Above the Gray Wasteland

A small cargo ship was breaking through Istvaan III's thin atmosphere at maximum speed.

Scratches and dents covered its hull.

Clearly, the little ship's experiences over the past twenty-odd days had been anything but peaceful.

It had been battered while crossing an asteroid belt.

It had been torn at by unstable Warp currents.

There might even have been ambushes by other alien races from outer space.

A lone human was still far too weak in this universe and would become prey for every alien species.

In the cockpit, Cecilia sat in the copilot's seat, her Power Armor-covered hands gripping the armrests tightly.

Her gaze passed through the observation window and fixed on the approaching ground below, her lips pressed into a thin line.

Although her armor concealed most of her expression, leaving only a pair of vertical pupils visible, anyone could see how anxious she was.

She was frantic.

More than twenty days.

They had said they would definitely return within thirty days, but every extra day they delayed meant another measure of danger for Lin En, who had remained on Istvaan III.

Although she knew Lin En possessed some strange ability that made him difficult to kill—he had spent fifteen days running circles around cultists in an underground cavern without dying—

as a Battle Sister, and as someone who often dealt with Chaos Cultists and Chaos Daemons,

she knew better than anyone that in a hellhole like Istvaan III, immortality did not mean safety. There were probably countless ways to wish for death.

Water, food, shelter—any one of those going wrong could be fatal.

"Iron Hammer, how much longer until we land?" she asked, turning her head toward Iron Hammer in the pilot's seat.

"Almost there, almost there, almost there!!!" Iron Hammer shouted as he searched for a landing site.

He tried to land as close to their original location as possible.

Lin En could not have run too far, and they would have an easier time finding him in that area.

Even if he had left, he would definitely have left markers along the way.

They would land at their original location and follow the markers. That should be enough to find Lin En.

Cecilia turned her head again and glanced through the open hatch behind the cockpit at the cargo hold.

A gigantic figure sat inside the hold.

It was an Astartes warrior clad in blood-red Power Armor.

He stood over two and a half meters tall, his broad shoulder plates nearly filling the passageway. Runes and battle damage crisscrossed his Ceramite armor, while a massive Chainsword hung across his back. The golden winged halo on its hilt still gleamed brilliantly beneath the dim cargo-hold lights.

An Emperor's Angel from the Blood Angels.

They had been extremely lucky. After barely escaping the Aeldari ambush, their distress signal had been received by this Emperor's Angel, who had happened to be tracking Aeldari pirates in the area.

After hearing that someone on Istvaan III was attempting to open a Warp Rift, the Astartes warrior had hesitated, half-believing them and half-doubting them. In the end, he had decided to trust them and come take a look.

The Astartes warrior noticed Cecilia's gaze. His helmet turned toward the cockpit, and he gave a slight nod.

He was already prepared to face the battlefield at any moment.

Cecilia returned the gesture gratefully, feeling considerably more reassured.

A Blood Angels Astartes was one of the Imperium's strongest forces. If the cultists on the surface truly intended to fight, they were in for a miserable time.

"Entering the descent trajectory," Iron Hammer reported. "Landing in four minutes. Cecilia, have you checked your weapons?"

"Bolter fully loaded. Power Sword charge normal." Cecilia rose and rolled her shoulder plates, loosening her slightly stiff joints.

She picked up her helmet and fitted it over her head. The sealing rings engaged with a crisp click.

"Three minutes."

The ship trembled slightly as it entered the atmosphere.

Sparks flew as the hull scraped against the atmosphere.

The Gray Wasteland outside the observation window drew closer and closer. In the distance, the outline of the abandoned Hive City sharpened from a blur until it seemed close enough to touch.

Cecilia's vertical pupils swept across the ground, searching for the rocky hills.

There they were.

Iron Hammer's landing site was correct. The rocky hills scattered with loose stones lay roughly a dozen kilometers southeast of the Hive City ruins.

From the air, the enormous fissure looked as though the earth had been torn open.

Small moving dots were scattered around it.

—Cultists.

Cecilia's gaze sharpened.

"There are cultists active around the entrance. I estimate no fewer than two hundred."

The Blood Angels Astartes warrior raised his optics and aimed them at the ground.

