To prevent his forces from being recognized, Zhou Ye had changed all their liveries.
But even the most meticulous plan has its flaws. Because he never intended to get his own hands dirty, he had completely forgotten to change the paint on his own suit of armor.
Ordinarily, this wouldn't matter.
But who could have predicted he'd run into a squad of the Inner Circle's finest? Therefore, this was all Tzeentch's fault. His plan was definitely not the problem.
At a time like this, only one thing needed to be said...
DAMN YOU, TZEENTCH!
When something goes wrong, blaming Tzeentch is never a bad idea. The plan itself was flawless; Tzeentch was the problem.
After all, this Space Hulk was enormous. What were the odds of them running into each other? All he wanted was a Rogue Trader Warrant. He had even prepared a whole host of what looked like Indomitus Terminators but were, in fact, his own custom-modified models of unknown designation.
And yet, despite all that, this accident happened. So yes, blaming Tzeentch was absolutely the right move. There was no way his plan could have failed.
But blaming was one thing. As everyone knows, Tzeentch is the type to start a fire and then refuse to help put it out. In the end, how this situation was resolved would depend on his own peerless wisdom.
So, at that moment, Zhou Ye raised his hand.
All incoming projectiles, be they bolter rounds or anything else, instantly fell to the ground before him. The core Authority of the Herrscher of Rock was force. He could not only manipulate gravity but also nullify things like inertia.
After all, what he had built for the White Scars were not simple hover-vehicles, but genuine anti-gravity bikes.
"PSYKER!!!" a furious roar echoed. Under the covering fire of several Terminators, Asmodai charged directly at Zhou Ye, just like the captain from that fan animation, Astartes.
His great maul crackled with lightning as he swung it down toward Zhou Ye's head.
Unfortunately for him, Zhou Ye was no mere psyker, and his physical prowess was the real deal.
He had traded blows head-on with Mortarion. A strike this slow was nothing in his eyes.
Zhou Ye caught the great maul with one hand and wrenched it away. Ignoring the protesting machine spirit within the weapon, he simply locked it down.
With his other hand, he grabbed Asmodai, lifted the entire suit of Terminator armor off the ground, and slammed it viciously into the deck.
Then, under the dumbfounded gazes of the Dark Angels' Inner Circle supersoldiers, he strode through the hail of gunfire, dragging the unconscious Asmodai behind him until he stood before the rest of the squad.
The icy glare he directed at them, palpable even through his helmet, was enough to snap the fanatics out of their frenzy.
No matter how zealous they were, they knew this was likely no Fallen Angel. They had just provoked something very, very strange.
And then...
---o---
"Quickly, keep up with our Lord!!!"
Ashira urged the others forward as they rushed ahead. Zhou Ye's combat efficiency was dozens of times their own. Even a Tribune of the Custodes couldn't keep up with Guilliman, let alone them, who were not as skilled as a Tribune. And Zhou Ye was stronger than that psychically-neutered melon. They couldn't even see his dust.
Ashira and the others were on the verge of panic. Their master had abandoned his own Honor Guard to go on a solo rampage.
Zhou Ye had emphasized before: when there were no outsiders, they could call him whatever they wanted, as long as it wasn't "Father." In front of others, "My Lord" was sufficient. If asked his name, it was "My Lord." If asked his origin, it was "My Lord."
Although their Gene-seed had been modified by Zhou Ye, some traits remained. Now that Zhou Ye had left them behind to fight alone, they were nearly crying with anxiety.
But when they finally caught up to Zhou Ye, they saw him holding a bronze-buckled leather belt, furiously whipping a group of little green men who were hanging from the ceiling.
"I'll give you something to repent for!!!"
"Lion El'Jonson didn't discipline you, so I'll show you how it's done!"
"So you have a few exterminatus-era relics, you think you're hot stuff, huh?"
"That brain-dead Lion El'Jonson! A fine batch of Dark Angels neophytes, and the first enemy they meet is their own Primarch! Now you call them traitors!"
"I'll teach you to sell out your allies!!!"
