Eight kilometers west of the Fort Horizon core industrial zone lies a dead land of unexplored ruins.
The heavy clash of metal shattered the silence of the wasteland. With every step Korber took, his 200-kilogram alloy combat boots ground the concrete fragments on the ground into powder, followed by the pleasant hiss of the hydraulic assist system venting air.
"Vanguard" Type Assault Power Armor.
Using the Type-IV neural bundles translated by Andy via the Xeno-Tech Analysis Station, high-strength armor plates produced by the molecular reconstructor, and servo joints precision-cut by machining centers, this killing machine was finally assembled.
Originally 1.95 meters tall, Korber's perspective was elevated to 2.3 meters once inside the suit. The sense of power was explosive. Unlike the T-9000 exoskeleton he used to wear, he no longer had to struggle to adapt to the lag of hydraulic transmission during large movements. Now, this armor was his skin; he could push it as hard as he desired.
Beyond the shock of the equipment, Korber felt a near-fanatical adoration for Andy. Before meeting him, Korber was merely a pit fighter in the "Bone-Crusher Pit" of the Underhive. He relied on brute strength and suicidal grit, wallowing in blood and mud just to win half a piece of moldy corpse starch. Back then, his life was as thin as paper, and dignity was a joke.
It was Andy who pulled him from the pile of dead, fed him, and gave him this world-crushing power—transforming him from a fist-swinging barbarian into the vice-captain of the Storm Squad. From the moment he donned this power armor, Korber swore his life belonged to Andy. Whoever stood in Andy's way would be torn apart.
"Hey, Old Kor."
"Speak."
Jeddah's noisy voice crackled through the comms channel.
"Do you think if a mutant eats too many rad-roaches, they poop fluorescent shit?"
Korber: "..."
Jeddah walked beside Korber. Being just over 1.7 meters tall, his shoulder barely reached Korber's elbow. Though he seemed flippant, Jeddah was known as the "Rat King" before joining Deep Space Industries. He used to crawl through the Hive's abandoned ventilation ducts smuggling contraband and intel; when it came to tunneling, scouting, and instinct for danger, few in the Underhive could best him.
It was this cleverness combined with excellent combat prowess that caught Andy's eye, leading to his promotion as Captain of the Storm Squad.
Andy had initially produced 20 sets of power armor for the expanded 32-man squad. Logically, as Captain, Jeddah should have had one. However, once he stepped inside, he found his limbs were too short to reach the control gloves and boots. He looked like a child wearing an adult's clothes, unable to move. After an awkward laugh, Jeddah claimed he preferred "flexibility" and gave his slot to someone else, reverting to his lightweight Stormtrooper carapace armor.
"I don't know," Korber's voice boomed through the external speakers with a metallic resonance. "Focus, Jeddah. We are in an unknown sector."
"I am focused!" Jeddah scanned the area, his eyes darting. "It's just too boring! Why are we doing this manual labor anyway? Boss Andy has hundreds of those 'Black Soul' spiders, doesn't he? Plus the drones in the sky. Why not let those iron lumps sweep the map? Why do we have to trek through this?"
Korber stopped, his electronic eyes scanning a collapsed building ahead.
"Because machines are dead things," Korber replied bluntly.
Andy had previously tried letting "Six" command a drone swarm for mapping. The resulting report was unusable. As a Warp Navigation AI, Andy had hoped she'd be decent, but she turned out to be completely unfit for surveying. She could tell you there was an "obstacle 300 meters ahead, 15 meters high, made of reinforced concrete," but she couldn't tell you "that is a perfect sniper nest." She couldn't distinguish between "strategically valuable cover" and "a pile of meaningless industrial trash."
While Six possessed powerful logical reasoning, she lacked tactical intuition. To turn these ruins into a safe "back garden," they needed human eyes and brains. After a two-day trial, Andy benched her. Some jobs still required humans—at least for now.
"Big find up ahead."
Korber raised a heavy armored hand, pointing toward a massive fissure deep within the ruins. The crack was twenty meters wide, a scar torn into the earth, pitch black and seemingly bottomless.
Accompanied by three fully armed Storm Squad elites, the five-man team entered in a search formation while the rest stayed back to guard the vehicles and establish a perimeter.
Beams of light pierced the subterranean darkness. When the structure was revealed, Jeddah let out a whistle. "Whoa! This is spectacular."
It was a colossal cylindrical shaft. The diameter was at least five hundred meters, with a depth that vanished into the abyss. The walls were cast from a high-strength black metal; despite thousands of years passing, the surface remained mirror-smooth without a speck of rust. Distributed across the walls were countless folded mechanical arms, fueling pipes, and maintenance platforms.
A Launch Well. A specialized architectural structure from the Golden Age.
