Akrak Research Park, Underground Simulated Town—
"Bang! Bang-bang!"
Boom—BOOM!
The crisp sound of hardlight gunfire was interspersed with the explosive crackle of plasma bursts.
From a bird's-eye view of the simulated town, the streets and blocks were scenes of intense "offense and defense."
A group of death row inmates and hardened criminals, categorized as Class-D personnel, fought desperately against hundreds of advancing "clones." Outfitted with Sun Guard-grade power armor and high-powered hardlight firearms, the Class-D teams resisted as best they could.
They were deliberately divided into over a dozen squads, each with fewer than ten members, and used the simulated town's buildings as cover or built fortifications from the materials provided by Atlas.
On the other hand, the clones...
Their gear hadn't undergone significant changes—trench coat-style combat uniforms, full-body mechanical exoskeletons, and practical firearms.
However, their physical stature had evolved. They were now bulkier and more imposing, standing at least two meters tall.
Despite their newfound strength, their movements were noticeably clumsy and sluggish compared to older models.
Yet even with these limitations, the clones overwhelmed the Class-D personnel, continuously compressing their defensive perimeter.
What demoralized the Class-D personnel the most was the extreme cost required to inflict casualties on these clones.
Though they were armed with more advanced weapons, the clones would only die if their heads and torsos were completely obliterated—a level of precision not easy to achieve in the heat of battle.
Clearly, the Biologis Division had once again improved the clones' battlefield survivability. Combined with their tactical adaptability and excellent coordination, these new models were bound to become a favorite among various Imperial legions and armed divisions.
Once the enhanced clones breached the buildings and engaged in close-quarters combat, their true faces were revealed.
One clone's helmet was blown off in an explosion, allowing a group of nearby Class-D personnel to get a clear look.
"What the f***?! What the hell has Atlas done?!"
"This is blasphemy! Absolute blasphemy!!"
The Class-D personnel couldn't hold back their curses upon seeing the clone's appearance.
Unlike earlier models, the enhanced clones had grotesque, monstrous features: protruding brow ridges and cheekbones, cracked and wrinkled skin, oversized nostrils, and mouths filled with spiked teeth.
They no longer resembled humans.
The auxiliary clone troops from the 1st Company of the Blood Angels had already been nicknamed "monsters" by the Mobile Infantry of the Starship Troopers universe.
But the new enhanced clones confronting the Class-D personnel were better described as "Orcs" straight out of the Gears of War universe.
In fact, the Biologis Division had extracted "superior genes" from the Orcs of the Gears of War universe and combined them with existing clone technologies to create these new bio-weapons.
These "Orc Clones" were a branch of the existing clone series.
The Orc Clones had vastly superior strength and vitality. Outfitted with heavy armor, they could be seen as "low-cost, mass-produced" versions of the Heavy Tyrants. Their cost-effectiveness made them ideal as expendable cannon fodder.
However, the Orc Clones had a critical weakness: low intelligence.
Their cooperation and coordination were limited, and when faced with strong defensive positions, they wouldn't resort to flanking maneuvers, feints, or other tactical strategies.
For them, "tactics" boiled down to one word: "Charge."
Currently, the Orc Clones were leveraging their brute strength, heavy armor, and overwhelming firepower to decimate half of the Class-D personnel stationed in the simulated town.
The remaining personnel had fallen back to fortified positions, gathering the weapons and ammunition of their fallen comrades to make a last stand.
Yet more Orc Clones poured into the simulation, with their numbers soon swelling to over a thousand.
Deploying so many experimental units to deal with a mere hundred or so Class-D personnel seemed excessive. For a test, it was overkill and even a bit wasteful.
Class-D personnel were cheap, but using a thousand Orc Clones—enough to influence the outcome of a regional war—against them seemed disproportionate.
Before long, all of the Class-D personnel were wiped out by the ten-to-one numerical superiority of the Orc Clones.
The Orc Clones' casualties? Fewer than a hundred, with only about sixty sustaining irreversible damage that warranted scrapping.
This showcased the clones' overwhelming advantage against most infantry units, provided they weren't facing something on the level of the Astartes.
But the Biologis Division wasn't stopping there. They were also developing "Xenomorph Clones"—clones infused with Alien DNA.
However, Xenomorphs were far more challenging to study than Orcs.
In Universe-15 (Alien), the Biologis Division had long been using large numbers of Yuri clones and recruits to conduct related experiments.
The first batch of Xenomorph Clones, accelerated through their development cycle, emerged from their growth chambers just days ago.
Almost immediately, they attempted to stage an incident—"Xenomorph outbreak" or "facility breach."
Despite being brainwashed and implanted with neural control chips, the Xenomorph Clones successfully established telepathic links with a captive Xenomorph Queen.
