Chapter 96 Calvin the Scapegoat

"Praise to the Almighty Ohm Messiah! Ah...praise to the Holy Emperor!"

Sensing Calvin's intention to relent, Father Constantine was in a good mood and couldn't help but start praising the almighty God of all opportunities.

However, just halfway through the compliment he blurted out, Constantine realized that the object of his praise might be a bit inappropriate in the eyes of the other party.

So there was a temporary half-sentence added later...

After saying the prayer, he did not forget to look at the reactions of the Gray Knights. Unfortunately, their expressions did not change much from beginning to end.

Calvin is also very tired:

"We do the work, so what's the use of thanking you, the God of All Machines? Can your God of All Machines help you complete this task? How many divisions does the God of All Machines have? Wait, it seems like he really does. Forget it, just pretend I didn’t say it…”

After the inner drama ended, Calvin's face remained calm, maintaining the majesty of the Gray Knight, looking at the somewhat uneasy Mechanic Priest in front of him and said:

"Tell me about the specific mission situation, as detailed as possible. I don't want you to hide anything. This will cause a devastating blow to the already fragile trust foundation between us. Do you understand what I mean?"

"Your will, my lord." Constantine responded sternly, indicating that he understood the threat hidden behind Calvin's words.

He understood that what he said next would be carefully verified by the other party in the subsequent battles. If there was any difference from what Calvin saw later, the other party would probably walk away and permanently put them on the blacklist of the Holy Hammer Order. superior.

This kind of influence is actually not much of a threat to him and the factions behind him.

But considering the retaliation they would face from the entire Holy Hammer Order afterwards, that was something they were not willing to bear.

After all, there is only one casting director on Mars.

But under him alone, there are more than a dozen deputy foundry supervisors who are eager to take this position.

Among so many candidates, the big boss of his own faction is just an inconspicuous one.

If he could easily become enemies with a force like the Holy Hammer Order, which had influence throughout the entire empire, then the other party might not be able to do it if he wanted to help him because of the huge cost, but if he wanted to harm him on the other hand, it would be easy to do it.

It is better not to offend this kind of privileged unit with strong capabilities and special location.

Constantine led Calvin and others to an office on the bridge, which was the private space of Inquisitor Mavey.

In this room, Mawei and Constantine told Calvin and others all the information they knew.

"STC?"

Calvin looked at Constantine in front of him and asked again with confirmation.

"Yes, a precious heritage of humanity from the Golden Age. A fragment of a standard construction template once appeared here. We found some clues in history, and these clues led us here."

"so?"

"A group of interstellar pirates have taken over this planet and the asteroid field near it. And there is evidence that there are traces of the activities of some Chaos warbands here."

"Chaos warband?" At this point, Calvin no longer felt sleepy.

These traitors to the empire are also within the scope of the Gray Knights' business, and the tasks related to this can also give this operation more legitimacy in Calvin's heart.

"Yes, a group of betrayers serving the Lord of War were spotted by a passing charter captain during a certain pirate raid."

Constantine spoke slowly and slowly as he told the details as he knew them. He continued to Calvin and his comrades:

"The charter captain heard some loud war cries as background sounds in the public frequency distress call sent by the plundered merchant ship, and after analysis and comparison, these blasphemous sounds were confirmed to belong to the names registered in the court. For the Chaos warband of the Skulltaker."

"Skull Snatcher? Let's compare." Calvin turned his head and said to Golden beside him.

"Received." Golden opened the data terminal in his hand and began to use his authority to log in to the internal database of the Holy Hammer Order to search for intelligence information about this war gang.

"Found it. The Skull Reavers, suspected to be the name of the former Vraks Berserker Chapter after the rebellion. Contact was lost after 153.M34, suspected of rebellion. Later, the Skull Reavers war gang appeared in their original area of ​​activity." Gore Den said to the information displayed in the database.

"A reorganized war gang that rebelled and transformed..."

Calvin digested the news he had received, and he frowned at Constantine.

The balance of power between the enemy and ourselves is obviously disproportionate:

There is a very large gap between the upper and lower limits of the number of people in a Chaos warband.

Small warbands may be equivalent to a company of Space Marines or even less; but many may be as large as a large company in the Legion era or even more.

He didn't know what happened to this Astartes warband called the Caradon Berserkers to rebel, nor did he know how much of the opponent's power was preserved in this disgraceful rebellion.

But no matter what, even a company of Chaos Space Marines would bring losses to Calvin's team that he was unwilling to bear.

Calvin does not lack the courage to face chaos, but he is not an intellectual disability who can be used as a weapon.

He suppressed his doubts and sense of absurdity, and patiently confirmed to Constantine:

"If I understand correctly, you expect the strength of our team to defeat a complete Chaos war gang for you? Huh?"

"Of course not!" Constantine explained hurriedly. He certainly knew the absurdity of this request.

