23 Return Journey (II)

Van Cleef stared at the holographic display screen in front of him, a calm feeling settling over him. He was lost in his own thoughts, precisely capturing the movements of the outside world through his senses. The company commander was used to this method to reflect on the past and pass the time.

Fer Zalost stood beside him, a cut on his forehead from which blood was seeping. Such bleeding wounds were commonplace for the Night Lords, but to see it on a Chief Librarian was still quite surprising.

They stood side by side on the bridge, while the Second Company Fatauselen, the fourth company commander Augusto, and the sixth company commander Yarod, had already rushed to the hangar. At this moment, the crew members on the bridge were extremely busy.

The then-captain, Lady Tarsi from the Lostaronia Family, stood amidst the cold instruments, urging and berating her crew to hurry up. She was about forty years old, resolute, and quite adept at dealing with people like the Night Lords.

Thirty seconds later, a series of hurried footsteps pulled Van Cleef out of his thoughts. The company commander turned around and saw their instructor, wrapped in human skin, leaping out of the darkness.

He certainly didn't get here by elevator or anything else.

Van Cleef chuckled at his own thoughts, temporarily ignoring the darkness that had enveloped Karyl's appearance and the footsteps that were clearly meant to alert them. He began to erase everything, focusing only on what was in front of him.

"How is the situation?" Karyl asked briefly.

"The Nightfall has received an emergency broadcast signal from another ship." Van Cleef gestured, maintaining his usual impassive expression. "It's coming from directly ahead; they've attached an identification code, and our crew is deciphering it."

"If our equipment could be upgraded, they should be able to do it much faster," Fer added. "However, the emergency broadcast signal has been decoded; would you like to listen to it in its entirety?"

"Just repeat the details to me, Fer," Karyl shook his head at their Chief Librarian. "And, how exactly did you cut your forehead?"

The Third Company Captain turned and glanced at Van Cleef, who was standing beside him. Van Cleef remained expressionless, merely nodding slightly as if acknowledging something.

"In short, the matter can be simply analyzed as an unfortunate Rogue Trader ship and his three lost escort ships, as well as a large group of Orks," Fer replied straightforwardly.

Karyl frowned.

The Night Lords are currently in the Storm Sector, so encountering Rogue Trader here isn't unusual; in fact, it's not unusual to encounter them anywhere. But Orks are a different story altogether.

Karyl hasn't encountered them yet, but he's already read a lot of information about them. These greenish things are described as "stupid and ferocious biological weapons" in the library on the Emperor's Dream, and the information inside Night Lords confirms this.

However, the Orks' stupidity is actually limited to certain narrow aspects; they are anything but stupid in battle. And, most importantly, they always appear in large groups. If you see one Orks, you're sure to see many more.

"Have there been any sightings of Orks in the Storm Sector before?" Karyl asked.

"At least I don't recall any, instructor," the company commander said. "But these things are cunning beasts; they can fight, and they can escape. It's not surprising that they appear anywhere."

"And he's a rare kind of idiot among Xenos," the Chief Librarian member said with a hint of sarcasm.

Karyl looked away and down at the instrument in front of him. Dense runes were flashing continuously on the holographic display table, and a blurry progress bar was jumping behind the runes.

That was the progress of parsing the identification codes; the crew were already very skilled at their work, and even with the old equipment, they were making rapid progress. However, this was no longer Karyl's primary concern.

Orks

He narrowed his eyes and turned to look at the female captain. She seemed to have anticipated his gaze, meeting his eyes directly with a serious expression. Without hesitation, Karyl gave the order, "Full speed ahead of that ship, Ms. Tarsi."

The female captain nodded slightly, turned around, and began urging her crew in a louder voice. After a slow wait, the ship's engines roared to life, and the walls and floor around the bridge began to tremble.

The Nightfall was never quiet when it was traveling at high speed. If sound could travel in a vacuum, everyone would probably be able to hear its strange, almost war-like announcement.

Fer Zalost slowly exhaled a breath of stale air. The wound on his forehead had long since stopped bleeding, and now he felt a strange tingling sensation.

He spoke in a murmured tone, with an obvious sarcasm. "Hopefully there won't be too many of them; we only have five thousand people."

"You might as well hope that Fatauselen and Augusto join forces," Van Cleef retorted calmly, taking less than two seconds to finish his sentence, while their instructor had already disappeared from the bridge.

