Warhammer: In the Name of Ashes

"Do you still have to wait?" This was Gavins's voice.

Since the end of the mission on the Supreme Decree, he has been following Calvin and continued his service career on Titan II.

The engines of the Revenant Redeemer have been warmed up, and with the entire ship in place, all that is waiting for is Calvin's order.

"Wait, the fortress must be guarded by officers above the company commander level. This is already our compromise to the rules, and we cannot retreat any further."

Calvin opened his eyes, momentarily removed from the meditation awaiting Stern's arrival.

Jin did not speak, standing behind Calvin in silence. He did not want to interfere with the internal discipline of the Gray Knights, and was not qualified to interfere.

"Okay, I'll inform the garrison that the cruiser's navigation permission will be delayed for another three hours."

After Gavins finished speaking, he was ready to leave. But his journey was interrupted by an announcement from the Astropath.

"Unknown communication signal detected, active duty list search, confirmed to be a combat barge, codenamed Night Ruler, affiliated to the third company of the unit, current commander, company commander Entern. The key passed, the communication authorization code passed, the list was verified correctly , requesting entry into the defensive zone.”

The information under the bridge was sorted out within 5 seconds according to standard procedures and sent to Calvin.

"Passed." Calvin looked at the holographic screen, and his voice was transmitted through the communication equipment and rang in the astropath's ears.

After receiving the order, the latter relayed it to the system defense department using the communication equipment on the cruiser.

The system defense command received authorization from Calvin to mark the battle barge that was about to jump out from Manzeville Point in a credible green color.

Fifteen minutes later, as the subspace tore apart, the Night Ruler appeared in the Federman galaxy on time. Calvin continued to stare in the direction of the holographic screen, waiting for Stern's face to appear there.

"Communication request from the Night Dominion!"

"pass!"

"Bahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..." The noise of electronic equipment usually appears in the early days of communication signal connection. It has not changed for many centuries, and I don’t know what the oil guys are busy with every day.

But fortunately, Stern's face still appeared clearly in the center of the screen, and Calvin no longer thought about this boring question.

"By the Emperor's grace, Captain Stern, it's a pleasure to meet you."

"The Emperor's blessing, Lord Calvin. I already know the situation here. To make a long story short, let's start the handover."

With his signature efficient style, this company commander with outstanding military exploits and troubled destiny started the handover of defense as soon as he appeared.

Calvin would not have objected to such a reasonable request.

"I have been ordered to temporarily hand over the garrison duty to you. The corresponding authority has been sent to you, please accept it."

Time was tight, and Calvin did not have time to hand over to Stern at the fortress. The simple handover procedure could only be carried out remotely on the bridges of both parties.

He temporarily delegated the command of the various troops deployed in the Federman system to Stern, who also accepted and reviewed it and confirmed that it was correct.

"Goodbye, then," Stern said to Calvin.

"Goodbye." Calvin nodded, and the signal was cut off.

In the starry sky with a black background, two space behemoths also marked with the Gray Knight logo passed by each other and rushed towards their respective missions.

Stern and his Night Lords will rest temporarily on the Federman System, while Calvin will leave during this period and move towards the location designated by the Custodes.

Five hours later, the state of the Revenant Redeemer entered the subspace and stabilized. The duty personnel on the bridge and other departments began to take turns as planned. This huge space city with warships as its residence also began to quiet down.

"Now, can you tell me about your mission? Jin?"

When the cruiser finally left the fortress and completely entered the black box state in the subspace, Calvin asked the envoy about the specific content of the operation.

Calvin respected the latter's request for confidentiality and waited patiently until he felt it was safe enough.

But now, he felt it was time.

"An abandoned spaceship is the goal of our trip."

Jin said simply, his thoughts still stuck on Calvin's previous words and couldn't extricate himself.

Communicating with a creature like the original body that has an epic aura, he can be exposed to information he doesn't know at every moment. This fascinates Jin, whose personal hobby is writing biographies.

