I summoned the Fourth Scourge in Warhammer

Chapter 93 The Martyrs Chapter

Assimilation inserted the access card into the slot, and the indicator light on the door lit up with a "beep," emitting a faint green light. The heavy metal door emitted a deep hum, accompanied by the hoarse sound of mechanical transmission, and slowly and heavily slid open inward.

The scene behind the door instantly froze Assimilation's relaxed expression, and his face changed drastically.

"So it really is a Space Marine combat barge," Assimilation murmured, his tone tinged with seriousness.

The reason for this is that behind the door was an extremely long corridor that seemed to have no end. Within Assimilation's field of vision, at least a dozen Space Marines clad in heavy power armor lay dead in this corridor, their postures varied: some lay on the ground, some were kneeling, and some were even pinned to the wall, each maintaining the posture of fighting to the very last moment.

Assimilation cautiously approached the nearest Space Marine. The Marine lay on the ground, one hand still clutching his explosive rifle, the other pressed against his chest, as if trying to cover a fatal wound. Assimilation tried to identify which chapter the Space Marine belonged to, but found it utterly impossible.

The power armor is predominantly painted in a deep black, with minimal embellishment, giving it an exceptionally solemn appearance. The emblem on the shoulder armor is particularly unique: it consists of three elements—a crossed plow, a hammer, and a vertical sword. The sword stands upright in the center, while the hammer and plow intertwine in a perfect "X" shape.

This insignia and paint scheme, never seen before in any known Warhammer setting, clearly belong to an unknown Space Marine Chapter.

Assimilation reached out, wanting to touch the dead warrior and experience the legendary power armor firsthand. However, just as his fingertips were about to touch the armor, he seemed to catch a glimpse of the other's helmeted head twitching extremely slightly out of the corner of his eye.

Although it was only a tiny bit, this sudden change still startled Assimilation, and he reflexively took several steps back.

When he came to his senses, his heart pounding, he looked closely, only to find that the other person's helmet was completely still, remaining in the posture of death. It turned out that this was just his imagination, perhaps the light, or perhaps a hallucination caused by his tense nerves.

"Even a dead tiger retains its might..." The thought flashed through Assimilation's mind. He then abandoned the idea of ​​touching it and instead chose to approach and observe. This time, he observed the wounds on the Space Marine's body.

"What kind of wound is this? It's too bizarre. I can't imagine what kind of weapon caused it..." Assimilation muttered to himself, his observation clearly failing.

Unable to comprehend it, Assimilation abandoned further observation and began attempting to traverse the tunnel. Initially, he walked, cautiously avoiding the debris and corpses on the ground. However, after ten minutes, the darkness ahead remained unfathomable, and he realized that the corridor was far longer than he had imagined.

So he started jogging, his footsteps echoing clearly in the empty passage. Finally, after running for about twenty more minutes, he reached the end.

He was greeted by yet another door.

However, this door was completely different from the one he had opened before. It was extremely tall, roughly estimated to be ten meters high and five meters wide, with intricate relief carvings on its surface.

“In just one corridor, we saw forty-seven dead Space Marines,” Assimilation didn’t rush to open the door, but instead began to recall the information he had gathered earlier. “Not a single one of them was alive. It seems this was indeed a battle barge of a warband, and most of them have probably been wiped out…”

Space Marines, the Emperor's loyal subjects, are all superhuman beings, and a chapter typically consists of hundreds or even thousands of Space Marines. The fact that a warship full of Space Marines could crash here and cause such heavy casualties is simply unheard of.

"What kind of enemy could wipe out an entire chapter of Space Marines..." Thinking of this, Assimilation's expression changed slightly. "Could it be a warp demon? It seems to be the only explanation."

Even so, Assimilation wasn't too worried. Anyway... with fate on his side, he couldn't possibly die now. He reached out and tried to push open the massive door.

"Squeak—!"

With a piercing, metallic scraping sound, Assimilation exerted all his strength, pressing down with his full weight. The heavy door, pushed by him, slowly and painfully opened a crack just wide enough for him to squeeze through. He squeezed in sideways.

The space beyond the door opened up dramatically; this was the bridge. However, this once glorious place, where starships were commanded to conquer the cosmos, was now a scene of utter devastation. The enormous holographic display screen was shattered into countless crystal fragments, scattered on the ground like broken stars.

The control panel was ripped beyond recognition, cables exposed, and sparks occasionally danced on the charred circuit boards. A jagged hole had been smashed through the ceiling by the immense impact, through which twisted steel bars and the desolate desert sky beyond the ship could be seen. The air was thick with the stench of burning and blood, mixed with an unknown, putrid odor.

