Warhammer 40: Doom

Chapter 301 Gene Stealers

"Deathwatch encountered aliens, recovery... [Record deletion] Mission failed, data cleanup successful."

"Mission log retrieval successful: Death Watch, ordered to retrieve [record deleted], encountered gene thieves, resulting in total annihilation..."

The servo skull begins repeating commands, looping through the last command.

Doom signaled to Ta Rasha to close the skull; it was worthless except for the mission log, and the internal data had been deleted.

Through the servo skull, he felt that the future human empire would place great importance on information security.

Before dying, Deathwatch warriors, even with their last breath, would delete the data embedded in their skulls to prevent intelligence leaks.

This behavior did prevent information leakage, but it left a fog of confusion for those who came after, without leaving any warning.

“Gene stealers?” Doom murmured, then turned his head sharply.

The Doom Slayer also spotted the alien figure. Everyone turned their attention to the depths of the dark chamber, where a dark shadow flashed by and quickly disappeared into the pipes.

Although it was only for a moment, the superhuman warriors still managed to make out the creature's appearance: an alien covered in biological armor plates, standing upright on two legs, with a deformed head.

Judging from its flustered appearance, it probably didn't expect that its presence would be noticed.

Ignoring the aliens that were hiding and trying to create fear, the Doom Warriors didn't want to give chase.

When facing an alien you've never encountered before, it's best to minimize your exposure of your strength on its home turf, thus instilling fear in the creature lurking in the shadows.

There was more than one alien; inside the warship's pipes, rustling sounds that even Space Marines could hardly detect came from, indicating that they were gathering together.

Doom withdrew his gaze, opened his left hand, and a high temperature emanated from his palm as the Star God Flame surged forth.

In an instant, flames engulfed the Deathwatch warrior, burning his power armor and desiccated body to ashes.

He glanced at the bulkhead, which was covered with claw marks and bomb marks, and said to his offspring, "Follow the battle tracks and find the bodies of other soldiers."

In the monotonous warp, Doom became keenly interested in the objectives of Deathwatch's mission.

The group set off in an orderly fashion, tracing the traces left by the battle and searching for space warriors from the future.

After the group set off, John, who had always been at the front of the line, stopped, looked down at the corpse and ashes for a long time without saying a word. When he heard his brother and Primarch walk away, he shifted his gaze to the ashes.

He knelt on one knee, picked up a bomb gun from the dust, and held it up to examine it closely.

From the moment John arrived at the body, he keenly sensed that there seemed to be a faint consciousness within the dust-covered explosive gun.

Clearly, the father of genetics also noticed this, perhaps even more directly, but that great man didn't care about such things.

hum~~
Suddenly, John raised his left arm in an instant, then lowered it again in a fraction of a second, the dimensional light claw disappearing like a shooting star in the night sky.

Behind the black-armored warrior, red blood poured down, and his head crashed to the ground, hanging upside down from the ceiling of the passage, the alien creature that was preparing to launch a sneak attack now decapitated.

Its body had been severed before it launched its attack, and the gene stealer was unaware that it was already dead.

John slowly stood up, shook off the dust from his bomb gun, and tied a thin rope around his waist as a souvenir of his warp trip.

He grabbed the alien's tail, dragging the monster's still-twitching body, still bearing the remnants of its brain's commands, and chased after the main force.

Doom led his team forward, finding several corpses lying on either side of the warship's passageway.

As the body was discovered, his confusion lessened.

There are a total of nine Space Marines. Their left shoulder armor features a uniform embossed skull, while their right shoulder armor displays a variety of Legion insignia.

Among the various legion insignia, none were familiar to Doom, leading him to seriously doubt whether the Emperor had created a new legion.

"This thing is pretty cool."

While Doom was pondering, Zul, who was crouching down to collect the corpse, pulled off a white strip of cloth that was glued with sealing wax from the Deathwatch shoulder armor.

The sealing wax mark was blurry, and there were tadpole-like black marks on the cloth strip, which should have contained writing.

It's hard to imagine that, under the ravages of time, steel rusts and decays, and flesh turns to dust, the temperature-sensitive sealing wax and the unspecial cloth strips have been preserved relatively well.

Zul didn't mind, using the shoulder cannon to heat the sealing wax at the muzzle, restoring it to its original bright red luster, and pressed it onto his shoulder armor along with the strips of cloth, while also stamping the mark of destruction onto the hilt of his sword.

Doom tilted his head slightly to observe the new armor decorations on Zul'dan's armor, and nodded in agreement.

