Travel to Warhammer 40K with Gray Wind.

Chapter 178 Clay Artist

The tentacles of the insect swarm continue to spread in the thin starlight of the far eastern frontier.

Represented by Favna and Orokkol, some important planets that were first brought under the control of the Order of Truth have begun to organize large-scale reconstruction and reproduction.

"However, despite the 007 work of the monks of the Order of Truth and the help of a large number of intelligent servitors and giant battle body construction teams, the reconstruction progress of Favna and other planets is still not close to 'efficient'."

In the main control room of the Colossus of the Ring of Destruction, Gray Wind sat on the table in front of Russell in a serious manner and reported to him the current situation in the Far East:
"The 13 expedition fleets took away most of the important officials and technical personnel in the Far East. Musbell and other Forge World Mechanicus emptied all the industrial production capacity and important resources of the entire planet, driving the Mechanical Ark and The forging fleet ran against the curvature created by the Valkyrie without looking back."

Russell smiled, looked up at Gray Feng's plump breasts that were shaking like jelly, and said: "The lack of management personnel is indeed a troublesome thing, but from another perspective, if the Far East region had not been cleaned into a piece of white paper, the original Nobles and bureaucrats have defected to me with their pedantic and rotten leaders... If that happens, I will be devastated instead."

Gray Wind nodded thoughtfully: "That's true."

It doesn't like dealing with the bureaucracy of the human empire.

"That's right." Russell suddenly remembered something and poked Hui Feng's soft chest with an index finger: "A little man under 1 meters will not have breasts as big as grapefruits, and they will not sag naturally at all. No, it’s too fake.”

This kind of breasts can only exist in Two-dimensional, the real human body is not like this.

"That's not what you said when you were dozing off against me." Gray Feng looked at Russell like he was looking at a big pig's hooves.

"At that time, I couldn't see the overall proportion..." Russell felt guilty.

Gray Feng silently adjusted his height to only one head shorter than Russell, about 168 centimeters, then jumped off the table and stood in front of Russell and turned around: "Is this okay?"

"It's much better, but it's still a bit uncoordinated...can't it be made a little smaller?" Russell asked.

If the subordinates of the Order of Truth saw Gray Wind following him like this, Russell didn't dare to think about what the image of the star flicker would become.

"I don't want to." Gray Feng put his hands on his hips, held his head high, and looked very proud.

"Okay." Russell gave up.Since it is willing to do this, it cannot forcefully interfere with Gray Wind's wishes for the sake of its own image.

Besides, he does like big ones.

Gray Wind was then satisfied and showed a victorious smile, and continued: "Although the expedition fleet took away many people, not all capable people left the Far East. The Forging Sage of the urban planet Embra: Spangler He stayed in Falla with his followers and declared that he would break away from the jurisdiction of Mars and submit himself to the Marshal."

"He... is right. Spangler put a lot of effort into the construction of the ideal city." Russell nodded: "It's a good thing that he is willing to join us. Although the Mechanicus is superstitious, the academic and technical priests are There is no doubt about the technical level. Recruiting a small group of engine oil guys can somewhat alleviate our shortage of manpower..."

"As for the shortage of resources, it will be solved soon. Anti-Entropy just reported to me not long ago that the material decompressor in the Tranquil Black Domain will be completed soon."

Once the matter decompressor comes online, he can start construction with the inexhaustible raw materials in the black hole.

Seeing Russell lowering his eyes and thinking seriously, Gray Feng couldn't help but raised his eyebrows and smiled.Rather than fighting a life-and-death war with Chaos and aliens, it would be more happy to plan future development with the Marshal.

Gray Wind prefers construction to destruction.

On the main star of Favna in the Astoria sector, the reconstruction of the hive industrial area is still progressing slowly, and the scarlet tentacles of the insect swarm are also extending farther into the deep space holding the Ring of Destruction.

While the rear is short of manpower, planets are still being taken back one after another on the front. This embarrassing situation will continue for a long, long time.

While Russell was concentrating on integrating the Far Eastern frontier, an expedition fleet completed the first stage of its voyage.

