The Emperor’s Angel of Death

Skallax City, a Martian enclave on Terra, was originally a base for the Adeptus Mechanicus construction teams responsible for rebuilding Terra after the Horus Heresy. However, the Mechanicus did not withdraw after the reconstruction was completed, but instead established a new industrial city here. Today, it has become the private residence of successive Forge Lords and is the third largest structure on Terra, second only to the Imperial Palace and the Ecclesiarchy Palace, guarded by the Adeptus Custodes, Titan Legions, and the Adeptus Arbites.

The shuttle entered the atmosphere and began to accelerate, traversing the thick clouds of Terra, its engines singing at optimal output.

Through the porthole, Solzhenitsyn saw rivers of sewage from the forges, rainbows of red, blue, and orange flowing into the brown earth. Perhaps these sewage rivers outside Skallax City were Terra's only surface water bodies.

Surrounding these heavily polluted rivers were dense shantytowns. In Terra, where resources were scarce and the gap between rich and poor was enormous, nothing was wasted. Even the treated wastewater carried some recoverable resources, and countless scavengers and foragers lived off it, forming vast shantytowns.

Of course, the severe pollution also meant that the lifespan of most of them was unlikely to exceed forty years.

Soon, the massive and magnificent mechanical city came into Solzhenitsyn's view, as always with a strong Adeptus Mechanicus style. Huge furnaces turned the sky red, and giant chimneys spewed thick smoke, shrouding the city in a gray haze. Countless roads and rails formed a standard grid, dividing the city into countless small pieces, connecting the largest forges and the smallest garbage dumps.

As the shuttle rapidly descended, a huge shadow swallowed everything around it. Steep steel cliffs towered high, with hundreds of winding pipes and cables attached to every building, extending overhead like vines in a rainforest, radiating unparalleled power.

The creaking of pistons, the roar of exhaust gases, and the relentless grinding of huge machine gears seemed palpable to Solzhenitsyn even through the thick glass. The roar of the distant transport aerodromes and the throbbing from underground filled the air, like the city's heartbeat. Solzhenitsyn could even feel his bones vibrating with the city's endless forges.

The shuttle descended to a thousand meters, passing through metal towers, under the giant arches of the Omnissiah, and along winding aerial routes.

On the suspended gantries and in those open structures, Solzhenitsyn saw countless laborers, like ants in an anthill.

Their bodies were like withered leaves, with very little flesh left, almost indistinguishable from robots.

Among them, Solzhenitsyn also saw a group of people turning huge gears, dragging huge iron chains, or climbing the grand parade steps with staggering steps, not knowing where they came from or what task they were going to complete.

They were not servitors, but had a similar status. Terra's prisons were always overcrowded, and a considerable number of people were sent here as slave laborers. They were sentenced to 10-30 years of service to the Machine God to repay their debt to the Emperor. If they could complete it, they would be freed—of course, the probability of this was probably less than 0.001%.

With a slight tremor, the massive shuttle stopped at the city's core landing pad, which was not an area open to the public, but the Forge Lord's private hangar.

As the shuttle's ramp slowly lowered, Solzhenitsyn's massive silhouette in Terminator armor appeared in the smoke.

With heavy footsteps, he walked out of the shuttle's shadow, and in front of him, in the huge hangar passage, stood a whole formation of Mechanicus Guard.

They consisted of semi-mechanical fighters in scarlet carapace armor and huge combat robots, all with the black and white symbol of Mars imprinted on their chests, and their weapons were very different from those of the regular Adeptus Custodes.

Strictly speaking, the Mechanicus Guard was one of the oldest military formations of the Adeptus Mechanicus. Before the outbreak of the Horus Heresy, they were the main type of military force of the Martian Cult Mechanicus, and also the most numerous.

After the flames of the Great Heresy completely tore the Adeptus Mechanicus apart, the Mechanicus Guard also became an echo of an ancient era.

But as the nominal leader of the Adeptus Mechanicus, the Forge Lord still retained his own Mechanicus Guard and could deploy them anywhere except the Imperial Palace.

Leading these Mechanicus Guard was a Magos standing behind a black mechanical throne.

This Magos no longer had many human traces left. His hunched figure was more like a combat robot. His back armor was covered with various sensors, and four servo-skulls floated above him. The bright red robe on his body represented his extremely high status in the Adeptus Mechanicus. Two of his three arms had been replaced with mysterious weapons, and the other hand held a mechanical battleaxe. Two metal tentacles swayed constantly behind him, and his head was carved into a canine shape, with emerald green visual devices in his eye sockets, making him look more like a mechanical wolf, and his lower body was almost completely connected to the mechanical throne.

The mechanical throne was also a privilege that only senior Magos in the Adeptus Mechanicus were qualified to obtain. It looked like a combination of a lectern and a church, floating half a meter above the ground with the help of anti-gravity devices, with many tentacles and hidden weapon ports.

"Welcome, Chapter Master Solzhenitsyn Alexeyev, I am Abdel Kader Buhler, First Fabricator Locum of Skallax, representing the Forge Lord to welcome your arrival."

The other party's voice was like a recording on a tape, but the sound did not seem to actually come from his throat.

Hearing that the other party was the Fabricator Locum, and the First Fabricator Locum, Solzhenitsyn was a little surprised. It seemed that Tyren had indeed done enough work.

It should be known that this was not an ordinary position. As a high-level part of the Adeptus Mechanicus's intricate power network, the Fabricator Locum was an absolute high-level figure second only to the Fabricator General and Fabricator Vice-General and other supreme power holders.

Behind Solzhenitsyn, his Terminator guard also came out of the cabin.

"Thank you very much, First Fabricator Locum Buhler. I believe the Forge Lord has been waiting for a long time. Please lead the way."

"Patience is a virtue."

After saying this, the Mechanicus Guard lined up neatly, opening up a wide avenue. Without any instructions, they silently completed everything.

Subsequently, the Space Marine Knights' team, escorted by the Mechanicus Guard, passed through a long passage and heavily guarded archways, and finally arrived at the Forge Temple, but the place where they were to meet was not here.

Passing through the magnificent temple, Solzhenitsyn came to a secret side hall, and his guards were all left outside.

When the heavy door opened, in the hall filled with dim light and statues and murals, the massive Forge Lord was watching Solzhenitsyn.