At the same time, on the lower deck of the battleship Gemstone, in the H4 Living Area.
"Bang!"
The heavy explosion-proof valve was forcibly blasted open by Melta explosives, rusty metal fragments flew everywhere, and a foul stench rushed out from the breach.
Captain Keller, carrying Boltgun, was the first to step into the compartment, and the Power Armour's filtration system immediately emitted a piercing alarm.
The concentration of Warp pollution in the air has exceeded the safety threshold by seven times.
A pungent stench assaulted my senses; it was the smell of rotting flesh, rancid grease, and mold mixed together.
Like a morgue that's been soaking for months, or a sewer that's been blocked for a century, it's so thick it can almost pass through a filter.
The metal floor beneath my feet was sticky and slippery, covered with a layer of dark green fluid mixture that made a "splat" sound when I stepped on it, sticking up the soles of my Power Armour boots.
The beam of the flashlight swept across the surroundings, revealing layers upon layers of corpses.
Men, women, the elderly, children...
Civilians on the lower deck lay sprawled on both sides of the corridor, some leaning against the bulkheads, others crawling on the ground, their deaths contorted in agony.
Their skin had long since turned black and swollen, and their bodies were covered with dense pustules. The abdominal cavities of some of the corpses had been ruptured, oozing turbid pus and fragments of internal organs.
"Ugh~" Several young military police officers at the end of the line bent over and dry heaved through their masks.
They weren't unfamiliar with battlefields or the eradication of cult strongholds, but they had never witnessed such a dense and gruesome scene of death.
Keller's face was extremely pale.
He crouched down and nudged the shoulder of a corpse at his feet with the muzzle of his gun.
The corpse's flesh had long been stuck to the metal floor; a light touch would tear off large pieces of decaying tissue.
Judging from the level of corruption, these people had been dead for at least three to five days.
Every three to five days, the inspection team in the living area would report that everything was safe and sound, and the monitoring data consistently showed normal operation.
The signal was suddenly cut off seven minutes ago.
"There's a mole." Keller stood up, his voice icy.
"Moreover, their level is quite high; they can tamper with inspection records and block monitoring data."
The ability to establish such a presence in the lower Gemstone for so long, silently corrupting an entire living quarters, is something that a few Chaos Cultist could not have accomplished.
The other party's influence has likely already extended into the ship's management system.
He was about to raise his hand to signal the troops to advance in tactical formation when he caught a glimpse of the pile of corpses deep in the corridor move slightly out of the corner of his eye.
It wasn't an illusion; the mountain of corpses piled up at the corner of the corridor seemed to come alive, slowly rising.
Countless severed limbs and rotting torsos writhed and pieced together in the viscous bodily fluids, producing sticky sounds of bones rubbing together and flesh tearing apart.
"Alert!" Keller growled sharply, instantly aiming his Boltgun at the pile of corpses.
"Prepare to fire!"
Before the words were finished, the pile of corpses suddenly exploded.
A colossal creature, nearly four meters tall, rose from the rotting corpse, murky pus dripping down its body.
This is no ordinary Plague Zombie.
Its body was stitched together from dozens of corpses, with several arms of varying thickness extending from both sides of its torso.
Some were gripping broken steel pipes, some had sharp bone claws, and others had swollen pustules at the ends, constantly dripping corrosive venom.
Its head was a composite of three or four dead people's heads, with a dozen murky eyes rolling around simultaneously, emitting low, hoarse growls.
Plague Flesh Golem.
One of the most beloved creations of the Nurgle Cultist, a monster forged from countless corpses and the power of plague.
Thick-skinned and carrying potent toxins, each swing of its wings can spread a large number of germs.
And there is more than one such monster.
On both sides of the corridor, all the piles of corpses were writhing and merging together. One by one, Flesh Golem stood up unsteadily, blocking all escape routes and directions of advance.
They swayed their bulky bodies, emitting muffled roars, and slowly surrounded the three hundred military police.
"Free fire! Shoot at their torso joints!" Keller made a decisive move and pulled the trigger.
The explosion of the bombs instantly filled the narrow corridor, the scorching flames illuminating faces that were either solemn or terrified.
As Captain Keller pulled the trigger, the entire military police force unleashed its firepower simultaneously.
The soldiers' magazines were filled with purified explosives, consecrated by the accompanying priest. The bullets were coated with remnants of holy oil and would emit faint blue particles of light upon hitting their targets.
The flamethrowers on both sides simultaneously pulled their triggers, unleashing a torrent of Promethium mixed with holy water and holy relic powder.
Golden-red flames swept down the corridor, instantly engulfing several Plague Flesh Golem that were coming towards them in a sea of fire.
The sizzling sound of holy flames burning rotten flesh was incessant, mixed with the muffled roars of the Flesh Golem.
These monsters, pieced together from dozens of corpses, should have been rampaging through the world with their bloated bodies and deadly poison.
