Warhammer: In the Name of Ashes.

Chapter 170 Variation, Elegy of the Flaming Eagle
"A... palace! From the sky! Fire! Our people... can't walk through it!"

The young soldier was incoherent, there was a presence beyond the limits of his barren imagination.

It was difficult for him to use his own vocabulary to describe the tragic and spectacular scene, which was beyond the cognition of these people who lived in the tribal era.

But that's enough.

The keywords heard from the soldiers were enough to confirm Calvin's conjecture, and the rest of the information was not something these mortals could provide.

Calvin turned his head and said to Mars under the gaze of all the soldiers:
"How much food is left?"

"Seven days, 7 days if the distribution is centralized." Mars replied immediately.

"That's 7 days. You wait here for my return. If you can't wait for me after 7 days, go back."

After speaking, Calvin got off his horse and drew his long sword from the saddlebag. He gave such an order to the soldiers.

"You're going in alone? It's too dangerous!"

Mars immediately dissuaded him, and the soldiers also stared at Calvin, hoping that he would take back his order.

"Do I need to repeat the order?"

Calvin moved in an orderly manner. After hanging the long sword around his waist, he took out the dry food and water bags one after another.

During this period, he didn't even raise his head, and said in plain words that under the years of accumulating power, Mars and others' breathing became slow, and they all knelt on one knee to show their surrender.

"That's it. The war going forward is not your category. Just wait for me here, and don't explore further."

After speaking, he carried his packed luggage and walked towards the fallen woodland, leaving behind a whole lot of followers staring at each other with bowed heads and hands.

Further on, the environment was getting worse and worse, and the primitive giant trees that fell radially outwards had grown for thousands of years before experiencing this catastrophe.

Towering giant trees surrounded by several people are common here and can be seen everywhere.

Calvin walked among these giant trees with a diameter of several meters, walking towards the central basin.

Yes, Basin.

The terrain here has been permanently changed under the impact from outside the high sky, such as the comet creating the moon, and the indescribable huge impact.

This foreign object hardly loses any mass in the atmosphere, and just releases the mass and kinetic energy it carries on the earth.

The soil was as soft as water under the impact, and while the huge kinetic energy shattered the plate deep in the mantle, the aftermath of the energy brought the compressed air to burn, and scattered it in a hundred miles around.

Calvin was standing on the edge of the basin at this time.

From the height of the rim of this huge bowl, he could clearly see the center of the bottom of the bowl with his extraordinary eyesight.

There, the magma gushing out from the leylines wrapped the goal of his trip:

A steel monster five kilometers long and one kilometer wide, made of pure metal;

One of the masters of imperial aviation technology and military technology;

The most common naval warfare weapon used by the Imperial Navy and other military organizations;
Known for their versatility in combat use and modular low-maintenance standards, the enemy of the Empire is the lifelong enemy of the Lunar-class cruiser.

Well, look at the miniature model of the Shanzhen hanging on the bow of this steel Leviathan, and the towering church-like building behind the hull.

Calvin added another note to the back of this Lunar-class cruiser in his heart:
A battle barge belonging to an unknown sub-regiment of the Imperial Fists.

This is indeed the case. From the scorched side deck of the battleship that was licked by flames, Calvin could still vaguely see a battle group mark that he did not recognize:

An imperial eagle in flames, perched atop a sacred skull symbolizing human purity.

This is the battle group mark that has not been noted in the internal documents of the Inquisition that he read in his memory.

In other words, this unknown battle group did not survive to the era when Calvin was active.

A Lunar-class cruiser that fell to the surface for unknown reasons, a doomed battle group whose name is unknown but in Calvin's eyes is doomed to perish.

This is the valid information he has collected now.

The overall condition of the battleship was relatively intact, and Calvin did not see any obvious deformation of its keel.

Except for the parts of the outer deck that were in contact with the magma, which were scorched black and faintly dark red, the complete armor belt and fully equipped weapon array were all in place.

This is a warship that was naturally captured by the gravity of the planet without human operation after the void shield was turned on.

In other words, what it encounters is not an external threat, but more danger may come from within.

The fall of the battleship was more than ten days ago, the cumulus clouds in the sky had dissipated, and the dust in the air had already landed.

