The gang members who had fallen to Slaanesh's corruption were completely annihilated, and the faint burning sensation on Ignis's face finally subsided. What remained were the ones relying on four Guardian-class Autonomous Tactical Mechs, clearly preparing to resist until the end.
"Based on intercepted communications, they're preparing to come out and engage," Jax-05 continued his report. "They've begun countermeasures against my drones—some are out of my control. It's fine, I'll deploy a new batch shortly."
"Oh, they've opened the doors. Four mechs plus two squads of infantry," Jax-03 observed through her scope. "Do you want me eliminating high-value targets, or do I keep eyes on any couriers they try to dispatch?"
Ignis remembered the Guardian mechs. They resembled the Typhon—both were bipedal walkers—but unlike Typhon's purely melee-focused design, Guardians carried a primary cannon and a close-combat breaker hammer. Mounted above the hull was a defensive multi-linked machine gun system and smoke grenade launchers.
Although not as heavily armored as the Typhon, the Guardian's wheel-integrated legs granted them far superior mobility. Their logic cores supported full mobile firing and maintained respectable accuracy on the move.
If he didn't have his autocannon, he would not be entirely confident dealing with them.
Fortunately, he had both the autocannon and his Iron Halo for substantial shielding.
"Jax-03, prioritize eliminating their high-value units. Jax-04, maintain observation—if any new couriers appear, wipe them out first." Jaxcalibur-01 issued his orders calmly. "Prepare Combat Bangboo units and drones. Last time we held back. This time we can deploy openly."
"So the Bangboo on that vehicle really were combat-configured." Ignis lowered to one knee, aligning his sights toward the position marked by Jax-05. Their numbers weren't small, but drone reconnaissance had already done the hard part. All Ignis had to do now was fire first.
"Honestly? We use them a lot. Last time we didn't because we were worried those little guys would get excited and wreck the cargo," Jaxcalibur-01 said from behind Ignis, using the giant as their only cover in the open grounds. "But for an operation backed by the Vulkan Quarter Public Security, minimizing personnel casualties takes priority."
"That's still a terrible idea." Ignis thought of Amillion of the Cunning Hares. The little green one couldn't talk, but she understood everything. She helped him constantly in the kitchen and workshop. Sending such creatures into battle—especially against armed paramilitary units—felt wrong.
"Relax. These aren't the Bangboo who passed the Forbidden Fruit Test." Jaxcalibur-01 understood his implication. "My family has Bangboo too, so yes, we get it. These ones who didn't pass—treat them as bigger drones."
No sooner had Jaxcalibur-01 finished speaking than the enemy entered view. Four mechs in a horizontal line, infantry spreading out behind them, maintaining lateral security.
"They've got heavy anti-armor missiles," Jax-03 reported. "They know they'll need serious firepower to break through. Captain, do I shoot now or wait for combat to start?"
"Wait until contact," Ignis said and pressed the trigger stud.
Three sharp blasts sounded as three sub-caliber penetrators left the barrel. To guarantee disabling the target, all three rounds were aimed at the same mech.
All three shots struck their mark, piercing straight through a Guardian's logic core. Markus's report hadn't exaggerated—these forty-millimeter penetrators punched three clean holes through its thickest armor plate, shredding the internal electronics to scrap.
The moment the first mech was hit, the remaining Guardians deployed smoke. Their heat-laden smoke grenades rendered Fire-Sight ineffective. Infantry advanced, scanning with the naked eye.
Standing on open ground, Ignis was quickly spotted, and the infantry's light weapons began harassing fire.
"Beginning chain-link disruption," Jax-05 announced. "Don't worry—the infantry can't provide accurate positional data to the mechs. Combat Bangboo and drones are entering the field. They can flank at any time."
Enemy infantry set up several light machine guns, firing tracer rounds through the night to guide their shooters. But such small-caliber rounds were meaningless against the Adeptus Astartes power armor.
Using penetrators on infantry was wasteful. And since the Iron Halo could block their ranged fire, Ignis didn't bother moving. He simply held his kneeling stance, waiting for the smoke to dissipate so he could resume targeting the remaining Guardians.
