The space of the ventilation duct is narrow and airtight, and the metal wall is covered with a thin layer of sticky dirt mixed with engine oil and dust.
Zorge's body was curled up in the shadow at the corner of the pipe, and even his breathing was extremely slow and shallow.
Every inhalation is compressed into a thin stream in the chest, making almost no sound when passing through the throat.
He had been moving through this invisible pipeline network for nearly twenty minutes, avoiding at least three groups of patrols along the way.
His current position is a vertical height away from Gungnir and Lower Deck.
Through the gaps in the ventilation duct grille, he could see the brightly lit cargo loading area below.
Gray-white tactical lighting was projected from a high place, illuminating every crack on the ground.
Hundreds of rebel Imperialis Militia are gathering there. Their Helmet and shoulder armor reflect a dim luster under the light, and the weapons in their hands are of mixed types, ranging from the general-purpose Autogun to the more rugged Bolter.
They were all mobilized to strengthen the search.
Zorge lay motionless inside the pipe, and Helmet's eyes coldly scanned every face and weapon below.
During the time he was lurking in the Raven Guard Legion, he specifically learned the lurking techniques of Raven Guard.
They will stick to the interface between the wall and the light like shadows, they will follow the rhythm of their steps when moving, and they will adjust their breathing to be consistent with the operating frequency of the surrounding machines.
Zorge completely absorbed those experiences and combined them with the special operations training he had previously received at the Alpha Legion.
Now he is a truly deadly existence to the defenders.
He is not only a lurker, but also a predator who can change his form at any time according to his own purpose.
When the prey thinks he has been surrounded, the encirclement itself is his hunting ground.
"Attention everyone, seal this place and don't miss a corner. Advance as a small team and don't be reluctant to fight. Your mission is to find that damn lurker."
A rough voice came from under the grille of the ventilation duct.
Zorge's eyes moved slightly and locked on a Mortals officer standing on the steps. The man was giving orders to the assembled Auxilia soldiers.
The order was short, with no unnecessary explanation. Every soldier knew that what they were looking for was a Space Marine lurking in the facility.
But what the officer and the Mortals soldiers didn't know was that the man they were looking for was right above their heads, quietly looking down at their formation and deployment through the gap in the grille.
Hundreds of Mortals were quickly divided into dozens of groups, each group ranging from three to five people, and spread out from different directions in the loading and unloading area into the surrounding passages and compartments.
The sound of footsteps, the sound of metal scraping, and muffled communication reports intertwined into a dense noise in the air.
Zorge did not act immediately.
He pressed against the wall of the pipe and continued to observe their route, the distance between each group and the patrol interval.
The most valuable lesson he learned during his time in hiding was that observation always precedes action.
He needed to find the spot with the sparsest mesh, so that he could pass through it without alerting the two patrols on the left and right, and still achieve his goal.
Soon, he selected a team.
It was a search team consisting of ten people, walking along the aisle on the east side of the loading dock towards a branch road leading to the maintenance corridor on the ground floor.
The captain walking at the front was holding a Shotgun with an exaggerated caliber. The barrel was thick and short, and the gun body was covered with a power storage device. Zorge recognized it at a glance as a Boarding Shotgun specially designed for close combat., in such a closed space, every time this Shotgun is fired, it will blast out a large cone-shaped barrage, which may even pose a threat to the armor of Space Marine at an extremely close distance.
He couldn't allow this gun to be pointed at him.
In addition, there are two Mortals soldiers holding Volkite Weapon in the team.
These two people are also on the priority list and must be dealt with as soon as possible.
The remaining soldiers hold ordinary Autogun, which pose relatively limited threats and can be placed in a later sequence.
Zorge laid out the tactics in a very short period of time.
His choice was based on the simple fact that the ten-man team was intact in terms of firepower, but their attention was focused on the front and left and right sides, and no one looked up at the grille of the ventilation duct overhead.
They thought that the target was in a blocked blind spot, that there was a solid layer of metal and wires above their heads, and that there would not be an assassin from the Alpha Legion looking down at them from there.
When the group of Mortals separated, Zorge began to take action.
He silently unscrewed the fixing bolt of the ventilation duct grille.
The movement made almost no sound, only a very slight rustling sound from the friction between the fingertips and the metal, which was quickly swallowed up by the low roar of the engine in the distance in the pipe.
He grabbed the grille, slid the iron frame to the side, and then leaned out of the pipe mouth, hanging on the edge of the ventilation pipe, condescendingly locking the advancing team below.
The moment the team walked directly beneath Zorge, his body suddenly fell from the shadows.
The thick armor, heavy body, and all the acceleration exerted when he jumped out of the mouth of the pipe caused his landing point to hit the last soldier's head accurately.
