TN: And we're back! sorry for the week long hiatus, it was not intentional since I had to get my right leg in a cast after tripping 3 floors down a stairwell (like an idiot ://) and be unable to use my PC setup upstairs BUT I should be OK now.
Anyways, Thanks for Arcanic Madness, WeissAkumu and WolfWTF for becoming as Supporters!,
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Because there were many guards here, the thing locking the door was surprisingly just a simple iron padlock.
Nicole was about to take out a hairpin to pick this primitive lock, but someone was faster.
"Watch this!" Billy spun his revolver twice in his hand, grabbed the grip, struck what he believed was an incredibly handsome pose, and prepared to fire at the keyhole.
"Have you watched too many movies?" Nicole kicked the man of iron's backside. "What if the ricochet hits me?"
Billy hurriedly explained that his targeting system had already calculated the trajectory; the ricochet would absolutely not cause secondary damage. Nicole didn't believe a word of it and just kept kicking him.
While the two were bickering, Anby pressed the switch on her chainsword. The weapon roared as the interlocking teeth spun at high speed.
Nicole had just opened her mouth to stop her when the girl had already removed the door hinges. As the door fell straight down, Anby released the trigger, and the chainsword fell silent.
"Nicole, the lock is still there." She nodded seriously toward the owner of the Cunning Hares.
"Is that really the problem?" Nicole Demara felt like she was about to lose her mind.
There were no windows in the room. It was pitch black.
"Who are you?" A boy's voice rang out from the darkness.
"Damn it! They found us!" Another voice interrupted him.
Nicole took a flashlight from her box and shone it toward the source of the sound. Between the tightly packed steel bunk beds, a group of boys and girls huddled together. Several older boys, about fifteen or sixteen, their faces dirty, forced fierce expressions as they shielded the younger children behind them.
"Be gentle. The Public Security officers are clearing the other floors."
Her words made the children glance at each other. They whispered in low voices filled with surprise and joy. But the leader still remained wary, pulling back a little boy who tried to run forward.
"Don't let your guard down. Have you forgotten? Someone relaxed before and got collared, then sent off to be 'redeemed.'" He hid the boy behind him again. "What trick are you playing this time?"
The boy's hostility and distrust made Nicole's heart ache. How many times had these children been deceived for them to react with anger at the idea of being rescued? She used the flashlight to examine the dormitory. It was horrific.
Triple-tiered iron bunks were packed tightly together. At a glance, it could hold over two hundred children. Yet the entire room had no windows and was utterly dark. The "toilet" was just several buckets piled in the corner, already full. The air was foul beyond words.
"Don't shine that thing at us!" The boy bared his teeth, tensing his frail body to appear larger. His trembling legs and arms betrayed his fear. "Who are you taking this time?"
"Taking?" Nicole began to explain, then suddenly realized there were fewer than thirty children here.
But there were so many beds… Where were the others?
Recalling what Ignis had said about those lunatics using living people's blood and organs to manufacture narcotics, a chill crawled up her spine. The horrifying implication nearly froze her thoughts.
"Listen, we mean no harm." Billy stepped forward. "The officers are clearing out the criminals upstairs."
Before the robot could finish, a shout cut him off.
"It was the officers who dragged us here!" A girl screamed. Her hair was messy, her face sallow. "They knocked on my door and said it was community service from Public Security! Then they brought me here!"
"That's right! Public Security can't be trusted! They're working with the people here!"
The children rejected the rescue, cursing in small but bitter voices. Nicole saw scars all over them—bruises, cuts, bite marks, pinch marks, and burns from electric shocks.
Billy looked helplessly at Nicole. He excelled in combat, but calming frightened children was far harder.
Suddenly, a loud explosion came from upstairs, followed by howls.
"Open fire! Free fire! Draw their attention—don't let them hurt the children! Qingyi!"
It was Zhu Yuan's voice, commanding her team as they cleared the upper floors.
After a burst of intense gunfire, silence fell. The children stared at one another in shock, unsure what was happening.
"The real officers are here." Anby tried to approach. "Not the ones who took you. We're here to get you out."
"R-Really?" "Someone really came to save us?" "Mom…"
"It's true…" Nicole said quietly, taking drinks from her box—items she had stocked during a supermarket sale.
She climbed over the filthy bunks and handed out the few bottles of water. The hostility faded. The children lowered their guard and shared the water. But there were over thirty of them, lips cracked from dehydration. The bottles were nowhere near enough.
Watching each child take a tiny sip before passing it on, Nicole wished she had brought more. But her box already held standard supplies, along with a weapons system and ammunition storage. Fitting in even a few drinks had been difficult.
"You being here means Emile's plan worked." The lead boy looked at Nicole. "How many escaped? More than ten got out, right?"
"One." Anby met his gaze. "At least we only found one. She was brave. So are you."
"Once we got the information, we came immediately with Public Security." Billy stepped forward, sensing the heavy atmosphere. "All crimes will be accounted for!"
"If I hadn't been here, maybe I'd still believe in the Starlight Knight." The boy shook his head, eyes dim. "But… thank you."
"Forget that. Do you have food? I haven't eaten in days." He looked up at Nicole.
The owner of the Cunning Hares rummaged through her box and produced compressed biscuits and energy gel packs. "Don't eat too much at once."
The children reached out weakly. Even when they got food, they lacked the strength to open the packaging and needed help.
During this, Nicole noticed strange symbols carved into their wrists and other places. Some wounds were inflamed and festering. She quickly applied medicine.
"Stay here and behave." Nicole frowned, unprecedented fury burning in her chest. "The officers and we will eliminate the bad people. Then we'll come back for you."
"No matter what you hear, don't leave before we return. Okay?"
