Ranmarok felt deeply that during this time, even by the standards of the Dark Angels, their experience was a little too thrilling.

The whole story begins in a disgraceful way: the Lion's Mane escapes from prison while escorting a traitor - even though the only prisoner who managed to escape was Yago Sevitaleon of the Midnight Lord, the Lion's children still consider it an unforgivable shame because it shouldn't have happened in the first place.

After a brief discussion, they unanimously decided to correct and erase the error before anyone could find out. Naturally, they deviated from their original course and began to follow the fugitive's trail. They followed the trail of the crash of the traitor's looted Thunderhawk to investigate the world near the route, searched for the merchant ships on the planet that had recently left the port, followed the route of Saivita's smuggling into the subspace, and then encountered an unprecedented subspace storm in the channel that was said to be "very calm and safe all along".

The whole ship had been spinning around like a headless fly in this damn sea of souls for more than a month, and Geller's position was damaged, and they had to be on their own ship at all times.

In the past month or so, there have been so many things that are beyond the reach of human reason and science: the screams that rang out at regular intervals in a certain section of the cabin, or the monsters that entered the hull with a sinister grin through the walls were the most amiable category; Strange events such as invisible objects that can suck human blood in the air, or distort and merge the human body with metal are also endless.

But the Dark Angels managed to survive, at the cost of losing most of their mortal crew, almost half of their battle brothers, and the dilapidated state of the Lion's Mane itself. But let's be honest, this "getting through" seems to have been mostly a matter of luck: in the beginning, they were unlucky enough to encounter a subspace storm, and for various reasons, Geller's position was damaged to go through all of this; And at the end, they were lucky enough to be somehow thrown into a perfect position for the ship to tear open the curtain and jump out of Mandeville Point and back into the real world.

It was a glorious battle barge of the Great Expedition, and the Astarte warriors, who believed more in the truth of the Empire, preferred to identify this "luck" as the inevitable result of a series of favorable times and people. They are more likely to applaud the navigator for his wise decision to seize the opportunity in a hurry, rather than to speculate with trepidation as to whether there is something behind the coincidence.

It may be a good thing, it may be a bad thing, but it doesn't stop them from putting things in order. The Dark Angel reluctantly ordered the ships to deploy the Void Shield, then began to house the wounded, count the damage, activate the positioning system and ornith, and connect to the Imperial network - the good news is that they are still within the Empire; The bad news is that after they entered the subspace, although they only felt that more than a month had passed, 10,000 years had passed in the real universe.

The temporal deviation was so great that it even made them feel more desperate than the terrifying experience of more than a month in the body of drifting in subspace, and the time span of 10,000 years brought them too many unknowns. They had read too many incompromising terms and concepts in the materials the Lionmane had received from the Imperial network, many of which had left them deeply uneasy—especially, a word that had been repeated and praised over and over again:

"God-Emperor".

The Dark Angel read the blasphemy in bewilderment. As far as they knew, the emperor, though great, was undoubtedly human. It's just that the empire they glimpsed from the few words in the communication materials obviously didn't think so. Several times and again they read from passages that may be outdated for the present, but which were too new for those of the Great Expedition to accept, such terms as "state religion" and "saints," or the names of institutions they did not know, such as "Imperial Navy" and "Inquisition."

It is also worth mentioning that the communication in the remote star sector is not smooth, and there is often a lag in information, but the Dark Angels still found the word "Imperial Regent" in the fragmentary words, and gradually realized that it refers to the Thirteenth Legion genotype, Robert Killman.

This stirred up some inexplicable ripples in the hearts of those who had pioneered this information, including Ranmarok himself. After some brief discussions, the Inner Ring decided to temporarily seal the information and prevent it from spreading panic and suspicion in all its forms inside the ship.

10,000 years is too long, and it is possible for the empire to become anything, and they should not arbitrarily draw any conclusions based on these illusory things until they see the current empire with their own eyes. After encountering such a degree of upheaval, "Lionmane" decided not to trust anyone, except his own eyes.

So they let the ship head towards the nearest Imperial planet - in a posture as stealthy as possible. This order aroused slight suspicion among the mortal officers when it was issued, but it was well executed, and for a short time it proved to be necessary: they had been asking the Ponder Arrays to equalize their computing power, cross-checking all the information received on the various sensors with the original ones in their databases, and then they succeeded in making the Dark Angels aware of their location:

On the star map they were more familiar with 10,000 years ago, this remote and barren galaxy had been ruthlessly marked by the Dark Angels. The crew of the Lion's Mane realized that they had been here with a large army before—of course, they had not come with peace and friendliness.

