The air in the compartment seemed to solidify and freeze the instant Burn finished saying, "They allied with the Rangdan Xenos."
The faintly absurd lightheartedness from moments before vanished like thin ice beneath the sun.
Only the low, steady hum of the energy core deep within the Ancient Dreadnought's chest echoed through the deathly silence, like the restrained breathing of some awakened behemoth.
The brief silence was heavy enough to crush steel.
Then that hearty, clamorous voice, which had sounded as though its owner could never quite wake up, disappeared.
An entirely different tone replaced it.
It still came through the Dreadnought's external speakers, but all warmth had been stripped away, leaving only metallic coldness and something deeply suppressed, yet all the sharper for it.
"What," the voice asked, each word clear and steady, yet carrying immense weight, "do you need me to do, brothers of the Word Bearers?"
"Oh, right," the voice added, as though recalling some trivial courtesy. "Let me introduce myself. You can call me Ninutal. Or whatever else you like. Whatever suits you."
Facing those crimson Visors, which now seemed unusually fathomless, Saolis suppressed the complicated emotions stirred by the abrupt change in his attitude.
"Brother Ninutal. You know the situation. We are trapped aboard this traitor warship, alone and without support. We need to reach the hangar, seize an aircraft, return to our fleet, and join the battle."
He paused, his gaze sweeping over the Word Bearers standing silently around him in their gray-white Power Armour.
"But we have no map of this ship. To us, the Soul of the Yellow Sands is a completely unfamiliar steel Labyrinth. We... don't know the way."
"So," Ninutal picked up where he left off, his voice betraying neither understanding nor mockery, or perhaps containing both.
"You want me