The 13th Expedition Fleet, led by Captain Eliwood of the Blue Blood Noble Chapter, sailed out of the Far East region across the vast star sea through warp speed, and arrived at the first stop of the expedition:
"Vidal" star area.

The Vidal Sector is located on the eastern edge of the Ultramarine Sector and is one of the Imperial Sectors closest to the Far Eastern Frontier.

But the distance is only the secondary reason why Captain Eliud chose the Vidal sector as the first foothold of the 13th Expeditionary Fleet. world:
Antax

Hypnoth

The two forge worlds can provide a large amount of equipment, personnel, and resource supplies for the expedition fleet. In addition, the Vidal sector is also the location of the fortress monastery of the Sisters of the "Lady Martyrs" of the state religion. This holy planet is called "Holy 101". Place".

Under the call of the emperor's righteousness, I believe that the sisters of the Sisters of the Martyred Ladies will not hesitate to provide assistance to the expedition fleet.

Entering the Vidal Sector, the curvature bubble created by the Valkyrie-class battleship "The Hero" gradually dissipated. The 13th Expedition Fleet exited the warp sailing state and gradually approached the core forge world of the Vidal Sector at sub-light speed. Tucker's star system.The astropaths in the fleet also began to actively try to contact the local astrology hall to notify the arrival of the expedition fleet.

For fear of being obstructed by chaos, the 13th Expeditionary Fleet did not use the subspace engine, but sailed here at warp speed throughout the entire journey.This kind of early visit without passing through Mandeville Point always requires a greeting in advance to avoid being mistaken for an alien or a Chaos fleet by the local system defense force.

After all, the Valkyrie-class battleship is too conspicuous. She is different from any known imperial battleship, and she also lacks a lot of superstitious decorations that are common in human empires.The Anglican chaplains and tech-priests in the fleet wrestle daily with debating whether to brand the heroine with the Imperial crest or the cog-skull of the Almighty.

——In the end, it was just the flag of the Blue Blood Noble Legion that was hung.

In the cabin of the Heroine, Chapter Leader Eliwood is thinking about the next negotiations with the forge world Antax in his private office.

Including how to persuade the local foundry general to support their cause, how to deal with the Adeptus Mechanicus' search for the heroic heroine Valkyrie, how to balance the interests of several major local families in the process of building the Star Gate...all these things can make Russell complain. Eliwood has made perfect and adequate preparations for all the complicated official duties.

As the son of Robert Guilliman, internal affairs management and diplomatic negotiation have always been the expertise of the Ultramarines, and Eliwood is one of the best.

It's a pity that his preparations seemed to be of no use. "Senario", the chief think tank of the Blue Blood Noble Chapter, knocked on the door of the office and brought a piece of chilling bad news. "The astrological language we sent out did not receive any response, Feyre." Chief Thinker Senerio addressed the battle leader by his last name: "What I saw when I was meditating was a dead silence. No sound could be heard in the sea of ​​souls, as if there was silence. of desert.”

"...Is Antax's subspace signal blocked? Or?" Eliwood thought.

As far as he knew, there were some ancient creations from the Dark Ages of Technology that could achieve similar effects of subspace silence on an astronomical scale.

"There is some possibility, but it's probably not the case." Senerio shook his head and denied: "The astrological communication was completely silent, but when I was meditating, I heard some... different sounds."

Looking at the serious expression of the chief think tank director, Eliwood realized the seriousness of the problem.

Senerio is not a serious person, and his usual style is quite unruly, which seems out of place in the strictly disciplined blue blood noble battle group.If it weren't for his solid high-strength psychic attainments, no one would support him as the Chief Librarian of the Chapter.

Even the cynical chief think tank director has put away his usual casual demeanor and become serious, which means that the current situation has reached a very dangerous level.It should be noted that even when the cultist rebellion broke out in the Trodhom system and the former Chapter Master of the Blue Blood Nobles was assassinated by the Dark Eldar, he never took it so seriously.

"What kind of sound did you hear? Senerio?" Eliwood asked.

"To be precise, it's not me, but the 'heroine'."

Senerio said: "Many battleships and some large equipment, including the Heroine Valkyrie, heard the gentle voice from the subspace. A certain existence called the machine soul in the subspace, calling the Heroine. Go to Him and find true freedom.”

