After losing the initial engagement, the Imperium had seemingly chosen to retreat, but before withdrawing, it had already prepared a two-pronged strategy.
Beneath this outward calm, an invisible war had long since begun unfolding silently in the shadows.
Within the homeworld's defensive perimeter, which the Healing Brotherhood believed secure, the deadliest vipers had already slipped into their nest.
Like unseen ghosts, the Alpha Legion's Infiltration operatives had long since exploited the chaos of war and the inevitable gaps created by the Brotherhood's expansion, silently replacing personnel, assuming disguises, and penetrating deep into the body of this heretical organization.
Sergeant Griffins was one of these "ghosts."
The Ursus Infiltration squad to which he belonged was a special operations unit hastily assembled from six Alpha Legion elites. They had only one mission: to burrow into the enemy's heart like a virus, lie low, gather every scrap of valuable intelligence, and strike a fatal blow from within at the critical moment.
Yet from the moment the Infiltration operation began, Griffins had never had any form of direct contact with the squad's other members.
There were no routine communications checks, no tactical coordination. He could not even be sure whether the others were still alive or had successfully infiltrated.
Such utter isolation would have been enough to drive an ordinary spy to a breakdown.
But Griffins was entirely unconcerned. He was a Space Marine of the Alpha Legion, a master of Infiltration warfare in the Imperium.
He understood that, to the Alpha Legion as a whole, an individual was merely a node in a vast network. Absolute secrecy and the ability to operate independently were themselves the most effective protection.
Frequent contact would only increase the risk of exposure. He and the "teammates" he had never met were each a deeply embedded nail, an