Chapter 66: Lackeys of the Xenomorphs!

The meat-grinder battle lasted for nearly thirty minutes. With the fall of the last alien, this welcoming ceremony formed by a purple wave finally came to an end, leaving behind over one hundred thousand corpses.

The high ground chosen to cope with emergencies was now leveled with the ground, which was filled with the bodies of the xenos.

"Tally the casualties, clear the battlefield, and remember, leave no survivors."

Stepping out of the defensive position, Romulus looked at the carpet of flesh and blood before him. A Genestealer’s skull was facing him.

That pair of eyes locked firmly onto Romulus, as if trying to carve his appearance into its mind.

Crack!

An iron boot crushed the skull, sending deep purple fluids splashing in all directions.

"My lord, what kind of alien is this?"

Withdrawing his gaze from the torn storm shield and dutifully performing the task of delivering the coup de grâce, Orlando asked.

Although Romulus's prompt response had kept their casualties to an absolute minimum, the fearlessness and lethality of these unknown xenos had left a deep impression on him.

"A vanguard force sent by an even more terrifying species, capable of expanding its population by corrupting biological genes," Romulus replied.

The current situation on this planet was likely complicated; even Genestealers could easily invade the upper hive.

Those so-called Imperial nobles were probably...

At this thought, the transhumans exchanged glances.

It was questionable how many living beings on this planet could still be truly called human.

Romulus then pointed a finger at the dead Genestealers.

"Take these aliens, for example. A significant portion of them—or their parents and ancestors—were once human."

As soon as these words fell, almost all the Imperials present showed expressions of shock, instantly followed by boundless fury.

"My lord!"

Catching the crux of Romulus's words, the eyes of the Black Templar chaplain seemed to erupt with flames of fury in an instant.

"Are you saying these creatures contaminate the sacred gene-seed bestowed upon us by the Emperor?!"

Aliens that contaminated human genes.

A single sentence drove the Imperial higher-ups present to the brink of madness.

For the Imperial elite, who suffered from extreme racial purity obsessions and insisted on hard-coding even their equipment to their own genetic signatures, this was an utterly unacceptable existence.

Clack—

The elevator cables of the mechanical sanctum emitted a strange noise, and all weapons instantly aimed at the swaying chains.

As the chains ascended, however, the arrival was not an enemy.

The Imperial noble who had been in communication with Cawl had finally arrived tardily.

"Thank goodness, reinforcements have finally arrived."

This was an exceptionally respectable-looking noble lady of the Imperium. Her voice was gentle and warm, seemingly carrying a certain magical allure as she stepped forward completely undefended, exposing herself and the cultists behind her to the muzzles of the troops.

'The Emperor be praised, these damned aliens and the wretched compatriots under the sway of their evil faith have slaughtered so many humans. Our flowers were broken before they could even be presented.'

As her soles stepped upon the flesh and blood of her pathetic compatriots, hot tears welled up in the lady's heart.

"Please forgive me, my lords. Constrained by harsh reality, I was unable to prepare a welcoming ceremony worthy of your noble status."

She hurried forward, a near-perfect smile on her exquisite face, followed by a large crowd of cultists.

They rolled out gold-threaded red carpets along the path, arranged flowers, and with impeccable etiquette, distributed fruit to every guardsman.

Everything seemed normal.

Yet everyone felt something was deeply amiss, though the Imperial noble's identification code could not be forged.

"Please allow us to host you, my lords. Within the governor's palace, we have already prepared a holy feast for you."

Everyone tightened their formations, cautiously eyeing the cultists.

These people were completely wrapped in black-and-purple robes, revealing only eyes filled with inexplicable emotions.

Intricate religious patterns were embroidered on their garments, which, from a distance, resembled the phantom of four arms embracing the galaxy.

"Sister Arabella, what kind of faith is this?"

The chaplain frowned, feeling an instinctive discomfort.

"It seems to be some branch of the Ecclesiarchy?"

Arabella hesitated slightly, eventually arriving at this conclusion after observing the iconography.

"Yet I recall that the primary world of Piety Prime houses a shrine of the Order of the Bloody Rose. Those sisters have always been fervent and would never acknowledge splinter sects of unknown lineage."

As a canoness, it was impossible for Arabella not to recognize an Ecclesiarchy branch with a clear and ancient heritage.

Seeing this scene, the pre-emptively aware transhumans resolutely raised their weapons.

"Kill them all."

Snap—

With a speed almost invisible to the naked eye, Arthur swung his sword and directly severed the Imperial noble's head.

Her gently smiling expression froze entirely. Her head rolled along the ground, sinking into the heap of mutilated corpses, shedding a clump of golden wig.

The ensuing artillery fire instantly blanketed the welcoming procession.

"Filthy alien, tell me everything you know."

The Inquisitor gripped a cultist's head.

Beneath his robes, the cultist's head revealed pale pink skin and a bald pate.

"Lackeys of the aliens! You will be cursed, and you aliens who bewitch humanity—"

Most of the cultist's body was torn apart by a bolter round. Enduring the agony, he raised his head to spit curses at the crowd, then fixed his gaze on the surrounding Astartes.

"The Emperor's wrath will descend upon you all!"

His shrill cries ultimately ceased with the onset of neurotoxin, leaving behind a group of people struck dumb in various postures by his words.

Utterly perverse!

Truly utterly perverse!

The lips of the battle-sisters and the Black Templar warriors trembled with rage.

Having fought wars for so many years and preached the faith for so long, this was the first time they had ever been pointed at and cursed as alien heretics on a planet belonging to the Imperium.

And by actual aliens, no less!

"They have infected the Imperial leadership of this planet."

Orlando's voice was low, desperately suppressing his fury.

To cause corruption of this magnitude meant these were no ordinary xenos.

"Archmagos, has the surface detection system been established?"

Romulus asked in a deep voice.

"Signal calibration still requires time."

Cawl, too, realized the gravity of the situation.

This planet seemed to harbor something even more troublesome than Chaos.

"We must act faster, at least to find a secure stronghold. Furthermore, Archmagos, please manufacture a set of genetic testing devices capable of distinguishing aliens from humans."

Romulus suggested cautiously: "It is imperative that the landing forces undergo testing three times a day."

"Understood."

The Skitarii gathered some relatively intact alien corpses, placed them in airtight chambers for high-temperature external sterilization, and then loaded them onto the Stormbirds.

Watching the waves of shadows surging up once again from beneath the sanctum, Romulus ordered the troops to reform their defensive formation.

"Send half of the Stormbirds back for resupply, and prepare for the second wave of impact."