Darkness. Endless darkness.
Who am I? Where am I? What am I supposed to do?
As thought slowly awakened, one blurry scene after another began flashing through her mind.
Figures in red robes cut open her flesh and stuffed bizarre creations of blood and meat inside her body. After that, dazzling purple-pink evil light shone around her...
In the pain that sank all the way into her bones, although she could clearly feel every subtle torment coming from every inch of her flesh, she remained unable to control herself...
That suffering continued until some strange sounds rang out:
"WAAAAAGH!"
...
The dust gradually settled, and the dull sound of a hatch opening rang out.
Under the stunned stare of the greenskins, a figure appeared beside their boss, who now only had half his body left.
It was a very small humie.
Her muscles were not grotesquely oversized, but they had lines as hard and sharp as if carved by blade and axe.
Across her pale skin, aside from the savage scars twisting over her like the roots of an ancient tree, there were also strange black metallic protrusions.
It was Gaia.
At this moment, she looked at these equally confused Orks with a dazed expression, her mind still in a dead stop.
"Humie... humie killed da boss!"
After a long moment, one smart boy was the first to react, letting out a roar that shattered the stillness.
That roar woke up both the Orks and Gaia, and in that instant, the latter suddenly understood a language called Ork speech.
"I fink, if it got killed by a humie, den it weren't our boss!"
"I fink you'z right! Boyz, get 'em! Whoever chops dis humie first is da new boss!"
The strange thought process of the Orks meant they had no idea how to spell fear. The death of one boss would only make them look down on that useless weakling, while the remaining greenskin boyz would get even more excited and launch an even wilder attack.
Gaia's pupils contracted as she looked at the greenskins surging toward her like a green tidal wave.
Where did so many greenskins come from?
Even with enemies stretching as far as the eye could see, she felt not the slightest unease.
Her heart was vast and calm like a great river. The only thing rising inside it now was the excitement of slaughter, accompanied by a surge of adrenaline.
Two war drums thundered within her chest as her powerful hearts frantically pumped blood.
Looking at the Orks roaring as they charged toward her, the corners of her mouth slowly lifted.
Who cared where they came from? Just kill them.
She casually reached down and picked up a perfectly well-balanced two-handed warhammer from the ground.
It had originally been used by the Mekboyz building the boss's mech as an arm-bearing joint, then had been knocked loose in the crash just now, only for Gaia to pick it up on the spot.
Now that she had a weapon that suited her hand, Gaia's battle intent surged.
Facing the earth-shaking Waaagh! of the Orks, she answered with a roar of her own:
"Fight!"
Just as she laughed wildly and charged into those nonsensical aliens, the system interface reappeared in her mind:
[New objective established: Kill 10,000 higher lifeforms]
[Remaining to complete objective: 10,000]
And the moment she plunged into the greenskin horde at a speed fierce enough to kick up a gale, the system notifications began flooding her vision.
[Kill count +1. Remaining to complete objective: 9,999]
[Kill count +2. Remaining to complete objective: 9,997]
In battle, Gaia discovered that her physical abilities had now become terrifying.
Those Orks, whose bodily strength far surpassed ordinary humans, were as fragile before her as collectible figures in the hands of a violent child, sent flying in all directions under the sweep of her warhammer.
Not far away, the soldiers of the 72nd Conscript Regiment, who had already sunk into despair, were left completely dumbfounded.
If not for the fact that she was not wearing the iconic power armor, they would have suspected she was one of the legendary Angels of the Emperor.
Commissar Horne and Solomon were equally stunned.
Where had this absurdly vicious warrior even come from?
But Horne had been born on Cadia, and at least counted as someone who had seen real battles before. He quickly regained his composure and shouted at the still-frozen soldiers:
"What are you standing there for?! The Emperor is above us, charge with me!"
With that, he gripped a gun in one hand and a sword in the other, shouted "For the Emperor," and rushed out of the trench.
Behind him, Solomon hesitated for a moment, then followed as well, clutching the entrenching shovel he had picked up.
With the two of them taking the lead, and with Gaia's spectacular display of violence still unfolding ahead, the soldiers' morale immediately soared.
They were all miners who had been mobilized on short notice, but deep inside them there still existed the courage that belonged to mankind.
The lowly were not without bravery.
Under the combined assault of human soldiers whose morale had risen sharply, the Orks were quickly driven into defeat.
They either turned back into mushrooms, or took the chance to run.
Looking at the ground covered in greenskin corpses, Horne felt a little unreal.
This had originally been a hopeless battle, yet somehow it had become their victory through a miracle.
And all of it was because of that person who had descended from the sky.
Thinking of that, he turned to look at Gaia not far away, who was currently being pestered by Solomon.
"My brother, which family in this sector do you belong to?"
As Solomon rubbed his little mustache, he looked at Gaia's powerfully built body in amazement.
In his view, a powerhouse like this, who clearly had nothing to do with the regular military, had definitely undergone top-tier genetic enhancement, and only a great noble house could possibly afford such surgery.
Gaia looked at this strange man, whose clothes were patched all over, with complete bafflement, and asked in return:
"What sector is this?"
The moment those words came out, the highly interested Solomon froze.
He stared at Gaia for a while, his gaze lingering especially on the blood-tear tattoo beneath her left eye, then slowly spoke:
"This is the Monseix Sector, in the eastern part of the Veiled Region, and the planet we're standing on is Klaurund, a mining world."
Gaia's eyes trembled slightly.
How had she ended up on another planet?
And her body... also seemed a little wrong.
Not only had strange black protrusions grown across the surface of her skin, but aside from her secondary sexual characteristics, her height and muscle mass had also both increased noticeably.
Now, she possessed a tall, slender body standing a full one meter ninety.
This feeling... could it be...
Had she undergone Space Marine augmentation?
No, that made no sense. She did not even have the right organs. Where would the technology have come from to modify her like this?
Gaia felt thoroughly disoriented. Her clearest memory still remained at the moment she had stood upon that bone arena and torn the profane axe out of her chest.
Just as her thoughts began to stir, Solomon sharply caught a trace of confusion in the calm, waterlike eyes that most mortals would never have noticed.
"Interesting..."
He immediately rubbed his little mustache, rolled his eyes, and then spoke with a flattering grin:
"My brother, you're not from around here, are you...?"
"How about this, I'll pay you 100... no, forget that... 50 Throne Gelt a month!"
"How about you become my bodyguard?"
(End of Chapter)
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