Chapter 26

What was said before? When the Death Watch sets its sights on a planet, the alien forms and Green Skins on that planet might be the easiest to deal with!

It's not that Green Skins are easy to beat, but rather that Green Skins never play dirty!

Or at least they won't be like the Chicken Thieves, who only play dirty!

Standing in the exact center of the rebel camp, Xisi raised his head, the corners of his mouth slightly parted as he gazed at the Giant Emperor Portrait before him.

Because the four-armed Divine Emperor is exactly the common means the Chicken Thieves use to infiltrate the Human Empire.

By distorting the faith in the Divine Emperor, they thus deceive the suffering masses of the Empire.

The Chicken Thieves' full name is Gene-Stealers, and they are the vanguard scouts of mankind's other great enemy, the Tyranid swarm.

They mainly acquire planets for the Tyranid swarm by assimilating worlds, stealing technology, and inciting rebellions.

Thus, when a planet's Chicken Thieves reach sufficient numbers, it often signals that another terrifying alien foe, the Tyranid swarm, is about to arrive.

And the Death Watch's primary duty is to counter the Chicken Thieves' infiltration of Imperial worlds.

"No wonder the rebels here fight to the death without retreat; controlled by the Chicken Thieves, these rebels can hardly be said to retain any free will!"

Xisi helplessly withdrew his gaze from the four-armed Divine Emperor; his eyes were filled with a speechless resignation at how every step seemed to bring misfortune.

After all, the difference between fifteen to twenty billion rebels and fifteen to twenty billion Chicken Thieves is extremely huge.

Kill a hundred million of the former, and the rest will collapse.

But the latter......

You'd better hope your ammunition stockpile exceeds their numbers.

"Outside are Green Skins, inside are Chicken Thieves, and there's even Chaos on the way."

"Alert Star still managing to retain nearly ten billion inhabitants is a testament to Kaerjia's capable command."

Xisi buried his head in complaint, but having just done so not long ago, he immediately lifted his head to look ahead.

At the same time, his eyes were full of anticipation.

Daiweiluo quickly stepped out, but instead of immediately taking the elevator back in response to Xisi's expectation, he spoke directly:

"Confirmed, the rebellion in this Nest City is precisely instigated by the Gene-Stealers."

Xisi glanced at the four-armed Divine Emperor hanging high behind Daiweiluo, feeling only a deeper speechlessness toward Daiweiluo.

Does this take a lot of time?

Xisi did not voice his thoughts directly, and Daiweiluo's next words left Xisi's hopes utterly dashed.

"Based on the intelligence we've gathered, we need to head to the Low Nest; that appears to be a branch of the Gene-Stealers."

"There we can gather intelligence on the corruption of the entire Alert Star."

Daiweiluo finished speaking, when a violent explosion came from outside the fortress.

The veteran on the wall also opened fire fiercely outward.

Withdrawing his gaze from the flames that lit the entire Lower Nest's dome in the distance, Xisi suppressed the urge to curse, merely raising his sidearm and gritting his teeth as he spoke:

"Which way do we go?"

Flames, explosive shells, lasers.

In the vast, deep Lower Nest, amidst the towering illegal constructions packed thick and tight, Chicken Thieves surge incessantly from above, below, and all sides.

And at the heart of the endless Chicken Thieves, a squad lays down a barrage of fire, frantically charging toward the Low Nest ahead of the passage.

With a single stroke, he slays a Chicken Thief that suddenly burst up from the ground.

Seeing that the foe had utterly mutated, no longer resembling a human, Xisi's trigger finger grew even more fierce.

"Hybrid Chicken Thieves have already begun to appear!"

Chicken Thieves also have ranks; beyond the outermost humans controlled by them come hybrid Chicken Thieves, mutants, pure-blood Chicken Thieves, and other higher units.

And the combat power of these units also rises qualitatively at each level.

Take the mutants, for instance: in terms of sheer strength, they are not inferior to Space Marines.

Moreover, the closer one gets to the Low Nest, the higher the rank of the Chicken Thieves that appear.

Xisi shouted a warning to Daiweiluo, who swung his chainsword, cleaving a fearless mortal and sending blood spraying in all directions.

Meanwhile, facing Xisi's warning, Daiweiluo didn't respond; instead, he suddenly stared down the passage, as if finally spotting his objective for this mission, and abruptly broke from the formation to sprint forward.

Another Death Watch member followed close behind, and the originally tight two-man team became disjointed!

