A sniper rifle, designed to meet the needs of an Astartes.
It had to be at least as tall as a man.
"Talon? Take it for a test run."
"Me?"
Hearing the captain's words, Talon was both surprised and flattered.
Everyone else looked envious, too.
Talon had actually gotten his hands on the new weapon. They were green with envy.
"What about mine?"
"What about mine?"
"Sorry, my lords. We only had time to prepare one. It'll take our engineers half a month to adapt it for kinetic rifles so ordinary soldiers can be equipped with it, too."
"Lord Brown, I have a request."
While the others were handling Talon's sniper rifle, Cyrus approached Brown, the chief scientist.
"Make a backup of their data."
"What about you?"
"They need to grow."
Cyrus wasn't confident about this war at all.
Although he had equipped them with new Power Armor and new weapons, he had witnessed countless wars. He knew this crisis went far beyond what they could see. His Psionics kept warning him that the tides of the Warp were churning, and a storm was gathering.
It might happen soon.
The Warp would become unnavigable once more.
When that happened, the Milky Way would once again be plunged into isolation. They would be unable to contact the Five Hundred Worlds of Ultramar, and their journeys would become unimaginably long. Every world would be left to fend for itself.
Besides, lately, he seemed to have been hearing the sun's voice.
"Honestly, you don't need to be so tense. Relax a little. Try leaving everything to Lord Cisrain, and you'll see that things aren't as bad as you think."
"You don't understand this world." Cyrus shook his head.
Brown, however, retorted, "You're the one who doesn't trust the governor. You can't bring yourself to leave the whole team in his hands. Stop acting as though someone's always out to get you. There aren't that many schemes in the world. Even if the sky falls, the governor will hold it up. Why do you think everyone else doesn't have to worry so much? Because they know that. The governor always takes care of every last concern they have. I don't know what you've been through, but now you have to trust him completely, without reservation. Trust every decision he makes and every order he gives. Whatever the governor promises, he delivers. Whatever he sets out to do, he accomplishes. We believe in him, and you should try to believe, too."
"When you do, you'll see how wide the world is and how much there is to accomplish."
"..."
"By the way, here's a lifetime employment agreement. I hadn't planned on showing it to you." Brown took out a copy of the employment contract. "But the governor said that if you refuse to back up the data, this might help put your mind at ease someday."
"Of course, this technology hasn't been fully developed yet. It's an agreement that can guarantee employees will 'never' be without work. After they sign it, even when the flame of their lives has burned out, their bodies can still work for Gamma World. Those who haven't paid off their debts to Gamma World can have their bodies perform simple tasks, while their souls will be forcibly reclaimed by the Death Employment Service Center and put to work on more complex jobs for Gamma World until their debts are paid."
"Even if you don't believe this technology will become a reality, we'll tell you this: we will make it happen, and we'll develop even greater technologies. And as someone who didn't trust us, you'll have to repay all our research costs when that day comes."
It was similar to the Soul Protocol, but its principles were far more complicated and involved Psionics.
Signing it now was simply a safeguard for the future.
An agreement that made betrayal impossible?
It seemed that this governor really was doing everything he could to address Cyrus's concerns.
That was why so many people were willing to give their all for him and face death without hesitation.
"..."
"If my soul really could live on and work to pay off a debt, I suppose that wouldn't be so bad."
"Governor, they've left."
"Understood."
Cisrain studied the star map, focusing on the northern sector.
A Chaos Warband fleet was heading toward Ozrax.
[Random Event: Chaos Warband Attack!] [You killed Chaos Space Marines in the Chaos Warband's backyard. Once they learn what happened, they will massacre Ozrax. Eliminate the Chaos Warband to obtain the Gravity Slingshot construction method (faster-than-light acceleration).] [Random Event: Tau Empire Invasion!] [The two planets you have your eye on have long been regarded as the Tau Empire's possessions. However, the sudden arrival of a new force on Tangle Planet stopped them from taking the planets first. If you annex them, you can gain the new force's loyalty and increase construction efficiency by 10%.]
The Chaos Warband was attacking one of his colonies, while the Tau Empire had also reached out to the two colonies he had set his sights on.
They'd all picked such a perfect time!
They were attacking while he was at his weakest.
How interesting.
The Psionics lab was still short on test materials.
He wondered if the daemon engines aboard the Chaos ships could be controlled through reverse engineering.
Could the Chaos Warband serve as a power source?
"Brown, have the research ship from the homeworld come here. Set up missile bases on the seventh and eighth planets orbiting the sun in the Ozrax system."
"How is the Battle Barge carrying Cyrus and the others coming along?"
"It's still under repair."
"Get it repaired as soon as possible. I need it now."
At present, Cisrain had only a research ship. The idea of using it to fight an enemy warship was clearly absurd, but the Battle Barge could be used for a landing operation.
And Cyrus and the others had already been sent out. He couldn't recall them; they had to compete with the Tau Empire for control of those two planets.
So, with no one else available, he had no choice but to act himself.
"Governor—"
"Don't say anything more. I've made up my mind. We can't abandon Ozrax. You and the others are all assets of Gamma World. If I, as governor, don't stand at the front, will anyone still work for me?"
Everything had already been built. How could they abandon it just because a Chaos Warband was coming?
Bring it on. Who was afraid of whom?
He just didn't know whose Chapter this Chaos Warband belonged to—or which of its successor warbands.
In the depths of space, a warship covered in blood-red rust and blasphemous symbols sailed onward. Chaos tentacles crawled across its deck, and a clanging rang from within. At the stern, a Daemon Engine raced and roared, leaving a searing trail of plasma in the physical universe.
"Commander, the warriors who returned from Tangle Planet said they were attacked by Salamanders."
"Salamanders?"
A black-skinned Chaos Space Marine appeared. Blasphemous markings covered his green Power Armor, twisted together with tentacles. He was a veteran—a veteran of the Salamanders Chapter. But now, they had turned to Chaos.
Light scattered from the star and swept over his figure, revealing a whole row of Salamander Chaos Space Marines behind him.
"Orlando, Moslian hasn't returned. There's a good chance something happened to him. Looks like that stockyard called Ozrax needs a little cleaning out. And you must bring me the Gene-seed from those Salamanders on Tangle Planet."
Once the kindest Salamanders Chapter, they had served under the Lord of Fire Dragons. Now they had become the most vicious claws of Chaos.
A girl's scream of agony rang out from the torture chamber.
A corrupted Tech-Priest had strapped the girl's limbs to a machine and connected countless tubes to her body. Her limbs were emaciated, her belly swollen like a ball, and a Chaos Spawn was gestating inside her, seemingly ready to burst free at any moment.
The kidnapped boy was locked in an iron cage, trembling as he watched the girl being tortured.
Soon, he too would be forced to swallow a Chaos Spawn taken from the girl's belly.
Just like the other boys who had been captured.
They were to be used to create new Chaos Space Marines.
Before you continue