Heavy Losses

"Ugh, my head hurts so much." The moment Lin Fan opened his eyes, he saw another unfamiliar ceiling. It seemed he was not dead, and was receiving treatment in a rather luxuriously decorated medbay.

Hearing Lin Fan stir, a giant seated at a distant table rose and approached his bedside, carrying an ancient incense burner that gave off a faint fragrance.

"Here, take a whiff of this. It's good for you."

Following the order instinctively, Lin Fan inhaled. An unbearable spicy scent assaulted his nostrils, making him sneeze several times in succession. The giant clipped the incense burner back onto his tactical belt and folded his arms, admiring Lin Fan's embarrassment.

After sneezing a few times, Lin Fan immediately felt refreshed. His headache vanished without a trace, and the blurriness in his vision from being unconscious for so long also disappeared.

"Uh, thank you." Lin Fan used his newly clear eyes to examine his surroundings again.

He was lying on a fairly hard medical bed, though the pillow beneath his head was exceptionally soft and comfortable. Complex instruments on both sides continuously scanned his body and monitored his health. An exquisite, artistic electric lamp hung from the high ceiling, carved with delicate patterns and gleaming with the polished sheen of bright metal.

Standing beside him was a Space Wolves Wolf Priest. Though he was not wearing his standard wolf-bone-shaped helmet, Lin Fan still guessed his identity from the unusual black power armor and the thick metal-bound book at his waist.

Wolf Priest

"Hello, mortal. I must say, you fought bravely."

"Uh, thank you for the praise, my lord. I merely did my best."

Lin Fan had yet to figure out the situation, so he decided to answer the priest before him cautiously.

As though he knew what Lin Fan wanted to ask, the priest began explaining the fleet's current situation without waiting for him to speak. "You've been unconscious for three months, fifteen days, five hours, and thirty minutes. We're now about to emerge from the Warp and enter the outskirts of the Armageddon System."

During the battle against the daemons three months ago, every officer and soldier aboard the Flame had been mobilized. The Battle Sisters, Tempestus Scions, Astra Militarum troops, and sailors aboard the ship had all been deployed to the critical bulkheads connecting several of the lower and middle decks. Of course, small numbers of daemons also emerged from pipes and corners throughout the vessel, attacking the entire ship.

Of the Kasare Legion's small contingent transported aboard the Flame, more than 450,000 men from 100-plus regiments, two-thirds had been lost to the daemons' assault. The remaining 150,000 had suffered mental breakdowns. Nearly every day, the Battle Sisters and Inquisition soldiers dragged out several hundred utterly broken, pitiful soldiers and executed them.

Kaiser Whitefang had lost an arm in his battle against the Bloodthirster. Fortunately, the Warp rift had closed in time, and Wodehouse Iceclaw's reinforcements had arrived just in time, allowing Kaiser Whitefang to barely escape the Bloodthirster with his life.

The Kasare Legion had been reduced from over 1.4 million men at departure by nearly a third. They had suffered such staggering losses without even catching a glimpse of a single Ork. The Battle Sisters and Tempestus Scions had fared no better either. Under orders to hold their positions and fight to the death without retreating, everyone had bled dry beneath the daemons' attacks.

Hearing the outcome, Lin Fan felt utterly powerless and collapsed despondently onto the bed. Bennett comforted him. "Listen, lad. Against a daemon incursion, achieving this much is already a tremendous victory. You can't ask for more. At least they died fighting for The Emperor. Their deaths had meaning."

"Yes, my lord. I can accept that." Lin Fan was flattered by Bennett's consolation. While the Space Wolves were indeed a relatively humane Chapter, it was still exceedingly rare for one of their priests to offer words of comfort to an ordinary Astra Militarum soldier.

"Don't be afraid, hahaha! Why weren't you this scared when you fought daemons?"

Bennett burst into laughter at Lin Fan's awkward expression, and Lin Fan relaxed considerably under the hearty Wolf Priest's teasing.

With a hiss, the cabin door opened, and two more Space Wolves warriors entered.

One wore the pelt of a gigantic wolf, with numerous thick wolf fangs wrapped around his shoulder guards. He held a staff that carried a distinctly shamanic air.

The other was a full size larger than both Bennett and the wolf-pelt-clad man. He held a jug of liquor in his hands, with a thick yellow beard and rough skin.

"Lad, Bennett told me you were the one who closed the rift."

Kaiser Whitefang asked the question while drinking mead from his jug.

Thinking back on that day's battle, it had truly been perilous. No amount of planning could have anticipated that the traitor of Chaos would draw several Greater Daemons over. Had the confused Wodhaus not arrived in time and used psychic lightning to temporarily drive back the Bloodthirster's assault, Kaiser Whitefang would have been cleaved in two by that brass greatsword long ago.

With Kaiser Whitefang and Wodehouse Icewolf working together, the Bloodthirster had been stalled in the residential district, which had already become ruins. Yet the two still had no answer for the Greater Daemon empowered by Warp energy. Their only hope was for Bennett's Grey Hunters squad to close the rift, then join them in destroying the daemon.

After a tremendous boom, Wodhaus clearly felt the overly abundant, almost viscous Warp energy in the air vanish in an instant, as though something had rapidly evaporated it. With its supply of Warp energy cut off, the Bloodthirster also became far less lethal and dangerous than before.

The two of them gradually managed to turn the tide and force the daemon back. After Kaiser Whitefang deliberately exposed an opening and allowed the Greater Daemon to sever one of his arms, Wodhaus seized the chance, charged up a powerful psychic strike, and directly blew the Greater Daemon's head to pieces. It vanished after turning into a mass of crimson flame.

Wodhaus carried the wounded Kaiser and joined up with Bennett's squad. Only then did they learn just how dangerous the battle had been.

A Keeper of Secrets of Slaanesh had also appeared on Bennett's side. If that Keeper of Secrets had been even slightly less interested in toying with them, not a single member of the Grey Hunters squad would have survived.

Bennett told the two of them that Lin Fan and his icon had saved everyone, and saved the Flame.

Brimming with excitement, he described that magnificent battle to them. In that instant, the will and presence of the God-Emperor had descended upon that place, using His sacred flames to destroy those damned daemons.

Wodhaus looked at the unconscious Lin Fan with a complicated expression, recalling the prophecy he had sensed on Fenris.