The other party's words made Qin Yun fall into silence.
He turned to look at Blood Pigeon, who was piloting the Valkyrie.
Blood Pigeon looked somewhat embarrassed, saying weakly, "I'm sorry."
"Forget it," Qin Yun shook his head.
'A freshman who just entered flight school.'
'Getting the Valkyrie to fly was already impressive; I couldn't ask for too much.'
"Alright, we'll enter through the Y-107H entrance," Qin Yun agreed.
The other side quickly responded, "Once you prove your loyalty, I will tell you my identity and position."
[Data transmission request detected. Accept?]
A prompt appeared on the Valkyrie's screen.
Qin Yun hesitated for a moment, then chose to accept.
A holographic map showing the structure of the Laicade Orbital Station appeared on the Valkyrie's tactical projector.
The Y-107H entrance was highlighted on it.
"Go here," Qin Yun pointed at the Y-107H entrance on the holographic map.
"Understood," Blood Pigeon controlled the Valkyrie, changing course.
Under the other party's guidance, the Valkyrie smoothly entered the Laicade Orbital Station through the Y-107H entrance.
Accompanied by the roar of the engine thrusters, the Valkyrie slowly landed on a spacious landing pad.
After the hatch opened, the fully armed players stepped out, led by Qin Yun.
They held their guns, ready to encounter enemies at any moment.
The situation near the landing pad was terrible.
There were traces of battle everywhere.
Many pipes were burning or crackling with electrical sparks.
The still-working lumen lights flickered due to unstable power supply systems.
Some corpses in Imperial uniforms were hung high on the ceiling or metal pillars with chains.
The dead had their eyes gouged out, skin peeled off, and their deaths were extremely gruesome.
Places that should have had the double-headed eagle emblem were all destroyed, covered with blood smeared over, and painted with eight-pointed star patterns.
"So many dead people," Brother Ballsy looked at the distant corpses and shook his head.
Little Chubby shrugged: "Just thinking about living in such a world feels depressing."
"Daily life in Warhammer," Baldy shrugged. "The developers got this part quite accurate."
Qin Yun, holding a boltgun in one hand and a power sword in the other, looked around, alert for possible enemies.
Just then, that voice sounded again.
"The time has come to prove your loyalty. Those traitors have noses as sharp as dogs; they've already caught your scent. If you don't want to die, prepare for battle."
[Data transmission request detected. Allow the Thinker integrated into the armor to receive?]
"Agree."
Data flooded in; Qin Yun heard the hum of the power armor's built-in Thinker operating.
Pulse lasers flashed at the edge of his helmet's eyepiece, projecting a holographic map panel.
It showed their current location and the layout of the nearby area.
There were also over a hundred red dots on the map moving rapidly towards their position.
Realizing the red dots were enemies, Qin Yun immediately shouted to the players.
"Prepare for battle! Enemies are coming!"
As soon as Qin Yun shouted, the players quickly took cover behind obstacles, ready to engage.
Soon, enemies appeared in their sight.
Estimating around a hundred people, advancing chaotically, without any tactics.
Their hair was all sorts of colors, their bodies inscribed with Chaos symbols.
Their weapons were also varied; some had lasguns, some had spiked clubs.
There were also a few combat vehicles decorated with metal spikes, with heavy stubbers mounted on the roofs.
When these cultists got close enough, Qin Yun leaned out from his hiding spot.
While pulling the trigger of his boltgun, he shouted: "Open fire! Eliminate them!"
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Several cultists were shot dead on the spot.
Their bodies exploded, flesh and debris scattering everywhere.
Other players leaned out from cover, aiming their guns and shooting at the cultists.
"Eat shit, traitors!"
Little Chubby and two other players set up a multi-las, firing wildly into the enemy group.
Within seconds, the cultists fell like harvested wheat.
Boom!
One vehicle was hit in the fuel tank, causing a massive explosion.
The cultists were stunned, couldn't even think to fight back, and turned to run.
Walker, the cult leader, seeing his men fleeing in disarray, raised his heavy stubber and shot the fastest fleeing subordinate.
Then he aimed the gun at the remaining ones.
"No one runs! All of you, pick up your guns and fight back!"
Under Walker's coercion, the cultists barely stopped their rout.
