How can a retired savior be considered retired if he drops to 40,000?

The Empire's plan for this planet seems to be an agricultural world, but this planet...

Lanmalok thinks that's not possible.

He said he was not sure why, but he vaguely smelled a very familiar and disgusting smell. His suggestion was to observe closely and then make the next judgment. This suggestion was quickly adopted, but everyone knew that it was just a helpless move:

If the Lion's Mane had not been on an escort mission and they had not carried enough extermination weapons, everyone would have thought that launching another round of orbital bombardment would have been a better decision - it would be better if it was not a virus bomb this time, perhaps they should just destroy the possibility of restoring the entire planet to a habitable environment.

Perhaps more optimistic people would question the motives of the Dark Angels for making such a decision, but the Dark Angels will not give any explanation for their actions. The children of the lion do not need others to understand, they think they are just doing what any loyal person should do.

This secrecy does have terrible consequences at times, but the Dark Angels do not care about the "inevitable collateral damage." They will do it, they will be held accountable, and time will prove them right.

——However, this time, before they could really decide what to do, they received a communication from the Emperor's Vision.

-

Subspace teleportation makes me want to vomit, thought Fujimaru Ritsuka.

In a sense, this was not her first time to teleport through the warp: she had done this many times when she led the Eighth Legion in Konrad Curze's fantasy of life. But perhaps there was a gap between fantasy and reality after all, and when she was carried by blue lightning and moved to the bridge of the Lion's Mane, she still felt unprecedented nausea.

Fortunately, she was only slightly shaken by this, and she was able to maintain her balance thanks to the Sky Eagle Scepter in her hand.

After all, she was the one who first proposed the negotiation method of "using status to put pressure on them". Even if Ritsuka was actually unwilling, she had to at least put on the airs of "the emperor's personal choice" on the surface.

In addition to this iconic item that symbolizes her identity, she also put on a cloak with sufficiently gorgeous patterns over the Orthnaus exoskeleton. Because this set of armor was considered "really not presentable" in the eyes of the Empire's aesthetics, Somni generously provided the fabric within ten minutes, causing Ritsuka to wonder whether there was an automated organization dedicated to tailoring on the Emperor's Dream.

…She knew that some of the Custodians would weave tapestries as a pastime. But first of all, Somni was not a Custodian; secondly, ten minutes was too fast to produce a piece of finely embroidered clothing anyway.

The golden giant who had done the machine embroidery in ten minutes with an expressionless face now also poked at Lixiang's back with a halberd with an expressionless face. In any case, at least the background of the Imperial Guards made her, the "Emperor's personal choice", look more like that.

Fujimaru Ritsuka resisted the urge to sigh, and looked up at the Dark Angel in front of him: black paint, winged helmet, and the logo on the shoulder showed that he was a company commander. There were still unrepaired scratches and damages on his power armor, some of which could be seen to be deliberately preserved as a part of honor and history without affecting the function, while others were obviously simply not repaired yet. His armor was embellished with many different marks and emblems, some of which were common honor emblems in the Astartes Legion during the Great Crusade, and others were secret symbols exclusive to the Dark Angels. And the most important thing was——

The Dark Angel Astartes was clearly filled with suspicion and resulting hostility.

If Somni was really a forbidden soldier, he would definitely have something to say when faced with such an attitude.But he's not.So he was still just a golden background board, silently watching the imperial greetings and brief exchanges on the current situation between the two sides - of course, the Dark Angels only said that they were "hunting fugitives" and refused to provide further details.

Fujimaru Ritsuka didn't really care about this - there would be many similar things when facing the Dark Angels. Instead of digging into their little secrets one by one under numerous obstacles, it would be better to let go and believe that they can handle their own problems.

So she just said: "I see that you still have doubts, which is normal. You have the right to ask questions, and we will try our best to answer them within our authority. Considering the possible cooperation in the future, I think it will be beneficial for both of us to be properly open and honest."

The Dark Angel was caught off guard, but when the opportunity was right in front of them, no one with sufficient tactical skills would let it slip away. The Dark Angel in front of Ritsuka asked immediately after a brief pause: "We received a communication from the 'Emperor's Fantasy', but we did not succeed in observing the existence of this magnificent creation in any form."

