Outsiders

In the Webway, the Blackwatch fleet raced toward Alicia. A few unlucky Warp creatures that happened to get in the way were smashed into pieces, splattering across the ships.

For the Blackwatch, minor travel accidents like this were nothing out of the ordinary. They simply carried on with their business, not about to let such a small thing bother them.

Some even began discussing whether the bits of meat stuck to the ships could be turned into pet food once they got back.

But Hogg, on the bridge of the Moyu, frowned as he read the report before him. He turned to Leon, his spymaster, and asked:

"You mean to say that Custodian isn't one of ours at all, Tylis herself is currently stationed on Holy Terra, and this one's a fake?"

"No, Father!" Leon, who was just as puzzled by the test results, explained, "According to the genetic codes we detected, this Custodian named Tylis has a completely identical genetic sequence to the Tylis on Holy Terra. But that's simply impossible."

As a Primarch and the Imperium's greatest Big Mek when it came to biological modification, Hogg knew many of the Imperium's secrets. Among them was the Custodes creation process the Emperor had shared with him: the so-called Life Alchemy.

Though his methods were a little heretical, the nature of a researcher never changed. Hogg and the Emperor had plenty to talk about on that front. The Evil Orcs were the star product the two of them had created together.

After returning, Hogg had taken part in a project to improve Custodian equipment. In the course of that project, he had acquired detailed information on nearly every Custodian and entered it into his database.

If the test results were correct, there were only two possibilities. Either this Custodian was