He had been on standby in the void for more than a standard Terran hour since his infiltration was launched, and the invaders began to move.
It is difficult to penetrate the outer hull of the Eternal Loyalty. This warship is so huge that it is simply a chaotic city in space, carrying thousands of souls, and the defenders are very vigilant about their homeland.
Fortunately, when performing ground bombing missions, the battleship's detection system would be in a relatively weak state. In the end, the single-person aircraft he piloted found a knuckle-shaped protrusion hanging under the main engine. This was a large number of The heavy iron block clung to the huge engine sleeve at the bottom of the Eternal Loyalty like a tumor.
It was the detector's dead center, the slightest weakening of the void shield's coverage—just enough for a void boat to slip into the shadows and break through.
But his ship failed to reach the interior of the Eternal Loyalty. Although it contained a lot of incredible technology, it was only designed to get him close enough to carry out the boarding process, and then retreat, eliminating the possibility of his invasion. The possibility of being detected by some unusually diligent servant.
One hundred meters in the empty void, an insignificant distance. He was wearing power armor and using his jetpack to cross the gap like a bolter fired from a bolter.
The steel-gray hull was speeding towards him. He hit the armor plate, climbed on it with his magnetic claws, scanned the situation and crawled towards the nearest access hatch like a spider.
Plant two breach bombs, followed by a brief retreat, followed by a silent explosion.
After a few seconds, he entered, crawled through the internal metal grid, grabbed the support rod, and drilled towards the sealed area.
He found an angle between two support beams, completely dark and surrounded by thick metal plating.
It was thirty meters away from the seepage point and reeked of oil and bilge water, and the nearest inhabited deck above was at least a hundred meters away.
Here he waited, enduring the tremors of the Eternal Loyalty's orbital bombardment.
More than once, a thought flashed through his mind: This battleship was powerful enough to shatter the planet, but in that case his mission would not only be short-lived, but pointless.
Soon, the roar of the secondary engine speeding up told him that the flagship was changing course and heading to another location in the orbit.
He listened to the starship's interior creak under the pressure of the steering and waited for the hour to run out.
During this period, he did three things.
First, he checked the special equipment carried by the armor: anti-scanning resonance generator, enhanced orb unit, silencer power mechanism. At the same time, the armor's painting was consistent with the silver gray of the Astral Knights, and the identification friend or foe mark showed that he was a member of the Fourth Company. of a warrior.
This disguise cannot withstand strict inspection, but it is enough to allow him to move briefly in public places only for mortals.
Second, he loads a positioning readout into the helmet's cogitator, which plots a route to the destination.
There was no doubt that the internal structure of the Eternal Loyalty was very different from the structures of the ships he knew, but using a similar template to the Revenge-class gave him some confidence.
Third, before taking action, he activated the encrypted transmitter fixed under the power pack and checked that the encrypted data burst could pass through the Eternal Loyalty's void shield and reach where it was supposed to go.
It cannot be detected by anything other than its corresponding receiving array, and even if it is intercepted, the encryption is designed to mimic the erroneous output of a malfunctioning auger node, whereas a conventional warship may have dozens of such node.
The timer showed that the hour was up, and he took a moment to gather his thoughts.
Now he was buried in the steel guts of an immense starship, and the warriors around him would kill him if they found him - alone, lightly armed, and alone.
By any standards, even those of his former regiment, this was a dangerous mission.
But such was the war situation, and no matter what, he could not be discouraged.
So when the appointed moment came, he slipped silently into the shadows for which he was born.
The intruder made its way upward from the penetration point, crawling quietly and steadily.
The route he took was safe, so for more than an hour he had an unimpeded course between decks.
Eventually he found a damaged, dim corridor and entered open space, his path illuminated by a number of grimy lighting spheres scattered throughout the starship's lower areas.
No one paid any attention to him, the crew was busy, and in any case the crew rarely raised their eyes to stare at an Astartes, and if they did, it would be nothing to disturb them.
He breathed the air in the cabin, and he had to say that the smell on this deck was unpleasant—a mixture of ash and engine oil, as thick as smoke.
After that, he continued to move. The interior of the ship was like a maze. The corridors would turn back regularly. Most of the decks seemed to be built in concentric circles, with various rooms distributed outward along the central spokes.
As he went deeper, he came to understand the overall shape of the layout.
Soon, one of the two targets has entered the range of the bird.
He began to speed up, following the path toward the communication station, the target on the avian screen getting closer with every step he took.
Coming.
There are dozens of communication stations distributed within the huge interior of the Eternal Loyalty. Each one is a node on the overall network, distributed like ganglia in the human body, and finally converges to the center of the command bridge, where every signals and data.
The apex of the entire system is the battleship's Astropath Spire, which is crowded with blind warp wanderers and protected by concentric layers of sensitive security systems.
Breaking in there is almost impossible, not enough and not necessary, since intruders can find what they want just enough on low-level sites.
He pressed his body against the wall and slowly walked down the steel corridor in front.
Finally, five meters away from him, there were two security doors, tightly sealed.
Although there was nothing in front of him, he could already hear the rhythmic sound of boots coming from below.
He moved forward softly, the wall in front of him being lead-lined and equipped with low-grade sensor baffles, but he could still pick up fuzzy signals from the other side.
He estimated there were six men inside, none of them Space Marines, but all armed.
Then, he took out a wide-angle cortical isolator from his thigh. This is a nerve blocker that can cause people to coma within a diameter of ten meters. The bolt gun is too loud and is not suitable for this kind of work, so it has been Holstered.
He walked slowly to the door, made sure he was not being followed, and entered a code into the door lock.
He had many combinations to try, most from the mid-level officer he knocked unconscious six decks down, others from listening devices he placed next to the unguarded communications station.
The first code failed, as did the second, but the third revealed a green rune of passage, and the door's locking structure clicked free.
The heavy door panel slid open, and he walked in with great swagger, like a true astral knight.
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