This was obviously a veiled accusation, or an obvious question, but Fujimaru Ritsuka simply pretended not to realize it: "In fact, he is right in front of you. Somni, maybe you would like to explain this part yourself?"

This statement, which went against common sense, confused the Dark Angels, but it was not within Somni's consideration. He simply asked his only direct superior: "The Emperor has classified this matter as highly confidential. Is there a risk of information leakage if it is disclosed to personnel outside the authority?"

"It doesn't matter. I believe in the Dark Angels' ability to keep secrets. If they leak secrets, there will be no information security in the entire empire."

"Since you have decided so..."

Somni took a small step forward, still not crossing over Fujimaru Ritsuka, but this small movement made him look more or less like a living being:

"The Emperor's Vision was sunk at the end of the Heresy." He narrated mechanically and flatly, as if he was talking about something that had nothing to do with him. "During the Siege of Terra, this ship was responsible for covering the Dark Angels led by Corswayn. It successfully broke the Rebellion Legion's blockade of Terra, guided the target ship, the Wrathfall, to the Terra gravity well, and used the ship's hull as a cover to cover the Dark Angels' landing operation. It was eventually sunk by the traitor's artillery fire."

Even though it was just an emotionless, mechanical narration, the content of this short paragraph was enough to shock the Dark Angel who heard about it for the first time. However, Somni did not consider the listener's emotional reaction. He just continued to explain his origins according to the instructions he received:

"In the actual physical sense, the 'Emperor's Fantasy' has indeed been destroyed, but the relevant records are still preserved and passed down as part of history. Lord Fujimaru Ritsuka took advantage of this and scooped out the story, concept and symbolic meaning of the 'Emperor's Fantasy' from the long river of history, and constructed the ether to give it a form, and pulled it back to the real universe - the result is 'me'. Because the Emperor's flagship is related to the 'symbol of imperial power', the outer shell of the humanoid terminal was selected from the averaged imperial guards with similar imagery, but this ship is currently in a fully functional state and can attack again at any time."

The universe of humanity's 30th millennium was far less populated with monsters and demons than it is today, 10,000 years later, and the anomalies caused by the Warp were not common, so Somni's narrative did challenge the sanity of the Dark Angels - even though they were Astartes.

Perhaps it would be better to give them some time to digest it, but Fujimaru Ritsuka knew that Astartes had a much stronger mind than ordinary people, so it would not be a big problem to not give them this time. Besides, she didn't think she had any more time to waste:

"If you don't have any more questions, may I take your turn?" She admitted that she had deliberately taken advantage of the stunned silence to speak first. "I really need to talk to your leader about the current situation of this Imperial planet now known as Jestal."

"Then please go ahead." said the captain of the winged helmet dark angel who was standing at the front and was responsible for contacting Fujimaru Ritsuka.

"...Uh, what I mean is, talk to the person who is actually in charge of the ship alone." Fujimaru Ritsuka added, "If you have a think tank position in your organization, or if there are trustworthy psychics among the crew, then they will also--"

"Everyone currently on the bridge is trustworthy to us." The Dark Angel's tone became dangerous, "Mortal, you'd better watch your words."

"Okay, but you're not the one in charge of this ship, right?" Fujimaru Ritsuka pointed out naturally, "Weren't you originally organized to 'hunt down fugitives'? Then the person in charge of this mission should be at least Ravenwing or Firewing, but you're obviously a Dreadwing captain. I can't tell more, after all, I'm just a 'mortal'."

If she had another three or four hours to waste, Ritsuka would have liked to play this Dark Angel Guessing Game. Unfortunately, she really didn't have the time.

The captain wanted to continue speaking, but a voice came from the corner of the bridge: "Alright. We can barely let her pass."

An ordinary battle brother with armor so plain that only the company mark was visible stepped forward from the end of the inconspicuous team:

"You are familiar with the way we do things." He said, "I am very curious about this, but now, please allow me to introduce myself: I am the 'head of this ship' you are looking for, the Fire Wing Master Lan Malok."

Fujimaru Ritsuka nodded: "Hello, you are from Caliban, right?"

Lanmarok narrowed his eyes beneath his helmet in confusion and vigilance.

