Warhammer: Primarch's Life from the Beginning

Chapter 57 Alien Nest

Warning Star, Saint Harbor, Down Nest.

Leo and Kara stepped over a trail of blood, killed the group, and then descended into the darkness in an industrial elevator.

There was only one emergency light in the elevator lobby, the light falling on the rock wall and shifting back and forth as the elevator swayed.

Kara leaned closer to him and lowered her voice.

"Your Highness, we were just standing right behind them... and they didn't even glance at us?"

"Who knows what those aliens are thinking?"

Kara was silent for a moment.

"Your Highness, have you ever thought about this question?"

"What?"

"What if the elevator doors open and there are two hundred aliens crouching outside? What would we do?"

Leo glanced down at her.

"The more miscellaneous fish there are, the more worthwhile the actual goods inside are to see."

Leo's psychic powers were restricted here. A strange feeling came from deep underground, with a blurry outline, like a shadow.

Time passed slowly, and the elevator finally came to a stop.

The hatch opened to both sides, and a rush of hot, humid air, carrying the smell of rotting flesh, rushed in. It was pitch black, so the two men activated their night vision in their power armor.

Leo walked ahead, his steps steady. Kara followed behind, using the walls and supports to conceal herself. Every few steps, she would first check her surroundings, then her gaze would finally settle on Leo's back.

This place looks like an old mining area.

Initially, stone slabs, supporting beams, and abandoned tracks are still visible. Further on, glowing fungal patches appear on the walls, with blue-green light spreading along the rock strata. The ground is no longer hard; a slight bounce is felt underfoot, as some kind of organic tissue replaces the stone slabs, its surface covered with a membrane-like texture.

When Kara stepped on it, the sole of her boot sank in slightly. A flash of disgust crossed her eyes, but she quickly regained her composure.

"Your Highness."

"Um."

"The texture of this ground... feels like stepping on your tongue."

"How am I supposed to eat after this analogy?"

"The fact that you can still think about eating shows that you have a good mindset."

"I know too much," Leo said, reaching out to touch the wall. "If I were a mortal seeing these for the first time, I'd probably be reciting the scriptures you memorize every day."

"I'm already praying in my heart, Your Highness..."

There were scratch marks on the wall, with a few hard pieces of carapace lying nearby, the broken edges still bearing some strange marks. The gene-stealers had transformed the outskirts of the mining area into this state over at least several years.

How did they manage to do all this so openly in Saint Harbor's underground?

They continued on their way.

The crack in the side wall suddenly opened.

Two pure-blooded gene-stealers emerged from within, pressed against the wall, their limbs braced between the rock surface and the organic layer, their movements making no noticeable noise.

They are observing.

Leo immediately recognized that it was a hunting action; they were scouting.

Are they using the psionic network to send the intruder's location deep into the lair?

Leo did not give them time to complete their reports.

A flash of golden psionic energy appeared at his fingertips, and two beams of compressed light pierced through the air. The heads of the two monsters exploded simultaneously, their bodies still clinging to the wall, before collapsing limply, powerless.

The tunnels began to branch, forming a network of minefields and dens. The old mine tunnel number plates were covered by an organic layer, and some forks still had broken warning lights hanging from them. Psionic tracking was no longer very effective, so Leo had to rely on scent; he detected a pheromone in the air.

The power armor was analyzing the air, and combined with its own senses, it quickly arrived at a result.

There was the lingering stench of pureblood individuals, the sweat of believers, and the primal scent of their own kind emanating from deeper within. These mingled with the dampness, flowing along the tunnel. Ordinary people couldn't distinguish them, but he could sift through them to discern directions.

Kara followed behind, her lips moving slightly as she muttered something under her breath. She was a battle nun, but this environment was still somewhat terrifying. Fortunately, Leo, whom she served and protected, was no ordinary person. Hmm, who was protecting whom here? How embarrassing.

Her finger remained on the trigger of the grenades, and the gun remained steady with her breathing.

The space in front of us suddenly opened up.

They entered a natural cave.

Above the cave hung vesicles, translucent on the surface, with shadows writhing inside. As soon as Leo looked up, the vesicles burst open one after another.

Eight pure-blooded gene stealers leaped down from the top of the cave.

Kara fired first.

The grenades fired in rapid bursts, flashes of light echoing through the cave. The foremost monster's chest exploded, its body swayed by the impact, crashing into a stone pillar. A second one charged in from the side, skimming along the ground; Kara lowered her gun, the bullet shattering its shoulder.

Leo has already moved.

The Divine Punishment Sword was drawn, its blade tracing a circle of the sun. Kara couldn't even see its movement clearly, only witnessing several golden lines crisscrossing in the cave as the pureblood gene stealer's body broke apart as it ran, its carapace, claws, head, and limbs falling piece by piece.

A monster is trying to get behind Kara.

Leo didn't turn around, but swung his sword in a backhand motion. The sword light flashed from his side and behind, cleaving the monster in two as it landed at Kara's feet.

Kara could only keep firing follow-up shots.

She fired each shot into the still-twitching remains, making sure nothing rose again.

This can't even be called a battle.

The cave returned to silence.

Leo checked Kara's condition; there were a few stains on her nail plates, but her breathing was steady and she was uninjured.

"Very good." Leo followed his intuition and chose a turn to go in. "If you can't handle the intensity coming up, now is a good opportunity to return."

"If you can't even handle this little battle, how can I be your bodyguard?" Kara felt slighted.

Leo ignored her. "The scene was cleaned up very well. It seems I have a talent for stealth."

In fact, they had already been exposed.

Leo's subspace projection had already begun to devour the psionic energy overflowing from the nearby creatures the moment it stepped into this area.

The tunnel has completely changed.

The original mining structure was no longer discernible; the walls had transformed into chitin, their surfaces covered with a network of blood vessels, resembling the passageways within some colossal beast. The blood vessels pulsated, pumping fluids into the distance. The ground was slippery, and occasionally, fragments of human bone and metal could be seen embedded within.

The strange smell in the air grew stronger, and the power armor's filtration system switched to a more suitable mode.

Kara's face was hidden behind her helmet, and she moved more cautiously. She no longer swept the gun barrel rapidly as before, but instead kept it always in line with her line of sight, pausing for a moment to confirm any deviation.

Leo also felt a stronger psionic feedback.

The whispers pressed against his ear, repeatedly jostling his thoughts; they had no clear meaning, like some incomprehensible language. His psychic vision was like being in a sandstorm, interfering with the Primarch's judgment.

He really regretted not studying Terra's information properly in his previous life; he had originally thought these insects only knew how to eat.

The Holy Spirit can flow slowly beneath the skin, but does not spread rashly. The structure here is too complex; a sudden eruption could burn down these fleshy channels and affect the structures on the surface.

They continued walking.

Finally, light appeared at the end of the passage.

A blue-green fluorescent light emanated from the inner walls and the ground, and a humid, hot smell permeated the air. Even the outer layer of the power armor was covered with a layer of damp mist. Kara bent down and adjusted something on the armor.

"Your Highness."

"I can smell it too."

"I've turned off the outside air circulation. I suggest you turn it off too, and avoid contact with the air here."

"I wish this Primarch's nose wasn't on my face."

Leo crossed the last bend and came to an open space.

"Your Highness... this place smells like..."

"What does it look like?"

"The morgue, the kind where the body is soaked and rotten."

"Your metaphors are becoming more and more vivid, Sister."

Leo was stunned as soon as he finished speaking.

Kara had just peeked out from behind Leo and saw all this; she slowly raised the muzzle of her gun.

The sight before him made Leo's stomach churn.