Chapter 54: The Harmonious Hive Bottom
Without even seeing it for himself, Lucan had already determined that his planet was definitely infested with a Genestealer Cult.
The faith of the God-Emperor could not change the dregs of the hive bottom, but a Genestealer Cult could turn those violent thugs into a loving, close-knit family.
These Genestealer Cults of the Tyranid race were even more difficult to deal with than Chaos cults.
"Canoness, have your sisters in the underhive keep a close watch on these abnormal events! We are dealing with a xenos plague!"
Lucan quickly departed. He had to accelerate the pacification of the underhive; otherwise, before he even dealt with Chaos, the underhive might be completely taken over by the Genestealer Cult.
Within the underhive.
Valentin, along with his confidants, fled the uphive in a panic.
At this moment, he once again felt his faith being shaken.
He had forsaken the Imperium, forsaken the God-Emperor, and the power he had accumulated over a dozen years of devotion to Chaos had been shattered in just over a dozen hours.
Even those Chaos Space Marines, blessed by the Dark Gods, had died at the hands of that Rogue Trader.
And most importantly, a miracle of the God-Emperor had appeared right before his eyes.
Valentin was afraid. He now wondered if his choice to turn to the Dark Gods was right or wrong… but he knew he had no way back. Surrender was a dead end; his only option was to resist to the end.
"I haven't lost yet! The underhive is still in my hands! I can fight a protracted war with them! I can raise another army from the vast population of the underhive!"
Those Chaos cultists who had fled back to the underhive were already demoralized. The surviving Word Bearers had vanished to who-knows-where.
Valentin led his confidants towards the Dark Mechanicum's factory. He needed more weapons to rearm his army. But as soon as he entered, he realized something was wrong. The factory was in a state of chaos. One by one, destroyed combat servitors lay on the ground. Even those few Dark Mechanicum Tech-Priests had been torn to pieces.
"Get out! Quick!"
By the time Valentin tried to escape, it was too late.
Several Goliath Trucks, cobbled together from various metal scraps, sped over and instantly blocked the factory gates.
Then, countless figures rushed out from the corners of the factory, charging towards Valentin and his remaining forces.
These thugs fought with a deathless ferocity, wielding all manner of weapons. There were even a dozen giant, troll-like Aberrants. They charged like tanks, their long-handled, massive hammers easily capable of smashing a person into meat paste, their power comparable to a power maul.
These troll-like mutant individuals were Aberrant Hypermorphs, larger units formed by injecting Genestealers with even more Tyranid genes.
And the bald heads of these mutants were purplish. Some of them had a total of four arms, each individual wielding several weapons, pouring firepower onto the Chaos cultists.
The sudden attack caught Valentin completely off guard.
From the attackers' appearance, Valentin recognized their identity.
"Mutants from the hive bottom? How dare these dregs?!"
Only the hive bottom would have so many mutants.
He never would have imagined that this bunch of sump-scrappers would emerge from the hive bottom and actively attack him.
Valentin felt humiliated. Even if he had suffered a temporary defeat, he wasn't someone this trash could trifle with. He angrily issued commands to the Chaos psykers beside him.
However, their powerful psychic spells were easily blocked by a delicate-looking woman among the attackers.
She contemptuously removed her hood, and then an even more powerful psychic force tore his two psykers apart.
Only at this moment did Valentin truly feel fear.
His ears were filled with prayers "For the God-Emperor!" Could it be that even these mutants had pledged themselves to the glory of the God-Emperor? This was absolutely not the combat strength that sump-scrappers should possess!
If the people of the hive bottom were truly this strong, they would have fought their way into the underhive long ago and wouldn't have had to suffer in the sump.
Valentin watched as his confidants were killed one by one. The figures of the Aberrants drew closer and closer, until the very last Chaos cultist fell.
He despaired, yet this group of mutants seemed to have deliberately left him alive.
"Why?! Hasn't the Imperium oppressed you enough?! Why do you still help the Imperium! Why worship that False Emperor! You could have joined the grand cause of Chaos!"
But Valentin's words failed to elicit even a sliver of empathy from the people before him; they were even laughing.
Valentin saw the woman who had effortlessly killed his psykers walk towards him.
These mutants referred to her as "Magus." Compared to the other mutants, this woman still maintained a human appearance, and an exceptionally beautiful one at that.
"Wait… you're Vienna? Aren't you the owner of that pleasure den? Why are you with these mutants!"
Valentin recognized the Magus before him. She was the owner of a secret club in the underhive that catered to the desires of nobles. In the past, many officials and nobles of the Dynasty would secretly visit, and Valentin had been there too.
And all these powerful mutants parted to make way for her, bowing their heads.
"Lord Valentin, it's been a long time. Chaos… heh. Everything for the Four-Armed Emperor! Take him back to the hive bottom!"
"Four-Armed Emperor?!"
Before Valentin could process this, a heavy blow knocked him unconscious.
When he opened his eyes again, he found himself in the hive bottom.
But was the hive bottom before him truly the one he knew?
He was bound, slung over the shoulder of an Aberrant.
The entire hive bottom, usually filled with violence, was now unnervingly harmonious.
Valentin looked around. The faces of the sump-scrappers were actually filled with smiles. They called each other "brother" and "sister," they shared food, and violence seemed to have completely vanished from the hive bottom. They looked with adoration at the mutants who had killed his own followers, calling them "divine messengers."
And their own bodies no longer looked entirely human; their skin had a faint purplish tinge, and their heads were slightly bulging.
And a broadcast continuously looped throughout the hive bottom.
"Pray to the Four-Armed Emperor! He saves us all! Procreation is glorious! Only with more brothers and sisters can we complete the mission He has given us! When the Day of Ascension arrives, we shall all enjoy eternal happiness."
Valentin watched all this in astonishment. As he passed a statue of the God-Emperor, he struggled to look up and saw that this statue had four arms.
Still in a state of shock, Valentin was carried by the Magus all the way to the deepest part of the hive bottom. The deeper they went, the more severe the mutations of the people around them became.
He even saw Purestrain Genestealers appear.
The Aberrant Hypermorph roughly threw him to the ground. Then, all the mutants prostrated themselves before something ahead. Valentin looked up in the direction they were kneeling.
A monster with a dark purple carapace and sharp claws sat upon a metal throne.
Its body was a full four or five meters tall.
"Patriarch, we have brought him!" Vienna said piously to the monster before her.
That monster was the Geneste-aler Patriarch, the source of this planet's Genestealer Cult corruption.
When it infiltrates a planet, it uses an ovipositor, much like the xenos from certain tales, to implant its victims, injecting them with Tyranid geneseed. The seed rapidly alters the host's physiology and mind, making them submit to the Tyranid will. The host develops a strong reproductive urge and will then give birth to the first generation of hybrids.
And due to the link to the Hive Mind, the parents will ignore their child's mutated body and love it unconditionally.
With the gathering of these individuals, the initial Genestealer Cult is born. Through generations of reproduction, the Patriarch will eventually become an incredibly powerful monster as the number of infected increases, ultimately lighting a psychic beacon to attract the Hive Fleet to come and enjoy the buffet.
Who knew by what means the Patriarch before him had arrived on Agathos.
But judging by the current state of the hive bottom, it had definitely been here for many years.
Aberrant Hypermorphs, a Genestealer Magus, those multi-armed, Tyranid-like Acolyte Hybrids, and the Neophyte Hybrids with more human features – all indicated that the genestealer infection here had already propagated for at least four generations.
(End of Chapter)