The Return Journey

Dragging a half-sized giant, plus having to avoid the overly rugged sections of the path to prevent Ogedei in the trailer from being bounced out, meant the return trip took longer than the journey there.

By the time Fu Qinghai and the others rushed back to the colonial outpost, it was already noon on the third day.

The arrival of the three caused a sensation in the colonial outpost.

Normally, there was never anything of note happening in this small outpost of a few thousand people, and even the most trivial, messy matters could become the talk of the town for the residents after a meal.

Now, two orphans with little presence in the outpost had dragged back a Space Marine.

Strictly speaking, half a Space Marine.

It was as if the sun had risen from the south.

The residents set aside their work one after another to come and watch.

"Isn't that little Locke and Feiyi? My god, they've done something huge."

You wouldn't happen to think I captured a Space Marine, would you... Fu Qinghai thought to himself.

"I knew that child would amount to something since he was small!"

Who are you? I didn't even know you when I was a kid... Fu Qinghai was speechless.

"Make way, folks, please make way." Sitting in the back seat of the jetbike, Fu Qinghai waved his hand, signaling the onlookers blocking the road to move aside.

Ogedei, sitting in the trailer behind, felt a bit stifled as he watched the residents chattering about him.

As a veteran who had served for over two hundred years, it wasn't as if he hadn't participated in propaganda events like The Emperor's reviews or victory parades, designed to show the might of the Astartes and the strict discipline of the Imperial military to the ordinary citizens of the Imperium.

But this was his first time being dragged along in a dilapidated trailer and gawked at by a group of hicks from a hive world.

During the Great Crusade, the Imperium of Man always practiced a military-first policy. Space Marines were the backbone and elite of the Imperial military. Every Space Marine was not only skilled in combat but also possessed the tactical acumen to command a small-scale battle. Therefore, even an ordinary Space Marine was equivalent to an officer to most rank-and-file mortal auxiliaries, capable of directly taking over command of mortal troops on a battlefield where the command structure had collapsed.

Not to mention that Ogedei was a mid-level officer in the Astartes organizational hierarchy.

To ordinary Imperial citizens, he was an existence high above.

Thus, Ogedei could not help but feel the desolation of a tiger fallen into the flatlands.

Fu Qinghai could roughly understand his emotions, so he didn't waste time and headed straight for the small villa of Calvin, the colonial outpost's administrator.

Although the surrounding residents were whispering, they didn't dare point fingers at a Space Marine. Ogedei's armor, covered in mottled bullet marks, and his physique, which was far more imposing than an ordinary person's, silently spoke of his power. The looks people gave Ogedei were filled with awe and curiosity.

Fu Qinghai and the others arrived in front of Calvin's small villa.

Having received the news, Calvin had already come out early to check the situation. When he saw Ogedei sitting in the trailer, his expression was momentarily uncertain, and he subconsciously straightened his administrative uniform with both hands.

Feiyi stopped the jetbike, and Fu Qinghai introduced him to Calvin: "Sir, this is Noyan-Khan Ogedei, a Space Marine of the V Legion whom I rescued from the wreckage of the warship."

"Ah... this, uh... very good." Calvin didn't know what to say for a moment.

Ogedei, in the dilapidated trailer, looked at Calvin and spoke calmly in a hoarse voice:

"I am Ogedei Mangudai, Captain of the Falcon Brotherhood under the V Legion White Scars. I now declare the colonial outpost of planet 17-974 to be under the military control of the Imperial military. I order you to immediately transfer the management of the colonial outpost to me."

Calvin bowed his head in absolute obedience: "My honor, sir."

Calvin was originally a low-level administrative official left behind by the 17th Expedition Fleet to liaise with subsequent colonial fleets. Because the subsequent colonial fleets never arrived, he, the highest-ranking official currently present, had been forced into the role.

He was more than willing to hand over management when Ogedei asked for it.

Fu Qinghai even felt that after transferring management to Ogedei, Calvin had changed from his usual panicked and decadent self to someone full of drive.

When Ogedei asked him to organize the residents of the colonial outpost to bring transportation tools and equipment to the warship wreckage to excavate and recover usable resources, Calvin organized a sizable team very efficiently.

Before organizing the personnel to head to the warship wreckage, Ogedei and Calvin had a private conversation in the small villa, exchanging information they each knew. Primarily, Ogedei conveyed to Calvin the situation the Imperium of Man was currently facing—Warmaster Horus had rebelled, half of the Astartes Legions had defected, and Warp storms were ravaging the galaxy, cutting off communication and transport between various parts of the Imperium and the central Terra. The White Scars, however, had chosen loyalty and stood on the side of The Emperor.

This news was enough to shock Calvin for an entire year.

Warmaster Horus had rebelled, half the Legions had defected... The implications behind this were far more unsettling to Calvin than seeing two groups of Space Marines fighting. Fortunately, someone capable of taking charge had arrived.

Currently, Ogedei did not know that the sudden outbreak of the Warp storms stemmed from the manipulation of the four Chaos Gods of the Warp, nor did he know the connection between this and Warmaster Horus's betrayal. It was even a question of whether an officer of Ogedei's level was aware of the existence of the Chaos Gods.

