Warhammer 40k: Starting as a Rogue Trader

Chapter 146: Zagara, the Special Zerg

"Frank, get your followers ready for battle! Open the gates from the underhive to the lower hive. I need to leave my palace; it's no longer safe here."

"You will not regret your decision, Glydus."

Frank was delighted that Glydus had finally agreed to his request. The number of cultists in the underhive had long since exceeded Glydus's estimates. In his heart, Frank mocked her for thinking that everything was still under her control. Once these cultists were unleashed from the underhive, the resulting Chaos corruption would be far beyond what this arrogant governor could manage. The so-called supervisors she had sent to monitor them had long been corrupted by him, and the intelligence they provided her was nothing but false news.

However, as Frank accompanied Glydus, moving under the protection of her guards, they had just left the main hall when Frank's expression suddenly turned grim.

His powerful psychic sense detected an incredibly faint psychic reaction in the corridor before them. It was not a natural phenomenon but an individual with psychic talent.

Yet, his naked eye saw nothing at all.

"Assassins! Protect Glydus and get her out of here!"

"What are you talking about, Frank?" Glydus asked, staring at the corridor, which was clearly empty.

But then a gunshot suddenly echoed through the passage. An armor-piercing round shot directly toward Glydus's head.

Frank immediately threw up a psychic barrier in front of them. But the gunshots continued, and the disruption rounds fired by the Ghosts were also able to interfere with the psychic shield.

"Take them all out! We've been discovered!"

Norris cursed inwardly. The Chaos sorcerer opposite them had a very high psychic level, which had been further enhanced by the blessings of Tzeentch. To maintain their cloaked state, even with their combat suits absorbing most of it, a minuscule amount of psychic energy still leaked out.

But a berserker could also be an assassin. Norris and the Ghosts beside him simultaneously drew their twin psi-blades.

The phase-shift activated, and they instantly appeared beside Glydus and her entourage. Having been thoroughly trained by the Death Cult, they began to perform the cult's signature sword dance, giving them formidable frontal combat capabilities even after being exposed.

Frank and Glydus never expected that enemies who were far away one moment would appear right next to them in the next. The psi-blades easily sliced through the blasphemously modified bodies of the guards.

Norris lunged directly for Glydus.

"Assassins?!"

Glydus suddenly recalled certain rumors... that the Imperium had a highly classified department. There had been incidents even in the Malfi sub-sector where a planetary governor and his entire family had suddenly died, leaving no trace behind. With her status as a sub-sector commander, she had only learned of the vague existence of these people through clandestine intelligence.

A brooch on Glydus's chest flared with an energy reaction. A deflection shield blocked Norris's fatal blow. But it could only hold for a moment, not enough to save Glydus's life. Norris fired a disruption round at the shield, and it was quickly disabled.

Glydus couldn't believe that the expensive shield she had acquired was so easily defeated.

And though Glydus had received certain boons from the dark gods, she was ultimately not a warrior. Her lack of combat experience left her with no time to react. The psi-blade plunged into her chest.

Feeling the sharp pain erupt from her heart, Glydus stared in disbelief at the now-visible Norris.

"Heretic! Lord Lucan sends his regards!"

Just as Norris was about to strike again, flames of Tzeentch erupted from the warp, rushing toward him and the other Ghosts. Frank had used the power of Tzeentch to draw forth the daemonic fire from his patron's realm.

Norris immediately used his phase-shift to escape, but another Ghost was still within the flames' reach. His phase-shift was still on cooldown, leaving him unable to escape the psychic inferno.

Hearing his comrade's screams, Norris felt a pang of heartache. But the daemonic fire from the realm of Tzeentch was impossible to extinguish. In a few moments, the Ghost fell silent.

Frank rushed to Glydus's side. Glydus could not be allowed to die yet! He used the psychic flames that now filled the corridor to block the Ghosts' advance.

Glydus felt her life slipping away... This was the first time she had ever been so close to death.

She tried praying to the God-Emperor, but received no response... In the entire galaxy, those who could receive the Emperor's response were few and far between. Why would the Emperor answer a person like her, who had committed countless heretical acts?

She didn't want to die. Her great work was not yet complete. The goals she had pursued her entire life had long since become her obsession. If the Emperor was unwilling to answer her now... then she could only pray to those other gods.

As she prayed, Tzeentch answered her almost immediately.

As she surrendered to the whispers in her mind, the power of Chaos began to change her body. Her already mutated form began to mutate further, and her fatal wound was no longer fatal.

"You will soon know the power of this gift!"

Frank watched Glydus's transformation with excitement. The merit of causing Glydus to fall would surely earn him more knowledge from the Lord of Change.

She felt a power she had never known before flooding her body. Her low-level psychic abilities were forcibly enhanced, and a torrent of blasphemous knowledge that was not her own began to flood her mind.

"Lord Norris, Theron is dead... and the heretic has escaped!"

As the warp flames died down, there was no longer any sign of Glydus.

"Report to the Lord. The assassination has failed!"

The group cloaked once more and hurried out of the palace. Since they couldn't kill Glydus, their only option was to assist the Dynasty's impending landing.

Lucan's fleet had already approached the orbit, but they had not yet begun landing operations. On the planet's surface, the defenders of Malfi were prepared for battle.

But the good news was that the hive in the underhive had successfully hatched many giant Nydus Worms. These massive Zerg consumed far more biomass than their game counterparts. The place where the initial eggs had hatched was now completely covered in creep.

A total of twenty Nydus Worms writhed, their toothed maws rooted in the metal ground. If one were to look inside their giant mouths, they would no longer see a writhing fleshy tunnel, but a rippling portal at its deepest point. Queens constantly used their abilities to restore the Nydus Worms' vitality as the worms, in turn, spewed forth a massive number of Zerg onto this new world. The newly spawned Zerg began to rapidly occupy the surrounding areas.

Back on the planet Char, a special Zerg stood beside a Nydus Worm. She looked like a Queen, magnified several times over, and was surrounded by countless other Zerg. Unlike a normal Queen who mechanically carried out Kerrigan's orders, her eyes were full of intelligent light. She was clearly a Zerg individual with self-awareness.

"My Queen," Zagara said to herself, "Zagara is coming to find you. Although I do not know what kind of world this is, I will still follow you forever! I will follow your will, devour your enemies, and expand the Swarm! For the Queen of Blades, I will conquer that world for the Queen!!"

Zagara plunged directly into the Nydus Worm, and a massive number of Zerg followed close behind. As the Swarm continued to grow, some special individuals had begun to be born.

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