If he was reckless enough to raise and insist on such an outrageous request, the Grey Knight in front of him would probably not consider solving the problem of the warband on the desert world.

The other party is more likely to simply weigh the pros and cons and directly solve the person who raised the question.

He continued what he had just said:

"All we want is a piece of information, a clue about whether this STC exists on this planet.

We just need to lurk in and confirm whether the clue exists in the ruins we suspect. Regardless of the result, you can withdraw directly after the search is completed.

And if this information really exists, then the follow-up can be left to Mars."

After saying this, he looked at Calvin, waiting for the other party's decision.

"I remember that you Mars has its own exclusive exploration fleet. Why don't you wait for them?"

Constantine seemed to have anticipated Calvin's question. He explained to Calvin:

"It's too late. It will take at least three years from the time Mars receives this message to the time the Director of Foundry draws forces from the fleets in the nearby star regions that are conducting exploration expeditions to come here."

He pointed the scepter in his hand in the direction of the distant world of Grea and continued:

"But they, the Grea Foundry World living on the Crown of Miracles, their roving exploration fleet centered on their own star region, according to the latest intelligence, is less than a year away from here.

And before there is detailed and reliable information to prove the value of this planet, Mars will not send me an army that can deter the scoundrels."

"Understood." Calvin understood everything now.

It turns out that these oil guys also have their own interest groups.

And STC, a strategic resource that can directly drive the systematic progress of science and technology, is naturally a good thing that can make these forging worlds fight to the death for the sake of fighting.

Although I don't know how the news about the STC in the Storm Star Region was known to Mars.

But from the cautiousness of Constantine, it can be known that if this behavior of digging treasures at the doorstep of others is caught by the owner, the end is probably not good.

A clean and neat secret execution is probably still considered to be conscientious. If he is directly imprisoned and interrogated for hundreds of years to completely squeeze out the last drop of oil and water, and then made into a mechanical servant and sent back to Mars for demonstration, it would be really miserable...

And judging from the various aspects of competition between these forge worlds since the Great Expedition, if there is a Martian envoy who comes to the Storm Star Region openly, I am afraid that he will be politely and firmly controlled at the first time.

As for STC archaeology, don't even think about it.

Calvin, who figured this out, looked back at the appearance of the mechanical priest and the alien inquisitor in front of him.

He had one last question in his mind:

This mechanical priest in front of him might have been sitting on the black ship of the Inquisition and smuggled all the way here?

What role did the Alien Inquisition play in this?

He turned his gaze back to the fat man Ma Wei next to him, and the other party seemed to understand Calvin's meaning.

He quickly distanced himself from the matter:

"Don't get me wrong, I just take a part-time job occasionally. It will never violate any imperial interests!"

Here he rubbed his hands a little embarrassedly:

"You see, it's not easy for me. After all, there are a whole family on the ship to support. Business, it's not bad..."

It's settled, a mechanical priest who doesn't care about his life for STC and runs to dig graves at other people's doorsteps, plus an alien inquisitor who dares to take any part-time job to support his family.

When these two weirdos stood together in front of Calvin, a previous doubt was finally answered:

"So, the signal we received before was not a broken error message after the subspace decay, but you didn't summon the local Death Watch and Astartes at all?"

"This..." The two looked at each other and chose to tell the truth.

"Yes, sir. The local Death Watch and Astartes have a complex relationship with the Forge World here. We really can't take this risk..."

"So you send public frequency information to the channel of the Subspace Channel? The local people don't dare to find it, so you just look for the pits passing by?" Calvin asked.

"Yes." Having said this, the two simply stopped denying it.

"Is there any other information hidden?" Calvin said this while looking at the two pits with gritted teeth.

"No more..." At this point, the two have revealed their plans in full. So they just messed up without any consideration.

"Hiss..." Calvin looked at the two people in front of him with his teeth bared. He really wanted to turn around and walk away.

But thinking about the Chaos Warband on that planet and the STC that might fall into the Chaos side, he finally gritted his teeth and took on this task.

Calvin, who had already made up his mind, looked at the two generals in front of him and thought to himself:

Since the pot is taken, there is no need to be polite to these two pits

"Find me a war room with a full set of battlefield holographic equipment! Send the specific coordinates and information as soon as possible! Also, give my soldiers the best supplies! Also! After this battle, Mars must pay the price!"

"Yes, sir!"*2

Please vote... Let's eat...

PY:

Have you ever thought that in the depths of the treacherous dream, there is a real world hidden?

Have you ever thought that behind every major disaster reported in the news, there is an unknown truth?

...

On the night of his eighteenth birthday, Leo had a dream.

In the dream, there was a dark dungeon and a bloodthirsty monster.

He picked up the iron sword beside him and cut off the monster's head.

Then, he woke up.

Standing in front of the bathroom mirror, the corners of his mouth slightly raised.

Because the eyes in the mirror were the same as the monster in the dream, scarlet and shining.