CHAPTER 100 — The Fall of Vexilaris Forge World
[Package from Tony Stark: Iron Jet Pack — Accept?]
Gaius stood alone in the arming chamber, golden armor fully sealed and humming with power. The ritual had ended, the serfs knelt in a semicircle around him, awaiting orders.
He stared at the notification for a brief moment.
Then he accepted it.
[Package Accepted]
A burst of light, soft, blue, and clean, flashed in front of him.
The serfs gasped. Some flinched. Others dropped to one knee, thinking a hostile warp-entity had manifested.
In a blink, a massive gold-and-red jet pack materialized on the arming platform, landing with a heavy metallic thud.
Several serfs recoiled, hands going for emergency purity seals.
"The Emperor protect!"
"It's an enemy warp artifact!"
One servitor raised a mechanical arm in defense.
Gaius lifted one palm calmly.
"This is mine."
The room froze instantly.
Every serf lowered their head in shame, realizing their mistake. They bowed in unison.
"Forgive us, Lord Captain."
They weren't truly at fault, far from it. They had just exited the warp, their senses still settling, and none of them had ever seen an object simply appear out of thin air before.
Gaius stepped toward the machine.
The jet pack gleamed brilliantly, sleek gold frames, reinforced red plates, deep thruster vents, two Arc Reactor cores housed safely in armored casings. Stark's design felt almost like a relic, yet carried a foreign, modern sharpness.
Tony Stark floated beside him, positioning himself in front of the jet pack.
Tony grinned. "Alright, big guy, listen up. You don't need tools. You don't need a servitors. Just~" He mimed grabbing something heavy, lifting it, and swinging it behind his back. Tony made sure to exaggerate each step. "Pick it up… swing it back… and it'll attach automatically. Your armor will do the rest."
Gaius observed the gestures silently.
Then he copied them.
The jet pack weighed around 240 kilos, but Gaius lifted it as if it were nothing more than a cotton. When he swung it behind him, the pack's armored casing split apart with a clean mechanical hiss, unfolding and reshaping itself into a harness of interlocking plates. Each segment slid into place with precise clicks, wrapping around his back and shoulders like a custom-fitted exoshell.
They wrapped over Gaius's auramite chestplate like living metal.
CLACK-CLUNK-LOCK
The armor recognized the new system instantly.
Power streams synchronized. The pack hummed. Pressure locked.
Tony floated closer, pointing at a small recessed switch hidden beneath two overlapping plates near Gaius's lower back, a button nearly impossible to press accidentally.
"This one," Tony said. "Emergency release. Press it, and the pack detaches instantly. Drops to the ground. Only you can activate it."
Gaius examined the feature quietly.
"Thank you, Tony."
Tony smirked. "You're welcome."
Mindy crossed her arms, looking at Gaius's back. "That jet pack looked insanely heavy. Is quite big but perfect for his size."
She let out a low whistle, clearly impressed.
Tony gave a small grin, lifting one shoulder in a casual shrug. "Well, you know. My work tends to improve people."
The serfs bowed again as Gaius stepped past them. Diana, Naruto, Saeko, Mindy, and Tony's forms followed him like a silent escort.
Gaius left the arming chamber.
He walked through the long hallway, boots heavy and clear against the steel floor. Ahead, the massive blast doors of the drop pod launcher opened, releasing cold air and the echo of engines warming.
Inside stood Titus, Metaurus, and two Bladeguard Veterans, already fully armored.
No words were exchanged.
They simply nodded, soldiers who understood each other without speaking.
Gaius stepped into the drop pod. The others followed. The door sealed.
Naruto grinned wide. "This is so cool! I'm getting excited already!"
The ship's machine spirit roared.
The clamps released.
The drop pod launched like a meteor.
It tore out of the Oath of Rectitude's launch bay and into the open void. Bright flames trailed behind it, streaking through space as it plummeted toward the ravaged world below.
Vexilaris, a Forge World that had once been a towering city-planet of factories and foundries, now lay in ruin. Smoke and fire scarred its surface, and orbit was swarmed with massive Tyranid bio-ships, moving together like a writhing, living cloud, blotting out the stars.
The pod cut through them.
The machine spirit controlled every thruster, swerving past falling spore mines and massive shadow-organisms large enough to swallow tanks.