Jaxcalibur-01 and Jax-06 used Ignis's body as cover, peeking out to shoot. Their aim was excellent—each shot struck home. The enemy redirected two light machine guns for suppressive fire.
His helm display zoomed in—four heavy anti-armor launchers were already set up and were being loaded. Ignis rotated his cannon and, with a single controlled burst, destroyed one launcher. The detonating warhead cooked off the ammo in a secondary explosion.
Jax-03 fired twice in rapid succession, killing the primary shooters of two more launcher teams. As the assistants moved the bodies, Ignis's next two rounds struck cleanly, causing two more sympathetic detonations.
But one missile still flew toward him. Jaxcalibur-01 and Jax-06 grimaced—the giant didn't dodge, maintaining firing posture.
Ignis activated the Iron Halo. A hemispherical energy shield formed ahead of him. The spinning missile detonated prematurely the instant it neared the barrier. Superheated metal jets and shockwave alike were held outside the shield.
Jaxcalibur-01 knew Defense Force mechs used energy shields, but none were capable of being projected away from the body. Those shields only formed over armor plating and only resisted light fire. Yet this giant had just stopped a heavy anti-armor missile head-on.
Ignis retaliated and blew apart the last launcher.
With the Iron Halo active, enemy light fire was useless. Jaxcalibur-01 and Jax-06 immediately began trading shots, swiftly killing the machine-gun crews suppressing them.
A shrill buzzing erupted as Jax-05's attack drones entered the field. Unlike the earlier recon models, these were loud and incredibly fast. A thick swarm swept in from the flank. The enemy commander tried organizing anti-air fire, but the drones were too quick. They streaked overhead and carpet-dropped grenades.
The infantry scrambled for cover, but with no trenches and no shielding, the airstrike was devastating. The grenades had been preset for airburst—each detonation swept the battlefield with shockwaves and fragmentation. Screams rang out briefly, then vanished.
Only a few lucky ones survived by hiding behind cargo containers or being on the fringes of the blast radius. Nearly the entire infantry force was wiped out by this drone assault.
Even then, Jax-05 didn't stop. He directed the Combat Bangboo forward. They carried grenades instead of firearms, and under drone guidance, hurled them with surprising strength. Each small Bangboo, barely over a meter tall, could easily throw a grenade thirty to forty meters.
Between airborne and ground-based autonomous units, the enemy infantry was completely eliminated. A few Bangboo were damaged by desperate counterfire but could be recovered and repaired later.
Under the combined blast waves and Vulkan Quarter's industrial heat winds, the smoke around the remaining three Guardian mechs finally dispersed. They spotted the Bangboo and the drones and instantly opened fire with their multi-linked machine guns.
Machines reacted faster than humans, and with onboard radar, their target acquisition was rapid.
Combat Bangboo fell in piles, and more than half of the drones were destroyed—including those equipped with anti-armor grenades for top-down attacks.
Ignis was hardly idle. He resumed firing, but the mechs' radar detected his aim. All three activated their wheel systems and began high-speed evasive maneuvers. Their primary cannons fired simultaneously.
Fortunately, Jaxcalibur-01 and Jax-06 had relocated during the drone strike and no longer needed Ignis to shield them.
The enemy's cannons weren't ballistic—they fired some kind of thermal energy beam. After blocking three consecutive hits, the Iron Halo began to overload. Ignis disengaged it briefly to let it recover. When he saw the next cannon charging, he immediately moved, sprinting laterally while firing.
But firing the automatic cannon on the move reduced his accuracy, and the mechs' relentless mobility made landing a hit nearly impossible.
This time, the enemy didn't volley—they alternated fire smartly. Ignis dove aside to evade a beam. The impact left a molten crater in the ground.
As Ignis prepared to retaliate, the second beam came. He had to keep dodging, returning only probabilistic fire.
'Can you disable part of their systems?' Ignis shouted across comms, ducking another beam. 'They're harder to deal with than expected.'
"No. This is proper military hardware—they've got hardened anti-interference modules. I can't brute-force them with what I have. Reporting: only a few personnel remain inside the warehouse," Jax-05 said, confirming through a drone stationed at a window.
