In a hall that is so simple that it is difficult to call it a court, the judge with wrinkles on his face looks like he has been soaked in water for decades. The judge with white hair is trying hard to put the dentures into his mouth. To his left is a man with a thick The clerk with thick eyes and only a few hairs on his head. To his right is a writing machine that occasionally twitches. And just above the heads of these three people, a logo of the Ministry of Justice is engraved on the dusty eagle emblem. .
After confirming that the dentures in his mouth would not fall out again, the judge coughed lightly and tapped the table with the small wooden hammer at hand.
"Okay, continue."
Opposite him, several rows of benches were empty. Sitting in the dock was a listless man wearing red robes of the Mechanicus. Behind him was a bailiff who yawned constantly and had a red nose.
There were no lawyers, no observers, and no jury. It was hardly even a trial.
However, this is the norm for most neighborhood courts in Zhongchao. Although the empire has almost unlimited manpower, it is always short of manpower in some aspects.
".Defendant Loken, when was your birth time?"
"Terran Calendar 41."
"Where was your birthplace?"
"Forge World Horse 'Kande No. 2."
"Are they demi-humans or mutants?"
"Pure Humanity."
"What is your rank in the Adeptus Mechanicus?"
"Workmaker!"
"What is the specific position?"
"Tech-Priest!"
"When were you arrested by the Ministry of Justice?"
"Terran Calendar 41."
"When will the probation of servitude be implemented?"
"Terran Calendar 41."
"It's a total of three years of hard labor. Because you were previously a member of the Legion Astartes and had the right to be pardoned from labor. So according to the time, the labor period has ended, and you have already signed the confession and punishment, right?"
"yes."
"Are you clear about the consequences of pleading guilty and accepting punishment?"
"clear."
"Was it a voluntary signing?"
"It's voluntary."
When Loken walked out of this damn court, he still felt like he was in a dream. These damn three years were finally over.
Three years, three whole years, no one knew how he got here.
The factory he went to was a lifeless honeycomb building, filled with hexagonal production halls one after the other. The monotonous materials locked together in harmony, the sides pressed together as supports, like gears in a machine. workers lived here, but as far as Loken was concerned, none of those 100 million people were truly "human."
Those who were sentenced to life-long hard labor were called beasts and consumables. Even if they had to be whipped 3-5 times on time every day, they still had to thank their emperor.
In that dark factory, the ant-like life wakes up, works, eats, and sleeps, seemingly continuing every day, every year, every century, just like the termites in the mound.
Loken had never imagined that Nessen 4, which seemed to him to be almost a model planet for the Empire, with a glorious and prosperous appearance, could have such a hell. In other words, he had forgotten some of the characteristics of the Forge World for too long, at least in this experience. Let him get some back.
Another thing that made him quite painful was his best friend Ford. In the second year of his "prison", he received the news that Ford was marrying the plump Ada Lovelace from Zhao-Arcada. , these two people probably got close when he was traveling to the Comoros. It was not that Loken liked Ada Lovelace, but the wedding of two good friends suddenly made him feel as if he had lost something, even This gave him the idea of modifying his brain, just like those high priests, completely cutting off human emotions.
The last year was extremely torturous for Loken, both physically and mentally. Although he didn't actually have to bear a very heavy workload, this place was naturally a hell, because there was almost no one who could be called a hell. It's a woman's woman.
Fortunately, he will be free soon, as long as he walks out of this place——
"Um?"
Loken looked around, something didn't seem right. Why did he come to a wasteland after turning around, and a group of guards were standing in a row, holding guns in their hands. There were also a group of trembling guys standing under the opposite wall. Each one of them was standing in a row. All were wearing prison uniforms.
And he didn't know if it was an illusion, but he felt the hands of the two guards following him tightening on his shoulders.
At this time, one of the prisoners looked at him.
"If you don't come here quickly, we'll be waiting for you, damn gear guy."
Loken's cheeks twitched, and then he glanced at the sky. It was already evening.
"It's so late for an execution. Let's go another way."
One of the guards sneered and said:
"No, that's it."
Suddenly, cold shackles cuffed his hands from behind, and then the guards touched him to make sure there was nothing on him.
"Wait, what is this going to do?"
"It's nothing, don't be nervous."
At this time, a man who looked like a guard chief held a data pad and said coldly:
"Priest Loken, you have personally signed and admitted to committing the crime of alien worship. The evidence is conclusive. The death penalty will be executed in accordance with imperial law! Execute immediately!"
Loken's eyes widened, and he was frightened. He turned around and wanted to leave. A guard next to him immediately drew a gun as a warning, which scared him so much that he immediately rolled back to his original position.
"Wait, I was wronged."
"I was wronged!"
A prisoner on Loken's left also began to cry.
"I'm not a serial rapist. Everyone knows that I'm impotent and have X-dysfunction. How could I possibly rape me? I've obviously undergone medical evaluations more than a dozen times. Didn't I say I caught Shang Lao before?"
Bang bang bang——
Several gunshots were fired, and the man collapsed under the wall with eyes wide open with unwillingness.
"Idiot!"
Loken shrank his neck, saw those people raising their guns again, and said quickly:
"Wait a minute, I am a member of the Astartes Chapter, you-"
"My father is the Vice President of the Sub-Executive Yuan, you can't kill me!"
Loken turned his head and saw a fair-skinned young man who looked very pampered and was crying with tears. However, the executioners ignored him and directly raised their guns and sent him away with a flurry of shots.
Watching the prisoners being executed one after another, Loken felt like he was standing on the edge of a cliff looking down. He felt like he was about to faint. He didn't know what was wrong, but now he had to use some means to survive. .
He took a step back, a mechanical thorn protruded from the tip of his left middle finger, and tried to unlock the shackles on his hand. Then he had the opportunity to activate the emergency equipment hidden under his crotch——
Suddenly, he heard a subtle crackle of electricity and turned his head to see a gloomy middle-aged man's tied hands with electric light flashing behind his back.
There's an illegal psyker here!
When the guards raised their guns again, the man lowered his head and sneered.
"You idiots want to kill me, 'Spotted Spider', I'm just playing with you."
As soon as he finished speaking, the ground in front of the man was suddenly lifted up by an invisible force, blocking the guard's view. Then the man turned around and shattered the handcuffs violently. Then his clasped hands shot out an invisible thread and hung it on the eaves in the distance, and then Drag him to the sky.
"Ha ha ha ha!!!"
The man's wild laughter echoed through the sky, and then the roar of a heavy machine gun sounded the next second, knocking him into a ball of blood mist in mid-air, with internal organs and broken bones flying everywhere.
(End of chapter)
