Slaughter Code

Captain Ventanus has returned.

He also brought a group of heavily modified Tech-Priests, who looked more like machines than humans. They were assigned to a radiation-shielded vault to prevent the intense radiation from harming the civilians taking shelter there.

"I am Miladvi Tauren." A female Tech-Priest, the leader of this group of Enginseers, spoke. "I am a High Technician, serving as a Tech-Priest in the analysis department of Kaos and Numinus."

"It was also us who received your message. My superior transmitted the information to the Glory of Macragge before his death, issuing a warning."

It was difficult to discern tone or emotion in the Tech-Priests' speech, but Loci could detect a subtle sense of loss and pain; she was grieving.

"However, it seems there is nothing left to analyze now," Ventanus joked, trying to lighten the mood.

Tasa was giving him a rudimentary examination. Ventanus had numerous contusions, a result of his power armor protecting him.

His hand bones and leg bones had minor fractures, which wouldn't require much treatment. The Adeptus Astartes' superhuman physique allowed for self-healing.

"It was a terrible day. I lost many friends. It was like a nightmare," Tauren replied.

"Forgive me, madam, I thought you no longer dreamed," Ventanus said with a smile.

The female Tech-Priest didn't mind. A large portion of her was made of intricate mechanical modifications. "Everyone dreams."

"The Word Bearers launched a despicable betrayal. The Thirteenth Legion, the Five Hundred Worlds of Ultramar, and the Adeptus Mechanicus all suffered heavy blows. Our warships are burning, and our people are dying."

She nodded. Not long ago, someone had died in her arms.

"What resources do you have, any mobilized armed forces or informational assets?" Ventanus asked.

These Tech-Priests were not primarily warriors, but that didn't mean they couldn't fight.

Each of these Tech-Priests, wielding relics of ancient technology, had their own trump cards. Their cybernetic modifications were unknown in their destructive potential until truly exposed.

"Only about three hundred Enginseers, and some portable mobile weapons and light armor." This number did not exceed Ventanus's expectations. "But as the signal spreads, this number will grow."

"However, Captain, I am very curious. Kaos's psychic space was corrupted and destroyed by Chaos Junk Code, and even the Servitors connected to the psychic space have fallen into paralysis. As far as I know, the Servitors in the Omnissiah's Archive are also connected. So what is the transmitter you used to send us the message?"

The Tech-Priest's face was full of curiosity. Through signal reception and transmission, she detected the transmitter's unusual nature, with subtle differences from those commonly used by the Imperium or the Adeptus Mechanicus.

It gave her a faint whiff of lost technology, or heretical technology.

For the Tech-Priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus, any heretical technology not in their possession was subject to severe accountability and punishment. But technology that came into their possession was, of course, legitimate lost technology.

Ventanus did not hide anything. After all, they would need to rely on these Adeptus Mechanicus allies to regain sovereignty over Kaos's psychic space, and it wasn't a big deal.

"Our transmitter was brought by one of our comrades. You can ask him for the specific details." He pointed to Loci, who was standing in the corner.

"A seemingly ordinary mortal," Tauren's electronic eyes scanned her, but no valuable conclusions were drawn. No modifications, no signs of life-extension surgery, no signs of surgical enhancement: a standard mortal.

"No, or rather, an overly standard mortal." Tauren's computational module pondered for a moment, reaching a plausible conclusion.

In this universe, humans were distributed across the cosmos, influenced by various environmental factors: gravity, radiation, psychic energy, special geographical environments, and so on. It was difficult to find an ordinary person who had not undergone genetic modification or surgery.

After all, even the most basic life-extension surgery was affordable for the middle class in most hab-blocks. Who would want to die early?

And those poor souls who couldn't even afford life-extension surgery were highly likely to live in the harsh environments of the lower hab-blocks, the under-hives, or even some wilderness areas. The food they ate and the environments they lived in were extremely harsh.

Mutations were inevitable, and those unacknowledged mutants were targets for elimination by the Imperium.

However, this did not arouse too much curiosity in the High Technician. Many bio-tech priests created relatively pure individuals before conducting experiments to reduce the interference of mutations.

Tauren observed the transmitter Loci had printed up close. Her electronic eyes and the indicator lights on her body flickered incessantly. She detected that this was a lost technology from the distant Dark Age of Technology, something the current Imperium could no longer manufacture.

"Do you have news of an STC? Mortal, you must tell me. Every STC should be under the control of the Adeptus Mechanicus, after this incident, if we are all still alive."

Tauren bent down. Modified, she was much taller than Loci. Her lips, half of which were made of metal, were almost touching Loci's ear as she spoke slowly.

Loci didn't react much. Should she tell this guy, covered in inferior modifications, that her ship was integrated from many STCs?

That Tech-Priest would probably explode with excitement and spew machine oil on the spot.

To people of Loci's era, modification was a normal matter. However, modifications that completely exposed the modified organs, making the entire person look inhuman, were scorned even by the lowest-level modders.

The more human-like the modification, the higher the technical skill. And the Servitors, who were almost identical to humans, were the pinnacle of modification technology.

Servitors were derived from humans, but in a sense, they were more perfect than humans.

Perfect creations would inevitably surpass their creators.

"The surface and space are currently in a state of war. We have learned that half of the fleet has regained operational capability and is striking the enemy," Ventanus said, focusing his mind to analyze the current battlefield situation. "The surface has also fallen into a stalemate. The Word Bearers cannot disengage from various locations; they are bogged down in a war of attrition."

"So, what is your plan?" The leader of the Enginseers, Aruk, stared with his red eyes, one of which was experiencing a poor connection.

"Our weapon arrays have fallen into enemy hands amidst the chaos. We need to purge the Chaos Junk Code from the weapon arrays and reclaim them." The war had reached a stalemate, and reclaiming the weapon arrays and low-Earth orbit was the quickest way to determine the victor.

The weapon arrays had immense suppressive power against both spaceborne and ground-based enemies, but now they were paralyzed and being infiltrated by the enemy.

In this situation, Loci had also tried to have the AI purge the Chaos Junk Code from the weapon arrays, but it required a significant amount of time, and the physical hardware above needed to be cleared of interference.

This meant they had to annihilate the enemy forces guarding the weapon arrays and physically control them before they could operate them.

"I can transport you to the orbital platform, but your numbers are too few. The enemy has deployed a large number of troops to the orbital platform, and you cannot retake the weapon arrays."

Loci regretfully stated her inability to help. Ventanus believed that if they could receive assistance from the Primarch and the Legions, they would surely be able to defeat the Word Bearers in orbit.

However, when Ventanus attempted to communicate with the Glory of Macragge, no matter how they requested communication, there was no response from the flagship, not even a perfunctory response from the communication servitors.

This brought a bad premonition, implying that the flagship had likely been attacked. The boarding action launched by the enemy had prevented the Ultramarines from even responding to communications.

Besides trusting the Primarch and the high command of the Legion, Ventanus and the ground forces had no better options.

"You need to obtain the Slaughter Code compiled by my superior in his final moments. In his last moments, he utilized his genius and creativity. To prevent the Slaughter Code from being corrupted by Chaos Junk Code prematurely, he hid it within an offline Servitor in the port."

Tauren emerged from the transmitter's server, somewhat dazed. Using the Servitor within the machine, she had sorted and reviewed a large amount of information after the incident erupted, and in it, she found what her superior, Hurst, had left for her.

She understood the work her beloved had completed at the last moment – it was the Slaughter Code targeting Chaos Junk Code. After Hurst's brain death and data death, this code was the last evidence of his existence in this world.

She remembered Hurst dying in her arms.