"Hmm~ hmm~ hmm~ hmm."
The wind howled, and a cloak snapped in the gale.
On a mound of grit, a warrior in Dark Angels-pattern Mark II armor lay with one leg crossed over the other.
The Fallen Angel named Kai hummed a little tune, lying on his side with a rock for a pillow and a creased, yellowed photograph in his hand.
The photograph showed Kai's wife and daughter.
They were family from ten thousand years ago.
When Kai discovered he had been branded a traitor to the Legion, he planned to hide in a Warp Rift near Caliban until things cooled down, then take his family to an Agri World in Ultramar, buy some land, and live in seclusion.
But when he emerged from the Warp Rift, he discovered that Caliban had been blown apart, and nine thousand years had passed.
Kai had always wondered who had destroyed Caliban. During his life as a Fallen Angel, he had not only evaded the Dark Angels' pursuit but also tried to get to the bottom of it.
Then he happened upon an ancient Gene-father in the Eye of Terror. The Gene-father told him about Caliban's destruction and offered a deal, on the condition that he prevent Lu Jin's ascension to godhood. He promised that if Kai went to a planet named Vara, also known as Alert Star, he could eventually be sent back more than ten
thousand years to rescue his family during Caliban's fall.
Naturally, Kai could not have asked for anything better.
But as things stood, the original plan was not going very smoothly.
He was not lying here singing for that mission, either, but because of a little prophecy.
A low rumble-the roar of an armored vehicle reached him.
At the sound, Kai jolted, sprang to his feet,