"Backup data? What's that?"
"Oh, it's a technology we developed. We scan someone's memories, then recover their genetic data as soon as they're killed in action, allowing them to be revived in another form. Of course, we haven't yet overcome the challenge of recovering the soul, but it's still a kind of revival. They just won't have any memories of the battles that came afterward. Perhaps once the governor's 'Sacred Khala' is ready, we'll be able to solve the problem of soul recovery. Would you like to have your data preserved?"
"."
Cyrus listened to the other man's voice, outwardly calm, though inside, his thoughts were already surging like a storm.
His two modified, powerful hearts pounded violently.
Memory scans, genetic data recovery, soul recovery technology. Returning to the Golden Throne.
This... this was a real-life version of returning to the Golden Throne?
And as a soldier of the Emperor, he could return to the real world and fight again.
They had technology this incredible?
As long as they could keep recovering him, he would never die.
Hearing this, Cyrus hesitated.
He wasn't afraid of death. From the moment they became Astartes, they had accepted their fate. Dying for the Emperor was an honor bestowed upon an Astartes.
He was only afraid that his comrades would leave him first. In the end, he would once again be left alone to face endless solitude. Talon and the others were the sixth batch of recruits to follow him. The oldest in his squad was his second-in-command, Giggs, who had served for no more than forty years. The youngest had served for only five.
The battlefield he faced now wasn't especially intense.
On truly brutal battlefields, mortals died like insects, and Astartes died like mortals.
New recruits lasted no more than a minute. Dreadnoughts and Terminator armor were sometimes vaporized right there on the battlefield.
On battlefields like that, the Gene-seed was vaporized along with the body.
Only recovering the soul might offer some comfort.
He wasn't willing to let someone else collect his data. Who knew what they might do with his memories?
He had served far longer than most.
He had witnessed betrayal after betrayal and scheme after scheme. For the sake of his soldiers, he couldn't afford to trust others too much.
"If you don't want it preserved, then never mind."
"If you change your mind, just let the people at our Research Station know."
"I'll access those soldiers' data first and send it back to the homeworld."
Watching Brown leave,
Cyrus actually felt relieved.
They weren't unfamiliar with recovering Gene-seed, either.
But their practice was more like passing on a legacy.
They passed uncontaminated Gene-seed on to the next Astartes who was modified.
The other side's technology, however, was clearly aimed at bringing the same person back to life.
Come back when you can really recover souls!
If they could truly recover souls, I wouldn't even have to ask. The whole Imperium would be eager to promote this technology. The Emperor himself would probably stand up from the Golden Throne to give you a thumbs-up.
"Captain, I told you their technology was a little shady. Was I wrong?"
As he spoke, Talon waved the spray can in his hand.
He was getting ready to give his "new weapon" a Blood Raven Chapter paint job.
An upgraded capture gun.
A weapon that could even restrain a two-and-a-half-meter-tall Chaos Space Marine for a while.
It might prove very useful on the battlefield.
In the distance.
"Sir, one of the large capture devices is missing from the warehouse."
"What happened? Never mind, never mind. It's not anything important. Focus on turning this whole area into a base. We'll start migrating people from the homeworld later. You and the Seventh Company are to clear the Xenos from this world. Do your best to wipe out every last one within six months. The governor said we can use large numbers of nuclear warheads if necessary."
"."
"Captain, I picked this up."
"."
"."
The Wasp-men.
They were more insect-like than the Tyranids.
They looked like wasps, with two pairs of nearly transparent wings, wasp-like limbs, and a pair of humanoid arms capable of manipulating simple objects.
But their language system was far more complex.
Their language consisted of wing vibrations, pheromones released into the air, and some kind of gestalt telepathy.
The Wasp-men had a hive-like social structure. Their nests were usually built in places with plenty of space, such as mountain ranges and the edges of bodies of water. Although they had an organization similar to the Imperium, they had never developed the same kind of politics. Their politics and decision-making remained as brutally aggressive as those of wild beasts. Any creature that came near the nest was slaughtered by the Wasp-men, no matter what it was.
"Bzzzz!"
"Bzzzz!"
A Wasp-man chasing a human flew through the air, its longbow already raised.
It aimed at the human running away.
Humans were currently the easiest prey to hunt on this planet. Especially after the demons that had invaded crushed the humans' forces, the survivors could barely put up a fight. Hunting humans became the Wasp-men's first choice.
The columns of light that had disappeared earlier and the sounds of explosions were nothing unusual to them.
As long as they weren't the minions of Chaos, they could handle anything on this world.
After all, their species had the advantage. They could fly and assassinate their prey. Unless their opponents could fly too, they could only be run down and exhausted to death.
"You go this way, I'll go that way. Split up!"
"Get as many away as you can!"
The surviving humans from Ozrax were already like savages, with unkempt hair and barely any clothes.
They split up and ran in opposite directions.
But the Wasp-men behind them pursued them relentlessly, like hunting hounds.
Buzz!
Bzzzz!
After a human woman split off from the others, a Wasp-man chased her into the woods. She kept glancing back at the Wasp-man close on her heels. In her panic, she failed to watch where she was going and slammed straight into a wall, sending herself flying backward.
She lifted her dazed head, about to see who she had hit.
A figure beyond description stood before her.
His fist was bigger than her head.
His body was more imposing than any city wall she had ever seen.
A red glow inside his helmet flickered briefly toward her.
Then he moved on without delay.
He calmly raised his pistol.
Bang!
A lightning-fast bullet shot from the thick barrel.
The bullet, powerful enough to threaten any living thing, tore straight through the Wasp-man.
Thud!
Its flesh burst apart in midair.
He lowered his gun and strode past her without even looking back, continuing in the direction the Wasp-men had come from. But she would never forget the figure who had saved her.
"Captain, I've found signs of Xenos. There are survivors here. Wait, there are a lot of Xenos, too."
"Understood, Talon. Backup is on the way."
Talon might have been the "mechanic" of the reconnaissance squad.
But compared to the Xenos, he was still a butcher.
Talon drew his combat knife. The pheromones released by the dead Wasp-man began calling to those nearby, while the Wasp-men's vibrating calls would draw in even more.
Talon flicked his wrist.
Come on, Xenos.
Transmigrator A: I've transmigrated! Praise the Emperor!
Transmigrator B: But this isn't the world of Warhammer 40,000.
Transmigrator A: Exactly. That's why we have to praise the Emperor.
Before you continue