Cherreads

Chapter 303 - Chapter 302: Space Hulk - The Core of the Tempestus battle barge!

[You drive your power armor forward, ceramite plates constantly falling away from the damaged frame. Each step sheds another piece of protective plating, leaving a trail of broken armor behind you like breadcrumbs. The servos grind and protest, barely functional.]

[You cross a silver river flowing with liquid living metal, the substance gleaming with unnatural luminescence. It moves against physics, flowing uphill in places, pooling in impossible patterns.]

[Out of the corner of your remaining eye, you glimpse countless metal limbs slowly extending from the viscous surface. They rise from the liquid metal like drowning hands reaching for salvation, raised high toward the sky in what might be supplication or threat.]

[It's as if some powerful entity is trying desperately to break through an invisible restraint, clawing its way toward freedom one centimeter at a time.]

[You take a deep breath, your enhanced physiology struggling to process the strange atmosphere. You shake your head violently, trying to clear what seems to be an illusion or hallucination. The vision persists for several more seconds before finally fading.]

[Without looking back, without allowing yourself to wonder what those reaching limbs might signify, you follow the Canoptek Scarabs' guidance. You run deeper into the World Engine, which grows increasingly bizarre with every passing corridor. The architecture becomes less functional, more organic. Living metal writhes in the walls.]

[Soon after, you finally arrive near the massive Hypercube Prison where the C'tan shard Yggra'nya has been imprisoned for untold millennia.]

[The structure looms before you: a perfect cube of black metal fifty meters on each side, covered in glowing hieroglyphs that hurt to look at directly. Energy crackles across its surface in patterns that suggest both containment and torture.]

[As long as you can successfully destroy the control center maintaining the prison's integrity, the shard will escape. Your bargain will be fulfilled.]

[Just then, you suddenly notice that the Canoptek Scarabs, which have been guiding your path with unwavering precision for hours, have disappeared entirely. The corridor ahead is empty, silent.]

[You immediately tense, every combat instinct screaming warnings. Your hand moves to your weapon.]

[You slowly draw the green-glowing hyperphase sword from the back of your power armor's mounting rack, gripping it tightly in your palm. The blade hums its eagerness for violence.]

[The next second, an enormous Tomb Sentinel suddenly reveals its terrifying form from the shadows cast by nearby metal structures.]

[The construct stands easily six meters tall, a spiderlike horror with six massive segmented legs and a central body bristling with weapons. Its chassis gleams with silver and black, decorated with kill-markings from wars fought before humanity learned to make fire. Green optical sensors lock onto you with predatory focus.]

[You don't hesitate. You immediately swing your hyperphase sword and charge directly toward it, roaring a wordless battle cry.]

[Sharp, gigantic limbs descend repeatedly from above your head like falling pillars. Each one strikes with enough force to crater reinforced metal, embedding themselves deeply into the nearby ground. The impacts send shockwaves through the floor.]

[You dodge desperately in your damaged power armor, the failing servos barely responding fast enough. You weave between descending strikes by margins measured in centimeters, hyperphase blade flashing as you counter.]

[You slash continuously at the Sentinel's metallic limbs, the blade cutting through living metal joints with each precise stroke. Severed components clatter to the floor, sparking and twitching.]

[After a brutal exchange lasting perhaps thirty seconds but feeling like hours, you successfully destroy this Tomb Sentinel. The construct collapses in sections, its core systems finally failing.]

[However, more Tomb Sentinels, drawn by the sounds of combat echoing through the corridors, begin converging on your position from all directions. You hear their approach: the clicking of multiple legs on metal, the whir of targeting systems powering up.]

[Without hesitation, you tear a melta bomb from your power armor. Your fingers work the activation runes while already calculating the throw. You arm the device and hurl it toward the path ahead where the most Sentinels approach.]

[You feel a surging heatwave wash over you instantly, carrying the familiar scent of superheated metal and vaporized atmosphere. Continuously exploding fire blooms in a chain reaction as the fusion charge detonates.]

