The Emperor’s Angel of Death

Vestro III was once a warm world. This planet, highly suitable for human habitation, was once home to over a billion residents, but that number has now exploded to several times that. To accommodate so many refugees, the Adeptus Mechanicus simply carved out intricate tunnels beneath the cities and reinforced them with metal plates. These tunnels snaked in all directions like labyrinths, with a total length of several kilometers. The scale of the underground passages varied from city to city; some were spacious enough for a tank to pass through unhindered, while others were so narrow that they could barely accommodate the body of an adult.

Living in the dark, sunless, and damp underground was obviously not a good choice, but those who had witnessed the horrors of the Tyranids rarely complained about the harsh environment.

Almost as soon as everyone in the Vestro system had retreated to III, huge fireballs fell from the sky like meteorites, with ferocious beasts encased in swollen, mucus-covered pods.

Upon impact, the pods ruptured, and countless terrifying creatures poured out, driven by a single thought: to gnaw, tear, slaughter, and devour.

However, this time the Tyranids seemed to have learned from their previous siege warfare experiences and adopted a different strategy for the large strongholds held by humans. It was this very strategy that created enormous trouble for the human defense.

Now, Ricas was following Jacob to deal with a "trouble."

It was a Tyranid creature designated as a "lethal hazard" by the Adeptus Mechanicus, known as a Neurothrope. This monster could move silently and quickly in almost any environment and was extremely adept at concealing its tracks. It liked to stalk individual prey, and after driving the prey into a desperate situation, it would devour its brain. The Adeptus Mechanicus could not ascertain why they had such a predilection, but some sages speculated that these creatures stole the memories of their victims by consuming their brains.

This theory was not without basis; at least after devouring enough brains, they became extremely familiar with the environment and terrain.

And the most abhorrent aspect of this ability was that it was very similar to some of the functions of Space Marines.

Stonehold City was the second largest city on Vestro, named after the many rock pillars that existed around it when the city was founded. Although most of them were destroyed later during the city's expansion, several were still preserved in the city center. The city was located beside a river, surrounded by open terrain, with only a small mountain less than five hundred meters above sea level. After accommodating refugees, the city's population reached 31 million, while the entire city area was only 410 square kilometers, making it frighteningly crowded. To defend this place, the Adeptus Mechanicus, as usual, built several layers of temporary protective walls, forming a defensive line with the city's original walls, which further reduced the city's area. In addition, a large number of landmines were scattered in the fields and plains outside the city. When the Tyranids swarmed in, they were greeted by more than four million troops and five companies of Space Marines, as well as millions of hastily formed militia.

Under such circumstances, the Tyranids naturally did not gain any advantage, but the frontal assault only provided cover for the infiltration in the dark. In some defensive blind spots, some things slipped into the city under the cover of night.

Due to the high population density, homicides were common, so no one cared when the first strange corpse was discovered.

Several days later, the victims began to be militia officers, but still no one cared.

It was not until a captain of the Auxiliary Regiment disappeared in an alley and was found half a day later with his brain missing that the matter finally attracted the attention of the Space Marines and was confirmed after investigation to be the work of a Tyranid creature.

Bahram immediately judged that only a Neurothrope could act like a ghost in such a crowded city.

But in order not to cause excessive panic, he could only send a small squad to deal with this thing.

Jacob and the other nine were the hunters hunting the Neurothrope, and the Neurothrope was also given a new name—Dark Stalker.

After tracking it for several days, they finally approached the thing. This Neurothrope was much smaller than normal, probably to adapt to the narrow terrain in the city, and it had also established its lair in the city's underground.

The underground of Stonehold City was actually a refugee camp. Although there was management, the scarcity of supplies still made this place like hell and turned it into a breeding ground for crime.

Prostitutes, thieves, drug dealers, and gangs emerged in a very short period of time.

But the Space Marines only had their mission in mind and did not care about the pairs of curious and fearful eyes in the darkness.

However, this beast was really cunning. It actually set up traps in the tunnels. When the squad chased it into a drain, the support beam above suddenly collapsed under the weight, and a huge amount of construction waste instantly separated Ricas from the main force.

And for some reason, communications seemed to be interfered with.

So he could only walk alone in the dark drain, stepping on ankle-deep untreated sewage, surrounded by a pervasive stench, but he didn't care. He held a bolter tightly in his hand, constantly scanning the front.

He was looking for a way to reunite with his companions.

In the process, the sound of dripping water was endless, enough to make one's spine tingle, as if a terrifying monster would pounce out of the darkness at any time.

Ricas held his breath. He had a premonition, a premonition that had allowed him to escape death several times in the desert.

So he slowed down.

Listening.

Observing.

Suddenly, the surface of the water rippled abnormally, and the sound of dripping water had a hint of discord, as if a foreign object had fallen into the water. Ricas immediately turned around, raised his gun, and fired.

Before it landed, a series of bolter rounds hit the monster's chest, which was crouching on the top like a spider. Chitin fragments and viscous pus splashed everywhere, and the dark drain immediately echoed with what seemed to be a painful roar.

The next second, water splashed everywhere, and the landed monster lunged at Ricas, wielding its claws. Ricas tried to dodge, but the Neurothrope was too fast, and a claw hit his right shoulder pad, scattering broken ceramite. But it didn't penetrate.

This miniaturized Lictor had pitch-black armor all over its body, and a pair of segmented, serrated spikes grew out of its shoulders. In theory, this blow would be enough to tear an adult into three pieces, but due to its reduced size, its strength was not enough to pose a fatal threat to Ricas.

"Die!"

Ricas raised the bolter in his hand again and fired at the monster's face.

But the opponent jumped sideways directly, and then two claws, like huge scissors, slashed through the darkness. Ricas was pushed back several steps by this force, and he looked down to check and found that a gap had been torn in the chamber of the bolter.

So he threw the weapon on the shore and drew his chainsword.

The Tyranid beast pounced on him, and Ricas nimbly dodged to the side, holding the chainsword tightly against the monster's body.

Accompanied by the roar of the chainsword, in this confined space, the roar of the saw teeth tearing chitin was deafening, followed by a scream. One of the monster's limbs was unloaded, but its counterattack was also very fast, directly hitting Ricas's chest with an extra limb, almost piercing the armor, and at the same time grabbing his wrist holding the sword and twisting it hard to the right—after devouring a large number of human brains, it even developed some fighting ability.

But what's worse is that most of the fighting knowledge it devoured from the militia came from the tactical manual issued by the superiors, which included—the four steps to defeat a Warrior bug with bare hands.