When Endryd Haar, leader of the "Emperor's Fangs" and a Broken Hound, walked toward Lox, the atmosphere instantly grew tense.
The Imperial Fists in auramite armor swiftly formed a human wall, blocking the Blackshield force whose power armor had all been painted black.
Behind them stood Lox, Magos Arkhan Land, and a large number of members from the Mechanicum and the newly established Advanced Technology Consortium.
It could be said that everyone present was the lifeblood of the Imperium's technological field. Killing any one of them would deal a severe blow to Imperial technology.
Pollux also sensed that something was wrong. He refused to yield an inch, standing before the Broken Hound who made his skin crawl.
The Imperial Fists captain had endured countless wars, from attempting to board and assassinate Perturabo during the Battle of Phall to fighting the sudden Night Haunter alongside the Ultramarines in the Five Hundred Worlds. Wars great and small had brought him face-to-face with innumerable enemies.
Yet among all those enemies, only the Night Haunter had ever given him the same crushing sense of pressure as this Broken Hound.
The way Haar looked at him was neither the gaze of a battle-brother nor that of a mortal enemy.
Pollux saw neither anger nor impulsive hatred in his eyes. It was as though Haar were merely looking at a dead man.
Most of Endryd's Emperor's Fangs Blackshields were War Hounds, with some members drawn from the Death Guard, Iron Warriors, and Raven Guard. It was an army more than a thousand strong, though only a dozen or so were present here.
"I mean no harm, Imperial Fist." The burly Endryd Haar raised his arms. He carried no bolter, chainsword, or other weapon, and even his finely crafted relic power fists had been left behind in