Warhammer: In the Name of Ashes

"Sidney is dead," the Chaos Wizard Mendez said in his hoarse, dirty voice.

On the plains hundreds of kilometers away from the Arenal Valley, next to an abandoned hive is the fortress and camp of the Skulltaker warband on this planet.

The former auxiliary buildings next to the hive are full of broken walls left over from the war. Occasionally, a few rooms that were saved from destruction because of their excellent construction quality or good location became the transactions of interstellar pirates here. location and the headquarters of the Chaos warband.

The main force of the Skull Snatchers is not here.

At this time, they were still roaming the entire universe on their ship, the Styx-class heavy cruiser "Bloody Dawn", led by Chaos Lord Jufo.

Staying here is a small detachment led by the warband's nominal number three: the Chaos Wizard Mendez.

They have their own mission here - to run this gathering place for interstellar pirates, while firmly guarding the interstellar channel leading to the asteroid belt behind the planet.

This is one of the many escape routes that the cunning Chaos Lord has reserved for himself, and it is also a key source of intelligence for the "Bloody Dawn" heavy cruiser to repeatedly escape from the empire's encirclement and suppression.

At this time, it was already late at night and the hall was extremely quiet.

The dry voice of the wizard Mendez, who suddenly woke up from meditation, sounded harsh in the empty hall.

The leader of his guard, Melkor, the skull champion who believed in Khorne and was also the leader of a team of Chaos Terminators, responded to his Lord's call immediately:

"That mortal psyker? Don't you like him very much? Even though he has been unwilling to dedicate his soul to you."

Mendez's eyes did not open. He was savoring in his soul the wail of Sidney's soul as it finally shattered.

"That's not important. What's important is that he died."

Melkor did not accept this explanation.

As a champion of Khorne, he has no bad habit of using his precious power to think unnecessarily.

Melkor simply answered frankly:

"Is it weird? People are dying every moment on this planet. Fights, murders, duels, murders... and no matter what method, these killings themselves are the best gifts to please the Skull Master."

Mendes was not angered by Melkor's sophistry, or in other words, the conversation with his top thug, who was too lazy to think, was one of his few pastimes.

He maintained his dry voice and continued:

"No, there are thousands of ways to die, and the mark I left in his soul told me that his soul was wiped out the moment he came into contact with the other person."

"Is this so?" Melkor finally understood what his Lord meant:

"Ah! We have a guest, right? Who else on this planet can do this except you? I'm going to call all the brothers now. I think we have something to do!"

Melkor stood up excitedly, and the servo in the red cavalry Terminator's power armor made a heavy roar.

He couldn't wait to walk out, and behind him came a rare warning from Mendes:

"Wake up Mog as well and reset his memory. Gather all ground troops and wait for me at the door."

After receiving the warning, Melkor finally became serious. He turned around and looked at the figure who was still sitting cross-legged under the icon of the Skull Lord:

"Devil Engine? Are you sure we can use it? You know, it kills as many of us as its enemies every time it wakes up."

"Of course, you have to understand the difference between actively annihilating a soul and passively annihilating it. This guy who sneaked in is more dangerous than you think."

——

"This is it?"

Calvin, who was deep in the ruins in the middle of the river valley, looked at the ancient stone cabinet in front of him and took out an unknown mechanical creation and asked Constantine.

"Yes. I think we can return." Constantine's eyes were fixed on the reliquary containing the mechanical fragments, and he didn't want to leave for a moment.

"Is this the relic you are looking for?"

"No, this is just a fragment that carries an ancient message. We have to go back, purify and analyze it, and only then can we know whether the message in it is the one we have been looking for."

Perhaps knowing what the Gray Knights were thinking, Constantine patiently explained to them.

"No matter what, thank you for your help along the way. The goal of this mission has been completed halfway. As long as we can return safely, there will be no surprises in what we promised you."

This is what Calvin and his comrades want to hear most.

"Then notify everyone to return the same way..."

Before Calvin could finish speaking, the screen on his left arm and the communication device next to his ear simultaneously sent out contact signals representing urgent matters.

The initiator of the contact signal was the Inquisition's black ship "The Noble and the Nasty" that was supposed to be on standby in orbit.

"Arbitrator Calvin! I am Matthew!"

"I'm Calvin, what's going on?"

"Just now, the astropath on my ship told me that there are a huge number of unknown large objects coming from the nearby subspace! Within a few hours, they will break through the constraints of the Manzeville Point and appear in the orbit of this planet. superior!"

Matthew's voice was extremely dry due to impatience and nervousness, and Calvin could already imagine how anxious he was on the track.

But he still insisted on telling Calvin the conjecture he was least willing to say:

"I guess the exploration fleet from Grea has arrived!"

