In the crevice between the lower-hive and the under-hive of Hive City Kuent—this was also the most filth-ridden corner of the entire hive.
Compared to the under-hive, this place was perhaps even worse than the under-hive itself.
But compared to the Genestealers he was about to meet, Heydrich was actually feeling a little uneasy.
It wasn’t that he feared these creatures—the Genestealers’ genetic contamination was, in essence, a kind of dirty Warp-psyker trick.
Once those tainted Genestealers became Astartes, the Warp resistance provided by the gene-seed allowed them to tear straight through that veil.
But right now there was an irritable bolter-girl by his side, and Heydrich really did not want to come along with this thing.
This crevice zone was perpetually shrouded in a murky yellow light somewhere between dusk and eternal night—it came from a few abandoned industrial districts several kilometers above, where leaking lumen-conduits flickered on and off intermittently, slicing the whole space into a mottled patchwork of light and shadow.
The air was a mixture of metallic dust and a kind of cloying, sweet stench of rotting flesh, and the ground was dotted everywhere with puddles of varying depths, their surfaces shimmering with the rainbow sheen unique to oil slicks.
From time to time came the muffled boom of metal falling in the distance—that was the waste pipes of the upper levels dumping refuse downward, and every discharge was accompanied by a gust of hot, debris-laden wind blasting into one’s face, a reminder that everything here lived beneath the excretory orifice of that vast iron world overhead.
Actually, the Inquisitor’s meaning was quite clear: if it were just ordinary Chaos cultists, he probably wouldn’t have bothered to say much—most of those things were pretty pathetic, really.
But the problem was that since even Chaos Space Marines had come out, then the trouble could be a big deal.
You have to understand that over these past ten thousand years, the ones who had wrought the greatest devastation upon the Imperium were the Chaos Space Marines.
Those daemons, though they too possessed formidable power—
the trouble was that the difficulty of them manifesting in the material universe was simply too high, and what’s more, many of those planet-scale sacrifices were orchestrated precisely by these Chaos Space Marines.
So keeping a fanatic at his side was, without a doubt, the safest choice.
After all, up to now there had been almost no Sisters of Battle who had fallen to corruption—as for that batch of the Indomitus Crusade Fourth Fleet that you’d say was personally corrupted by Old K himself….
Come on, the Great Rift hasn’t even opened yet up to this point, so that’s simply out of the question.
When facing ordinary Chaos corruption, in the absence of a Pariah, the only option was to have a Sister of Battle accompany you.
In fact, if this Sister of Battle ended up dead, then it meant the situation had already grown serious enough to be on the very brink of spiraling out of control.
“Blasphemous heretics….”
Being, after all, a Sister of Battle on a mission alongside him, Irena wasn’t quite that unhinged yet.
After seeing a cluster of pointy-headed things, she did at least refrain from striking immediately.
“Who are you?”
She looked over Heydrich’s lavish attire—well, the lavish attire of two people, really.
After all, this time Heydrich needed to declare his identity in the form of the Planetary Government’s authority, so naturally he wasn’t dressed too shabbily.
As for the Genestealers’ side—
At present there was no Tyranid Hive Fleet in this sector yet; those fellows hadn’t yet become a real force to be reckoned with.
“Heretics, blasphemers…..”
Right now, looking at the three-armed Genestealer blocking her path, Irena was already imperceptibly stroking her boltgun.
Of course, in the end she held it in, because whether it was the elder Sisters of her Sisterhood or the Inquisitor, they had all seemingly reminded her of something.
In situations where there weren’t enough hands, for the sake of the Emperor and the Imperium of Man, they had to maintain a flexible moral bottom line.
“You are….”
Looking over Heydrich and the Sister of Battle, the group of Genestealers also hesitated a little.
At present the Tyranid swarm was still a long, long way off from here, so for the moment the Genestealers were not a threat to the hive.
They were even a stabilizing ballast for the hive’s safety, so seeing these two people dressed as they were—
One was obviously a great personage of the upper-hive or even the spire-top, while the other was even more heavyweight: the Emperor’s daughter, a Sister of Battle.
