manynovel Page 96
Page 96
Fakus felt his world spin and his consciousness gradually fade. In his final moments, he recalled the last command he had received from his true Primarch many years ago.
I'm sorry, sir.
Fakus sighed inwardly and then closed his eyes.
I have failed your mission.
Lynch looked at Fakus, whom he had just dealt with, and let out a long sigh of relief.
As the most skilled stealth unit among the Astartes Legions, almost every Astartes Legion had its own infiltrators during the Great Crusade.
After the Great Crusade, the Alpha Legion's infiltration became even more covert. They could be loyalists or rebels, holding high positions in the Imperial government or warbands, or even within the Black Legion, leading a warband and acquiring the power of the Four Gods.
However, the appearance of an Alpha Rhys here, bearing the name of his former son, was a real surprise to Lynch.
The bronze gate closed, sealing the remaining members of the Dark Mechanicus and the Chaos Astartes Terminators outside. Lynch and the Primal Forged Leader worked together to eliminate them all.
After doing all this, Lynch went to Paratul, who was still lying on the ground, reached out a hand, and took off his helmet.
An aged and severely mutated face was exposed to the air. He looked at "Lin Qi" and slowly stretched an ugly smile onto his face.
"Are you... are you really me?"
His tone was almost pleading. Lynch looked at him, sighed slowly, and then took off his helmet.
This was an unfamiliar face. Looking at this face, a hint of disappointment appeared on Palatour's face, but then, "Lynch" reached out his hands and cupped his cheeks.
"You already have the answer, don't you?"
Paratu remained silent, then slowly revealed a smile.
"For the Shadowmoon Wolf."
He said this, and then closed his eyes.
Chapter 122 STC (5000)
After dealing with the Black Legion and the Dark Mechanicus, Lin Qi and his two companions arrived before the massive bronze gate. Looking at the heavy, ancient gate, which seemed to be full of mysteries, each of them had different thoughts.
"Evelyn." Finally, Lynch spoke first, addressing the Mechanicus priest who had already obtained information about the bronze door from the Dark Mechanicus. "Open the door and let us through."
Evelyn nodded and walked to the left side of the bronze door. Her hand traced the simple patterns on the bronze door, and she quickly found a spot, then pressed down hard.
A circular opening appeared, and a mechanical tentacle on Evelyn's back aligned itself with it and inserted itself into it. She closed her eyes, her consciousness merging into a sea of data, and then, following the direction of the tentacle, surged towards the other side of the bronze door like seawater driven by the wind.
“Five minutes,” Evelyn said. “It will take five minutes to open the door, please wait a moment.”
Lin Qi nodded, and then he and Yuan Zhuzhi turned around and began to look around for warning.
However, even though it was a warning, it didn't stop Lynch from reviewing the battle he had just fought, or rather, the battle Horus fought using his body.
In the end, Horus could not resist and chose to possess Lynch's body to fight his offspring himself.
However, neither of them expected that although there were ten Black Legion members present, there was only one true Son of Horus, or rather, one member who had used the Horus gene seed.
That was a veteran of ten thousand years, the kind of person Horus recognized immediately upon seeing.
Including the Astartes corpse they saw when they broke free from the passage, which, according to Horus's senses, also used his gene seed, means that out of the eleven Black Legion Astartes, only two out of eleven contain Horus.
These are still the elite Terminators. From this, we can already get a glimpse into the current state of the Black Legion.
Under Abaddon's leadership, they bear the names of Chaos and Horus, but at their core are a mixed army of different nations.
"Very well." Horus remained silent for a long time after thinking about this, and finally uttered this word. "For me, this matter is actually not bad."
Lynch was confused, but Horus's reasoning silenced him as well.
"At least that way, when I kill them later, I can skip the filter of 'offspring' for most of them and treat them as traitors and enemies without having to show them any mercy."
Horus spoke in a very flat tone, as if he were asking what to have for dinner.
But Lin Qi could tell that when he said those words, his heart was actually bleeding.
"Don't think about it too much." Lin Qi thought about it carefully, and in the end, he could only think of one comforting word. "At least there is Star Claw. They have been developing slowly while we were away. It is said that when we go back, they will start a new round of recruitment."
Horus let out a long sigh, then nodded to Lynch before returning to the warp.
After Horus left, Lynch lowered his head and silently clenched his fists.
When Lynch was still a mortal, he was possessed by Horus and could only glimpse the power of the Primarch, this mythical creation. He had no idea what the possession could give him besides making him feel powerful.
After transforming into an Astartes, Lynch can now easily sense those things.
First, there's the residual muscle memory left behind by the Primarch after he operated this body to its fullest potential... or even two hundred percent.
This kind of muscle memory is something that ordinary soldiers would need to go through countless years to acquire, but at this moment, it appeared in Lin Qi's body after only a dozen minutes of fighting.
Secondly, it involves a more subtle control over one's own psychic energy.
Yes, Horus used psionic energy during the battle just now.
However, he did not use his psionic energy directly in battle. Instead, he used it to strengthen his body and predict the enemy's next move in battle.
This is considered the most basic application of psionic energy, and also the most commonly used psionic combat tactic by think tanks. However, in Horus's hands, it unleashed a miraculous effect.
At least for Lynch, even if he spared no effort in using his psionic powers, it would be almost impossible for him to defeat these elite Terminator veterans of the Black Legion in just a few minutes, just like Horus did.
Lin Qi took a deep breath, and began to make more plans for how to use his psionic energy in the future.
Boom---
The sound of gears turning filled the air. Lin Qi turned around and saw white steam billowing from the bronze gate behind him. The gate slowly opened to both sides, revealing a narrow path that could accommodate several people walking side by side.
"Let's go."
