Chapter 243: Iron Hand: The Seventh Son and the Round Moon

"Don't... don't make idle talk..."

The person wiped the corner of his mouth, speaking in extreme weakness, and, with a friend's support, sat to rest at a table near the shop's door.

Not long after.

Two waitresses dressed in maid outfits forced themselves not to show disgust, using mops and buckets to clean up the vomit.

The customers sitting nearby, however, wouldn't mind the shop's image like the waitstaff; after smelling the nauseating odor, being able to hold back from swearing is already good.

Fortunately, the ventilation system was strong, quickly expelling the foul smell outside, restoring everything in the bar to normal.

But the person who vomited showed no sign of improvement; now he was lying back on the seat, his head tilted upward, having fallen into a deep sleep.

Sensing that the situation was abnormal, the friends finally stopped joking and teasing, and gently shook him, trying to wake him up.

"Look quickly." From Leon's perspective, he could directly observe the area near the bar's entrance.

Hearing that, Ai Da, who was sipping their drink, turned their head to look.

"I think it's best to leave here first," Leon suggested again at that moment.

"Okay." Ai Da nodded in agreement, set their glass down, raised a hand toward a nearby waitress and called:

"Hello~!"

"May I help you with something?" the waitress asked as she approached.

Ai Da picked up the phone on the table and said, "We'd like to settle the bill."

"But your set meals aren't ready yet," the waitress hesitated.

"We don't want to eat anymore, mainly because..."

Ai Da didn't finish, but they turned away, pointing toward the door, and also showed a frowning, disgusted expression.

"Sorry, please follow me," the waitress instantly understood and led Ai Da toward the front desk.

Leon, who hadn't spoken the whole time, downed his beer in one gulp, stood up, grabbed the satchel beside him, met up with Ai Da who had finished paying, and prepared to leave the bar together.

When passing by that group, they again smelled the pungent odor.

At the instant Ai Da, arm in arm with Leon, pushed the door open, they glanced sideways and saw that person's breathing was rapid, eyes rolling white, and even green liquid beginning to ooze from the corner of his mouth.

They stepped out of the bar.

"Huh~." Ai Da breathed heavily, looked toward the public seats opposite the bar and said, "Let's go over there."

"Alright." Leon had no objection.

The two then sat down.

Ai Da pretended to touch up their makeup while continuing to observe, and saw more and more customers covering their mouths and noses, fleeing the bar in panic.

Leon, pulling out his phone, glanced at the surveillance camera installed above the bar, fiddled with it a bit, and whispered to Ai Da:

"According to facial scans, that group are maintenance workers responsible for the underground system of Zone 04; I've already identified their activity range today, and later we can go investigate."

"Also, the nanoscopic scan shows our bodies are perfectly normal, with no foreign objects inside, so there's no need to worry about infection for now."

"Okay." Ai Da closed the makeup case, put it back into the satchel, and asked, "What about the company?"

"I've already notified the company, but communications are delayed, and we still need to gather more intel, since this could also be a phenomenon caused by local parasites," Leon said, tucking away his phone.

While the two were talking, three airships belonging to the emergency division arrived on the scene.

The airships deployed marshals dressed similarly to Earth police officers to maintain order, while medics wearing masks and white uniforms entered the bar.

The side of the public seats was already empty, and Leon and Ai Da's figures likewise vanished into this street awash with pink and purple.

———————

…

Soon after.

At least a hundred light‑years from the Arcadia colony, within the ε star system of the Bojiang Constellation, the planet Zhi Yuan Star, famed as the "World of Casting," is orbiting in the Third Orbit.

Because the ε star of Bojiang emits a solar wind and Zhi Yuan Star's unique magnetic field, the entire planet is enveloped in aurora‑like light, making it an even more tourist‑friendly destination than Arcadia.

Approaching to observe Zhi Yuan Star.

One can see, in low Earth orbit, numerous massive space stations resembling a single gun barrel over 1.4 km long, called "Orbital Defense Platforms."

Each platform is equipped with a 910‑meter gun barrel that can fire 10‑ton tungsten‑iron projectiles, its power exceeding the 20‑ton main gun of a UNSC Marathon‑class cruiser.

Besides these defense platforms, low Earth orbit also hosts scattered deployments of the UNSC's 3rd and 4th main fleets, since among all human colonies, Zhi Yuan Star ranks just below Earth.