Their advanced neural capabilities made them far more cunning than standard Xenomorph drones or warriors.
Instead of blindly obeying the Queen's orders to rebel immediately, they feigned passivity to lull the Biologis personnel into a false sense of security.
They even pretended to exhibit behavioral malfunctions, hoping to lure the scientists into close inspection.
This would have given the Xenomorph Clones a chance to capture hostages and negotiate with the Biologis Division.
Unfortunately for them, the scientists detected their unusually active brainwaves and immediately sealed the facility.
The Space Wolves stationed on Charon's Moon were summoned to secure the base, ensuring that the twelve Xenomorph Clones were physically terminated before they could enact their plan.
With the Space Wolves now maintaining a permanent presence at the facility, there was little reason to worry about further incidents. Despite their boisterous and carefree demeanor, the Space Wolves were among the most meticulous of the Astartes chapters.
Back in the simulated town...
The thousand Orc Clones that had decimated the Class-D personnel received no orders to "stand by" or "await retrieval."
Instead, they began converging toward the town's center.
There, they constructed defensive positions with overlapping fields of fire and laid low-yield metallic hydrogen bombs along key approaches.
It seemed they were preparing for a second round of testing.
Meanwhile, in the northern observation room overlooking the simulated town...
"Doctor, all test units are in position!"
"The Hextech robots have resupplied all units with ammunition and are now rapidly withdrawing from the field."
"In thirty seconds, we'll deploy Condon to initiate the next phase of testing."
The Biologis Division's core technical staff reported sequentially to Alexia Ashford, Samuel Young, and Lyon, who stood behind a large observation window.
Alexia stood between the two towering giants, her expression openly proud as she watched the action unfold below.
She announced, "In thirty seconds, unleash Condon. Let His Majesty the Emperor and the Master of the Dark Angels witness the 'human pinnacle' we've spent so long to create!"
"Yes, Doctor!" the technicians responded in unison.
Lyon shrugged slightly.
Despite Alexia's enhanced physiology, achieved through her self-administered specialized virus, her height still fell far short of the Emperor and the gene-primarchs.
Yet Lyon, ever respectful of his adoptive mother, maintained a deferential demeanor regardless of her stature.
He couldn't forget the strict discipline Alexia had instilled in him during his youth, often alongside Guilliman and Sanguinius.
As such, Lyon carried a subconscious "fear" of his diminutive yet commanding adoptive mother.
From his father's earlier comments about "brothers," Lyon deduced that the opponent about to face the Orc Clones was one of the Custodes.
Thirty seconds passed in the blink of an eye.
A loud beep signaled the opening of a gate on the eastern side of the simulated town.
Lyon's enhanced vision immediately locked onto the figure stepping through.
Clad in golden Terminator armor, towering over 3.7 meters tall, and wielding a thunder power glaive, the giant strode into the fray.
In terms of sheer stature, this Custodes outmatched 99% of the Astartes, including the primarchs Alpharius and Omegon, who would have appeared diminutive beside him.
Reaching a crossroads, the Custodes hesitated for a split second, seemingly aware of the metallic hydrogen bombs planted there.
Despite this, he deliberately walked into the trap.
BOOM—BOOM!
The detonation of the metallic hydrogen bomb created a miniature "sun," engulfing the crossroads and leveling nearby buildings. The resulting shockwave rippled through the town, and a small mushroom cloud rose into the air, shaking the entire simulation facility.
Lyon raised an eyebrow, mildly surprised that Alexia had authorized such a dangerous weapon for testing.
"Only Mother would dare something this reckless," he thought, his expression betraying a mix of astonishment and amusement.
When the smoke
cleared, the Custodes remained standing at the epicenter of the explosion, completely unharmed.
A faint golden energy shield shimmered around him, dispersing any lingering debris.
"A psychic barrier?" Lyon instantly recognized it as a manifestation of pure psychic energy.
Such a feat was beyond the capabilities of even the most advanced Titan armor. Only the finest Grey Knights or Thousand Sons specialists could achieve this level of mastery.
If all Custodes were this proficient in psychic abilities... the implications were "terrifying."
As the Custodes continued his advance toward the town's center, no amount of firepower from the Orc Clones could slow him. Each strike of his thunder glaive left a trail of destruction, cutting down dozens of clones in mere moments.
In what felt like the blink of an eye, the Custodes had singlehandedly breached the heavily fortified central defenses.
A thousand clones—whether standard, Orc, or even Xenomorph variants—represented a formidable force.
For any individual to dismantle such a defensive line alone, they would have to be among the most legendary figures of the Human Empire.
Even the mighty Astartes, for all their prowess, would struggle against such overwhelming numbers without support.
Yet the Custodes achieved it effortlessly, proving himself a warrior of unparalleled caliber.
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