"It's so cold, as cold as Fulgrim's heart after he beheaded Ferrus, chilling to the bone."
A strange sigh suddenly echoed in the snowstorm.
A red-pink wooden door inexplicably appeared before Glosst, the Captain of the Black Legion's Raptor squad.
This scion of Konrad Curze abruptly retreated, looking somewhat bewildered as the wooden door slowly opened.
A sparsely dressed mortal stepped out, surveying his surroundings with interest.
"Chaos Raptor squad?"
The man raised an eyebrow slightly and spoke.
"Agh!!!"
Glosst's combat instincts propelled him into action; a high-pitched, bat-like shriek emanated from his mutated throat, blood-red light gleamed in his eyes, and he abruptly engaged his jump pack, lunging at the mortal before him.
The other members of the Raptor squad around him also moved, raising their boltguns and aiming at the mortal.
However, something unexpected happened to Glosst.
He felt a jamming and a wail from his jump pack; the power of the entire pack seemed to be instantly stripped away.
Not only the jump pack, but his power armor also suddenly became heavy, as if filled with molten lead, as if it had turned into a cage.
As a Night Lord, Glosst had never felt his movements so sluggish.
Long live original power!
The machine spirit's praise faintly echoed in Glosst's ears.
He noticed that the movements of the other Raptor squad members also became jerky, even more severely so than his own.
Their power armor betrayed them! Their weapons also betrayed them!
Glosst let out a sharp roar, attempting to overpower the betrayed machine spirit with his will.
However, at that moment, the mortal lightly shook a pocket on his belly.
Under Glosst's stunned gaze, a hundred Astartes in crimson-painted power armor instantly emerged from that small pocket.
There was even a completely black Dreadnought squeezing its way out.
For the first time since being chosen as a Night Lord from the prisons of Nostramo, Glosst felt bewildered and stunned.
But before he could be bewildered for long, the completely black Dreadnought suddenly charged in front of Glosst.
"Night Haunter! Bat! Taste Kaso's fist!!!"
The Dreadnought, roaring and bellowing, raised its iron fist, which was half the size of Glosst's body.
Glosst frantically tried to engage his jump pack behind him.
However, the jump pack let out a muffled thud, the smell of burning wires wafted out, followed by a puff of black smoke.
Bang!!! The Dreadnought's fist slammed down heavily.
Glosst felt as if he was back on Nostramo, a street hooligan getting slapped around.
Only this time, the one slapping him was the Dreadnought's power claw.
Chaos Raptor squads are assault units within the Black Legion, equipped with jump packs to descend from the sky and hunt their enemies.
The Night Haunters are particularly skilled at this, using loudspeakers to emit terrifying sounds to intimidate their foes.
It is said that they, like the World Eaters Berserkers or the Death Guard plague Marines, worship a certain Chaos God. Some speculate that this Chaos God is not one of Khorne, Nurgle, Slaanesh, or Tzeentch, but another entity unknown to the Imperium of Man.
Alexander encountered a Raptor squad composed of Night Haunters under Abaddon.
However, they posed little threat to Alexander. Eighty percent of a Raptor squad's combat power comes from their jump packs.
Unless they were mutated to the point of being integrated with their jump packs, Alexander could easily control the machine spirits within the jump packs and cut off their power.
In fact, most Astartes enemies no longer required Alexander to personally intervene.
He only needed to cut off the power to their power armor, control the machine spirits of their weapons, and then have a thousand Blood Angels emerge from his pocket to beat them up.
This was only ineffective against those with deep mutations, profound corruption, or wills strong enough to instantly overpower the machine spirit.
The Blood Angels who emerged from Alexander's four-dimensional pocket each dragged a Chaos Raptor corpse and systematically returned to Alexander's four-dimensional pocket.
The Death Company Dreadnought "Kaso the Cursed" alone carried four corpses.
After they all retreated into Alexander's four-dimensional pocket, Alexander began to survey his surroundings.
A world of ice and snow, low gravity, the Black Legion. It seemed this was Ice Moon Krassus.
Alexander left Baal using the anywhere door, guided by Sanguinius' prophecy, and using planets as stepping stones, repeatedly entering and exiting the anywhere door, finally arriving at this cold planet within the Cadia system.
According to Sanguinius' prophecy, Archmagos Belisarius Cawl and his Expeditionary Force were also traversing this cold planet.
According to Alexander's memory, it should have been Saint Celestine who guided them to this planet, searching for the hope and salvation of her prophecy.
This hope and salvation was the Eldar Webway gate on Ice Moon Krassus.
"My son is on this planet."
Sanguinius' voice echoed in Alexander's ear out of thin air. He initiated a Psyker communication with Alexander from within the four-dimensional pocket:
"It's Karlaen, my First Captain."
