His vision suddenly cleared from a chaotic darkness.
Hanzo blinked, his dry eyes adjusting to the unfamiliar light. Before him was no longer the cramped ceiling of his rental room, but a vast, desolate, ochre-red wasteland. The sky was a murky orange-yellow, with two suns of different sizes—one bright and one dim—hanging listlessly in the sky like dying eyeballs. The air was dry and scorching, carrying the smell of rust and dust into his lungs, each breath stinging his throat.
"Is this... Warhammer 40K?" he whispered to himself, his voice sounding exceptionally faint in the silent wilderness. A cold wave, a mixture of absurdity, excitement, and immense fear, instantly shot up his spine.
His last remaining memory was a pop-up on his computer screen: "Do you long for the true sea of stars? Click 'Confirm' to start the ultimate test of 'Imperial Hegemony: Cross-Universe Troop-Spawning System'." Below it was a line of tiny, nearly illegible text: "Warning: Target universe parameters are abnormal. High-dimensional interference and extremely exclusionary civilization entities exist. Survival probability is below 0.03%..."
He clicked it. And then he was here.
Almost the instant the thought arose, a cold, genderless, and emotionless voice rang out directly in his mind:
[System initialization complete... Scanning local physical constants and energy environment...]
[Environment scan complete. Adaptation finished. Energy extraction modes: Stellar Radiation (Low Efficiency), Geothermal (Extremely Low Efficiency), Matter Decomposition and Conversion (Baseline).]
[Resource Points: 0. Initial resource pack being distributed... Distribution complete.]
[Resource Points: 10,000 (Base). Detection indicates the host is in an unprotected, exposed environment. Immediate deployment of a Basic Command Center is recommended.]
A translucent blue light screen appeared before Hanzo, its edges flowing with dense, constantly refreshing data streams. At the center of the screen was an extremely simple yet ruggedly mechanical interface. At the top was the resource display: 10,000 points. Below were several greyed-out icons, with only the first one currently flickering with a Glimmer—it was an icon of a sharp-edged base vehicle with a massive antenna and heavy armor, labeled: [Basic Command Center (Deployable)], Cost: 5,000 Resource Points.
Without hesitation, survival instinct overrode everything. "Deploy!"
The moment the command was given, the space in the open ground ahead began to warp. There was no earth-shattering noise, only a low hum that seemed to come from deep within the earth. Light and shadow folded and reorganized there, as particles of matter emerged out of thin air, rapidly taking shape under the control of an invisible force. In just thirty seconds, a silver-grey metal building, covering about two hundred square meters and over ten meters high, took root firmly in the red soil as if it had grown out of the earth. Its lines were cold and hard, its armor heavy. A radar on top rotated slowly, and several exhaust ports on the side emitted white cooling steam with a steady "hissing" sound.
[Basic Command Center deployment complete. System permissions unlocked: Basic Construction Queue, Basic Unit Production Queue, Basic Tech Tree (Partial). Please establish defense and resource collection systems as soon as possible.]
Hanzo walked into the Command Center. The interior space was simple to the point of being empty, with only a floating console in the center and holographic star maps and data panels refreshing continuously around it. The air circulation system began to work, bringing coolness and a slight scent of machine oil. An indescribable sense of security temporarily dispelled some of the panic of facing an alien world.
"Production nodes... [Basic Smelter], requires 2,000 points... then [Basic Barracks], 1,500 points... [Basic Power Plant], 800 points..." He quickly browsed the interface, his finger sliding across the light screen. "Power plant first to ensure energy, then the smelter, followed by the barracks to produce some basic units for sentry duty..."
Construction commands were issued methodically. Outside the Command Center, several spider-like Multi-Functional Engineering Robots (SCVs) that came with the base vehicle's deployment began to get busy. They used lasers to cut the ground, leveled the land, and hauled prefabricated components from the Command Center's matter conversion port, efficiently assembling the new buildings.
First was the power plant, a squat, cuboid building that emitted a low, constant hum, its energy conduits at the top beginning to glow with a faint blue light. Next was the smelter, even larger, with thick raw material inlets and high-temperature furnace exhaust ports. Finally, the barracks, structured similarly to the Command Center but on a smaller scale, its side hatches tightly shut, awaiting the birth of the first batch of soldiers.
Resource points were consumed like water, then slightly replenished as the smelter began slowly extracting rare elements from the crust and the Command Center converted energy from the environment. Hanzo was fully focused, calculating the use of every resource and planning the next step of development. He even began to fantasize that with the troop-spawning speed and tech tree provided by this system—which far surpassed the conventional Imperium of Man in Warhammer (at least it seemed so)—perhaps... perhaps he could truly carve out a world of his own in this cruel galaxy. Chaos is a ladder, and he seemed to have grasped a reasonably sturdy rung.
Just then, a piercing alarm tore through the steady air inside the Command Center without warning!
[Warning! High-energy reaction detected approaching! Energy signature matching... Warning! Match failed! Signature database incomplete! Determination: Extreme Threat Unit! Heading: Due East, Distance: 15 kilometers, Approach Speed: Extremely High!]
Hanzo's heart lurched as he threw himself toward the main console. The external monitoring footage was forced onto the main screen. Under the murky orange-yellow sky, several brilliant points of light were streaking through the air at incredible speeds, trailing milky white cone-shaped clouds caused by breaking the sound barrier. Even through the screen and thick armored walls, the booming sound of the air being torn could be faintly felt.
Too fast! From the time the alarm sounded until the light points entered visual range, only a dozen or so seconds had passed.
"What is that?! Natives of this planet? Or..."
He stopped mid-sentence. The light points drew closer, and their silhouettes became clear. Were those... humanoids?
No, those weren't ordinary humanoids. They were mobile, metal mountains painted in gold and blue! Their average height exceeded three meters, and they wore heavy power armor decorated with sacred emblems, eagle wings, and skull reliefs. They held massive and dangerous weapons like Bolters and Chainswords, sprinting and leaping across the rugged wasteland with agility and speed that defied physical common sense, each step kicking up large clouds of dust and gravel.
Space Marines! An Astartes Chapter! And... blue and gold livery? Hanzo's memories surged frantically. Was it... the Son of the Emperor? No, that's not right; the colors were different, and the details were off... Before he could figure it out, an even more breathtaking sight appeared. Behind that squad of Space Marines (about ten of them), a figure even larger, more dazzling, and wreathed in brilliant golden psionic flames leapt down from a Thunderhawk Gunship that had just transitioned from a high-speed assault into a low-altitude hover!
The humanoid didn't make a loud noise upon landing, as if gravity were merely a suggestion to him. He was half a head taller than even the ordinary Space Marines, his armor more magnificent and ancient, covered in the marks of countless battles and sacred runes. He carried no ranged weapon, only a greatsword nearly as tall as himself, its blade burning with a cold, ghostly blue flame that seemed capable of swallowing light. His helmet was shaped with imperial majesty, and the eyepieces were a deep darkness, yet they made one feel as if two gazes capable of piercing the soul were firmly locked onto this newly established "xenos" base, still venting cooling steam.
Without any identification, an extreme fear—born from the depths of his genes or perhaps from the deep-level associated information in the system database—instantly seized Hanzo.
That was a Primarch. One of the Gene-Primarchs of the Imperium of Man.
But which one the hell was it?!