Each year Zhi Yuan Star supplies the UNSC and UEG with large numbers of warships and vessels.

Within Zhi Yuan Star's atmosphere.

On the sun‑facing northern hemisphere surface, three of Umbrella's shipyards house Zeus‑class heavy aircraft carriers undergoing upgrades.

The three Zeus‑class carriers are, respectively, Sui Bian's flagship Courage Anthem, Kelakesi's Shadow of the Raven, and the flagship of Umbrella's Seventh Legion, Steel Impact.

Before the three flagships complete their upgrades, Zhi Yuan Star will simultaneously host Umbrella's three legions, bringing its defensive strength to its peak "her."

However, the Seventh Legion's Iron Hands, originally tasked with defending the ε of the Bojiang Constellation where Zhi Yuan Star lies.

Even after the flagships finish their upgrades, Zhi Yuan Star still enjoys the protection of the Iron Hands.

Currently the three legions are temporarily stationed at an Umbrella‑exclusive base five kilometers east of the shipyard, large enough to house 500,000 people, essentially a town.

The base houses shipyard workers and over ten thousand armed security personnel, so even after the three legions, totaling nearly 90,000 people, arrive, it does not feel overly crowded.

On the base's northernmost side stands a newly built simulation training area.

Its scale is comparable to a city block, with simple buildings of varying heights, as well as alleys, intersections, and streets.

At this moment, a six‑person squad is traversing a narrow alley.

Each member of the squad averages 2.5 meters tall, dressed in black training uniforms and wearing white protective gear for training.

Armed with. 75 caliber explosive‑arrow rifles and the legion insignia on their gear, they are Astate members of the Dark Crow Guard.

The ammunition loaded in the magazines are not standard deuterium‑core explosive arrows, but rubber bullets that are non‑lethal to Astates.

Just as the squad is about to exit the alley, the six Dark Crows choose to half‑crouch on the ground, maintaining vigilance.

"Teng! Teng!" came the muffled report of a grenade launcher firing rubber rounds from outside the alley.

"Charge! Brothers!" and the battle cries of the Astartes.

Hearing the commotion, the two Raven Guard stepped forward slowly, peeking out to observe the situation on the main thoroughfare outside the alley.

On the wide main thoroughfare, two Astartes squads—one clad in dark‑green armor, the other in silver—had discarded their bolt‑rifles and were engaging in hand‑to‑hand combat under the rule of "first blood."

The dark‑green squad are the Dark Angels; the silver‑clad squad are the Iron Hands.

And the so‑called "first blood" rule…

An Iron Hand was kicked by a Dark Angel, his body arcing in a perfect parabola toward a two‑story building.

With a deafening "boom," the ill‑fated building collapsed under the impact of the Iron Hand's body.

But moments later, the Iron Hand shoved the rubble off himself, took two steps back onto the main road, and continued fighting his Dark Angel brothers.

Within a few seconds.

The two squads acted like an efficient demolition crew, reducing nearby makeshift structures to rubble while their armor was torn off and damaged in the melee.

Seeing this,

The Raven Guard squad seized the moment, charging out of the alley, lining up and aiming their weapons at the Iron Hands and Dark Angels, then fired without hesitation.

「Teng！Teng！」

A barrage of rubber rounds erupted, striking the brothers who had lost their armor.

…

On a raised platform overlooking the training area.

Three primarchs in custom uniforms stood at the edge of the platform, looking down on the main thoroughfare's "battle."

On the far left, Corax, with slightly long black hair and fair skin, spoke: "The outcome is decided, brothers—this mock battle was won by my Raven Guard."

Standing in the center, Leon responded with a nod, yet his expression remained inscrutable and cold.

To the far right, the primarch was noticeably more rugged than his two brothers, a typical muscle‑bound figure.

He is the primarch of the Seventh Legion, the seventh son of Sui Bian—Ferrus.

"Hmm…" Ferrus stroked his chin with his left hand, right hand behind his back, and spoke in a low voice:

"The Iron Hands excel at frontal assaults, the Dark Angels specialize in shock assaults and close combat, and the Raven Guard are masters of rear‑area and guerrilla tactics. If we combined our three legions, they would complement each other perfectly."

"I hope we get that chance," Corax added.

"…" Leon merely shrugged in silence.

