Aethernus Vhal had roughly four hours before he needed to arrive at where he sensed the largest cluster of Warp Signature. In that timeframe, he would follow this lady and study her and the command structure they had. Learn about them, their strategies, how they acted during warfooting, and all processes they enacted during what would be immediate mobilization of forces to counter this Breach.

  “Lead the way. I shall accompany you for the time being,” he said.

  The lady, likely a coordinator of some type, nodded toward him. “This way. We can’t waste time anymore. With your addition, it is likely we can allocate more resources at different areas including our flanks.”

  He logged the phrasing.

  Military language from a civilian figurehead. Additional confirmation that this society possessed a deeper operational culture than its surface suggested. He recorded the knowledge point without comment and fell in behind her. Maintaining precisely 2.3 metres of distance the entire way. Close enough for low-voiced instructions, far enough to act if she altered intent.

  The settlement’s buzz continued to persist as people prepared themselves.

  He could already see numbers being moved to large structures of metal and thick stone. The only sturdy buildings in the area. Main the elderly women and the youngest children. Anyone above 12 terran years had a spear and shield pushed into their waiting arms and then moved along to another line to gather fitting armor. No one was spared, though he expected the type of service would vary based on ability.

  It would not be wise to have liabilities in direct combat fields.

  These smaller humans would likely get in the way and require more effort saving than it was worth keeping them for the battle.

  It did not sit well with him to see humans die so wastefully.

  Aethernus Vhal noticed how no one ran without purpose. Movement followed defined corridors, invisible but clearly long-rehearsed. Children were transferred to adult custody without struggle. The infirm were supported automatically. His damaged systems detected no shouted orders, no barked commands. This must have been a well practiced event that they prepared for thoroughly.

  Either these Breaches of the Warp were as common as day, or they drilled this very event a thousand times over.

  Both sat well with him.

  Either they were dutiful and honorable by training with dedication…

  Or he got more Warp things to kill and continue his Endless War while protecting a paradise as beautiful as the oldest paintings of Ancient Earth.

  As they advanced, streets emptied in their wake.

  Large numbers vanished into the giant structures. Anyone that was armed prepared themselves in key defensive positions around the town. Though most of them were the youngest armed members and the oldest. The rest spread out to the perimeter in previously ordained clusters and numbers.

  Beneath the stone facades of those large protective structures, he noticed subtle additions that made no sense. Carvings that were filled with less sturdy metals, crystalline structures, and even some that pulsed with energies he could not figure out. He had never seen such power source. Aethernus Vhal quickly understood that this energy source also powered the barriers he had noticed while marching into the town.

  “You can see our security measures,” the older lady said, still not turning to face him.

  Aethernus Vhal did not answer as he continued to survey the town.

  Their route avoided wide-open spaces and favored cover. Cutting through the town with the familiarity of someone that had lived here for decades.

  As they moved deeper toward the settlement’s heart, its structure revealed additional layers.

  What had seemed like simple concentric rings around the central plaza now resolved into interlocking defensive shells. Building placement created natural kill zones and bottlenecks. Elevated walkways and balconies provided overwatch. Water cisterns, spaced at regular intervals, doubled as logistical nodes, useful for daily life, critical in siege or fire conditions.

  She led him down a narrower street toward a larger structure roughly 217 metres ahead, according to his damaged helm estimations.

  At a distance, it resembled a feudal keep with thick walls, a sloped roof, narrow windows, and perches for archers.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Our command centre,” she said, following his gaze. “It looks older than it is.”

  Closer inspection supported the claim.

  The ‘stone’ of the walls carried internal variance beyond any natural rock. His remaining senses could not match the composite to known ceramites, adamantium alloys, or standard plasteel. The material emitted a low, steady glow in the non-visible spectrum, pulsing in precise patterns that ruled out geological origin. Architecture masquerading as antiquity.

  Runes traced the door frames, exact, deliberate sigils, absent the asymmetry of primitive carving or the madness of chaos glyphs. Each symbol held complex energy patterns his degraded systems could not fully resolve. He ran them against centuries of power-source profiles and found no overlap. Not any known fusion or fission system.

  Filled with more of the strange energies he kept feeling within the village.

  It was disconnected from the Warp and that confused him.

  Psychics, for all their arrogance and idiocy, always thought they could manipulate the Warp to do their bidding.

  Many had fallen low because of said haughtiness.