"Huh?" This was the voice of Archbishop Klein, and it was also the embodiment of her desire to explore hidden in her bones as a senior member of the Mechanicum.

That's it? Calvin's brows began to rise.

As the master of a galaxy, the life of the Gray Knight Castle Master has lasted for 30 years in his life. He has almost forgotten the last time someone treated him so perfunctorily existed.

"Nothing else?" Calvin asked.

After hearing Calvin's deep voice, Jin was pulled away from his thoughts.

When he raised his head and met the eyes of everyone on the bridge, he suddenly realized that he was distracted at this moment.

"Sorry!" Jin corrected himself.

No one knows the tone of the Imperial Guards' internal discussions, and no one cares. But at least when confronting a Primarch, they will still give them the respect they deserve.

Moreover, this time, they came to the door themselves, so there was no reason for them to do so.

"Behind the Antirifas sector, near a desolate world, violent subspace fluctuations occurred. A metal substance composed of several scrap ships was spit out from the subspace."

"Space hulk? What next?" Bishop Klein's voice came from the loudspeaker.

Calvin on the side was silent. He already felt the complexity of the task.

Of all the mission environments, the space hulk cannot be said to be the worst, but it must be the most annoying. Because this environment is always full of surprises and unknowns.

As a soldier, what Calvin hates most is accidents and the unknown.

From his understanding, spaceships are the oversized blind boxes of the interstellar era, and you can always get surprises inside.

Just like the probability of a blind box, once you open it, the content inside will be more surprising and less joyful.

The former means trouble, where you can find any hostile target that ever existed in the empire's space and time dimensions:

Including but not limited to Daemon Hives, Chaos Warbands, Dark Eldar, and the ubiquitous Greenskin Orcs.

Among them, orcs are definitely the best targets to deal with. In some of the more extreme records, some more ancient and weird races also show signs of activity...

The latter means harvest: a relic from the Dark Ages, some surviving materials from the ancient times, an artifact left behind by the legion, and sometimes even the hulk itself may be found to be of value for repair after evaluation.

At least as far as Calvin knew, the Empire had a record of recovering a nearly intact battleship from here.

Calvin hoped that he was facing the latter, but now that this group of forbidden soldiers who had been huddled in the palace for many years had appeared in front of him, it was unlikely that this kind of luck would fall on his head.

Once this group of Golden Corns, who rarely appear but are always mysteriously active throughout the empire, come to visit, it often means some trouble that they cannot handle.

Calvin hoped that the envoy in front of him could provide more information. It would be better if he could know who his enemy was in advance.

He pricked up his ears and continued to listen intently to Jin's background description of the mission.

"When that huge metal structure was spit out from the subspace, its coordinates overlapped with a planetary world. And there, there is a seal in the records of the throne room, a seal of the subspace rift."

King's voice echoed across the bridge as those present sat in silence, pondering the valid parts of his message.

"How is the situation now?"

Calvin's face became serious. Any sign of activity related to subspace is a signal of extreme danger. An incident like this that can almost be confirmed as a subspace invasion is the job of the Gray Knights, and they are bound to do so.

"The feedback from frontline observers is very bad. The subspace fluctuations on the surface of the planet can already be observed with the naked eye several light years away."

"Why don't we know?" Tybos interrupted the conversation. He did not believe that such a large number of psychic forecasters in his warband and the Inquisition would ignore this.

"This may have something to do with those hulks. Our information shows that those hulks that broke into the planet's atmosphere may have touched some older ruins devices during the collision. The energy fluctuations on this planet were restrained on the surface of the planet, only It can be observed with the naked eye." Jin turned his head and explained to him.

"How do you know?" This is Calvin's second question.

"There is an abandoned webway entrance there. There are combat records there in the Forbidden Order's information. There are some equipment there waiting for us to recover, but the sequence is later, so we have been paying attention to the situation there."

King gave this explanation for Calvin's question.