"!—Let's go." Eliwood made a decisive decision, put on his helmet, and walked out of the office to the cabin with the think tank director.

As he walked, new situations continued to be transmitted to the commander's ears through the communication channel built into the helmet:

"Report! Tachyon sensors detected multiple unidentified flight signals in the airspace surrounding the forge world Antax! An organized fleet is patrolling around the world, but the appearance and configuration of each ship are similar to The Empire style is very different!”

"According to the biological sage Lord Igrenu, she has seen two ships of similar structure in the Flare Galaxy on the far eastern frontier. The fleet hovering around Antax is likely to belong to a ship called the Star Destroyer. The ancient alien race called 'Necrons'!"

"Xingyu still hasn't received any response... The call heard by the heroic heroine is getting deeper and deeper."

Every time a new piece of information was reported, the chapter leader's heart became heavier. Everything that happened near Antax was so strange that it sent shivers down his spine.

The unanswered astrology, the sea of ​​dead souls, the fleet of necrons hovering around the forge world, and... the call heard by machine souls.

This was the case at the first stop of the expedition. What happened here?
Now, a difficult choice lies before Eliwood:

For the sake of the safety of the expeditionary force, they bypassed the Forge World of Antax and ignored the strange situation here and went directly to the next scheduled foothold.

Or should we bravely go forward and try to figure out the source of this strange situation?
This decision was undoubtedly very difficult, but soon, someone made the decision for Eliwood.

"A strange signal tried to access our communication channel. The patrol fleet around Antax stopped moving. The Necron discovered us!"

"..." After a moment of silence, Eliwood ordered the communication to be cut off, but allowed the analysis of the information sent by the Necron.

The coded form of the message sent by the Necrons was unheard of in the human empire, but strangely, the battleship machine soul of the Heroine translated it in less than a millisecond after browsing those strange symbols that were messy but full of beauty. Standard High Gothic.

This worries the tech-priests in the cabin even more.

"The senders of the message claimed to be the people of the 'former Sotec Dynasty'. They claimed that they were reborn due to true divine grace and became truly free people with souls. The free Necron will unite to overthrow The cruel 'Storm King' Imotek, let more compatriots gain freedom and soul..."

What a mess...

Not long after, Eliwood met the biological sage Igranu and asked her for help, hoping to get more detailed information about the necrons.

Igrenu told the Chapter Master everything he knew without hesitation:
"The Necron is a humanoid machine governed by data logic. Except for a few high-level units, most of the bottom-level individuals have only the lowest basic intelligence. The star bomber seems quite right about the ancient existence of the Necromancer. I understand that the Order of Truth has a lot of relevant materials, and I paid a price to borrow some."

"The civilization of the Necron is composed of multiple independent 'dynasties'. The supreme king who rules all dynasties is called the 'Silent King', and the title of the ruler of a single dynasty is the 'Father King'."

"Imotek, the Storm King, should be the king of the Necron dynasty named Sotek."

Eliwood listened carefully to the story of the biological sage Igrenu. After receiving this information, some of the doubts in his heart gradually became clear.

Under the influence of some kind of "divine grace", the low-level space necrons with low intelligence and no self-awareness gained a clear self-awareness. They claimed to be free people with "souls" and intended to unite to overthrow the Sautec Dynasty. The Storm King's rule allowed other Necrons to gain their souls and freedom.

"But what happened to the call heard by the battleship machine soul of the Heroine? Why was the Forge World of Antax so silent, and not a single astrological message could be answered?"

Igrenu thought for a while and tried to say: "Perhaps, the so-called 'soul' given to the Necrons by divine grace has some kind of similar connection with the machine soul?"

The older, more complex and larger the machine, the more likely it is that a machine soul will be born. This is one of the common senses of the Mechanicus Order. If you want to ask where the human empire has the most dense machine souls, there is no doubt that it is the forging worlds. .

Eliwood nodded, he also thought it was very possible.

"I tried to translate the Necron's name for the 'divine grace' that bestows their souls. It's very interesting. At least in my opinion, it doesn't look like the name of a god." Igrenu continued:

"That existence is called - Clay Artist."

(End of this chapter)