It's a strange thing to see: not long ago, they had presided over a massive orbital bombardment of the only habitable planet in the entire galaxy (which at that time was referred to by a letter-and-number codename on the Imperial side), cleansing all buildings and living things from the surface. And for them, it is just a turn of the head, 10,000 years have passed, and the ecology on this planet has ...... At least it was restored to the point where it was habitable.

The Empire's plan for it seems to be an agricultural world, but this planet ......

Ranmarok didn't think so.

He didn't quite know why, but he vaguely smelled something he knew very well and was disgusting. His advice was to observe it in secrecy before making the next decision. The proposal was quickly adopted, but everyone knew that it was just a reluctant move:

If it weren't for the fact that the Lionmane was only on an escort mission, and they didn't carry enough extermination weapons, everyone thought that it would be a better decision to throw another round of orbital bombing - this time it would have been better not to have a virus bomb, and they might have directly destroyed the possibility of restoring the entire planet to a habitable environment.

Perhaps the more optimistic will question the Dark Angel's motives for making such a decision, but the Dark Angel will not offer any explanation for their actions. The offspring of the male lion do not need the understanding of others, and they think that they are just doing what any loyal person should do.

This secrecy does have terrible results at times, but the Dark Angels don't care about these "inevitable collateral losses". They will do these things, they will be responsible for it, and then time will prove them right.

- This time, however, before they could really decide what they were going to do, they received a communication from the Imperial Dream.

-----------------

Subspace teleportation is heart-wrenching. Rika Fujimaru thought so.

In a sense, this wasn't her first subspace teleportation: she had done so many times when she was in command of the Eighth Legion in Conrad Coetze's Life Vision. But perhaps because there was a gap between fantasy and reality, she still felt like vomiting like never before when she was wrapped in blue lightning and moved to the bridge of the "Lion's Mane".

Fortunately, she only shook a little because of this. Her ability to maintain her balance was due to the Aquila Scepter she held in her hand.

After all, she first proposed the negotiation method of "using her identity to suppress them", even if Lixiang was unwilling, she had to at least bring out the shelf of "the emperor's personal election" on the surface.

In addition to this status symbol, she also wore a richly patterned cloak over the Ortenus exoskeleton - because the armor was "really unpresentable" in the eyes of the Empire, Somny provided the fabric in ten minutes, causing Rika to wonder if the Imperial Dream was carrying an automated mechanism dedicated to tailoring.

…… She knew that some of the Praetorian Army would weave tapestries as a pastime. But first and foremost, Somni is not a forbidden army; Secondly, it was too fast to lift a garment with delicate embroidery in ten minutes.

The golden giant, who had made mechanical embroidery in ten minutes with a blank face, was now also holding a halberd and poking it behind Richika with a blank face. In any case, at least one of the Forbidden Army background boards made her "Emperor's Choice" look more like that.

Rika Fujimaru resisted the urge to sigh and looked up at the dark angel in front of her: black paint, winged helmet, and a logo on her shoulder indicated that it was a company commander. His power armor still had unrepaired scratches and damages, some of which could be seen to have been deliberately preserved as part of honor and history without compromising functionality, while others were clearly simply unrepaired. His armor is adorned with a number of different insignia and insignia, some of which were the emblems of honor common to the Astarte Legion during the Great Expedition, and some of which are secret symbols exclusive to the Dark Angels. And then most importantly -

The Astarte of the Dark Angel was clearly full of doubts and the hostility that came with it.

If Somney was really a forbidden soldier, he would definitely have something to say in the face of such an attitude. But he's not. So he remained just a golden backdrop, silently watching the imperial greetings and brief exchanges of the status quo between the two sides - of course, the Dark Angel only said that they were "hunting down fugitives" and refused to provide further details.

Fujimaru Rika didn't really care about this - there would be many similar things when facing the Dark Angel. Instead of digging into their little secrets one by one under the obstacles, it is better to let yourself go and trust that they can handle their own problems.