"How could it be so fast? It was not expected to be within a year?" Calvin also realized the seriousness of the situation.

"I don't know. Judging from the last exploration record they showed up, there should be at least three more exploration locations among us. I think they may know something."

Ma Wei's voice was also full of doubts and confusion, but more of it was the fear of being discovered.

He could not imagine the purpose behind the behavior of an entire large exploration fleet from Miracle Crown coming straight from three distant sectors.

"We have got the things and can return within an hour at most." Calvin calmly comforted the panicked Mavey.

"Your throne! That couldn't be better! I will open the teleportation array right now. Please return as soon as possible!"

"Roger!" Calvin cut off the communication signal, then picked up the mechanical priest beside him and the relic box in his arms, and strode out.

"Be gentle! In the name of the God of All Machines, I order you to be gentle! What happened! Put me down! I can walk on my own!" Constantine, who didn't know why, loudly condemned Calvin's rudeness.

Calvin had no time to pay attention to the protests and questions from the mechanical priest under his arm. As he walked, he issued the latest instructions to the entire team through the communicator.

"Everyone is here, return to the surface as quickly as possible! At the same time, order the remaining team on the surface to conduct signal docking and adjustment with the transmission array in orbit! This is not our strike cruiser, we must do these tasks in advance."

Under Calvin's order, the entire team of Gray Knights adjusted the energy output of their power armor to the maximum standard, and then advanced towards the surface with their huge strides that seemed to be slow but actually fast.

It was only then that Calvin had time to answer Mechanic Priest's questions.

As he strode forward, he explained succinctly to the priest under his arm: "The chicken stealing has been completed, and it's time for us to leave. And the master you least want to see seems to have received some reminder, and has already been stolen from the three sections. People from outside are coming here. According to Matthew, they may arrive in an hour at the earliest.”

As Calvin finished speaking, Constantine, who was still struggling, immediately stopped struggling. Obviously, under the requirement of running speed based on the premise of escaping for one's life, he must also admit the eternal truth that those with height and long legs must run fast.

The Gray Knights finally successfully evacuated from the ground to orbit at 4:50 a.m.

The "Noble and Dirty" did not stay for another minute or a second. After receiving the return of the Gray Knights, it immediately started its escape route.

Its main engine, which had already been fully heated up, ejected a huge wake following Ma Wei's order, leading the uninvited guests on the ship to quickly escape from this place of right and wrong before the owner arrived.

After the black ship broke away from the orbit, it did not head towards Manzeville Point, where it was clear that there was a possibility of encountering danger.

On the contrary, under the guidance of an experienced captain, they avoided the possibility of a head-on encounter with the exploration fleet and turned their heads towards the asteroid belt behind the planet.

In the eyes of this old captain with 300 years of service experience, the top priority is to ensure that he is away from all possibilities of observation.

This choice proved to be extremely correct and prophetic 30 minutes later.

When the Noble and Dirty will hide its body at the edge of the asteroid belt, Calvin and Constantine, who have already arrived at the bridge, can still barely see the planet through the porthole of the black ship.

The Manzeville Point on the outside of the planet's orbit was suddenly torn apart by the power of subspace, and what was spit out was an entire super fleet of more than thirty ships.

How huge is the scale and quality of this fleet, with more than five battleships alone!

As for the smaller heavy cruisers and cruisers, as well as the attached heavy landing barges, they are even more row upon row, connected in the bow and midships.

Constantine even used the excellent vision of his mechanical eyes to see some heavy landing ships marked with the Titan Legion logo!

This fleet clearly had a clear goal and was filled with some kind of anger about being stolen. They had just finished breaking away from the state of subspace navigation, and they couldn't wait to launch a global announcement on the public frequency to the entire planet.

While declaring the legal rights and interests of the Grea Forge World it represents to this planet, the fleet ordered all armed forces on the surface of the planet to give up resistance, otherwise they would be dealt a devastating blow without hesitation.

And those special heavy-duty landing barges discovered by the sharp-eyed Constantine were escorted by a group of battleships, unscrupulously and with clear goals, they pressed straight to the surface of the atmosphere, towards the Arena Valley where Calvin and others were before. Wave after wave of super-large anti-gravity landing modules were released.

At this time, in the river valley on the surface, headed by Mendez and Melkor, there were a group of people from the Skulltaker warband who had just prepared for war from a hundred kilometers away and arrived at full speed on an assault boat.

They stared dumbfounded at the countless large unknown objects falling from the sky - these were only seen during the Great Crusade, representing the rain of fire and steel that would appear when the Titan Legion stormed the ground.

Their only thought was: "Xin Liezhi's ass! Isn't it just a matter of stealing something? What's that about you?"

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