Chapter 178: The Boss Room
With the aid of the Abyssal-Pattern Power Frames, Kian Voss and his men became a localized storm of iron. They didn't just advance; they pulverized. Over the course of two grueling hours, they cleared forty-nine transit chambers, systematically auditing every "Laughing One" in their path.
Now, they stood before the final bulkhead.
Reno's voice crackled through the corner speaker, no longer playful. It was heavy with the weight of an official report.
"Listen up, Voss Guard. You've cleared the path, but the server is red-lining. The internal Auspex for the final chamber is offline—unknown interference has fried the logic-circuits. I have no visual. I have no heat-sigs. You're going in blind."
Kian grunted, his hand tightening on the grip of his heavy Lasgun. He could feel the "Narrative Gravity" shifting. Behind this door lay the "Gilded Boss"—the source of the planet's misery.
"Reno, give me a terrain layout. What's the floor plan?"
"Chamber 50 is the Primary Staging Bay," Reno explained. "It's a gargantuan space designed for heavy logistics and Titan-grade maintenance. It's the size of three football stadiums, filled with industrial loaders, spare turbines, and height-tier machinery. It's cluttered, it's dark, and it's the only thing between you and the Primary Well."
Kian turned to his fifteen men. He could see their hands shaking, the hydraulic pistons of their exoskeletons vibrating with their nerves. They were "Sanctified" and "Power-Armored," but they only had one life. This wasn't a game for them.
"Listen to me, you beauties," Kian rasped, his bird-mask making his voice sound like a death-knell. "This is the final floor. I won't lie to you—there is a Great Abomination behind this door. Something stronger than anything we've liquidated today.
"You all have families in the Mid-Hive. You have sisters, mothers, and children. I'm not ordering you to commit suicide. If you want to walk back to the Control Hub right now, I won't stop you. You can take your credits and your lives. But if you want to break the 'Blood-Cursed' cycle of this Hive... if you want to ensure your kin never eat corpse-starch again... then you follow me."
Kian began his final prep. He checked his Heavy-Barrel Lasgun, his PDF Sub-stubber, and his belt of ten frag-grenades. His eyes fell on a heavy, all-steel Fire-Axe mounted in an emergency glass case on the wall. He smashed the glass and tucked the axe into his webbing.
While Kian worked, the squad stood in a heavy, suffocating silence. Finally, Egghead stepped forward. He walked under the security lens and looked up.
"Lord Bishop? Are you listening?"
The vox hissed with static for a second before the Canon-Preceptor's voice came through, soft and solemn. "I am here, Warrior of the Throne."
Egghead pulled out his pocket-watch, showing the photo of his two-year-old daughter to the camera. "This is Elara. If I fall in the dark today... I beg you. Take her into the Cathedral. Make her a Novice. Give her a life of the Light."
He dropped to one knee. "I am not demanding a favor, Excellency. I am offering a soul for a soul. I give my body to the Emperor, I only ask that you guard my lineage."
The other fourteen soldiers followed suit. They knelt in the industrial dust, calling out the names of their wives, their parents, and their sons. They were making their "Last Wills and Testaments," trading their lives for a "Permanent Buff" to their families' social status.
In the Hive, this was the ultimate gamble. They were cogs trying to buy their way into the Machine's heart.
The Canon-Preceptor's voice boomed through the speakers, full of a terrifyingly divine certainty. "Warriors of the 109th! I, The Pious One, swear by the Golden Throne: If you fall today, your kin shall be the 'Wards of the Cathedral.' They shall want for nothing! I will personally oversee their safety until the sun dies!
"Now, rise! Listen to the Battle-Litanies! Let the iron in your blood turn to fire!!"
As the rhythmic chanting of the Battle-Priests began to blast through the vox-grille, the squad stood as one. The fear was gone. It had been replaced by a fanatical, desperate hunger for a future they would never see.
Kian signaled the door-release.
Hiss-CHUNKKK.
The ten-ton plasteel blast door groaned open. The squad entered the Staging Bay in a tight wedge formation, rifles leveled.
The room was a canyon of shadows. Massive engineering vehicles and looming turbine-racks sat like prehistoric beasts in the dark. The primary luminators were dead; only a few red emergency "Bubble-Lamps" flickered, casting a hellish, pulsating light across the floor.
The moment Kian stepped inside, a biting, soul-chilling cold hit him.
[HUD WARNING: EXTREME WARP-CONTAMINATION DETECTED]
Every Purity Seal on the soldiers' armor spontaneously ignited, burning into black ash in a fraction of a second. The air tasted of copper and sweet rot.
Kian flicked on his under-barrel tactical light, the beam cutting through the stagnant haze.
"Alright, beauties," Kian whispered, his voice steady. "The debts are paid and the flags are set.
"Charge! Slaughter every soul—human or inhuman!!"
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