Talos' words made Soshyan a little confused, so he asked:
"What's wrong?"
"When returning from Colkeria, in order to avoid the red pirate patrol fleet, we deliberately took a long detour and came back from Senglad. There I encountered something, or received some news. ..”
Talos then explained the matter in detail——
"It seems like a riot broke out on a nearby planet."
On the bridge, a bored Cassati sat on a chair with his legs on the railing, looking at a visual transmitter. A breathless voice issued a brief report from the trumpet-like loudspeaker, and the crowd shouted from time to time. cheered.
"...the Adeptus Strike Force entered the den of thieves, where...crushed the resistance with overwhelming force, and...just received word from the 2nd Militia Regiment that a rebel stronghold had been captured by the Emperor's warriors, with casualties The total is…”
"Whenever there is no riot in the empire, it is abnormal."
Talos stood aside, holding freshly brewed hot coffee in his hand. This was no ordinary Reka coffee, but Red Mountain coffee from a distant and wild world. It was an expensive luxury product that could only be found in the Maelstrom. It can be purchased in areas with busy trade, and only those who stand at the top of the empire's power are eligible to enjoy it.
In the picture, the host in a formal dress is standing in a safe place, far away from the tracer fire and explosion smoke behind him. He is neatly dressed and well-groomed, and his humble appearance shows no sign of mechanical modification.
Such broadcasts are common throughout the Imperial Hive, consisting of joyous reports of the Emperor's victories, lectures on the doctrines of the Ecclesiarchy, inspiring sermons, criticisms of captured criminals and heretics - in each case, Officially elected representatives embody pure, non-threatening personnel.
The host looked natural, but Talos could still tell that in addition to being trained to maintain his appearance under the gaze of a servo-skull, the diminutive man also wore a large number of control joint racks, autofocus diaphragms, and skin fluorescent agents.
"...the Empire has once again defeated the rebels, to her glory, no casualties reported!"
The man waved his arms solemnly at the scene behind him. An unknown town located on the lower level of the hive city was blown to ashes by a circle of simple tanks.
"Um?"
Suddenly, Talos frowned, and through the flickering flames of Mold Lake, he tried hard to focus and could make out the small outlines of crumbling figures struggling to death. They seemed to be children and women, and were being burned alive.
"...a wave of rebellion, but this is a hymn to the Throne of Terra, long live the Emperor! Heroes broke through the barriers and drove away the filthy heretics..."
"Huh?"
Cassati also noticed something was wrong, he frowned and paused the screen.
"Why do I feel like this hive is so dark? There's no light at all?"
"It's more than that, you see."
Talos stretched out his hand and pointed to the edge of the screen, where some people in guard uniforms were rummaging through the pile of corpses.
"Those corpses were as thin as firewood. What did they use to rebel? Teeth?"
"Want to take a look?"
"Well, let's go and take a look. I feel like there's something going on that we don't know about, and maybe Soshyan doesn't know about it either."
Soon, the two Thunderhawks broke away from the cruiser and flew towards the planet without encountering any obstacles on the way, because they carried the signs of the Astral Knights. As for the dozen or so inquiries and greetings from the planet's governor, they were all ignored. Talos ignored it.
The Thunder Eagle headed straight for the hive.
After entering the atmosphere, he discovered that things were much scarier than he thought. The entire nest, except for the middle and upper parts, had been completely plunged into darkness, as if a huge cave had appeared on the dry land.
Talos then let the Thunderhawk land directly into an unknown area in the lower levels of the hive.
In his opinion, even if the hive city is dirty, backward, and chaotic, it should at least be lively.
But when Talos stepped out of Thunderhawk, he was greeted only by deathly silence.
The wind sighed over the remains of steel, whistling through the rusty pipes. The metal creaked against each other, and the notes rose and fell with the scraping, like a boring song. Countless undulating ruins and metal shacks stood in the darkness. It looks like undulating mountains.
"What happened? Why does the power in the hive city seem to be interrupted..."
Sabourin looked at the silent darkness around him, and a confused voice came from under his helmet.
After Talos was silent for a moment, he said:
"Promethium... they can't get enough promethium because Angstrom is under siege."
At this time, Talos had vaguely guessed something, but did not say it out loud.
The team followed him all the way without lighting any lighting equipment. Because their helmets and superhuman vision are enough.
Afterwards, they came to an abandoned station. The steps rose from the piles of debris. As they walked through, the concrete cracked quietly under their feet. The Silent Song had a deeper tone here, as if the elevated railway track was a giant The tuning fork vibrates continuously, like the hum of a somnambulist at night.
"look--"
Cassati circled the darkness with his hand, and everyone saw a train overturned under the tracks, surrounded by countless dry corpses.
You can imagine the scene at that time. Driven by some kind of disaster or something else, countless people tried to board the last train heading to an unknown destination. However, the train eventually detached from the track, capsized to the ground and crushed the layers below. of broken limbs.
They then continued moving in the darkness and discovered more suspicious things.
First of all, it is quiet. Not only is there no movement of people, but there are no animals either. You must know that the nest has never lacked all kinds of creatures, especially rodents, but here, even rodents seem to have disappeared.
It was as if it had been bombarded by a virus bomb.
Walking to an empty well cellar, Talos squatted down, picked up some pale green sludge hanging on the grating with his fingers, and then reached out to get a detector from Alvarez.
Soon, the instrument came to a conclusion.
"Someone used poison gas, but it was not the life-eating virus like the virus bomb. Instead, it was... the nerve gas that the Ministry of Justice often uses for suppression."
"And they also deliberately poured poison gas through underground pipes, obviously to kill anyone who might be hiding inside."
"Company Commander, something has been discovered."
Suddenly, the Li Lin team who was investigating ahead sent a message, and everyone immediately moved in his direction.
Soon they came to a main traffic road, which was a three-level expressway with upper, middle and lower levels. Many vehicles were parked on the roadside, and in front of the huge confluence area in front of the passage, countless corpses were lying densely, most of them because of nests. They were dried in a special environment and turned into skinny mummies, but you can still see how they struggled before death. From the outline, it can be seen that there are men, women and children.
