Warhammer 40K in a box

Chapter 443 Comprehensive Purification

Xi Dejia stood by the porthole, gazing at Murmansk as it gradually disappeared into the distance.

That once prosperous military fortress city has now been swallowed up by the flames of orbital bombardment, turning into a charred ruin.

The wreckage of the anti-aircraft turret, like a broken giant sword, lay diagonally in the smoke-filled city.

The heavy alloy gate was twisted and deformed, as if it had been torn apart by some indescribable force.

Her original mission was to deal with the rebels and corrupted psionics entrenched in the underground mines of Murmansk, but the sudden exposure of the gene stealers changed everything.

Without hesitation, Chen Xi immediately deployed the Tribunal's Black Ship Fleet to carry out saturation orbital bombardment of the areas occupied by the rebels.

The roar of the cannon tore through the sky, and the flames of the whirlwind torpedo turned the entire area into a lava lake.

Those traitors and their Chaos Altars didn't even have time to utter a wail before they were completely annihilated.

“Follow-up investigations are still needed, but at least for now, they are no longer a threat.” Olivia’s synthesized voice came from behind her, data tendrils sliding rapidly across the Thinker terminal: “There are no signs of life in the bombed area, but subspace contamination scanning still needs to be continuously monitored.”

Xi Dejia nodded silently.

This meant her mission was temporarily over, but Chen Xi didn't let her leave. Instead, he directly ordered, "You will follow me for the next period of time. The threats lurking in the Rostov sub-sector are far more than just this one!"

Before boarding their next destination—the Novaya Zemlya spaceport—Chen Xi gave her a new task: to thoroughly inspect the Tribunal black ship they were aboard.

Although Chen Xi had great confidence in the black ship he had been using, and the Sisters of Silence had always been stationed on it, and he had been strictly inspecting it since taking over the ship, he was still worried about the Gene Thief invasion.

Therefore, it is very necessary to conduct a thorough investigation.

Xi Dejia's figure moved like a ghost through the intricate cabins of the black ship.

From the mechanical shrine in the engine room, filled with the mingled smells of engine oil and incense, to the lower deck crammed with servants and low-ranking crew, and then to the officers' mess hall decorated with the Inquisition insignia and the Imperial Eagle...

Her empty energy field spread silently, and any psionic fluctuations or distorted life signals that tried to hide were nowhere to be detected by her perception.

An elite squad of armed sailors and combat nuns followed closely behind, making immediate arrests and genetic sampling of any targets she marked.

Ultimately, three crew members carrying amulets of unknown origin and a marine engineer who exhibited unusual physiological reactions when Sidja approached were isolated and taken away.

The atmosphere inside the Black Ship was tense, but it at least confirmed the purity of the high-level command chain.

Chen Xi sat on the command throne, his fingertips lightly tapping the fine gold armrest, his gaze coldly fixed on the shimmering points of light on the star map.

The tragedy in Murmansk was like a sharp knife, piercing deeply into his mind.

"Olivia, has the source of the pollution been identified?" His voice was deep and sharp.

The mechanical sage's divine eye flashed red, and data flowed through its logical core: "Gene sample comparison, dating of nest residue, retrospective analysis of infected individuals' activity trajectories... overall probability 97.8%."

The source of the pollution was not native to the area, but rather came from the immigrant ship 'Ural Star' that arrived in Murmansk three years ago.

The ship briefly detached from its escort formation during its voyage, entering the asteroid belt to evade capture... This is presumably during the window of opportunity for the infection event.

“A ship, a planet, nearly destroyed.” Chen Xi’s voice was icy cold: “Where did the ‘Ural Star’ dock before?” “Novoland Spaceport, Arkhangelsk Colony, and the starport in Rostov, the capital of the sub-sector.” Olivia’s answer was devoid of emotion, yet it struck Chen Xi like a hammer blow: “However, the starport in the sub-sector capital has a strict management system, and no trace of pollution spread was found.”

Although the gene-stealers, like deadly spores, had already quietly spread throughout the subsectors along with that cursed ship, the strict management system that Chen Xi had previously established effectively controlled the spread of gene-stealer contamination.

However, the contamination by these aliens is so difficult to prevent that even with a strict censorship system, they still managed to contaminate the sub-sector.

"We can't wait any longer." Chen Xi stood up abruptly, the servo joints of his power armor emitting a low hum.

His voice, transmitted through the ship's broadcast and encrypted interstellar language, reached every corner of the subsector, carrying the absolute authority of an inquisitor: "Rostov Subsector, Operation Purification of the Entire Region, Initiate Immediately!"

This order was like a bomb going off, instantly driving the bureaucracy and military machine of the entire subsector into a frenzy.

The different factions, after being shocked, quickly displayed drastically different reactions.

Following Chen Xi's orders, the Tech Priests of the Cult of Mechanics launched an unprecedented gene screening operation in the sub-sector.

The exploration drones and servo skulls were hastily modified, fitted with rudimentary but effective biometric scanners, and swarmed into the colonies and ships like metal locusts.

Every modified mechanical creation repeats the same binary mantra: "Scan, compare, purify."

According to the standards of the "Empire Mutation Self-Declaration List", the contamination of gene stealers is extremely deceptive - third and fourth generation hybrids often only show slight skull thickening or skin pigmentation abnormalities, and do not even meet the standard of "intermediate mutation" in the mutation score.

For this reason, Sage Olivia personally adjusted the screening parameters: not only to compare with standard physiological variation indicators, but also to focus on detecting those Teren biomarkers hidden deep in the gene sequence.

“Remember, we’re not looking for obvious mutants.” A tech priest in a red robe addressed his subordinates, his mechanical voice emitting a piercing buzz: “Those aliens that can be identified by the naked eye have long been eliminated.”

What we need to catch now are the polluters hiding beneath the standard tolerance for variation.

He pulled up a holographic projection that displayed the Empire's legally mandated mutation scoring criteria:
1 point: Abnormal hair, minor skeletal deformities

3 points: Extra knuckles, scaly skin

10 points: Functional appendages, psionic radiation

"And the gene stealers..." The projection switched to a dissected fourth-generation hybrid, "their score is probably only 2 to 5 points—just barely above the threshold for service."

Screening made rapid progress.

In the third loading and unloading area of ​​the Novaya Zemlya spaceport, a team of exploration drones discovered an anomaly: subtle sequence duplications appeared in the genetic samples of twelve stevedores, a feature that closely matched the Tyran genetic markers extracted from the Murmansk nest.

When the Ministry of Justice's special task force broke down the door, these "workers" were gathered deep inside the warehouse, whispering prayers to a crudely carved four-armed idol.

However, just as the purge was in full swing, undercurrents were brewing within the Cult of Mechanics.

Some tech priests astutely recognized this as an excellent opportunity to obtain precious "Terran gene samples," and they began to secretly intercept some non-critical contamination data or tissue fragments in an attempt to bypass Mars' monopoly on research.

This sparked a small-scale internal academic dispute.

(End of this chapter)