[Before the large number of Tomb Sentinels can surround you completely, before their formation can tighten into an inescapable net, you use the melta bomb's devastation to clear a path. You sprint through the gap while it still exists.]

[You reach the control center within seconds.]

[The structure resembles a temple more than anything functional, all ornate pillars and carved surfaces. But the technology humming beneath the decoration is obvious: power conduits thick as your torso, crystalline matrices pulsing with contained energy.]

[You casually tear two melta bombs from your armor and throw them into the temple-like control center without ceremony or hesitation. They bounce once, twice, before coming to rest against critical systems.]

[After more than half of the control center is melted by the sudden burst of scorching heat, after the fusion fire consumes targeting matrices and power regulators and containment field generators, you notice something change.]

[All the surrounding mechanical devices seem to enter an extremely eerie state of absolute silence. Every system stops simultaneously, as if holding a collective breath.]

[Even the Tomb Sentinels pursuing you immediately abandon their attack. They turn away and rush frantically toward the Hypercube Prison, their programming screaming priorities you've just violated.]

[But it's already far too late.]

[Terrifying energies, appearing like multicolored flames that burn in shades with no human names, suddenly surge from within the Hypercube Prison. The containment field flickers, wavers, begins to fail catastrophically.]

[Enormous hands, their surfaces seeming to flow like liquid mercury while somehow remaining solid, forcibly pierce through the prison's black metal shell. The material, supposedly inviolable, tears like paper. Those massive appendages expose themselves to the outside world for the first time in millions of years.]

[Even the Canoptek Scarabs that had been clinging to the Hypercube Prison's exterior, maintaining and reinforcing it constantly, prove useless. They attempt to repair the breaches, their programming demanding they restore containment. But they're completely melted into freely flowing liquid metal just by approaching too close to those giant hands. The heat radiating from the C'tan shard is absolute.]

[You drive your battered power armor toward the front of the ruined control center. You collapse more than sit, your body finally surrendering to accumulated damage and exhaustion. You sink heavily to the ground, back against twisted metal.]

[You look up at the sky far above, visible now through gaps in the World Engine's superstructure. The silver shield that has protected Borsis throughout this entire battle is gradually dimming, its power failing as the construct's systems cascade into failure without the Overlord's coordination and the prison's energy draw ceasing.]

[A faint smile of relief appears at the corners of your mouth. Mission accomplished. The shield is falling.]

[At this moment, the incredibly powerful C'tan shard has completely torn apart the entire Hypercube Prison. Black metal shards rain down like deadly hail. The being's massive form, easily fifty meters tall, slowly floats upward into the open air.]

[It rotates its enormous head bearing three eyes arranged in a triangle. Each eye burns with power that could unmake suns. Its gaze, almost like concentrated cosmic radiation, locks firmly onto your small, broken form.]

[You watch the C'tan shard Yggra'nya approach with an expressionless face, showing neither fear nor triumph. One of your hands has already quietly gripped the activation device that would detonate all remaining melta bombs strapped to your armor. A final option, if the shard proves treacherous.]

["The agreement has been fulfilled." The words don't come through your ears but appear directly in your mind, perfectly clear despite bypassing all normal sensory input. "The World Engine Borsis, now lacking sufficient energy to maintain critical systems, will surely fall from the sky. Your Imperium is saved."]

[You don't see any movement from the C'tan shard indicating speech. Its form simply hovers, terrible and magnificent, while information flows into your consciousness.]

[You find yourself recalling the Astral Knights who bravely sacrificed themselves. Brothers who died in drop pods, in corridor fights, holding chokepoints with their last breaths. Fleet Master Sheherz, Captain Gretus, countless others whose names you carry.]

[You remain silent for a long moment, processing everything. Finally, you nod slightly in acknowledgment of the shard's statement.]

