"Such blasphemy.
The Imperial warships were clearly the Emperor's churches with high-powered thrusters attached underneath, but compared to the majestic exterior of the warships, the spacious interior of the church had become dilapidated.
Kenmei even saw that the shrines in the Word Bearers' warships, which originally housed statues of the Emperor, had been completely shattered into countless fragments, demonstrating the absolute rebellious resolve of these little bastards.
This largest flagship among all the Word Bearers, which was also the personal vessel of First Company Captain Khor-Pharon, had been renamed the False Emperor.
"Those whom the heavens would destroy, they first make mad."
Kenmei looked at the half-headed stone statue of the Emperor at his feet and slowly shook his head.
To know what role he could play in this battle, he first needed to correctly assess the current situation.
"Cooperation from inside and out."
Kenmei looked up at the indescribable crimson scene outside the warship and couldn't help but sigh.
"Indeed, speed is paramount in war."
He had also experienced Warp travel, and compared to the world-destroying psychic tides of normal days, the scene outside now was as peaceful and serene as water in a stream, a world of difference.
It was hard to imagine this was the Warp.
Normally, Imperial fleets needed the Emperor's blessing and the dual protection of Gellar Fields to safely navigate the dangerous Warp.
But these rebellious Word Bearers had smashed their own father's statue, yet they could still travel so smoothly, swaggering through without being attacked by demons or Warp storms.
It would be impossible without the help of the Chaos Gods behind this.
The four masters of the Warp had directly opened up their home base for these rebel forces to pass through, and all the terrifying Warp scenes of the past had vanished.
All obstacles to progress disappeared, so much so that a journey that normally took a week could now be completed in just a few days.
If the original plan was followed, the Word Bearers would destroy those Papa Smurfs, and the time to return to the Imperial capital, Terra, would not be too long.
The Imperium's territory was simply too vast; merely clearing a path through the Warp could create a huge advantage.
It could even create a sense of guerrilla warfare; finishing one battle and moving to the next wouldn't take much time.
The time left for Kenmei to prepare suddenly changed from ample to tight.
The rebel faction, led by Warmaster Horus, had to exhaust the fighting strength of the loyalists as much as possible before fully seizing control of the Imperium to achieve ultimate victory.
Among the dozens of large Imperial Legions, the Ultramarines Legion, with its terrifying force of two to three hundred thousand Space Marines, was naturally a target for the traitors.
Therefore, the plot to destroy all the living forces of the entire Ultramarines Legion and slay the Primarch Roboute Guilliman was directly orchestrated by Warmaster Horus himself.
The commander of the Sixteenth Legion, the Luna Wolves, and the highest general in Imperial military planning, Warmaster Horus, had the authority to mobilize all Primarch Legions within the Imperium.
"By the name of the Imperial Warmaster, I command the 13th Legion, the Ultramarines, to immediately proceed to the Veridian System in the Storm of Wrath Sector, southwest of the galaxy, for combined operations."
"This system is under attack by the Orslank Ork Empire."
After Warmaster Horus issued one order, the second order immediately followed:
"The 17th Legion, the Word Bearers, shall also provide support upon the arrival of the 13th Legion, the Ultramarines."
"The 13th and 17th Legions shall jointly repel the invasion of the Ork Empire."
It was perfectly reasonable.
Because even the Ultramarines, the most numerous of all Imperial Space Marine Legions, could not withstand the attack of the entire Ork Empire with just their Papa Smurf forces.
But dispatching the Word Bearers to join the battle could directly reverse the situation; the two Legions combined would be enough to inflict severe damage on the Ork Empire's invasion.
The rather straightforward Papa Smurf, Roboute Guilliman, had no inkling that Warmaster Horus, along with a host of his brothers, was preparing to rebel against their old father, the Emperor.
Roboute Guilliman even felt gratitude towards Horus, because in his view, having the 17th Legion, the Word Bearers, and their 13th Legion, the Ultramarines, jointly launch an offensive against the Ork Empire was clearly an attempt to mend his relationship with his brother Lorgar Aurelian.
After all, the Ultramarines, under the Emperor's command, had launched an extermination order, destroying the perfect city that Lorgar had spent his entire Legion's resources building, creating an irreparable conflict between their two families.
Between brothers, seeing each other all the time, how awkward would that be?
Any unpleasantness could be talked out properly.
So, the supreme commander of the Ultramarines Legion, Thirteenth Lord Roboute Guilliman, had no suspicion of Warmaster Horus at all; instead, he gleefully led his entire Legion to the system.
He believed that Horus was giving their two Legions an opportunity to reconcile.
Roboute Guilliman even instructed his blue sons and grandsons below:
"At that time, you must not have any conflicts with the Space Marines of the Word Bearers, and you must show the highest degree of respect and admiration."
He wanted his subordinates to be obedient; they were brother Legions, so a simple apology would suffice.
But he thought too optimistically.
While Roboute Guilliman still considered Lorgar Aurelian a brother, Lorgar Aurelian directly turned hostile, bringing all his Legion's assets, determined to utterly annihilate the Ultramarines Legion, which had inflicted the greatest humiliation upon them.
An unprecedented great battle was about to begin, yet another group of people was still daydreaming, no wonder they suffered heavy losses.
Kenmei knew that during the Great Heresy, the Ultramarines suffered heavy losses, almost being crippled.
It could be said that no other Legion in the Imperium, facing such a situation, could have risen again like the Ultramarines.
"Venerable Sage."
A Tech-Priest, whose limbs had all been replaced with mechanical parts but whose torso and head remained flesh and blood, slowly emerged from the darkness.
Then he respectfully knelt on one knee before Kenmei, lowering his head and saying.
"The ritual is about to begin."
