"Elias, I am now Gao Yi, the acting captain of this warship. You said you saw the Master of Discipline go down to the lower levels together with Lord Ludwig?"
Soon Gao Yi connected to the sound array of Elias.
As he said this, Gao Yi was also using his current perception to sense Master of Discipline Scott, who was on the bridge.
At this moment Scott was still diligently processing a large number of combat reports and personnel assignments from the lower deck, showing not even a trace of anomaly.
If the Master of Discipline and the Rogue Trader went down... then who is this one right now? If Scott really accompanied the Rogue Trader down, why didn't he report such an important matter to me?
There was something fishy! There was definitely something fishy. If the Scott Elias mentioned was not impersonated by someone else, then Scott was definitely hiding something.
"That's right, my captain! I can't be mistaken. It is definitely Master of Discipline Scott. The few surviving priests around me can also testify for me! At that time they were the ones accompanying me! They said they were going to look for something! I watched with my own eyes as they headed in the direction of the deep hold!"
Elias said eagerly.
"I know... You should rest well for now. I will remember your merit, and the dynasty will also remember your contribution."
After cutting off the sound array communication, Gao Yi quietly contacted Veil.
"Veil, has the new batch of gear changes been completed?"
"Captain! Two hundred soldiers have completed their gear changes, and five soldiers who changed into Marauder Combat Suits are also ready, preparing to go and support Lord Damon." There was obvious joy in Veil's tone.
"First pull up one hundred soldiers, and bring all the Marauders to the bridge."
"The bridge? Captain, have you encountered something?"
"Do you understand Scott?"
"Scott? Why do you say that? Although his dereliction of duty this time is very serious, he is usually quite competent. In recent years there have been no major problems, and he has even established quite a bit of merit!"
"When did he come to this warship?"
"He was born on this warship. His clan has always worked on the lower deck, except that he was selected as an enforcer of the deep hold. His lower-deck background made it easier for him to handle the conflicts of those scum below and suppress a few riots, so he received commendations and rose step by step to his current position."
"Deep hold... What kind of place is the deep hold of this warship?"
"That is a place where lower-deck shipworkers are unwilling to go... The lower deck at least has basic living security. As long as you work hard, the ration cards you get can let you exchange for enough corpse starch or a small amount of normal food, and you can also get filtered drinking water. If you save a bit, you can even have a surplus to get a couple of clothes, and trade for some tobacco and alcohol."
Here we might as well call them tobacco and alcohol...
However, the deep hold... strictly speaking, that cannot be considered a normal deck. This lunar-class warship has served the dynasty for many years.
The empire allows private individuals to own warships of at most the lunar-class, and they can only purchase those retired from the navy.
Therefore, from the acquisition of this warship onward, in order to make it operate normally and obtain stronger combat effectiveness, the dynasty spent a huge price to invite the cult to repair and modify it.
After all, the combat capability tendencies required by the dynasty's warship were very different from those of the navy.
And the closer one got to the bottom of the warship, the more those facilities lacked maintenance.
After passing through who knows how many years, many pipelines and compartments there completely lost their function, and even the Tech-Priests deemed them to have lost the value of repair and recycling.
Moreover, the cost of altering the overall structure of the entire ship was too great.
There was no food and no drinking water there. People who committed crimes on the lower deck or whose bodies mutated would hide there. You also know the empire's attitude toward mutants.
And certain mutations appearing during warp travel were inevitable. The warp anomalies that appeared from time to time always took the lives of some people, and even losing half of the crew from the start of a long voyage to its end belonged to the acceptable range.
In the past, Lord Ludwig would regularly purge that place after every fixed period of time, but as long as this warship existed, people would always hide below, and the complex pipelines there also provided those people with the opportunity to hide. The deep hold had long since formed a certain balance with the decks further above.
After listening to Veil's introduction, Gao Yi could not help but mentally complain.
Wasn't this purely a hotbed of Chaos corruption? But this was also the norm of the Warhammer Imperium of Man. No matter where one went, the figures of these cultists would never be missing. As long as people still had desires, that would give those demons an opportunity to exploit. Gao Yi had no doubt that even in the center of humanity, Holy Terra, these fellows existed just the same, only they couldn't stir up any storms.
In the end, it still depended on whether these cults had developed and grown.
Gao Yi told Veil about the intelligence provided by Elisia, and after listening, Veil also found it hard to believe.
"You mean Scott was already corrupted when he was on the lower deck and in the deep hold? And even Lord Ludwig's disappearance is related to him?!"
"That's right! Since a breakthrough has already been found, let's interrogate him properly. Veil, you should be good at interrogation, right?"
"Of course! As the steward, these officers fall under my jurisdiction! It's not like similar things haven't happened inside the warship before.
However, there has never been a betrayal by someone of the status of Master of Discipline. If it really is him, then it also makes sense how the traitors could smoothly acquire weapons and reach the upper deck. Scott as the Master of Discipline has quite a bit of authority, except that he used some special method to conceal his tracks, which was why his problem wasn't discovered when querying the Thinker logs.
My lord! I will bring people to the bridge right now. Before we arrive, please do not act rashly. Your safety is what matters most right now!"
"I won't. Also, don't reveal your intentions right off the bat either. If he really has defected to Chaos, then he might have some special methods. We must absolutely not break this thread of clues. Remember to try to select upper-deck crew members, and don't select them from the enforcer squad. No one knows whether he still has informants."
"Understood, Captain! I know which people are absolutely loyal to the dynasty!"
The communication was interrupted, and Veil immediately led the selected soldiers rushing in the direction of the bridge.
And Scott obviously did not yet know that he had been exposed, still carrying out his own work.
Before long, the hatch leading to the bridge opened, and Veil walked in with a dark face and a murderous aura, leading a group of soldiers wearing CMC Combat Suits.
The five soldiers in front wearing the Marauders had an even more oppressive feel. They similarly wore CMC-660 heavy combat suits, except that unlike Firebats, they didn't add fire resistance, but instead invested more resources into the strength of the armor. The K-12 quad-punisher grenade launchers on their arms, whose proportions were a bit exaggerated, had startling firepower.
If the weapons on their arms were replaced with heavy bolters, perhaps their combat effectiveness would be even stronger? Gao Yi was already pondering in his heart whether he could try combining Adeptus Astartes Technology and Adeptus Mechanicus technology.
Rather than calling them infantry, it was better to call them some humanoid heavy transport vehicles.
The arrival of Veil and the group of soldiers made the crew members on the bridge exceptionally nervous.
After all, having just experienced the matter of thugs storming into the bridge, they still had some stress reactions.
"Everyone stay at your posts and continue to complete your own work! There's no need to panic!"
Seeing the arrival of Veil, Scott, acting as the Master of Discipline, actually took the initiative to greet him.
"Steward Veil! Why did you bring soldiers here? The riot below hasn't been resolved yet, has it?"
"The captain called us here. Scott, just finish your own work well!"
As he spoke, Veil directly pushed Scott aside, walking toward Gao Yi of his own accord. However, the positioning of the group of soldiers also began to change, faintly forming a posture of surrounding Scott.
Before you continue