"Apothecary Beta, how are they doing?"
The moment Zhou Ye stepped out the door he found a massive figure waiting in front of him. Two enormous metal hands rubbed together in an anxious rhythm, the picture of a father pacing the corridor outside a delivery room. At the sight of that...Zhou Ye was, in all honesty, completely thrown.
He did not recall giving that Dreadnought any instruction to wait there. And those emotions looked genuine...
"Captain, allow me to point something out. You were working with authentic Gene-seed. Whatever additives you packed into it, the base material is still authentic Gene-seed."
"Oh for the love of..."
Zhou Ye let out a curse before he could stop himself. This was not quite what he had anticipated.
"Fine. This is also within the plan. Only what is real goes undetected. Getting rid of them is proving difficult though. I could actually send them back to their parent Chapters with no trouble at all."
"They will not come after me, will they?"
"What do you think?"
"...That would be a no."
"You are their god. They cannot act against you. Their souls will not return to the Warp. They will return to you."
Zhou Ye had a reasonable sense of what his creations were. But it was becoming very difficult to think of them as constructs anymore. As for the fighting ahead...truthfully he was already planning to go in personally, so at that point he would simply have to trust to fate.
He genuinely could not guarantee everyone's survival. Though the first prerequisite was Nurgle not intervening directly.
"All is well. I have put them through the Rubicon Primaris. A batch of Mark X Power Armor came down alongside, so you have nothing to worry about."
"... Good."
Zhou Ye watched the Blood Angels Dreadnought Ancient exhale in visible relief, and glanced over at the Space Wolves Dreadnought on the other side, still deep in stories for the Wolf pups. He had already given up on critiquing himself. All of this was within the plan...
Yes. Every bit of it was within the plan.
"Ha...hahaha...."
"Even Aha noticed? If the connection were not so fragile, would Aha have found the way here directly? Come to think of it, it could be Akivili instead."
Hearing that laughter, Zhou Ye's expression darkened considerably.
He could picture it clearly. A great Aeon pressed against the seam between universes with the desperation of a stalker, straining every part of themselves trying to squeeze through a crack too narrow to admit even a sliver of their presence.
Useless Aha. Absolutely hopeless. The least you could do is send me some energy.
Zhou Ye shook his head at the thought with barely concealed contempt, and moved on quickly. Though halfway out he had a realization. His Adeptus Mechanicus disguise was not quite right for what came next.
No matter. Light rippled across his body.
His Star of Trailblaze Power Armor settled into place. He was a tin can again.
"Captain, one hundred suits of armor are ready. Next I am planning to print one hundred sets of Imperial Fists Gene-seed. If a major engagement is coming, we need defensive fortifications built in the shortest possible time, and the Imperial Fists are without equal in that regard."
"I seem to remember that particular thing attracts Iron Warriors. Fine, we will see what I can say to wind them up when the time comes."
Zhou Ye did not even know where to begin with that. Very good. Not enough chaos in the mix already? Keep adding ingredients. Should he go ahead and commission something Blood Angels-adjacent as well? That might even lure Ka'Bandha into the picture.
Hmm.....
"Forget it. We already have the Lamenters and the Blood Angels Dreadnought Ancient. Save the energy. Not entirely sure whether this is going to turn a profit or not."
That last thought had a secondary dimension to it. He was, in the most literal possible sense, hungry for the Greater Daemons. Not as a metaphor. He genuinely wanted to eat them. Even a Great Unclean One was not beyond consideration as a meal.
Since Nurgle was committing to something big, Zhou Ye would play the game with him. The Great Rift had not torn open yet. They were still in the early preparatory phase. Nurgle's strength at this stage could not be at full capacity. And Zhou Ye genuinely did not believe that after trading blows with Nurgle directly, the Golden Fiend would have nothing to say about it.
Though there was no Daemon Primarch here. No vessel for a divine descent to anchor itself to. The little girl would get incinerated before long anyway, and then a psyker-null Guilliman would go on an absolute rampage.
But there was something else that needed addressing first, and then.....
"Oh. You actually dared to lock on to me?"
At that moment a Drukhari raised a weapon and leveled it directly at Zhou Ye. And then...
Crack!!
The shot connected. Zhou Ye was completely unharmed.
The Drukhari stared at that outcome with considerable confusion, and then...
Boom.
A thunderous impact. Zhou Ye had used his body to punch straight through the Drukhari's skimmer. He grabbed the pilot by the head as they hit the ground together, then tore the helmet off.
The Drukhari was somewhat dazed. Where had this tin can come from, and why was it so absurdly tough? Any other Space Marine would have crumpled from that shot and been ripe for capturing.
"A Librarian?"
The Drukhari stared at the Astartes before her and the thought crossed her mind with disbelief. Zhou Ye for his part was not about to spend time overthinking it. He pressed one hand flat against the Drukhari's head. The Authority of the Herrscher of Sentience unfurled outward. With Drukhari, there was no need to be delicate about method.
So in the next moment Imaginary energy began to surge through her. He moved to extract her memories directly, and intended to lock her soul in place and dispatch it back to her patron god once done. He needed to know what these Drukhari were actually up to. And then...
He released her abruptly. The Drukhari's helmet clattered to the ground beside them.
It was a woman. But that was not what gave him pause.
"My lord, please. My lord. Just now. The way you treated me just now. I cannot feel She Who Thirsts watching me anymore. My lord. Please do not leave me."
She wrapped both arms around Zhou Ye's leg and began rubbing herself against his Power Armor, mouth moving across the surface of it.
"......."
He had no idea what to say to that.
This was genuinely awful...
But just as Zhou Ye was preparing a second attempt at memory extraction, he heard the Drukhari begin to weep.
"My lord. My lord. Just now. I want it...I want more of it. Just let me escape She Who Thirsts's gaze. My lord. I will do anything you ask. Kill me right now if that is what you want. I do not care."
"...What?"
Zhou Ye looked at her. He was quiet for a moment, his mind moving quickly. Then he thought about the things these Drukhari had been doing, and shook his head. Memory extraction, clean and immediate, and then his hand closed.
She had not resisted even slightly. She had let him take what he needed without a struggle.
So Zhou Ye, with something that might be called mercy, did not send her soul to She Who Thirsts. He let her die permanently instead.
"More or less what I suspected. They had foreseen something......"
---o---