Chapter 16: The Corrupted Rogue Trader
Verre looked at Lucan beside him. Despite never having been to the bottom hold before, and this being his first time on this voidship, Lucan was somehow intimately familiar with the routes here.
It seemed like Damon and his squad were scouting ahead, but whenever a choice of route was needed, Lucan would make a decision without hesitation.
As they ventured deeper, sounds began to emanate from the dim passageway.
The soft, whispering murmurs were exceptionally distinct in this environment.
And Verre, who had served the Rogue Trader for over a dozen years, vaguely recognized the owner of the voice.
"Is that Lord Ludwig's voice?"
Just as Verre was about to move forward, Lucan immediately stopped him.
"Lord Lucan, that's Lord Ludwig's voice!"
"Perhaps it is his voice, but whether the owner of that voice is still Ludwig, that's unknown."
"Lord Lucan! What do you mean by that?"
"My meaning is that the Rogue Trader may have already been corrupted!"
"Impossible! This… how could this be possible?"
"This is why I didn't bring anyone else. If others were to see the Rogue Trader in a fallen state, news would inevitably spread. This would have a massive impact on the Dynasty! Unless you choose to silence everyone."
Verre clearly still didn't believe Lucan's words. After all, he didn't know about Lucan's ability to read memories.
Perhaps at this moment, he was thinking that Lucan wanted to kill the Rogue Trader to usurp his position! Lucan was currently only the Acting Captain.
"Attack formation! Commander, stay behind us! This is an extermination mission. There are no rescue targets, no civilians. All targets are cleared for engagement! Switch to depleted uranium rounds! Advance!"
Damon immediately began deploying his forces. Verre tried to intervene but was slammed against the wall by Lucan.
Feeling the immense force on his chest, Verre found he couldn't break free from Lucan's grip!
"How is his strength so great!"
The team moved towards the source of the voice. Along the way, the walls were covered in various blasphemous symbols representing Chaos.
The metal bulkheads had been replaced by living, pulsating flesh.
When they forced open an unpowered airtight hatch, the long-missing Ludwig was indeed inside.
"Lord Ludwig!"
Verre's call seemed to awaken Ludwig, who was kneeling with his head bowed.
At this moment, Ludwig was submerged in a pool of green liquid. The source of the entire voidship's Warp corruption was this very pool; constantly surfacing bubbles released a deadly virus.
"Verre… it's you… why have you come!"
"My Lord, your body…"
Hearing Verre's words, Ludwig looked down at himself.
His lower body, from the waist down, was gone, replaced by a reeking mass of flesh. Seeing this, Ludwig seemed to regain his own consciousness.
"What is happening?! No! This isn't what I wanted!"
"He's beyond saving! Kill him!"
Lucan gave the order to fire.
Dozens of C-14s spat bullets, and Firebats spewed flames towards the aberrant flesh.
The impacted areas immediately burst with large amounts of pus and blood, and the attack from Lucan and his men also seemed to awaken the entire fleshy chamber.
The writhing flesh vomited forth monsters one by one. The thick liquid in the pool began to boil, and swarms of carrion flies flew out from it. And these humanoid monsters still wore the armor of the Dynasty's House Guard.
These elite soldiers who had accompanied Ludwig down here had now become sacrifices.
The flesh that had proliferated from them had burst through their carapace armor, yet they still knew how to use their boltguns to return fire.
"Orphina? Gaspar? Why have you become like this!!" Verre recognized several of the monsters.
With that, the initial fire superiority instantly turned into a fierce firefight.
Even combat armor couldn't fully withstand the power of bolter rounds; even if the impact was blocked, the soldiers inside suffered.
Several bolter rounds flew towards Lucan, thankfully deflected by his force field.
In Lucan's psychic sight, Ludwig's soul was long gone.
"A Daemonhost? Is a daemon inhabiting his body?"
Lucan still remembered the feeling of being tormented by a Daemonhost when he first played Darktide. Although later on, they were just a few hammer blows away from death, they were genuinely nauseating in the early game; once disturbed, they would often take down one or two people.
And Lucan also saw clearly what kind of daemon was residing in Ludwig's body. It wasn't a single daemon… but a swarm.
A dense mass of Nurglings was piled together, occupying Ludwig's body.
They chittered and laughed as if it were all a game, completely unconcerned about being discovered.
These daemons, the most numerous in Nurgle's Garden, were endless in number. A single Nurgling wasn't frightening, but a swarm of Nurglings was enough to overwhelm their opponents.
As avatars of Nurgle, children beloved by him, they often represented Nurgle's gaze to mortals.
The greatest wish of Nurglings was to find ways to spread their Grandfather's gospel. The fact that daemons return to the Warp upon death in the material universe also made them fearless of dying.
And the exceptionally harmonious atmosphere in Nurgle's Garden meant they didn't have to worry about being punished by Nurgle for failure, allowing these Nurglings to experiment with impunity.
However, behind every attempted incursion by these Nurglings, there was often the shadow of a much more powerful Nurgle daemon.
Lucan was truly envious. If it didn't involve growing strange things or rotting all over, he genuinely would have considered pledging himself to Nurgle.
Lucan truly liked this kind of "corporate culture"! Where else could you find such a good boss? He genuinely treated the daemons around him like his children!
"So all this trouble was caused by a bunch of Nurglings?"
Ludwig's body was a conduit. As the Warp energy in this location grew more abundant, the Gellar Field protecting the voidship began to destabilize.
The truly powerful Nurgle daemon behind the Nurglings was attempting to enter the voidship.
Seeing this scene, Lucan knew he couldn't wait any longer. This voidship was currently navigating the Warp; if that daemon truly got in, who knew what would happen!
And here, only he could withstand the psychic baptism!
Lucan activated his power sword, aimed the master-crafted bolter in his hands at the two foremost corrupted House Guards, and pulled the trigger.
The massive recoil was thankfully offset by the Marauder armor. The targeted guards were blown to pieces in the explosion.
And Lucan, whose body had already been enhanced, unleashed incredible speed even while wearing the heavy combat suit.
Bolter rounds fired at him were blocked by his force field. After barrelling through several House Guards blocking his path, Lucan lunged with his power sword at the completely corrupted Ludwig.
Looking at Lucan leaping high, the Nurglings within Ludwig's body laughed disdainfully.
But they immediately realized something was wrong.
Their power was being weakened… The great power of their Grandfather was actually being siphoned away by the figure before them?
Even the disgusting flesh around them began to wither, and the highly corrosive plague before them couldn't hinder Lucan in the slightest.
"Die, daemon! This is my warship!"
The power sword plunged into Ludwig's flesh without resistance. Only at this moment did the Nurglings truly begin to fear.
As their host body collapsed, they should have returned to their Grandfather's Garden, but they discovered that the entity before them was actually devouring their souls!
They desperately tried to flee, but the terrifying suction pulled one Nurgling after another into Lucan's Warp projection.
When the last Nurgling was devoured, the corrupted House Guards also collapsed into lifeless corpses.
And at the same time, in Nurgle's Garden, a Great Unclean One looked quizzically at the now-closed portal before him.
The portal closing didn't matter; it was just another insignificant failure. But why hadn't a single Nurgling returned?
Then, the Great Unclean One scratched its enormous backside and paid the matter no further attention.
(End of Chapter)