Not to mention that Ogedei was not a Stormseer of the White Scars' Librarius. Even many Astartes Legion Librarians, those military psykers who could manipulate the aether, still thought of the Warp as a purely physical space—one without life, without its own thoughts or consciousness, and where the laws of energy and matter were simply temporarily beyond the understanding of humans in the main space.

As for Calvin, he mainly conveyed the current situation of the colonial outpost to Ogedei.

There wasn't much to convey: a few thousand civilians, a spaceship with insufficient fuel, and a small outpost with no defensive fortifications. That was all.

If faced with a warship capable of orbital bombardment, a single shot would be enough to wipe out the colonial outpost on Cheslatan; not even an extra shot would be needed.

Fu Qinghai was also present at this private meeting. Ogedei allowed him to be there, so Calvin tacitly accepted his presence on the sidelines.

Calvin even felt that compared to himself, an administrative official of the 17th Expedition Fleet and a proper Imperial civil servant, Ogedei seemed to trust Locke, a youth from the lower hive, a bit more.

This was only natural. Faced with the spaceship wreckage and the Astartes infighting, Calvin had chosen to remain silent and watch, waiting passively, while Fu Qinghai had chosen to take the initiative, investigate the situation, and even save Ogedei's life. Who knew how long the trapped Ogedei could have survived by eating corpses.

Fu Qinghai did not explain the truth about the Warp storms to Ogedei; it would have been useless. Why would Ogedei believe the views on the Warp from a lower-hive youth with no psychic talent?

The top priority now was to contact the White Scars warship in outer space.

Watching Calvin lead Ogedei toward the communication cabin of the colonial ship, Fu Qinghai had many questions in his mind.

Were there still White Scars warships in outer space?

Then why didn't they send personnel to land on the surface to check the situation?

To which side did the crashed warship belong?

Neither the White Scars nor the Sons of Horus appeared to have any follow-up support; a lone frigate had crashed on Cheslatan, so where had their respective fleets gone?

Ogedei did not explain these questions to Calvin, and Calvin did not ask, simply and honestly carrying out Ogedei's orders.

Despite having a head full of questions, Fu Qinghai still did not speak up to ask. He pursed his lips, watching Ogedei's back as he entered the communications cabin.

Ogedei had discarded that broken trailer and was currently sitting in a modified wheelchair. He looked at the communications equipment before him, his eyes filled with worry.

The captain of the colony ship was also stranded on Cheslatan. He was a bearded man who introduced the situation to Ogedei:

"Sir, this is currently our longest-range communications equipment. It has a greater range than the set in the outpost and can transmit messages to neighboring planets. We have kept the line open, but we haven't received any messages."

Ogedei frowned. The entire colony outpost lacked an Astropath, and furthermore, astropathic communication relied on the stability of the Warp; ultra-long-range astropathic communication was out of the question.

As for the civilian communications equipment on the ship, this distance was its limit.

Fu Qinghai followed him in, staring at the device before him in thought, but this time, the sea of consciousness of his electronic soul did not ripple.

Iron Man was not omnipotent.

Ogedei pressed a button, adjusted the ship's broadcast signal to a military frequency, leaned down, and spoke into the colony ship's microphone:

"Dagger, this is Ogedei Manut. I am on the planetary surface. Please respond if you receive this. I am on the planetary surface. Please respond if you receive this."

Then he turned to the captain and said, "Keep this broadcast on a loop until we return from the wreckage of the warship."

The captain replied, "Understood, sir."

The colony ship's broadcast signal could be sent to the outer space of Cheslatan. Although it was a military frequency, it would be heard by the enemy. If they were unlucky, it might attract enemy warships to land on Cheslatan, but there was no other way. Fu Qinghai guessed that Ogedei had other missions and objectives, otherwise he would not have resorted to such a desperate measure.

The next day, the residents of the Cheslatan colony outpost drove all sorts of strange vehicles, heading toward the warship wreckage in a massive procession.

Whether it was industrial production or agricultural planting, a complete industrial chain was required. On an isolated colony planet, every piece of scrap metal was a resource, let alone a warship.

And Ogedei also needed the military communications equipment, auspexes, and other gear from the frigate.

Fu Qinghai was also among the team salvaging the wreckage.

He had now figured out two things.

First, there were indeed White Scars warships in outer space, named the "Dagger," otherwise Ogedei's broadcast would have had no origin.

Second, the crashed frigate belonged to the Sons of Horus; it was a ship of the XVI Legion, as the heraldry and emblems on the warship wreckage had already made clear.

The salvage and resource recovery began from the outside. The automated defensive weapons still operating inside the warship had been dealt with one by one by Fu Qinghai, who pushed Ogedei's wheelchair as he fired.

The residents worked with great enthusiasm; after all, the materials and supplies salvaged belonged to the colony outpost, with only the weapons and military equipment needing to be handed over to Ogedei.

However, Ogedei, who was supervising from the side, frowned, his face filled with worry.