Naruto leaned forward, eyes wide.
"Those… those things are enemies! They're flying?!"
The drop pod screamed toward the surface.
Impact alarms blared.
The ground rushed up to meet them. the titan hangar floor, a vast steel canyon built to house war machines the size of skyscrapers.
The pod hit.
BOOOM—!!
A crater formed. Shockwaves ripped outward, tearing hundreds of Tyranids apart like they were made of paper.
The hatch blew open.
Titus and the Bladeguard stormed out first, bolters raised, firing disciplined bursts.
THUD-THUD-THUD.
Alien bodies fell in piles, slick and mangled.
Gaius stepped out last. Slow. Unhurried. Warhammer in hand, jet pack glowing faintly behind him.
The Tyranids screeched and surged forward.
Tony, noticing the creatures, frowned with curiosity and activated the chat's Identification ability on the nearest one.
A window appeared:
Tyranid Gaunt – Biomorph Class
Basic Description: Gaunts are the most common Tyranid frontline creatures. Fast, numerous, aggressive, and disposable, bred to overwhelm enemies in sheer numbers. Individually weak, but deadly in swarms.
Tony squinted. "Huh. The most common one."
Mindy's eyes widened in horror. "Wait, THAT'S basic?! They're basically a swarm!"
Saeko exhaled softly. "This swarm… it's like a horde of zombies. so many, and completely overwhelming."
Diana's expression tightened. "If this is just the most common type… then this enemy is far more dangerous."
Tony frowned and spoke up. "Yeah. And these aren't even the big ones." They had already seen the Tyranid fleets in orbit, they looked like a massive, writhing living organism, but the creatures had been too far away for the Identification system to register.
Gaius lifted off the ground. Using the jet pack for the first time, he wasn't entirely sure if he could control it properly. He took a cautious step forward, and then tried it.
It wasn't a leap.
It was a smooth hover, the thrusters humming with clean, steady power.
He rose several meters into the air, then cut the upward thrust.
The jets rotated downward.
The entire jet pack flipped its output.
BOOOOOOOOM—!
Gaius descended like a falling star, both hands gripping his warhammer, the weight of his armor adding to his momentum.
He struck the center of the horde.
The ground ruptured beneath him. Everything within dozens of meters was vaporized instantly. A shockwave blasted outward, the force driving into the metal floor beneath and sending a deafening roar through the area. Hundreds of Gaunts were flattened in a single impact, a massive portion of the horde wiped out in an instant.
Tony raised both eyebrows. "As expected."
Naruto blinked. "Expected of what?"
Tony smirked. "Expected of me, Tony Stark."
Everyone else ignored him.
Titus and the others advanced. They switched from bolters to melee, chainswords, power swords, and Metaurus's double-edged axe. The formation tightened, clearing the sides and rear while Gaius drew the majority of Tyranid aggression.
The swarm tried to overwhelm him again.
A lone gaunt broke from the horde, charging from behind.
Gaius turned slightly.
He didn't bother using the hammer.
He simply slapped it.
The creature's head exploded like rotten fruit.
Then Gaius flew again, blasting upward, before slamming down into another dense cluster of Tyranids.
A second meteor strike.
Another clearing of the battlefield.
Titus and the Bladeguards kept pace from behind, but maintained distance, they knew getting too close meant being caught in the shockwave.
Saeko watched quietly. "Tony's jet pack… it made Gaius even stronger."
Diana nodded. "He's far more threatening than before. With the jet pack, his mobility is much higher."
Mindy grinned. "He's like a flying tank!"
Tony stretched smugly. "You're welcome, world."
Naruto shouted, "Gaius! That was awesome!"
Gaunts flooded the hangar from all directions, but Gaius didn't stop. He adjusted the jet pack settings, letting it push him forward just above ground level, gliding, not running, his armor no longer touching the floor.
He became a moving battering ram.
With each swing, bodies flew.
With each strike, shockwaves shattered metal tiles.
With each burst from the jet pack, he cut straight lines through the swarm like a golden spear.
Once his path cleared, he looked up.
A towering steel skyscraper, a titan temple, stood in the distance. Even from here, he could see it.
That was their destination.
He raised his warhammer.
The others regrouped behind him.
END OF CHAPTER 100
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