Chapter 3: Emergency landing

As a reincarnator who traveled from the scientifically enlightened M3 era to the barbaric and ignorant M32 era, Leon naturally did not believe in the God Emperor's words. But after being helped by him, Leon began to wonder whether the one sitting on the golden throne was a man or a god.

If he is a human being, why doesn't he understand the principle of helping others to the end and sending the Buddha to the west?

It's not possible that after escaping from the warp, I will be smashed into a meat paste in the real universe?

Thanks to the incredible strength of materials in the Warhammer world, the escape ship that passed through the dense atmosphere was completely intact except for some blackening of the armor plates. However, this spacecraft, which was not designed to fly in the atmosphere from the beginning, obviously did not conform to the aerodynamic aesthetics.

The plasma engine that was reduced to fit in a miniaturized warp engine could not provide the power of a powerful brick flying machine.

Leon tried his best to let the plasma engine provide downward recoil and even injected his energy into the engine to make it overload, but the downward momentum did not decrease at all.

Seeing that the spaceship could not be saved, Leon could only open the hatch, use his mechanical claws to fix himself to the outer edge of the spaceship, and begin to dismantle the plasma engine and warp engine at high altitude.

This was a life-and-death battle, but fortunately, Leon, who usually dug graves everywhere, was no stranger to this.

He removed the warp engine steadily without any auxiliary equipment and directly connected a plasma engine to himself. When the spaceship was about to fall to the ground, he jumped off the ship with the warp engine and ignited the plasma engine at the same time.

The tail flames from the plasma engine burned the red robes that represented the identity of the Mechanicus, and also melted Leon's mechanized lower body. Fortunately, the engine's power was sufficient for this weight, and with Leon's careful adjustments, he landed smoothly on the ground with the plasma engine on his back.

He raised his hands to cheer for this successful emergency landing without anyone watching, but his half-melted legs did not support such an idea. Before he could raise his hands, his legs, which could not support him, had already made him fall headfirst onto the ground.

However, this did not affect Leon's interest. The joy of escaping death made him turn over and want to laugh out loud. But in the process of turning over, because he was lying sideways and could see the surrounding environment, he keenly noticed a fact.

His emergency landing was not without presence.

The half-melted legs temporarily made Leon unable to move, but this was no reason to sit and wait for death. Leon calmly activated the energy shield on his body, and a plasma pistol quietly popped out from under his wrist.

He put down the warp engine in his arms, pretending to deal with his lower body, and used the robe on his upper body and the light from the welding gun to hide the plasma pistol under his wrist that was charging energy.

Just when Leon seemed to be concentrating on protecting his legs, a bolt pistol was silently pressed against Leon's head from behind.

"Don't move." Leon heard the man behind him say this to him in low Gothic.

"Before threatening anyone else."

Leon was not afraid. He turned his wrist like a juggler and aimed the fully charged plasma pistol at the man behind him. "I suggest you think about your head first."

"You think a plasma pistol can kill me?"

"There's more than one plasma pistol. Are you suspecting the backhand of a tech-priest?"

The man snorted coldly: "I'm not afraid of sacrifice."

"There are always some people who regard themselves as brave heroes. They are eager to sacrifice, but they never think about how much value their sacrifice can bring."

Leon pointed to the bushes ahead that were already moving slightly, where the companion of the man behind him should be hiding.

"Instead of confronting me here, why don't you give up the idea of ​​capturing me and cooperate with me on an equal footing to seek a different future for you and your companions who are also trapped on this planet. Or did you go to so much trouble to get behind me just to die with me?"

The man behind him was silent for a moment, and Leon could hear his heavy breathing. A moment later, he felt the bolt pistol against the back of his head being moved away by the other party.

"You are smart." The other party's voice was unrecognisable: "Whether it is your self-rescue during the crash or the current negotiations, I can feel that you are extraordinary."

"I just believe in my skills and value. Besides, you were the ones who threatened me first. I just want an equal exchange status."

Leon shrugged and extinguished the energy in his ion pistol. "I haven't seen you in all this conversation. To show your sincerity in cooperation, shouldn't you stand in front of me and let me see you? You know, my legs and feet are not that convenient right now."

The other party did not speak, but Leon heard the sound of the other party's footsteps. Not long after, a tall figure stood in front of him. The other party was two point five meters tall, and the shadow he cast when he stood in front of Leon almost completely covered him.

Leon immediately noticed the traces of modification on the opponent's body and the reserved interfaces arranged in a regular pattern. The unexpected situation made him widen his eyes and exclaimed in a low voice: "Astarte?"

Leon had done a lot of analysis and imagined many situations before: the other party could speak Low Gothic, which meant that the other party was also a member of the empire, or had been a member of the empire; the other party could approach him quietly, which meant that the other party had received standard military training; the other party's steps towards him were not brisk, which meant that the other party should be an armed personnel who had undergone certain biochemical transformations to increase his weight...

All these conditions put together still failed to make Leon think that the other party was Astartes.

