subordinates. Now let them answer me," Qin Mo said.

Then, the soldiers gathered in front of Qin Mo, babbling out their requests.

Many asked for backpacks to be added to their power armor, some requested larger battery capacities for their power armor, and others hoped to receive some alcohol after the phased campaign concluded.

After the soldiers made their various requests, a guard in Terminator Power Armor named Anreda recorded them.

Anreda was one of the survivors of the 44th Regiment. His original duty was as a clerk beside Burl, so he was very skilled at this task.

"I will ensure all your requests are met," Qin Mo told everyone.

This was not an empty boast, but something that could genuinely be done.

For the logistics machinery that produced using material printing technology, these requests were incredibly simple.

After recording everyone's needs, Qin Mo said to Duncan, "My purpose here was to inspect and ask about your needs. From now on, you just need to do what you need to do, which is to attack and occupy."

"Yes." Duncan stood at attention and saluted.

At this moment, a transport aircraft flew overhead. The thrust from its anti-gravity engines was not great; those present could only hear its humming sound.

"Maintain your fighting spirit, maintain your efficiency," Qin Mo instructed one last time, turned, and led his guards to board the transport aircraft to depart for the next regiment's location.

This act of showing his face after the battle was not Qin Mo's own idea, but was proposed by Klein.

Klein believed that by making appearances at each regiment and giving the soldiers some benefits at this time, it would solidify his authority within the troops.

Since the Terminator Power Armor had been seen frequently during the integration of the defensive lines, the soldiers were also happy to see the Terminator Power Armor appear.

However, the greatest benefit of showing his face everywhere was to stabilize morale. After all, Qin Mo would soon be researching weapons specifically for Gene Stealers, and it was unlikely he would personally appear in battles for at least some time.

After spending an entire Terra day visiting all the troops, Qin Mo returned to his cavern laboratory in the fortress.

As he placed the blood extracted from the Gene Stealer Patriarch into the material analyzer and awaited the results, Qin Mo fell into deep thought while watching his self-made machine operate.

He wasn't contemplating weapons, but the decapitation strike.

The Gene Stealer Patriarch's psychic power far surpassed that of any other individual, yet it hadn't even managed to use its psychic power in combat.

It genuinely wanted to use its psychic power, but every time it tried to mobilize it, it was as if it were being interrupted. Every attempt resulted in it falling to the ground.

The Patriarch was as if silenced.

Qin Mo was well aware that his own power wasn't the cause of this situation. While he could resist psychic influence, he couldn't manipulate Blackstone to prevent the release of psychic power.

Otherwise, the Bishop who arrived later wouldn't have been able to use his psychic abilities.

Who exactly had interfered with the Patriarch?

Ding ding ding!

While he was pondering, the analysis results were already out.

The analysis, totaling hundreds of thousands of words, was displayed on the analyzer's screen. Qin Mo stopped thinking about the strange occurrences and walked over to the screen to view the results.

The information on the screen scrolled by rapidly. After Qin Mo finished reading it, he reached a conclusion.

Extracting biological tissue from the Patriarch, rather than other Gene Stealer individuals, had been the correct decision. Its genetic information was far more comprehensive than that of the mixed-blood individuals, ensuring that a weapon made from its genes would have the widest possible application.

However, the Gene Stealer Patriarch was also constantly adapting and changing. Its genes had already undergone modifications as it adapted to the environment of Hive Terra.

Simply put, a weapon could be created using the Patriarch's genes, and it could indeed effectively end the war.

But such a weapon would only be effective within the environment of Hive Terra. Even on other planets within the same star system, if those planets also had Gene Stealers, the weapon might not be effective.

Differences in air concentration or pollution levels alone could cause significant changes in the Gene Stealer Patriarch's genes.

"Who created you?"

"Truly a masterpiece."

Qin Mo turned his head and stared at all the biological tissues from the Patriarch, sighing with genuine admiration.

Qin Mo even began to think that if he were to create a biological weapon species, assuming he could, he would create a creature like the Gene Stealer Patriarch.

The Gene Stealer Patriarch could already be called a masterpiece; the Tyranids would have to be called divine craftsmanship.

It wasn't impossible that the Tyranids were a naturally evolved race, but the odds were incredibly slim unless their evolutionary environment was exceptionally perfect.

For instance, if they originated on a planet where the environment underwent drastic changes, they would have been forced to evolve rapidly to adapt, developing their most proficient skills in the process.

"I should focus on the task at hand." Qin Mo cleared his mind and concentrated on researching and crafting the weapon.