The arrogant Overlord was not impatient. It knew well that the humans desired nothing more than to put it to death, but then again, did it not also crave the slaughter of that Gene-Primarch?
The most pressing matter at hand was to pacify the Malchias system, assess the battle damage, and consolidate their resources before engaging in a fight to the death with the human fortress.
Thus, both sides temporarily settled into a tense calm.
One side was in the Warp, while the other remained in the material universe. Staring at each other across two different dimensions, both were planning how to utterly destroy the other.
Inside the Blackstone Fortress, a grand purge was underway.
Harlan stood near a corner, slipping into a recess in the wall as he waited for the Rangdan boarding party to arrive.
Intelligence indicated that before the fortress entered the Warp, a single boarding pod had pierced the shields, evaded the meat-grinder of fighter craft and point-defense systems, and ultimately touched down nearby.
The Champion Swordsman drew his bolt pistol from his waist, flipped off the safety, and quietly waited for the boarding party to approach.
Suddenly, a hostility sensor along the corridor reacted. The green light abruptly turned red, converging onto a specific section of the deck wall.
The black stone wall opened with a mechanical rustle, allowing the boarding pod to crash inside before rapidly sealing shut again.
The boarding pod's doors opened on three sides, and twelve elite Rangdan warriors rushed out of the cohort bay. Ferocious and menacing, the weapons in their hands caused Harlan to temporarily hold back his advance.
What the elite warriors held in their biological arms were no ordinary melta guns.
The frames of the weapons were slender and elongated. They lacked the rigid, hard lines of human firearms, possessing instead a streamlined aesthetic. The barrels were crafted from transparent glass, and within the firing mechanisms and magazine housings, a murky, dark-green slurry could be seen swirling around.
Harlan recognized them at a glance. These were the "Radiation Rifles" mentioned in the Solas intelligence reports.
Radiation rifles utilized a directed stream of radiation generated by controlled nuclear decay to achieve atomic-level destruction of matter.
If struck by that sickly green light, flesh would disintegrate at the atomic level, collapsing into a heap of inorganic ash.
The power of the radiation stream did not stop there; even the ceramite armor of a Space Marine would melt into molten iron under the intense radiation upon a direct hit.
Therefore, Harlan was in no hurry to charge out and kill them. He remained hidden in the dark, evaluating the radiation weapons.
The Rangdan warriors rushed out of the boarding craft, but confronting an empty corridor with not a single soul in sight, their fierce momentum instantly dissipated.
Where were the defense forces?
The elite warriors looked left and right. The fierce firefight they had anticipated had not materialized, leaving them highly unaccustomed to the silence.
Their boarding plan was simple: breach the human fortress, engage the defending soldiers in firefights, and acquire intelligence regarding the fortress ship before taking further action.
Now that they had breached the vessel only to find no human defense forces, the plan was becoming difficult to execute.
The fortress ship was too massive. Without a detailed map or utilizing teleportation devices for rapid deployment, they could easily become lost in the labyrinthine corridors for a long time—long enough for the war outside to be decided.
Soon, the boarding captain selected a path to one side, deciding to push forward.
As the Rangdan warriors moved away from the boarding pod, Harlan stepped out from the shadows. A mocking sneer touched his face as he looked at their receding backs. He raised his hand to operate his tactical terminal, activating the nearby Blackstone Sentinels.
Within the deep, dark corridor, the sensor lights slid along the walls, remaining directly above the Rangdan squad to mark the intruders' position.
The Rangdan warriors tried numerous methods, but whether by shooting or blasting them, they could not shake the tracking lights.
The captain tried to contact allied forces countless times, hoping to assemble more squads, but received nothing but static from the communication channels.
Irritation inevitably welled up in its heart. With the lights closely tailing the squad, the humans undoubtedly knew their position, yet they stubbornly refused to show themselves.
Prolonged, high-intensity mental focus had made them jumpy at every shadow, and the boarding party's mindset was beginning to fray, eroding their ability to anticipate danger.
Right then, the early-warning nerves within their biological armor snapped taut, and a sense of crisis surged from all directions!
A purple glow lit up within the wide corridor. Black stones dislodged themselves from the walls, purple lightning crackling between the blocks as they assembled into humanoid stone figures.
Without needing a word, the long-impatient warriors formed an attacking line, aiming their weapons at the Blackstone Sentinels.
The radiation rifles opened fire, unleashing undulating waves of sickly green rays that struck the Blackstone Sentinels, inflicting horrific damage.
Conventionally, stone did not fear most forms of radiation, but the decay rays of the radiation rifles exceeded what the black stone could endure.
As the radiation rays washed over them, the chemical properties of the black stone altered instantly. A black, shimmering luster rippled across their surfaces as the stone transformed into black glass.
Affected by the radiation, the glass structures of the Blackstone Sentinels shattered as they moved. A bolt of purple lightning trailed from a stone fist, lashed out toward the Rangdan warriors like a whip.
To the Rangdan warriors, the movements of the Blackstone Sentinels were somewhat sluggish. Utilizing their six omnidirectional legs, they easily dodged the downward lash of the lightning whip.
Drawing their plasma blades, a sweeping strike from a bionic arm severed a Blackstone Sentinel at the waist.