Lin Qi took a deep breath, spoke to the other two, and then walked to the front of the group.
The three-person team passed through the bronze gate and entered a straight avenue. At the end of the avenue was a dark cave entrance, its contents unknown at a glance.
The bronze gate behind them suddenly closed, causing the three to pause. Evelyn immediately stepped forward, extended her mechanical tentacles once more, found a connection point, and inserted them.
She closed her eyes, her expression serious, and only opened them after thirteen minutes had passed, shaking her head.
“The data rows have been altered.” Evelyn’s voice carried a hint of helplessness. “If we want to crack it, we’ll have to stay here for at least three days. I estimate that those traitors took just as long to crack the original data rows.”
“Then let’s continue.” Lynch didn’t hesitate much; he knew time was of the essence. After all, judging from what they’d seen ahead, the Dark Mechanicus and the Astartes of the Black Legion had clearly encountered something, resulting in losses for their forces. Furthermore, deep within these ruins, there seemed to be Iron Men present.
If their initial goal upon entering the ruins was simply to find the STC, then their priority now is to ensure their own safety before they can find it.
Lynch and his team originally planned to use the teleportation beacon they retrieved from the Explorer King to teleport directly out of the ruins after finding the STC.
However, it now seems that the plan has become much more difficult to implement. Not only is the signal blocked, making it difficult to contact the Explorer King and activate the teleportation beacon, but they also don't believe that the lurking Iron Man will obediently let them leave.
Going back is out of the question. The Möbius strip from the beginning was already incredibly troublesome. To crack that thing, in the words of Evelyn, a professional, it would probably take the entire Forging World working together and a whole Terran year to figure it out.
As for Evelyn, she was all alone...
Conservative estimates suggest a minimum of one thousand years and a maximum of ten thousand years.
So now, there's really only one path left.
That means we should keep going, go deeper into the ruins, and see if there's an exit leading to the outside world. Finding STC isn't even the most important thing; finding an exit to ensure a safe exit is the priority.
However, they still needed to make some final preparations before setting off.
Lynch checked his own teleportation device and also helped check Evelyn and the Primal Forged Leader's.
"Sir, you..."
"It's nothing, just checking. In case we encounter something we can't fight, we'll have to force it to start. We're checking to avoid any mistakes that could leave us stranded in some remote wilderness or even trapped in the Liuya Space."
Lin Qi spoke calmly, but the leader of the original forging team seemed to have sensed something and pulled him back.
"You think I can't see through it?" the leader of the original forging said seriously. "What, are you going to forcefully activate our beacon when we encounter danger, and hold off the enemy yourself?"
Upon hearing the words of the Primal Forged Leader, Evelyn paused for a moment, then immediately stepped forward.
"If that's really the case, my lords, leave the matter of activating the beacon to me. Your lives are far more precious to Omnisiah and the Empire than my own.
“You’re not good enough.” This time, Lin Qi didn’t mince words. “You don’t have psionic power, and it’s not strong enough.”
Evelyn's expression froze for a moment upon hearing Lynch's words. Then she silently took a few steps back.
The Primal Forged One didn't say anything more. He covered his teleportation device with his hand, and with the surge of psionic energy, the little bit of psionic energy that Lin Qi had just hidden on it was directly covered and taken away, turning into pure warp energy.
“Even if you have to do it this way,” said the head of the original forging, “you must leave it to me. Don’t act on your own.”
Lin Qi remained silent, then nodded, and took a step forward.
Shortly after they left, the bronze door, which had been tightly closed, suddenly opened again, this time completely, just to allow the enormous steel giant behind it, which was even twice as large as the Astartes Dreadnought in terms of sheer size, to step through.
The Iron Giant stared in the direction Lynch and the others had left, its damaged body constantly crackling with electric sparks.
“Humans,” his voice rang out. “Danger.”
He stood still for three minutes before continuing forward, chasing after the three who had left.
----
Iron Man is extremely dangerous.
Ten thousand years ago, in what is known as the Dark Age of Technology, humanity was able to set off from its home planet and establish colonies throughout the galaxy, slaughtering and enslaving one alien race after another, all thanks to its incredibly powerful Iron Legion.
The Iron Men can no longer be simply called objects or tools. They possess emotional systems similar to humans, can perceive their surroundings and respond in complex ways, and can even learn to evolve. In other words, what humans created was not a new tool, but an entirely new species.
However, this race then chose to betray their creator, launching a great rebellion that, along with other threats, plunged humanity into a dark age of conflict.
What were the reasons for the Iron Man's rebellion?
I don't know, or rather, nobody cares.
For people now, especially the three-person team venturing into the ruins, all they need to know is that the Iron Man is extremely dangerous, nothing more.
Especially Lynch, who, though others may not know, had a very clear understanding of the dangers of the Iron Man.
Deep within the First Legion's secret armory, the severely emasculated Iron Men, with only seven units, were able to launch a swift attack on Kang Laoba and his legion. Kang Laoba himself, as the first-time Killer Primarch, was even directly delayed, forced to watch helplessly as his offspring were slaughtered for quite some time.
Lin Qi didn't think he could fight Kang Laoba right now. He could barely exchange two blows with him. Even if he were possessed by Horus, he could only exchange two blows with him.
To put it another way, he's currently facing an Iron Man at the level of the First Legion's Armory. If it were any stronger, he would be completely defeated.
Speaking of which, Lin Qi remembered that in the future, specifically in the forty-second millennium, an Iron Man had publicly appeared in the galaxy...
Forget it, I'll stop thinking about it for now. I feel like there's something wrong with the place I'm in now, so I should be a little more vigilant.
Lin Qi looked around. After passing through the long corridor they had just left, they had arrived at this place—a pitch-black, empty space where they couldn't even see their surroundings clearly.