Chapter - 33

GK HQ

Anastasia's Adepta Sororitas were cautiously making their way through the corridors of the military base of the Griffin Kryuger, at their side, there were the Crimson Slayers escorting the Empress' right hand and former Empress of Mars, Asseylum, behind them there were the Skitarii and their masters. Merlin had warned her that when the organization isolated themselves they were fighting the Honkai Corrupted androids of the Soviet Army of their civilization, since they just entered the base they didn't come across any of those except for their deactivated bodies.

Suddenly one of the Astartes stopped everyone's tracks before pointing his weapon at a camera that was tracking their movements.

"Welcome to the Griffin Kryuger secret strategic base" the voice of a man said from the speakers "I would welcome you but I'm afraid that the monsters that have followed us back in our day are still there and we lack the resources to take them out...but where are my manners, I'm Berezovich Kryuger co-founder of the Griffin Kryuger...can I ask who am I speaking to?"

"I'm Amitiel Redshield, Chapter Master of the 4th Chapter of the Red Slayers Legion" The Chapter Master as he stepped out of the way to show the only not heavily armored person within their team.

"My name is Asseylum Vers Allusia, emissary of Empress of Mankind Anastasia Apocalypse. I was sent here to recover you and your men to respect the deal that you made with Merlin before your isolation. May I ask you why are you already awake?" Asseylum asked

"We had sensors installed at the entrance, you triggered them and we woke up" Kryuger replied "further on there quite a few foes, I hope your weapons are suited for the job, a few of them are well armored"

"Your worry is unnecessary, my Battle Brothers will take down anyone who steps in front of our Empress' path" Amitiel replied "Come brothers!" he shouted as the Space Marines started rushing through the corridors

"Lady Asseylum, stay behind me" Saria, canoness of Anastasia's Adepta Sororitas, said as her and her sisters followed the space marines into the depth of the base.

Their descend was a silent one and each corner could have been an ambush...but neither the Space Marines nor the Sister of Battle had any fear. Then the air was filled with a loud bang as a Space Marine fired his boltgun against a zombie-looking being. Everyone stopped their tracks but the sound of footsteps did not stop, the sound was coming from all direction

"Protect Lady Asseylum!" Saria shouted as the Sisters of Battle placed themselves around the counselor and pointed their boltguns and flamers towards the empty dark corridors.

Then they appeared, some were humanoid androids with purple energy coming out of their cracks showing that they were being controlled by the Honkai, along with them there were less humanoid robots, all of them were carrying all sorts of assault rifles and machine guns. Along with those there were literal zombies running towards the group, their skin seemed to be covered with some sort of shell but it didn't keep them from running towards them.

The Astartes, The Skitarii and the Sisters of Battle opened fire against the incoming threat. The bolters were mowing down the androids while the flamers were melting the zombies in their shell causing a foul smell to spread around them, the armored robots were being struck by the Skitarii vanguard which quickly dispatched them. Silence fell around the soldiers before the sound of very heavy footsteps reached the soldiers' ears.

It was one of those zombies but unlike the previous ones, it was huge and its shell was so thick that even the bolter rounds were only scratching its surface.

"Hold your fire!" Amitiel shouted at the top of his lungs before grabbing his hammer and charging towards the amalgamation.

He blocked the arm swing of the creature with his weapon and pushed it away before striking what it looked like its head causing the beast to stumble backward allowing the Chapter Master thrust his power fist into the middle of the monster, the attack pulverized its shell, flesh and bones.

The space marine in Terminator armor started walking towards him before lighting up the corpse of the beast with their heavy flamers.

"Thank you Chapter Master" Asseylum said bowing her head in front of of the man

"It is my duty and honor" Amitiel replied also bowing his head in sign of respect.

The group resumed their descend, they did run into more of those Honkai Controlled robots and androids which the mechanicus called 'Imprisoned Machine Spirits'. The group found themselves in front of a vault door which started opening itself up in front of them.

