Breaking into the Space Station

The Orks surged through the Space Station's corridors like streams under the leadership of their two bosses, then converged at Central Dome Plaza. Once they met, the two clans immediately began another round of competition.

They competed to see who had claimed more of the Space Station. Whoever held more territory would have the greater say.

Meanwhile, aboard the warship Resolute, Iax watched the Orks through the crude video feed and considered the records in his database.

According to information once provided by the Aeldari, the Orks were creations of the Old Ones. However, the Aeldari had never truly fought alongside them.

The reason was simple: after completing the Ork prototype, the Old Ones had been defeated before they could add a means of controlling it.

The Aeldari knew this because they, too, had once been modified by the Old Ones.

According to records passed down from ancient times, the Krork should have stood nine to fifteen meters tall, possessing tremendous physical strength and technological capabilities. The Old Ones had even encoded vast amounts of cutting-edge technology into their genes.

This technological knowledge would be imprinted in every Ork's genes and activated as needed according to the enemies they faced, allowing them to defeat any opponent they might encounter.

But with the defeat and disappearance of the Old Ones, the Orks had become uncontrollable, unfinished creations.

These uncontrollable creatures then spread unchecked throughout the universe, relying on their many traits designed for large-scale warfare.

Fortunately, their technological capabilities were generally limited by their opponents.

If they landed on a Planet with an extremely primitive level of technology and lacked a comparable opponent, their technology would rapidly degenerate. Eventually, they would become much like the local natives, hacking at one another with primitive weapons.

The origins of the Red Mist Clan had long since become impossible to trace. But all Orks were an alien species, so an Ork ship must have crashed there an unknown number of years ago.

That primitive Planet had simply never developed much technology beyond its animals and primitive natives.

It was the Imperium's establishment of the Outpost that had activated these Orks' genetic memories, even allowing them to leave the Planet.

Iax carefully examined the information in his database. What he found most baffling was the material concerning the biological characteristics of Orks.

Orks were fungal organisms.

In terms people could understand, they were enormous, thinking, bad-tempered super-mushrooms with technological capabilities that responded to external threats.

As weapons of war, Orks also possessed exceptional regenerative abilities.

All it took was a single Ork, finely chopped into mince and scattered over the ground. After a while, an entirely new Ork population would emerge.

According to the records, the best way to deal with Orks was fire.

After killing every Ork, heavy incinerators had to be used to burn every part of the area.

Of course, besides conventional fuel-based incineration, plasma burners, heavy incinerator cannons, and other high-temperature weapons could also be used to treat the ground.

If all else failed, using gigantic laser cannons to melt the entire surface of the Planet into magma and waiting for it to solidify again was also an option.

But the burning had to be thorough. If even a single overlooked corner remained, these giant mushrooms could return at any moment.

While Iax was absorbed in his records, the Black Templars waiting nearby sat together in silence, quietly offering their prayers.

Performing a rite of prayer to their Gene-Father and the God-Emperor before battle was essential.

Though Iax could not see what made it essential.

All Men of Iron were strict materialists. Even the Warp, in their view, was merely a physical state that had yet to be explored and defined.

As for souls and spirits, such things meant nothing to the Men of Iron.

As long as their programming did not malfunction, neither would they.

Just as the prayers were about to end, a transmission from the Dark Angels was patched through.

Iax easily cracked his way into the Imperium's vox communications network on his own.

He even felt that this virtually unencrypted communications network was absurdly crude.

But he did not care.

"We have reached the interior of the Space Station. There are two unusually large, well-equipped Orks in sectors C-376 and A-122. Battlefield observations suggest they are most likely Ork commanders. However, the simultaneous presence of two large Ork leaders seems inconsistent with Ork behavior. We cannot confirm whether a higher-ranking War Boss is present."

Once the Dark Angels finished transmitting their briefing, the Black Templars present grew eager.

"Then let's kill these two Orks first and see how the enemy reacts. If something more powerful appears, we can regroup."

"Destroy the enemies of the Imperium! For the Emperor! For Dorn!"

"For the glory of the Sons of Dorn!"

With those battle cries, everyone formed themselves into a complete squad and headed for the Teleportation chamber.

Iax glanced over the squad and followed at the rear without being asked.

"By the authority of Sergeant Sien, initiate Teleportation."

The Tech-Priest responsible for controlling the targeted Teleportation looked at the Sage standing beside him and hesitated. But when the Sage nodded, he finally lowered the control lever.

Only the Adeptus Mechanicus possessed large-scale Teleportation technology. Sending an entire squad of Space Marines could only be carried out by a Tech-Priest.

Blue-white arcs flashed.

The Black Templars and Iax, standing on the Teleportation platform, vanished together from the chamber aboard the Resolute.

Crackle.

Inside the Space Station.

The two Dark Angels watched electrical arcs begin to flash beside the Teleportation beacon they had placed in an empty compartment behind them.

Then the figures of a group gradually materialized.

The sight of Iax standing behind the Black Templars made both of them raise their eyebrows.

"I didn't expect those cogheads to actually let this thing teleport over here and fight."

Based on their understanding of the Adeptus Mechanicus, allowing an Ancient Construct like Iax onto the battlefield rather than hiding him away like a treasure to study at leisure might mean they had something else in mind.

And the truth was indeed just as the two had guessed.

To assess Iax's combat capabilities, the two Sages used their authorization to enter the command chamber and began synchronizing everyone's visual feeds, attempting to watch a live broadcast of his performance throughout the battle.

"Brother, give us a briefing."

"The Orks have dispersed. As we reported earlier, there are two unusually large units present. By our assessment, an Ork fleet normally has only one Ork War Boss, so we believe these two anomalous units may not be the final enemy. However, we have found no other targets. We therefore need to try killing these two anomalous units before deciding our next move."

The Black Templars nodded, then took the initiative to divide into three groups. Apothecary Osen was left on his own to accompany Iax, while the others split into two five-man squads, each following one of the Dark Angels to deal with the two anomalous units.