But in the face of the Promethium flames mixed with holy water, their proud, rotten flesh and blood burned as fiercely as grease in the fire.
The dark green pus boiled upon contact with fire, and the bubbling plague bacteria were burned to ashes by the holy flames as soon as they floated into the air, along with the charred and carbonized nerves and muscles Flesh Golem.
The three-headed Flesh Golem in the front row had only taken two steps when it was riddled with holes by a barrage of purification bombs.
Then flames licked its entire body, and after a moment of swaying, it collapsed with a crash, turning into several piles of charred remains emitting black smoke.
"Well done! Keep pushing!"
A team leader roared, his voice filled with the exhilaration of surviving a disaster.
When they saw the pile of Flesh Golem, many of the young military police officers turned pale with tension.
But seeing that these terrifying monsters were no match for the purifying firepower, their tense nerves immediately relaxed.
Some even whispered the Emperor's name, their steps steady as they moved forward, their guns firing at the writhing corpses deep in the corridor, advancing almost twice as fast as expected.
The rotting corpses on both sides of the corridor were swept by the flames, crackling and curling into charred clumps. The filth on the metal floor was burned away, revealing the mottled steel plates underneath.
The soldiers advanced, their steps echoing through the crunching, charred bones, their confidence steadily rising with each step.
It seemed that as long as they maintained this firepower, it was only a matter of time before they could raze the entire Zone H4 to the ground.
Keller, who was walking at the front of the group, did not look any better.
He kicked aside a charred, severed arm at his feet, his brow furrowed beneath his mask.
Fifty years of experience as a military policeman and seventeen operations to eradicate cults constantly reminded him of these lessons.
Everything went too smoothly.
The H4 Living Area houses nearly 20,000 low-class civilians. Judging from the scale of corruption, there should be at least tens of thousands of Plague Zombie and hundreds of Flesh Golem blocking the corridors.
However, as they advanced from the entrance, they only encountered a few monsters. Most of the corpses along the way were still, rotting bodies, showing no signs of large-scale resurrection.
The other party went to great lengths to tamper with inspection records, block surveillance signals, and silently corrupt an entire residential area. Was this all the "gift" they prepared?
Keller crouched down and wiped the rust off the floor with his gloved fingers.
A slight stickiness came from my fingertips; dark brown rust, like a living thing, slowly spread along the metal texture, slow yet exceptionally stubborn.
This is not ordinary electrochemical corrosion; it is Rust Plague carrying the curse of Warp.
It's highly unlikely that a few low-level Cultists could spread this plague.
"Speed up, target the core dormitory." Keller stood up, his voice transmitted to every soldier through the communicator.
"Everyone remain vigilant. Focus your inspection on ventilation ducts and maintenance shafts. The enemy's main force is not in the front."
The soldiers' excitement subsided slightly, and they gripped their weapons tightly again.
Ten minutes later, the team finally advanced into the heart of Zone H4.
A massive, ten-meter-high explosion-proof gate stands directly in front, serving as the main entrance to the largest dormitory building in the area.
The entire dormitory can accommodate a thousand people at the same time, with spacious rooms and a high density of people.
If used for a large-scale sacrificial ritual, the overflowing Warp energy would be enough to corrupt half a deck.
The gate had long lost its original silvery-gray metallic luster, and dark brown rust covered the entire gate panel like a spider web.
Thick, pale green pus seeped continuously from the cracks, flowing down the door panel and forming puddles on the floor that emitted a foul stench.
In the center of the door panel, a twisted three-headed Nurgle symbol was drawn with dried, blackened blood, exuding a strong aura of blasphemy that could be felt from a distance.
"This is it." Keller gestured with his chin.
"Sappers, move forward and install the Melta Bomb to breach the door lock at a precise point. Be quick."
Two young sappers immediately stepped forward, unloaded the Melta explosive packs from their backs, and crouched down below the gate to begin securing the detonation device.
Their movements were practiced and efficient, following a standard procedure that had been trained thousands of times, their fingers deftly adjusting the detonation delay.
Everyone's attention was focused on the gate and the two engineers; no one noticed the heavy footsteps rapidly approaching from inside the gate.
Thump.
A muffled thud came from behind the door, like a giant hammer hitting sheet metal.
The two engineers paused, instinctively looking up at the gate.
"Thump!!"
A second impact followed immediately, causing the entire gate to tremble violently.
Keller's expression changed drastically, and he was about to shout "Back off!" when the third impact exploded with a deafening roar...
"Clang!!!"
A blast-proof steel door, several centimeters thick, was kicked outwards from the inside!
The heavy metal door, weighing several tons, crashed into the crowd with a whistling wind. The two engineers at the front didn't even have time to scream before they were firmly crushed under the door.
The crisp sound of the Plasteel breastplate and bones shattering simultaneously was completely drowned out by the metallic roar.
Dark red blood seeped out from the edge of the door panel, mixing with the putrid liquid on the ground.