In the personal rest cabin, within the washroom.
Fu Qinghai dipped a sharp small knife into the black viscous liquid in a bowl and held it up to the mirror, gesturing on his own face.
Where should I cut?
Fu Qinghai looked at his own handsome face in the mirror and felt reluctant to start.
He carefully recalled all the handsome men he knew who had scars on their faces.
Scarface Ribéry, a cut from the corner of the eye to the mouth? That was an accident, and he wasn't considered handsome to begin with.
Kakashi Hatake, a cut across the entire eye socket? Eyelids are so thin; what if he blinded his eyeball?
Harry Potter, a Z-shaped cut on the forehead? What if, in the J.K. Rowling universe later, he was mistakenly killed by the minions of the bald, noseless man?
After much deliberation, Fu Qinghai finally made a shallow, slanted cut right down the center of his high nose bridge.
The moment the black mucus clinging to the blade touched his skin, it hissed faintly, and white smoke rose from the wound.
Facing pain that corroded flesh and blood, Fu Qinghai, who was mentally prepared, only frowned slightly.
His hand holding the blade remained steady and precise, completely unaffected.
The scar made, Fu Qinghai looked at himself in the mirror and nodded with satisfaction.
...
The next day, Ogedai frowned, looking displeasedly at the shallow little scar on Fu Qinghai's nose bridge, and said:
"What, are you afraid of pain?"
Fu Qinghai chuckled, scratched his head, and offered no explanation, knowing Ogedai would not dwell on such a small matter.
Ogedai said irritably:
"Come to the briefing room with me."
The two arrived at the small briefing room; it was empty.
Ogedai sat down casually and gestured for Fu Qinghai to find a seat as well.
"Qingshan, you are now an official member of ours. I know you have many questions bottled up. I can also reveal some things to you about the objective of our current operation and what happened before."
Fu Qinghai nodded.
Ogedai leaned back in his chair and said slowly, "This has to start from when we broke away from the Death Guard warship in the Kondaax System..."
It turned out that Ogedai and his Company, the Falcon Brotherhood, had a relatively high number of Terra-born members loyal to the Warmaster. They suffered heavy casualties during the White Scars civil war that erupted in the outer orbit of Prospero, meaning they were no longer a full-strength Company. Primarch Chaghatai Khan thus assigned them a secret mission—
to detach from the main Fleet, travel alone aboard a Frigate, and escort the Gene-smith, Biological Sage Master Kunto, to Mars.
This was why there were no other White Scars Fleets in the outer orbit of the planet Qesratan.
After the Battle of Ulano in 544.M32, large-scale combat between Humans and Ork was no longer frequent; it was mostly localized purification operations on individual Planets. The White Scars, dispatched by the Warmaster to the remote Kondaax System, were the last Legion to have the opportunity for large-scale warfare against the Ork.
The Adeptus Mechanicus on Mars placed great importance on the Ork, a Xenos Race that once posed a major threat to the Imperium, and had been researching methods to curb Ork reproduction. Kunto Anastasio was a Xenos Specialist specifically dispatched by the Adeptus Mechanicus to the Kondaax System to study the Ork.
But all of this was disrupted by the arrival of the Horus Heresy.
Rebellion and Quelling Rebellions became the top priority for every Legion, including Mars, which was also caught in its own civil war.
As for why they had to escort Master Kunto to Mars, Ogedai was unclear.
Fu Qinghai recalled the big shots, academics, and factions in the research circles of his previous life on Earth. He guessed that Master Kunto was not isolated on Mars; he must have his own disciples and old acquaintances within the Adeptus Mechanicus. Since Kunto himself was a Loyalist supporting the Emperor, Chaghatai Khan might be trying to use his influence on Mars to slightly tip the Scale towards the Loyalists.
Whatever, supporting the Emperor wasn't the concern of a mere Neophyte like him, Fu Qinghai thought.
"And then?" Fu Qinghai asked, more interested in what happened next.
Ogedai took a deep breath and said, "When we were navigating this Star System, the Auspex Array suddenly detected a signal from the Sons of Horus—a solitary Firestorm-class Frigate was heading towards an agricultural Planet marked 17-974 on the star chart..."
