Chapter 22: Halo Device

Chapter 22: Halo Device

The Marauder, abandoning ranged fire, directly grabbed one of the Kroot's hands, and the two immediately began a contest of strength.

"Xenos! Give up resisting!" the Raider inside the suit yelled.

But the Raider's shout also ignited the ferocity of the Kroot.

"What's with the one-on-one? Just kill them all! On Imperial soil, these xenos who dare attack humans are already condemned to death!" At Lucan's shout, a group of Marines swarmed forward. Even if the Kroot were physically powerful, they couldn't withstand a pack of metal-clad giants.

Soon, they were reduced to a pile of mangled corpses.

Jae smiled, a brilliant smile; she knew she had bet correctly again. Lucan was no down-on-his-luck Rogue Trader; this was a Rogue Trader on the verge of a meteoric rise.

If she could secure further cooperation, she could almost imagine the qualitative leap her status and wealth would take!

Wails continuously echoed from within the warehouse, now reduced to ruins.

Damon led two squads of Raiders, advancing in combat formation to sweep up the remaining forces.

Damon noticed that the Raiders who, like him, had come from his world, still habitually fought with firearms.

Whereas those recruited from this world seemed to particularly favor melee combat…

He even heard some shouting things like, "For the God-Emperor! I am the Emperor's Angel of Death!" over the comms.

Ryder Collins was now sitting on the ground, leaning against a crate, his remaining right hand desperately clutching a crystal grenade.

When he saw Damon and his men appear at the breach blown in the warehouse wall, he hurled the grenade with all his might.

The casing shattered, and countless sharp crystals scattered in all directions.

The razor-sharp crystal fragments pierced through combat suits, instantly felling several Raiders.

"Medic! Emergency aid!"

The Medics assigned to each company immediately rushed forward. Nanites swiftly began repairing flesh and combat suits.

Ryder had initially thought he could take a few down with him, but seeing the soldiers who had been blasted down get back up, completely unharmed, after only a short while, he despaired.

Damon began executing any pirates still drawing breath. He felt a twinge of retroactive fear seeing the combat servitors that had been blown to pieces by grenades; during his time on the ship, he had been diligently studying this new universe.

He knew the weapons carried by servitors were often melta guns; a direct hit from one of those left no chance for rescue.

However, combat has no "what ifs." The Marauders' overwhelming firepower had neutralized those servitors before they could even bring their weapons to bear, blasting them to smithereens.

"Commander! The one who offended you has been found. Still breathing."

"Drag him out!"

Receiving the order, Damon dragged the heavily wounded Ryder out of the ruins like a dead dog.

Lucan looked at Ryder lying on the ground, staring fixedly at him, and smiled.

"I imagine when you offended a Rogue Trader, you should have anticipated this outcome, no?"

"Pah… Rogue Trader! You think you'll get away scot-free after attacking the Void Consortium?

Just wait for our revenge! Watch your cargo ships and merchant vessels; who knows when they might be completely devoured by the void!"

Ryder, to his credit, was tough, displaying his ferocity even at this point.

"Everyone heard him! He threatened me, a Rogue Trader vested with sacred rights by the God-Emperor!

I now, in the name of the Imperium, pronounce a sentence of death, to be carried out immediately!"

Hearing this, Damon immediately aimed at Ryder and pulled the trigger.

When Ryder's head exploded, it signified the complete end of this operation.

And with Ryder's death, there were plenty of factions in Footfall eager to absorb the power and wealth left in the vacuum of the Void Consortium's absence. They would help Lucan take care of the remaining small fry.

It was certain that for a long time to come, Footfall would sing tales of Lucan's ruthlessness. This was not just product promotion; it was also a clear message to everyone: don't think that just because he was a newly appointed Rogue Trader, he was someone to be trifled with.

No longer looking at the corpse on the ground, Lucan walked towards the warehouse interior. If Jae's information was correct, this stronghold contained quite a few good things, and these were now all his spoils of war.

"Lord Lucan, please allow me to help you open their vault!" Jae elegantly walked before Lucan and bowed, speaking.

"You may. Lead the way, Jae."

Jae, navigating with practiced ease, walked into the warehouse and pushed aside a shelving unit.

She skillfully entered a passcode on a control panel, and a hidden door slid open.

Jae tactfully stood aside.

"Great Rogue Trader, please inspect your spoils!"

Stepping into the room, Lucan exclaimed internally, "Well, now!"

The nearly thousand-square-meter warehouse was piled high with goods – all sorts of artifacts from xenos civilizations, some legitimate, some illicit, filled the space.

Lucan opened a crate and found it filled with Eldar Spirit Stones and Wraithbone.

Even Craftworld Eldar would sometimes purchase such Spirit Stones directly from humans, though whether they would kill the seller immediately afterward was another matter.

These items were quite popular in Imperial noble circles; they liked to have them crafted into works of art. But this required one to have strength; otherwise, being seen by certain extremist Eldar factions would bring severe trouble.

Lucan cursorily inspected a few boxes; most contained inconsequential goods. However, as he delved deeper, his psychic senses reacted.

Following the sensation, Lucan walked to a tightly sealed box. He shattered the lock with a shot from his sidearm and saw nine brilliantly purple crystal ornaments resting quietly inside.

"Such dense Warp energy…"

After opening the box, Lucan also discovered it was covered in inscriptions; the box itself was designed to suppress psychic energy.

Lucan picked up one of the crystals and found that the interior contained writing he fully recognized. Each crystal was the same.

He looked at a shipping manifest placed inside.

"Port Wander… Mandragora Merchant House…"

Port Wander was in the Calixis Sector, similar to Footfall, but its scale was far greater.

Lucan firmly committed the merchant house's name to memory. These crystals, containing such dense Warp energy, were one hundred percent not anything good.

Lucan directly absorbed the internal Warp energy. The income of a full 9,000 Psy-crystals was unexpected.

Lucan could now intuitively gauge the depth of something's connection to the Warp by the number of crystals it yielded.

"An unexpected windfall… I have enough crystals for the Factory now. It seems I can secretly collect these kinds of Warp-tainted items in the future."

But Lucan hadn't expected the Void Consortium's audacity to stop there.

When he opened the box in the deepest part of the vault, Lucan instantly recognized the item inside based on his original body's memories.

"A Halo Device? Holy Terra! Damon! Get the Ordo Hereticus over here! I know they're nearby!"

Halo Devices were no ordinary xenos artifacts. These things came from the Halo Stars, a largely unexplored region of space.

This kind of device could extend a person's lifespan, heal all injuries, and even allow the wearer to live without needing to eat or drink.

But beneath such powerful effects, the negative consequences were also terrifyingly abnormal.

These seemingly inanimate objects could, through subtle influence, possess the wearer. One year… two years… the alien soul attached within would eventually take over everything from the user, turning the wearer into a cannibalistic monster.

Such monsters couldn't be killed; fire couldn't burn them; they would even resurrect.

Within the Expanse, several Rogue Trader dynasties had been utterly purged by joint Inquisition and Navy forces for associating with such devices, their family members burned at the stake to the last soul.

Not just humans, even the Eldar active in this Expanse would unhesitatingly kill any creature using a Halo Device.

Lucan wanted nothing to do with such things. The nerve of those Void Consortium bastards…

(End of Chapter)