So…
“The great Sector Governor knows of the outstanding contributions you have made for the Imperium.
I come by the Governor’s order to affirm your achievements.”
“Hssss…..”
Upon hearing Heydrich’s words, the group of Genestealers was also stunned for a moment.
Then, one after another, expressions of disbelief surfaced on their faces.
As for Irena off to the side, she clearly froze for a beat.
Then she looked at Heydrich with something like incredulity, but remembering the exhortations of her Sisters, she ultimately held it in.
“Take me to see your Patriarch.
The Sector Governor has now entrusted me to issue you a new command.
As long as you can complete the task, the Sector Governor will consider having your faith formally accepted by the Imperial Cult, becoming a part of the true faith.”
Click!!!
Just as Heydrich’s words fell, he clearly heard behind him what sounded like a boltgun chambering a round.
But very quickly another sound rang out—this boltgun’s safety had been re-engaged.
Only, the hand holding the weapon was trembling slightly; clearly, Irena’s heart was anything but calm at this moment.
As for Heydrich, he acted as though he hadn’t seen any of it the entire time, because as his words fell—
Plop!!!
The several Genestealers before him dropped straight to their knees, and then, one after another, their eyes brimmed with hot tears.
“By the Four-Armed Emperor God above, you have finally heard our voices.
Boo-hoo-hoo, my father worked over twenty hours a day in the factory for the Imperium and in the end died of exhaustion at his post.
I knew it, I just knew it.
Our sacrifices would surely be rewarded.
Great Emissary, please, come with us.”
“….”
Although he had braced himself for it inwardly, Heydrich was still a little shocked by the Imperium’s inhumanity.
The missions he carried out were all dangerous—but they were only dangerous.
It was just that because he was strong enough, he could go about them with leisurely ease.
He could even slack off while on a mission—after all, dangerous tasks were surely very complicated, so taking a week or two over them was perfectly normal.
But these Genestealers before him—they weren’t carrying out a mission; they were living a life that had been wrung dry of its very last drop of marrow from the moment they were born, and after being utterly squeezed dry, they still devoutly kissed the very hands that had wrung them, believing that one day a reward would come that would never, ever arrive.
This blind, devoted attitude sent a chill down Heydrich’s spine—it made his hair stand on end even more than facing a World Eater’s chainaxe.
A cultist can be killed, a heretic can be burned, but this kind of self-deception sunk deep into the marrow—you don’t even know where to begin.
But these people….
What fine beasts of burden.
Pity they’ll draw the bugs.
“The great Emperor God has heard your prayers, and so he sent me.”
With this bunch of religious fanatics—or rather, with everyone in the whole of Warhammer—you basically had to approach them through religious methods.
Only that way could you merge with them more quickly.
By now Heydrich was already old hand at this, though he did detest these things.
“Great Emissary, please, come with us.”
Sure enough, as Heydrich’s words fell, the group of Genestealers also knelt down and then led him toward the tribe.
At this, a satisfied expression also surfaced on Heydrich’s face.
See, this was the art of language.
“…..”
As for the Sister of Battle behind him at this moment, she had gone rigid where she stood—a bewildered expression even appeared on her face.
It wasn’t that she had any doubts about her faith, but rather that she was somewhat shocked by this man’s shamelessness.
He had actually deceived xenos, and she was equally stunned by this method of communication.
You have to understand that, from what she knew, quite a few of her Sisters had died at the hands of these very Genestealers.
She had originally thought this would be an extremely dangerous infiltration, that after surviving nine deaths and a thousand perils she would meet the Genestealers’ Patriarch, then press a pistol to his head and force him to go fight those heretics to the death.
But here was the problem…..
“What is this?”
“Come on…”
Glancing at Irena, frozen stiff in place, Heydrich beckoned to her, signaling her to keep up.
Only, at this moment a voice rang out over his inner-ring comm channel.
“Never have I seen one so shameless and ignorant!!!”