Warhammer: In the Name of Ashes.

Imperial calendar 795.758.M39, on the battleship Indefatigable Crusade, which has entered deep subspace submersion.

Only a few crew members were active in the originally busy lower area, while the larger space in the upper area was even more empty against the backdrop of the total number of gray knights who were about to exceed a hundred.

The vast majority of gray knights are mainly active in the space of the upper area, training, dormancy, retraining, and dormancy are the main content of their lives;

Occasionally, gray knights on patrol will appear in the functional compartments of the battleship's middle deck, but the crew will not talk to them when they encounter them.

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

The latter has gone through layers of screening by the court, and at the moment of boarding the ship, it has no name but a number.

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

The gray knights' long lifespan and high-risk tasks make their life cycle full of Schrödinger's uncertainty;
The mortal crew members are even more vulnerable. In the face of the special enemy of the subspace, no one knows whether they will become the ones destined to be sacrificed in the next second.

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

So they would meet each other in silence, salute each other in silence, pass each other in silence, and then leave without looking back under the eternal and compassionate gaze of the Emperor.

But Calvin was an exception.

Primarchs are rare, able to give people hope and warmth just because they are seen in this cold and hopeless universe.

He is like a small but hot sun, to whom the Gray Knights stop and whisper;

The special existence that restores the mortal crew to their original human faces, and blesses him in a voice of prayer.

And this kind of opportunity is so precious, limited to the busy official duties of the Primarch himself, even the Gray Knights rarely see their own Primarch;
Not to mention mortals, just like people in a city who are destined never to meet each other, on this huge space battleship, most people are destined to not be able to enjoy such a privilege at the last moment of their lives for the emperor. treatment.

So whenever Calvin was free, he would walk among the battleships with his honor guards.

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 prerogative and his duty.

This is the third day that the Unremitting Jihad has entered the submerged state, but Calvin today is uncharacteristically not planning to go out for inspection.

The honor guards arrived early in the morning outside the door of his official residence, a residential area consisting of dozens of cabins.

But the Primarch himself was different from the past, just sitting in his private office, silently thinking about the problems he was facing right now.

He is dreaming.

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

In the eyes of a divine soul like Calvin, who has already cleared himself, dreams do not have the possibility of chance, but are only a reminder of a certain danger or even an opportunity from fate.

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

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

The servo skull decorated with holy silver and holy candles floats quietly in the bright cabin. The pale bones and the silver metal inlaid on them have a gorgeous and terrifying beauty under the illumination of the lights.

Even Calvin, who has been in this world for decades and clearly understands human beings' obsession with pure blood in this universe, still can't adapt.

I don't know which generation of mechanical priests made their last dedication to the empire, but at this time it will only faithfully fulfill the orders of the original body.

"Holographic projection, right here." The Primarch tapped his fingers on the long table in front of him.

"Your will." After the slight sound of gears in the emotionless voice, the right eye of the servo skull projected a green light curtain forward.

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

1 minutes……

2 minutes……

A full twenty or ten minutes passed, until after a complete sleep, the Primarch suddenly opened his eyes and looked around at a certain moment, and there was no abnormal situation around him.

"Environmental verification monitoring records backtracking, time... half an hour ago."

Calvin still didn't give up, and wanted to check the gauges on the battleship to see if there were traces of power other than psionic power.

But the servo skull failed his attempt again, and after only a few seconds, Holy Blood gave a disappointing answer:
"The records have been traced, and there is no abnormality."

"Well……"

Is it because you are suspicious?Calvin was also somewhat uncertain.

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

Although limited to the protection of the Emperor, the Blood God does not know exactly who carried out the final execution of Kortos.

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 has no doubts, based on the intelligence network of the gods in the real universe, deduced from the political changes that occurred in the center of the empire during that time, it is only a matter of time before the vague lock-in scope.

What?you do not believe?

Na Calvin can use countless materials in the trial court to tell you that, as the master of war, intelligence, especially public intelligence, is also a skill that followers of the blood god can master.

The Emperor's protection is not eternal, and sooner or later he will come to the fore from the Emperor's protection.

But right now, Calvin couldn't confirm whether this sudden dream was a warning sign that he was being targeted by an existence.

Darkness...endless darkness.

Red... the endless red that fills the field of vision.

But that is not the blood that symbolizes killing, but some kind of individual that is so big that it breaks through Calvin's cognition of life. On the body without skin, there are bright red muscle fibers that are trembling...

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 break a mortal, slamming down on him and the toothpick-like battleship under him. .

"My lord..." The voice outside the room awakened the Primarch from his memories, and Nicholas' calm voice brought Calvin back to reality again.

Calvin looked at the clock on the wall. It was 15:[-], which was the same as his prediction, indicating that his concept of time was still accurate.

"Please come in." Calvin said, and Nicholas also appeared in front of him in the next second:

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

"Hmm...no problem." Calvin took the data pad that Nicholas handed over, and returned it to Nicholas after a slight glance.

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

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

"Please order." The imperial guard stopped.

"Where have we been?"

"The Furnace Star."

renew.I'm going to bed.