Emergency Command Headquarters The air is filled with a suffocating smell of static electricity.
On the wall composed of dozens of monitoring screens, real-time images from various areas and data streams from Communications Channel are constantly scrolling. Each picture represents the vision of a patrol team.
The Mortals officer sat in front of the communication connection desk, with his earphones pressed against his head and his fingers tapping rapidly on the First Company series of buttons.
He had just called the same number three times and received no response.
He called again, but there was still only a hiss of static electricity. He frowned and turned to look behind him. "Squad 945, can you receive it? Squad 945."
No answer.
The Mortals officer was silent for a moment, and repeatedly switched to other bands in Communications Channel. After confirming that it was not signal interference, he stood up and walked quickly to the other side of Control Panel.
Kroge was standing in front of a tactical projection table, looking down at the three-dimensional structural diagram of Gungnir's entire facility. His eyes stopped at the pipe network area of Lower Deck.
Mortals officer walked up to him and briefly reported on the loss of contact with Team 945.
Kroge didn't speak immediately.
He looked down at the area on the projection that marked the lost contact area, and slowly tightened his knuckles on the edge of the table.
Two minutes.
For a patrol team performing normal tasks, two minutes may indeed be just a brief failure of communication equipment, but when there is already a Alpha Infiltration agent lurking in the facility, two minutes may mean that the entire team is no longer able to speak.
He did not hesitate and immediately ordered a focused search of the lost area.
In the next very short period of time, the garrison stationed at Gungnir was completely mobilized.
Nearly 1,000 Space Marine and 100,000 Imperialis Militia blocked the area.
This is a search operation that crushes space with sheer numbers.
Several sentries with guns stood every few steps in the corridor, and patrols cruising back and forth covered the view of every fork of the corridor airtight.
The tactical lighting was turned to full power, forcing all shadows into the narrowest corners.
All the hangar doors were closed, and Raven Guard Legion and Space Marine of the Sons of Horus Legion were guarding every gate and every berth to ensure that every shuttle had been thoroughly inspected before taking off.
Engine cooling test, cargo bay scan, and cockpit personnel verification of identity one by one.
Even the automatic Transport Ship loading scrap was required to stop and receive scan confirmation from all corners below the deck. No exit was spared.
They are convinced that Zorge will definitely try to find gaps in these tightly guarded places.
They were convinced that the only thing a Alpha Infiltration person could do was to break out of the encirclement, pass through the weakest sentry, rush to the nearest shuttle, and escape.
But what they didn't expect was that Zorge would do the opposite.
He did not go to the most difficult places to escape, did not try to approach the shuttle berth of the hangar, did not touch Communications Array, and did not move towards the outer gates.
He walked down the most remote maintenance passage in his memory and entered a route that almost no one would go, leading to the processing station at the bottom of Gungnir.
That's the most forgotten corner of the entire facility.
The air in the treatment station is completely different from the channel in front.
When the heavy airtight door closed behind Zorge, a smell so strong that it was almost impossible to ignore instantly poured into his Helmet filter.
The space of the processing station is extremely huge. The entire tunnel extends upwards for hundreds of meters. Huge mountains of waste are piled at the bottom of the tunnel, including broken armor plates, scrapped pipes, burned Servitor wreckage, and piles of metal waste of unknown origin.
Several huge crushers move along the guide rails above the scrap pile. The huge rollers grind over all the input materials with a low roar, crushing the waste metal and composite materials into pieces and sending them to the deeper exit.
The most terrifying one is a pollutant discharged from the core of Gungnir.
It was a kind of dark black dust that was specially extracted from the cooling and reaction system of Gungnir and sent into the sealed pool at the bottom of the treatment station through a sealed pipe.
This kind of contaminant is waste generated during the operation of Gungnir. It contains high-concentration corrosive substances from the core of Warp Force Field and Reactor. Once stored for a long time without being cleaned in time, it can even easily burn the metal and penetrate several layers of alloy decks, eventually causing the entire Gungnir to become paralyzed.
Therefore, it must be cleaned regularly and transported by heavy-duty Transport Ship to other Star System waste points for dumping.
Transport Ship will stop through a special sealed gate and leave after a short loading.
This route is rarely noticed by guards under normal conditions, because the air near those sealed pools is enough to kill any Mortals who tries to get close.
The smell released by this terrifying pollutant will turn into a pile of rotten flesh within a few seconds if Mortals inhales it.
Even if Space Marine is wearing armor, it is still uncomfortable to be surrounded by this aura.
Zorge could feel those tiny corrosive particles burrowing inward along the gaps in the armor, causing a weak burning reaction when they came into contact with sweat and blood, giving every breath a sour sting.
But he didn't stop.
His target is among this scrap, which is the Transport Ship docked inside the sealed gate.
The loading port of the ship's cargo hold was open, and inside was black waste waiting for transshipment.
Zorge travels through the mountains of scrap.
The edges of those Metal Shard and damaged parts kept sliding under his feet, making harsh scratching sounds.
Every step he took was as precise as possible to avoid making too much noise.
Severe pain came from his abdomen again.
The old wound injured by the stray bullet burst open again in this corrosive air, and blood mixed with dissolved armor fragments seeped out of the wound.
The skin exposed to the gas is rotting at an extremely fast rate, turning into a puddle of flesh and water.
From the opened muscle edge of the wound, you can see that the dark red tissue is gradually turning gray-white, and the pain can even make Space Marine unable to bear it.
Zorge clenched his teeth, and Helmet bit his lower lip to create a deep bite, Mark, but he did not slow down.
The pain stimulated his nerves and his muscles, and every movement carried a precision that was forced to Mark IV Maximus.
He knew that he was not far away from the Transport Ship.
He dragged his body across the last pile of Metal Shard and walked to the Transport Ship.
It is a standard industrial transport barge. The gray-brown armor Shell is covered with stains, the loading hatch is open, and the ship is filled with mountains of black waste.
It is the pollutant residue directly exported from the sealed pool. It looks like ordinary black powder with a fine texture and almost no form.
Zorge stopped and stood in front of the pile of black goods.
The layer of powder accumulated silently, with a smooth surface, like a solid black water surface.
Zorge climbed in without hesitation.
His two-meter-tall body sank the moment it came into contact with the black powder. The powder poured in from all directions and quickly covered his knees, waist, and chest until it was no longer above his head.
His whole body was buried in the black garbage mountain, and no trace could be seen from the outside. Black powder also poured into his wounds instantly, filling the gaping wound on his abdomen and every incision between the nails.
Those powders did not bring any cooling or comfort. Instead, they burned inside his wounds like acid injected into his blood vessels, causing each injury to expand at a more painful speed.
But Zorge didn't struggle or make a sound. He just lay quietly under the black cover, suppressing the screams coming from every nerve ending.
He is waiting.
Wait for Transport Ship to be loaded, wait for the sealing gate to open, wait for it to leave Gungnir with this cabin full of black waste.
As the last batch of waste was loaded into it, the Transport Ship officially began its voyage.