"Then Jax-06 and I are breaching," Jaxcalibur-01 said. "Hold them as long as you can."
"Understood." Ignis fired again while replying—this time he hit. A penetrator struck a Guardian's right shoulder joint, destroying its primary cannon.
With one mech's firepower neutralized, Ignis's pressure eased. He finally had room to engage properly. Observing their movements, he noticed predictable patterns—an AI's actions always held traceable trajectories.
Ignis fired two shots intentionally wide, baiting one mech to dodge right. Based on its pattern, he knew it would then immediately juke left to avoid his follow-up. He shifted his aim left and fired three times in rapid succession.
Thud. Thud. Thud. The penetrators drilled through the Guardian's frontal armor, destroying its logic core.
Only one operational heavy weapon remained.
Ignis pressed the trigger stud again—only the hollow click of an empty chamber replied. The drum was empty.
He rolled aside from another beam, slung the cannon to his waist, and exhaled. These test batches were gone; further production was still underway. He had no more penetrators.
Which meant the answer was simple—close combat. And the power fists would deliver.
Ignis charged. Over three meters tall and weighing several tons, he accelerated fast—nearly as fast as the Guardian mechs. The remaining two mechs formed a front-rear cover. The one with the ruined cannon advanced to intercept, giving the last one a clean shot.
But Ignis's Iron Halo was fully recharged. He raised the shield and absorbed the thermal beam. The charging Guardian fired its machine gun and launched several smoke-grenade-like rounds marked with strange symbols.
They burst against the Iron Halo, releasing blinding light and shockwaves that rattled the shield. Some kind of advanced stun charge. The Guardian's logic core couldn't comprehend the Iron Halo's function—it simply followed combat routines and charged, breaker hammer overhead.
Compared to a Typhon unit's melee proficiency, this was crude. Few opponents could survive a Guardian's impact, so minimal refinement had been needed.
Ignis, however, was an Adeptus Astartes—his close-quarters prowess was extraordinary. The power fist charged, crackling with electric arcs as a cerulean disintegration field coated it.
His right fist met the descending breaker hammer. The disintegration field activated instantly, reducing the high-density Ether-alloy hammer to base particles. His left fist followed, smashing the logic core and killing the mech.
As the massive machine toppled, another thermal beam struck the Iron Halo. The earlier stun grenades had weakened the shield; the beam wasn't fully nullified. It scraped past Ignis's pauldron, melting part of its outer plating.
Seeing his beloved Chapter badge damaged ignited fury within him. The Son of Vulkan erupted forward with blistering speed; the weight of his Mark X Gravis Power Armor meant nothing to him. He raised a hand, projecting a burst of flame to blind the mech's visual arrays.
The Guardian's logic core hesitated briefly at the sudden torrent of Ether-fuel fire—just long enough. The enraged Salamander burst from the flames. His massive gauntlets clamped onto both of the mech's arms. As it attempted to deploy stun grenades and machine-gun fire, Ignis, empowered by electromuscle fibers, lifted the abomination.
His hands tightened. The arm joints warped, clamps and screws snapping. With a horrifying crack, Ignis ripped both arms clean off.
Unable to restrain his rage, Ignis stomped onto the mech's chest, crushing armor without using the disintegration field. He hooked his fingers beneath a protruding plate and tore it off.
The red-glowing logic core was exposed. The furious giant lifted his foot and crushed it into fragments.
Only then did his anger subside slightly. Ignis looked at his pauldron—the surface molten, the Chapter insignia unrecognizable. Fortunately, he remembered the stylized drake-head symbol perfectly; he could repaint it later.
But the damage still infuriated him. He turned toward the narcotics warehouse.
Good. It would burn as well.
Just as he thought this, all surrounding lights went dark.
'Great. One of those thermal shots must've hit the power station control hub. Perfect timing,' Jax-05 reported. "We need to move fast. Public Security won't ignore a total blackout for long."
"We've reached the interior. Approaching the data-storage terminal," Jaxcalibur-01 whispered. "Proceeding with suppressed firearms."
"Hold on—there's someone else here!" Jaxcalibur-01 sounded genuinely shocked. "Jax-05, we found traces of a third party! Locate them immediately!"