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After the battle ended, the vehicles of the convoy had only just managed to come to a stop.
It wasn't that there wasn't information feedback; although these armored vehicles weren't equipped with overly complex electronic systems, the most basic navigation instruments and noise-filtering systems were indeed installed.
Thus, even though they had failed to detect the Chaos Space Marine beforehand, the moment the boltgun fired, the noise-filtering system, which could filter out background noise and amplify necessary battlefield sounds, immediately transmitted the gunfire into the vehicle's interior.
However, hearing was one thing; being able to react in time was another. Everything happened too quickly. Not even Zhang Ge, who was sitting inside the vehicle, could keep up, let alone the soldiers.
By the time Zhang Ge opened the door and exited the vehicle, the soldiers were just beginning to leave their seats.
As he walked toward Yixis, who had been thrown to the ground by the Chaos Space Marine and would take some time to recover, he pointed to the corpse of the Space Marine lying on the ground and said to Dominika, "Go handle it."
After reaching Yixis, Zhang Ge turned his head, intending to check if he was still alive. He crouched down beside Yixis's helmet.
Upon unlatching his faceplate, he was surprised to see not pain, but a look of longing on Yixis's face.
Zhang Ge asked with confusion, "You... are you not injured?"
"I... my injuries are severe... but to die here at the hands of such a strong enemy is... a death without regrets."
To be honest, Zhang Ge had approached with the mindset of retrieving his body; he was not expecting to see that Yixis appeared to have only sustained some internal injuries after all.
A regular human wouldn't even have the privilege of being thrown by a Space Marine. They would likely have their limbs torn apart by the outward inertia before being tossed. The fact that Yixis had a whole corpse left upon hitting the ground could be considered fortunate.
Although Yixis seemed strong, he clearly wasn't capable of withstanding that level of force; it was likely that the Chaos Space Marine had deliberately held back.
As Yixis spoke, blood began to seep from his mouth.
Watching Zhang Ge pull something from his waist pouch, Yixis mumbled through the blood, "Thank you... for bringing me death. Take the feathers off my helmet; they belong to you now."
Without replying, Zhang Ge took out an emergency medical injector, lifted Yixis's chin, and positioned the needle against the exposed vein in his neck beneath the armor, injecting the fluid into his body.
Injuries like internal bleeding would typically be fatal on a battlefield, but for the Astra Militarum, they were merely minor wounds.
Unless it was something that could not be treated quickly, like a severe injury from a shockwave, most of those who did not die on the battlefield could be saved by the medics themselves, especially someone with Yixis's exceptional physiology.
Although there wasn't a medic present, Zhang Ge had undergone basic medical training numerous times as a veteran; he could only curse his identity for not being some worthless commoner.
Seeing Yixis lying there without struggling, seemingly waiting for death, Zhang Ge decided not to linger any longer. He closed Yixis's faceplate and walked over to Dominika.
At this moment, Dominika was detaching the fuel canister from the underslung flamer, preparing to replace it with a new one. The scene on the ground showed no distinguishable remains of the attackers who had assaulted them, only a pile of charred remains and a set of power armor.
"Hold on, that's enough... Do you recognize what faction that traitor belongs to?" he asked, stopping her actions and glancing at the remnants of the power armor.
Dominika, upon being asked, shook her head in confusion.
Only when Zhang Ge got up close to observe the power armor of the Space Marine did he fully understand why there could be confusion about loyalists and traitors. Generally, one could excuse a failure to recognize the chapter emblem, but how could they not recognize the heretical symbols and the Chaos Space Marine's distorted appearance?
In actuality, the armor before him didn't stand out as unusually abnormal; instead, it was adorned with luxurious gold and silver decorative elements from top to bottom. Some pink undertones weaved through these flamboyant decorations, like the beautiful pink and purple shadows that occasionally sparkled amidst the golden palace.
No two areas of the design were the same, and the longer one looked, the more it seemed like the patterns subtly shifted and moved. Only through careful observation could one find the blasphemous elements that glorified the Dark Gods within the extravagant imagery. Overall, it appeared as a highly intricate piece of art.
This was reasonable; even the "small and impoverished" human nobility had the sense to give their private soldiers elaborate heraldry. For Space Marines who worshipped the Dark Gods, could they just slap a symbol on with spray paint and call it done? Who did they think they were fooling?
Even Zhang Ge, having prior knowledge of Chaos Space Marine intel, could only vaguely discern that this armor originated from the Slaaneshi side. As for anything more detailed, only another Space Marine or a scholar specializing in this area would be able to discern it.
Not wanting to scrutinize further, Zhang Ge said, "Put the rest in the trunk, including the ashes."
Given the ongoing Chaos invasions and the opening of rifts, even their remains could become hazardous materials. Ashes from charred remains, this set of power armor, and every fragment of metal had to be taken away for proper disposal; leaving anything behind could potentially spawn minor daemons.
Dominika nodded, and as a prospective Battle Sister, she certainly understood the situation. She produced a portable vacuum designed for handling fine dust:
"Understood." Meanwhile, the soldiers finally began to secure the streets and move to establish a sentinel zone around the nearby buildings. The sergeant arrived before Zhang Ge.
He couldn't help but glance at the remains of the severely damaged power armor beside him. Given the circumstances, it was obvious what sort of attacker could wear such an armor...
Looking at the Battle Sister, who was acting as a "cleaner" to secure the battlefield, and the bizarre figure trying to stand up from the ground, it was needless to say that the death of the Chaos Space Marine had been primarily thanks to Yixis's efforts. Just thinking about this individual, who had just healed, being able to kill a Space Marine without sustaining any injuries filled the sergeant with dread.
He swallowed hard and asked, "Excuse me... Colonel, should we proceed as before?"
Zhang Ge chose not to dwell on the sergeant's failure; with such a small force, even if they had been replaced with loyalist troops, the outcome would not have been much different. He simply stated, "Everyone back in the vehicle. We need to pick up the pace. At least until we reach the nearest combat zone, we should switch to a marching standard."
The enemy would certainly realize that their attacker had gone silent after failing to receive information for a long time; soon, there would be more than one foe. However, Zhang Ge could not make a clearly erroneous decision regarding such an obvious matter and could only hope that the Chaos forces had a relatively high frequency of information exchange.
I refuse to believe that after getting lucky enough to kill one, the next time a tactical squad won't also spring up on them.
On the other side, the sergeant sighed in relief upon hearing this. He even forgot battlefield protocols, instinctively saluting before responding, "Understood."
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