However, after seeing the other person in person, Leon immediately realized the reason for his misjudgment - the other person was not wearing the power armor that Astartes rarely took off, and only used some armor plates and animal skins that seemed to be removed from the power armor to cover his vital parts.

The difference in weight caused Leon to misjudge the situation, but the opponent's attire also made Leon instantly aware of the opponent's situation.

"How long have you been trapped here?" He asked with a smile.

The man had a cold face and didn't say anything.

He was not surprised that Leom could recognize their identities, and he had no intention of answering his questions.

Leon didn't care. He continued to ask: "Why, even if you don't plan to say anything else, you still have to introduce yourself, right? Knowing each other is the basis for further cooperation, right?"

"Ademir." The man opposite paused for a moment, and Leon caught a slight change in his expression: "Belongs to the 13th Legion."

"Oh, the Thirteenth Legion..."

Leon dragged out the tone, and combined with the changes in the other party's expression, he had some idea of ​​the other party's true identity: "My name is Leon, an ordinary tech-priest."

Ademir seemed to have sensed something from Leon's performance. He cautiously revealed his identity, but he didn't understand how just these two sentences of his made the other party realize that something was wrong.

All he could do was to keep his face straight and shut his mouth, then wave his hand to call over his two brothers and pretend to carry Leon away.

"Don't bother with that." Leon raised his hand to reject them: "As long as you cut off the irregular part of my leg that has melted, I can recover my basic ability to walk."

There were no Chaos believers' favorite scribbles on the other party's naked body. Combined with the other party's self-proclaimed title, Leon figured that the other party was either an old guard who was unwilling to accept the split of the legion, or a renegade regiment that neither followed the Empire nor believed in Chaos.

Although these two are not as dangerous as Chaos Cultists, they are not very friendly. The value of a Tech-Priest can certainly protect oneself from them, but protection alone is not enough, and one must not be controlled by them.

"We don't have much time for you to repair it slowly by yourself." Ademir still had a cold face.

"There are many dangerous things on this planet. Your crash attracted more than just us."

"?" Leon raised his head and asked in surprise: "There are still indigenous forces on this planet?"

"No, only wild beasts."

"Only wild animals? If there are only wild animals, why don't you kill them all..."

"roar--"

Before Leon finished speaking, a thunderous roar exploded in the jungle. The sound was far away, but it was quite penetrating. Leon didn't even see the startled birds. On the contrary, many birds were frightened by the sound and fell to the ground.

Leon looked in the direction of the sound, but only saw an unarmored Astartes walking out from behind the jungle and reporting to Ademir: "About five kilometers away, approaching us quickly!"

Ademir nodded slightly, and he ordered the two Astartes to lift Him. Leon, who could already vaguely feel the ground shaking, did not object. The group ran in an orderly manner in the direction away from the creature.

"What on earth was that?" Leon, who was dragged along the ground by two Astartes until sparks and lightning flew all the way, asked Ademir, "Not only was the sound so loud, but people could feel the ground shaking from five kilometers away? What kind of beast could be so big?"

"We will soon cross an open area, and you will know when you look back!"

Facts proved that what Ademir said was true; the huge monster behind them was indeed chasing them relentlessly.

Not long after Ademir and his twenty or so brothers met in an open area, a monster covered with brown-yellow scales, with gray-blue stripes, triangular ears, and a pair of forelimbs with flesh membranes rushed out of the bushes.

Its overall appearance was like an enlarged version of an ancient pterosaur, but its body, about 15 meters long, made it crawl on the ground. Its wide-open mouth and constantly dripping saliva undoubtedly showed the cruelty and bloodthirstiness of this monster.

The Astartes seemed familiar with the monster in front of them. Ademir quickly began to give orders: "Mark the power armor and hide it simply. Now we have to travel light. My team will take the mechanical priest to the base, and the others will be divided into two teams to cover us. After the cover is completed, evacuate in time. Each team will receive two bolt pistols. If someone is about to be caught up, use the bolt pistol to shoot the vital points to delay time. Save your life first, don't use your own life to save ammunition."

The Astartes who received the order quickly divided into two teams. Leon took the opportunity to hide the warp engine, removed from the ship, together with the power armor.

During the hiding process, Leon noticed that they were carrying disassembled MK2 expedition power armor without power backpacks, but the markings on the shoulder armor were deliberately painted over, making it impossible to tell which legion they were from.

In addition, their weapons and ammunition were also quite scarce. The team of seven or eight people only had two bolt pistols and only two magazines of ammunition. As for melee weapons, everyone had one, but looking at the broken chainsaw swords and dull power swords, Leon felt that it was questionable whether these melee weapons could exert 30% of their power.

These Astartes in front of them had already reached the end of their rope. Although they were still extraordinary fighters with bare hands, looking at the monsters in front of them that they had never seen in reality but were extremely familiar with, Leon sighed helplessly as he didn't think such an Astartes could defeat the opponent.

"Tigrex?" He groaned, trying to piece together his shattered worldview a hundred years after coming to the Warhammer world. "Why is there a Tigrex here?!"