Fer groaned and rubbed his temples. "You're really harsh, Company Commander."

"Likewise," Van Cleef said. "Prepare for battle. The Orks hope we won't be driven mad by their noise."

Fer burst out laughing.

--

Generally speaking, it's easy to be a pirate. However, it's very difficult to be a pirate who has connections with the authorities and is authorized by them.

The former can take other people's things at will without paying in most cases, while the latter cannot, although the profits become higher.

However, for Navarro Ciunas, he probably will never be able to get used to doing business with people in a peaceful and normal way.

Of course, he never expected that he would be robbed today.

And it wasn't being robbed by some audacious colleague, nor by those greedy governors using legitimate means. He was being robbed by a bunch of damned, demonic, fucking Xenos.

Orks.

Navarro sighed and began to wonder if he had been neglecting to wear his lucky charm when he went out lately.

He checked and found that his lucky ring, lucky necklace, and lucky bracelet were all in their proper places.

Then another thought arose—had his act of abandoning Lady Luck and switching his faith to the Imperial Truth angered that goddess, whose very existence was uncertain? Why was he so unlucky?

However, no matter what, it's too late to regret it now.

Captain Navarro sighed, raised his Autogun, and began firing fiercely down the corridor. They were being boarded; the enemy was coming on strong, outnumbered and powerful.

Fortunately, Navarro has spent most of the money he has earned over the years on weapons and equipment. He has a personal guard of 600 men, whose weapons range from heavy pistols to hand cannons, and they are all top-of-the-line.

You could even find four navy pistols under Navarro's coat; these four smuggled treasures were something he carried with him even when he slept. Therefore, despite their overwhelming numbers, the Orks were unable to gain the upper hand anytime soon.

After all, this is boarding—the cabin is cramped and the corridors are narrow. A machine gun or a dozen Autogun could easily occupy a corner, not to mention things like shotguns.

Navarro laughed gleefully, firing back the greedy Orks bastards as he joked with his adjutant, "Hey, Ma Yoen, don't you think these bastards made a mistake choosing us to join their side?"

His bald adjutant glanced at him, shook his head angrily, and mumbled through his mouth, "I think you're the bastard, Captain. You've ruined three frigates, you son of a bitch."

"How was I supposed to know they were Orks?" Navarro protested, retreating behind cover to change the magazines on his Autogun. His adjutant continued firing, both automatic pistols firing steadily—that's the benefit of the oversized magazines.

"Can't you fucking see there's something wrong with their ships?!" Ma Yoen angrily retreated behind his bunker, yelling at him. "What Imperium ship would paint its hull a shit-yellow color?!"

"What if it's rusty?" Navarro retorted under his breath.

"Don't you have any common sense as a former navy officer?!" His adjutant looked at him incredulously. "Can a ship with a surface completely rusted and a yellowish-brown hue even sail into space?!"

"Alright, alright."

Captain Navarro stood up again, showing the utmost leniency to his first mate—he kicked the latter with his boot and opened fire with satisfaction amidst curses.

He wasn't flustered; in fact, he was quite relaxed. After all, this was the Segmentum Tempestus, and while the number of Imperium ships coming and going from all directions wasn't as many as in the Sol System, it was certainly considerable.

The broadcast signal had been sent, and he had promised a shipment of valuable goods. With help from others, these Orks wouldn't be able to cause any trouble.

But

He ducked back into cover, nudged his adjutant's shoulder with his elbow, and asked amidst the gunfire, "Where's our secret?"

"Which one are you referring to?" the adjutant stared at him. "The one under your bed, the one in your armory, or the one at the stern?"

"Neither," Navarro said. "It's a diary with some very important names in it."

Why are you bringing this up now?

Navarro shrugged. "We always have to be prepared. Who knows what kind of people are on the ships that come to our aid? I don't want those big shots getting their asses smeared with the shit they've already wiped up. That wouldn't do either of us any good."

You bastard!

His adjutant cursed again, but quickly left with a group of men. They were going to protect the diary, while Navarro began to pray earnestly.

He hoped that those who came to his aid would be well-behaved Rogue Trader like himself, or even the Imperial Army, as long as they weren't on ships belonging to government officials.

He smiled slightly, stood up, and fired again, completely unaware of the fate that awaited him.

I overslept during the day and am only updating now, sorry. Just one update today, but I'll increase the frequency starting in September.