[Just then, bright lance strikes and falling cyclonic torpedoes suddenly appear in the sky above, visible now that the silver shield has completely failed. The joint fleet, waiting all this time, has finally opened fire. They're implementing the final solution: virus bombing the entire World Engine to ensure nothing survives.]

[You blink once, and the massive form of the C'tan shard Yggra'nya completely vanishes from your field of vision. It phases out of reality or escapes through some dimension you cannot perceive. Gone between one heartbeat and the next.]

[You release the detonator, letting it fall from your grip. No need for that now. You slowly straighten your back against the twisted metal, ignoring the pain that radiates through your body.]

[You casually place the hyperphase sword across your knees, the blade still humming softly.]

[You glance upward at the cyclonic torpedoes descending toward your position, their warheads designed to crack continents and boil atmospheres. Each one trails fire as it accelerates through Borsis's dying atmosphere.]

[Then you slowly close your eyes, your remaining eye's lid falling with deliberate calm. A Space Marine's death. No fear. No regret. Only duty fulfilled.]

[Soon after, your tall body, along with the damaged power armor still bearing the Astral Knights' colors, is completely vaporized by the terrifying high temperature and shockwave of the cyclonic torpedoes' detonation. You cease to exist at the molecular level, scattered atoms mixing with those of the World Engine itself.]

[You died.]

[This simulation has ended, taking one hundred and twenty-one days.]

The retainable options obtained from this simulation are as follows:

One: Melta Bomb Manufacturing (Complete)

Note: "A complete set of manufacturing protocols for standard Imperial Melta Bombs. Its provenance can be traced back to the ancient era of the Unification Wars on Terra.."

Note: " Due to their devastating effectiveness against armor and heavy infantry, Melta Bombs have become the most ubiquitous munition in the Imperium, second only to Las-weaponry. Almost every Industrial World possesses the capacity to produce them."

Note: "High enough to slay a Greater Daemon, low enough to vaporize a grunt. The verdict is the same: All Are Equal Before the Melta."

Note: "Friend, you enjoy handling melta bombs, don't you? Then blast away to your heart's content! ... Spoken with a rare smile by a certain 'Anonymous Melta-Wielding Aide' (who smells faintly of tanna tea)."

Two: Necrons' Gauss Cannon (Normal)

Note: "This is a heavy Gauss Cannon from the World Engine Borsis. Its casting time was approximately ten thousand years ago."

Note: "The Gauss Cannon is an upgraded version of the Gauss Blaster. With four barrels, its power and rate of fire far exceed the Gauss Blaster, but as a heavy weapon, a mobile base or flying vehicle is its ultimate destination."

Note: "Necron production, all excellent products, don't miss out! ... A Cryptek waved his staff vigorously, shouting to the humans."

Three: Space Hulk – Tempestus battle barge Core (???) (Please choose carefully)

Note: "This is a Space Hulk formed by the mutual fusion and collision of the wreckage of the Tempestus battle barge and the wreckage of the World Engine Borsis."

Note: "Within this space debris pile, which has a radius of merely five kilometers, there are still many precious materials that are hard for ordinary people to obtain... For example, severely damaged vehicle wrecks, valuable alien technology items, or core compartments storing the ship's machine spirit."

Note: "Most importantly, the core compartment of the ship's machine spirit is not too severely damaged and still has the possibility of being repaired by a Tech-Priest... This not only represents a loyal and reliable artificial intelligence but also represents a living blueprint for a battle barge."

Note: "However, since the entire space debris pile includes not only the battle barge but also the wreckage of the World Engine Borsis... some partially undamaged Necrons and terrifying entities like Canoptek Scarabs still have the possibility of surviving."

Note: "A friendly reminder from an unlucky scavenger: The scale of the Space Hulk far exceeds your imagination... Please find a spacious area large enough to accommodate it, and also... beware of Necrons!"

This simulation time has exceeded twenty-four hours; simulator wear and tear are not exempted.

Dimulation cooldown time: 1,210 hours

Current available cooldown time: 8,043 hours

Do you want to consume cooldown time?

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