"It's a relatively hidden route—you're sure about this?"
Ignis pulled the thunder hammer out of the torso of a tactical mech, his gaze sweeping the surroundings with practiced vigilance.
"If Mr. Ignis had a normal human build, I'd have better options. But you're over three meters tall—taller than a single-story building. That really limits what paths are even possible." Phaethon's Bangboo crawled out through a torn hole in a cargo container.
"...Yeah. No arguing with that." The the Salamander reached up and rubbed the side of his helmet.
There was no helping it. A Primaris Space Marine was already massive to begin with, and the Salamander had always been larger than average. Add the extra height granted by Mark X Gravis Power Armor, and he stood a full 3.3 meters tall. With a build like that, there truly weren't many routes he could fit through. The Proxy's assessment left him with no room to argue.
Besides, as a heavily armored warrior, infiltration missions had never been his forte. He excelled at frontal assaults—smashing through enemy positions, dismantling defensive lines step by step, and annihilating the opposition. But this mission was undeniably urgent. Every minute gained in destroying the large tactical mechs inside the core storage zone increased the likelihood of the C41 Hollow entering renewed decay.
"Relax. I'm monitoring surrounding signals at all times. Combining that data with statistically optimized routing, this is definitely the shortest path with the least enemy contact." Eous patted his own chest. The small Bangboo's elastic body bounced slightly, almost endearingly.
"Move forward from here. The left side will be shielded by containers, but there are several stationary defense units on the right. Our route should fall directly within their visual blind spots." The Bangboo pointed ahead.
Following Belle's guidance, every engagement along the way had indeed begun from outside the tactical mechs' field of view. He had to admit—it was interesting. These mechs relied primarily on cameras for target acquisition, and only a single forward-facing one at that. Despite using early smart systems and possessing rudimentary intelligence, they lacked any form of 360-degree visual tracking.
Perhaps that was why the Midsummer Group had lost its competition with Three Gates Corp. Tactical mechs equipped with intelligence were more susceptible to ether erosion inside Hollows, while paradoxically possessing inferior target acquisition. Sacrificing more effective modifications just to install basic AI was a textbook case of missing the point entirely.
Of course, it was also possible these machines were never designed for Hollow combat at all, and ether erosion simply hadn't been considered.
Ignis continued thinking as his footsteps followed the Proxy's directions. Then he saw them—four tactical mechs with their backs turned to him.
A perfect ambush position.
The giant charged forward. Dozens of meters vanished in an instant under the Salamander's thunderous advance. His shield slammed into the formation; one mech was impaled by the spikes on its surface and left hanging, while another was smashed to the ground. The thunder hammer in his right hand followed through, its disintegration field detonating on impact. Blue energy burst outward in lightning-like fractures, leaving behind nothing but a smoking hole with residual arcs crackling at its edges.
The sole remaining tactical mech attempted to counterattack. Its right-arm impact drill roared to life and drove toward Ignis's chest.
To a Space Marine, the motion was painfully slow.
Ignis raised his shield. The heavy rim struck first despite moving second, smashing into the mech's right shoulder. The shield—hundreds of kilograms of ceramite and adamantium—was propelled by Astartes strength, tearing through the air with a violent howl and ripping the entire arm free, leaving only a few cables dangling.
Before the mech could even process what had happened, the thunder hammer came down. Another smoking cavity appeared in its metal shell.
The final unit didn't even manage to stand back up before the Salamander crushed its core with a single kick.
"Checking the time. Belobog Heavy Industries should've started their operation by now." Eous caught up from behind. "Even though my brother said that massive engineering machine would cause too much noise, I didn't expect Gotthardt to volunteer to draw enemy fire."
"Mr. Gotthardt's judgment is sound." Ignis slipped into the shadows between two rows of containers. "With him acting as bait, large numbers of enemies will be drawn away. That makes infiltration far easier."
His Lyman's Ear picked up distant explosions—quad-linked thermal lances sweeping continuously, followed by the shriek of power claws tearing metal apart.
"A lot of signals just moved!" Belle reported. "They're really making a scene."
"You've seen how he fights in Hollow Zero." Ignis was completely at ease about their leader. That was a Leviathan Dreadnought—these tactical mechs didn't even qualify to scratch his armor.
"Yeah… it was honestly shocking." The small Bangboo nodded. "Even those ultra-giant Ethereals were destroyed effortlessly."
"For Terra!"
The Leviathan Dreadnought's vox array surged to full output. Even the pair far from the battlefield heard the war cry clearly.
"Good. Most of the enemies have been pulled away. Let's move." The Bangboo hopped out of hiding.
Just as the Proxy had predicted, there wasn't a single mech blocking their path anymore. Gotthardt's roar seemed to have drawn everything toward him.
With the route suddenly clear, Ignis found himself oddly unsettled—and struck up a conversation instead.
"By the way, that photo on the Inter-Knot. Any leads?"
"The one with the blurry silhouette of a giant mech?" Belle immediately knew what he meant.
"Yeah. That thing looked at least four stories tall." Ignis exhaled. "Even accounting for camera distortion, the scale was absurd."
"I looked into Midsummer Group's records. When they were competing with Three Gates Corp, they were secretly pitching an intelligent combat robot command system to the Defense Force. That big thing is probably the command core." Belle replied. "But if it's already intelligent, building something that large and obvious as a command unit seems… irrational."
"Some systems can't be miniaturized—especially when combining communications, command, and combat capabilities." Ignis thought of an Imperial war engine known as the Imperial Command Bastion.
