Warhammer 40k: Ours Journey

Chapter 30: No One Needs to Worry

The ship's blast door hissed open.

Karna stepped out under the gaze of countless crimson eyes, then turned and sealed the door behind him.

Only after the door was fully shut and he had carefully checked the internal surveillance feed did he finally let out a sigh of relief.

'So this is the pressure others feel when facing the Black Rage?'

"Brother Karna, what is this?"

Te Kahurangi's voice came from his side. The Librarian had just finished his daily harassment of Ramesses and was on his way to spar with Arthur to collect his daily mission reward. On the way, he had heard that the Deathwatch had borrowed a sealed hangar for their own private use and decided to check it out.

"It's like the Grey Slumber that can occur among your own," Karna said, pointing to his head. "We have something similar." He made no attempt to hide it.

"Ah."

Te Kahurangi understood instantly. There was definitely a Blood Angel among them. Their Chapter's records on the various Founding Legions were incredibly detailed, down to their specific traits during the Great Crusade. They probably knew more about that era's history than some of the Chapters who had suffered major upheavals themselves.

Of course, these "Deathwatch" marines were not simple either. They knew the origins of the Carcharodons with impossible clarity, right down to their gene-flaws. Yet, as a Chapter that supposedly operated within Imperial space, they were bizarrely ignorant of the current state of the Imperium, not even possessing a complete star-chart.

And it wasn't just that they could pull out a whole arsenal of chain-axes, which were now considered the signature weapon of Chaos traitors. After carefully studying the current state of the Imperium through the Sharks' own data-banks, their shocked expressions—a look that screamed, 'My god, how did humanity turn into this?'—had made the Sharks themselves deeply suspicious.

"Then I shall head to the dueling grounds," Te Kahurangi said, understanding the reason for their request. He didn't press the issue. For the Sharks, the daily rewards were more important right now.

"Go on. I'll check the other warehouses," Karna nodded. Both of them tacitly agreed not to discuss the topic further. He knew exactly why Te Kahurangi was in such a hurry. Since they had boarded the Sharks' flagship, Ramesses couldn't conduct his more... intense Warp experiments. This had freed up Arthur, who, in the spirit of learning from the Carcharodons, had naturally started seeking them out for sparring matches.

And learning, of course, required a tuition fee.

Karna glanced at the storage data displayed on his vambrace. The inventory had taken another significant hit since yesterday's restock. It had only been a month of travel, and he felt like he had to restock the armories every single day.

"Let's see, time-wise..." Karna looked down and switched to his memo-pad, preparing to package his daily intel report for Romulus. Then he noticed they had already exited the Warp. "We should be close to our destination."

"The Sharks' purpose on this journey was to pay their 'Grey Tithe.' I heard there's a Mars-affiliated Explorator fleet in the area. Their original plan was to rendezvous with them to replenish their strategic supplies."

In a section of the ship designated for the Deathwatch, Romulus pulled open an isolation door after completing a joint exercise with the Astra Militarum.

Directly in front of him, Ramesses, having just dealt with Te Kahurangi and still not entirely sure what the Librarian wanted, was lighting incense before an ash-filled censer. On someone else's ship, he didn't dare to get too wild. At most, he could cast a line into the Warp to fish for points, so he was focusing on the few projects he could manage.

And so, after more than a month of travel, Ramesses had successfully managed to pull an external connection from the psychic link between Karna and the Black Rage. Now, Karna could share that connection to remotely pilot the bodies of their "Angel's Sons," allowing them to indiscriminately attack any "Horus" in their line of sight. The fewer people using the connection, the more intense the Black Rage, and the stronger the combat output. Expanding the user limit would require further investment. This had directly resulted in another significant percentage of their group's income being spent.

"They're probably not too interested in that anymore, are they?" Ramesses asked, bowing three times to the censer and muttering a few lines of classical poetry.

"Of course not. Their time-worn equipment has all been made brand new," Romulus replied. He found it amusing to recall how the Sharks had pointed at the Stormbird they'd been gifted and asked if they could trade it for an equivalent weight in ammunition and other military supplies.

Naturally, they wouldn't take back something they had given away. In the end, Arthur had stepped in and offered them a way to earn supplies. Bolter rounds were out of the question—the exchange rate was a loss for them—but power weapons, flamers, master-crafted components, and the like were available in abundance.

"These guys seem to have accepted that they can get new gear by fighting Arthur every day, and Arthur is happy to learn from them. Those are techniques honed over ten thousand years of slaughter in mountains of corpses." Romulus couldn't help but marvel at the Carcharodons' pragmatism. The moment they sniffed a profit, they were on it like they'd been shot full of stimms. Unfortunately, as time went on, the Sharks had less and less to teach. Currently, only the company captains, the Librarian, and Tyberos himself hadn't been completely "drained." For the future of their Chapter, the captains probably hadn't had a decent rest in weeks. If it weren't for the immense cost of awakening a Dreadnought, Romulus suspected they would have dragged one out to act as a coach.

"It seems our 'gurneys' are evolving at high speed," Ramesses joked. "I told you, besides our psycho-materialization ability, we each must have our own unique traits. The initial paint schemes we had when we landed weren't just random." He then pulled out three more incense sticks and bowed to the censer again, beginning to mutter the classical verses used to commemorate experimental materials.

"You still care about that?" Romulus asked curiously, having understood the meaning of the classical text. Having seen the horrific state of the experimental labs, he genuinely thought Ramesses must have a heart of steel. He also found it incredible that Arthur could stare at it all without flinching.

"You're not in this field. You wouldn't understand." Ramesses looked up, his expression serious. "I must use this method to maintain my reverence for life."

"I may have slacked off after graduation, but my professor always taught us that no matter what is on the operating table, even if it's just a piece of non-living tissue, you must handle it with a sense of reverence."

"This is a line a medical researcher must never cross. You have to understand, the only difference between these bodies and a normal human is consciousness. If you cross that line, even once, that is the difference between an angel and a demon."

"...It seems I don't have to worry about you," Romulus said after a moment of silence, a smile spreading across his face. He had always been a little worried about Ramesses's attitude of 'I don't care what it is, if I have an ability, I'm going to exploit it to the fullest.' But now, sensing his friend's state of mind, Romulus knew his worries had been unfounded.

"Are you kidding? I was raised in a loving family with a mom and a dad. You don't actually think all rich kids are self-centered, spoiled brats, do you?" Ramesses replied boastfully. "You have to trust your friends. Don't be such a mother hen. Of course, I don't mind communicating more. After all, in this world, the only ones who can truly understand each other—"

He reigned in his flamboyant expression slightly.

"—are the four of us."

(End of Chapter)