Dead Star Archaeology

Archaeology on a Death World

It must be said that the location Hogg chose for his arrival on Alicia was bizarre; the place Blackwatch had developed into a sector was positioned in a truly awkward spot.

The entire sector was shaped like a cube, wedged right into the corner of the Solar Segmentum, serving as the junction for three different segmentums. To the right lay the sphere of influence of the Fourth Legion from Olympia.

Above it was the dividing line for the Segmentum Obscurus—the future dark side of the Imperium—and if one were to continue exploring, they would eventually reach Caliban, the home of the Lion. To the left was an even heavier hitter: the Eye of Terror hung right there.

One might ask, what about the Solar Segmentum, the heart of the Imperium, located below? But that was the crux of the problem: if a future Great Crusade-era rebellion intended to strike at Terra, imagine what would happen to Alicia, which stood directly in the way.

Why did the Emperor not interfere with Hogg's fraternizing with xenos? Why did He never urge Hogg to move, even when the front lines were mired in brutal combat? The reason was simple: as long as Blackwatch kept its construction center focused on the Alicia sector, any force attempting to assault Terra would have to march over Hogg's corpse. In a different sense, this bought the Emperor time.

Once Hogg began traversing the Webway, enjoying such convenient infrastructure, he instantly understood the Emperor's goal. Old Man Yellow was still gambling, using the flames of the Great Crusade to expand the living space of humanity, trading space for time, all to serve the Webway Project. As long as humanity built its own Webway, it would never again be held by the throat by the Warp.

A gambler, even knowing the tragic outcome of the future, will still continue to execute the original plan. Hogg had once asked the Emperor why He didn't just kill all the Primarchs to end it and change the future directly. At that time, the Emperor had no choice but to reveal some secrets to Hogg.

Although the Emperor had taken a seat at the table, He was still the weakest player—not the "toilet-bound" figure sustained by the faith of quadrillions of humans that Hogg remembered. To enter the game, He had to overdraw the power of the future in advance. Therefore, the rebellion was inevitable; otherwise, fate would spiral out of control, and the consequence would be the Vinster King, threatened by the future, devouring Old Man Yellow and dragging all of humanity to the grave with him.

The future could only proceed according to the general script, and Hogg, having jumped outside the game, became the key to breaking the board. Emperor hadn't told him exactly what to do at the time, only leaving him with a "act as you see fit" before slipping away.

Sigh! Life is not easy. Forget it, since He wants to play, I'll go all-in with Him. If I'm living a second life, I might as well enjoy it. Hogg, who had yet to receive a psychic phone call from the Emperor, began to feel restless.

Just as Hogg was looking for some amusement, the vanguard discovered a human technological world broadcasting a continuous signal. Upon detection, it was identified as communication encoding from the Dark Age of Technology. Hogg immediately made the call to dock the warships and go down for archaeology; if they found even a single STC, it would be a massive profit.

A transport ship detached from the fleet and headed toward the planet ahead. As they drew closer, Hogg realized this was a dead world. There were no signs of life detected on the surface, which meant this archaeological operation should go quite smoothly.

"Crunch! Crunch!"

The hatch opened, and a group of tin cans in power armor climbed out to stand guard. As an archaeology veteran, Candice Laza opened her auspex to collect data.

"Lord Primarch, please don't move things around; that is just a scrapped mechanical component, not some priceless treasure." The Tech-Priest stopped Hogg from digging through the debris at his feet.

"Ah! Worthless? Damn, I got excited for nothing."

Riding in a Manticore transport vehicle through the broken ruins, the group was surrounded only by shattered metal. These scraps had been oxidized and corroded for so many years that they weren't even worth recycling. The collapsed Hive City looked like a dilapidated tomb, with many human skeletons still scattered on the streets.

The scouting team pushed forward aggressively and soon reached the upper levels of the Hive City. The good news was that, shielded by the architecture, the remaining power systems were still functioning. They started the elevator with ease, though they couldn't enter the security doors due to a lack of authorization.

Candice Laza extended several mechanical tentacles from beneath her robes and inserted them into the security valve before her. Accompanied by the execution of electronic junk code, the master control device was overridden, and the group gained access.

What met their eyes was the same ornate decoration found in typical upper-level Hive Cities; some areas were even gilded, reflecting the taste of the former owners even without maintenance.

Hogg was very curious about the cause of this world's demise. On the way here, he hadn't found any traces of large-scale warfare. It was as if, at a certain moment in the past, the humans on the planet had suddenly died. No one had resisted; it was too strange.

Soon, Candice Laza discovered the Planetary Governor's residence. Pushing open the door, they were greeted by a skeleton sitting upright at a desk, connected to a Cogitator.

"Father! It was a natural death!" a medical sergeant reported after stepping forward to examine the remains.

"Candice, you read the information remaining on the Cogitator and see if you can retrieve the logs. Sergeant, go summon the fleet. Tell them to send more personnel down to stand guard; we need heavy firepower. This place is too abnormal."

In Hogg's memory, the most obvious characteristic of a destroyed Hive City was the trace of war, but there was none here. It was simply unscientific.

While he was racking his brain to think of what could kill everyone on a planet in an instant, the Farseer in the team discovered an anomaly.

"Lord Holy Father, the Warp link here is extremely unstable. I cannot channel Warp energy as smoothly as before." The naturally psychically sensitive Farseer felt a sense of spiritual oppression, as if something was interfering with his abilities.

"Unstable link? Could it be..."

Before Hogg could think it through, Candice sent a file to the system of his Raider armor. It was a log record from the Planetary Governor a thousand years ago.

1,763, M29

Under my rule, the development of Coral has flourished.

Since the Warp storms that followed the suppression of the rebellion, our family has guarded this world for four millennia. We, the people of Coral, have survived tenaciously on this planet. Although we still have not received communications from the Federation, the mighty Human Federation will surely return to unify us. All I must do is continue my family's rule. It is just that without the help of intelligent AI, the reconstruction of the planet is too slow. We, who once roamed the stars, can no longer escape the planet's gravity.

3,764, M29

Something strange has happened in the lower levels of the Hive City. It must be a plague; many workers are too weak to work, which has affected the operation of the Hive City. I have ordered the defense forces to implement controls. The good news is that the plague has been contained to a very small area, and our medical experts have begun the intensive development of a vaccine. I believe that with the great power of technology, things will soon improve.

6,764, M29

Damn it! The plague has spread. Even the upper levels are starting to see deaths. My poor little John didn't make it. Those medical experts are all trash; they swore that the plague would be contained within a month, but their vaccines are useless. I will execute them for crimes against the Human Federation.

8,764, M29

This is not a plague. It is those damned xenos scum.

We discovered a xenos nest underground. I can't believe we have been living on top of them all this time. We disturbed their slumber, and it is laughable that I thought this was just an ordinary plague. There are not many humans left. We cannot die in silence like this; I must seal them away again. I hope we succeed.

9,764, M29

We failed, and we succeeded. The xenos underground have been wiped out and re-sealed in their nest, but the remaining humans are not even enough to reach the minimum base for development. We are going to perish; there is no doubt about that.

I can only continue to send warning signals according to Federation regulations, hoping that the humans who arrive in the future can reclaim Coral. Long live the Human Federation!!!

Damn! It's the Necrons.