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 23: No Book Is Worse Than No Book, Believe in Prophecy

Ritsuka Fujimaru and Somni used the teleporter to board the bridge of the Lion's Mane, so now Conrad Curze was the only one who could move freely on the Storm's Edge.

This wonderful fact made Coze want to laugh a little.

He would say that this strategy was stupid and short-sighted. If it were any of his other brothers, or anyone with even a basic sense of judgment, they would not make such a decision. Leaving a Primarch who had betrayed the Empire, who did not regret it, who had never truly repented, and who was not 100% confirmed to be friendly, alone and unattended in his most important command. No sane person would do such a thing.

However, Fujimaru Ritsuka... sometimes it is really hard to say whether she is mentally normal. At least that is what Coze thinks.

If there was one more living person on the ship, this would not have happened. It was just that Koz himself would not reject such a decision that was in his favor, and Somni was not a "living person" in any sense: he might have put forward some opinions or suggestions of his own, but when it came to execution, he always chose to obey Fujimaru Ritsuka's orders.

Curze didn't know whether this had anything to do with the contract between them, and he didn't care. He just moved forward in the corridor as he wished, like a shadow sliding by, silently and without a trace.

The Storm's Edge was a "different" ship in many ways, and Curze had already understood this. First, and most obviously, it was clearly not made by the Empire. The technology, equipment, overall layout, and even its size, functional settings, and decorative style were far from any ship in the history of the Empire. Second, it was larger inside than it looked from the outside.

much bigger.

From the outside, this silver-white, simple and smooth boat is very small, only 70 meters long and less than 10 meters wide. By the Empire's standards, this is a very awkward size: it is neither large enough to crush other aircraft that can fight in the atmosphere in air combat, nor small enough to be agile enough to prevent enemy attacks from hitting it. If this ship has to be put into actual combat one day, Curze will say frankly that he is not optimistic about the combat effectiveness of the Storm's Edge.

But in fact, this ship is not only used for combat. Judging from the bow ram and electromagnetic shield, Storm Edge does have certain combat capabilities, but in the actual combat in the past few months, it is obviously used more as a command center to collect intelligence and provide support in the rear. When not in combat, the truly incredible aspects of this ship are revealed:

This small ship can at most be considered a troop transport according to the Empire's definition, and it is used for "living".

Personal rooms, canteens, libraries, simulation training rooms, music rooms, small theaters... This ship unusually contains a space that is significantly larger than it appears to be, and contains too many spaces that can only be used. Facilities for life enjoyment.This thing itself is not strange, the same is true for the Nightfall, or most of the ships built by the empire for long-distance voyages are like this - but the problem is that the size of the Stormbound is much smaller than those behemoths.

On the one hand, this design idea is not in line with the concept of "everything must give way to combat effectiveness" of the Imperial warship; on the other hand, the Storm's Edge has indeed successfully accommodated a volume that it should not have accommodated. For example, now: Curze has walked 150 meters in this straight corridor in the "dormitory area", but has not yet reached its end. If it were on the outside of the ship, this distance would be enough to walk almost a circle around the entire Storm's Edge.

In a sense, the interior of this ship... has some characteristics of the warp. When Conrad Curze was inside the Storm's Edge, he often felt some harmless disharmony, just like a person who was used to living in a square room was suddenly moved into a round room. There was no difference in essence, but it was still a bit uncomfortable.

Perhaps it was because of this special feature and some other effect that Curze didn't know about that Fujimaru Ritsuka dared to leave him alone on the ship. This thought flashed through his mind quickly, and he immediately rejected it: he did feel a little uncomfortable on the Storm Boundary sometimes, but he didn't think there was anything on this ship that could really threaten him.

He stopped in front of a door that looked identical to the ones he had passed before, and he knew that one of his genetic offspring was locked inside that door.

This might be some ability he shared with Fujimaru Ritsuka through the contract with her, some kind of control over the "contract". If it were just expressed in words, it would be quite funny: he strengthened his contractual ability because of a contract...

Fine.

Curze didn't succeed in making himself laugh.He just stood quietly in front of the door, quietly feeling the invisible bond between the original body and the legion's descendants, which Fujimaru Ritsuka called the "base contract".

