It was medication distribution day.
The air was a mix of disinfectant, a faint smell of machine oil, and a pervasive, deep yearning for improved health that hung among the crowd.
The Mutants quietly lined up, guided steadily by Adeptus Arbites officials, to receive the small bottles of medicine that sustained their health.
Beside the queue, a simple Augur array operated smoothly, emitting a low hum.
A Low-ranking Priest and his apprentice, sent by Sage Ovilia to assist with health monitoring, were focused on operating the equipment.
The Priest's arrival symbolized Alex's committed support to D-7, and also the Empire's concern for them.
However, this concern, like a stone dropped into water, caused ripples in the crowd and stirred unsettling thoughts in the shadows.
The queue moved slowly forward.
A hunched Mutant, wrapped in tattered work clothes, arrived at the scanning point.
He kept his head down, his eyes flickering uneasily in their cloudy depths, and his movements carried an almost imperceptible stiffness.
The Low-ranking Priest stood solemnly beside the simple Augur array, his partially metallic face hidden in the shadow of his hood, only the optical lenses embedded in his eye sockets rotating slightly, silently overseeing the entire process.
The apprentice, meanwhile, was entirely focused on operating the equipment, his mechanical fingers moving deftly between the data pad and control levers.
As the scanner's steady, cold red light swept downwards over the hunched Mutant's distorted body, the Augur array emitted its characteristic hum, as if it could penetrate flesh and bone.
Where the red light passed, his tensed muscles twitched slightly, as if the light beam carried a tangible weight.
The apprentice stared intently at the rapidly scrolling readings on the data pad, occasionally reporting a few binary bytes in a low voice to the Low-ranking Priest.
The scan was complete.
The Augur array emitted a short 'tick', and the humming stopped.
The apprentice nodded, making a mark on the data pad.
Only then did a Adeptus Arbites official pick up a bottle from the neatly stacked medicine bottles nearby and hand it over.
The hunched figure reached out with a slightly trembling hand, gripping the small bottle that held a certain possibility so tightly that his knuckles instantly turned white from the excessive force.
Just as the apprentice lowered his head to record the next person's information, and the Low-ranking Priest's optical lenses turned towards the next person in line—
"Lies! All lies! The True God is eternal—!" A distorted shriek, steeped in too much malice, suddenly tore through the fragile order of D-7!
The hunched body, like a spring compressed to its limit, suddenly exploded with astonishing speed!
A cold glint flashed from his greasy sleeve, and a bone dagger, ground from a mutated beast's rib, its edge glowing with an eerie dark green, plunged with pure destructive intent, like a viper striking, straight towards the exposed throat of the unsuspecting Priest apprentice closest to him!
"Heretic! Exterminate!" Figgsin's fierce cry and the sound of a gun ripping through the air happened in the same instant!
Decisive! Swift!
The tip of the bone dagger was mere millimeters from the Priest apprentice's pale skin!
The Bolter at her waist, engraved with the sacred rose, roared first, as if it were the most direct extension of her will!
The heavy recoil was perfectly absorbed by her Power Armor the moment the gun muzzle spat flame!
"Bang—Boom!" The first bolter round tore through the dull air, emitting a piercing shriek!
It flew past the Priest apprentice's face, which had turned sharply in extreme terror, so close that the swirling air even ruffled the loose strands of hair on his forehead!
The warhead, carrying unparalleled kinetic energy, accurately pierced the attacker's brow, which had been raised high from his forward lunge!
"Pfft—!" The attacker's head burst open instantly, like a rotten melon struck by immense force!
Crimson blood mixed with grayish-white tissue fragments splattered violently in a radial pattern!
The Priest apprentice was knocked back repeatedly by the close-range explosion's shockwave and the flying filth, his face smeared with warm, viscous liquid, completely frozen in place.
Without the slightest pause!
Figgsin's Bolter immediately let out a second muffled roar of fury!
The second bolter round accurately struck the center of the headless torso, which was still lunging forward due to inertia!
The enormous impact lifted it completely off its feet, sending it flying backward like a discarded, broken doll, to crash heavily onto a mountain of scrap metal parts a few meters away, making a dull thud!
"Boom—!" The bolter round detonated violently inside its chest cavity!
A ball of orange-red destructive flame instantly expanded from within the torso, completely engulfing it!
The twisted, mutated organs inside the torso were instantly reduced to charred fragments and a few rapidly dissipating wisps of smoke under the ravages of high temperature and shockwave!
From its sudden outburst to its end, it was faster than lightning, the entire process taking no more than a heartbeat.
Figgsin maintained her firing stance, and acrid gunsmoke curled from her muzzle.
Her helmet, covered by cold optical lenses, slowly rotated, her razor-sharp gaze sweeping across the entire area like a searchlight, missing no corner.
D-7 fell into a dead silence, as if an invisible giant hand had gripped its throat.
Only the dull echoes of the bolter rounds reverberating in the vast space, and the blood-scent so thick it almost solidified, served as silent yet incredibly potent proof of the terrifying scene that had just transpired.
Figgsin's thunderous, unhesitating judgment was like a bucket of ice water poured over everyone, instantly freezing most people's movements and stifling the screams about to escape their lips, firmly crushing any nascent chaos.
However, dying chaos was like a venomous snake on its last breath; its shadow did not dissipate but brewed its final and most frenzied bite in despair.
Just as the crowd, stunned by Figgsin's bloody judgment, had their thoughts solidified and the frightened commotion surged at the edges like a flood about to break its dam, a new anomaly arose in the shadowy corner near the dilapidated shantytown!
"For the True God! Burn this cage!" Two lurking figures, seizing the moment when the guards' attention was completely drawn by the earth-shattering gunshots and bloodshed, sprang out like preying hyenas!
Their target was a stack of discarded lubricating oil drums and flammable packaging!
In the hand of one of them, an ignition device cobbled together from an old lighter and a fuel tube, was flickering with dangerous flames!
Their intention was clear—to ignite this inferno, turning all of D-7, along with everything in it, to ashes!
"No—! Those are our shanties! Stop—!" A roar, with a metallic scraping quality, filled with shock, fury, and despair, erupted like thunder!
A figure, like an arrow released from a bow, charged out of the panicked crowd with a desperate momentum!
"Iron Claw! Be careful!" A woman holding a child shrieked, her voice shrill with fear.
The old man beside her gasped sharply, his cloudy eyes wide.
The young man called Iron Claw burst forth with astonishing speed, his rusty, three-pronged, claw-like metal right hand cutting a cold, sharp line in the dim light!
Amidst the air-rending shriek, the claw was not swung at the enemy but clamped down like an iron manacle on the igniter's right wrist, just as he was about to press the button!
"Ugh ah—!" The cultist's wrist screamed in agony, and his fingers convulsively released their grip, the deadly ignition device clattering onto the metal floor.
"Traitor! Scum who defiles the True God!" The other cultist's eyes were bloodshot, and a serrated, crude short knife flashed coldly, already drawn from his waist, plunging with all his brute force and malice into Iron Claw's unguarded back!
"Pfft!" The sickening thud of the blade piercing flesh was hair-raising! The cold blade sank deep!
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