Alexei arrived at the Starport platform with his entourage. Under normal circumstances, he wouldn't have handled such matters personally; usually, the Planetary Governor would appoint a specialized official to manage such interactions.
However, given the current state of Aiur, Alexei, as the de facto supreme ruler, had to receive them himself. Yet, for some reason, the fleet in the distance had not dispatched any landing craft.
Standing on the platform, he watched the fleet anchored in the void with no intention of approaching the Starport. He was puzzled. "What are they doing?"
Meanwhile, inside the Lunar-class Cruiser, everyone was staring grimly at a Navigator. This Navigator had fallen into a strange state of madness. The High Naval Commander looked on with a heavy expression.
The Navigator hissed incoherent gibberish, mixed with fragments of terrifying sentences: "They are coming... they are coming... Hunger! I am so hungry!"
Seeing that he was about to be consumed by psionic backlash, Inquisitor Diana, standing nearby, immediately drew her bolt pistol and shattered his skull.
"Damn it, Diana! What have you done?" the naval officer grumbled. They had just lost the most precious asset on the ship.
Without a Navigator, they could not perceive the light of the Astronomican. They were now unable to enter the Warp unless they wanted to be lost forever in its dangerous depths.
"If I hadn't dealt with him, the psionic energy in his body would have surely attracted Warp entities, Edward," Diana said, sliding her bolt pistol back into its holster.
She turned to a nearby soldier. "Dispose of the body." Then, she turned to leave. "Come, let us go meet the successor of this planet."
Edward sighed softly and signaled his soldiers to follow the Inquisitor's lead. Now, they could only adapt as they went. He led his men toward several Valkyrie transports to rendezvous with Diana.
Once all personnel were aboard, the Valkyries' engines roared to life, and the transports soared out of the ship toward the distant Starport platform.
Alexei watched the Valkyries approaching. He didn't know their intent. If they intended to purge him, even with a dozen men in CMC power armor, they would likely all die after a few strafing runs from the transports.
Under Alexei's watchful eye, the transports landed slowly on the platform, the backwash of the engines obscuring everyone's vision. With the whine of gears, the Valkyrie hatches hissed open.
A group of naval officers and Administratum Tithe Prefects, accompanied by dozens of servitors and a large retinue of armed guards, walked toward him. Alexei spotted a familiar uniform among them. "Tch, the Inquisition."
This was going to be troublesome. He didn't know if she would discover the Zerg Hive Core in the Underhive. If he were exposed, there were only two possible endings: either he would be hit by a Cyclonic Torpedo, or he would have to feed this woman a Neural Parasite.
As he pondered, the group drew near. Alexei quickly stepped forward with a smile, extending his left hand to the lead naval officer for a handshake.
The officer did not respond. He simply looked at Alexei coldly. "Are you the leader of the force that suppressed the Hordem rebellion?"
His gaze constantly swept over the squad behind Alexei, who were clad in unknown power armor. He was curious. He knew some worlds had unique local creations, but those were usually low-tech equipment. Master-crafted power armor like this was typically only produced by the Forge Worlds of the Adeptus Mechanicus.
Where did this man get this armor? Did he use these to suppress the rebellion? Interesting.
Alexei looked at the officer who was scrutinizing his men. He smiled and withdrew his hand. "I am."
Suddenly, the Inquisitor beside the officer stepped forward. She scanned Alexei with a probing gaze, her beautiful features frozen in an icy expression.
She signaled a Tech-Priest in the retinue to step forward. "I must first verify that you have not been corrupted by the Warp," the Inquisitor stated.
"Of course. My loyalty to the Emperor has never wavered," Alexei nodded understandingly.
The Inquisitor said nothing more and nodded to the Tech-Priest. The priest immediately pulled out a strange machine of an unknown model. He pointed the device at Alexei and began operating it. However, as time passed, the confusion on the Tech-Priest's face grew.
Diana watched closely, her hand already resting on her bolt pistol. "What is it?"
The Tech-Priest looked up at Alexei in confusion. Was the tester broken? He pointed the device at another person beside Alexei; this time, it displayed a normal reading.
Strange. The Tech-Priest scratched his head with a mechadendrite. Theoretically, everyone had at least some contact with the Warp; even a Pariah (Untouchable) would show a corresponding value on the device.
But for the man in front of him, the tester gave no reaction at all, as if he had no connection to the Warp whatsoever.
"This individual shows absolutely no signs of Warp corruption. In fact, he seems to have no connection to the Warp at all," the Tech-Priest replied to Diana in a synthesized, metallic voice.
"A Pariah?" Diana looked at Alexei. She didn't feel that repulsive, soul-chilling sensation typically associated with Untouchables.
Alexei shrugged. "Well? Do we have a result?"
Just as Diana wanted to conduct further testing, the naval officer, Edward, stepped in to stop her. "Since no signs of corruption were found, let us set aside our hostility for now."
Edward wanted to talk to Alexei about those sophisticated sets of master-crafted power armor.
The Inquisitor, having been blocked, did not speak again. She merely gave Alexei a long, deep look before retreating back into the group.
Alexei breathed a sigh of relief internally. He had thought something went wrong and that he would have to make a move, but for now, the immediate danger had passed.
He made a gesture of invitation and began to lead the way. The armored soldiers protected the group as they headed toward the orbital elevator.
"We shall head to the Lower Hive first. Please excuse the mess; most buildings in the Upper Hive and the Spire were destroyed during the demonic incursion. The remaining structures are more or less contaminated, so I plan to clear them all," Alexei said to the group as they stood on the elevator platform.
The retinue stared blankly at the staggering number of massive engineering machines busy among the ruins. "Gods... is this truly just an ordinary Hive World?" the Tech-Priest muttered.
Edward squinted at the smiling Alexei. If he was only suspicious before, he was now 80% certain that this man must have unearthed something extraordinary from the ancient junk heaps of this planet's Underhive.