The Bizarre Adventure of the Warhammer Guard

The swarm of insects continued to rush out of the darkness, but as time passed, the number of reinforcements gradually decreased, and several huge black shadows appeared in the hall.

Unlike springtails, they are not agile. They are short, broad, and beetle-like, with a raised back and a flat abdomen. They are estimated to be no taller than an average adult male, but nearly three meters long. They look exactly like giant cockroaches.

Its back is covered with a huge, hard carapace, covered with irregular bumps and bony spikes. It has six thick, arthropod legs, ending in claws, extending from its abdomen and evenly distributed on both sides of its body. Its head is wedge-shaped, covered with bony plates on both the upper and lower sides, with only a tough mouthpart and several pairs of photoreceptor organs exposed.

On the carapace above the first pair of legs, a pair of sharp, bony blades grow, constantly waving back and forth, ready to pierce the prey in front of them at any time.

These cockroaches stood still, mouthparts open, and sprayed several blobs of strange green liquid toward Loken.

With a swift movement, Loken dodged the liquid aimed at him. Turning around, he saw that the steel floor of the hall had already been corroded by the green liquid. The sturdy steel creaked and groaned as the corrosive liquid continuously damaged its internal structure, making it more fragile.

Raynor noticed the newly appeared Zerg units, opened fire with his electromagnetic rifle, and the spiked rounds hit the hard carapace. Some were deflected directly, while others got stuck in the carapace, but did not break through the defenses.

"These disgusting cockroaches," Reno said as he fired, "have really hard shells."

Immediately afterwards, the sound of the bomb gun in Ada's hand rang out again, and three bombs accurately hit the head, mouthparts, carapace, and joints of a cockroach's arthropods.

The cockroach's head exploded instantly, its shell was blasted open by the bomb, and one of its legs was knocked off to the ground.

The cockroach was still alive; its weakness wasn't its head, and its excess flesh allowed it to continue living for the time being. Without pausing, the cockroach staggered and charged towards the black-armored warrior before it.

Loken stepped forward, his right hand wielding a serrated sword, and thrust it upwards into the cockroach's abdomen, lifting the entire front half of the cockroach's body.

The chainsaw's teeth spun rapidly, cutting through the Zerg's flesh and blood, spewing out countless bits of meat and green blood that splattered onto his black power armor.

The scanning device inside the Loken helmet kept running and quickly located the central organ throbbing in the middle of the alien body in front of it.

He clenched his left fist and threw a punch, striking the organ throbbing deep inside the cockroach's body. The next moment, the struggling cockroach stopped moving and became completely still.

As time passed, the roar of the chainsword faded away, and the corpse of the last Zerg unit fell to the ground.

"Is it all over?" Renault asked. The continuous firing had made the electromagnetic rifle extremely hot, severely affecting the power and accuracy of the bullets.

"They've all been dealt with on the surface." Leon looked around as he changed the magazine for his explosive gun. "All the aliens in the hall have lost their vital signs."

"No other alien life signals detected in the command center," Chris warned. "Stay vigilant."

Chris was thrilled to be fighting as an Astartes for the first time, and he could clearly feel his incredible power.

Easily shattering the hard shells of cockroaches and tearing apart the bodies of springtails—things that were originally impossible—were basic operations for him after becoming an Astartes.

He also deeply loathed these insect-like aliens. On his home planet, he was a soldier, serving in the SWAT team in Raccoon City.

Later, while investigating a suspected biochemical leak, his team was almost completely wiped out. Then, zombies appeared in Raccoon City, which was destroyed by the government at the time with a nuclear bomb.

The culprit behind all of this was the Umbrella Corporation, which had driven itself mad by conducting biochemical experiments. Therefore, he later dedicated himself to investigating the truth behind the Umbrella Corporation and combating the ever-emerging biochemical mutations.

Until the advent of the human empire, they quickly conquered the entire planet with their powerful military force and terrifying technological gap, turning the planet into a unified regime, with all of humanity united under the same banner.

It also helped them quickly eliminate the bio-engineered aliens scattered around the world, as well as those heartless criminals from the Umbrella Corporation.

This made Chris quite fond of the Empire of Man, but he did not entirely agree with the ideas promoted by the Empire's Truth, especially the supernatural powers and religious beliefs.

Indeed, he had seen many imperial troops and officials, some of whom appeared to be devoted to the emperor.

He had also asked Lord Elpis and Instructor Loken, but their answers were neither yes nor no. However, this did not affect his desire to protect people.

"The oracle showed multiple life signals underground," Chris said, "and they were definitely human."

"Great!" Reno walked over to Chris. "We need to hurry and save them."

The oracle's scan identified the entrance to the underground, and the group followed the instructions, heading deeper into the command center.

The further you go in, the stranger the surrounding steel walls become. The walls are "parasitized" by some black active substance, forming black tumors of varying sizes on their surface, which are showing a tendency to expand outwards.

"Sheriff Reynolds," Loken, who was walking in front, said, "when we finish our mission and leave here, destroy this infected command center."

"Don't worry," Reno said. "There should be backup energy stored here. We can detonate that energy when we leave and blow the whole building into the sky."

As they ventured deeper, they arrived at the entrance to the underground passage, where the spiraling staircase was littered with the corpses of leaping insects and humans.

Stepping over the corpses, I continued forward to the end of the corridor. In the space ahead, I could hear people talking and see a few scattered lights.

"I am Sheriff Jim Raynor," Raynor shouted, activating the spotlights on his armor. The light focused and shone into the dark space ahead. "Is anyone still alive? We've come to rescue you."

A figure peeked out from the doorway; it was a middle-aged man with a face covered in blood. Upon recognizing Renault, his expression changed from fear to joy.

"Thank God, sir! You've finally come! We're saved!" the middle-aged man shouted, dropping his gun. Instantly, cheers and sobs mingled together.

The group entered the room, which was filled with nearly a hundred survivors, mostly women and children, with only a few dozen men armed. In the center of the room was a platform about half a person's height, on which sat a spherical device.

"No subspace energy fluctuations detected." A mechanical voice sounded in Loken's ear.

"Ada," Loken called out, "Although no psionic energy has been detected, it's better to be cautious."

"There's something inside," Ada stepped forward, her Untouchable power enveloping her entire body, and picked up the device in front of her. "It looks like some kind of launching device."

"We can study it later; the mission is complete," Loken said. "It's time to go back."