Assimilation, meanwhile, found a fallen Space Marine in the center of the room. His power armor was more ornate and darker in color than any of the other Space Marines Assimilation had encountered along the way, with gold trim along the edges. The chapter insignia on his shoulder armor was also more elaborate, clearly indicating that he was a high-ranking commander.

He clutched a data pad in his left hand, protecting it tightly even as he fell. Assimilation, of course, wouldn't overlook such obvious information. He stepped forward and muttered to himself, "This must be the plot trigger point." As he muttered, he carefully pulled the data pad from the Space Marine's hand: "Brother, I'm very sorry, I didn't mean to offend you."

Fortunately, this time it went very smoothly. There were no unexpected situations, no sudden resurrection, and no traps or mechanisms.

Assimilation opened the data panel, and the previously dim screen suddenly lit up, displaying lines of text:

Three months ago, when my brothers and I entered the Warp, we never imagined it would be our final journey.

[My name is Hobbes Rotzpe, Chapter Master of the Martyrs Chapter, whose parent chapter is the Ultramarines. I leave this final trace of the Martyrs in this universe.]

The warp is an extremely dangerous place, but as long as one maintains constant vigilance, acts cautiously, and observes meticulously, traversing the warp is not impossible—at least that's what we used to believe.

However, this is actually incorrect.

The subspace is not a controllable place, nor is it a frontier that humanity has tamed. It is like a cruel and deadly joke left by an unknowable being at the birth of this universe for all sentient beings.

"Are you really a sub-group of Ultramarines... Instead of using a lot of data and tables for rigorous argumentation, you spend a lot of time expressing your emotions and subjective opinions?"

Our warband encountered a sudden warp storm. Neither the think tanks nor the navigators provided any warning of this storm. We were like an unprepared ship, smashed to pieces by the towering waves of the ocean.

The Geller Force Field quickly became overwhelmed by the storm. Company Commander Karen and his men were ready to replace the psykers at any moment, only to discover that... warp demons had torn through the ship's external armor and were pouring in through the breach.

"Why are you talking about replacing psionicists like it's like 'The batteries in our remote control are dead, let's replace them'? That's a human life, after all... Should I say, typical Warhammer?"

Everyone was fighting bravely, using everything at their disposal to fight the Emperor's enemies to the death. When bullets ran out, they drew their swords; when swords broke, they used their fists; when arms were broken, they bit them.

No one feared sacrifice; all martyrs firmly believed that if everything in the world was unjust, then the only fair thing was that everyone would die. That was the unified finish line drawn by the emperor for his people. And the martyrs would run towards that finish line relentlessly, never stopping.

"I suddenly felt a little touched..."

I am one of the martyrs, and naturally, I am not afraid of sacrifice. What I fear is the glory created by the martyrs as they ran this path, all the splendor created by the chapter in battle, the paintings and poems created by the elders of the past and the brothers of the present—all these beautiful arts have been destroyed in this catastrophe, and will never be known again.

"Hey, hey, hey, you guys are definitely not Ultra Warriors, right?! Definitely! Your real brothers were having a blast hacking us down a few days ago! Give me back my gratitude!"

So, whoever reads this... I only hope that you will carry on the name of the martyrs. Take three steps to the left and you should see what I've prepared; it's the last genetic seed of our chapter.

"Uh..." Assimilation turned his head with half-closed eyes, following the instructions to look to the left. He only saw collapsed beams and pillars, as well as some glass shards, unidentified liquids and unidentified pieces of meat under the beams and pillars. Those were the remains of petri dishes or other containers, which were obviously completely destroyed. "They've been shattered into pieces."

[Bowing to the Emperor.]

After reading the entire document, Assimilation placed the data panel back into the arms of the warband leader.

"Your misfortune is unprecedented, comparable to the Greenskins and Bugs that were wiped out by God's Dice... Hmm?" Assimilation's expression suddenly froze halfway through his sentence, and his face changed. "Could it be that God's Dice killed you all to eliminate those ten thousand Greenskins... If so, wouldn't I be the culprit who killed you all?"

“No, not necessarily,” Assimilation quickly thought of another possibility. “They entered the warp three months ago. I’ve only been with the Greenskins for less than four hours. By then, the Martyrs must have been dead… It must have been God’s dice that gave them a push, causing them to automatically exit the warp and then crash into Pedithia due to loss of power. Hmm, that must be it.”

Thinking of this, Assimilation felt a little better. He put his hands together and bowed slightly to Hobbes: "Anyway, Brother Hobbes, you and your brothers should sleep well here. Don't come back to life because of warp energy or anything like that... I'll go and call my teammates to bury you properly right away."

(End of this chapter)