Warhammer: In the Name of Ashes

"Those Angels of Death who hold the Tome of Truth given by the Emperor himself will eventually return to this world on the Day of Judgment, led by His young Son of Fire who announces ashes and destruction."

——Communication Node No. 2885 in the Lyark Sector, Astropath Hubbers Tensalion.

Buzz!

The low hum of the teleportation array broke the silence on the ground.

As this power spread, a group of gray knights wearing silver-gray power armor crossed a distance of tens of thousands of meters and descended from the orbit of Wollaston onto the territory of the long-lost empire.

The storm caused by the teleportation array blew away the thick dust accumulated on the commercial streets of the hive city. Pieces of faded brocade silk representing yesterday's glitz were stirred up by the storm, and then shattered beside the window where they had been waiting for a long time.

Gala! boom!

A human skull of white and yellow bones, like a sheep's head, which had been lying on the road for an unknown period of time and had decayed, was crushed by heavy ceramic boots.

In the shadows, there are several dazzling lights that originate from high places, pierce the darkness, and then sweep across;

A dozen nine-foot-tall silver-armored giants walked out of the darkness in the next moment, passing through this deserted street in an exploratory formation.

"Everything is normal in Hive City No. 3. The upper water supply points have been inspected. There are no abnormal energy reactions and no life reactions."

Faint psychic fluctuations emitted from the leader of the Arbiter. Under the guidance of the psychic link, the real-time information of the team was gathered towards the will of the legion covering the sky.

"Everything is normal in Hive City No. 6. The inventory of the lower food storage has been completed, and no life reaction has been found."

"Everything is normal in Hive City No. 7. The water supply points in the middle level have been inspected and no life reactions have been seen."

"Everything is normal in Hive City No. 9. The weapons depot and food storage points of the Ministry of Justice have been inspected. No life reaction has been found."

The vague fluctuations intersect with each other in the sky, and ring in the ears of all the members of the Gray Knight team.

The Gray Knights who are searching here are accelerating their pace, clearing out all the resource nodes that can support the long-term survival of mankind.

"Continue to conduct inventory as planned."

Calvin responded to the orders in the psychic channel to the deployed teams, and then continued to move forward with his own guard members.

This is already the third galaxy they have explored in the Lyak sector, but no survivors have been found.

Chaos' demand for population plunder can never be satisfied. After decades of purges, the hive city here has no trace of human presence except the stumps and tiles left at the beginning of the Chaos invasion.

"Beep! A periodic low-frequency rescue signal was captured!"

"Beep! A periodic low-frequency rescue signal was captured!"

The servo on the power armor began to chirp spontaneously, which shocked Calvin and instinctively began to speed up his pace.

Buzz! Snapped!

Upon seeing this, the accompanying paladins followed him silently, and the decomposition force fields of the Heaven Punishment Weapons were silently activated.

boom!

The thick armored gate was kicked to pieces, and within the several-meter-high breach, Calvin bent his belt and sneaked into the emergency shelter in front of him.

The corpses here are not densely packed, and their owners obviously did not die in battle.

They were distributed in their respective residences in a relatively stable manner. No food storage was found during the whole process, indicating that they died of starvation due to lack of supplies after a long stay.

Buzz!

Calvin opened his psychic vision and looked at the surrounding environment; the corresponding location on the other side of the subspace was also blank. Apparently these souls had been gone for a long time and not even a trace of fragments had been left behind.

Um?

A light blue light flashing in a room caught Calvin's attention.

He took a few steps, opened the door, and saw a withered skeleton sitting quietly on the seat facing the entrance.

The fluctuations of psychic energy come from its chest, where a soldier's nameplate with a chip hangs.

Because of the sufficient decay of the tissue after death, the entire brand was left unimpeded and deeply entangled with its ribs.

Calvin stepped forward slowly to prevent the huge and heavy steps from shaking the dead man's bones apart. He gently stretched out his armor-covered right hand and gently took out the name tag from the pale bones.

Bull Tang, this was the name of the deceased, and he was also the owner of this privately modified chip-shaped brand.

He was a soldier of the Imperial Defense Force during his lifetime. When the invasion war began, he was sent to the surface to communicate with the local government because of a material dispute between the regiment and the local government.

The chip on the brand obviously has a two-layer data protection mechanism, and this is the information left on the surface;

The information hidden at the bottom of the chip is completely encrypted and can only be fully opened by its own owner.

"Go home...take me home..."

The blue light that can only be seen by psykers on the nameplate flickers slightly.

Apparently this soldier was persistent enough to persist in maintaining his own existence for an unknown period of time after his death, and to keep his last wish in the famous brand.

"Understood."

Calvin replied in a low voice, and tightened his hand slightly on the name tag. The remnant soul of the past received his response and nourishment, and was immediately received into the city in his spiritual world.

This small deal was a good deal. In the second-level data log that was opened, Calvin finally knew what kind of tragedy had happened in this relatively wealthy planetary world.

Bull Tang is not a native here, on the contrary, he is also drawn from other galaxies.

The 21st Wollaston Heavy Armor Regiment was the last unit he served in during his military career, but it was not his first unit.

This veteran has been drafted from his hometown for more than 80 years. During the Northern and Southern Wars, he participated in dozens of battles, large and small;

The unit he served in was also reorganized several times after being severely damaged. The original name of the unit has long been unknown. Only the unit he served in last can still be found from the name tag.

But useful geographical information only goes so far.

Having never received higher education, he had long forgotten the location and name of his hometown.

Except for the windows covered with blue ribbons that appeared repeatedly in his soul and the vague appearance of his family, he had no other effective information to provide Calvin.

"Count your luck..."

Calvin read the log on the chip carefully, thinking that when he returned to the battleship, he would find the soldier's information in Orpheus's military headquarters to fulfill his last wish.

But as rows of cuneiform runes flashed across the connected data pad, his expression began to turn serious.

The time of destruction of the world here is hugely different from his expectation:

This place was not damaged by the initial chaos invasion as he thought;

On the contrary, less than a year has passed since the destruction here!

The reason why it is so desolate is because a great demon has performed a blasphemous ritual here that can speed up the passage of time!

"Oh, old rival, another son of Xin Liezhi!"

Closing the folder of the data pad and putting it back under the carapace around his waist, Calvin looked at another distant planet with a gloomy expression and muttered in a low voice.

Second update, please vote.

I found an author who is a writer in the author group. Haha, give it a push.

Book Title: The Fourth Scourge: Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of Mankind