"I'll teach you to drop time-stasis bombs on friendly forces! Wait, that's in the future. Whatever, not important!!!"
"What's wrong? You got a problem with this?"
"You think I won't have an Astropath broadcast all this to the Astronomican right now? See how you like that!!!"
"Still talking back? Most of the Fallen never even touched Chaos!"
"What Primarch? Your Primarch is sleeping right inside your Rock! Instead of checking on him, you're out here acting crazy!"
"I'll teach you..."
"NO!!!"
Staring dumbfounded at Zhou Ye, who was holding some unknown object and giving a group of green-armored figures a sound thrashing while hanging them from the ceiling, leaving another group of Dark Angels bruised and battered, the newcomers felt their brains skip a beat. They had never seen Zhou Ye truly lose his temper.
It was truly a case of a father seeing his son is not dead and reaching for the Seven-Wolves belt.
He had been annoyed with these little green men for a long time. Now that they had pushed their luck with him, Zhou Ye wasn't holding back.
Frankly, even if he beat them to death, that would be the end of it. Even if the Lion himself came looking for payback, he wouldn't be afraid.
"Aldrich O'Connor, these little brats are your problem now."
Glancing at the Dark Angels who were staring at him with looks of utter agony, Zhou Ye scoffed.
Little secrets? If they really pissed him off, he'd dare to spill the Emperor's little secrets.
What use were the Dark Angels' petty secrets? Compared to the Blood Angels' Red Thirst, they weren't even in the same league. After all, the Dark Angels' secrets just gave them a collective internal crisis, while the Blood Angels' secret could actually get them branded as traitors.
Zhou Ye handed the specific details over to the Dreadnought who had cautiously approached his side, tossing the belt to him.
"Aldrich O'Connor!!!"
Hearing the name, Asmodai, bruised, battered, and with his Terminator armor completely ruined, snapped his head up.
He had heard that name before. One of the Six Wings. Dispatched by the Lion to accompany Horus. It was believed he had died aboard the Vengeful Spirit. To see him here now... Asmodai felt he had stumbled upon a new secret.
A coincidence? An imposter? Both were unlikely. Asmodai's mind was clearing.
He had been literally strung up and beaten. That, combined with the lecture, made him start to put the pieces together.
To be able to walk through their hail of fire, which included anti-psyker weaponry and other forbidden tech, without any flashy tricks, and to slap them all down one by one... there was only one possibility.
On top of that, he knew their secrets intimately, able to recount them as if they were his own.
There was only one possibility. The person opposite him... could be a... Primarch.
At that thought, Asmodai's fanatical gaze cleared. Especially when he saw the millennia-old Dreadnought before him.
This was no Fallen Angel. And how had he survived?
Of course, Zhou Ye was still holding some things back. He knew secrets that even Asmodai wasn't aware of, like how Caliban had actually exploded.
If he revealed that, they could forget everything else; the entire Dark Angels chapter would implode on the spot. The First Legion wouldn't be destroyed by an outside force, but would die from infighting.
While Zhou Ye was angry, he wasn't about to blow up the First Legion. If the Lion ever returned, he could just tell him. At worst, the entire upper echelon of the First Legion, including Azrael, would just get a beating.
"Ancient..."
After a brief, special exchange, Asmodai confirmed the other's identity using a unique Dark Angels method.
Aldrich O'Connor. An ancient Dark Angel from Terra. One of the five hundred honor guards who had accompanied the Emperor to greet the Lion. How had he survived?
For once, Asmodai was remarkably clear-headed. If this was the Dark Angel from ten thousand years ago, foretold by the Emperor's vision, then perhaps... maybe... he really wasn't a Fallen Angel.
More importantly, the giant in black armor was clearly not a Dark Angel at all.
So, for once, the fanatical Asmodai returned to a state of normalcy.
He was a zealot, not an idiot. Even all together, they couldn't beat this giant. And it wasn't like they hadn't used some of their forbidden weapons; they had done nothing. Moreover, this being knew many of their secrets. So now, one by one, they were contemplating damage control.