This was a wonderful feeling: he had never known or cared about where his theoretical offspring was held on the ship, what he was doing these days, how he was doing, and other trivial matters. But when he wanted to explore, he naturally came to the right place, and the corresponding information flowed into his mind without delay when he wanted to know.

He didn't have the ability to let his eyes penetrate building materials, nor could he pass through solid objects at will like in the trial illusion. But he knew that behind the tightly closed door was a room that seemed to have been destroyed by a natural disaster, and one of his genetic descendants was reigning over it like the eye of a typhoon.

This renegade Astartes was not wearing armor like any other prisoner, only a simple mass-produced robe to cover his body. He had pale skin, messy scars, dark pupils and a tyrannical look, just like any Night Lord should have. He stayed quietly in place, not because he was calm, but because there was really nothing around him that he could continue to destroy. Konrad Curze knew this, because he could also clearly read the shame and burning anger in this man's heart.

This man still harbors some revengeful thoughts, some dark and weak thoughts that are not presentable. Curze sneered at these things, but for this Astartes, they were enough to motivate him to wait for an opportunity. As long as he was given even the slightest opportunity, the seemingly calm eye of the storm would once again be surrounded by violent winds.

Ten thousand years later, his genetic descendants are still like this. And this is even selected.

Curze was uninterested in this. If he wanted to know, he could immediately know the man's name, but he didn't want to. He turned his eyes away from the door, but the feeling of the contract was not broken. He continued to move forward silently, but he could still feel the Astartes hesitantly looking at the door in the room that he couldn't open by himself, with a little unbelievable hope in his eyes - as if he could see Curze himself coming and going quietly in the corridor through the completely opaque material.

This made Koz feel a kind of stress-like disgust, and he couldn't help complaining in his heart: How come Fujimaru Ritsuka's contract has a two-way effect on strengthening this thing?

Then, he chose not to "look" so carefully. He walked around this small corridor inconspicuously, "observing" all the Legion children he had found so far. Eighteen rooms, neatly arranged in two rows on both sides of the corridor, nine rooms in each row - considering their current situation, it is hard to say that nothing has affected this reality in the dark.

Among these people, some were as irritable as the first one, some were desperate for some reason, some had unrealistic fantasies about the future, and some even knelt down to pray for no apparent reason - but no one realized his previous mistakes, and no one repented sincerely.

This made Curze feel a little disappointed, but at the same time he was relieved. It was not that he still had any unrealistic hopes for the character of his offspring, he just thought that Fujimaru Ritsuka might be able to do something about it. In theory, she could, but obviously, in fact, she did nothing.

Since she did nothing, Conrad Kurtz should be able to act without hesitation when the worst future he foresaw came true.

He saw an omen, which was why he suddenly had the urge to find the location of his offspring:

He saw himself killing every Night Lord on board this ship very soon, and if necessary, he would do so.

-

"So during the Great Crusade, there lived on this planet an alien civilization that worshipped the blue bird god?" Ritsuka Fujimaru struggled to hold the data tablet that was adapted to the Astartes' body size, and frowned as he read the Lion's Mane's previous combat reports.

Fortunately, this ship also participated in the orbital bombardment at that time and belonged to Fire Wing, so a large part of the situation at that time was preserved. It is difficult to say how the combat operations ten thousand years ago can help understand the current situation, but Fujimaru Ritsuka still decided not to miss any details.

She even felt a little regretful, it was a pity that neither the STC on the data board nor the organization of the Fire Wings had been successfully preserved until ten thousand years later.

"Yes." Lanmarok had no way of knowing her thoughts, so he dutifully introduced what he knew. "In addition, during the orbital bombardment, some ships reported that they detected abnormal subspace fluctuations."

“Does the waveform diagram still exist?”

"The Dark Angels don't miss out."

The corresponding data is even stored in the attachment of the same data board. After successfully finding it, Fujimaru Ritsuka only glanced at it and handed the data board to Somni behind him: "Please fit the data at that time with the subspace fluctuations that can be naturally monitored now. I feel that what is happening now is most likely not an isolated case. By the way, remember to consider the impact of the 'Great Rift' on the current real environment. When comparing, you can consider the magnification of the data ten thousand years ago."

