The landing formation drove hard toward Planet B's suffocating atmosphere.
Violent friction instantly wrapped the personal Thunderhawk gunship and its escorts in blazing plasma, like a string of burning stars plunging into an abyss.
As their "descent" deepened, atmospheric pressure climbed at a staggering rate. Even with multilayer shields buffering the strain, the stout hull still let out a tooth-aching metallic "groan" of stress, as though it might be crushed at any moment by this terrifying pressure.
Through the violently shaking portholes, the outside was an endless churn of dense yellow cloud, streaked with unsettling dark red bands—
high-concentration sulfuric acid droplets shining with a bizarre luster under extreme heat, like poisonous blood bleeding from the planet itself.
Each collision of the shields and acid mist sparked blinding arcs, briefly carving the formation's grim silhouettes into the murk.
The composition of this landing team, personally led by Sui Meng, spoke for itself about the mission's extreme danger.
Every member was Xianzhen Honor Guard or the finest Diwuzu Astartes. Not a single ordinary Auxiliary soldier was present.
The reason could not have been simpler.
Even the Auxiliary's most advanced powered rigs or CMC power armor lacked the environmental adaptability and structural strength to function in conditions this hostile.
Atmospheric pressure here reached eighty times Earth's, enough to crush ordinary vehicles in an instant;
the air teemed with highly corrosive acid fog that could eat through most alloys within an hour;
ambient temperature held steady above 300 degrees Celsius, enough to melt many conventional materials.
Only the Primarch, enhanced by Primarch-grade genetic engineering and clad in apex power armor, and the Astartes in their suits could move freely in this hell.
Beneath the cloud deck lay a dead, silent world.
When the formation finally punched through the seemingly endless clouds, the view did not clarify. Instead, it sank into an even deeper, suffocating gloom.
It was as if perpetual night had fallen. Only the occasional flow of dark red lava rivers below gave off a feeble glow, painting the dense acid clouds like a boiling sea of blood.
Then a more violent hurricane, laden with high-concentration sulfuric acid droplets, slammed into them head-on with tremendous force, hammering the formation's shields.
Energy ripples raced without end across the shields, hissing harshly—the sound of strong acid being flash-ionized.
Although these concentrated acids could not eat through the Thunderhawk's heavy adamantine armor quickly, full-time shield operation was still necessary to keep the Legion's livery from being etched away and to protect optical sensors, weapon systems, and other precision components.
Within the cabin—perfectly warded by a stabilized field around the personal Thunderhawk—Sui Meng stood like an ancient mountain.
Through the shared, augmented view of the craft's sensors, he calmly observed below, taking in real-time scan data and holo imagery of the planet.
Pulse scans and deep-penetration radar fed back sharply onto his helm's display, data streams and 3D images precisely tracing this land of death:
the surface was scoured by jagged, vicious terrain, as if the planet were scored by colossal scars.
Deep fissures pulsed with eternal lava, threading a crisscross network of dark red rivers and the occasional vast lava lake glaring like a devil's eye.
External environmental sensors flashed constant red warnings.
Surface temperatures had stabilized above 350 degrees Celsius, with local zones exceeding 400. Pressure readings held at a dangerous high of eighty standard atmospheres.
The severity here rivaled the hell realms his father commanded.
Any unprotected carbon-based organism could not survive here—not even for half a second—
first crushed flat from within by the horrific atmospheric pressure, then charred to cinder by the heat, then whatever remained reduced by the strong acids until not a trace was left.
This was, in every sense, an absolute exclusion zone for carbon-based life.
Yet Sui Meng's extraordinary warrior's instinct and sharp eye immediately picked out, within the macro scans, the subtle but crucial anomalies.
Expanses first tagged as "natural landform"—endless uneven terrain—showed overall outlines with a hard-to-describe regularity that defied natural randomness.
Huge rock bulges, clearly eroded by ages and rising like toppled pillars, aligned with a hint of rigorous geometric order; the spacing between them fell in peculiar proportional rhythms;
ruins like the bases of ancient walls stretched for tens of kilometers. Though lava rivers had slashed and battered them many times, their shattered lengths still kept a general linear track;
and some broad regions showed abnormally flat substrates, suggestive of colossal plazas or overscale transit hubs, now buried under unknown meters of sulfide crystals, volcanic ash, and cooled lava.
To Sui Meng—whose eyes had witnessed the rise and fall of civilizations—none of these features could be explained as purely natural.
They looked more like the bones of a city beyond measure—perhaps spanning an entire continental plate—of superhuman design, left after unimaginable spans measured in hundreds of millions of years and the merciless pounding of extreme conditions had ground it down…
the nearly flattened and pulverized remnants of construction.
Time's strength was so fearsome it had returned even the strongest works to something like natural geology. Only the grandest pattern still whispered, without sound, of past splendor.
"Navigator."
Sui Meng's voice rolled through the encrypted internal channel, steady as it broke the cabin's instrumental hum. "Adjust course. Deviation 17.3 degrees. Head for coordinate sector Alpha-7.
Drop altitude to two kilometers AGL. Bring geologic radar and deep-structure resonance scans to maximum resolution.
I want to see what truth is buried beneath those 'hills' and 'canyons' that only look natural."
"Coordinates confirmed. Adjusting course. Descending altitude. Bringing deep-scan protocol online." The pilot answered without hesitation, hands flashing across the controls.
The Thunderhawk's engine nozzles canted a fraction. The massive hull traced a firm, elegant arc through the raging acid gale, leading its loyal escort like an albatross threading storm-waves toward the broad expanse that likely hid secrets hundreds of millions of years old.
As they continued to lose altitude, clearer, finer scans poured into the processing core.
