Thought of the Day: It is never the darkness that is scary, but the unknown that darkness represents.
Leaving Brother Sanchis and the entrance to the hive, the Gray Knights team began to follow the route Calvin had chosen before.
Considering that the orbiting strike cruiser has a scanning array that is many times more powerful than the auspicious auspices of the Gray Knights, and its scanning results for the life signals of the hive city.
This information finally led Calvin to decide to abandon the main elevator that leads directly to the upper floor, as well as the freight elevator, and instead choose the narrow and cramped maintenance passage on the outside.
The advantage of the first type of trunk elevator is that it can go directly to the upper level of the hive. The second type of freight elevator is similar, and its carrying capacity can ensure that the entire team of Gray Knights can enter the elevator together.
But their shortcomings are equally obvious. The overly wide space and passages and the core location close to the central pillar of the hive have more than doubled the risks that the Gray Knights will bear.
Peripheral maintenance access may be tight, and connections between elevators may be intermittent.
But this kind of cramped space itself can ensure that when the possible giant monster appears, its size advantage cannot be fully utilized to cause crushing damage to the Gray Knights.
This little advantage accumulated in advance is worthy of Calvin's careful consideration now.
The history of the Rasthold Hive is not too long. It is less than two thousand years since the birth of this huge building.
The reason is that after this planet was selected as the capital planet, in order to match its political status, the local nobles, led by the then Governor, reached a costly deal with the Forge World: to build SATA No. 1 as the capital of the sector.
A new hive to match.
After centuries of construction, the new hive city was finally completed. With the governor's order, the original population and equipment in the old city, as well as all valuable things, began to move to the new city.
And this kind of migration involving hundreds of millions of people is a huge and despairing systematic project in any era.
It is said that a broken home is worth a thousand dollars. If you don't move, you won't know how many things there are. This is the truth. It is so painful for a mortal to move once, let alone the hundreds of millions of people in a hive city?
The number of tragedies and regrets born during this forced migration cannot be counted, and no one can count it.
But the pain they ultimately left behind will surely leave a deep impression on two or three generations of people at that time.
Therefore, when the new hive city was opened, it inherited the name of the original hive city "Hod", and the then governor added the prefix "Rast" which meant "the last time", which was not enough.
Strange.
Of course, the speculation about the meaning of the change of the name of the hive city is just their local statement to the outside world. As for whether it contains other meanings, Calvin has no way of knowing from the brief information he received.
Under the leadership of Calvin and the Arbiter, the Gray Knights successfully reached the dividing point between the inner living area and the outer industrial area.
According to the information displayed in their hands, they found the portal to the secret mezzanine between the inner and outer layers of the hive from a maintenance cabin.
After accessing the data interface, the door was opened quietly and quietly.
The reason for emphasizing silence is because on the road approaching the central area of the hive city, the Gray Knights have seen the traces left by a large number of hive city residents, a trace they do not want to see:
As the Gray Knights walked along, they had always had a question:
What is the population of the entire hive city, and how many people can actually escape when a disaster strikes?
If only a small number of them escaped, then what about the majority of the hive residents who failed to escape? Where did they end up? What is the final outcome waiting for them?
Now, I am afraid that the Gray Knights already have some answers to this question.
When entering the industrial area, the lighting equipment carried by the Gray Knights occasionally swept across the ground during the exploration, and the scene was illuminated for a moment.
Calvin and his comrades had already discovered some traces that were different from the area near the exit of the hive: clothes, sets of clothes everywhere.
This situation is fashionable and unremarkable when it appears one or two pieces sporadically, but when the Gray Knights approached the residential area and saw pieces of clothing piled up on the streets of the residential area, it aroused their highest vigilance.
Calvin sent a small team to conduct a simple search in the houses on both sides of the street. The returning Gray Knights shook their heads at Calvin, indicating that they found no traces of fighting or struggle in the houses of these civilians.
That is to say, these people were overtaken on their way to escape danger after receiving some advance notice.
The clothes scattered on the ground showed that these enemies were different from the humanoid or larger purely physical destructive enemies that the Gray Knights had faced in the past.
Since they can kill these civilians on a large scale without damaging these clothes (note that they kill rather than take away, because taking away does not require leaving the clothes deliberately), it itself has shown the opponent's morphological strength.
It's special.
These deduced details are very useful to the Gray Knights.
Through this process of piecing together details, they gradually became clearer about the outlines of the unknown enemies they would face. Before actually confronting these enemies, the more information like this, the better...
