"I'll kill every Salamander, every last one of the False Emperor's lackeys."
"I will."
A deep voice rumbled through the void.
The Chaos Warband's leader had demonic horns growing from his head. Brown blood stained his green armor, and the Chaos Space Marines in green Power Armor lined up behind him had clearly been created by copying Gene-seed stolen from the Salamanders Chapter. Of course, Salamander Gene-seed alone wasn't enough.
He had also hunted down Gene-seed from other Chapters, including some rare ones.
He hated the Salamanders just as much as they hated him.
In his eyes, the False Emperor's accomplices were even worse than the False Emperor himself.
And his main objective this time was to obtain the enemy's Gene-seed.
The Salamander captain's Gene-seed.
He would find his target a more suitable Chaos Spawn and personally oversee the procedure, turning him into one of their own.
"Captain, we've spotted a ship. Uh... a garbage scow."
The 'gunboat' hovering outside Ozrax was moving within their observation range. It seemed not to have noticed their arrival and continued cruising around the outskirts of the star system, using cheap drop pods to build one feeble, pathetic line of defenses after another.
"Are they trying to defend against us?"
"Their weapons might leave a speck of dust on me."
"Hehehe."
As Chaos Space Marines who had fought the Imperium, they had seen naval fleets made up of hundreds of battleships and escorts, and billions of ordinary humans flooding onto battlefields like the tide.
They had seen anti-aircraft turrets as large as asteroids, firing Plasma Shells that streaked across the heavens and flashed through space.
They had even seen the ultimate defensive fortifications built around battle moons the size of Luna—mobile fortresses that unleashed devastating barrages.
But no matter what kind of enemy they faced, its defenses were always enormous, unmistakable, and terrifying—a genuine threat.
Many Imperial structures were so massive that enemies could barely destroy them, so vast that their enemies despaired of ever bringing them down.
Yet the only thing they could detect before them now was a small 'garbage-collecting ship,' diligently and cautiously laying out lightweight fortifications beyond the star system. Almost all its technology seemed laughably primitive and backward.
It was like a colony of ants digging trenches in the ground and imagining they could stop humans from passing by.
Like a clueless baby stretching out its fragile arms, believing that its feeble limbs and puny strength could threaten an adult's life.
So naive it was pitiful. So naive it was tragic.
"Captain, I request permission to dispatch a Battle Barge and show them the destruction and terror our Dragon Warriors bring."
To Chaos Space Marines, slaughter and torture were lifelong pursuits.
They especially enjoyed tormenting the weak, making their enemies tremble with fear and despair as they died. It was one of the few pleasures they had left in their long lives.
And butchering their enemies and offering blood sacrifices might even earn them a gift from the Blood God upon his throne.
Now, those self-important ants were right in front of them.
They were so weak, so pathetic, so pitiful. They would soon get to enjoy the sight of their despairing faces.
Did they think that killing two Chaos Space Marines and building a defensive fortification would stop them from advancing?
What a joke.
Mortals under their rule had no right to resist.
This was territory abandoned by the False Emperor's Imperium, a place where they could rampage to their hearts' content.
That was the confidence absolute power brought.
If they couldn't beat the Imperium, surely they could still beat a border territory of the Imperium.
"Dispatch a Battle Barge."
"The rest of you, just plow right through."
The captain gave his orders coldly, paying little attention to Ozrax before him.
He was more interested in the Salamander captain.
In the frigid depths of space,
beneath a battleship drenched in blood and fire, a Battle Barge launched.
After launching, it sped toward the defensive fortifications the research vessel had built beyond the star system.
The Battle Barge moved swiftly. The Chaos Space Marines had crowded around its hatch, eager to be the first to taste fresh, boiling blood and land on the battlefield.
As for the research vessel,
it seemed to have been suddenly frightened by their arrival.
The research vessel 'desperately' blared its warning.
"You are approaching territory governed by Gamma World. Leave immediately, or we will open fire."
"Leave immediately. This territory is governed by Gamma World. You have entered Gamma World's domain."
Hearing the warning in High Gothic transmitted over the comms, the Chaos Space Marines could only laugh.
Threatening us?
You little pufferfish?
How dare a tiny boat threaten our warships?
We don't even need to activate our Void Shields. The sheer bulk of our battleship can withstand every attack you throw at us.
The Chaos Space Marines aboard the Battle Barge were even more brazen.
The battleship's passage had apparently triggered the outer missile defenses.
The defensive missiles that Cisrain's research vessel had placed along the perimeter flew toward the battleship.
The missiles screamed through space and slammed into the battleship's Void Shield.
The explosion didn't even make a ripple.
It was like a drop of water falling into the sea.
"Don't bother turning them on. Their technology can't even scratch the hull of our battleship. Activating the Void Shield would be a waste."
"Another line of defenses."
"Captain, Tomori and Taris have taken a Battle Barge into the enemy's defenses without permission."
"Leave them be." Chaos didn't work like the Imperium. Joining a Chaos Warband didn't mean everyone was willing to obey you. Most of the time, they preferred to act alone.
Even an expedition launched by the Warmaster only held them together temporarily, bound by the promise of mutual gain.
They were only attacking Ozrax.
If the others wanted to act on their own, they could. What could possibly go wrong? The few missiles the enemy had fired to intercept their warships hadn't even drained one ten-thousandth of their Void Shields' energy.
This world would be theirs in no time.
Cisrain's ship was a research vessel, not equipped with many weapons.
In terms of combat power, it was nowhere near a match for the enemy battleship—not even the two escorts nearby.
Even the smallest battleship had to be at least 5.6 kilometers long and weigh tens of millions of tons. A research vessel simply couldn't compare.
"Governor, the enemy has entered the outer defense perimeter."
"Understood. Have the soldiers backing up the data in the outer perimeter load their Clone bodies. Activate the Resurrection Protocol."
[Resurrection Protocol: Upon the death of the original body, all recorded data will be loaded into the backup body]
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