Warhammer: Start with a dog.

Chapter 263 Interlude: Sklar’s ​​Wonderful Rabbit Hole Journey ()

This was their first free meal since arriving on the unexpectedly tidy flagship of their cousins, and due to the events and severe lack of manpower, they had received and appreciated the Silver Skulls' apologies, they were later informed. , "Even so, a meal in our officers' mess will never disappoint."

So now the Ironhearts' Astartes were following the instructions sent into each of their power armor to the officers' mess on the beautiful ship.

The orange sunset light formed by artificial lumens shrouded one side of the corridor. People were walking bustlingly on the wide internal passage of the Destiny Steel, surrounded by comrades who were fully armed but seemed very comfortable chatting.

Sklar, the second company commander, the sacred and fearless elder, and the ten thousand-year veteran once again felt a deep sense of powerlessness and a chill behind him.

It seems that maybe I have wrongly blamed the Ninth Company Commander Olimposius...

Even Balor, who could think calmly during the craziest killings, now accepts everything without any doubt and doesn't notice anything wrong! Hello! brother! Fighting brothers! Have you realized that your step-by-step pace does not match my step-by-step span, but we are now moving forward "together", "talking and laughing"? !
But obviously no one here except Skator feels that something is wrong. The old and reliable battle brothers and the young cubs are all clustered around the ancient and tall elder, as if he is still walking in a human form. among them.

The sacred and fearless auspices and sensors carefully and secretly scanned the body and head of each battle brother. The old elders will not be ashamed of this. Being able to seize any flaws is the first priority at this time, but He was disappointed again, everyone here looked fine, at least no worse than when they set out.

As for the physical mutations that are common when chaos corruption and pollution occur, there is no sign at all. Everything is normal, everything is smooth, so normal that Skator begins to fear himself: Could it be that... what is wrong is actually... me? ?
He did know that many unfortunate heroic warriors would suffer great pain and mental problems after being buried in sarcophagi. This problem was especially serious in some subsequent models of Dreadnought, so much so that they earned them the title of "refrigerator". Cruel nicknames such as "Oven" and "Consumables Driver".

He looked at his biochemical data and other information on the retina interface again, and everything seemed normal. So, could it be that during his long service, he finally... began to have some mental problems? But how does this explain the problem of speed synchronization? Or is it that all this and all the things before are actually just...

In fact, it was just him. After Skator was buried in the heavy metal sarcophagus of the Dreadnought, in the stagnant position of the hangar, he acted out of unwillingness and obsession... which lasted for one year, one hundred years, A thousand or ten thousand year dream?

In a daze, Skator suddenly remembered something that someone said in front of him at an unknown time.

"When no duties are required to awaken these heroes, the Dreadnought is placed in the stasis hangar... usually alongside the Chapter's most important relics... The Stasis Stand allows the Dreadnought to The pilots of the mechs are protected from the merciless ravages of time and death...even during the sacred maintenance rituals...and will not be awakened...for the heroes of Dauntless are believed to have given their lives to the Emperor. Everything, so there is no need to follow the rigorous daily schedule of other monks... The amniotic fluid chamber of the sarcophagus and the stasis position indeed allow the pilot to be left with his brothers at that time and for a long time afterwards, serving the Empire and the Emperor. However, since the period of dormancy may be only ten years or a hundred years later, the people you see may be different every time you wake up, and there may even be members of your own war group who appear to be different people. They all don’t know each other... This is why when awakening some grumpy or even crazy fearless elders, they try to arrange for some people they once knew to be present... But it is inevitable that as time goes by, The thinking logic in the minds of flesh and blood will become more and more ethereal, and the real sense and connection of these heroic elders to the material universe will gradually begin to lose from their hands..."

A malicious snake-like hissing sound accompanied these words passing by his ears, and it was like the sound of flapping wings, telling him the unknowable and uncertain mysteries and truths in the void.

That's right... Generally speaking, the fearless mechas in the battle group are not awakened and carry out daily operations at all on weekdays, let alone someone like me who is always active and holds important positions in the battle group... so Am I... awake or... I've been there all along... It's just the abnormality here that made me realize for the first time...?
Surrounded by his battle-brothers, Sklar was trapped in an ice cave. "Oh! Just turn around and you'll be there!" Someone said happily.

The two weather-beaten fine gold doors of the officers' mess of the Destiny Steel appeared in front of them.

Although his mind was filled with shock and confusion, and his thoughts were as ethereal as a ball of threadless yarn, Skator, whose audio-visual perception was amplified by technological means in the Dreadnought Mecha, was immediately keenly aware of some things that few people would notice. to the details.

The fine gold doors had been wiped and washed until they were extremely clean and sparkling. It was obvious that someone had put some kind of protective wax on them, and they didn't know why a door was so meticulously maintained. Apart from the silent mechs, there were no other servitors, servo skulls or cherubim around. The owner of this ship didn't seem to like using common wetware modification equipment.

Under these careful maintenance and the lifelike reliefs of wheat ears, fields, seasons and gods and goddesses on the gates, there are traces of countless weapons, large and small. Although their power seems a bit too weak, an interstellar Warrior veterans will never mistake the blast of a bolter or the slashing blow of a chainsaw.

A last supper, a gnawing trap? Sklar glanced at the battle brothers around him, silently checked his ammunition compartment, and adjusted the servo system to a state where it could exert force at any time.

Regardless of whether I am completely insane or not, I will never allow anyone to step over my adamantine coffin and attack my battle brothers.

The door is open to visitors.

"Ding!"

A stray bullet ricocheted off Sklar's armor.

The highly nervous Divine Fearless roared from the loudspeaker, opened his Kress assault cannon towards the field, and began to fire.

(End of this chapter)