The purple lightning dissipated, and the Blackstone Sentinel collapsed with a loud crash, turning into debris that rolled across the floor.
The ambush had come suddenly and ended just as quickly. For the Rangdan warriors, it was not even enough to serve as a warm-up, and it instead bred suspicion in their minds.
Soon enough, their internal doubts were validated.
Across the pitch-black corridor walls, purple light swirled as one Blackstone Construct after another stepped out, making even the wide corridor feel cramped.
The boarding party attempted to retreat, only to find the path behind them also filled with Blackstone Giants. The squad was wedged tightly between the constructs, unable to advance or retreat.
More despairingly, the debris on the ground flickered with purple light once again, beginning to reassemble. Shaking their bloated torsos, they slowly stood up from the floor.
"Charge through them!" the Rangdan captain shrieked, leading the charge.
The number of Blackstone Constructs was immense, stretching beyond the horizon of sight. Furthermore, they could regenerate after being killed; at this point, it was truly the struggle of trapped beasts.
Harlan stood at the rear, watching the Rangdan boarding party become submerged by the Blackstone Constructs. He slipped his bolt pistol back into his holster and walked forward with measured steps.
Amidst the silence, the Rangdan boarders were wiped out to a man.
He walked up to the biological armor. With the death of the Rangdan brains, their psychic malice gradually dissipated, leaving behind shattered carapaces.
Harlan picked up a radiation rifle and weighed it in his hands a few times, noting its exquisite craftsmanship. It likely came from a high-precision assembly line.
There was also a genetic scanning interface on the grip, ensuring that no race other than the Rangdan could use it—a built-in anti-tampering measure.
However, Harlan's target was not the radiation rifle. He kicked aside the biological armor, sliced open a bio-pack, and retrieved a short, compact firearm.
The short gun did not look remarkable, yet Harlan treated it with exceptional care.
This was because when the Rangdan warriors had stepped off the boarding pod, the very first weapon they had drawn was this short gun; only after confirming the area was clear did they raise their radiation rifles and other armaments.
The short gun could be held with one hand and was blocky in shape. The barrel lacked rifling, and the magazine was not loaded with ordinary ammunition.
Harlan was certain that there was no record of such a firearm in Solas's archives.
This was not an intentional omission by the Primarch, but rather a new weapon developed by the xenos during their war with humanity after he had left the Rangdan.
After a careful inspection, Harlan confirmed that the short gun was a needle-firing weapon. Neatly arranged inside the magazine were dozens of armor-piercing ampoules.
He took out one ampoule, and as he gave it a gentle shake, the fluid inside flowed sluggishly.
"Rangdan brain-fluid." Harlan's pupils dilated suddenly as he recognized what the liquid inside the ampoule was.
He dared not delay. Clutching the needle-firing short gun, he jogged all the way to a teleportation node, heading straight for the command chamber of the Blackstone Fortress.
The teleportation light flared, and in the blink of an eye, his surroundings shifted as he arrived in the command chamber.
"Tch," Harlan spat. Before the command throne, Atum's armor was splattered with foul blood, and a Tech-Marine stood by his side.
Not only had the Doom Slayers arrived, but Custodian Guards were also present. Every face was grim, staring intently at that tiny, needle-firing short gun.
The Tech-Marine scanned it several times before speaking to the Gene-Primarch in a heavy tone: "According to the analysis, the ammunition for this needle gun is synthesized from Rangdan brain-fluid. Once injected into a warrior's body, it can establish a psychic link with the Rangdan."
"The brain-fluid will spread along an Astartes' neural pathways. Before the Preomnor can neutralize the foreign toxin, it can briefly hijack a Legionary's body, forcing them to attack the comrades beside them."
"Three seconds." Odysseus, a Shield-Captain of the Custodian Guard, stepped forward. His expression was dark as he specified the duration of control: "After a Custodian was struck, they were controlled by the xenos for three seconds."
"After three seconds, the immune system purged the brain-fluid, allowing the Custodian Guard to reclaim control over his body."
There was a sense of profound relief in his words—thankful that the Custodian had been surrounded entirely by his peers, who quickly subdued the compromised warrior and prevented the harm from spreading further.
Behind Odysseus stood the Custodian Guard in question. His auramite armor bore the scorch marks of bolt shells, his crimson cloak was shredded, and his face was filled with shame.
The Tech-Marine spoke again: "The reaction speed of a Custodian is exceptionally fast, so the spread of the brain-fluid's influence is naturally rapid as well."
"It took three seconds for a Custodian to retake control of his body. For other Legionaries, it is estimated that it will take ten seconds to reclaim control."
Once the Tech-Marine finished speaking, absolute silence fell over the command chamber.
The brain-fluid needle gun was clearly a counter-weapon newly engineered by the Rangdan specifically against the Space Marine Legions, designed to force Adeptus Astartes into turning on one another on the battlefield.
Fortunately, they had encountered it early. Had a Legion faced this head-on without prior knowledge, the consequences would have been catastrophic.
"Transmit a psychic message via Astropath to the Emperor Himself, detailing our findings," a voice commanded from the throne. The Slayer acted decisively, ordering the intelligence to be dispatched to the front lines.