The Mortals soldier didn't even have time to make a complete sound, and his body was crushed the moment he was touched by the weight of Zorge.
The spine was broken like a brittle bone broken by a hammer, and the chest collapsed inward under the pressure of the armor plate. Before the brief sound of breath could be squeezed out of his throat, he had already fallen to the ground, and what was left was just a twisted outline crushed into a ball by the hardened carapace.
The two Mortals soldiers around him didn't even have time to react.
When they turned their heads, they only saw a cold light, which was the tip of a Spear blade, swung out from Zorge's open palm.
Spear waved, with almost no resistance, the cold light cut through the side of the soldier's neck on the right, cut open the artery and trachea, penetrated the shoulder blade on the other side, and continued to sweep toward the third soldier with a cloud of blood.
The heads of the two Mortals soldiers flew out at almost the same moment. Their bodies fell forward half a step under the action of inertia, and then collapsed on the ground like cut straw.
The blood mist spread over the place where they fell, like two blooming flowers.
The landing of Zorge was completed in that instant.
The soles of his boots stepped on the body of the first crushed soldier, making a dull sound, but then he used that sound as a starting point to launch his next actions.
The Spear in his hand was swung at an extremely fast speed, and the tip of the spear drew one silvery arc after another in the air. There was not a single bullet or a single unnecessary movement.
Those Mortals soldiers in front of him didn't even have time to adjust their breathing. As soon as they raised their arms, the spear tips had already penetrated their flanks.
The moment the gun was aimed, Spear had already split their gun-holding arms.
Blood flowers continued to splash in the air, like red mud splashed after a heavy rain.
A soldier was stabbed into the chest by the tip of a spear, and his body was carried backwards and hit the wall of the corridor, leaving a long bloody trail when he slid down.
Before another soldier had time to retreat behind the bunker, he was hit in the head by the tail end of Spear. When Helmet split, his whole body was thrown sideways, knocking over the equipment box on the side.
All this happened in just two seconds.
When the captain finally reacted, Zorge had killed all the members of his team.
He tried to raise the Shotgun in his hand and pull the trigger, but what he felt was a totally wrong lightness.
He looked down and realized that the first half of his gun barrel had been cut open by the cold light, and the broken metal mouth was hanging down.
He frantically wanted to smash the butt of the gun at Zorge, but Zorge moved faster than him.
Spear's shaft was like a sweeping steel whip, accurately hitting the captain's gun-holding wrist.
Shotgun flew out of his hand and fell to the ground several meters away. The captain was staggered back half a step by the force. He raised his head and saw a Spear sweeping towards him.
The tip of the spear passed through the junction of his breastplate and shoulder armor, and penetrated under his shoulder blade with absolute precision. It did not hurt his heart, but lifted his whole body like a specimen and nailed him to the wall of the corridor.
His body twitched several times on the wall, and blood slowly flowed down the spear shaft and the wall.
Zorge did not pull out Spear immediately.
He released the Spear handle, fixed it horizontally on the wall, and hung the body on the wall.
Then, he raised his hands and took off Helmet.
The moment the mask came off, a face similar to that of thousands of the Alpha Legion warriors was revealed.
Healthy wheat-colored skin, sharp cheekbone lines, and that iconic bald head.
Zorge stood in front of the body nailed to the wall, looking at the other person with indifferent eyes.
The captain was already unconscious due to blood loss and severe pain. He could not move or resist. He could only let the two cold lights stay on his face.
Zorge did not hesitate.
He stretched his hand towards the captain's head, pressed his jaw and forehead, and forced his head back, completely exposing the curvature of his neck to the air.
Then, Zorge lowered his head, opened his mouth, and bit the captain's head without hesitation.
Then his teeth penetrated the skin and skull, and directly began to devour the captain's brain cells.
Countless pieces of information poured into his consciousness.
The coordinates of battlefield deployment, the route intervals of search teams, the shift times of outposts, which passages are blocked, which access control is still available, and which exits will not be noticed by others.
All memories are read, and every road and every guard position becomes a concrete and vivid entity.
Zorge Let go of your mouth and stand up straight.
There was a trace of blood remaining at the corner of his mouth, but he didn't wipe it away.
He got all the answers he wanted, including the deployment of a search party and a method of escape.
He knows which channel's outpost is currently vacant, knows which gate's lock can be manually released from the outside, and knows which Transport Ship loaded with scrap will leave the facility after the next change of guard.
He glanced at the bloody Spear in his hand, and then pulled it out. The captain's body slipped from the wall and hit the ground with a dull sound.
Zorge put on Helmet again, turned around and walked into the shadow next to the passage.