The members of the Imperium found themselves looking at several individuals all being on wheelchairs, probably due to being just out of suspended animation, and accompanied by a few dozens of armed female soldiers who looked quite nervous after seeing the sizes of the Legio Astartes.

"Who is Berezovich Kryuger among you?" Asseylum asked with a friendly tone breaking the ice

"it's me" one of the people in the wheelchair said. He was rather muscular, he was probably a veteran due to the several scars on his face, he had dark brown hair with some white enforcing the idea of him being an experienced soldier.

Asseylum bowed her head a bit in a sign of respect for the man before looking back into his eyes with a determined expression "As much I would to make the proper introduction we are on a state of emergency" she said causing several of the people in front of her to frown "The second Herrscher has already appeared and the Imperial Army is about to coordinate the counterattack, I was tasked with the task of recovering you and make you combat capable"

"We lack the equipment" One of the people replied "And the Neural Server to save up the Digimind our tactical dolls and some of them need special preparation since they can't be backed up"

Asseylum nodded "The Empress predicted this reply" she said as the Mechanicus started bringing in several containers "This is special equipment, due to the training needed to use it, we were not able to train many soldiers into using it. You'll be connected to our Moon server, you can upload the digiminds of your soldiers there once you did, the training and the data on our troops will be shared with them in order to avoid any issue." she then sighed "But...the Fabricator-General Abrariel Cybios also asked me to refer to you that for any machine spirit interested and willing to go under an experimental procedure, your current body will be scrapped and a new one will be provided by the Adeptus Mechanicus...if you wish to undergo such operation just ask me"

The woman who had pinkish hair and what seemed like cat ears on top of her head didn't like the sound of that at all...the others were slightly concerned but after all, T-dolls will have backups so if anything goes wrong it will not really matter much.

The announcement caused several tech-priest to look excitingly at the G&K soldiers looking if there were any machine spirits among them but it didn't seem like it...One of the soldiers looked at the containers and got the attention of a tech-priest which immediately understood that the female soldier in front of him was not human but a machine. This caused quite the commotion within the mechanicus who began to inspect the soldiers.

If the Emperor hadn't sent the most 'progressive' mechanicus along with the Crimson Slayers this situation would be way more dangerous, there would be way more people screaming about techno-heresy and lots of shooting, the choice of sending these Adeptus Mechanicus proved itself to be the best one since they would have probably turned into dark mechanicum during the Horus Heresy. This is one of the main reasons why they followed Anastasia, she did allow them to conduct their researches as long as it didn't include brutal operation conducted on human living beings or AIs and gave them access to ancient tech and also removed the rule of not studying Xeno tech.

"Don't disrespect the machine spirits!" suddenly a tech-priest shouted causing everyone to stop and apologize to the tactical dolls leaving them puzzled by the amount of respect they were getting

"I apologize for their behavior" Asseylum said with a small smile causing Kryuger to chuckle

"As long as no harm comes in their way, there is no need to apologize" the man replied

"I know it's a lot to ask since you're not physically capable but I have to ask you to coordinate the operations of your soldiers, we don't want them to be commanded by someone who are not familiar with" The Emissary said calmly.

"We'll do it" Cryuger replied "Gentiane, Jun Shi, Kamolov, Kawasaki, Franklin, and Richtofen. I want you to immediately head in the command room...Helian you go with them"

"Wait what are these?!" suddenly one of the GK tactical dolls said as the Mechanicus opened the containers revealing several sets of armors.

"This is what will allow you and your titan to go toe to toe with the abominable honkai beasts" One of the tech-priests said as he grabbed one of the armors "It has been studied to allow an acceptable amount of protection along with high maneuverability and speed. It is a combination of ODST armor, jump kit and 3D maneuvering gear that we've recovered during our journeys"

"Wait...What's a titan?" The tactical doll asked tilting her head

Asseylum chuckled upon hearing this and was about to walk outside when...

"Ma'am" A tactical doll called them causing the counselor to turn around "For that upgrade...I'm interested, I will do it"