The Emperor’s Angel of Death

With a bang, the thermal melter at the head of the landing craft tore through the metal of the ship's hull.

The resulting inertia caused Jacob to bump slightly against the back of his seat, followed by the sudden tightening of the safety harness, preventing him from being punished by the inertia caused by the landing craft's deceleration rockets.

The lights in the landing craft went out one by one, making the surroundings increasingly dark, but through the optical components on his eyepiece, the Sergeant of the Tenth Company could still see the clear outlines of the nine recruits, strapped into their seats around him, each completely encased in silver-gray power armor, the armor's brand-new coating and battle group insignia occasionally reflecting the flashing status lights in the cabin.

They gripped their weapons tightly, ready to crash into the enemy like ferocious beasts, and Jacob could feel the recruits' confidence surging.

This book is first published on the entire network by 𝕥𝕨𝕜𝕒𝕟.𝕔𝕠𝕞.

Strictly speaking, he was also a recruit, just slightly older than these "little guys," because they were all modified during the Great Whirl Expedition, while he was at least a "veteran" who had participated in the expedition.

Naturally, he became their leader.

They were going to deal with a passenger ship full of people and the Genestealer remnants hiding inside.

Several months ago, after completing the environmental training for the recruits, their Company Commander Bahram began to prepare for live combat training, so he used two cruisers to bring the Tenth Company to the Ben Thorson system near the Neson system.

The system had two colonized worlds, one of which, a planet called Thorson I, had a Genestealer uprising. Although the scale was not very large, because the Genestealers had been developing for many years and possessed sufficient armed forces, the local guard could not handle the problem at all and could only hold the areas that had not fallen, temporarily restricting the Genestealers to a certain area.

If things developed according to the usual pace of the Imperium, because the "matter was not serious," it was very likely that the planet would not receive any support. Even if Space Marines accidentally learned of this, they would not care until the planet's governor found a way to solve the problem himself, or he was solved by the Genestealers, and the entire planet was close to falling, only then might the armed forces of the Imperium notice this and send troops or intervene.

But the governor of Thorson I was very lucky, as the Star Knights Chapter happened to be out on "practical training." When Bahram appeared with his troops on the governor's spire, the planet's governor knelt down excitedly, praising the Emperor and almost kowtowing.

After all, the Genestealers had been causing trouble for two years, and the governor had spent an unknown amount of resources and troops, but they could never be completely eliminated. Poison gas was released, fires were set, blockades, guilt by association, curfews, scorched earth tactics, everything was used. Perhaps more civilians were killed in the process than Genestealers, but they could not be eradicated. Instead, the enemy spread like wildfire in the underhive.

Why was this happening?

The governor scolded his officers again and again, but it was useless.

Seeing that the tithe payment cycle was approaching, if they could not quell the unrest, their tithe collection for this period would likely not be carried out in time, the consequences of which would be quite serious, after all, there were many, many people eyeing the governor's position.

Just when the governor was so anxious that he was about to go bald, the savior finally arrived.

Bahram didn't waste any words and directly demanded that the other party hand over complete military command to him. The governor of course accepted; he would give him his wives if necessary!

What happened next was very simple.

Bahram was very familiar with the Genestealers' activity patterns. After reviewing the planetary guard's combat process over the past two years, he immediately discovered the problem.

The governor had indeed promptly closed roads, pipelines, shafts, and most channels for a large number of people to enter and exit, but facilities were still able to connect between various areas, namely the huge pipeline channels, which were often integrated pipelines providing energy and power to those giant facilities. Although the interior was cramped, it was enough for flexible creatures like Genestealers to move.

In fact, the governor may not have been unaware, but this was the responsibility of the Adeptus Mechanicus, and since the Adeptus Mechanicus guaranteed that they were already filled with high-voltage electricity, making it impossible for creatures to pass through smoothly, he didn't pay much attention to it.

However, Bahram immediately refuted this view. The current in the Adeptus Mechanicus' integrated pipeline channels might not even kill a full-grown adult instantly, and the Genestealers were much stronger than normal humans, especially the purebloods among them, whose chitinous shells had extremely high resistance to electric arcs.

Almost all cases of planetary guards being ambushed from behind were launched by purebloods, indicating that the other party definitely had the ability to pass through the integrated pipeline channels.

So Bahram immediately ordered the Adeptus Mechanicus to close all integrated pipelines in the occupied areas, and then roughly analyzed the possible locations of their "nests" from the Genestealers' activity trails. To deal with Genestealers, the quickest way was to eliminate their patriarch and elders first.

Then Bahram planned a grand hunt, first having the planetary guard launch a full-scale attack to attract the Genestealers' attention, then taking the governor's most elite guards to launch feigned attacks on those suspected targets, and quickly locked down their three nests based on the intensity of the Genestealers' reactions.

This was the weakness of Gestalt organisms; many of their actions were almost instinctual, especially when it came to the top-level creatures.

Bahram immediately ordered the Tenth Company to begin the assault.

Soon, the howls of Land Speeders and Javelin Speeders echoed through the deep, dark underhive shantytowns and complex ruins, and hundreds of Lemeures-pattern battle servitors belonging to the Tenth Company were also released onto the battlefield. These flying machines were an important part of Bahram's new tactical drills and a project that Soshjan had instructed him to carry out.

Under the control of the accompanying Tech-Priests, these flying battle servitors quickly collected battlefield information and fed it back to the front-line warriors as soon as possible, and when the other party needed to raid a certain target, they would immediately launch a raid in small clusters.

Each squad leader could call for support from the Lemeures-pattern battle servitors, whose relatively small size also made it easier for them to operate in the pipeline-filled underhive.

The Genestealers obviously did not expect Space Marines to be involved in the battle. Although this was the recruits' first time fighting this alien, they had received sufficient training, and everyone strictly followed the squad leader's instructions, methodically slaughtering the monsters that defiled human genes.

Their offensive was like a hot knife through butter. Bolters pierced through distorted heads, chainswords tore apart corrupted flesh, and iron boots trampled on viscous entrails and blood.

In just three hours, all the nests were breached, and the elders and patriarchs inside were slaughtered, but the patriarch was nowhere to be found.