Xisi stared in shock as Daiweiluo charged ahead alone; he couldn't help but suck in a sharp breath, his face flushing an uncommon red.

"Regiment Commander, what do we do?"

A veteran, seeing the situation, hurriedly asked; Xisi gritted his teeth, steadied his mind, and with a single shot shattered the hybrid Chicken Thief that had leapt out of the darkness nearby.

"Follow him!"

What else can we do besides following him? The elevator's access code is in Daiweiluo's hands!

Xisi gritted his teeth and surged to the front; now without Daiweiluo, he also pushed the squad's speed to its utmost.

Around them, the darkness teemed with ever more dense Chicken Thieves, who seemed to have noticed Xisi's group of humans intending to break through, and were frantically summoning reinforcements from elsewhere to mount a defense.

No one knew how long they had been fighting in the dark, and they hadn't even kept track of when they entered the Low Nest.

When Xisi drew his blade from the eye of a massive mutant, the mutant collapsing with a thunderous crash, he finally raised his arm.

The unit immediately halted its advance; after so long fighting, the hundred-strong squad that had set out now numbered only ninety.

These were Thousand-battle Veterans; although only ten had died, it still made Xisi feel the pinch.

But Xisi had no time to dwell on his losses, for just ahead in the darkness a flock of Chicken Thieves panicked and fled from a corner, while where they had previously gathered, a Space Marine lay on the ground with his chest cavity completely caved in.

Xisi nodded to the medic beside him; the medic hurried over, performed a quick check, then simply shook his head.

Xisi couldn't help but exhale shakily, for the Chicken Thieves around him had nearly coalesced into a sea, and yet another Space Marine had died at this very moment!

He stepped forward, opened the helmet, and only after confirming it wasn't Daiweiluo did he let out a slight sigh of relief.

Gunfire roared incessantly beside him; Xisi glanced around in an instant, then turned his gaze toward the direction where the fallen Death Watch had collapsed.

"Which direction!"

Xisi spoke, and the veterans immediately followed him forward.

But as they approached that area, the surging Chicken Thieves around them gradually stopped pursuing and instead began to rush back and forth anxiously outside a certain zone.

The veterans exchanged glances, then all looked at Xisi.

Xisi stared at the deep darkness ahead and the utter silence within, completely unlike the outside world, gritted his teeth, and reloaded his sidearm.

Xisi, taking the lead, walked inside.

The Low Nest was a darkness without any light.

Underfoot was a soft, rotting sludge of unknown material.

The surrounding air carried a strange odor—not pungent, yet not dull.

The veterans were cautious, aiming their guns in every direction of the darkness, guarding against any enemy possibly hiding within.

But as they stepped on the soft rot underfoot, the first thing to break the silence was a sudden, cut-off roar:

"Inside and out, all steel!!!"

Xisi suddenly looked toward the direction the sound came from.

Daiweiluo ripped off his damaged helmet, leapt up, and swung his chainsaw sword at a blurry figure in the darkness.

But Daiweiluo's roar froze on his face, a strange spatial fluctuation held him midair.

At the same time, the fury in Daiweiluo's eyes began to tremble into fear.

This sight made the veterans' eyes narrow, then a wave of decay swept over the crowd, and an inexplicable whisper echoed deep in their souls:

"What are you afraid of?"

A floating creature with a huge head slowly drifted out of the darkness.

Meanwhile, the specialized psychic unit observing the Tyranid swarm, Xisi then began cursing wildly in his heart.

Capable of directly spawning swarm units, this Nest City probably—aside from the Tower Top—has turned everyone else into Chicken Thieves!

Not only this Nest City, but in the darkness of all Nest Cities on Alert Star, no one knows how many Chicken Thieves are hidden.

But Xisi had no mind to worry about other Nest Cities; he merely watched the constantly approaching psychic brainworm, preparing to meet the psychic attack.

But the psychic attack never came; perhaps the battle with Daiweiluo and the two Death Watch had temporarily exhausted their psychic energy.

The brainworm kept blowing waves of decay, repeatedly launching psychic assaults on Xisi.

But as the brainworm confidently approached, after being asked several times in a row, not only Xisi but even the veterans ended up expressionless, finally realizing something was wrong and stopping in place.

Beneath that huge head, it displayed a confusion that low-ranking swarm units would not possess.

Xisi felt that, under the hundredfold will of himself and his troops, this psychic attack was laughably impotent; he drew his knife and finally glared at the opponent:

"What are we afraid of?"

"We're afraid you'll run!!!"