Chapter 5: The Empire's Frontier: The First Question

Imperial Calendar: 997.M41

Cole stood in front of the holographic projector, his blue eyes staring at the dots on the holographic screen, his expression thoughtful, Bell also stood aside, the tall Son of Ultramar was also thinking, thinking about the same problem.

The beacon kept flashing on the holographic projection in front of them, and soon, new thinkers joined them.

Vito led the remaining three Astartes warriors out of the arcade of the bridge and came directly to the holographic projection. The tall giants nodded to each other and stood around like a high wall.

Inquisitor Vito stood opposite Cole, also looking at a red dot on the large star map, a small red dot that flashed an unsettling light.

"Tell me, what's the situation?" Vito asked, Cole cleared his throat, as if to speak louder so that everyone present could hear clearly.

"We have been sailing in the warp for more than a month. According to the divination instruments of the navigator and the Mechanicus, we have roughly approached the edge of the Victoria Galaxy and are approaching the local Mandeville Point. And the Emperor blesses us, our time and the real universe have not been distorted."

"Isn't this all good?" Ragnar said, pointing his armored finger at the display, "If the All-Knowing Father is willing, we will soon be able to leave this cursed land."

"Unfortunately, Ragnar, it's not, or not all good." Cole said, and a space station suspended in the sea of ​​stars appeared in front of everyone. It was a deep space exploration station that was extremely common in the Empire, usually responsible for the edge warning and observation tasks of a galaxy and star region.

Olaf looked at the space station and nodded thoughtfully, "You mean, there is trouble on this space station?" "Yes, old wolf, you are as wise as ever."

Kol looked at the space station and raised a hand, "The Astropath received a message. As you all know, the communication of the Astropath is usually all kinds of riddles, metaphors and the like, just as annoying as the damn Eldar."

"That's right, every time I hear them talking, I want to chop these riddlers with an axe." Ragnar said with a smile, "Wouldn't it be better to just speak human language? Always tell riddles. "

"That's an ancient custom, Ragnar, I thought you Fenrisians also valued customs." Lancelot said, still holding the winged helmet under his armpit, while Ragnar snorted disdainfully, "Our customs are simple and practical. Unfortunately, I don't understand such complex and profound etiquette as the noble knights."

Lancelot smiled silently, and Vito was relieved that the Caliban Knight was not going to quarrel with the wolf cub now. Obviously, they had more important things to do.

Vito nodded slightly to Cole, who looked at the two tall warriors, "Then you need to know that this time even our star talker lady didn't understand what the other side said, not a word. "

The playful atmosphere suddenly became cold, and the four tall giants looked at Cole together, and the latter nodded affirmatively.

"This is not good news. Ms. Oria is an excellent astropath. She once told me that she was trained on Terra. If she can't understand astropathic language, it means that the situation is not simple." Olaf said, and then looked at the star map, "Have you ruled out the cause of the subspace interference?"

"It has been ruled out. The power of the subspace has not affected the astropathic language. On the contrary, the astropathic language has been greatly enhanced. Ms. Oria believes that it was the other party's astropath who burned all his psychic energy at the cost of his life."

Vito held his chin and pondered for a long time before speaking, "What is the content of the astropathic language?" Cole shook his head, "It's evasive and confusing, but there is only one thing that is clear, fear, pure fear and confusion."

Vito took a long breath, he raised his hand to open the detection station, switched the star map back to the star zone level, and repeatedly slid the coordinates and report information on it.

Bell stood behind him, looking at the star map with him, then frowned, "No Chaos activity has been detected nearby, Inquisitor, I don't think it was caused by Chaos traitors."

"It is also possible that our star map is out of date. After all, the last time we updated the situation of the Ultramar sector was a year ago." Cole concluded, with his hands behind his back, he looked at the dots of light, and all the information displayed here had already been stored in his mind.

"It is certain that the space station was attacked, but it may be a small-scale Chaos raider, or other alien pirates, or even human pirates, which is not uncommon."

"But generally speaking, there will be one or two destroyers deployed near the space station, and its own firepower is also designed to resist small-scale attacks. If the space station is destroyed, I think the scale is definitely not one or two cold guns and cold cannons."

Vito nodded slightly, stopped checking, and switched the coordinates back to the Victoria galaxy. He clicked on the main star of Victoria, which was a hive world. The data on the side showed the data on it, but most of them were unremarkable, no different from most of the hive worlds in the empire.

"Is there any news from the main star of Victoria?" "No, our ships have not received the news from the main star. Do you think they may have known it?" "It is very likely. After all, we have received it. We are still in the subspace. The main star should also know it."

Cole also nodded affirmatively, turned his head and walked to the bridge to look down, "Navigator, how far are we from Victoria's Mandeville Point?"

"Six seconds away, sir, we are about to enter the Mandeville Point range." The navigator responded, he was shielded by the mechanical equipment, his eyes were covered and stared at the instrument interface in front of him, staring at the parameters on it with the invisible psychic eye.

Cole opened the communication interface and quickly selected the receiving point. "Astropath, send a message to Victoria Prime to inform them to prevent the star zone fleet from treating us as enemies."

"No, Ms. Oriya, wait a minute." Vito suddenly came over and stopped Cole from turning off the communicator. The latter frowned slightly at Vito. He looked at the eyes of the Inquisitor and suddenly understood something, "Ms. Oriya, don't send the message." "Understood, Captain."

Cole turned off the communicator and looked at Vito who walked back to the holocron. "Do you suspect there are traitors on the main star?"

"It is possible. We have been to this kind of hive world many times. Everyone knows what is the most on it." Vito said, and Lancelot laughed mockingly, "Greedy governors, rebels who are dissatisfied with the empire, and God knows how many mutants, chaos cultists, etc."

"Ah, and occasionally there are gene stealers." Ragnar added, and both laughed, as if it was an unimportant joke.

"That's right, you two. If this is the result of the traitors in the hive colluding with the enemy of the empire in the void, then we need to figure out who the enemy is first."

"Ah! I hate this step the most. Can't we just fight once?" Ragnar complained, crossing his arms in annoyance, while the old wolf Olaf pressed his brother's shoulders, "Patience, brother, you will have a chance."

"Yes, the old wolf is right. Before that, please be patient and don't chop people before I finish asking questions." Vito said, with one hand behind his back and looking sideways at Cole, "Jump into the galaxy and then drive to the space station. Let's go and take a look first. Before that, keep silent and don't let the locals find us."

Cole nodded slightly, turned his head and began to deploy orders immediately. Amid the conversations of the naval crew, Vito raised his arm and woke up the communicator on his wrist.

"Octopus, is our bus ready?" "The Thunderhawk can go, Inquisitor."

Vito looked at the four Astartes, they all raised their weapons in tacit understanding, pulled the bolt to load the gun, and Vito also took out his own bolt pistol and opened the safety.

"Let's go for a ride."

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