Chapter 116: Warhammer: What Do You Mean You Conquered the Tyranids
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Protagonist:
Lin En
Lena
The Chimera Armored Vehicle drove alone across the frozen soil of the Ice Plains.
The vehicle compartment was cramped and dimly lit, with only a strip of white light cast from the ceiling; ten soldiers sat crowded on the metal benches on both sides.
There was no speech or other movement—the characteristic numbness of soldiers long stationed at the front line.
Only two figures stood out, utterly out of place with the dullness of this compartment.
Lin En leaned against the innermost corner of the compartment, his back pressed to the cold armor plate, posture relaxed.
Diagonally across from him, Sorin huddled in the shadows, her PDF-standard helmet fastened tightly.
Her chin pressed hard into the soft padding of her neck guard, her gaze lowered, resting on her own boot toes.
Her posture was that of a standard exhausted soldier, but only she herself knew her heart was beating at a rate far beyond normal.
Like a startled wild hare on the grasslands.
Lin En's teasing words, "Comrade, why not escort me," still echoed repeatedly in her mind.
She could not tell whether it was Lin En's unintentional shout or an intentional probe.
Just now, before the obstacle, the moment that hand landed on her shoulder, she had almost struck on the spot.
But in the end she held back.
The faint yet present Alpha-level psyker pressure on Lin En made her dare not act rashly.
She had seen many high-level spirit energy users, and had even personally executed several spirit energy wizards fallen to Chaos.
But Lin En's spirit energy was different—a feeling condensed to the extreme, calm yet carrying the power to destroy heaven and earth.
She was not sure she could take him down.
More importantly, after saying those words, Lin En went straight to the transport vehicle, not glancing at her again.
As if he had simply picked a pleasing-looking "escort" at random.
That natural demeanor even made her suspect her own vigilance was mere groundless worry.
To suppress the fear and doubts surging in her heart, Sorin forced herself to close her eyes and began reviewing every move Lin En had made since arriving in Brevis.
Trying to pull from this tangled mess the thread that would prove he was a heretic.
Keli Feng, descendant of a Star Realm Army Major General, relied on clinging to the Kola Family to obtain the position of Governor of Brevis.
According to Imperial bureaucratic law, such a noble scion who rose through nepotism would inevitably have "recouping costs" as his first duty upon taking office.
Embezzling rations, smuggling rare minerals, keeping private armed forces, using power for personal gain to suppress rivals, turning the governorship into his own money tree.
But this governor?
He gave his own food to refugees, sent his private army into the Forbidden Wall, and himself stood atop a Cold Wind Tank to charge into battle.
The scene of beheading the Green Skin Big Boss was even spread by front-line soldiers as a miracle of "Emperor's Manifestation."
Too upright, upright like a saint, like an Outlier who did not belong to this Dark Age.
A noble governor behaving this way was itself abnormal.
And he had arrived at the Forbidden Wall less than three weeks ago, yet had already completed the decapitation plan against the Green Skin Big Boss.
He had even carried out perfect psychological warfare against the Ice Plains wildmen, firmly binding two blood-feuding clans to his war chariot.
This was absolutely not something a pampered noble scion could achieve.
And his understanding of the Green Skins was more like the experience of an old general who had crawled through countless battlefields and fought the Green Skins to the death.
But the age shown on the records was barely twenty.
A young governor possessing high-level spirit energy, heaven-defying abilities, and bone-deep knowledge of the Green Skins.
She simply could not imagine—could he truly be the Emperor's Chosen?
A chill ran from the soles of her feet straight to the top of her head.
She had already made her decision: once she returned to the Main Hive, she would immediately, in her official capacity as an Inquisitor of the Inquisition's Calixis Sector Division,
meet with State Religion Archbishop Goodwin and Supreme King Karadong, at any cost, to launch the highest-level investigation into Keli Feng.
Even if he were truly a Saint, this investigation would flay him three layers deep, exposing everything to the eyes of the Empire!
If he truly colluded with Chaos or Xenos, she would personally nail him to the Inquisition's cross, letting his soul wail eternally in the Purifying Fire.
This was her duty as an Inquisitor, and her loyalty to the God Emperor.
The jolting inside the vehicle ceased, and the sound of wind and snow weakened; the Chimera had entered the Forbidden Wall's range.
Lin En still had his eyes closed, but his consciousness had already linked with Lena's, and the two exchanged information rapidly.
"I didn't expect her to be so bold as to actually hide directly in my escort team," Lin En said with a trace of surprise.
He had originally thought Sorin had at most planted high-tech eyes around him, never expecting her true self to be hiding right under his nose.
Lena carried a trace of annoyance: "Likate's scan detected no abnormality."
"The 'skin suit's' gait, body temperature, and psyker fluctuations were completely identical to her own; even my spirit energy perception failed to see through it."
This human dark technology was more troublesome than imagined.
Lin En nodded lightly, his fingers brushing against Lena's carapace, soothing her emotions.
Actually, his going out was not simply to accompany Lena to relax, but a probe.
If Sorin truly left, then the eyes she had arranged would surely still be near him.
If they discovered this monitored governor suddenly going out, her true self surely could not have no reaction at all.
But they never expected that before the probing even began, Lena had already noticed something.
Flash back to a few hours earlier: Lena, just boarding the vehicle, had already sensed something was off.
It was the instinct of a top-tier Bug Race predator.
Her grasp of the physical characteristics of those targets was more precise than any instrument.
That "soldier's" shoulder-to-hip ratio, gait center of gravity, breathing frequency showed clear statistical differences from the male soldiers in the same squad.
The male soldiers had broader shoulders, narrower hips, a higher gait center of gravity, and heavy, steady breathing.
But her shoulder-to-hip ratio was more slender, her gait center of gravity lower, and her breathing frequency nearly one third faster than the males'.
Of course, there was also the difference in hormonal information that only instruments could detect.
And in that squad's roster, there were no female soldiers at all.
A mole?
Lin En's consciousness flashed with those two words.
"Not sure who it is; need deep psychic probing to confirm her true identity."
Lena responded.
"Don't!" Lin En immediately stopped her.
"Probing now would only spook the snake. Since she wants to act, we'll play along to the end."
After the two finished their mental exchange, the Miniature Shredder Worm hiding in Lin En's sleeve quietly crawled out.
Its body entered optical invisibility; in the dim Vehicle Compartment, it left not even a shadow.
Only Lin En could perceive its position through the System Link.
The Tearing Worm crawled into Sorin's compartment and finally hovered thirty centimeters behind Sorin in midair.
Its compound eyes fixed on her back, and the perception of a top-tier Tyranid Unit extended without reservation.
【Detected thickened padding inside the target's shoulder armor, suspected artificial filler, used to broaden the shoulders and imitate a male physique.】
【Traces of estradiol metabolism detected in the air, completely inconsistent with the hormonal profile of a high-intensity training male soldier; confirmed female.】
【When unnoticed, the target subconsciously places her weight on her right hip—muscle memory from long-term wearing of chest-binding equipment that compresses the chest cavity, impossible to deliberately conceal.】
Lena's detection results were all transmitted into Lin En's consciousness.
End of Chapter