So she just said, "I find that you still have doubts, and that's normal." You have the right to ask questions, and we will answer them as much as we can. Considering the possible future cooperation, I think it would be beneficial for both of us to be properly open and honest. ”

The Dark Angel was a little caught off guard by this, but when the opportunity was in front of him, no one with sufficient tactical skills would let it slip away. After a brief pause, the Dark Angel in front of Tachika asked, "We have received a communication from the Imperial Dream, but we have not succeeded in observing the existence of this magnificent creature in any form. ”

This is obviously a vague accusation, or else an obvious question, but Fujimaru Rika simply pretended not to realize: "In fact, he is in front of you." Somny, maybe you'd like to explain this part yourself? ”

Such a defying statement of common sense caused the Dark Angel to be confused, but it was not in Somny's consideration. He simply asked his only immediate superior, "The Emperor has classified this matter as highly confidential, so is there a risk of information leakage to people outside of his authority?" ”

"It's okay, I believe in the Dark Angel's ability to keep secrets. If they also leak secrets, then there will be no information security for the entire empire. ”

"Since you have decided so......"

Somney took a small step forward, still not past Rika Fujimaru, but this small gesture made him look more or less like a living thing:

"The Emperor's Dream was sunk at the end of the Great Rebellion." He recounted mechanically and flatly, as if he were saying something completely unrelated to himself, "During the Siege of Terra, this ship undertook the task of covering the Dark Angel forces led by Coswayne, successfully broke the blockade of Terra by the rebel legions, guided the target ship 'Wrath Advent' to the Terra gravity well, and used the hull as a cover to cover the landing operation of the Dark Angel forces, and was finally sunk by the traitor's artillery fire. ”

Even if it's just an emotionless, mechanical narrative, the content of this short passage is shocking enough for the Dark Angel who heard about it for the first time. But the listener's emotional reaction was not in Somny's consideration, and he simply continued to explain his origin according to the instructions he received:

"In a physical sense, the Emperor's Dream has indeed been destroyed, but the relevant records are still preserved and passed down as part of history. Her Excellency Rika Fujimaru has taken advantage of this by extracting the story, concept, and symbolism of the Emperor Dream in the course of history, and constructing the ether to give it form, and pulling it back into the real universe – the result of which is 'me'. Since the imperial flagship is related to the 'symbol of imperial power', an average forbidden army with a similar image was selected for the shell part of the humanoid terminal, but the ship is indeed in a functional state at present, ready to strike again. ”

The universe of the thirtieth millennium of humanity is far less full of demons and monsters than it is now 10,000 years later, and the visions caused by subspace are not common, so Somney's narrative does challenge the sanity of the dark angels, even if they are Astartes.

Maybe it would be better to give them a little time to digest at this time, but Fujimaru Rika knew that Astarte had a far more determined mind than ordinary people, so it wouldn't be a big problem not to give them that time. Besides, she didn't feel like she had more time to waste:

"If you don't have any other questions, can it be my turn?" She admits that she deliberately took advantage of the stunned silence to speak first, "I really need to talk to your head about the current state of the Imperial planet, now known as 'Jestar'. ”

"Then please say it." Standing at the forefront, the Winged Helmet Dark Angel Company Commander who was in charge of contacting Rika Fujimaru said.

“…… Well, I mean, talk to the guy who was really in charge of the ship, alone. Rika Fujimaru added, "If you still have a think tank position in your establishment, or if you have credible psionics in your crew, then add them too-"

"All those who remain in the bridge at the moment are credible to us." The dark angel's tone became dangerous, "Mortal, you'd better watch your words. ”

"Okay, but you're not the one who really heads this ship, are you?" Rika Fujimaru naturally pointed out, "Didn't you originally organize for the purpose of 'chasing fugitives'? Then the person in charge of the commander-in-chief in this mission should be at least Crowwing or Firewing, but you are obviously a company commander of Dreadwing. I can't see more of it, after all, I'm just a 'mortal'. ”

If there were another three or four hours to waste, Rikka would be willing to play this Dark Angel guessing game. Unfortunately, she really didn't have time.

The company commander wanted to continue talking, but a voice came from the corner of the bridge: "Alright." We can barely count her through. ”

An ordinary combat brother with so plain armor that he barely had a company mark stepped forward from the end of the inconspicuous ranks:

"You're familiar with the way we do things." "I'm curious about this, but for now, let me introduce myself: I'm the 'ship-talker' you're looking for, Firewing Grand Mentor Ranmarok. ”

Fujimaru Rika nodded: "Hello, you're from Caliban, right?" ”

Ranmarok narrowed his eyes under his helmet in confusion and wariness.