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

"Wha-but-"

"You are locked up here now because you caused serious bodily harm to the Iron Father of the Iron Hands Chapter, Malkan Ferros, for no reason." Fujimaru Ritsuka took three steps back and said coldly, "This is not the same as that. Don't confuse the point. Adjutant Fish, where is the high-pressure water gun?"

"But I'm the Primarch! You can't do this!"

"It's because you're the Primarch that I can do this! I'm very self-aware: I'm the kind of judge who is very prone to being partial and injustice." This is obviously not a good thing to say, but Fujimaru Ritsuka's tone when introducing himself like this sounded very proud. "It's because you're the Primarch that no one will say anything if I'm partial and injustice to you - if someone else did the same thing to a monk who holds an important position in the Chapter, do you think it's a problem that can be solved by simply making a fool of yourself?"

Conrad Curze's face once again showed an expression as if his worldview had collapsed. Fujimaru Ritsuka ignored him and turned to the Iron Hands members who were watching nearby:

"By the way, can you get a few servoskulls? Record this and make it into video data that can be copied at will."

Fujimaru Ritsuka not only kills people, but also destroys their hearts:

"After I'm done, I'll take a copy and distribute it among the Night Lords. If he does it again, I'll send this video to the Dark Angels so that everyone in the group will know!"

No matter what the Primarch himself was thinking, judging from the outward form, he had completely crashed. After a few seconds of one-sided desperate silence, the small group of Night Lords behind Curze squeezed one person out of the group after a brief shove.

"...Sir, this is not good." The person who was squeezed out protested, "After all, he is the Primarch of our Night Lords. This is an internal matter--"

"I almost forgot, it's your turn now!" Fujimaru Ritsuka changed his tone very smoothly, "You must have taken a lot of 'good stuff' from other teams along the way, right? Why don't you return it to them quickly!"

“Eh—?! What, but—”

"No buts. If you are so keen on updating your equipment and improving your combat power, I believe you will not refuse to improve your combat power through high-intensity training in the simulation room. How about a three-day death royale? Don't even think about hiding. The brothers who are left on the ship will be more active than me in capturing you and putting you in the simulation room."

After two seconds of silence, the five Night Lords Terminators in the same camp immediately made a clattering sound of sorting out their equipment. The Astartes were always very fast in getting ready, so after a dazzling dozen seconds, the numerous guns and cannons originally from the Iron Hands, along with the corresponding ammunition, piled up into a small mountain in front of them.

Then, the Iron Hands, who were amazed by this, finally began to act accordingly. No one at the scene had any doubts about the fact that this "Inquisitor" was accompanied by Iron Men, traitorous Primarchs, and Chaos warbands. Fujimaru Ritsuka's request began to flow through the command lines within the Chapter, without any compromise.

By the way, after this 15-minute and 7-second "accident", Adjutant Fish quietly uploaded an encrypted video file to the server. No one has had time to check the contents yet, but everyone can clearly tell one thing from the file attributes:

The video is fifteen minutes and ten seconds long.

I washed the cat in one go, 5K, and it’s gone today (peaceful).

The Iron Hand peeking at the screen in Star Torch: My favorite episode, recorded it.

The angel who woke up to catch up on the drama: This is the happiest episode, you are so great, Ritsuka.

After being busy for a while, the Regent turned around and heard about this. The Emperor said: This is the most frightening episode, I have to check again to see if there is any problem with the signal base station.

All of the above: Koze? (don't care)

After writing it, I realized that I don’t know whether Liben students have holiday homework such as exercise books during the holidays, but since it is not important, just pretend it is there.

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 62 What to do about the elephant in the room

After everything was ready, Conrad Koz fought a futile battle for about ten minutes with a high-pressure water gun originally used to clean the dreadnought in a hangar that was originally used to house the dreadnought but was now temporarily vacant because the dreadnought inside was awakened.

When the water stopped flowing, the video recording was finished, and the servo skulls floated away, Koz's energy and spirit seemed to be exhausted. After he was finally released from prison, he curled up in a dark corner tiredly and listlessly, giving off an atmosphere of "not wanting to talk to anyone".

