Chapter 03: Steel Decays, Stone Endures (Patreon)

"Truly, an AI based on one stolen from the Blood Ravens is excellent at picking locks and sneaking around."

Looking at the pile of things his red AI-mech had quickly dug up for him, Nathan couldn't help but praise it.

This thing was indeed quite impressive, directly unearthing many useful materials for him. Although he could convert other things, the better the material, the less energy it consumed.

Although he still had a considerable amount of energy, he needed to use it sparingly.

"I still lack manpower. It would be great if I had a group of people to work with. Speaking of which, should I create a warband? Anyway, with the Empire's chaotic efficiency, I probably wouldn't be discovered."

Nathan had heard of this largest cesspool he had ever seen. Anyway, as long as you didn't fall to Chaos, you could freely jump back and forth between loyalty and betrayal.

At most, you wouldn't have the Empire's supplies, but he didn't really need their so-called supplies anyway. Since he could create everything himself, he didn't need their supplies.

"Tsk tsk tsk, as expected of a Hive World. The things here are really quite good, um..."

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

"Who's setting off firecrackers?"

Several muffled sounds came, which made Nathan pause for a moment. But he soon realized that it didn't sound like firecrackers.

Thanks to the public security of Celestial Empire, it once made Americans think that all people from Celestial Empire were bold. Their first reaction to hearing gunshots wasn't to hide, but to stroll over and see what was going on.

Although Nathan was also thick-skinned, he still reacted.

"It sounds like bolter fire."

He muttered to himself. This sound effect was something he'd heard many times while playing Space Marine 2.

"Yo, let me see who's TTK-ing over there. Oh, those are Chaos cans!!!"

When Nathan strolled over like a curious chicken to see what was going on, he found several iron-gray cans forming a shield wall and slowly advancing.

"Holy crap, five iron cans, and the ones on the other side are... PDF, or IG? Whatever, it doesn't matter. But hehe, Iron Warriors, gene-seeds. This kind of bad can's gene-seed should have more energy than a good gene-seed, hehe..."

At this moment, Nathan's face showed a greedy expression. Gene-seeds were essentially products of the Warp. Bad cans, no matter what kind of bad cans, surely had higher quality energy. He had already made himself a super-large battery.

It was placed in the Theatre of a Thousand People, and he could draw from it at any time. The main reason for doing this was that Nathan was a little afraid of becoming a non-human, non-ghost thing like Hua.

Anyway, his current energy was full. As long as he maintained a full state, even if he continued to break through the upper limit, he had to proceed gradually. He couldn't become fat in one bite. But no matter what, it was always better to have more energy reserves.

So...

Nathan took out a large loudspeaker and raised it.

Seriously, everything in Warhammer was very bullshit and metaphysical, with a large gap between the upper and lower limits. The damage that the Four Chaos Gods could cause was terrifying, but that was in the Warp.

In the real universe, the effect was much weaker. For example, after the Plague War, Nurgle needed to go through a series of rituals to retaliate against the Imperium.

But no matter what, he wasn't afraid of these bad cans that never took off their helmets.

"Iron within, Iron without."

With Nathan's high-pitched loudspeaker, the several Iron Warriors who were slowly advancing were stunned for a moment. Then they suddenly turned their heads and looked angrily at the source of the sound.

Then these Iron Warriors saw a small figure in a red robe and the mech beside him. Then they abandoned the firing line in front of them, turned around, and walked towards Nathan.

But...

"The Imperial Fists are the light of the Imperium, the most loyal and noble legion of the Imperium."

"The Imperial Fists are masters of defense, their fortifications are the strongest and most perfect defense systems in the world."

"The Iron Warriors' fortifications are garbage compared to the Imperial Fists, with poor defense and a lack of aesthetics."

"The Imperial Fists are the glorious guardians of Terra, the Iron Warriors are only fit to be cannon fodder on the front lines."

"The Imp..."

"Tsk tsk tsk."

But after just saying a few words, Nathan was a little surprised to find that. The several Iron Warriors casually threw the shields in their hands aside, ignoring the Kastelan Robot beside him, and charged towards him.

"They're angry, they're angry, they're angry!!!"

Seeing this, Nathan almost burst out laughing, then silently took a step back. Immediately afterward, countless bolter rounds slashed down, all deflected by the shield on his mech.

Seriously, although this thing was a Kastelan Robot in appearance, Nathan had modified the internals beyond recognition to disguise it. So, despite Nathan dismantling a lot of things, the overall strength of this mech was much stronger than when it was originally a Dreadnought.

Looking at the Iron Warriors charging towards him like runaway trucks, Nathan wasn't in a hurry. Just as they were almost upon him, he suddenly gave an order to the machine beside him.

Thump!

A muffled sound came, and several thousand times the gravity instantly slammed the Iron Warriors to the ground. This was the gravity field Nathan had installed on the robot, which he called "Dominion."

Astartes had the physical qualities of Captain America at minimum, but unfortunately, they couldn't withstand such pressure, even with the protection of power armor.

In an instant, blood spurted out. Even if their power armor could withstand it, their bodies couldn't. After all, these things hadn't undergone ascension and didn't have a bunch of metaphysical Warp stuff to protect them.

"Tsk tsk tsk, five gene-seeds. But it's a pity, the Iron Warriors have relatively few mutations."

Looking at the several bad cans in front of him, Nathan didn't hesitate. He had the mech beside him throw them into his Theatre of a Thousand People, then controlled the several robots he had left inside. He directly stripped them of their power armor and threw their entire bodies into the converter.

After doing all this, he clapped his hands and walked towards the area in front.

A place that these Iron Warriors were attacking should have some good things... right?

Before Nathan could say anything, he saw a Commissar and a few soldiers cautiously emerge. When they saw Nathan, their faces lit up with joy.

"We are the 72nd Regiment of the Aestia Planetary Defense Force, ordered to guard an STC template. You must be the Tech-Priest sent to retrieve the template."

"Um... yes."

"Please show your identification."

"Here..."

The authority of the Herrscher of Sentience activated, beginning to read memories.

The authority of the Herrscher of Reason activated, hand-crafting identification.