Chapter 7 The Skinner
They chose the passage on the left, which seemed smaller and sloped downwards.
While the surrounding surface remains black, the strange text is now a striking silver, glowing when the lighting passes by.
Soshiyang found that his breath began to form mist in front of the eyepiece. This is not a good sign, indicating that there may be a problem with his oxygen circulation system. The World Engine is an environment where only Necron can survive. , no oxygen and no moisture.
“Enter the enemy.”
Suddenly, Axel in front stopped and everyone in the team quickly got into battle formation.
While alerting the surroundings, Soshyang looked over Axel's shoulder to the front. At the same time, a rustling noise rising from the edge of his hearing was approaching.
"Stop firing."
Occam's voice sounded on the communication channel.
"Everyone, stay still."
Soshyan obeyed his instructions, as did the other team members, and they immediately saw what was making the noise.
At that moment, the Sosh man admitted that he was indeed stunned.
Countless mechanical insect swarms emerged from the darkness and passed around them. They moved like liquid mercury, and the light of the lighting reflected on the exoskeletons of tens of thousands of types of beetle creatures.
They quickly flooded the surrounding passages, covering walls, roofs and floors as if in a moving tide.
The first person to come into contact with them was Axel, then Soshyan, and then the people behind.
They separated, then gathered together, filling every inch of space around them, and the friction as they passed was like a whisper.
From the appearance alone, no matter what they are, at least they are not organic. Each one is smaller than the thumb of a Space Marine, but it is composed entirely of metal materials.
As the tide sweeps through the channel, each beetle perfectly mirrors the coordinated movements of its surrounding species.
In just half a minute, the waves turned into streams, and the peak of the strange insect tide passed just like that, turning a blind eye to the motionless Space Marines.
As the rustling sound gradually weakened, the insect tide also disappeared into the darkness behind the team.
Seeing millions of little clicking metal legs walking past him, Axel finally let out the breath he had been holding.
“What are they?”
Axe asked.
When Soshyan remained silent, he turned to Occam, who shook his head.
"A blasphemous intelligence, used by these aliens as maintenance workers. They will attack when frightened. Trust me, you don't want to know how they look like crazy."
"Keep moving forward, be careful."
They walked lower, but at this time the tunnel along was no longer uniform, and there were many sarcophagi scattered along the wall.
About twenty minutes later, they began to descend, when Soshyan noticed something strange in the communication channel, and the irritating pop of static electricity filled his ears.
And more importantly, some data of the power armor also began to fail - they seemed to be stuck the moment they reached the surface of the world engine, and other team members also reported the same thing.
Sosh Yang didn't expect any answer, he knew there wouldn't be one.
Soon, the passage reached the end. In front of them was a hall and two passages leading to the far end. The markings on the wall became larger and in the form of silver reliefs, while the roof arched like an array of black spines. stand up.
"Is this place marked on the augur? Ockham."
"Yes."
The veteran looked down at the auger.
“It seems that the left hand side here leads to a larger hall at the back.”
"Very good, keep it compact."
They quickly moved to a larger space. Although there were traces of battles here, there were no corpses, whether they were Space Marines or aliens.
In the middle of the empty hall, there is only a giant base, with clusters of thick wires coiled around its sides like pythons, connecting it to some kind of silver-skinned statue placed on top.
At first glance, Sosh Yang thought it looked like some kind of giant, metallic spider, or an enlarged version of the tiny creature they had encountered earlier. Its shoulders are equipped with artificial crystal clusters, which glow when the illumination beam passes over it.
"Don't come near it."
Occam warned, and the team members quickly took up positions around the hall, aiming their weapons at the pedestal and the statue above.
"It's dormant."
The veteran added, like that explained everything.
“Let’s move on.”
"An enemy is approaching from the rear!"
Suddenly, Nad, who was at the rear of the team, issued a warning. All the Space Marines turned around at the same time with incredible coordination, raising their bolt guns to cover the arch they had passed through before. .
Then they heard a noise, the sound of footsteps.
It sounded a lot like the sound of a Space Marine walking by, a heavy clang of metal on metal, except that the steps were limping and scattered.
As the beam of light illuminated the dark passage, a moving flicker appeared, like a pale skin.
"What is that-"
Axel wanted to speak, but the words were quickly stuck in his throat.
At the same time, the figure limping toward the hall appeared at the edge of the archway.
It is a tall humanoid creature, but it is severely hunched over. It looks like it is made of metal, but it is slightly different.
Because it wore bloody human skin like a cloak, long strips of flesh coiled around its shoulders and shrugged behind it, the scarlet blood soaked most of the silver exoskeleton, and it was red and stained The trophies are still dripping with blood, as are the evil long claws that serve as hands.
What is even more creepy is that a human face hangs on its skull like a nightmare mask, with two green eyes burning in the empty sockets.
But it did not obtain the spoils without cost. Looking at the broken right foot and the wounds all over the body, you can see how the deceased fought back. Maybe it was originally very flexible, but now it is just a target.
"Shoot! Destroy it!"
The sound of the alien's footsteps was quickly drowned out by the thunder of bolters, and the creature was enveloped in a frenzy of rage the moment it shuffled into the hall.
With the sound of a hammer striking an anvil, the bomb smashed into its metal body, tearing away the moist skin and the active metal beneath it.
The terrifying skull-like creature quickly disintegrated under such a violent attack. As the metal flew away, sparks and smoke erupted from the circuits.
It stopped its fitful progress and dropped to one knee, going into spasm as its system was destroyed.
Subsequently, a bolt round hit the side of its skull and exploded, exposing a portion of the damaged terminal block.
Eventually it collapsed, blood still forming a pool around the flayed human skin of its victim.
“Die, monster.”
Soshyan approached and fired one final shot into its head, blasting it into a cloud of sparks.
"What is that?"
Putting down the gun in his hand, Soshiyang stared at the wreckage on the ground. He recognized the broken face as belonging to a soldier of the Fourth Company.
"A curse may be the reason why these Necrons have become so crazy."
Occam walked up and took a look, his tone revealing a sense of exhaustion.
"Curse?"
"I have also heard that there is a plague-like curse among these aliens that will make them look like this. Maybe the owner of this tomb is aware of the spread of this curse, That's when he became crazy..."
"No matter what the reason is, they are all aliens and must die."
After saying that, Soshiyang suddenly noticed something strange in the augur. .
“Is there a new signal?”
(End of this chapter)