  Aethernus Vhal had killed many a powerful psycher for their crimes of falling for the Warp’s lies and false promises. If that type of energy could exist completely disassociated from the Warp and Chaos, then it would be a powerful gift he could use to kill more Warp monsters and False Deities. Maybe even more effective than his trusty blaster and shield combo.

  The combo he lost and would likely need to renegotiate with the Imperial Orders for newer ones.

  He absolutely hated having to go back.

  Then again, he had likely been blasted through the fold within universes. That was not something he had the technology or knowledge on how to break through again. The Warp creation the False Deity had used had malfunctioned and destroyed itself after the single use. The filthy chaos thing had been lucky during expelling him. Caught the right wormhole, at the right time, with the right amount of speed, and the perfect amount of force.

  Aethernus Vhal shook his head and looked back toward the building they were striding toward. At certain angles, facets of embedded crystal caught his eye, half-buried in the walls. Sensor arrays, disguised as ornamentation, tracked motion via minute environmental disturbances rather than broadcasting active scans. Functionally similar to auspex, executed with different principles and limitations.

  Six guards flanked the main entrance.

  Fully armored like smaller, weaker Knights of his Order.

  Their positions created overlapping fields of fire and mutual support. Stances were relaxed but ready, weight centered, attention focused without tunnel vision. Decoration on their gear was minimal. These were not ceremonial attendants. There were no blasters or bolters in their hands though, if anything their weapons defied simple categorisation.

  Metal and crystal combined in deliberate shapes.

  Some components matched the apex predator crystal he had harvested, but these had been refined, worked, optimized.

  Certain segments emitted the faint hum of active power with the same foreign energy he felt so far.

  He recorded their positions, angles of coverage, and reaction times to small changes around them. All six registered his approach and made micro-adjustments, shifting grips, altering stances, recalibrating lines of fire, and potential pathways of melee assault. Pupils remained stable. Breathing did not spike. Facial tension stayed within normal parameters.

  Aethernus Vhal assessment of them rose. They were rained professionals.

  Even with damaged systems, he detected elevated muscle density, marginally increased core temperature, and respiratory efficiency approximately seventeen percent above norm. Enhanced, but by a pathway entirely unlike his own.

  He hummed once more.

  Aethernus Vhal focused on that feeling of being observed but away from himself. It only took a second for the world-system to respond.

  [Mythical Analyze] Activated

  Analysis defenses ignored…

  Do you wish to alert target of your [Mythical Analyze] skill on them?

  Name - Praven TalonBlade

  Class - Flame Knight (C- Tier)

  Threat Classification - Non-Existent

  Aethernus Vhal selected no.

  This was another benefit he could fully use to his advantage. The only real advantage the Warp had against him were the strangeness and variety of ways they can attack him with. It helped knowing what they were and how they intended to assault him. All of it is information and knowledge he could use to further his Endless War and kill more of the incarnations of sin.

  The older lady smiled at him. “They are elite. Six among thirty that guard us while we prepare. We have a few stronger than them, but only two or three. With their classes and class abilities, I think they can be a threat to even someone like you.”

  Aethernus Vhal hummed once more.

  His own combat calculus disagreed with her conclusion.

  In direct engagement, the squad would last approximately 12.7 seconds and only because he did not know what a entailed. Their enhancements would serve well against local threats. Against him, even diminished, they would only delay the inevitable.

  He did not need the assessment of their threat to him from this system. He had been in enough wars and battles to know exactly who could threaten him and who couldn’t.

  The Coordinator ascended the low steps to the entrance. Walking past the barriers as though they didn’t exist.

  Aethernus Vhal followed closely.

  The doors, three metres high, appearing to be some variant of heavy wood but reading with altered density, opened inward without visible mechanism. No servitors, no hinges creaking, no detectable automation signatures. Either it recognized her identity and opened by itself or someone had activated from an invisible perch to him. Either way it was something he took note of.

  “The Commander is waiting,” she said, pausing at the threshold. “He is responsible for our defense against the Breach. He will want to know who you are, and what you intend.”

  Aethernus crossed into the command centre after her, but he did not miss others walking in and out through other doors that connected to the hall he was walking through.

  Anyone could get in or out. The knights standing guard did nothing to prevent the flow of traffic. This was another tactical mishap. Chaos and Warp corrupted individuals could stride right in and activate a rift portal that spewed out monsters and demented things.

  It didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things.

  He would learn of their tactics and then he would march to battle as he always had. Destroying whatever stood before him.

  There was no other path forward. Not for him, the older lady, whoever these Wardens were, or even this Breach. Everyone would fall in line soon enough.