Warhammer: In the Name of Ashes.

Chapter 203 Contact,

Marus No. [-] hive capital, in the residential area adjacent to the upper industrial master control hub.

A faint silver flashed, and Calvin's figure appeared in the house that was no longer inhabited.

After instinctively distributing his perception to the surroundings, Calvin unsurprisingly did not gain any characteristics of life.

From the decorations in the room and the quality of living items, it can be known that their masters belong to the middle class of the hive city.

This part of the population is mainly composed of technocrats and administrative clerks.

Unlike the top nobles who sit on the merits of their ancestors, they are the core productivity of this huge city to maintain its vitality.

Their individual status may be insignificant, but in the eyes of any strategic ruler, these populations are one of the core wealth of the planet.

Even in time of war, their value does not depreciate.

Compared with those local elites who are neither engaged in production nor in the army, they are the most worth spending energy to protect.

As a matter of course, the population here was evacuated early in the invasion.

But the scale and development of the war exceeded the highest expectations of the rulers here.

Except for a small number of lucky ones who were truly qualified to set foot on the escape ship, most of them, like their father and brother in their families, were helplessly thrown into the armed forces of resistance in the ensuing worsening war.

"Ok?"

A noncommittal sound came out of Calvin's nose.

He followed his perception and saw a child in military uniform hundreds of meters away where the shopping mall used to be.

This little guy has obviously been separated from the army for a long time.

Her ill-fitting uniform was rolled and rolled into a bloated ball at the extremities of her limbs.

The laser gun, which was the same height as the body, was strapped to the back, becoming a heavy but necessary burden.

"A human female cub." Such thoughts appeared in Calvin's mind, which made him laugh and cry when he realized it.

Has it been too long since I have seen real human civilians?
Or is it that he no longer considers himself a human being?

He walked in the direction of the kid, and the cub just happened to come out of the mall's main entrance.

It was clearly a rewarding expedition.

It can be seen only from the girl's cheerful steps and the bags full of food in both hands.

But it was another bad trip.

The girl's small face covered with dirt and ashes couldn't see the original appearance, but from the first time she saw Calvin's frightened eyes, it was clear that she recalled many bad memories.

"You..." Calvin raised his hand to greet the little guy who had just reached his knee height.

But before he finished speaking, a bullet from farther away shot at him at a high speed that made him alert and an eerie quietness in comparison.

laugh!
Calvin, who took a step back in place for an instant, looked at the angle from which the bullet was shot, but there was nothing to be gained from the shadows except for subtle fluctuations.

"interesting."

Calvin turned his head to look in the direction just now, and the girl had already run a block away.

That's you.

Anyway, he wanted a local person to understand the situation. Since there were better options to deliver to his door, he didn't have the idea of ​​chasing the child.

Calvin turned on the spot and walked towards the place where he had just been shot.

This is obviously not a premeditated attack, it can be known only from the opponent's style of fleeing away after missing a single blow.

Calvin, who came to the scene of the sniper position, watched the scene carefully:

The other party's details were done very well, except for the faint smell of gunpowder in the air, he didn't even leave a rubbing of a bullet casing for Calvin.

But with this taste, it is actually enough.

Calvin remembered this distinctive sour taste very well.

In addition to the standard storm bombs commonly used by the Astartes, it happens that the primer of the Kraken armor-piercing bombs also uses this substance.

Compared with ordinary gunpowder, its characteristic is that on the basis of high deflagration and high volatility, it has an additional characteristic of high intensity.

This characteristic makes it very costly to passivate it into a stable military product on a large scale, and even the Astartes cannot afford it.

In Calvin's impression, apart from the Kraken-type armor-piercing bullets because of their extra-heavy bullets, only the sniper bullets that are also owned by the Astartes, but not commonly used, will force its characteristics.

Well, the Assassin Court also has this technology, but they obviously prefer alien technology, so it should be used very rarely.

Feeling the faint strangeness within a hundred meters around, Calvin couldn't help but smile at his "good luck":
"Spawn of Corax! The Revilers Chapter? Which of you is in charge, I want to see him!"

As his voice came out, the vague fluctuations in the air froze.

After a suffocating few seconds, several Astartes who were stealthy around him finally showed their figures from different angles.

