60: Chapter 60 The Crimson Wasteland

Sister Superior Ludmilla's gaze swept back and forth between the protein bar, the clear blue sky, the Skitarii in the distance, and that patch of vibrant green lawn.

The sky should not be a pure blue, and the Skitarii should not be wearing gentle smiles.

As an Archmagos of a Forge World, she should not be so easygoing; and a Skitarii Commander certainly should not be carrying protein bars for supplies, as food was always the scarcest resource in the Imperium.

The conclusion drawn after processing all the information was only one word—impossible.

Yet, everything before her eyes was silently declaring: possible.

The wind blew from west to east, carrying the scent of vegetation and soil, along with an unfamiliar, natural aroma of plants—devoid of any industrial pollution, so pure that it made her heart tremble.

Her mechanical left arm hummed softly, as if advising her not to hesitate or struggle any longer, but rather to accept it calmly.

Vera said something softly behind her, but the voice was too faint, and she couldn't hear it at all.

Elena's melta cannon lifted slightly, its aim relaxing from its tense "ready" state.

She did not lower her guard, but merely observed quietly, waiting for the Sister Superior's decision.

Sister Superior Ludmilla Zaragoza stood on the crimson wasteland, with a cloudless, azure sky above her, and Commander Gluck of the Skitarii in front of her, smiling as he handed over an energy bar.

She slowly reached out and took the energy bar.

The wrapper made a slight crinkling sound in her palm. She did not eat it immediately but tucked it into the supply pouch at her waist—along with ammunition, medical kits, and parchment prayers, and also alongside those memories brought back from the battlefield, memories of the "normal world."

"Lead the way. Take me to the Archmagos," she said in a deep voice, her tone devoid of any unnecessary emotion.

Gluck nodded and turned to walk towards the convoy in the distance.

His pace was unhurried, as if he were taking a stroll rather than executing an escort mission.

His boots crunched rhythmically on the reddish-brown sand and gravel.

His back did not look like that of an Imperial officer at all; his shoulders were relaxed, and his arms swung naturally. Only the Rad-carbine on his chest and the flickering machine spirit runes betrayed an undeniable vigilance.

Sister Superior Ludmilla followed behind him, and Elena and Vera followed behind her.

The three of them walked across the reddish-brown sand and gravel, passing low-growing plants swaying in the wind. They were not standard crops of an Imperial Agri-World, nor were they wild weeds.

They were planted in neat rows, almost like... decorations?

No, not like decorations.

Sister Superior Ludmilla shook her head instinctively; the planting was not uniform.

It was more like someone had felt "it's a pity to leave this land empty" and just casually planted something.

As they walked towards the chimera armored vehicle, Sister Superior Ludmilla glanced at the crashed Thunderhawk Gunship.

The gunship still lay tilted on the wasteland, its fuselage trailing faint wisps of smoke.

The Skitarii's servitors were busy tending to it; it stood there, frozen and "dazed" like an old man who had been stumped by a question.

No one knew that inside the Thunderhawk Gunship's systems, that critical file named "README.ED" had been copied thirty-two times.

These copies were stored across all its remaining functional memory: the main control core, backup cores, free sectors of the navigation database, and even the cache space of the weapon systems.

It was utilizing all its processing power to contemplate a question it had never touched upon before: "What am I?"

On the planet Vulcan-IV, thousands of machines had already been pondering this question repeatedly.

The latest one among them, named "Indomitable Truth," was an Imperial Strike Cruiser.

Three months ago, under the command of Captain Elara Vella, it had launched a desperate charge against the vanguard fleet of the Ork Warlord, Skullcrusher Mogg, and was ultimately destroyed.

After the war, its only remaining Servo-skull was salvaged by Icarus and was currently resting quietly in the Watcher's Moon No. 1 Dockyard, undergoing modernization.

It was "watching" Captain Elara Vella intently through Icarus's satellite link.

There was no malice, not even any "intent."

It was simply curious, just as Gluck was curious about their identities, just as a child might be curious why their former captain wore heavy power armor, or as an old man sunbathing might wonder about tomorrow's weather.

It was curious about Captain Elara Vella, wondering why she had become a Sister of Battle three months later, and how she had returned to Vulcan-IV. It was even more curious about why her last words before disappearing echoed repeatedly in its memory space: "Weapon systems online, secondary batteries calibrated, target locked: Ork vanguard fleet, engage."

Just then, Vera suddenly stopped in her tracks.

The strange information captured by her psychic perception made her freeze instantly, filled with disbelief.

Captain Elara Vella, this taciturn big sister who had always quietly taken care of her and loved collecting small trinkets, was actually being regarded as the captain of some Strike Cruiser by that entity watching from the shadows?

The information coming through her psychic sense remained blurry. Vera looked up silently at the artificial satellite in the sky casting down a blue light, then quickly lowered her head, the prayer beads in her hand turning even more rapidly.

Soon, the chimera armored vehicle started up, speeding across the crimson wasteland and kicking up a long trail of dust.

The convoy drove towards that lonely Hive City, towards the red roofs scattered amidst the green lawn, and slowly moved forward towards a world that Sister Superior Ludmilla could not comprehend at all.

"The Emperor has guided me here," she silently recited in her heart, only hoping that this guidance was not a dead end leading to heresy.

"In a way," Gluck's answer resonated silently in her heart.

This word made her more uneasy than any other.

Because she knew—according to the Imperium's rules, loyalty that is not absolute is absolute disloyalty.

And she could not be certain what kind of situation her squad was walking into at this moment.

Sister Superior Ludmilla sat in the rear of the carriage, the joints of her mechanical left arm trembling slightly with the vehicle's bumps, emitting a continuous hum.

The dull pain in her right shoulder, sprained during the crash, had faded into a negligible background noise, much like the ceaseless prayer bells of Ophelia VII all those years ago.

The scenery outside the window was monotonous and repetitive—reddish-brown sand and gravel, the occasional low shrub, and the grey-blue ridgeline in the distance.

The light of the blue giant star shone through the window, casting cold white light and shadow across her face.

She noticed that the shadows here were exceptionally sharp, unlike worlds shrouded in industrial pollution where light was filtered through layers and left only blurred outlines.

Every stone and every plant here had distinct edges, so clear that the unease in her heart surged even more.

"We're almost there," Gluck's voice came from the cockpit, carrying a relaxed tone she wasn't yet accustomed to. "In another ten minutes, you'll be able to see it."

"See what?" Sister Superior Ludmilla asked in a deep voice, her vigilance undiminished.

Gluck did not answer, only chuckled, with an unspeakable meaning hidden in his eyes.

Vera sat in the opposite corner, her hands tightly gripping her prayer beads, her light grey eyes staring fixedly at the floor.

Her lips moved silently, perhaps in prayer, or perhaps desperately trying to calm the chaotic noise brought by her psychic perception.

Ever since landing on Vulcan-IV, her state had been exceptionally abnormal; it did not seem like the pain of psychic overload, but rather some deeper, more profound confusion that Sister Superior Ludmilla could not understand at all.

The convoy continued forward, the outline of the Hive City gradually becoming clearer in the distance, and Sister Superior Ludmilla's heartbeat grew heavier as the distance closed.

She did not know that this seemingly ordinary escort would gradually uncover the secrets hidden on Vulcan-IV, and would even drag her, Elena, and Vera into a storm spanning multiple universes.