He wanted to disappear right there, but Fujimaru Ritsuka said, "If you come back dirty without knowing where you've been, you'll have to wash again." So he chose the next best option and squeezed himself into the shadow between the wall and some large equipment. It was hard for him to really hide there.

After that, the Night Lords naturally gathered around their Gene-Father. Apart from the most basic surveillance, no member of the Iron Hands paid any attention to them - the few who were free were studying the extra video on the server.

Now, two very important encrypted videos have been stored on the Claw of Destruction. Perhaps soon, all the soldiers on the entire ship will be interested in reading them in their spare time. At least before returning to the home planet, Malkan Ferros will neither agree nor disagree with this.

In fact, at the very beginning of the whole incident, when Conrad Curze brought him back and met the people who came out of the corridor, Adjutant Fish had already called for medical support. The pharmacist brothers were in place at three minutes and twenty-four seconds, but by that time the traitorous Primarch had already quarreled with the Inquisitor...

Well, anyway, Space Marines, especially those in the Iron Hands who have undergone many mechanical modifications, don't die that easily.

The doctor and the patient watched this passage attentively from a safe distance. It was not until the main force began to gather the servos and decide to move to the main battlefield that the pharmacist asked for Ferros's consent and officially started working.

The mechanized transformation of the Iron Hands is really convenient: even when they have to concentrate on the "treatment" work in front of them, they can connect the signal to the servo skull to watch the broadcast - there are so many skulls flying in the sky responsible for lighting and recording, they are all their own property, and it is inconspicuous if they sneak in one or two bands.

All in all, after this chaotic story ended, Malkan Ferros, who could not be repaired to a brand new state because too much flesh was left, but was able to move and fight normally, returned to the command chain refreshed.

For a variety of reasons that would take too long to explain, he now had a very tolerant and open mind about everything. Even the fact that the entire ship was forced to drift in the warp seemed less difficult to accept.

Mentality is mentality, but the actual problems still need to be solved. When Ferros dragged his wounds that had been hemostatic and analgesic and had to return to the makeshift command center a little slowly, Adjutant Fish was talking to Debit and Fujimaru Ritsuka at the same time, and a ball of light from a holographic star map was floating between the three of them.

What he found very interesting was that as he approached, the young Inquisitor who could lead the Iron Men, rebuke the traitorous Primarch, and was not at all shy in front of the Chaos warbands, flinched slightly.

After his repair, Ferros did not wear a helmet. This was considered a kind of respect and friendship to the object of the power conversation among the Space Marines who were almost always fully armed. It was not strict and was not written. However, no matter how much flesh and blood Ferros retained in himself, he was still an Iron Father after all, and it was impossible for him not to have any mechanical modifications.

Without the protection of the helmet, his electronic eyes glowing red in the dark and his modified alloy jaw were enough to briefly make Fujimaru Ritsuka fall into the uncanny valley effect.

At this time, Ferros realized more and more that the Inquisitor was very young at such a close distance - so young that she could only be called a child. She was frightened by Ferros's modified face, which made her look more in line with her age at this time. It was hard to imagine how she could scold a Primarch just by looking at her like this.

But everyone saw that she could do it. When facing Ferros, the slight fear was only a flash. The Iron Father, like most of the other brothers in the Chapter, generally did not care much about how others, especially mortals, would view his appearance. But now, he was indeed a little curious about what the little Inquisitor in front of him thought about this.

But it wasn't important, so he didn't ask. After thirty-two seconds of polite greetings, the meeting returned to the main topic:

"His Excellency the Throne Envoy has suggested that we use the warp drive of another ship to tear the curtain and use it as a towboat to get the Claw of Destruction back to the physical universe," Adjutant Fish said briefly. "We are calculating the possible opening position of the curtain with the help of Debit."

Ferros had no opinion or question about this, so he just nodded. He knew that Debit Zem Woyd was a strange man with some inexplicable mysterious abilities. These abilities were very suitable for the current scene - but if he was put together with an inquisitor, Ferros would be a little nervous.

The Destroyer Claw encountered this man during a counterinsurgency mission in the Calixis sector. At that time, he was an inexplicable but indispensable role in the local organization that resisted the Genestealer cult on the planet. This is another long story, but after the rebellion was quelled, Debbie accepted the invitation of the Iron Hands and became an advisor to the chapter as an astrogeologist.