On the holo map, beneath those blurred, "weathered" landforms, greater and more complex unnatural outlines surfaced—silent, buried in the searing crust, as though waiting for discoverers strong enough to bear their weight to unseal a secret time had locked away for aeons.
What the projection showed now was no longer natural topography, but the skeleton of a lost civilization on a scale beyond imagining.
"Multiple regular geometric structures detected." Wu Ji's voice sounded in the encrypted channel:
"Depth band 1,200 to 3,500 meters: a gridded foundational infrastructure covering more than 800 square kilometers. Structural material reads as non-naturally formed silicate polymers. Crystal lattices differ markedly from surrounding geologic layers."
Sui Meng stared into the updating 3D structural map.
What were taken for mountainous uplifts were, in fact, collapsed clusters of gargantuan buildings;
what looked like natural gorges were the remains of man-carved canals and transit roadways.
The whole region was like a giant urban fossil, buried deep by time and tectonics.
"Bring up phase scanning," Sui Meng ordered. "I want the details."
When the phase scanners spun up, the sight grew more stunning.
At a particular depth, the instruments caught anomalous energy—a signal extremely faint yet unnaturally stable, its frequency unlike any known natural phenomenon.
"Continuous low-intensity energy source detected," Wu Ji reported. "Coordinates: 32.17° N, 118.45° E, depth 2,847 meters. Energy characteristics…
show 37.8% similarity to Marker energy fluctuations, but are more stable and orderly."
Halsey's voice followed at once: "It could be a relatively intact site. We need physical samples."
Sui Meng decided at once: "Prep a drill. Xianzhen First Squad with me. All other units hold perimeter."
The Thunderhawk hovered over the designated coordinates.
Even at full power, the shields couldn't stop the savage acid storm from battering the hull into a yaw.
A specialized heavy drilling unit deployed to the surface—a bit forged of rare, heatproof, corrosion-resistant alloys, its surface washed by a constant energy barrier.
Drilling was brutally hard.
The crust was iron-hard under heat and pressure, and magma veins could blow out at any moment.
After nearly an hour of effort, the bit reached depth.
"Contact with target structure," the operator reported. "Extracting samples…"
The instant the sample was about to come free, the entire area began to shudder violently. The surface around the drill point split into gaping cracks, and blazing lava surged from below.
"Geologic anomaly," Wu Ji warned. "Mass energy fluctuation detected. Recommend immediate withdrawal."
"Continue extraction." But Sui Meng judged they could still complete the task.
The drill unit, under extremity, held as the Primarch had foreseen. It finally achieved a core from the deep-buried structure.
As the sample clicked into the specialized protective container, the tremors peaked.
The ground fractured like fragile glass. More lava jetted up, turning the sampling site into a seething sea of fire.
Acid rain boiled away in the heat, congealing into dense, lethal poison fog.
"Full retreat. Back to the Thunderhawk, now."
Sui Meng's voice rolled through the channel—steady, with the authority that brooked no dispute.
The Xianzhen showed their superlative drill. With flawless coordination, they held shields against lava and acid while withdrawing swiftly and in order to the hovering Thunderhawk.
The heavy drill unit, mission complete, was abandoned without hesitation and soon swallowed by the onrushing lava.
As the last Astartes boarded and the hatch struggled shut amid sprays of molten rock, the ground they'd stood on was already gone beneath a sea of red-hot melt.
The Thunderhawk soon shook free of the chaos and climbed toward relative safety in the high air.
As they withdrew, Wu Ji's voice came again on the encrypted channel, laced with a new find:
"Sir, at 27 kilometers southeast along the egress path, another anomalous energy signature detected. Signal extremely faint, but with 82.3% similarity to the fluctuation at the sampling site.
Coordinates marked."
Almost simultaneously, Cortana's analysis added: "Though faint, the signature shows a distinctive periodic oscillation—likely a low-power operating signal in a dormant mode."
Though they had just escaped peril, Sui Meng did not hesitate.
He studied the new mark on the tactical map. It lay in the center of a gigantic lava lake tens of kilometers across.
"Adjust course. Take us to the new coordinates," Sui Meng ordered. "Maintain high alert."
The Thunderhawks drove into worsening atmospheric violence and took station overhead.
From above, a bubbling, colossal lava lake churned below. Dark red melt rolled slowly within, breathing out suffocating heat.
The anomaly rose from beneath the lake's bottomless depths.
Confronted with such hazard, conventional drilling was impossible.
Sui Meng strode to the rear ramp. The hatch lowered under hydraulic force; scorching wind laced with sulfur rushed the cabin.
He stood on the edge, looking down into the boiling lake, and closed his eyes.
Psionic might gathered around him. Golden light wrapped his towering form, even the filigree on his armor beginning to glow.
When he opened his eyes again, golden fire burned in his pupils.
He stretched out his right hand and pressed toward the lake below.
Boom—!!
Vast psionics smashed into the lake's heart like an invisible giant's palm.
The heaving lava parted like the Red Sea before Moses, rolling back to either side to reveal a descending conduit, its walls scorched a deep red glow.
At the end of the passage, an oval doorway glimmered faintly blue. The anomalous energy poured steadily from within.
"Hold hover! First Squad, with me into the tunnel! All others, hold perimeter!"
Sui Meng leapt first, landing clean at the mouth.
Ten Xianzhen pounded down after him, heavy power armor thudding dully on searing rock.
The tunnel's heat hit like a hammer. Rock walls still radiated, but at least there was a path.
Sui Meng took point toward the oval of blue light.
With every step, his psionics resonated subtly with the energy pulsing from the depths.
Behind an entrance hidden by lava for ages, there seemed to lie a secret of an ancient civilization.
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