Warhammer: In the Name of Ashes.

Chapter 65 The Silent March and Mourning

Thought for the day: It is never the darkness that is frightening, but the unknown represented by the darkness.

Leaving Brother Sanchez and the entrance of the Hive City, the Gray Knights team began to follow the route Calvin had chosen before.

Considering that the strike cruiser on the orbit is far more powerful than the auspicious devices on the gray knights, the scanning array is many times stronger, and its scanning results for the life signals of the hive capital.

This information finally made Calvin decide to abandon the main elevator directly leading to the upper floor, and at the same time abandon the passage of the freight elevator, and choose the narrow and cramped maintenance passage on the periphery instead.

The advantage of the first type of backbone elevator is that it can go directly to the upper floors of the hive capital. The second type of freight elevator is similar, and its carrying capacity can also ensure that the entire team of Gray Knights can enter the elevator together.

But their shortcomings are equally obvious. The overly large space, the passage and the core position close to the central pillar of the hive capital more than doubled the risk that the Gray Knights will bear.

Peripheral service lanes may be cramped and have intermittent elevator-to-elevator connections.

But this kind of cramped space itself can guarantee that when the possible huge monster appears, it cannot fully utilize its size advantage and cause crushing damage to the gray knights.

Just this little advantage accumulated in advance is worth Calvin's careful consideration now.

The history of the Hive Capital of Rusthold is not too long, and it has been less than 2 years since the birth of this huge building.

The reason is that after this planet was selected as the capital planet, in order to match its political status, the local nobles under the leadership of the governor at the time reached a costly deal with the foundry world: to build a SATA [-] as the capital of the sector. A new hive to match.

The new hives are finally complete after centuries of construction.With the governor's order, the original population, equipment, and all valuable things in the old city began to move to the new city.

And this kind of migration involving hundreds of millions of people is a huge and hopelessly huge systematic project in any era.

The so-called broken house is worth tens of thousands, and you don’t know how many things you have until you move. This is the truth.It is so painful for a mortal to move, let alone the hundreds of millions of people in a hive city?
The number of tragedies and regrets born during this forced migration cannot be counted, and no one will count.

But the wounds they ultimately left must have left a deep impression on two or three generations of those years.

Therefore, when the new hives are opened, it is not enough to inherit the name of the original hive capital "Horde" and add the prefix "Rast" which means "the last time" by the governor at that time. Surprised.

Of course, the speculation about the significance of the hive capital's name change is just their local and external statements.As for whether it contained other allegories, Calvin was unable to know from the brief information he received.

Under the leadership of Calvin and the Arbiter, the Gray Knights successfully reached the dividing point between the inner living area and the outer industrial area.

According to the information displayed in their hands, they found the portal leading to the hidden mezzanine between the inner and outer layers of the hive from a maintenance cabin.

After accessing the data interface, the door was opened quietly and silently.

The reason for emphasizing quietness is because on the way approaching the central area of ​​the hive city, the gray knights have already seen traces left by a large number of hive city residents, a trace they do not want to see:

When the Gray Knights walked along the way, they always had a question:
What is the population of the entire Hive City, and how many people can really escape when disaster strikes?

If they escape is a small part.So, what about the majority of the hive dwellers who failed to escape?Where did they end up?What is the final result waiting for them?
Now, regarding this question, I am afraid that the Gray Knights already have some answers.

From the beginning of entering the industrial area, along with the lighting equipment carried by the gray knights, in the momentary lighting screen that occasionally sweeps across the ground during the exploration.

Calvin and his comrades had already found some traces that were different from the area near the hive exit: clothes, sets of clothes everywhere.

This kind of situation is not very noticeable when one or two pieces appear sporadically, but when the gray knights approach the residential area and see pieces of clothing piled up on the streets of the residential area, it arouses their highest vigilance.

Calvin sent a small team to conduct a simple search in the residences on both sides of the street. The gray knights who returned shook their heads at Calvin, indicating that they did not find any signs of fighting or struggling in the houses of these civilians.

That is to say, these people were caught up on the way to avoid danger after receiving some advance notice.

The scattered clothes on the ground showed that these enemies were different from the humanoid or larger enemies of purely physical damage that the Gray Knights faced in the past.

Since they can kill these civilians on a large scale without hurting these clothes (note that killing is not taking away, because taking away does not need to deliberately leave clothes), it has already shown the opponent's morphological particularity.

These deduced details are useful to the Gray Knights.

