"This person ...... I don't even want to call it human or Astarte, because that would be a taint on both terms. He is the embodiment of a shameless robber-murderer, a rapist and adulterer, a thug who rejoices, a walking traitor and corruption, an abominable darling of Slaanesh, and the most depraved of all of Killiman's children. —Vogrim Ishtar commenting on his memory of Cato Sicarus.

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"If you're having trouble overseeing the construction of the ground and the platform, why don't you oversee the reception of visitors?"

"No problem, isn't it just to receive guests from afar? I'm so experienced. "———— two Supreme Warlords from the Silver Skull warband forged a dialogue over the world in Bella Karn.

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Cato Sicarius, the commander of the second company of the Ultramarines, the Lord of the Watch, the knight champion of Macurag, the Grand Duke of Talasalian, one of the supreme lords of Otrama, was born as a nobleman, was selected into the warband, and then set out from the fortress of Hera to travel to the vast galaxy, bringing courage and glory to the people of the Killman, the Emperor, and the people of the Empire, and bringing destruction and death to the enemies of the Empire.

Therefore, this noble warrior naturally had a certain expectation and conclusion in his heart about what the "Martian Sect" of the Mechanical God Cult Casting World would look like, and these things began to gradually become ...... when he stepped on the orbital platform of the Bella Karn Casting World Well...... unusual or contrary to any cosmic common sense he knows.

First, as they stepped out of the bridge, the tall group of fighters armed with blasters and swords with power or chainsaw swords found themselves standing in a room, wide, high, bright, neat, and very well arranged...... Not too imperial, but also not mechanical, waiting in the halls.

Chairs and tables fit the size of Astarte are placed here, and the alabaster stilt urns (which are slightly similar in style to Maculag) are even inserted with clusters of flowers, real flowers, which are undoubtedly analyzed by the olfactory receptors in everyone's helmets, and something even sweeter: the size of the treats and the way they smell made suggest that they were made for Space Marines.

In the tens of seconds of waiting time for the Ultramarines to leave their ships and walk down the bridge jutting out of the harbor, huge questions quickly filled the minds of every Ultramariner, and the vigilant ones had already pulled out their blasters and put their fingers on the trigger, at which point the team's communication channel sounded Hephaestus's question. "We can't go wrong, Company Commander Sicarius."

It's usually rare for a Tech Sergeant to ask such a question first, as their Martian trained minds and more mechanical modifications than their other combat brethren tend to make their way of thinking and seeing the world a bit more geared towards mechanical admirers.

- Of course, it is also possible that what he saw was so inconsistent with what Hephaestus had seen in his life that he would see in any of the Automaton-ruled airports that his logical circuitry thought it was even necessary to speak before Sicarius.

"Our navigators and sensor arrays have had countless opportunities to locate our own course from the galaxy in the last twenty-four hours," the Ultramarines' leader replied, "It's impossible to go wrong, Hephaestus." ”

"All the data I've taken tells me it's Bela Karn, but, Sicarius, what I see still unssures me."

"What makes you speak to me so rarely, Hephaestus?"

At that moment, with the sound of elevators and footsteps, a man who appeared to be some kind of head or chief servant approached through one of the entrances to the platform.

Dressed in a low-key black robe, covered with a traditional shawl, he had an extremely muscular figure, and his flesh proportions were unusually tall in this world ruled by the Mechanics, and everything from his broad face to his tall stature showed traces of a perfect ancient genetic engineering that had been inflicted on him.

Sicarius was very suspicious that this might be one of the final unselected members of a warband, but had undergone most of Astarte's biochemical modifications, and according to what he knew, it was similar to the very pale flaxen-colored hair of this servant - perhaps some second- or third-generation child of the Holy Blood Angels? The gift that St. Giles left to his children was always handsome and welcoming—wherever they were.

And the reason why the speculation about him would stop at the high-ranking chief of servants and the like was that this man had a large plate in his hand and pointed it towards them, and Sicarius clearly saw that it was prominently written in bold black letters: "Company Commander Cato Sicarius from Macurag".

Although he didn't quite understand it, there was nothing wrong with the content and the object of display, and Sicarius wondered if this might be some kind of local hospitality custom?

As the visitor stood in front of them, the visitors noticed that he was as tall as they were when they were unarmed, and then the black-robed man spoke, and the special voice in his voice that was unique to Astarte made the Ultramarines feel a chord, "Respected visitors from Macurag. Welcome to Bella Karn. I am Maxim, and I will lead you during your stay on the platform, and if you have any needs, you can let me know. ”

The Ultramarine's golden eyepiece scanned the entire body of the unusual figure who claimed to be the leader or receptionist in a hundredth of a second, and the results of the scan did nothing but surprise and deepen doubt.

Scans revealed that the man was not unselected, with a black carapace covering his entire body under his skin, and that he was a Space Marine through and through.

But for some reason he wasn't armoured, but he wasn't bare-handed: the pins on the shoulders of the mysterious Astarte, who called himself Maxim, were shown by sensors to be some kind of miniature stasis guard, as did his understated but delicate belt buckle, and the gold-inlaid silver-inlaid swords and charms that hung from his belt, both of which were quickly marked by the technical sergeant as a high-risk red.

Hephaestus' sensors reminded everyone that none of the seemingly defenseless ornaments in his outfit were as harmless as they looked: a Seiko Power Sword and a miniature Stasis grenade.

"Hephaestus, if this is some kind of amazing merchandising event, or a secret show of prowess in this place, then I think it's necessary to teach them some lessons, so that the managers of this place can learn to respect me and the Ultramarines."

"I don't know, Sicarius, I just hope that his protective stance doesn't last long."

After adjusting his face to be as "spring-like" as possible, Maxim, who came to guide the visitors, politely smiled at the group with four teeth.

I had read through the "Memorandum on How to Get to the Airport Pick-up" given by the Commander of the Regiment, Lord Ramizane, he thought.

Wail.

(End of chapter)