This choice was not made lightly. Lawson had thought it through carefully.
Of the five Deathsworn, Number Five had shown the strongest close-quarters coordination so far. In previous fights, he had repeatedly demonstrated extremely precise footwork and an instinctive ability to cover for teammates at exactly the right moment.
A power shield would yield the greatest tactical value in his hands. At a critical instant, he could use it to absorb a lethal burst of fire for the shooters behind him.
Along with the shield, Number Five also received a lasgun and a chainsword.
As for Lawson himself,
he took his time picking through the pile of weapons in front of him.
In the end, he chose two things.
An Imperial standard bolt pistol, the classic Catachan close-combat setup: blade in the left hand, gun in the right.
And a plasma pistol.
That one gave Lawson pause.
Plasma weapons could melt through ceramite armor. Their penetrative power far exceeded bolters and lasguns, but they also had one notorious fatal flaw: if fired continuously, overheating could trigger an overload detonation.
The Tech-Priests of the Imperium called this phenomenon the Gift of Suffering. If your plasma gun exploded, that meant the Emperor was testing your faith.
Lawson had no great desire to have his faith tested.
But when he thought of the twenty or thirty Chaos Space Marines somewhere aboard this hulk, he still holstered the plasma pistol at his waist.
Ordinary weapons might not even scratch the paint on power armor.
One plasma shot, though, could melt straight through a breastplate.
That made the risk worth it.
Once the equipment had been distributed, Lawson casually opened the system panel to check the current Life Point reserve.
[Current Life Point Reserve: 163]
Enough to exchange for one more Deathsworn.
Lawson did not hesitate.
[Consumed: 100 Life Points, 1 cubic meter of adamant steel.]
[Exchange Sequence: Catachan Jungle Fighter x1.]
Inside the shipboard armory, the air distorted violently again, visible to the naked eye.
Adamant steel melted.
The skeleton formed.
Flesh grew.
Skin sealed over it.
Uniform and equipment manifested at the same time.
0.1 seconds.
Another Catachan brute, one meter ninety-five tall, appeared out of thin air and pressed his right hand to his chest.
"Loyalty!"
"Number Six," Lawson said, looking at him.
Then he gave an order that seemed strange at first glance.
"Number Six, you stay here."
Number Six saluted without a trace of doubt.
Lawson looked over the large amount of matériel still remaining in the armory.
For their current scale, the one-cubic-meter Armory space was usable, but it was nowhere near large enough to carry out all of the weapons and ammunition stored here.
The racks still held a huge amount of lasguns, charge packs, grenades, explosives, and assorted components. If left here unguarded, sooner or later they would either be discovered by the greenskins or eroded further by the warp.
But if he left one man behind to guard it...
"Number Six, your mission is to guard this armory. While we are out fighting, the ammunition and supplies stored in the Armory space will be continuously consumed. Every time that space frees up, you are to load the remaining weapons here into the Armory for purification, storage, and replenishment."
Lawson picked up a lasgun and three charge packs from the ground and handed them to Number Six.
"Stay alive."
Number Six took the weapon, slung the lasgun across his chest, and stuffed the charge packs into his webbing.
"Loyalty, sir."
While the Deathsworn were sorting their equipment, Lawson leaned against a weapons rack and finally had a brief stretch of time to study the new data that had appeared on the system panel.
The first thing he focused on was the new resource gained from killing the two warp imps.
[Warp Energy: 2]
This was a third resource type, separate from Life Points and adamant steel.
Two warp imps.
One point each.
Beside the Warp Energy resource bar, the system displayed an explanatory note.
[Warp Energy Description:]
[Source: Purified warp energy obtained from killing warp entities, such as daemons, Chaos creatures, and similar beings.]
[Note: Unpurified raw warp energy is extremely dangerous. Direct use will result in Chaos contamination. The system automatically completes the purification process and ensures the purity of all output energy. Waste produced during purification is stored in the Scrap Yard.]
[Use One: Host Enhancement.]
[Consume 1000 points of Warp Energy to perform one full-spectrum physical enhancement on the host. Enhancement effects include but are not limited to: doubled muscle-fiber density, reinforced skeletal structure, increased neural response speed, optimized metabolic efficiency.]
Lawson stared at that information for a long time.
One thousand Warp Energy just to perform a single comprehensive enhancement on himself.
He currently had two.
Killing one warp imp only gave one point. So what, he needed to kill a thousand warp imps?
Or perhaps higher-order daemons would provide more Warp Energy.
After all, the logic behind Life Point acquisition worked the same way. One gretchin gave 1 point. One Ork boy gave 10 points, then took a thirty percent purification loss and yielded 7.
By the same logic, Warp Energy was very likely proportional to a daemon's rank as well.
One warp imp gave 1 point.
Then what about a Bloodletter?
What about a Bloodthirster?
This was a path toward becoming stronger.
The distance between the start of that path and its end looked longer than the span from Terra to the edge of the galaxy, but at least the path existed.
It was far away, yes, but for the first time he had finally found a way to become stronger.
And where was he?
In a galaxy with endless daemons. As long as his squad became strong enough, they could hunt more.
When that day came, would he really lack Chaos points... no, Warp Energy?
Lawson found himself faintly anticipating it.
The physical condition of a Catachan was already top-tier among mortals. If that body were enhanced even further, what level would it reach?
The day he could tear apart a Daemon Prince with his bare hands and kick a Primarch in the teeth might not be so far off after all.
"But I've only just started. No need to get ahead of myself."
Lawson closed the panel.
The urgent problem right now was not studying distant long-term plans. It was leading this fully armed squad through a death-maze occupied by three million greenskins and finding a way to survive.
The Deathsworn had finished sorting all the equipment.
Compared to before, when they had possessed little more than a few knives, the firepower density of this squad had undergone a qualitative leap.
"Number Six, seal the door."
From inside, Number Six lifted the metal hatch plate that Number One had earlier ripped loose by force, then jammed a thick iron pipe taken from inside the armory across the two locking slots behind the plate, sealing the entrance from within.
The outside was camouflaged again as well.
From the outside, it still looked like nothing more than an unremarkable dead wall.
"Move."
Lawson clicked off the safety on the bolt pistol. The plasma pistol sat tight against his waist. The Fang of Catachan was held in a reverse grip in his left hand.
Six fully armed Catachan fighters disappeared into the dark depths of Deck Seventy-Five's corridors.
Behind them, the armory door, once more sealed shut, stood silently in the darkness.
Number Six remained inside alone.
One man.
One gun.
One blade.
And hundreds of silent weapons.
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I won't be uploading new chapters here on Webnovel for now, and on Patron I may only upload about one chapter every two days or possibly slower. The original raw chapters have currently stopped or are on pause, so I will be waiting for more source before continuing the translation. Once new chapters are available, translations will resume as usual.
Thank you for your patience and understanding, and I appreciate all your support.