The soil around the battleship has long disappeared, and the magma gushing out of the ground is also cold and hot, hot and cold, I don't know how many times it has alternated.

Calvin took a deep breath against the wind, the sulfide and unburned carbon monoxide in the air activated his superhuman organs.

The filtering and detoxification functions formed by the third lung and stone kidney were activated at the same time. Facing the inhuman living environment in front of him, Calvin, who was fully prepared, leaped down from the edge of the basin and jumped on the cooled part of the magma. , began his journey of discovery.

Calvin's flexible body shuttled over large and small black basalt rocks, and occasionally there were flashes refracted from these cooled rocks, which were the light of mineral crystals brought out by magma from the depths of the mantle.

The model of the Shanzhen on the bow is becoming more and more obvious, and the inscriptions on the dome and columns of the church on the top of the ship are already clearly visible.

In less than half an hour, Calvin had already crossed a distance of more than ten kilometers in one breath in this inhuman environment.

And in this uninterrupted jumping and walking, he even has the leisure to think.

There are no scars from recent large-scale naval battles on the battleship, so there is a high probability that the problem comes from the inside.

And if the threat is directed at the interior of the hull, from a security point of view, he must ensure the concealment of his whereabouts.

Another 5 minutes passed.

Standing on the slightly crooked roof of the cruiser after sinking into the magma, Calvin looked at the upturned breach in the armor he had carefully selected, and the corners of his mouth twitched slightly.

This is thanks to the general blueprints for Lunar class cruisers.

Every Luna-class cruiser is the same. If you want to overhaul the lance turret exposed in space in a vacuum environment, then the reserved channel for this unmanned robotic arm is inevitable and must be placed on the lance turret. near.

Three times, five times and two times, he used the inferior steel sword in his hand to pry open the screws on the top deck.

Calvin stretched out his hand to grab a palm-thick, several meters square, and nearly 3-ton ceramic cover. The muscles in his body tensed to lift it up, and then threw it to the ground far away.

boom!
Elvis closed the hatch behind him, then slid along the steel wall behind him and sat down on the same cold floor.

The life indicators in the servo flashed with scarlet parameters, which not only proved that his life was running out, but also heralded the defeat of their entire battle group.

What can we do?

Elvis kept asking himself.

This is not his problem, and naturally it is not something he can solve.

Can the farmer who planted it be blamed if the original seed was faulty?

But Elvis couldn't let himself go.He vividly remembers every brother who died before his eyes:

He had already completed his task according to the established surgical procedure, but the various mutations and distortions that occurred in the recipient were unexpected to him.

He had tried his best to try to fix the problem, but to no avail.All known technical means have been tried, but more mutations are still happening unstoppably.

He tried to seek help from the Chapter Master or higher, but the mutation of the gene-seed made the Chapter Master keep his request secret and did not respond.

Yes, he knew it when he calmed down.

If he really reported the mutation of the warband's gene-seed as he wished, then what he was waiting for was not the help of the High Lords Council, but the encirclement and suppression of the Tribunal and other warbands...

The Council of the High Lords is hopeless.

This group of them from No.20's first founding army was originally a product of transitional nature.

Except for a small amount of supplies before the combat mission was issued, they have never received any resources from these high-level empires.

What about the mother group in name?
The same cannot be counted on.The Imperial Fist has never even acknowledged their relationship in public, nor has the warband tourney of the Centennial Sword Pact ever opened their hearts to them.

It was a silent contempt, the details of which he, the only apothecary of the Chapter, might not have known.

But whenever the Chapter's base ship passed Terra, he could read in the Chapter Master's long gaze on the Sentinel a certain sadness, a sadness he did not want to dwell on.

Ask them for help?
Elvis smiled, and under his stimulation, the loudspeaker in the breathing space made a sharp beep.

If they really knew about the problem of gene seeds, I am afraid that this group of people would be the first to raise their butcher knives at them to ensure the purity and sanctity of the Son of Dorne from being defiled, right?

"Brother! Me, dear, brother!"

In the small lounge of the medical department, Elvis cried softly as he looked at the flaming eagle mark on his body.

And in the hall of the medical department separated from him by a wall, there are heavy footsteps approaching...

Entering from the maintenance pipe, Calvin, who had been crawling among the messy cables and equipment for a long time, finally walked out from a maintenance equipment room reserved for machine servants.