The heavy stubber was heavy, with strong recoil, usually used with a tripod or mounted on a vehicle.
Due to his modifications, Walker could easily lift it and ignore the massive recoil.
He carried the heavy stubber with one hand, held the ammo belt with the other, and swept fire towards the players.
Rat-a-tat-tat!
Dense gunfire sounded, suppressing the players and giving the cultists a chance to catch their breath and organize a counterattack.
"Smoking bomb!"
Baldy shouted while throwing a smoke grenade to block Walker's line of sight.
Then, he shouted several times in a row.
"Fire in the hole!"
Boom! Boom!
Several explosions; the cultists hiding behind cover were blown to pieces, flesh and blood flying everywhere.
Qin Yun, watching Baldy constantly throwing grenades and accurately landing them near enemies every time, was somewhat surprised.
This guy's Throwing skill level must be at least Proficient.
"Hold the line! They don't have many people!"
Walker shouted while firing, trying hard to prevent his motley crew from routing.
Qin Yun narrowed his eyes, deciding to take that guy out first.
He turned to look at Baldy.
"Throw smoke for me, block their vision."
"Understood," Baldy nodded, took out smoke grenades, and threw them.
"Smoke bomb!"
"Smoke bomb!"
The smoke grenades spun, spewing white smoke, blocking the cultists' vision.
Qin Yun leaped up from behind cover, holding the activated power sword, and charged towards the target.
Bullets fired by the cultists only sparked against his armor, failing to harm him at all.
The bolts he fired, however, made the hit cultists' bodies burst apart.
In a short moment, seven or eight cultists died brutally.
Mutilated flesh scattered everywhere, like a scene from a slaughterhouse.
In just two breaths, Qin Yun charged in front of the cult leader and swung his sword down.
Walker instinctively raised his heavy stubber to block.
The next second, the gun barrel was split open by the power sword, the cut surface glowing hot.
Walker was bisected by the power sword, dying instantly.
Just then, the smoke cleared.
Seeing their leader dead and the enemy so strong, the cultists turned and ran in terror.
"It seems you are quite combat effective."
As soon as the battle ended, the mysterious voice came through the comms again.
"Now, can you tell me your name and position?" Qin Yun asked.
"Don't rush. Since you've already defeated those cultists, why not go to the relay station and restore power to this area?"
[Data transmission request detected. Allow the Thinker integrated into the armor to receive?]
"Agree."
After receiving the data, Qin Yun left two players behind to take the injured players back to the Valkyrie first.
He then led the other players to the relay station to restore power to this area.
They encountered some cultists and plague zombies along the way.
Qin Yun's group easily eliminated these enemies.
Then, they restarted the relay station.
As power was restored, the flickering lumen lights became stable again.
Automatic sentry turrets rebooted.
Large numbers of traitors were gunned down by the auto-turrets and sentry guns.
When Qin Yun and the others walked out, cultists and zombies lying in pools of blood were seen everywhere.
Luckily, they weren't targeted as hostiles and passed through unhindered.
Finally, they arrived before a grand data control hall.
Accompanied by the rotation of urgent alarm lights, the heavy door opened.
Two massive war-servitors and Skitarii soldiers holding radium carbines appeared before the players.
A woman in red robes, with a metal face, her lower body replaced by a treaded chassis, moved past the servitors and Skitarii, walking up to Qin Yun's group.
"Praise the Omnissiah. I never thought support would come here."
"My name is Oz Tena, the Tech-Priest responsible for maintaining the Laicade Station."
"I apologize for guiding you here in this manner, but I had no choice. If you belonged to the traitor faction, recklessly exposing my location would have ended worse for me than those skinned fools."
"I can understand your caution," Qin Yun said. "It seems we have gained your recognition."
"Your loyalty to the Omnissiah has been verified," Oz Tena nodded. "Allow me to thank you once again."
"Holy crap, a female Tech-Priest!"
"A new NPC character??"
"Oh my god, we have finally made contact with another faction! We have the Mechanicus now, can Astartes be far behind? Can Knights be far behind?"
"I want to wear red robes and be a Tech-Priest too! Praise the Omnissiah!"
"Stop dreaming. With your brain, you can only dumb servitor like that one over there."
"..."
The players were so excited that they were howling.
After all that effort, they had finally opened a new map.