Humans of that era, seeking to protect precious starships from harsh surface weather and orbital bombardment, integrated shipyards and launch pads deep underground. Ships were assembled, maintained, and fueled beneath the surface. Upon launch, the armored dome above would open, and the ship would soar directly from the depths into space.
"If we fix this place up, can we build big ships here?" Jeddah leaned over the railing, tempted to spit just to test the depth. "Heh, Boss Andy is gonna love this."
Korber didn't speak. On his helmet display, the radar remained a calm green. But beneath that calm, his neural bundles suddenly triggered a faint, stinging sensation.
This was a unique function of the Type-IV neural bundle—Intuition Amplification. The Wraithbone material from the Aeldari still retained a primal instinct for danger.
Something... was here. And it was close!
"Jeddah, get back."
Korber's voice dropped. He didn't use the comms; he shouted through the external speakers.
"Huh? What's wrong?" Jeddah turned back, looking confused.
In that split second, Korber's visual sensors caught an unnatural disturbance in the air. In the shadows behind Jeddah, the stagnant dust was stirred by an invisible force, forming a transparent silhouette.
No heat signature. No sound. Even the sound of airflow was absorbed by some kind of field. There was only that momentary distortion of light.
"Look out!!"
Korber didn't even have time to raise his gun. The moment his brain issued the command, the neural bundles surged electricity into the suit's servos.
VROOOM!!
The jump pack on the power armor's back hissed with high-pressure gas. The steel frame erupted with staggering acceleration. Korber lunged forward, his massive mechanical palm slamming into Jeddah's chest.
THUD!
The force was immense. Jeddah was sent flying like he'd been hit by a truck, tumbling five or six meters back across the ground.
"Holy shit! Kor, are you crazy?!" Jeddah started to curse, but his voice died in his throat.
In the spot where he had just been standing, a semi-lunar, nearly transparent ripple flashed by.
SHIIII—
The shriek of air being sliced at high speed passed through. The ripple grazed Korber's shoulder plate and slammed into the metal wall behind him.
CLANG!!!
Sparks flew. The high-strength alloy wall—something that would take a melta-gun ages to burn through—was carved with a gouge half a meter deep and two meters long. The edges of the cut glowed red from the friction. Had that hit flesh, even with carapace armor, Jeddah would have been cleaved in two.
Korber landed, his magnetic boots locking onto the floor, carving deep grooves into the marble before stabilizing. He looked up, staring intently at the void. The attack had missed; the predator seemed momentarily stunned that a "clunky tin can" could react so fast.
With a ripple of air like water, the cloaked entity finally revealed its true form.
It was a monster that triggered physiological revulsion at first sight. It stood slightly taller than Korber—over two meters—hunched but radiating explosive power. Its primary structure resembled a skinned ape, but its limbs were disproportionately long, with barbs growing at the joints, making it look like a hybrid of a primate and a predatory insect.
It had no eyes. Only a mouth that split open to the ears, filled with rows of needle-like teeth, and several feelers twitching in the air. Its body was covered in a layer of dark red, pulsating chitinous armor.
Most striking was the weapon it held: a massive, crescent-shaped scythe. It wasn't made of metal, but grown from biological bone, complete with pulsing veins and nerves.
Bio-technology.
That terrifying slash had come from this living scythe. The Xeno stood with its head slightly bowed, the blade vibrating at high frequency, emitting an eerie red glow.
"FIRE!!"
Korber roared, raising his arm as the built-in bolter barked. The three Stormtroopers and Jeddah opened fire simultaneously.
BANG BANG BANG!
ZAP ZAP ZAP!
Bolts and high-energy lasers wove a dense web of fire, rushing toward the monster. At such close range, there was nowhere to hide.
Yet, the monster didn't hide. It simply flicked its wrist.
WHOOSH—
The massive dark-red scythe spun into a blur of light before it, like a blooming flower of death.
CLANG CLANG CLANG!!!
A rapid-fire succession of impacts rang out. Whether it was the high-energy lasers or Korber's explosive bolts, every single projectile was intercepted by the high-speed rotation of the scythe. Lasers were deflected, burning holes in the walls; bolts detonated against the blade in a shower of fire, yet they failed to disrupt its rhythm for a second.
As the smoke cleared, the monster stood unharmed. Though its eyeless face held no expression, it radiated a suffocating sense of mockery.
Jeddah stared, his eyes nearly popping out of his head, forgetting to fire a second volley. "Are you kidding me? That's insane!"
The monster raised its scythe again, its silhouette blurring as it prepared to re-enter its cloaking state.
"Trying to run?!"
Korber wasn't deterred by the miraculous parry. He let out a war cry and drew the chainsword from his back.
VROOOOOOM!!
The chainsword's engine roared with savage fury, the teeth spinning into a frenzy! Korber charged like an out-of-control tank toward the fading nightmare.