Whispers of the Mortal

Cisrain became the target of a siege.

Endless enemies were lunging at him from every direction.

Mortal cultists, mechanical servitors, corrupted mortal auxiliaries, and even certain xenos.

They exhausted every ounce of their strength, driven only by the desire to kill Cisrain.

But Cisrain bore the fresh blessing of The Emperor; his blood boiled, his energy was boundless, and he swung his weapon like a god of war, the whispers of Chaos unable to breach his mind.

Even alone, he felt not a shred of fatigue as he slaughtered the chaotic creatures before him.

In fact, he could clearly perceive every movement on the battlefield.

Cisrain swung his axe, hacking into the shoulder of a Chaos Space Marine and slamming him heavily to the ground. When another Chaos Space Marine tried to close in, he grabbed the helmet of the enemy's power armor with one hand and ripped the man, head and all, violently out of the suit.

Before he could even discard the head in his hand, he struck out instantly, smashing it against the skull of another Chaos Space Marine, splattering gore across the enemy's face.

Cisrain pulled his axe from the corpse and looked at the loathsome mutation. To choose to be a lackey of Chaos instead of remaining a proper human—in his eyes, one could be anything, but one must remain human!

He shook the dripping blood from his axe.

Sensing four figures approaching him, he reached out and grabbed a lunging chaotic minion.

Puff!

He crushed it with one hand.

Cisrain felt as if he were running on some sort of cheat code.

He could clearly pinpoint the mission targets; they seemed to radiate the chaotic power he loathed so intensely.

Four targets marked by the mission.

And one psyker.

Cisrain had never fought a psyker before.

But he knew such things were not easy to deal with.

"The mission is to decapitate their psyker, get out of the way." Cisrain swatted aside a chaotic servitor that approached him, axe in hand, and marched toward the enemy. Bolter rounds slammed into him, leaving not a single mark on his person.

A Chaos cultist with a shattered leg raised its gun and fired at Cisrain.

But the bullets simply ricocheted off him.

And in return, it was met with a cold boot and eternal darkness.

Cisrain could not cover the entire front line.

He could only find the primary target and execute a decapitation strike, which was the mission he had been assigned.

"Governor, the rear defensive line is about to be breached by the enemy!"

Cisrain glanced backward.

Having tested the power and fire rate of the Gauss Rifles, the Chaos Space Marines had immediately changed their tactics.

They no longer charged blindly, instead using the thicker ceramite of their power armor shoulders as cover, utilizing their speed advantage to close in on the city defenses.

Heavy turrets could not hit them, and standard armor-piercing rounds could not harm them unless concentrated on a single point.

But in the moment he glanced back, the area he had just cleared was once again crowded with Chaos forces, and those four hidden Chaos Space Marines were charging toward him rapidly.

"Governor, don't worry, leave the rear to me." Brown desperately wanted to protect Governor Cisrain.

But if the city were breached, the Governor would fall into an even more passive state. Being forced to worry about two fronts would lead to the collapse of both, and at that point, Governor Cisrain might face an even greater crisis.

Damn it.

He had been too lax lately.

If the technology he researched were strong enough, how could he ever let the Governor take the battlefield?

All this helplessness was a result of his own weakness.

And this was just a war on a single planet; how cruel must the cosmic battlefield be?

I need bigger, stronger, more efficient weapons.

"You lot have angered a scientist!"

[Resurrection Protocol initiated]

[Loading]

[Holy Baptism.]

Brown used his most advanced scanner to constantly track the enemy's movements.

But the enemies had grown clever; they no longer charged forward foolishly. Combined with the open terrain and the enemy's increased speed, the hit probability of the Gauss Rifles dropped, and drop pods had already begun landing behind their defensive line.

He looked in the direction Cisrain had departed.

To create an opportunity for the Governor, Brown knew he had to step up.

"You pieces of trash, is hiding all you can do? Come on, fight me one-on-one! Are you too scared!!!"

"Lord Brown! It's dangerous."

A green light emanated from the power armor Brown wore.

He moved like a mobile turret.

He pushed relentlessly toward the enemy, forcing the Chaos Space Marines who were about to break the line back by sheer pressure.

"Don't hide, come out! Can't you even handle a one-on-one with an old man?"

"All you know how to do is bully the weak."

"You look like cowards to me. I heard you have a big coward among you, why don't you come out? The big coward props up the little cowards, and the little cowards hide away, too scared of an old man to fight?"

"A cowardly soldier makes a cowardly unit, and a cowardly commander makes a cowardly army."

"Cowards, your ancestors are here!"

"Lord Brown, stop cursing, stop cursing!"

"They're all heading toward you!"

"Cover Lord Brown!"

"Hold the line!"

Brown issued an order, "Let them all gather on me, it'll make it easier for you to shoot!"

"Fire on my position!"

"Cowards, come on! Your Grandpa Brown is right here!!!"

No one noticed that on a mountain peak, a metal skeleton holding a staff seemed to be speaking into the void.

In the sky, drop pods continued to descend.

Some pods landed right behind their defensive line.

The Astra Militarum soldiers currently in combat, seeing these pods landing in the rear and seeing Brown drawing the fire from the front, made an immediate decision.

The pressure on the front was already immense; they could not afford more pressure from the rear.

Someone had to stop them.

In an instant, an Astra Militarum soldier made his choice. He discarded his weapon, which could not kill the enemy, turned around, strapped several fragmentation grenades inside his uniform, and ran toward the newly landed drop pod.

A soldier from the Gamma World who knew him saw this: "What—what are you doing? You don't have backup data, if you rush in blindly, you'll die."

"I know."

The Astra Militarum soldier gave him one last look, said nothing more, and turned to charge toward the drop pod without a second thought.

After that soldier started running, three more Astra Militarum soldiers carrying fragmentation grenades appeared, and with a silent, tacit understanding, they all ran toward that drop pod together.

'I once thought that under the rule of the Imperium, we would never see prosperity or flourishing.'

'I didn't even know what I was fighting for.'

'But through talking with you, I learned about your lives.'

'You built the Utopia, you built the prosperous Gamma World, you built the future of humanity. You gave us a beautiful dream to live in amidst the war, knowing our sacrifices have meaning, knowing our sacrifices are carving out that future.'

'I finally understand why he pulled the trigger without hesitation; perhaps he saw that day coming.'

'So, before that day arrives, please, do not stop.'

'Treat your kin well. For The Emperor, humanity above all!!!'

A Dragon Warrior who had just stepped out of the drop pod was rushed by a short mortal.

He merely reached out and snapped the man's neck with ease.

But the fragmentation grenades from the other Astra Militarum soldiers running toward him detonated in his hands.

"You bastards! Damn you—aaaaahhhhh!!!!"

Some say there are only two things inevitable in this world:

Death and taxes.