Warhammer: Lord of the Endless Monster Horde [300]

When Huron realized one of his Chaos planets was in trouble, he led his Space Marines there at once.

Normally, a Chaos warband-controlled planet could go years without contacting him, and it wouldn't be odd.

All the warbands under the Red Corsairs were autonomous. Only those who joined his Astral Claws were tightly managed.

This troubled planet had a warband of about 500 Chaos Marines who'd joined Huron decades ago.

They could hunt, raid Imperial or Xenos shipping, and even fight other Chaos warbands.

If something happened outside, Huron wouldn't care. But once in the Maelstrom, infighting was forbidden. If anyone broke that rule, Huron would intervene personally. In the Maelstrom, no internal fighting was allowed. If you wanted to fight, leave.

Chaos cultists lived here, as did some Imperial mortals and Xenos. The Imperials were even allowed to worship the Emperor for a while, though soon enough Chaos missionaries would arrive.

A few days ago, a massive war erupted on the surface of this planet, and Huron picked it up on his scans.

No one could break his rules, so he took his flagship and Chaos Marines to the planet.

Upon entering orbit, he immediately sent scouts to investigate the massive war.

"Lord Huron, we've checked. The planet isn't suffering Chaos infighting. Instead, orks are breeding everywhere. The surface is covered with ork fungus," a Chaos Marine reported.

In the galaxy, there are two natural disasters: the orks, who wage war everywhere, and the Tyranids, who have only invaded recently.

You can negotiate with most xenos, even with Chaos, but not with these two. There's only one thing to do: either kill them all or be killed.

Compared to Tyranids, orks are easier to deal with.

"Looks like this warband's luck ran out. Let's land and clear every ork from the planet, then hand it to a new warband," Huron said.

There were about ten million orks—enough to require four or five thousand Astartes to clear them all.

Strange! Why would the Maelstrom suddenly have orks? There were no ork hulk ships nearby. Did some drifting ork debris land here and start a population?

"Lord Huron! New discovery! Some huge titan creatures are slaughtering orks on the planet, and there are a few Emperor-class titans—not Imperial, but gold robots and a silver one we've never seen," another Chaos Marine said.

On the screen, EX Red King smashed the surface into a lava sea with massive fists, burning orks to ash before they could even approach. EX Gomora, Bemstar, and other kaiju slaughtered orks. Bemstar, in particular, devoured orks en masse.

Zettons bombarded the orks. After the warboss appeared, Rhodes ordered his kaiju to show no mercy and exterminate all orks.

Previously, they held back to stimulate war, but with Rhodes' kaiju, they could have killed all orks in a day.

"Something's wrong! Prepare for battle! These orks were deliberately seeded here," Huron said.

If it were drifting ork spores, they'd only have tens of thousands in one area. But ten million? That's someone planting orks planet-wide.

But who would do such a thing? If the goal was to weaken Huron, letting the orks grow and attack would make sense. Planting orks just to kill them off? Only the Dark Eldar from Commorragh would do this kind of thing—but they'd take the orks away, not just kill them!

And these giant kaiju weren't Dark Eldar work either.

"Order: no ground assault. Exterminatus! Gather the Chaos fleet and destroy everything on the planet," Huron commanded.

This planet and its orks and kaiju seemed like a trap, waiting for someone to bite.

So the best solution was Exterminatus: bombard the planet into rubble!

Just then, a blue flash appeared aboard Huron's flagship, followed by applause.

Rhodes himself appeared on the ship. The battle below was over—he'd bred two ork warbosses and captured them both, saving some ork corpses instead of converting them to system coins.

Now Huron was his target.

"Not bad, Huron! You've earned my respect!"

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Before Rhodes finished, the Chaos Marines drew their bolters and opened fire. But all the rounds were stopped by Rhodes' armor shields.

Huron waved, ordering his Astartes to stop shooting and surround Rhodes.

"Who are you? How did you get on my ship? You're brave, I'll give you that!" Huron laughed.

"It's not bravery, just confidence in my strength. Blackheart Huron, let me introduce myself: I'm Rhodes, and I'm here to recruit you. As for the planet below, I was just running an experiment—needed two ork warbosses. Hope you don't mind," Rhodes said.

"Funniest joke I've heard! You come to my turf, slaughter my people without asking, and then ask if I mind? Of course, I mind! Even if you're a Primarch, you'll die here today," Huron snarled.

"You're right about one thing: I am a Primarch of the Imperium and a powerful one. Let me show you."

As Rhodes spoke, his body swelled, transforming into a giant.

A terrifying 60-meter-tall figure stunned all the Chaos Marines. A human… became a Titan!?

Rhodes glowed red, radiating terrifying energy waves. Then, a cross-shaped light beam shot from his body, piercing the command deck and blowing a hole in the Chaos flagship.

The ship's balance was lost; everything was sucked out by explosive decompression.

Chaos Marines hurriedly sealed their helmets and grabbed onto things to avoid being sucked into space. Even so, many unlucky ones were sucked out, about to become space debris.

Rhodes waved his hand, sealing the breach with an energy shield.

"Huron, killing you is easy for me. Our power levels are worlds apart. Now, you're surrounded!" Rhodes looked down at Huron, arms crossed.

Accompanying Rhodes was his mothership, Mecha Ultra Brothers, King Joe, Iron, Bemstar, Bemular, and Melba.