Then, Ogedai lost his temper.
The losses suffered by his brothers during the White Scars civil war were heartbreaking to the man. The casualty rate of two-thirds was higher than what they sustained facing ten times their number of Ork in the Kondaax System.
Not to mention, these warriors did not fall on a glorious battlefield but died in a Rebellion that brought shame to the Legion.
Ogedai attributed all of this to the Rebellion of the Sons of Horus.
Taral repeatedly advised him to prioritize the mission first, but Ogedai insisted on showing those Traitors a thing or two.
Both being Frigates, the Firestorm-class Frigate possessed dimensions and firepower far exceeding the Dagger-class Frigate (the Short Sword was a Dagger-class ）), so everyone aboard the Short Sword knew they couldn't engage in Space Naval Warfare just by looking at it.
Setting aside the fact that the important figure Master Kunto was aboard, even without considering Kunto, in terms of Lance count or Macro Cannon Array, the Short Sword would most likely lose a Space Naval Warfare engagement against the Sons of Horus's Firestorm-class Frigate.
So, the stubborn Ogedai made a bold decision: he handed command of the Short Sword over to Taral and personally led a Tactical Squad to perform Torpedo Boarding!
This was a tactic many Space Marine Legions used to fight above their weight in Space Naval Warfare.
However, it was extremely dangerous; the danger level of Torpedo Boarding far surpassed Orbital Drop and other tactics, making it arguably the combat action with the highest fatality rate.
One uncharged torpedo could carry two Space Marines. After launch, they had to cross layers of Laser and Macro Cannon Array blockades to precisely embed themselves into the enemy Hull. The Space Marine squad that boarded then had to fight their way out of the encirclement by the enemy's anti-boarding forces to destroy the enemy ship's Power Core.
This procedure sounded inherently fraught with difficulty.
One more note: boarding torpedoes have no recovery mechanism.
Therefore, unless the enemy vessel could be completely captured, Torpedo Boarding was essentially a suicide mission with no expected return.
But Ogedai succeeded, albeit at the cost of his entire Tactical Squad being Fallen and losing both his legs.
At that time, the Dagger-class Frigate utilized its first-mover advantage, hiding in the Asteroid Belt outside the planet Qesratan, quietly approaching the Sons of Horus Frigate. Just as the enemy was preparing to deploy a Landing Craft, the White Scars suddenly attacked, catching their opponent completely off guard.
They merely fired a few shots, launched the torpedoes, and then fled, retreating back into the Asteroid Belt to hide and await the results of Ogedai's boarding action.
The warships of the White Scars Legion were specially modified by the Adeptus Mechanicus according to Primarch Chaghatai Khan's requirements: reducing some ammunition and firepower configurations while increasing the Engine's Output power. Thus, White Scars warships were faster than those of other Legions, making them very suitable for surprise raids.
After Ogedai and his men desperately destroyed the Power Core of that Firestorm-class Frigate, the Frigate began to fall toward the Atmosphere under the pull of the Planet's Gravity.
Since it was already in space above the Colonial Outpost, it crashed not far from the Richeslaton Colonial Outpost.
This led to the subsequent events.
Fu Qinghai finally understood.
It truly was a winding path.
As they were speaking, the other Space Marines gradually walked in.
Once everyone was seated, Ogedai, in his wheelchair, said gravely:
"Gentlemen, I just received news from Marco Vanriel: the Warp Storm covering this area has weakened. We expect to be able to perform a Warp Jump within the next two weeks."
Upon hearing this, the White Scars warriors were first stunned, then cheered.
After drifting in the vast, empty Universe for two years, they could finally accelerate.
Ogedai also smiled, then continued, "Compared to the Warp Storm engulfing the entire Sector, this is just a brief window, but by seizing this short interval, we can rapidly close in on our destination. We are getting closer to the areas densely populated by the Traitors; everyone prepare yourselves."
Everyone responded affirmatively.
"Let's go," Ogedai patted Fu Qinghai and walked out of the briefing room.
...