Alex quickly received an urgent battle report: a Tech-Priest archaeological team, while conducting routine investigations and tech-salvaging of a destroyed Macro-Tomb, inadvertently activated a dormant Tomb Sentinel.
The moment this ancient war machine awoke, it unleashed indiscriminate slaughter, its built-in Gauss Weapons and disintegration rays instantly tearing apart the unprepared research team.
The Holy War Army troops responsible for escorting bore the brunt, with two full companies of soldiers being completely wiped out within the first thirty seconds.
The Heavenly Lion Battle Group, which arrived as reinforcements, also suffered heavy losses; two battle-hardened Astartes Warriors were instantly reduced to ashes by the Tomb Sentinel's Gauss rays upon contact.
Ultimately, it was only after paying the heavy price of seven Space Marine casualties that the war machine was barely re-incapacitated.
The end of the battle report specifically noted that this Macro-Tomb ruin, previously considered "safe," might still conceal more undiscovered deadly defense systems.
(Tomb Sentinel, this thing is quite abnormal; it can phase through walls, and if ambushed, even Astartes will suffer heavy losses.)
"What happened? How was that Tomb Sentinel activated?" Alex rushed to the scene in a shuttle, his voice suppressing his fury.
The staff officer beside him quickly pulled up a data-slate and explained: "That Macro-Tomb is connected to a complete Necrons production facility underground, which contains a half-finished war construct.
The Tech-Priests responsible for the investigation… uh, they showed an unusual interest in that xenos technology and, without authorization, activated the production line, completing the assembly of that construct…"
"Idiots!" Alex slammed his fist against the bulkhead, and the metal wall echoed dully.
Although this was relatively "mild" compared to the various messes the Adeptus Mechanicus had caused, he still couldn't help but be enraged.
After all, this matter was truly outrageous.
The battle in that area was over, the enemy's structures had been reduced to ruins, yet salvaging war wreckage could still lead to such a fiasco, causing his troops to suffer casualties for no reason. Anyone would be furious.
Especially for the Heavenly Lion Battle Group, under his deliberate care, they had maintained a relatively low casualty rate, and the company participating in this expedition was gradually leaning towards supporting his proposal.
Now, with such an incident, it was hard to say whether it would affect the Battle Group's choice.
"Damn it, are these Tech-Priests' codes open source?! They're always causing me trouble!" Alex cursed in Chinese, a language from forty millennia ago that the staff officer couldn't understand at all, yet dared not ask.
But despite his anger, the mess still had to be cleaned up.
"Has Archmagos Cawl been notified?" Alex turned to the staff officer; the Adeptus Mechanicus side certainly needed to provide an explanation.
The staff officer wiped his sweat: "This investigation team was dispatched by Griya Forge World, and Wise One Christen is also rushing to the scene. According to communication records, she seems even angrier than you."
"Alright… Griya!" Alex pinched the bridge of his nose heavily.
—
When Alex's shuttle landed at the accident site, the scene before him made him frown deeply.
The Griya Skitarii brought by Wise One Christen had completely sealed off the entire area, heavy combat servitor skulls hovered in the air on alert, and red-robed Skitarii soldiers guarded every entrance with weapons in hand.
This kind of display wasn't to block news—news within the Adeptus Mechanicus was never truly blockable—but rather to prevent Archmagos Cawl or their colleagues from Mariupol Forge World from "getting there first."
Within the Adeptus Mechanicus, such factional technical disputes were already commonplace. It was not uncommon for two Forge Worlds to mobilize Titan Legions, artillery arrays, or even Skitarii cohorts for "academic exchange" in order to compete for archaeological discoveries.
But at this moment, this usual factional struggle seemed to Alex to be akin to dancing in his minefield. He suppressed his rage and strode towards Wise One Christen, who was commanding the Skitarii.
"Wise One Christen, what is the situation now?" Alex's voice carried suppressed anger.
The Mechanical Sage's mechanical eye flickered with dangerous red light: "A group of idiots activated the xenos factory's production line and completed the assembly of a half-finished construct that could have been completely salvaged! Now the underground facility and that construct have all been reduced to scrap metal!"
Her voice synthesizer showed slight distortion due to anger, and her mechanical tentacles waved furiously in the air, clearly wishing she could dismantle the troublesome Tech-Priest into parts and turn him into cleaning Servitor.
Unfortunately, the clumsy individual had already been torn to shreds by the Tomb Sentinel at the first moment, taking half of the research team with him.
If it weren't for the Heavenly Lion Battle Group providing timely cover for their retreat, the entire archaeological team responsible for salvaging would have been torn apart by that Tomb Sentinel.
Although the Tech-Priests themselves possessed considerable combat power, things like the Tomb Sentinel were beyond their scope of capabilities, especially when the attack was a surprise.
These relatively low-ranking Tech-Priests indeed found it very difficult to withstand the attacks of such large war machines.
Especially since the Tomb Sentinel's size was comparable to an Imperial Knight or a super-heavy tank, and it could also perform phase-shifting, allowing it to move freely through complex Necron Tombs as if it were swimming underwater.
Coupled with its ability to sense biological heartbeats and pulses from hundreds of meters away, it was terrifyingly effective for ambushes and hunts.
So even though those Tech-Priests counterattacked, they were still torn apart, many even unable to recover their on-board data storage, resulting in the loss of a large amount of valuable knowledge and data.
This undoubtedly increased Kristen's anger.
But Alex didn't care much about that; he merely asked again: "What about the other situations?"
Alex was somewhat losing control of his emotions at this point, and his voice inevitably carried some anger.
Alex's question finally made Kristen rein in her emotions. She replied: "The Holy War Army lost about three companies; two companies were directly annihilated. The reason there weren't greater losses is because they only had one regiment on site, with the remaining two companies on ground alert.
The Space Marines promptly went underground to intercept, successfully destroying that xenos construct, which prevented further casualties.
But they lost seven men, and five others are seriously wounded, requiring treatment, or even conversion into Dreadnoughts."
"I hope that Griya Forge World will compensate the Heavenly Lion Battle Group for their losses in this matter." Alex did not pursue responsibility but still emphasized the issue of compensation.
"Beep—" Kristen let out a short, very foul curse in binary, then said: "I understand, I will compensate the Heavenly Lion Battle Group for this loss."
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