Between the rocky hills, a group of Bone-faced Cultists had indeed gathered around the entrance to the fissure, which was surrounded by iron pillars and bone-made banners.

That number was not a major problem.

However...

He magnified part of the image.

At the front of the cultist formation stood a tall figure in a dark-red robe.

He leaned on a twisted metal staff, with a Warp Crystal embedded in its tip that constantly shifted colors.

The robed man stood before the fissure's entrance, directing the cultists as they carried unknown crates into the cavern.

"Cultist priest." The low voice came from inside his helmet.

Iron Hammer's red cybernetic eye flickered rapidly. His fingers flew across the keyboard. "If Lin En returned to the cave system looking for water, then he's probably inside. Damn it, we shouldn't have left him here alone!!!"

It's all right. Don't panic yet.

Lin En is clever. He must have found somewhere to hide.

Since cultists had truly gathered here, he had no choice but to make the trip. "Land," the Astartes warrior ordered.

"Yes. Landing in sixty seconds," Iron Hammer replied.

Cecilia picked up her Power Sword and turned to the Astartes, respectfully requesting, "We have another companion in that cavern. He's an ordinary civilian with no combat ability, so he should be easy to distinguish among the cultists. Angel, if you see him, please spare him."

A heavy metallic impact rang out from the cargo hold.

The Blood Angel rose to his feet. His Ceramite boots struck the deck as the angel drew his great sword.

"I'll do my best." The Astartes' voice came through his helmet's speakers like electronic noise transmitted by an ancient machine.

Cecilia bowed her head gratefully. "Thank you very much."

Prospecting Station landed on a flat section of the rocky hills.

Its landing gear struck the ground and kicked up a vast cloud of gray dust. Before the dust had even settled, the rear hatch opened with a thunderous roar, and the ramp slammed down onto the ground.

Cecilia charged out of the hatch first.

After running a dozen meters, she stopped and glanced back.

A massive figure emerged from the hatch behind her.

Standing over two and a half meters tall with a broad back, the Blood Angels warrior stepped out of the hatch, and the surrounding light seemed to dim for an instant.

His blood-red Power Armor looked as though it were burning against the backdrop of the Gray Wasteland. The pure-gold winged halo on his shoulder plate gleamed with a sharp luster in the sunlight.

The Chainsword in his hand had not been activated. He held it silently at his side.

But there was no need to activate it.

The sword's sheer size alone was enough to make ordinary people recoil in fear.

The Emperor's Angel's helmet optics slowly swept across the Gray Wasteland before him, passed over the twisted pillar of light in the distance, and finally locked onto the group of cultists pouring out of the fissure entrance.

The cultists had already spotted them.

Iron Hammer's landing had hardly been concealed. What was more, a gigantic blood-red iron can had just walked out of the ship.

The robed priest issued an order, and the cultists poured out of the fissure, their numbers rapidly increasing.

In less than a minute, several hundred cultists had gathered outside the entrance, with even more squeezing their way out.

The robed priest stood at the very back of the formation and raised his twisted staff high. "Charge!!! Capture that Astartes! The Blood God will bless us—!!!"

Cecilia raised her Bolter and aimed at the cultists in the front row.

But her finger had only just settled on the trigger, and she had not yet pulled it, when the Blood Angel had already begun his charge.

What Cecilia saw next was the meaning of overwhelming force.

The fusion reactor provided tremendous power. The Emperor's Angel's Ceramite armor looked incredibly heavy, but in practice, it did not hinder his movements in the slightest.

No one saw how he accelerated from a standing position into a sprint. One moment, he was standing beside the ship; the next, he had become a blood-red blur, carving a straight path across the Gray Wasteland.

The cultists opened fire.

Autogun bullets, crude laser beams, and dark-red psychic rounds mixed with Warp energy poured instantly from the direction of the cavern entrance.

Dense firepower wove a net through the air.

Then that net crashed into the Ceramite armor.

The bullets ricocheted. The laser beams could not even leave white marks on the blood-red armor.

The psychic rounds burst against his shoulder plate, exploding into small clusters of dark-red sparks.

Then the sparks dissipated. The armor remained completely undamaged, and the Astartes' charge did not slow by even half a fraction.