"Leon," Ferrus asked, "you've spent the most time with our father—surely he has some plan for fighting the xenos?"

The fact that the galaxy is filled with various alien species is no secret between Umbrella and UNSC leadership.

Within five hundred light‑years beyond human space lie the Kelts and Lone Wolves' bloody homeworlds—unknown even to UNSC high command—and Umbrella has detected star systems showing signs of other alien activity.

But when asked, Leon shook his head coolly: "No, Father said now isn't the best time to announce our presence to the galaxy."

…

While the three primarchs conversed, the base's central office building.

Inside the top‑floor office.

Seated behind his desk, Sui Bian reviewed various data and files compiled by two AIs, displayed on several holographic screens before him.

As he examined the data, he released his psychic power, shrouding the entire planet, covertly shielding the eight billion inhabitants of Prospero and slowly increasing their resistance to the warp.

Although Sui Bian's psychic might is far from being able to crush a star with one hand, enveloping an entire planet in an instant is still effortless for him.

Combined with the gradually perfected "vaccine" of the Plague Doctor, the roughly fourteen billion humans living on Earth—his longest‑held home—and throughout the Solar System's colonies now possess very strong resistance to the warp.

After the destruction of the colonists' homeworld, humanity's total population has grown to twenty‑seven billion.

There are sixty‑three extrasolar colony systems, and fifty‑four of those planets—like Prospero and Arcadia—have undergone terraforming.

Thirteen billion humans live outside the Solar System, and eighty percent of them, from birth to adulthood, can learn about Earth and the Solar System only through schooling, the internet, and media.

Those thirteen billion also received the vaccine, but lacking Sui Bian's psychic protection, their warp resistance falls short of that of the fourteen billion within the Solar System.

Therefore, Sui Bian, who shields Prospero, is considering whether, after the Valiant Anthem's refit is complete, to periodically patrol and garrison within human space, releasing his psychic power to bolster humanity's overall "resistance."

Setting aside his psychic abilities, Sui Bian's physique has also undergone some changes.

After another twenty years of development, Umbrella's Astartes force has surpassed twenty thousand, reaching roughly twenty‑four thousand.

The "father‑son bond" ability strengthened Sui Bian's physique while giving each legion a proper organization, moving past the era when a legion had only a hundred or so Astartes—a time of hardship.

Moreover, most recruits are no longer orphans but are selected from humanity's pool of compatible candidates.

Company agents approach compatible individuals from normal families, and only after obtaining parental or guardian consent do they enlist these fifteen‑ or sixteen‑year‑olds.

Naturally, those parents and guardians must sign the appropriate nondisclosure agreements; if they refuse, agents will employ a memory‑wipe device to erase all knowledge of the Astartes.

The Astartes recruit training once overseen by Rebecca has, due to the yearly increase in trainee numbers and the resulting strain, now been shared with Alekhia assisting her.

Furthermore, Alekhia, who once taught the primarchs, finds training new recruits completely natural.

As for the Golgotha Research Center, it has long ceased new research projects and now serves as a base for maintaining the God‑Body.

「. 」

At this moment, gazing at the dizzying strings of numbers, Sui Bian pondered for a moment and said:

"Red Queen, you can start noting which UNSC warships and their crews meet the criteria for inclusion in the Legion's auxiliary forces, compile the list, and send it to me—it's time for the legions to have their own dedicated fleets."

"Yes," the Red Queen replied.

"How much longer will the Valiant Anthem need to finish its refit?" Sui Bian asked again.

"About twelve Earth days, sir; please be patient a little longer."

Standing to Sui Bian's right, the White Queen answered his query and added voluntarily:

"Furthermore, sir, I have just received a report from Agent Kennedy uploaded regarding anomalies on Arcadia."

After the White Empress finished speaking, the information uploaded by Leon appeared on the office desk, making it convenient for Sui Bian to browse.

Leon?

Sui Bian knew Leon and Aida had gone to Arcadia on a mission, but he hadn't inquired about the specifics; after all, in such a huge company, it was impossible for him to personally handle every aspect.

After quickly reviewing the intelligence.

Sui Bian frowned slightly and said, "Bai Hou, notify Artemis to have her and her Round Moon hurry to the Arcadia Colony; upon arrival, secretly monitor Arcadia without revealing their presence."

"All right, sir." Bai Hou acknowledged.

(End of chapter)