"You little brats! Have you eaten your fill and have nothing better to do? Repent! All of you, repent!!!"
The old lion, Aldrich, didn't use the belt Zhou Ye had given him. Instead, he grabbed Asmodai, tore him down from the ceiling, and began to furiously perform the Aruba against a nearby wall.
For a moment, sparks flew. It was a good thing Asmodai had armor to protect him.
"You deal with these brats. Here's a teleport homer. Take them back and lock them in a stasis field for now. We'll deal with them later."
After thinking for a moment about these troublemaking Dark Angels, Zhou Ye had the Dreadnought take them away. Their Terminator armor was completely shattered.
Leaving them on this Space Hulk was a death sentence. Once Terminator armor is broken, you can't even move.
This was a Space Hulk, fraught with peril. He still needed to deal with its core, that Battle Moon.
Frankly, even Zhou Ye couldn't operate a thing cobbled together from junk like that. It required the Orks' unique Waaagh field, something he unfortunately did not possess.
Truly, the Old Ones were incredible. Those beings were on another level.
To be fair, the ones truly responsible for turning the galaxy into a shithole were the Necrons. They had shattered the administrators and janitors of the Warp, the Old Ones.
And they had also shattered the gods of the material universe, the C'tan. It could be said that they were the main culprits behind the Warhammer universe becoming the cesspool it is.
Compared to them, even the pointy-eared sprouts were decent.
"Yes, my Lord."
Aldrich looked from Zhou Ye to his own little brats. After a moment of internal conflict, he took the men and teleported away.
Zhou Ye had already disarmed them. Locked in the Hyperion's special cells, they couldn't cause any more trouble. He could let this Ancient watch over them. As for how to deal with them in the end, he would consider it after this was all over. He was unlikely to let them go, lest they stir up more trouble.
At worst, he'd lock them in a stasis field and let the Lion come pick them up himself.
After temporarily dealing with the Inner Circle supersoldiers, Zhou Ye shook his head with a bit of resignation.
He continued to lead his men toward the center. However, on the other side of the Space Hulk, a large group of Slaaneshi daemons and Chaos Space Marines were beginning to assemble, sweeping aside all the other rabble in their path.
Although daemons from all four gods were present, they lacked a strong leader and couldn't form an effective resistance. Zhou Ye's objective was clear: kill the Warboss.
A Warboss who owned a Battle Moon was no simple creature. During the War of the Beast, there had been some ridiculously powerful Warbosses.
Although the War of the Beast was so over-the-top that the writers basically treat it like black-listed history now and rarely mention it, the upper limits of the Orks were terrifying. If he didn't kill that Warboss, he would never be able to deal with this Space Hulk.
And this thing was truly a massive treasure trove. Once he processed and digested it, he would gain a vast amount of materials. His plan to lay down Star Rails and establish a special Rogue Trader dynasty could be accelerated by an unknown number of times.
In other words, if he pulled this one job off, he could save himself a thousand years of work.
"So, was it the Golden Fiend who did this? Did I blame Tzeentch wrongly?"
Thinking this, Zhou Ye muttered to himself and continued to press forward.
---o---
Aboard the Hyperion, the Dreadnought had just landed.
He angrily grabbed the group of Dark Angels and slammed them against the wall, continuing the Aruba.
The Space Marines who had come to receive them all shrank back, necks withdrawn.
The old lion was furious right now. To be able to charge alongside that Lord was a moment of great honor, but he had been sent back to babysit his own brats to prevent them from causing trouble.
Only he knew how he felt. It was a good thing Zhou Ye's modifications had made him less fanatical. Otherwise, who knows what would have happened.
So...
"Repent! Repent! All of you, REPENT!!!"
Zzzzzzt... Aaaahhh!!!
Soon, screams of agony,breaking cries, and pleas for mercy echoed throughout the Hyperion, making all the crew on duty shrink back in fear.
Of course, this farce didn't last long. It was stopped by Ai-chan, primarily because she was the 'tree' in this particular Aruba.
---o---