Warhammer: In the Name of Ashes

In Imperial Calendar 739, the battleship Relentless Jihad has entered deep subspace.

Only a few crew members were active in the originally busy lower area, while the larger space in the upper area seemed even more empty when the total number of Gray Knights was about to exceed a hundred.

The vast majority of Gray Knights mainly move in the space of the upper area. Training, sleeping, retraining, and resleeping are the main contents of their lives;

Occasionally, Gray Knights on patrol appeared in the functional cabins on the middle level of the battleship, but the crew would not talk to them when they encountered them.

The former is accustomed to using psychic communication and will not communicate with the outside world unless necessary.

The latter went through layers of screening by the Tribunal, and had no name but a number the moment they boarded the ship.

Considering the special nature of this force, neither side is sure whether there will be another encounter in their lifetime.

The Gray Knights’ endlessly long life spans and the high-risk nature of their missions make their life cycles full of Schrödinger’s uncertainty;

The mortal crew members are even more vulnerable. In the face of the special enemy of subspace, no one knows whether they will be the one destined to be sacrificed in the next second.

Emotions have become a heavy burden here, which is the consensus of everyone here.

So they would only meet in silence, salute each other in silence, pass each other in silence, and then leave never looking back under the emperor's eternal and compassionate gaze.

But Calvin is an exception.

The Primarch is one of those rare beings who can give people hope and warmth just by being seen in this cold and hopeless universe.

He is like a tiny but hot sun that can make the Gray Knights stop and whisper to him;

A special being who restored the mortal crew members to their original human appearance and blessed him with prayers.

And this opportunity is so precious, limited to the busy official duties of the original body, that even the Gray Knights rarely see their own original body;

Not to mention mortals, just like people in a city who are destined to never meet each other, on this huge space battleship, most people are destined to not be able to enjoy such a life at the last moment of their dedication to the emperor. treatment.

Therefore, whenever Calvin has free time, he will lead his honor guards to walk among the battleships.

He knew how precious the moment of warmth he brought was to the people here.

He also knew that these people's support for him was probably one of the few commendable stories in their short lives.

This is his privilege and his obligation.

This is the third day that the Relentless Jihad has entered a submersible state, and today, Calvin is uncharacteristically not planning to go out for inspection.

The honor guards arrived early in the morning outside his official residence, a living area composed of dozens of cabins.

But the original body himself was different from before. He just sat in his private office, silently thinking about the problems he was facing.

He was dreaming.

Yes, in this seemingly materialistic but idealistic universe, "dreams" are endowed with too many symbolic meanings.

In the eyes of a divine soul like Calvin, who has already understood himself clearly, dreams have no possibility of chance. They can only be a reminder of some kind of danger or even opportunity from fate.

"Holy Blood, call up my surveillance video from 22 minutes ago."

"Yes, data is being retrieved... Please select the playback method."

The servo skull decorated with holy silver and holy candles floats quietly in the bright cabin. The pale skeleton and the silver metal inlaid on it have a gorgeous and terrifying beauty under the light.

Even though Calvin had been in this world for decades and clearly understood the obsession of humans in this universe with pure blood, he still couldn't adapt.

It is unknown which generation of Mechanic-Priest made its final contribution to the Empire, but at this time it will only faithfully fulfill the orders of the original body.

"The holographic projection is right here." The original body tapped his fingers on the long table in front of him.

"Your will." The emotionless voice followed the subtle sound of gears, and the right eye of the servo skull projected a green light screen forward.

Calvin stared closely at himself sleeping in the image, not wanting to miss even a single breath.

One minute……

Two minutes...

A full twenty minutes passed, until after a complete sleep, the original body suddenly opened his eyes at a certain moment and looked around, but there was nothing unusual happening around him.

"Environmental verification monitoring record traceback, time...half an hour ago."

Calvin still refused to give up and wanted to use the instruments on the battleship to see if there were any traces of power other than psychic powers.

But the Servo Skull failed his attempt again. After just a few seconds, the Holy Blood gave a disappointing answer:

"Record tracing completed, no abnormalities."

"Well……"

Are you being suspicious? Calvin was also somewhat unsure.

But after the incident of killing Kotos, he did lose part of his concealment in a sense.

Although limited to the protection of the Emperor, the Blood God did not know exactly who completed the final execution of Kotos.

But you can say that Khorne is reckless, but you cannot say that he is stupid. And some things are destined to leave traces as long as they are done.

Calvin had no doubt that, based on the intelligence network of the gods in the real universe and deduced from the political changes that occurred in the center of the empire during that period, it was only a matter of time before the vague approximate scope of the lock was reached.

What? you do not believe?

Then Calvin can use the countless materials in the Inquisition to tell you that as the Lord of War, intelligence, especially public intelligence, is also a skill that the Blood God believers can master.

The Emperor's protection is not eternal, and he will sooner or later step out of the Emperor's protection and step into the foreground.

At the moment, Calvin cannot confirm whether this sudden dream is a warning sign that he is being targeted by a certain existence.

Darkness... endless darkness.

Red... endless red that fills the vision.

But that is not the blood that symbolizes killing, but the red trembling muscle fibers on the skinless body of an individual that is so big that it breaks through Calvin's cognition of life...

Calvin held his forehead and recalled the dream just now, and his last perspective in that dream was a giant hand that was big enough to make mortals collapse, waving heavily towards him and the toothpick-like warship under his seat.

"My Lord..." The voice outside the room woke the Primarch from his memories, and Nicholas's steady voice brought Calvin back to reality again.

Calvin looked at the clock on the wall. It was 9:15, just as he had predicted, indicating that his concept of time was still accurate.

"Come in," Calvin said, and Nicholas appeared in front of him the next second:

"Sir, this is today's schedule. Please confirm it within a quarter of an hour."

"Well... no problem." Calvin took the data pad handed over by Nicholas, glanced at it briefly, and returned it to Nicholas.

Seeing that the Primarch had no objection, the latter turned around and left to make other preparations.

"Oh, right." Calvin's voice suddenly sounded behind Nicholas.

"Please give your orders." The Imperial Guard stopped.

"Where are we?"

"Furnace Star."

Update. Going to bed.