It served as a mobile battlefield command center, an ultra-heavy armored vehicle, equipped with void shields, massive-caliber artillery, and layers of secondary weapons. Of course, given the Imperium's tendency to build cathedrals onto starships and Titans alike, bigger was always better.
"Sounds like you're pretty familiar with this kind of thing." The Bangboo guided the Salamander through the container corridors until they reached a dead end—a solid wall.
"Time to do what you're good at." Eous stood beside the wall, miming a hammer swing. "Break it."
"Are you sure it's inside? It's way too quiet." Ignis stared at the ether-alloy wall. He had already breached two similar barriers.
He recalled the special training he'd done with Gotthardt days earlier, wondering whether those lessons would help in what came next. the Salamander took a deep breath. This mess was his doing—having others step in to help was already more than he could ask for.
Just a taller mech, that's all. I'll smash it to scrap piece by piece with my thunder hammer.
With his resolve set, Ignis inhaled deeply and raised the warhammer. As energy from the power pack surged through the conduits, the hammerhead ignited with blue light, arcs of electricity dancing across its surface.
He lifted it high, about to strike—
—and then an explosion sounded from inside the wall.
Yes. From within.
At first, he suspected Gotthardt's thermal lance had fired a stray shot that landed here. But for a veteran of the Great Crusade, that level of deviation was implausible.
"Did I hear that right? It came from inside?" Even the Proxy sounded confused. "Is someone in there?"
That possibility made Ignis tense. Victoria Housekeeping had promised to block other Hollow Raiders from entering from the outside.
But anyone truly determined could slip past them.
Which meant someone inside might be in danger.
"Another Hollow Raider… damn it."
The thunder hammer crashed down. Released energy completely disintegrated the ether alloy, blasting open a massive hole. the Salamander stepped back, took a short run-up, and leapt straight inside.
He immediately searched for survivors—but the only thing in view was a fallen giant mech. Its collapsed body lay in an unusually open area, as if deliberately cleared. Only dozens of meters away did cargo containers reappear.
"That looks like the one from the photo—but why is it already inactive?" The Proxy followed in, equally baffled.
The Salamander raised his shield and approached cautiously. Aside from dense arrays of antennas, the mech was bristling with gun ports. Structurally, it resembled a mobile firepower platform—uncannily similar to the Knights used by the Adeptus Mechanicus, just without the red-robed heraldry. Its arms mounted large-caliber thermal lances, enlarged versions of Guardian-type tactical mech weapons. Its shoulders carried missile clusters and autocannon arrays, and even its load-bearing legs were fitted with close-in defense guns.
"This thing would be a logistics nightmare." Ignis grimaced. "Just the variety of ammunition alone would drive supply officers insane."
Then again, considering the Imperium's own menagerie of weapons, logistics were never exactly simple.
"Looks like the core was destroyed." The Salamander pointed with his hammer. Blast damage was clearly visible at the head unit.
"Who did this? Was the explosion we heard from that? We didn't hear anything else." Belle couldn't wrap her head around it.
Ignis couldn't either—but the Salamanders could reconstruct combat through Fire-Sight.
A silhouette appeared.
Approximately 2.1 meters tall. Powerfully built.
Ignis instantly acquired the physical data. Strong thermal radiation signatures indicated the individual had still been here before Ignis breached the wall—likely departing only after hearing him approach.
The individual was fast—at least 50 km/h. A smaller figure sat on his shoulder. Based on radiation patterns, female. He set her down at a concealed location, then used nearby containers to mask his approach toward the mech. No sound—likely specialized equipment enabling silent movement.
He paused behind a container just a few meters from the mech, remaining there for some time. Perhaps gathering resolve. Perhaps adjusting an explosive device.
Then he burst from cover. In under three seconds, he reached the mech's underside and began climbing. The giant machine attempted to shake him off, even rotating its upper body to use centrifugal force.
It failed.
The mysterious figure climbed relentlessly, reached the head-mounted intelligence core, and detonated the explosives—bringing the behemoth to a complete halt.
Frankly, even for a Space Marine, this maneuver bordered on extreme difficulty. It was like anti-tank acrobatics.
What kind of person possessed the resolve—and reckless courage—to pull something like that off?
"It was definitely destroyed with explosives. Emperor preserve us… this is unbelievable." Ignis struggled to explain the scene to the Proxy. "Someone got right up on it, climbed the thing, and planted charges on its core."
"But we didn't hear anything besides the explosion." Belle was utterly lost.
"I don't know." Ignis didn't understand either. Even his Lyman's Ear had detected nothing.
"But the active ether levels have definitely dropped." Eous pulled out an instrument and checked the readings. "Whoever it was, they stopped the disaster from escalating. In any case—mission complete. Prepare to withdraw."
"Understood." Ignis nodded. That silhouette felt familiar. The figure's back left intense residual thermal traces.
"At least we saved Golden Week." Belle said cheerfully. "My brother and I are closing shop for a few days to go on vacation. You guys in the Cunning Hares made a good haul—any plans?"
"Ah!" Ignis suddenly remembered Jane Doe. "Damn it."
"What? Did it start moving again?!" The Bangboo squeaked and dove behind the Salamander's leg.
"No. I still haven't figured out where to take a lady out." Ignis frowned. "It's been days, and I still haven't replied."
"Oh?" Belle's curiosity ignited instantly. "Who is it? Definitely not someone from the Cunning Hares. Zhu Yuan? Qingyi? Don't tell me it's Jane Doe?"
Ignis didn't answer. He simply urged Phaethon to get him out of the Hollow as fast as possible.
===BREAK===
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