Chapter 34: Phase Shift
"Captain! There's Chaos corruption within the Tyrant!" Norris immediately reported the situation to Lucan via his combat suit's communicator.
Hearing Norris's words, Lucan also became tense.
"Chaos? What kind of Chaos corruption?"
"I don't know… Right now, I can only sense a Warp power filled with malice!"
"Understood. Maintain your original mission plan!"
"Roger that!"
Receiving his orders, Norris once again entered a cloaked state and headed towards the bridge.
Lucan stood up. Seeing Lucan rise, Inquisitor Ian also looked at him curiously.
"Captain Lucan, has something happened?"
"Inquisitor, perhaps you can no longer remain a mere bystander in this battle."
"Why is that?"
"My soldier informs me that Chaos corruption has emerged within the Tyrant. It seems this is no longer a simple battle between Rogue Traders."
"Chaos corruption? Are you certain?"
"I wouldn't joke about such a matter! Inquisitor Ian, are you prepared to join the fight?"
"If… if this is true, I will not stand idly by!"
Having received the answer he wanted, Lucan once again approached the holographic display on the bridge.
The previously deadlocked fleet engagement had changed from the moment the Tyrant's engines were disabled.
Although still outnumbered, the enemy frigates dared not approach the Golden Ram; the difference in firepower and tonnage between the flagships was too great.
And though the Sword Rain and the Pioneer were also frigates like their opponents, their Mechanicus refits and more powerful shipboard equipment gave them a distinct advantage in engagements between vessels of the same class.
"Could a Rogue Trader Dynasty that has dabbled in Warp knowledge, perhaps even been thoroughly corrupted, be defeated so easily?
But even if the enemy summons a powerful daemon within their warship, I can still utterly destroy it along with the ship!
A Greater Daemon? It probably couldn't tank a hit from a macro-cannon, could it?"
But Lucan still had a bad feeling.
And at this moment, within the Golden Ram, on a deck section breached by an assault pod…
The floor was littered with the corpses of the enemy boarding party, and even two destroyed combat servitors.
These bodies had not yet been cleared away. Suddenly, one servitor, which should have been completely inert, twitched and then eerily powered up.
The stumbling servitor struggled to move towards a Cogitator near the breached hull.
The moment it touched the Cogitator, a segment of peculiar scrap code entered the Cogitator's internal systems.
Having completed its mission, it then completely lost power.
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The contingent led by the two Forgefiends split at a corridor junction. One headed towards the engine deck to deal with Damon's Raiders, while the other's path was directly towards Norris's direction of advance.
At this moment, Norris had also donned his tactical visor. As the Warp energy grew increasingly dense, the lighting fixtures on the ceiling began to flicker erratically.
"The elevator past the forge workshop leads directly up to the bridge!" Norris, mentally reviewing the route, suddenly stopped.
If the previous Warp energy had merely permeated the surroundings, now he sensed a Warp corruption so dense it felt almost physical, and it was approaching him.
The malice emanating from the Warp made Norris's skin crawl uncontrollably.
Heavy footsteps echoed from around the corner.
Norris stood perfectly still, not making the slightest sound.
Surrounded by dozens of corrupted tech-adepts, the Forgefiend lumbered out from around the corner.
"What… what is this monster?!"
Norris's heart began to race. Although his mind was now filled with a great deal of combat knowledge, it couldn't directly enhance his willpower.
The terrifying appearance of the Forgefiend before him made Norris gulp involuntarily.
Yet, even this almost imperceptible sound caught the Forgefiend's attention.
It swayed its massive head, looking towards Norris's position, and its enormous body, which nearly filled the entire corridor, began to move towards him.
The corrupted tech-adepts also noticed the Forgefiend's unusual behavior. They looked ahead warily, but the empty corridor showed no sign of any living creature.
Watching the approaching Forgefiend, Norris's mind raced.
He was cloaked, but only invisible; his body still had a physical collision volume.
If the enemy advanced directly in their current dense formation, a collision was almost unavoidable.
"Do I flee… or fight?"
Norris tightly gripped the C-20A in his hands.
After a fierce internal struggle, he chose to fight.
"The Captain's mission must be completed!"
He slowly raised the C-20A in his hands and switched to lockdown rounds.
As Norris pulled the trigger, the projectile unerringly struck the Forgefiend's massive torso.
It didn't matter if it was daemonically possessed or a creation of profane Warp technology; as long as it was still a machine, it couldn't escape the game-mechanic effects.
A single lockdown round didn't do much damage but was extremely insulting. The bullet didn't penetrate the Forgefiend's sturdy armor, but it enraged the beast. However, when the Forgefiend tried to saturate the corridor ahead with firepower, it found its body seemed to have completely rusted up, unable to move even an inch.
Seeing sparks fly from the Forgefiend's body, the corrupted tech-adepts knew an unknown enemy had appeared.
They raised their arc weapons and phosphor weapons, firing wildly down the corridor, not missing a single corner.
Norris, however, activated the phase shift device on his chest.
Before the weapons could hit him, he vanished from his spot.
In the eyes of these tech-adepts, they only saw a sudden flicker but no figure.
And as he blinked, Norris's C-20A also fired. A dense spray of armor-piercing rounds tore through the tech-adepts' bodies. Unfortunately, these individuals were heavily augmented; though not killed, their firing actions faltered.
Norris recalled the various combat techniques in his mind. He channeled psionic energy into the psionic blade in his hand, and a ghostly blue energy enveloped the blade.
The sharpness of psionic energy combined with a monomolecular edge effortlessly sliced through the bodies of these tech-adepts.
The dual enhancement from his psychic powers and the combat suit increased Norris's speed severalfold.
These corrupted tech-adepts didn't even know who their enemy was before most of them were cut down.
The Forgefiend finally broke free from the lockdown round's control.
The blasphemous soul within it let out an uncontainable roar of fury.
The barrels of its Hades autocannon began to spin. At this moment, the Forgefiend made no distinction between friend or foe; terrifying firepower saturated the tech-adepts' last known position.
But no matter how fierce your firepower, you still had to hit your target.
During the time the Forgefiend was immobilized, the phase shift's cooldown had completed. Norris blinked again. This time, he appeared directly on the Forgefiend's back. Through a gap in its armor, he saw the furnace that powered the construct. Without hesitation, he plunged his psionic blade into it.
As the furnace was destroyed, the Forgefiend's massive body crashed to the ground, once again becoming lifeless metal.
(End of Chapter)