The First Punishment World

899.M30.

Ultima Segmentum, Loki Sector, Laern System, the feral world of Blackwater Planet.

After the 11th Chapter successfully won the natives' recognition and incorporated it into the Legion, they arrived in orbit over Blackwater Planet in the same system.

Heavy landers flew out from the black ships and slowly descended.

Second Company Captain Kirkland's mind flashed back over the miraculous experiences of the past while.

At the end of 898, he had passed through the Carium Gate and arrived in the remote northwestern reaches of the galaxy.

At the beginning of 899, he, along with Chapter Master Per Koschelny, First Company Captain Gibbs, and Third Company Captain Chambers, had become immortals on a night on Cradle of Serpents III.

Kirkland felt the surging vitality within him, as if his father's great hand were stroking him.

The scan results from the Auger Matrix began scrolling across his helmet lenses, pulling him out of his memories.

Kirkland rapidly browsed the key information. Blackwater Planet's gravity was 1.61 times that of Terra. Black water covered 49.83% of its surface, while the rest was mainly covered by forest.

As the deck trembled beneath his feet, Kirkland led his Honor Guard down from it.

As he walked, his magnetic boots adjusted on their own, allowing him to adapt to this world's higher gravity.

He looked toward Keri, whose snake-hair drifted as she bent to touch the black soil.

Keri's bronze skin was smooth, no longer dry as it had been in the past.

The journey to the Cradle of Serpents had been like a dream. Within blue radiance, she had received Lord Nimrod's gift and gained eternal life.

Immortality.

In the myths of the Cradle of the Sea, only gods could live forever.

Now, she knew that it was not that gods would live forever,