This is a different power from the Night Lords Calvin encountered before:
In addition to the basic visual deception of light and dark, Calvin also found some techniques similar to the psionic stealth he used himself.

One, two, three, four, five.

Calvin remained calm, counting the iron-gray warriors occupying favorable attack points in the front and rear.

Well, there are two more, no, or three maintaining a sniper stance in the distance.

But with their style of conduct, this should be by no means all, and there are backhands beyond his perception.

The Astartes in front of them didn't move at all, maintaining a posture of violent attacks at any time.

The power claws in their hands were obviously narrower and longer than the standard ones. The sharp black blades of the claws reminded Calvin of his own stuff, and at the same time, he recognized their model—the Crow's Claw.

A particularly tall figure stepped out from the middle of them and stood at a distance of 30 meters from Calvin.

These former elites of the Raven Guard are obviously the suppression troops who fumbled along the aftermath of his psychic power.

Knowing that Calvin has psionic qualities, they kept a cautious distance from him.

"Who are you?"

The Swearer's squad commander, Sergeant Shar, asked him.

Following his questioning, those silent fighters are silently fine-tuning the position of the center of gravity.

An even more dangerous intuition stimulated Calvin's nerves, and he could even smell from the wind that the sniper in the distance had put his finger in front of the trigger.

"Inquisition, Order of the Hammer, High-ranking Gray Knight, Calvin."

Facing a group of Astartes warriors and the weapons in their hands, he calmly said to the sergeant...
-
"So, which satellite did you come from?"

On the track leading to the industrial area of ​​the outer city on the middle level of the hive capital, Shar, who was still leading the team, asked Calvin who was beside him.

"And you also met our brother?"

he continued.The road ahead became very dark, and behind him, the former Raven Guards were silently merging with the shadows.

"Yes." Calvin answered in the affirmative.

After listening to Calvin's words, Shar was silent for a while, and then said:

"That was a member of our fifth team, and it was also the first batch of combat operations to save the planetary defense system. Unfortunately, it failed."

"You did your best."

Calvin gave a considerable degree of affirmation.He ignored the strangeness that only he and Shar were left beside him, and continued the topic just now.

"So, how is Walder doing now? Is he alright?" Char asked seemingly casually.

"It's Valk, he's fine now." Calvin replied, and "kindly" corrected the Master Chief's mistake.

The conversation between the two suddenly stopped, and Calvin looked back firmly to Shar's scrutinizing gaze.

"Ha! I misremembered! Valk, although we belong to the same company, we rarely cooperate with each other."

Shar's mouth was sloppy, and his subordinates were not idle.

Following his gesture, the Astartes who had previously occupied the surprise position quietly under the cover of shadows dispersed again.

If it weren't for Calvin's spiritual power and the induction in his genes, he wouldn't be able to detect the details in between.

He laughed it off and didn't pursue it.

Anyone who has been fighting fiercely on a planet for ten years with the Night Lord who is good at raids and Arris who is good at conspiracy, if he can believe him just because of Calvin's code words from the Inquisition Court, he will be damned .

The doubts and temptations of these scolding fighters have long been within his expectations. Apart from proving the sanity of these fighters, the situation before him is really not an extreme temptation.

"Then, why are you here?" Shar obviously relaxed after the test, but he still pointed out their bottom line:

"Let me tell you first, our current strength is very weak, and we don't have any extra troops to cooperate with the court's edict. No matter what your status is, we will give priority to carrying out our tasks."

"Understandable." Calvin nodded in agreement, and added:

"I arrived here due to an accidental teleportation. I don't have an order at the moment, but I just want to join your battle sequence."

"No problem, but what's the use of you alone?" Shar asked.

As if he was afraid that Calvin would not understand, he selectively narrated the information he knew to Calvin as an explanation to him:
"Our combat mode is special, I don't think you can cooperate with us.

And we have a mission on this trip, and we have no ability to send you back to the company headquarters, so you may have to decide on your own whether to stay or not, sorry. "

"no no no"

Calvin denied the first words on the Shar, explaining earnestly to the veteran Astartes:
"As you can see, every emperor's gold coin has its own use, and I will not interfere with your battle rhythm. But if necessary, I can also deal with enemies that you are not good at facing."

　One more, please vote.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)