- In fact, the Iron Hands did not need any "astro-geologists" as consultants, and Debbie had never systematically learned the knowledge required of a real astro-geologist.

He can just "see" the universe itself. This real-time "vision" makes him naturally better than any astronomical geologist: no matter how cutting-edge the knowledge in an industry is, it will lag behind, and real-time investigation of real scenes is always at the forefront.

In the mission when the two sides first met, Debit accurately warned the Chapter of the existence of a small Tyranid fleet several light years away; in subsequent tests, he was also able to easily observe the size of the fleet parked in the orbit of the Iron Hands Chapter's home planet in real time in the Calixis sector. Even in the warp, he could roughly feel which coordinates in the physical universe the current position of the ship corresponds to, so he sometimes gave suggestions to the navigator during the warp navigation process.

Even though Debit can only make vague and general observations of other locations, the "real time" aspect is already invaluable. Some of his flaws and quirks are therefore tolerated... Besides, apart from these, he is essentially a pure good person.

Such an outstanding ability is not without a price, and Debit is troubled by long-term memory barriers: according to him, it is because he wants to solve this memory barrier that he travels around the universe to find a possible solution. He can only retain five minutes of memory in a day, and the rest will be shattered after the day is over - even using psychic tracing will not allow him to remember.

The technical sergeants and pharmacists had thought about whether they could help him overcome this by connecting and modifying some external devices used to store memory, but this plan failed during the testing phase: preoperative tests showed that Debit would have a strong rejection reaction to any mechanical modification, not to mention this kind of delicate brain surgery. His ability was too precious, and no one was willing to gamble on whether he could survive the operating table.

In short, Deppet, who has never been able to solve his memory problem, has developed a different personality and way of doing things because of his mental structure: he is taciturn, only says necessary words, prioritizes efficiency in all his actions, and mainly uses rationality and logic as his own judgment criteria - which is quite close to the creed of the Iron Hands Chapter. Therefore, during the eight months that Deppet was on board, the two sides got along well and established sufficient trust.

Even Feroce and Fish were willing to turn a blind eye to some of the "wrong" things about Debbie while remaining vigilant.

This young man often has strange "psychic phenomena" around him, some of which can be explained by psychic powers, but others cannot. Although some people in the Iron Hands "felt" that something was wrong, no major incidents had occurred so far, and even these unexplained phenomena often helped the situation - for example, he used them to climb the tower alone and rescue all the psychics on the upper floors not long ago. Debit himself was able to pass a fairly strict inspection to prove that he was not contaminated by Chaos, so those who knew about it pretended not to know.

——The main reason is that his galactic-level real-time observation capability with no side effects is too difficult for any military organization to give up.

These "wrong" things have become the elephant in the room. Everyone pretends not to see them, and the relationship between the two sides can maintain a stable operation in a limited vigilance and limited trust. But this elephant does exist, and an uninformed and obviously very capable judge temporarily enters the room...

Ferros was not willing to bet on what an "Emperor-chosen envoy to the throne" would think of their "harboring suspected heretics", even though the team she led included Iron Men, traitorous Primarchs and Chaos warbands.

He watched Debbie calculating data on the star map as usual, and couldn't help but start making the worst-case plans for "what to do once things explode."

Yes. Six o'clock.

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 63: The elephant doesn't matter, you still have a blue whale in your hangar

The Iron Hands were always very quick when they needed to make a decision. Within a few minutes, the four people present had agreed on all the follow-up matters for the docking of the two ships. The next task was to send a psyker to contact the Lion's Mane and confirm some technical details with each other.

Debbie moved naturally at this time: "I'll go and ask the astropath."

Fujimaru Ritsuka also followed suit naturally: "After all, we have to perform telepathy in the subspace, so I think I should follow along and see."

Ferros made a noise, and it took the people present a little while to realize that it was a light cough to attract attention.

"Astropaths may be masters of telepathy, but the Astartes have stronger wills. Since we are now in the warp, we should send a think tank brother to do this. Communication will be more efficient." The Iron Father said quickly.

This reason is actually quite far-fetched. In a sense, the higher the proficiency of the user, the lower the risk of using psychic magic. Surrounded by enemies in the vast ocean, the will of the Astartes is indeed more resilient than that of mortals, but it cannot be considered a decisive advantage in the current situation.