Through the process of piecing together such details, they gradually became clearer about the outline of the unknown enemy they were about to face.Before we really face these enemies, the more information like this, the better...

The mezzanine of the hive capital is usually inaccessible. Unless there is a need for maintenance of the corresponding parts, apart from engineering personnel, only dungeon gangs will use this place for black market transactions.

In the mezzanine, relying on the huge invisible top wall of the inner nest, and on the maintenance stairs that bend repeatedly, the gray knights are still moving forward silently.

This kind of staircase was originally designed based on the size of a mortal, so the width of the staircase can only allow the gray knights to climb up in a single row at most.

Seen from a distance, these normally majestic figures like sculptures are as small as a worm lying on a huge oil drum in contrast to the huge hive city walls.

The surrounding environment was eerily quiet, except for the heavy echo of the power armor knocking on the metal steps, only the breathing sound from the helmets of the gray knights proved that there were still people here.

The silence brought by the silence seemed endless, and the boring footsteps continued.

The gray knights of the whole team didn't have much desire to communicate during the march, they just moved towards their goal like this.Until Calvin in front stopped abruptly.

"What's the matter?" Gavins, who was behind Calvin, asked Calvin after confirming that there was no enemy.

The battle before entering the hive capital was too fierce, and Gavins really didn't have the energy to pay attention to Calvin's state during his charge again and again.

He was worried that through his own negligence, Calvin had been wounded in battle without his knowledge.

"Brother Sanchis, sacrificed." Calvin turned his head and looked in the direction of the hive capital entrance.

He looked at the soldier who was no longer known how far away, the first soldier in his life who called him company commander.

Just now, when Calvin bid farewell to Sanchis, the psychic mark left on his body was invalid.

And in this environment, apart from the fact that Sanchez encountered the enemy again after they left and died in a fierce battle, Calvin couldn't think of any other reason to make his beacon invalid.

Calvin's voice was not loud, but in the quiet surroundings, it was still clear enough for the entire team to hear.

Except for the two champion terminator squads, the Gray Knights did not know the basis for Calvin's conclusion.

But they still chose to trust their commander. In previous battles, he had used enough ability and determination to build the soldiers' trust in him.

All the gray knights turned around at this moment, looking at Brother Sanchis in the distance with their hands on their chests, they collectively chanted in a low voice:
"Si was born in battle, and the silver knife was used to break the prisoner;
Si died in service and took death as a festival.

Take loyalty as life, and the emperor will show mercy;

Taking purity as the law, I am fortunate to serve the king.

When the world may end, our generation will fight endlessly.

There is evidence for all spirits, and it is said to be immortal through the ages. "

Every gray knight knows that his destiny is to die in battle, but not every gray knight is lucky enough to return with his body shrouded in horse leather. ,

The task has not been completed, the emperor's mission is still waiting for them to perform, and the people of the empire are still waiting for their salvation.

They had neither the time nor the opportunity to recover Brother Sanchez's body, so this was the last funeral the Gray Knights could give him.

After a 3-minute silence, the gray knights continued to lift their silent steps. The battle has not stopped, and the mission will continue.

Brother Sanchis who died in battle will not discourage the Gray Knights, because in their view, it is just a step ahead.

One day, they will meet again under the throne.That day may be far away, maybe it is now...

After a long march of nearly 4 hours, Calvin and his party finally saw the sign marking the upper floor of the hive capital that appeared at the end in the dim field of vision above their heads.

Just as the group of people rejoiced at the appearance of this phased target node, the bird divination instruments on the Terminator power armor worn by the champion swordsmen who had been walking in the forefront broke the silence along the way and began to sound alarms .

"Warning! Multiple vital signs detected above, 100 meters away!"

"Warning! Multiple vital signs detected above, 100 meters away!"...

Not only the scanning array on Calvin's body, but with the arrival of the other Terminator, the auspicious instruments on their bodies also seemed to reach the effective range of scanning, and began to join the ranks of Tian Noise.

The whole team stopped and turned their gazes to Calvin, who was at the front of the team and at the top.

Calvin looked there as if he had penetrated the hatch far above his head. After comparing the target location information of the life detection in his hand, he turned his head and said to his comrades:
"Go! Time does not allow us to detour, let us meet these guys."

The gray knights behind them didn't say much after receiving Calvin's order. They all silently sorted out their weapons and ammunition under the leadership of their team leaders. After confirming that the battle status was complete, they followed Calvin's footsteps, Go to the door that is destined not to escape.

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(End of this chapter)