"We know. We'll hide the food and water so they won't find it." The boy nodded, his eyes holding resilience far beyond his years.
The three from the Cunning Hares stepped out, lifting the door back into place. As the light vanished, darkness returned—but this time, a sliver of light shone through the crack.
"I knew it would be bad, but not this bad!" Nicole kicked the wall hard.
"Let's check the other rooms. Once this is over, they'll get treatment." Billy's usual flippancy was gone; he was serious now.
"And then support the other floors." Anby sheathed her chainsword at her waist. It had been crafted for her recently by a Son of Vulkan.
Ignis's shield was pierced by razor-sharp claws, though the attacker became lodged within it.
"Die, heretic!"
The roar was accompanied by the explosive crack of a thunder hammer. The half-human, half-serpent creature was blasted into fragments of flesh, leaving only two pincers stuck in the shield.
The power armor's automated systems registered multiple incoming shots—from several Guardian-type autonomous tactical mechs' main cannons. Mutated cultists surrounded him. There was no room to dodge. He attempted to activate the deflection field of his Iron Halo.
But the device had overheated minutes earlier and was nonfunctional.
He raised the shield embedded with broken claws, preparing to rely on the nearly shattered equipment.
Ignis was not alone. A veteran Imperial Fists warrior from the 30K era fought beside him. The Leviathan Dreadnought activated its projected shield, blocking the volley for the Son of Vulkan.
The Wrath of Terra roared, "For the Imperium!"
Its right-arm siege drill swept across the battlefield, clearing a bloody zone of severed limbs. The left-arm quad lascannons immediately targeted the tactical mechs.
He had intended to annihilate them with suppressive fire, but the main building stood behind them—where the children were. Suppression became precise shots. Burning laser beams pierced the mechs' logic cores.
Ignis finally released the shield—not by choice, but because it disintegrated under the strain. The claws of the Slaanesh-mutated monsters were unnaturally sharp, tearing through high-density ether alloy plating with ease. With the remaining half, he smashed down a serpent creature, the jagged break acting like a blade, splitting it in two.
Yet its twisted upper body still writhed toward the Son of Vulkan, while the thunder hammer struck another target.
Ignis seized the chainaxe. The daemon weapon roared, its cold teeth spinning rapidly.
"Finally, it's my turn!" the daemon laughed loudly. "I've waited long enough!"
Blood sprayed. Flesh tore. Heads flew. The daemon of Khorne laughed madly. It had long been deprived of blood and death.
"Kill! Kill! Take their heads! Let the blood flow! Blood for the Blood God!"
Amid the manic laughter, Ignis wielded thunder hammer and chainaxe like a green whirlwind. The hammer's impact thundered with disintegration fields. The chainaxe shredded flesh with wet grinding sounds. Hatred burned within him.
The chainaxe cleaved a serpent in half, violet-pink blood splashing across his green armor.
He shook his head, flinging blood from his visor. Another grotesque mass filled his vision—a flesh-beast gathering severed limbs, swelling until it rivaled a Leviathan Dreadnought.
It lashed at him with tendrils of membrane and muscle tipped with bone blades.
"Slay it! Endless blood and glory await!" the Khorne daemon howled. "Slaanesh's spawn are vile!"
The chainaxe's teeth spun at incomprehensible speed, blood-soaked gears purring smoothly.
Ignis charged. The chainaxe severed the tendril cleanly. Thunder boomed as the hammer blasted a massive hole through the creature.
Filthy blood and tissue poured out like a breached dam. Without the armor's sealed systems, he would have drowned.
"Take its head! Take its head! Kill! Kill!"
The daemon's shrieking pounded his skull. The Blood God's fire blazed.
Calm.
For half a second, Ignis steadied himself. He would not be controlled. He wielded the weapon—the power served him.
He struck again and again. Flesh tore apart. The flames of the god of war and slaughter ignited the monster.
Khorne despised Slaanesh utterly. His power was devastating against Slaanesh's creations—no less potent than the holy fire of The Emperor.
The flesh-beast trembled, sprouting more limbs to attack Ignis, neglecting the Fury of Terra.
The Leviathan charged. The siege drill smashed into the creature, engines roaring. Flesh was ground away in torrents of blood and fragments.
Gotthardt shifted the Dreadnought's weight, crushing the beast beneath it. The quad lascannons drove into its body.
"For Terra!"
At point-blank range, he fired. The laser beams unleashed their full fury.
After the explosion, the flesh-beast was reduced to pulp. Ignis looked up. Fewer enemies remained. Fighting still raged upstairs.
Public Security and the Cunning Hares were struggling.
The Slaanesh creatures were far tougher than expected. Small-caliber rifles and stun batons were ineffective against mutated serpents and flesh-beasts. Only Zhu Yuan's Riot Suppressor K22 provided heavy firepower.
"Cerakos!" the Son of Vulkan called. "Support the interior!"
The Son of Sanguinius beheaded a serpent with one stroke, spun, his lightning claw flashing, cutting another in half before crushing its skull. He ignited his jump pack and soared upward like a hawk.
Zhu Yuan was reloading micro-missiles into the Riot Suppressor K22. Ammunition was running low, yet enemies remained. What were these things?
There was no record of such creatures in New Eridu's archives.
Seth Lowell braced behind his riot shield against a serpent. His courage was commendable, though his legs trembled. Soon Qingyi replaced him, engaging the monster.
Just as Zhu Yuan aimed to fire, the exterior wall exploded inward.
A golden figure burst in. Two arcs of blue light flashed. The serpent tormenting the officers was cut into three pieces instantly.
"Just in time." Cerakos nodded. "With me!"
He charged down the corridor, power sword and lightning claw flashing, swiftly clearing the floor.
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