Ferros said this not because he really thought the Chapter Librarians were safer in carrying out this mission (but it was true that communication was easier). It was just because he had a hunch that there was something wrong with the Astropaths and he didn't want them to meet this foreign Inquisitor.

When he led his men to rush to the main power room, all the mortal psykers on board were still staying on the upper deck. He didn't know exactly how this happened, but when he came back, he learned from the historical work data package sent to him by Adjutant Fish that most of the astropaths and the two navigators were rescued by Debbie alone in an unknown way and temporarily placed in a nearby hangar that was temporarily vacated due to equipment maintenance.

It would be great to save the precious psychic crew, and Ferros had no objection to this, but the matter itself seemed too suspicious. Out of some stereotypes, if you don't want the whole ship to be disturbed, it's better not to let any Inquisitor know about this "unusual" thing.

Then he realized that he was being stared at by three other people present at the same time.

"Mr. Ferros, I'm not bragging, but I have some experience in observing people's expressions." Fujimaru Ritsuka's expression was even a little sad. "I don't know if you realize that when you want to cover up something, the tone of your voice will become very obvious."

"..."

When he said that sentence, his speaking speed was indeed 1.7% faster than usual, but he didn't think that ordinary people who had not undergone any transformation would be able to distinguish such a subtle difference.

Ferros turned his head and gave his adjutant a look of confirmation. His good adjutant shook his head at him, but his movements looked a little hesitant. Debbie, as usual, remained expressionless and motionless, but spoke in a steady tone:

"Let's not talk about reading people's expressions. Fujimaru is basically an intuitive creature, especially when facing a life form that can communicate. In this regard, the judgments she makes are often the best solutions."

This is an objective assessment from Debbie Zem Voyd. It is convincing, but also puzzling: When did you two become so familiar with each other?

The Iron Saint and his lieutenant were still confused, and Fujimaru Ritsuka added another attack:

"Speaking of which, Debbie, do you realize that many people on this ship have realized that something is wrong with you, but they just don't show it in front of you?"

"..." Debit paused and nodded: "I remember, I will pay attention."

Sometimes it was hard to understand the young man's logic. I didn't know what he was thinking in those few seconds, nor what he would "pay attention" to in the future. Anyway, what he showed at this moment was that he turned around again and told others at the same time: "I'll go ask the astropath."

After all, they had been sailing on the same ship for eight months and had frequent exchanges with each other, so Ferros had become accustomed to Debbie's erratic behavior. Then, he discovered that this "foreign" judge was not only more accustomed to this behavior than he was, but had even evolved to adapt to it:

"Wait, take this." She took out a small bird-shaped paper ball from her pocket and put it into Debbie's hand. Scanned by the mechanical eye, Ferros could see clearly in an instant that the raw material of the paper bird was a piece of ordinary paper of poor quality, smooth, white, and thin, but that was all. It was very easy to fold and also very easy to damage.

Its structure was also very simple, just a simple shape made of a folded piece of paper. What made it a little different was that there was something written on the folded piece of paper. There were too many contents stacked together, but from the few words that could be seen completely, Ferros judged that it was the opening of the "Sacred Words".

Debit took it in his hand and looked at it for a moment. The paper bird seemed to be emitting a faint golden light.

Neither Ferros nor Fish had a concrete idea of ​​what it was. They could only realize through the illogical glimmer of psychic energy that it was not just "a paper bird." But the question of "what is it" did not seem to stump Debbie. After observing it for a while, he even commented:

“Perhaps it would be better to abandon this shape and use a tougher paper. After focusing on improving the load-bearing capacity and service life, the slight increase provided by this shape is no longer needed.”

"That being said, as far as consumables are concerned, low-cost and reproducible features should be more important. And I only have a little bit of demon skin that I made out of curiosity, besides ordinary printing paper. It is really difficult to preserve the Warp Aether in physical form, and I can't use it for consecration at all. It's really a big loss."

Daibit nodded, said "I'll think about it", and left with the paper crane.

Ferros was a little unsure of what to say, but Adjutant Fish, who had previously communicated with Fujimaru Ritsuka, had a rough idea that she was not a demanding person, so he asked directly, "What is that?"