The Mezzanine of the Nest City is usually inaccessible. Unless there is a need for repairs to the corresponding parts, other than the engineering personnel, this place is only used by the gangs in the dungeon for black market transactions.
In the mezzanine, relying on the huge invisible top wall of the inner hive, and on the maintenance stairs that repeatedly bent one section after another, the Gray Knights were still moving forward silently.
This kind of staircase was designed based on the size of a mortal from the beginning, so the width of the staircase can only allow the Gray Knights to line up alone and climb up.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! From a distance, these queues of majestic figures that look like sculptures on weekdays, in contrast to the huge hive city walls, look like a line lying on a huge oil
A worm on a barrel is as small as a worm.
The surrounding environment was eerily quiet. Apart from the heavy echo of the power armor hitting the metal steps, only the breathing coming from the helmets of the Gray Knights proved that there were still people here.
The silence brought by silence seemed to have no end, and the boring footsteps continued.
The entire team of Gray Knights didn't have much desire to communicate during the march. They just moved towards their goal. Until Calvin in front suddenly stopped.
"What's wrong?" After confirming that there was no enemy, Gavins behind Calvin asked Calvin.
The battle before entering the hive was too fierce, and Gavins really didn't have the energy to pay attention to Calvin's condition during his charge after charge.
He was worried that due to his own negligence, Calvin was injured in the battle, and that this happened without his knowledge.
"Brother Sanchis, died." Calvin turned back and looked in the direction of the entrance to the hive.
Looking at the soldier who was no longer aware of how far away he was, he was called company commander for the first time in his life.
Just now, the psychic mark that Calvin secretly left on Sanchis when he said goodbye to him failed.
In this environment, apart from Sanchis encountering the enemy again after they left and eventually dying in a fierce battle, Calvin could not think of any other reason for his beacon to be disabled.
Calvin's voice was not loud, but in the quiet environment, it was still clear enough for the entire team to hear.
Except for the two teams of Champion Terminators, no one else among the Gray Knights knew the basis for Calvin's conclusion.
But they still chose to believe in their commander. In previous battles, he had used enough ability and determination to build the soldiers' trust in him.
All the Gray Knights turned around at this moment and looked in the direction of Brother Sanchis in the distance with their hands on their chests. They collectively chanted in a low voice:
"He was born in war, and his silver sword is used to defeat prisoners;
Si died in battle, and his death was a famous festival.
If loyalty is your life, the emperor will show mercy;
Taking purity as a law, I am honored to serve you at your side.
When heaven and earth may come to an end, we will fight endlessly.
All spirits have proof and are said to be immortal throughout the ages."
Every Gray Knight knows that his destiny is to die in battle, but not every Gray Knight is lucky enough to return covered in horse leather.
The mission has not yet been completed, the Emperor's mission is still waiting for them to perform, and the people of the Empire are still waiting for their salvation.
They had no time or opportunity to recover Brother Sanchis' body, so this was the last funeral the Gray Knights could hold for him.
After everyone observed a three-minute silence, the Gray Knights continued to raise their silent steps. The battle has not stopped, and the mission will continue.
The fallen Brother Sanchis will not discourage the Gray Knights, because in their eyes, it is just a first step.
One day, they will meet again under the throne. That day may be far away, or it may be now...
After nearly 4 hours of long march, Calvin and his party finally saw the sign marking the upper level of the hive appearing at the end in the dim field of vision above their heads.
Just as the group was rejoicing at the emergence of this staged target node, the oracles on the Terminator power armor worn by the champion swordsmen who had been walking at the forefront broke the silence along the way and began to sound alarms.
.
"Warning! Multiple vital signs were detected above, 100 meters away!"
"Warning! Multiple vital signs were detected above, 100 meters away!"...
Not only the scanning array on Calvin, but also with the arrival of other Terminators, the auspices on them seemed to have reached the effective range of scanning, and began to join the ranks of Tian Noisy.
The entire team stopped and turned their attention to Calvin, who was at the front of the team and at the top.
Calvin's gaze looked there as if penetrating through the hatch far above his head. After comparing the target location information of the life detection in his hand, he turned back to his comrades and said:
"Let's go! Time doesn't allow us to take a detour, let's meet these guys."
The Gray Knights behind them said nothing after receiving Calvin's instructions. They silently sorted out and counted weapons and ammunition under the leadership of their team leaders. After confirming that the combat status was complete, they followed Calvin's footsteps.
Head towards the door that is destined to be unavoidable.