Chapter 69 The Veteran's Hesitation

On SATA No. 1, the atmosphere was still covered with dark clouds, and the endless rain was still pouring down.

From a distance, the defensive force field above the hive city had completely failed, and the rain was pouring down recklessly towards the towering Gothic buildings below through the original protective force field.

Between the spires on the upper floors of the hive city, the originally bustling scene was replaced by a dead silence, and even the signal lights on the spires were not lit.

The top floor of the entire hive city was mostly composed of Gothic church-style buildings. In the initial version, the corridors and sky bridges dotted on it were the channels for communication between them.

But the technology of the empire was advancing, and these corridors and sky bridges were slowly becoming purely decorative buildings with the development of the empire's technology. The real transportation function had long been replaced by the highly mechanized elevators in the sky and the fast rail transportation in the internal structure of the building.

It is these machines hidden under the ancient and gorgeous exterior of the building that truly support the internal operating functions of this building. The relationship between them is like the ancient political structure of the empire today and the various instruments from the Mechanicus, which are hidden in a towering building called the empire.

But now, this hive city has lost the core wealth that really drives the operation of the hive city under the intervention of perhaps natural disasters or man-made disasters.

What followed was the paralysis of the entire hive city and the short-term return to the living conditions of the almost tribal era.

The mechanical transportation system no longer works after losing the energy supply, making this huge building lose its gorgeous appearance and truly reveal its primitive and backward side.

The corridors and skybridges are far from meeting the real daily operation needs of the hive city. The transmission of complicated documents between various departments also relies more on the mechanical servants to travel between various towers on these transportation tools.

The functions of the Imperial Governor's Office were the first to be declared out of control in the face of such a disaster, and at the same time, the control and protection of the billions of people in the entire hive city were also lost.

Later on, the upper-class residents who lost their protection and guidance were fine, as they at least had basic material security; while the lower-class and lower-class civilians who lost the basic material supply of life, after losing even the last order, it was not surprising that they would encounter any disaster.

Calvin and his party walked on the skybridge between the top spires of the hive city in this context. The high-altitude storms and rainstorms kept attacking them without any protection, but they had no better choice.

The flight transport vehicles originally configured in the atmosphere of the hive city had already been paralyzed due to the loss of power supply, and the underground rail transit hub could only allow the Astartes who came by detour to walk.

The Grey Knights had no better way. Going directly from the narrow skybridge in the storm after losing the protection of the force field was already the most reliable option among the existing plans.

If they gave up here and chose the track in the building below, they might have to go several times longer at most. They could not accept the unexpected battles that might be encountered when marching from the inside of the building, and then delay the completion of the mission.

The rainstorm was still pouring, and the Grey Knights were walking silently on the narrow overpass that could only accommodate one person, braving the heavy rain and strong wind.

The magnetic boots system under their feet had already been activated, and every step forward by the Grey Knights was firmly grasped by the activated magnetic system.

When these people passed through the layers of high towers in the peripheral auxiliary buildings and came to the real top-level building belt, the scene in front of them surprised and disgusted them.

Yes, the monsters encountered in the previous nest mezzanine appeared again.

At this time, they were squatting in the center of the guards located at the top of the layers of towers, surrounding the tallest and thickest tower, tightly surrounding it.

These countless tens of meters high tentacles tightly wrapped the tower from all directions, leaving no space.

Unlike the tentacles that were only seen in the room before, which were the size of a person, what appeared in everyone's eyes now might be its full picture, or part of the full picture.

These creatures, which have both plant roots and animal tentacles, are now lingering at the end of Calvin and his companions' vision. The eye-like organs on their bodies that the Grey Knights had observed before are also growing larger as their bodies grow.

The huge eyeballs are randomly turning toward the outer periphery of the spire. The purple pupils and green eyeballs make them look extremely blasphemous, and the force field similar to the psychic halo on them makes mortals fall into confusion when they see them for the first time.

The branches on their tentacles are all exploring inward, as if there are some treasures that they care about, or some enemies that make them search angrily.

They are wrapped so tightly that from Calvin's perspective, there is no wall on the entire tower except the spire that is missed.

Such an evil and terrifying scene did not scare the Grey Knights, or it can be said that the Grey Knights were born for this.

After being reorganized and strengthened by the Blood of the Emperor, their powerful will and psychic energy were born to kill and expel these evil spirits from the Warp.

So when they saw such a scene, the Grey Knights were not shaken by fear and confusion. On the contrary, this was not the first time they had seen such a scene in their service career, and it would never be the last time.

Such a bizarre and evil thing would only make them hold their weapons tightly and be more eager to kill and expel it.

"Is it there?" Tariq asked in his quick thinking. The other Terminators also focused their eyes on Calvin, waiting for his reply.

Calvin also quickly gave a positive answer: "Yes, it is there. However, if we want to go there, we may have to go a long way."

He gestured with his hand to show the distance between them. It was more than three kilometers away, and there was no directly connected sky bridge or corridor in the middle.