"I copied some small sutra stacks experimentally. I think it can be used as a disposable amulet. Let the astropath carry it with him when performing telepathic communication. It will increase the safety factor a little bit." Fujimaru Ritsuka explained nonchalantly, and then turned back to the previous topic, "Now that it has come to this, I think we should just speak frankly: You all know that 'Debbie is not right' and 'there is a problem in the hangar where the psychic is temporarily staying', right?"

Here it comes. The two Iron Hands unconsciously straightened their bodies slightly. Perhaps others could not even notice this small movement that indicated "nervousness", but in Fujimaru Ritsuka's eyes, it was obvious enough.

"Ah. I don't mean to accuse you. I've known Debbie for a long time, and if I have to count, I have to call him senior. I know roughly what's wrong with him, and I also know that he is a good person."

She explained this very considerately, and dispelled most of the nervousness of the two Space Marines in front of her. Then, Adjutant Fish, who was more familiar with the whole process, spoke:

"There is something wrong in the hangar of the psyker, but it should have nothing to do with this incident." He said, "For several months, the vehicles placed in that hangar always broke down inexplicably after a period of warp travel. After this happened several times, we vacated it and put it aside. This time, after rescuing the psyker, Debito said he wanted to borrow the hangar, and I agreed because I thought it was suitable in all aspects. As for 'problems', Debito did guarantee that 'the psyker will not go crazy because of the warp as long as he stays there'. He must have done something there."

"..."

Fujimaru Ritsuka was suspiciously silent for three seconds before speaking again:

“Uh… yeah, but not entirely.” This time it was her turn to show a little nervous micro-expression: “So you don’t actually know what he did in that hangar, right?”

Hearing an Inquisitor say this, Ferros also began to panic: "What exactly is the problem? Is there still a risk that psykers will become time bombs?"

"Not really... The psykers that Debbie sent there shouldn't be any big problems. As long as they are in that hangar, their spirits will be protected by another powerful warp entity, and the impact of the waves of the warp on them will become negligible..."

"... Another powerful subspace entity?" Shocked, Adjutant Fish barely managed to extract the correct keywords. Fujimaru Ritsuka nodded heavily:

"Yes, God Tezcatlipoca is an 'old acquaintance' of the two of us. I can guarantee that he has no unprovoked ill intentions, and Debit is also on this ship as another insurance. However, a god is a god after all... I see that the vehicles in the hangar are always broken down because he sneaked in when your subspace navigation could be interfered with, dismantled the vehicles and reassembled them, which caused all the trouble."

The Iron Hands felt that their thought links were overloaded.

Today I wrote 6K but I still feel like I haven’t written anything. Why is this happening? (Sad)

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 64: Face the Blue Whale and Get to Know It

The vibration of the ship itself would always cause panic among the crew members who depended on it for survival, but this time the vibration of the Claw of Destruction made all those who knew about it feel excited.

This vibration proved that the Claw of Destruction had successfully docked with the Lion's Mane. As long as it sailed to the next Mandeville point, it would be able to escape from this damn warp!

At this time, it felt like about two hours had passed since Debbie left the conversation to ask for the astropath. During this time, the Iron Hands not only completed the docking mission of the two huge ships with amazing efficiency, but also re-established the wireless transmission information node in their own ship, and re-established the information link from the command room to the main power room in a way that was not particularly stable and reliable.

The corresponding dispatching instructions also continuously flowed from the restructured links to the battle brothers who were stationed near the main power room. Ferros personally investigated and deduced the possible development after the ship left the subspace, and then changed the strategic goal of the battlefield front: from forcing into the main power room and shutting down the reactor, to temporarily delaying the battle by stabilizing the front and waiting until the ship left the subspace to deal with it.

Of course, in this process, the data link transmits more than just combat orders, but only the parties involved know what those extra things are.

During the two hours or so, Konrad Curze and the Night Lords remained in much the same state; Enkidu, on the other hand, was curious and casually strolled around in various places where he was allowed to pass. Fujimaru Ritsuka, who was free, found a place where he could rest without getting in the way, and even took a short nap to recover his strength.

This confused Officer Fish for a moment before she remembered to run the physiological monitoring system. What was she doing standing there without saying a word?