Opening the dusty iron door, Calvin probed out to observe the surrounding environment.

The main lighting equipment in the empty corridor has been turned off, only the green indicator light is still working.

An atmosphere of uneasiness settled in the air in the distance. Occasionally, an unknown cable short-circuited, making the sound of crackling electric sparks in the quiet space.

Calvin took off the leather boots under his feet. The soles sewn with sliced ​​horns were already flexible enough, but they were still too conspicuous in this environment where the emperor's angels existed.

This is why Calvin was reluctant to bring his soldiers.

With the possibility of confrontation with this group of supermen, the human body is too weak, and the common sense of combat that belongs to humans is no longer applicable.

No one else knows how perverted Lyman's ear is when its abilities are fully activated, but Calvin, the Primarch of Genes, definitely knows it.

Calvin stepped on the icy ceramic floor with his bare feet, his muscles stretched and then relaxed in an orderly manner, and his feline-like stretching skills were reflected in his body.

Every step is taken with the heel first, and then the soft and silent sole of the foot slowly pinches the floor in the air, and finally ends with the contact of the tip of the toe.

He was making his way to the bridge, which was the most crowded place and the easiest place to gather information.

He wanted to know what happened here, and what was the reason why this battle barge belonging to the Astartes fell from the sky to the earth in a state of a martyr's suicide with the void shield fully opened.

The corridor of the main road is too dangerous, Calvin is not in a hurry to get involved, and the cable channel separated from the main road is his route.

The smell of blood in the air is getting stronger, and the exhaust valve and air filter are still working.

Calvin couldn't see what happened on the main road for the time being.But the smell that could be smelled in the pipeline passage let him know that a bloody killing had taken place here.

The maintenance of the channel of the pipeline is of node nature, and it has been arranged intermittently on both sides of the channel around the direction of the main road from the beginning of the design.

Calvin, who had nowhere to go ahead, saw the gate at the end of the pipeline, and knew that it was a last resort for him to be exposed to the monitoring equipment of the main road.

He turned over and crawled out of the pipe, then cautiously looked back at the main road in the direction he came from.

Unsurprisingly, the bodies of the masters of these warships, the Astartes, were sleeping peacefully on the steel floor.

"Ok?"

After a rough sweep of the field of vision, Calvin was about to turn his head and leave when the details of the information collected in his eyes flashed in his mind.

He turned his head again, walked slowly towards the long-dead Astartes warriors, bent and squatted down, and carefully looked at the unusual features on the corpses.

"Mutation? Not chaotic corruption! Primary? Mutation at the genetic level?"

He made a conclusion in his mind, then reached out and took off an Astartes Mark IV helmet to confirm again.

"That's right, the genetic mutation of the original hairstyle. There is a high probability that there is a problem with the gene seed..."

Calvin thought with a heavy heart.

This would explain why they disappeared and did not survive into the 39th millennium when Calvin was active.

The variation of gene seeds has enough lag.

Just like human cancer in the 2K era, when the mutation of the first seed is reflected in the fighters of the warband, it usually means that the entire warband has problems.

But compared with cancer, which has no possibility of spreading due to the single nature of human beings, once there is a problem with the seeds of the war group, it means the demise of the war group.

Calvin didn't know what was going on with the warband.

But he is still clear about the regulations governing the seeds of the warband in the Codex Astartes.

After the era of the Great Heresy, distrust of Astartes warriors was overwhelmingly felt throughout the Imperium.

The pressure in this regard is also a painful lesson from the legion's rebellion.Primarch Paul Guilliman himself instituted the regular sampling of the Chapter Astartes gene-seed.

This is, apart from the seed tax, the Astartes, as the supreme force of the empire, a rare obligation that cannot be refused.

To refuse is tantamount to rebellion.

As long as there is a rebellion, there must be siege.

However, according to the information Calvin has obtained so far, the seed mutation of this battle group is already extremely obvious, and it is impossible to pass the random inspection of the empire.

Correspondingly, their fate of being wiped out by the Empire High Lords Council and the Judgment Chamber is also inevitable.

　Two in one, update and ask for tickets.

　　The writing software machine is displeased, and it goes on strike.

　　The typesetting function is completely scrapped, and typos cannot be recognized...

　　Helpless, first post and then change, let me take it easy.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)