It seemed that if they wanted to go there, they had to follow the will of the designer of this nest city and pass through the palace gates and passages under the high towers that were originally guarded by the nest city law enforcers.

"Let's go, don't let them wait too long..." Calvin patted Tariq in front of him, so that the latter would no longer fall into the frenzy of eagerness to fight.

Calvin walked in front, leading the Grey Knights to the bottom of the tower. The Grey Knights behind him stared at the tentacles in the distance when they passed Calvin's position.

The target was close at hand but far away, so the Grey Knights could not fight. They could only remember the appearance of the evil demons in front of them when they left, so that they could kill and destroy them more completely in the later battle.

The Grey Knights strode down along the spiral staircase in the tower. They had no time or heart to look at the paintings or sculptures on the walls of the tower about the historical changes of the hive city.

The marble-like steps under their feet looked very expensive, but they were meaningless except that the strength ensured that the Grey Knights could stride forward more confidently.

The bottom of the tower was soon reached. Looking through the end of the main road not far away, the palace gate of the governor of the hive city was right in front of them.

They did not hesitate and walked directly towards the gate that originally symbolized the highest power on this planet.

The heavy and gorgeous door was cast from a copper alloy full of toughness. Such a material and structure made Calvin and others give up direct violent destruction.

After all, it was too wasteful to easily sacrifice a precious hot melt grenade in their hands for such an obstacle.

The orbit was already doing its best to support them. Various difficulties in the mission were still common. For example, it was completely natural that there was no supply before the mission was completed.

Tariq took the lead in plugging the data interface on his Terminator Power Armor into the device next to the door.

In their impression, no governor would be so extravagant as to install a set of wetware from the Mechanicus on such equipment to place the possible machine soul.

So the machine soul on the Terminator Power Armor could most likely solve the problem of access rights on the door, and the facts did not disappoint them.

In other words, they found a thing here that far exceeded their expected return.

A piece of data, to be precise, a data record encrypted by the Imperial Astra Militarum was unexpectedly placed in a place that did not belong to any core area.

To prevent the possible existence of electronic demons or viruses, Calvin and his companions carefully uploaded it intact to the strike cruiser in orbit, and then waited for the response from above while marching.

The result came quickly.

In less than half an hour, it was probably enough time for a simple pure prayer ceremony before opening the data above the orbit.

The response from the strike cruiser above the orbit had been transmitted to the data terminal held by Calvin.

The reply from above the orbit was also strange. Captain Tibers said to Calvin in a complicated tone in the communication channel:

"The file you uploaded is very valuable. What you are facing is the pollution and conspiracy from the evil god Nurgle that we suspected before! Grand Master Aidan's concerns about this place now seem to be necessary! You will indeed face the plague and corruption from Nurgle! According to the information you provided, we have at least figured out some possible reasons for the initial state of SATA No. 1, which will be very helpful for your subsequent handling. In addition, you'd better take some time to look at the contents of the file... As for the authenticity or impact of these contents, you may need to evaluate them yourself. But remember, no matter what, the enemy is the enemy, and he can't come back."

Calvin did not stop moving forward while communicating. He was in the corridor outside the palace at this time. Looking up, he could already vaguely see the tentacles on the top floor of the palace.

There was nothing unusual in Calvin's ears about the first half of Captain Tibers' words, and his analysis of the enemy he was about to face also corresponded to the direct witness evidence of the Grey Knights on the tower.

He also delegated the information authority to the voice system of the entire team while listening, so that his comrades around him could understand the speculation results about the ground above the orbit at the first time.

But the second half of Captain Tibers' words made him stop abruptly.

After Tibers ended the call, he clicked on the light curtain on his left arm. Above the light curtain, the decrypted file just transmitted by the strike cruiser was quietly suspended there.

Calvin thought about what Tabers said and decided to accept the advice from a veteran. He took out precious time from the pre-war march and preparation to see what kind of file it was that would make a veteran like Tabers so emotional.

After he clicked the cursor on the file, he switched it to voice mode and played it on his communicator, then signaled to the people around him to keep going.

He continued to walk in the quiet and heavy footsteps of the power armor until the voice in the document attracted him little by little...

"The cancer of immortality and the sore of eternity. This is what I want to talk about. I hope that if anyone in the outside world hears this word, they will not listen any further. You must find any department of the Imperial Court of Inquisition as soon as possible, or other departments, and hand this document to someone who is qualified to receive it. I made a total of 40 copies of this document, 30 of which have been confirmed to be destroyed by unknown forces during the delivery to orbit, and I have hidden the other 10 copies in various key places throughout the palace. I hope that the relevant personnel who come to deal with them later can get them. My wakefulness time is getting shorter and shorter. I hope these things can help you. I also hope that if you can see me... please give me a relief. God Emperor, I am the 255th Governor of the SATA Section and SATA Galaxy appointed by the Ministry of the Interior of the Holy Human Empire, Hailan."