Two days had passed, and the colony ship's broadcast signal had received no response.

"One, two, three, heave! One, two, three, heave!"

People shouted in rhythm. With the joint efforts of cutting machinery, servitors, and humans, a hatch half-buried in the ground was pulled out, revealing a pitch-black cabin inside.

A man poked his head in to take a look, then immediately pulled it back.

"My lord." The man in charge shouted toward Ogedei's side: "It looks like a communications cabin."

Ogedei straightened his body instantly, turned to look at Fu Qinghai beside him, and said, "Come with me."

Fu Qinghai pushed the wheelchair and hurried over.

Ogedei grabbed the top edge of the hatch with one hand and pulled his entire upper body inside. Fu Qinghai followed closely behind, ducking his head to climb in, and turned on a flashlight.

The light source illuminated the cabin, revealing dense rows of equipment buttons and black screens, along with the corpse of a crew member in a gray-green uniform lying to the side.

Ogedei casually pushed the crew member's corpse aside and examined the communications facilities before him. This was not the bridge, nor the warship's command center, but it did have communications equipment.

Ogedei pressed a few buttons on the equipment, but the screen showed no reaction. He couldn't help but click his tongue and frown tightly.

"Let me try." Fu Qinghai squeezed in front of Ogedei and said.

Fu Qinghai began to fiddle with the few pieces of equipment that were still relatively intact.

This was his first time coming into contact with the communications instruments of the Imperium of Man in the Warhammer 40K universe, yet he appeared exceptionally proficient. Fu Qinghai asked Ogedei questions as he groped around; Ogedei could tell it was his first time seeing this stuff because Fu Qinghai didn't even know what many of the common-sense button symbols meant.

Fu Qinghai dismantled the instrument's casing, poked half his body inside, and guided by the train of thought in his mind, his hands nimbly manipulated the cables and various integrated circuits.

Before long, a soot-covered Fu Qinghai climbed out of the casing, clapped his hands, and looked at the still-dark, motionless screen, wondering, "That shouldn't be right. I feel like I've fixed it."

You feel like... Ogedei didn't know how to evaluate those three words.

Fu Qinghai squinted at the instrument, thinking: What, can't Iron Man fix you?

Suddenly, Fu Qinghai raised his foot and gave the communications instrument a hard kick. The casing made a "bang" sound.

Ogedei was stunned.

"Sss..." The pitch-black screen suddenly flashed with static, and then, the fluorescent lights of the three screens lit up simultaneously.

Looking at the text flickering on the screen before him, Fu Qinghai turned his head and asked:

"Is this the famous Logis Engine?"

"You have never disappointed me, kid." Ogedei looked at Fu Qinghai with eyes full of approval and said, "Is Levant a Forge World with technology comparable to Mars? Why have I never heard of it before?"

Even a lower-hive pauper possessed the ability to repair military communications equipment.

The Levant Hive is truly terrifying!

"Talent, just talent." Fu Qinghai explained with a chuckle.

Time was tight, so Ogedei didn't continue to pry. He picked up the headset that had fallen to the floor, put it on, and operated the communication device. When a verification prompt appeared, he grabbed the corpse on the floor with one hand, pressed its finger against the scanner, and aligned its pupil with the sensor with practiced ease.

Ogedei pressed a button, took a deep breath, leaned over, and spoke into the device: "Dagger, Dagger, this is Ogedei Mangnut. Please respond if you read me, please respond."

After speaking, Ogedei leaned back against the bulkhead.

The communication cabin was deathly quiet, with no sound other than the faint hum of the equipment.

In the dim cabin, Ogedei and Fu Qinghai stared at each other, the atmosphere becoming momentarily awkward.

"Crackle..." A burst of static broke the quiet and awkward silence, followed by a voice filled with surprise:

"Ogedei!? You're still alive?"

Ogedei let out a sigh of relief and couldn't help but laugh: "Of course, Talal, you idiot, I've got a tough life."

The voice from the device sounded hurried: "What is your situation? Why are you using a Sons of Horus signal to contact us? Where are China and the others?"

"My situation..." Ogedei looked down at his empty lower half and sighed: "It's very bad. I'm on the Gryphon, the warship crashed into the atmosphere, and China and the others were all killed in action."

"I'm the only one left alive."

The voice on the other end was silent for a moment: "Understood. I will arrange for a landing craft to pick you up on the surface immediately."

Ogedei said: "Track the location of this signal to pinpoint the surface; you'll be able to see the wreckage of the warship once you descend to a certain altitude."

"Copy that."

PS: The Warhammer 40K IP has such a long history, with too many tabletop rulebooks, original novels, and related PC games. Various official settings often contradict each other, and new versions frequently retcon old ones. Therefore, I will use the settings from the official original novels as the primary basis for this book, as the numerical values from rulebooks and games are not easily adapted into a novel. I will try my best to stick to the original settings, though I will modify parts I find unreasonable (especially regarding GW's terrible math). Please don't get hung up on the details, but feel free to point out anything that seems too outrageous or if I've made a mistake due to a lack of knowledge.