The Adeptus Mechanicus of Mars had a strict hierarchy; any Tech-Priest had to show their utmost respect in front of a Fabricator-General, whose status was immeasurably higher.
Kenmei had known that guy appeared there three minutes ago, but he was just too lazy to bother with him.
Because that guy was not one of his old subordinates brought from his own Forge World; his true loyalists had long been dealt with in the previous purges.
The Adeptus Mechanicus of Mars was inherently closely linked to the Imperial military; essentially, every Legion had Tech-Priests from the Adeptus Mechanicus of Mars.
Because the difficulty of becoming a Tech-Priest was no less than the college entrance examination he took in his previous life; one had to pass through layers of assessments and selections in exams organized by the Mechanicus to possibly become a top engineer and technical expert in the Imperium.
The main role of these Tech-Priests was to perform daily maintenance and repairs on some high-precision weapons produced by the Adeptus Mechanicus of Mars.
Of course, there was also the most important point: Tech-Priests could provide sectarian rituals, expel corruption and erosion, and repair the machine spirit of any machine they were authorized to supervise.
This was the most solemn ritual for the Tech-Priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus.
And that nameless Tech-Priest was here to inform Kenmei, the Fabricator-General, to perform the machine spirit incense ritual.
Given Kenmei's status, for him to preside as the chief official, it naturally couldn't be a simple machine spirit activation ritual.
It was about the weapon that played a crucial role in the Great Crusade, slaying countless cultists, heretics, and demons, hailed as the Emperor's Wrath.
A Titan!
The big toy Kenmei had longed for in his previous timeline had become real in this Simulation.
At the same time, the first trick Kenmei wanted to play was here; the Titan was a large target, powerful in firepower, and offered a wide range of operational possibilities.
Of course, most importantly, this thing was his old profession.
"Let's go."
Kenmei slowly stood up, the compression of his mechanical parts producing a crackling sound.
"My lord, may this subordinate ask you a question?"
Kenmei's footsteps paused, and he turned to look at the nameless Tech-Priest in the darkness.
A emotionless mechanical voice echoed throughout the gloomy church:
"Waste my time and I'll kill you."
The doctrines of the Adeptus Mechanicus stipulated an obligation to answer subordinates' questions.
"This subordinate is only curious about one thing."
The Tech-Priest, whose form overlapped with the shadows in the darkness, seemed to have many shadowy figures, like ghosts and monsters, wandering behind him, filled with various negative energies.
Looking at it in the Warp, nothing seemed out of place; after all, without the Emperor's protection, being possessed by demons was a very normal occurrence.
"Since you have already betrayed the Adeptus Mechanicus, betrayed the Omnissiah."
"You have abandoned your ideals and beliefs.
"Then why not choose a more sagacious master?"
When the Tech-Priest raised his head, his face had undergone terrifying flesh mutations, faintly resembling a demon, instantly casting a chilling shadow over the already abnormally cold environment.
This young Tech-Priest had caught a good opportunity; he was forced to rebel. All the loyalists had been killed, and only those who were sensible like him survived.
He clearly knew that by aligning with these rebels, he had already abandoned his former beliefs, betrayed the Adeptus Mechanicus of Mars, and there was no turning back.
But fortunately, the terrified Tech-Priest heard the words from a god, and his dark future suddenly filled with hope.
"Let him join us."
That terrifying and supreme entity seemed to whisper in the Tech-Priest's ear, gently caressing his face.
"I will bestow upon you greater favor."
These once unattainable high-ranking members of the Adeptus Mechanicus of Mars also held great appeal for the forces of Chaos, helping them develop even more terrifying and powerful weapons.
"Disgusting stench."
Even with a filter, Kenmei couldn't eliminate this foul odor. As a high-ranking member of the Adeptus Mechanicus of Mars, how could he not have methods to counter Chaos demons?
Just as the fallen Tech-Priest raised his power axe, preparing to commit insubordination, a black-red flash suddenly appeared in his line of sight.
From the shadow on the ground, it was clearly visible that a round object fell directly, followed by highly compressed blood gushing out.
This blood stained the shattered statue of the Emperor on the ground, looking incredibly gory.
Everything happened so suddenly that it wasn't until the fallen Tech-Priest saw his body still standing that he realized his head had been severed.
"How is this possible? Didn't I receive the power of a god?"
Even without the protection of demonic power, a Tech-Priest who had fully undergone flesh modification could survive for a while with such injuries.
"The Omnissiah is the only faith."
The temptations of Chaos were pervasive; almost all the Word Bearers had received powers from different gods, undergoing a complete transformation from their original strength.
However, the power of Chaos was generally unavailable to high-ranking members of the Adeptus Mechanicus of Mars like Kenmei; the flesh component in their bodies was controlled to single digits.
How could they mutate? By enlarging their brain capacity? Becoming a Big Head Baby?
The most important thing for a Tech-Priest was to maintain mechanical calmness, and the blessings of the Chaos Gods often led to uncontrollable mental states.
The blessings of Chaos demons were basically ineffective, purely a white elephant.
Kenmei slowly walked to the front of this wide-eyed head, raised his foot, and mercilessly stomped down, gradually increasing the pressure until he could hear the guy's skull crunching and breaking.
Sure enough, no matter the Simulation, he was always a hot commodity. But if he accepted the recruitment, his mission would definitely fail.
At this moment, in the hold of the Word Bearers' largest flagship, the False Emperor, when Kenmei arrived, all basic work had been completed, just waiting for him, the chief operator, to act.
The first thing that caught his eye were twenty neatly arranged, massive iron giants, laden with weapons and cannons.
Those were Titans, just waiting for Kenmei to initiate the ritual for the great joy of the machine spirit.
"Why so few?"
Kenmei frowned; if he remembered correctly, there should have been 60.