Upon hearing this, Alexander was slightly taken aback.
Blood Angels First Captain Karlaen. Alexander had met him in the governor's Palace on Ashford and had fought alongside him.
But before the Battle of Baal erupted, Dante ordered Karlaen to take half of the First Company's Terminator warriors to reinforce Cadia.
In the original history, Captain Karlaen should have encountered Khârn's obstruction.
However, due to the influence of Sanguinius' resurrection, Khârn was released by Khorne onto Baal, and Captain Karlaen might have therefore reached Cadia relatively smoothly, merging with Archmagos Belisarius Cawl's forces and joining the Expeditionary Force.
Alexander pondered for a moment, then took out his Staff of Seeking from the four-dimensional pocket and whispered:
"Belisarius Cawl."
The Staff of Seeking then fell.
The blizzard still protected the Expeditionary Force, and Reyna's face was a little pale.
Although she couldn't understand the whispering murmurs from the Warp, the constant droning was a significant mental strain.
The Expeditionary Force had temporarily camped in a canyon amidst the snowy mountains, using rocks and crevices to shield themselves from the swirling snow. Reyna was able to rest for a short while and looked at the Expeditionary Force before her.
Currently, the largest contingent in the Expeditionary Force was the Cadian 184th Regiment, left to Reyna by General Drost.
The entire regiment was now composed only of Ashfordians; the Cadian warriors had chosen to hold the last defensive line on Cadia.
Fortunately, the remaining Ashfordian warriors were all well-trained.
The harsh cold of Krassus had left their skin frostbitten and blackened, but it had not affected their spirit in the slightest.
In addition to the Cadian 184th Regiment, the entire Expeditionary Force also received support from the Knights of House Taranis; these massive Knights were the most powerful firepower of the entire Expeditionary Force.
Furthermore, the Expeditionary Force also included Lord Karlaen, First Captain of the Blood Angels, who had once supported Ashford, along with over forty elite Terminator warriors, and a squad of Battle Sisters from the Order of the Martyred Lady.
Marshal Amalrich of the Black Templars and his battle-brothers were originally also part of the Expeditionary Force.
However, he chose to stay behind on the Iron Soul, challenging Great Raider Abaddon to buy time for the entire Expeditionary Force.
May the Emperor protect his soul.
As she pondered, Reyna's gaze fell upon the three individuals at the very center of the camp.
Saint Celestine, with her wings lowered and radiating light, Reyna had only heard of her in legends and never expected to witness her in person.
Carrying the Inquisitor's Seal and wearing Psyker goggles was Inquisitor Greyfax, who had once been captured by Trazyn the Infinite and released by the Necron during the Battle of Cadia, but still had Necron nanomachines remaining in her body.
And the largest figure was Archmagos Belisarius Cawl, this Archmagos was said to be a legendary figure from the Great Crusade era, now guarding an unknown holy relic.
These three were the true core of the Expeditionary Force.
The holy relic guarded by Belisarius Cawl was the objective protected by the entire Expeditionary Force.
And Saint Celestine had received the Emperor's revelation, guiding the Expeditionary Force to this cold planet in search of hope and salvation.
However, Ms. Greyfax always harbored suspicions about Saint Celestine. She had initially strongly opposed following Celestine's guidance.
But Belisarius Cawl detected the Necron nanomachines beneath her flesh, which could control Greyfax to a certain extent. Belisarius Cawl used this to override Greyfax's objections.
Reyna sadly realized that the entire Expeditionary Force was not a united front.
The Knights of House Taranis were loyal to the Adeptus Mechanicus and only followed the Archmagos' command.
The Battle Sisters only trusted Saint Celestine's guidance.
Reyna and Captain Karlaen were caught in the middle.
Reyna believed in the loyalty of Saint Celestine, the legendary living Saint, while Captain Karlaen seemed to believe Celestine was similar to Sanguinius of the Blood Angels.
But at the same time, both were trusted by Inquisitor Greyfax, serving as her allies. Inquisitor Greyfax, as an Inquisitor, theoretically had the authority to command Reyna and Captain Karlaen.
This made Reyna's scalp tingle.
What made Reyna most uncomfortable was that she knew almost nothing about the purpose of the Expeditionary Force.
She could not learn from Saint Celestine what their hope and salvation for this journey were.
Nor could she learn from Belisarius Cawl where the holy relic would be escorted.
Reyna didn't even know what the holy relic was. Reyna briefly looked at the modified Triaros Armored Conveyer.
This troop transport was even equipped with fortress-grade Void Shields. What kind of holy relic was worth such protection?
And what was the covenant that Archmagos Belisarius Cawl had once murmured about?