White Hair

A beam of light shone into Lin Fan's slowly opening eyes. His vision was so blurry that he had to blink hard several times before it came into focus. Lin Fan felt utterly exhausted, like someone who had not exercised in ages suddenly deciding on a whim to work out savagely at the gym for several hours, only to wake the next day weak and aching all over. Except this discomfort was even worse—like having to constantly climb up and down stairs while feeling every muscle being pulled.

Licking his lips, Lin Fan felt unbearably thirsty. It was almost laughable. Before this coma, Lin Fan had barely ever felt thirsty, let alone sleepy or tired. Even during training, he had never felt this way. Only after clashing head-on with those superhuman Chaos Space Marines had the exhaustion come crashing down on him.

Lin Fan thought bitterly that he was not completely invincible after all. Forcing his mortal body to keep up with those superhumans' rapid dodges and maneuvers had placed far too great a burden on him, enough to crush even his mind. Still, at least he was alive, rather than being disemboweled by chainswords or blown to pieces by boltguns like his brothers in the assault squad. His heart stinging at the thought, Lin Fan sniffed loudly.

"Oh! God-Emperor above! Our hero is awake!"

Cheers came from Lin Fan's left, followed by hurried footsteps.

Lin Fan laboriously raised his head to look at the people crowding around him. He saw Old Jock's unmistakable bald head, Damian, and several soldiers he did not recognize. Judging by their attire, Lin Fan figured they might be from the Inquisition.

"Good lad, I've heard all about your exploits from those soldiers. Truly incredible! Even I couldn't have done as well as you did." Old Jock's rough voice seized all of Lin Fan's attention. He noticed that Old Jock now had a red mechanical eye, and that his left arm had been replaced with a metal prosthetic.

"Old Jock, what happened to you?"

"Oh, this?" Old Jock knocked his mechanical arm with his exaggeratedly muscular right arm, producing a dull metallic thud. The arm sounded heavy. "Our 3rd Company's base was attacked by those rebels too. But who do you think your sergeant is? I cut my way through them seven times in and seven times out. These are just a few souvenirs I picked up."

Listening to Old Jock's plainspoken, crude account, Lin Fan chuckled happily. He knew that although Old Jock made it sound easy, the battle must have been difficult. After all, the 3rd Company's equipment was not particularly good, and it had the fewest men of all the companies.

The two of them began talking as though Damian, standing there with the adoring expression of a fan meeting his idol, did not exist.

Lin Fan had been unconscious for nearly half a month. During that time, Colonel Mark had led more than sixty soldiers from the 1st Company, along with over a thousand fresh recruits from the reserve 4th and 5th Companies, back to Keton. The engine of the transport vehicle that had saved so many lives had also fulfilled its duty and broken down completely. It was said that Delia, the trainee priest, had even performed several memorial rites for the vehicle's machine spirit.

Colonel Mark's troops easily picked apart the utterly disorganized Chaos rebels one by one. The residents of Keton, driven to fury by the rebels' madness, had grabbed whatever farm tools they had at home and fought them tooth and nail. In this place, where weapons were severely scarce, only the Astra Militarum and Planetary Defense Force stationed on the planet had any real armaments. But the stirred-up Planetary Defense Force was too few in number, and their uprising had been sudden and completely unorganized. In the end, Colonel Mark and Keton's residents joined forces to suppress the rebellion.

Afterward, when the 37th Regiment's dead were counted, over three thousand men from the 4th and 5th Companies had been killed due to inadequate equipment and insufficient training when facing the rebels. The 1st Company had lost more than nine hundred men under the assault of the Chaos Space Marines. The 2nd Company had suffered relatively light casualties against the rebels, with only a little over two hundred dead. The 3rd Company, due to its small numbers, had also been hit hard, with nearly four hundred men dying in firefights with the rebels.

Many of the rebellious Planetary Defense Force troops had also been purged. Of the more than thirty thousand defense troops responsible for protecting the areas around the entire Green Basin, almost all had been eliminated. Only a few hundred remained, hiding in scattered places.

After analyzing the situation, Colonel Mark and Commissar Aude, who had returned from the Adeptus Mechanicus branch, found that no similar rebellions had broken out elsewhere on the planet. This revolt had been localized, extremely rushed, and poorly planned. It looked more like a move meant to conceal something by drawing attention away.

The ring-shaped ocean that encircled the planet, carved out by the water-vapor circulation guaranteed by the Adeptus Mechanicus, separated two broad, flat continents. The 37th Regiment was stationed in the center of the eastern continent, in the Green Basin. Although Keton, as the center of this side of the continent, housed quite a few important administrative offices, it existed more as a central agricultural distribution hub. Its administrative and religious significance was limited. According to Commissar Aude, when he arrived at the Adeptus Mechanicus branch, its priests had already been slaughtered to the last man, with oil and blood flowing across the floor. The enormous instruments responsible for planetary communications had also been thoroughly destroyed, even causing agricultural production in the other hemisphere to grind to a halt due to the lack of contact.

If the deaths of hundreds of thousands of local residents were set aside, then in the experienced eyes of Colonel Mark and Commissar Aude, this rebellion was laughably small. For the past few days, they had been nervously patrolling and searching everywhere, hoping to uncover more hidden dangers.

However, due to the Imperium's vigilance against any Chaos corruption, the Inquisition and Ecclesiarchy had also arrived in this ordinary, peaceful world and begun a purity investigation that would last for years. The planet's peaceful life might be shattered just like that. Perhaps more people would be deemed insufficiently steadfast or devout in their faith, then dragged to the stake and burned alive by the Inquisition's fanatics.

"Still, Colonel Mark said those black-armored bastards you killed were no small fry. Even the big shots from the Inquisition were alerted. I think they'll be coming to see you soon." Just as Old Jock finished speaking, Lin Fan heard a clamorous set of footsteps in the hospital corridor.

As the medical room door opened, Colonel Mark, Commissar Aude, and a cold-faced white-haired woman wearing a fitted black uniform and the Inquisition's signature tall hat entered Lin Fan's room. The already small private medical room instantly felt even narrower and more crowded.

Without waiting for Colonel Mark or Commissar Aude to speak, the white-haired woman praised Lin Fan. "I am Augunila Weisi, an Inquisitor of the Heretic Inquisition. I have come here to investigate your great achievements, loyal soldier."

The general design of the Inquisitor; Vissi's character design is still being drawn.

Although the Inquisitor looked as though she had come to award Lin Fan a medal, her indifferent expression and icy voice only gave him a headache.

Colonel Mark and Commissar Aude said nothing. They merely turned their heads and mouthed something, though judging by their lip movements, it was definitely nothing pleasant.

"At least for now, I will not investigate you." As if she knew what Lin Fan was thinking, Vissi changed tactics and adopted a more reasonable manner. "After all, heroes of the Imperium deserve some respect, do they not? But once you can get out of bed, we will take you for the necessary examination." An overbearing force that allowed no refusal emanated from Vissi. Lin Fan even wondered whether all Inquisitors were so arrogantly high and mighty.

Without waiting for Lin Fan's answer—or perhaps she simply had no need to seek the consent of an insignificant common soldier—she strode out of the medical room, her Inquisitor boots clicking crisply against the floor.

Colonel Mark curled his lip. "This is why I'll never like these people."

"I suppose you don't like me either?"

Commissar Aude's teasing made Colonel Mark laugh, and the oppressive, solemn atmosphere in the medical room was swept away.