Malzak stared at the grenade on the deck, his mind blank, his perception utterly shattered.
He even forgot to issue defense or evasion commands, standing frozen, trying to parse this absurdity with logic warped by Chaos.
Then, the frag grenade exploded.
"BOOM!! BOOM!! BOOM!!"
The violent blast erupted before the narrow console, red-hot shrapnel and destruction sweeping all in their path.
Malzak's head, filled with blasphemous knowledge, along with his flesh-slave servitors, was swallowed up in the explosion.
Even as the smoke lingered, several scorched, broken devices sputtered with sparks.
With a low hum, the data terminal flickered on again, resuming the black-and-white video.
The terminator's figure reappeared—and then crawled out of the screen.
In the corner, a few Chaos-corrupted, mutant servitors and low-grade daemons fused with the machinery had barely survived.
Seeing this absurd spectacle, their twisted faces showed utter disbelief.
No warp surges—how could someone crawl out of a 2D screen??
Of course, they would never get the answer.
Datch, without hesitation, raised his roaring chainsword, swiftly dispatching the remaining enemies.
"With this videotape, the Emperor never needs to worry about enemy AA fire ruining my boarding runs again."
At that moment, the chaotic sounds of footsteps and furious roars echoed from the corridor of writhing flesh.
"Excellent. Time to start the slaughter."
"Blood for the Emperor! Skulls for the Golden Throne!"
Datch roared, eyes locking on the first wave of Chaos cultists at the corridor's end.
They were covered in twisted mutations and profane runes, their eyes burning with madness and hate.
Datch charged at them.
Once close enough, he executed a smooth, near-ground tactical slide right into their ranks.
His super shotgun boomed, blowing the leading mutants into flying chunks.
Before the slide even ended, he swung his chainsword with a howl, sawing another bone-bladed traitor in half, weapon and all.
With swordsmanship learned from Champion Garrien and the protection of Cataphractii terminator armor,
Datch was a tiger among sheep, leaving corpses in his wake.
Clearing one area, he immediately dashed to the next.
…
Meanwhile, Calgar's Ultramarines successfully boarded the Chaos flagship, plunging it into chaos.
The traitors quickly organized defenses, sealing and locking bulkheads to halt Calgar's advance.
They then massed their forces at a key junction—a few Chaos Marines in heavy armor, hordes of frenzied cultists, and some low-tier daemons hungry for flesh and souls.
They waited in formation, ready to unleash a deadly crossfire once the door was breached.
All attention was focused on the welded, reinforced bulkhead, ears straining for the rising whine of chainswords and shotguns outside.
No one noticed the wall-mounted projector, used for ship maps and alerts, begin to flicker—then fill with black-and-white static.
On screen, the now-familiar mossy well appeared again.
From the well, Datch in terminator armor climbed out, staring at the Chaos ambushers.
"I'm right here, you idiots!" Datch called, amused.
Two Chaos Marines glanced instinctively at the screen.
Before they could respond, Datch continued:
"The Emperor Himself sent me to give you a message: Eat shit, scum!"
The next moment, several round grenades arced from the 2D screen, landing precisely in the densest enemy cluster and near the ammo crates.
"Grenades! Out of the screen—!"
A Chaos Marine screamed in shock.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The grenades detonated among the unprepared crowd, triggering the stacked munitions.
The chain explosions ripped the cultists to shreds.
Several Chaos Marines were knocked down by the shockwave or pierced at their armor's weak points.
After the explosions, the Chaos traitors were devastated. Survivors were dazed and terrified, unable to grasp what had just happened.
At that moment, with a thunderous crash, the reinforced bulkhead was blown open.
Calgar led the Ultramarines in, boltguns roaring, picking off the confused and reeling enemies.
Calgar had expected a brutal assault with heavy losses, but found the resistance surprisingly sparse and disorganized.
"Advance! Eliminate all resistance!"
As Calgar and his men pushed deeper, the mystery was solved.
The corridors were pocked with shotgun craters and chainsword gashes. Dismembered mutants and traitors littered the decks, many with brutal melee wounds.
Key points—like armories and control rooms—were clearly blasted from within.
Someone had already unleashed a bloody rampage inside the flagship before them.
"It must be him."
Calgar looked at the corpse of a Chaos Marine with his head blown apart by a heavy weapon. He immediately thought of the nameless Astartes.
Apparently, the man had not only boarded successfully, but single-handedly wreaked havoc, crippling key command and defense nodes.
With Datch's unpredictable strikes inside and the Ultramarines' fierce assault from without,
The Echo of Agony's resistance collapsed rapidly.
Core engines disabled, main weapons offline, the bridge captured.
With their flagship lost, the Chaos fleet's command chain fell apart.
The Imperial fleet seized the moment, launching a decisive attack and gaining total advantage.
…
[Congratulations! You have completed the mission: Assisted the Ultramarines in boarding and capturing the enemy flagship.]
[Rewards: 300 XP, 300 points, +30 Reputation]
After completing the mission, Datch used the Sadako tape to return to the Macragge's Honour, ready for a new task from the Primarch.
Guilliman was amazed at Datch's efficiency and immediately assigned him more missions: precision strikes on stubborn Chaos warships, demolishing heavily fortified ground bunkers, and more.
With Datch's bizarre and effective assistance, combined with Guilliman's brilliant command,
The Imperial forces swept through the Ultramar campaign, regaining lost ground and routing the Chaos invaders.
Victory seemed inevitable for the Imperium.
But as the Imperial armies surged forward, morale soaring,
A terrifying plague called the "Weeping Plague" was quietly spreading through the worlds behind Ultramar.
…
Bonus Chapter at 300 PS