The black, gleaming gold armor, accented with sealing wax and white cloth strips, created a striking visual contrast, giving it an exceptionally cold and aloof appearance. "Your taste is quite good," he said, never hesitant to lavish praise on flashy decorations.

In Doom's memory, Zul was an extremely gloomy offspring. He had a unique temperament, and even when wearing the same power armor, he could be recognized at a glance from the ranks.

He never expected that his offspring, with his withered, white hair and seemingly frail appearance, would possess such an eye for beauty.

Hearing the father of genes boast, Zul felt a little embarrassed; even through the helmet, his awkwardness was palpable.

In return, he aimed his shoulder cannon at the corpse, and the disintegration weapon turned the fallen Space Marine into atomic starlight that dissipated.

While the group stopped for inspection, John dragged the Xenomorph and caught up. He threw the Genestealer at the feet of the Gene Father: "Primarch, please look at this."

Doom's combat boots stepped on the alien, his toes flipping over its corpse, his gaze landing on the two pairs of upper limbs on its torso.

The pair of claws extending from the shoulders are longer and thicker, with a range of motion similar to that of a human, and three sharp claws reflect a jet-black sheen.

He lightly lifted his boot and stepped on the alien arm. The claws sank into the steel floor without any resistance, as if cutting into the water.

"A single-molecule biological structure?" Doom's magnetic voice was filled with surprise; the gene stealer's power was beyond his expectations.

As a carbon-based life form, it possesses single-molecule claws capable of easily tearing through steel, exceeding the weapon requirements of normal organisms.

It was these very claws that slaughtered the Deathwatch; they could easily pierce through Space Marine power armor.

Even in the future, the dangers in the galaxy will not be any less, and the Empire's enemies will be stronger than they are now!
"keep going."

Doom called out, moved the alien aside, and continued on his way. His final destination was just outside a few gates.

The Doomsday Warriors followed again, their steps heavy and powerful. This time, however, all their dimensional claws were extended, and their composite shoulder cannons were aimed at dark corners from time to time.

In that darkness that devoured the light, there were occasional noises as the alien crawled in the shadows, its chitinous shell rustling as it rubbed against each other.

If it were an ordinary person, they would already be drenched in sweat, terrified to the point of mental collapse by the ghostly presence in the shadows.

Unfortunately, the gene stealers' fear tactics were misjudged.

The Doomsday Warrior's fear was worn away long ago in his transformation and in his ancient battles against demons; he is a truly fearless man.

They strode forward, the cabin devoid of the corpses of the dead watchmen, and under the leadership of the Father of Genetics, they lingered no longer.

The team advanced toward the bridge of the wrecked ship, searching for the oracle array and scanning the entire subspace ruins.

After passing through a narrow, relatively narrow pipe, the view suddenly opened up, and under the "escort" of the gene stealers, the group arrived at the bridge.

"What a perfect place for an siege," Doom remarked, looking at the scene inside the bridge.

Around the bridge and on the roof, there are iron holes dug out by sharp claws, where hunters can emerge at any moment.

A fierce battle took place here. Judging from the traces, other units must have entered and taken something from the bridge.

"It's up to you now," Doom instructed Ra, leading his offspring to form a defensive formation to prevent his work from being disturbed.

La nodded silently, strode to the bird divination array, lightly swung the dimensional sword, cut open the protective shell, and pulled out the internal cables.

"Hopefully this method will work!" He moved swiftly, reaching down to his lower back and retrieving a cold fusion core from his power armor.

Along the way, I've planned many times in my mind, and now I'm just executing the established plan.

As he moved, the gene stealer, not wanting to wait any longer, crawled out of the iron-blooded body with its hunched back.

"Don't let them get close!" Doom roared, drawing his Judgment Sword from his waist and igniting the Godslayer blade.

The Doomsday Warrior draws his spear from his back; in open environments, long weapons can unleash their full power.

They aimed their shoulder-mounted composite cannons upwards and locked onto the enemy climbing out from the ceiling above.

The gene stealer roared, its hideous, long, crimson tongue trailing beyond its gaping maw of sharp teeth.

They have a terrifying appearance, with honeycomb-like bony plates on their foreheads, bluish-black chitinous bony plates covering their limbs, and their hind limbs are bent to facilitate running, while their two pairs of forelimbs have more ways to attack.

"Fire!" Doom roared before the aliens charged, ordering his offspring to attack.

(End of this chapter)