"Webway? Is it possible to repair it?" On the surface, Calvin was asking about the status of this equipment, but the real meaning was whether they could still come into contact with the Eldar forces.

The known situation of this mission is already complicated enough, and Calvin really doesn't want to hear about any more accidental involvement.

King also understood the subtext of Calvin's words, and the news he gave made Calvin feel relieved. This webway has been damaged so thoroughly that there is no possibility of repair.

"I don't have enough people," Calvin said, and this was by no means a problem he could solve.

He could stop or even try to destroy the forces of Chaos on that planet. But if he is also required to find and control the device at the same time.

Sorry, he can't.

"You don't need to do this. The Throne Court has sent out follow-up support troops. All you have to do is sneak into the mantle and keep the device from being controlled, or destroy it if nothing can be done."

Jin was also worried that these Gray Knights would directly use the most violent method to solve the problem. He said deliberately:

"That piece of equipment is of extraordinary significance to the empire, and you need to protect it as much as possible."

"Not enough, there are still not enough people." Calvin shook his head in denial. This kind of defense task has never been what the sparse Gray Knights are good at.

They are better at seizing the leader of the enemy's chieftains among thousands of armies and becoming a problem-solving entity;

The Gray Knights are not good at defending a certain location like this and becoming someone else's problem by denying the enemy movement. The small but capable number of people becomes a natural disadvantage here.

"You still have mortal troops. I saw their numbers in the recent internal announcement." Jin reminded.

It was only after careful consideration that he finally found this place. Without a basic execution foundation, he would not place his hopes on his compatriots on these Titans.

"Well, mortal troops..." Calvin fell into thinking again. These proven troops are indeed deployed in the fleets of the Gray Knights, and the Redeemer of Revenants is certainly no exception.

400,000 people and eight large legions are the current establishment on the Revenant Redeemer.

Their initial combat direction was to hold up the boundary of the battlefield for the Gray Knights, or to maintain the gap when the Gray Knights opened a gap in the battlefield. In order to save the manpower gap of the battle group itself as much as possible.

Considered from this perspective, these mortal auxiliary troops dedicated to the Gray Knights are indeed suitable for this battle.

After all, maintaining the front line itself is a denial tactic. As long as they make some adjustments to their equipment in advance, they should be able to complete their mission.

Thinking of this, Calvin finally no longer worried about the basic conditions for the execution of the mission. He turned to look at Jin, who was still telling the details, and confirmed the content of the mission to him again:

"Then the ultimate mission is that we find the device, control it, or destroy it, right?"

"Yes, until our reinforcements arrive..."

Jin turned to look at this person with a special status. With complex eyes, he affirmed Calvin's narration and added the first half of the final time.

Calvin also understood the brutality of the battlefield.

No matter what his identity is, after he sets foot on the battlefield, he is a pawn and a gold coin of the empire here. Like the emperor's tens of millions of wealth, there is no reason why it cannot be sacrificed.

His hoarse voice added the second half of the sentence that Jin didn't say: "Or we all die."

The discussion about the mission came to an end for the time being, and Calvin, who was left with little meaning, stood up and walked outside.

Different from the past, this time the battle involves the participation of mortal auxiliary troops, so the command and staff attached to them will not be placed in the highly confidential bridge section.

Behind the bridge, in order to cooperate with the entry of these auxiliary units, a combat unit with complete command functions has been modified.

It was there that Calvin could come into contact with these auxiliaries and begin to cooperate.

The first-level war alert signal has been issued, but the content of the mission has not yet been issued.

The soldiers at the grassroots level must be making emergency preparations at this time, and the officers at the middle level have also begun to re-confirm their supplies and logistical support.

As for those commanders and staff who really belong to the top level, they are not in a hurry.

After all, contingency plans have already been made, and there is not much they can do, especially in a context where the specific campaign objectives and background conditions are unknown.

They could only wait in silence for Calvin to arrive and tell them what kind of enemy they would face in the war they were about to participate in.

Two chapters in one, published together. Asking for votes.