Somni took the data tablet: "Analysis is in progress...but I don't think it can be of any help to the current situation."

"No, it's important to figure out whether this is 'the first time' or 'has happened before'. The symbolic meanings are completely different." Fujimaru Ritsuka explained, then shrugged indifferently, "It doesn't matter if you don't understand. You are a ship in the material world. There is no need to think so clearly about the subspace."

...If you think it through, the pressure is really great. Finally realizing that he had already stood on the chessboard without realizing it, Fujimaru Ritsuka smiled bitterly.

All she could say was that it was okay, she had already prepared herself mentally - after all, that was why she left Xingju.

-

It was almost dusk when lights suddenly came on in the hangar of the cargo terminal.

"Jacob, the parade has been suspended due to security issues." Aelita's voice was calm, and there was no emotional tendency in any sense.

"Didn't I tell you last night that the whole city is under martial law?" Sevatar squinted his eyes to adjust his blurred vision due to the change in light, and responded in a similar calm tone, "But I thought your reaction would be bigger. You really seemed to want to go to the inner city before."

He didn't look up, still busy with his own business. According to the original schedule, they should have set off at noon on the ninth day of the celebration, after the original speech by Hastings Technical Officer, leaving the First City and returning to the Fourth Agricultural Production Planning Area where they originally belonged. He started to check the condition of the transport vehicle he was responsible for and make relevant preparations a day in advance, and there was no problem at all.

Although he wasn't the only one doing that work.

Sevita waited for a while while doing something, but did not wait for Alita's next words. For a girl who is often full of energy and seems to have endless things to say, this is a bit abnormal.

This abnormality made Sevatar feel puzzled, but he also stopped what he was doing and looked up to show some concern for the little girl who always stuck to him: "What's wrong?"

He asked, and Alita started as if awakened from a trance: "Ah! It's okay. I was just wondering, if we set off back to District 4, whether Ritsuka would be able to find us."

Sevatar stared at the somewhat uneasy little girl for a few seconds before turning back to face the mechanical structure at hand: "Who knows, it's hard to say. Maybe she will show up before we leave tomorrow, maybe she has magical powers and can find where we were originally stationed after we leave, or maybe she will never show up again."

"...You don't know either?" Alita's tone sounded a little unwilling to give up.

Sevatar looked over again in confusion: "Should I know?"

"But you seem to know everything..."

"I don't really know everything. Besides, the questions you asked before were all knowledge-based things."

"Don't you really know what will happen in the future?"

Sevatar stood up suddenly——

...but she...said...is there any problem...?

His mind seemed to be rusting, and he was unaware of it.

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 24 We gather together tonight

"...Of course, we have to thank the wise leadership of Ms. Jasmine Deville, the Governor of the Jestal Planet..."

The voice of Technical Officer Raj Hastings was converted into an electronic signal and then broadcast over the global broadcast. Perhaps because of the loss of the acoustic signal that was inevitably produced during this conversion process, his voice sounded with a strange and sharp distortion, like some kind of shrill bird song.

There are no birds in Jestal, and many workers who were born and raised there do not understand what a bird is, but this concept naturally arises in the mind of everyone who is listening to the radio; this is abnormal no matter how you look at it, whether it is 'suddenly understanding a non-existent concept' or 'everyone is listening to the radio', it is abnormal, but in fact no one cares.

This was the speech that Technical Officer Hastings was supposed to give in the square in front of the ancient ruins after the parade at noon on the ninth day of the celebration. However, due to some unnamed "security issues", the parade itself was cancelled, and the speech was hastily moved forward to the night of the eighth day. Normally, the tradition of almost no nightlife on Jestal should make most people drowsy at this time close to midnight, but no.

Everyone was listening to the radio attentively at this time when they should have gone to bed, with a peaceful and strange smile on their faces. Even as midnight approached, the sentences on the radio became increasingly obscure and difficult to understand, and Raj Hastings' voice gradually became chaotic and blasphemous.

A mysterious and obscure wave surged across the entire planet as the sound of the broadcast was heard, and the beings behind the curtain gathered together in joy.

What am I doing…?

Sevatar thought drowsily.