Four hundred centuries have passed since humanity first cautiously crossed the top of the Holy Terra's atmosphere in a fragile craft and began to come into contact with the vast starlight and boundless darkness of the galaxy.

Unfortunately, this time is still only a brief moment in the universe and not long enough to cause some fundamental evolution of the "human" species to adapt to the Void environment, although many of the characteristics of the Children of the Void are sufficient to be called "mutations", and these traits sometimes bounce back and forth on the red lines of the Inquisition, and also disturb their own kind.

For example, at this moment next to Lysander, the orbital maintenance mechanic who was gritting his teeth and holding his breath with them to the rift they were going to maintain.

The modified, muscularly muscular, almost as big man as they were, was suffocating his face from turning off his breathing mask - Lysander knew it was because the oxygen tank he was carrying was too small, so he would hold his breath like this for a while before arriving at the work area to conserve precious oxygen, which the muscles of a carbon-based creature of the size of this slave would have needed more than the average person.

The suffocation caused the man's eyes to bulge slightly, and with the faint starlight of the upper half of his face, which looked like some kind of alien, a company-long finger of the former Imperial Fist moved imperceptibly.

That was a precursor to the reflexive desire of the former Emperor Fist Company Commander to attack, and of course this indentured servant would not know. There were almost no whites on his bulging eyeballs, and the huge black iris and pupils gave him an extremely strong sense of inhumanity, a mutation that is characteristic of the children of the Void: many people have never set foot on the land of a planet in their lifetimes, and the constant lack of light on the Void ships will make their pupils become like this in just a few generations—so few generations are needed for the mutation to appear, that it is difficult to completely rule out some unknowable influences.

Brother Nira Idoa, a living proof of the existence of their genetic protogen, walked calmly in front of them, and the group gradually descended down the winding narrow passage to the lowest level of the orbital platform, and the companions gradually dispersed from the fork in the road to do their work, until in the end, only Nila Idoa, Lysander, and the genetically modified slave laborers remained.

And the gate of their destination finally appeared in front of them.

It was an old, weathered metal door, once painted with mechanical gears and skull logos that had been blurred by cosmic rays and dust after countless centuries of repainting — it was not known why it had been designed, but Lysander could see through the iron mesh and translucent floor beneath his feet the barren surface of the Dead Ground of Bela Karn, a small cloud enveloping the white ice with wind knives that could sweep away any heat, revealing the rusty red earth beneath it due to its high iron content.

"This is it," said the indentured servant, whose name Lessander did not know, stepped forward and began the long prayer ritual in a pious tone, asking the gods of his knowledge with the most sincere and humble gesture to bless and bring down all the success and tranquility of the gods, and at this time his oxygen tank was finally released, and Lysander suddenly realized that the reason for the conservation of oxygen he had done before was largely due to this ritual.

Parogov stood aside, the previous company commander swearing a hint of displeasure that flashed across his father's exact face, which made his heart twitch, but he didn't know who or what it was for.

When the prayer was over, the slave pressed the door with his rough-cracked fingers, the ancient gate shook off a thick layer of dust, and the three of them walked together into the lowest space theoretically accessible to humans on the central axis of the platform, and the top of the sky as they looked up from Bellakahn.

"Where's the light? Oh......" The man muttered, his voice muffled, and the sharp hearing of the previous company commander told him that the man was fumbling for his bag, and that there might be a lamp or something in it—

"Whew——!"

A large, crude axe, thick with rust but an unusually polished blade, slashed at the back of the unsuspecting Lysander's head.

Lysander roared and engaged the attackers, which was very unusual, after all, one of them was a Space Marine with centuries of combat experience, and the strength that came from his hands was so great that the former Imperial Fist could not even free a hand to pull out the pistol hidden in the inside of his leg.

But his skills and movements were faster after all, and the Space Marines turned their heads to dodge the attacks of axe blades and teeth and prepared to fight back, and under the faint stellar light leaking through the transparent plates, Lysander felt his heart beat faster: the slave's dark eyes now shone with an unnatural yellow-green light, his already strong and deformed body, especially his abdominal cavity, was rapidly expanding, and the terrifying power was given to this once human thing in the process of his rapid decay, But Lessander is more worried about other infections.

Judging from the feeling of contact between the two in the entanglement fight, the former company commander, who has a lot of experience in unarmored fighting, smelled a very bad smell, and his hand felt more and more sticky, and several times he almost lost his balance because of the slippery stickiness of the limbs in the palm of his hand, but his superhuman mind did not let fear and other emotions affect his high fighting enthusiasm after all.

But the frontal bones that the other party is starting to grow, the three eyes that appear sickly yellow, the more tentacles, and the bulging intestines that burst out of the abdomen indicate that this thing may not be an ordinary opponent to solve.

Finally he found an opportunity to kick the big face of the three eyes, which was swollen and deformed like a drowning corpse, and used the reaction force to distance himself a little from the Nurgle Plaguebringer and the like, but the twisted flesh that had just grown like a sprout wrapped around his ankle.

"Life is already so hard, why not join us? A loving father loves all......"

"Whoa! Die, you unclean! Lysander habitually spat at the disgusting creature - the sizzling acid corroded one of the other's eyes in such a way that the thing howled and let go of the limb that was wrapped around Lysander.

But the previous company commander did not take advantage of the victory, pursued, and drew his pistol to end it completely.

At the conclusion of that 0.00001 microsecond of thought, he was stunned.

He stood there, unguarded for a moment, and the plaguebringer howled and lunged upon him, looking like an unexpectedly sweet prize that a loving father would have at once obtained—

Electricity roared through the equipment and cables on the walls, and the entire equipment room suddenly burst into light.

A syringe filled with some sort of liquid burst through the air with a loud thud and plunged into the body of the Plaguebringer, who was almost complete in its metamorphosis, before anyone noticed.

The thing let out an earth-shattering howl, and then began to dissolve from the midneedle into a pale clear liquid.

Lysander shuddered and turned around.

He looked desperately at the exact same face of Parogov Niraidoa as their genetic father.

"I told you," Dorne's face glared at Lysander mercilessly, "you shouldn't have come along. ”

Wail.

Forgot to press Publish (o_o)

There is a second interlude

(End of chapter)