Summoning the last of his energy, Russell finished recounting the end of the war and prepared to sleep.
Without even changing his clothes, he hurriedly slipped under the blankets.
Grey Wind, still full of energy, sat on the edge of the bed swinging her bare legs.
She tilted her head and looked at Russell, who was exhausted enough to have dark circles like a panda, with a look of joyful satisfaction.
*I get it, I get it.
It’s the satisfaction of finally finishing a favorite novel…* Russell thought with weary understanding.
“Commander…” Grey Wind offered a soft smile and murmured, “I’m so glad I found you.”
“Mmh, great…” Russell mumbled half-heartedly, practically dying of exhaustion.
Only after learning about this universe did Grey Wind realize just how fortunate she was.
Had her initial coordinates been in the Eye of Terror or somewhere within Imperial space rather than the empty deep space outside the galaxy, she likely would have been attacked before she could even understand what was happening.
Even with her jump drive, she couldn’t have escaped the flames of war that engulfed the entire galaxy.
She might not have even had the chance to understand this universe, dying in some war or Warp storm, or running into Ork, Tyranid, Aeldari, Necron, or Chaos fleets…
any number of fanatical armadas.
But those were only “what-ifs.”
To be able to sit beside her Commander right now and listen to him talk about this universe was already the greatest stroke of luck.
Indeed, she had never cared much for the contents of the stories; she simply loved the act of listening to her Commander tell them.
Russell yawned, squeezing a couple of tears from the corners of his eyes.
Just then, a question occurred to him.
“By the way, Grey Wind, you mentioned earlier that you could sense my location. How did you do that?”
Hearing this, Grey Wind immediately wiped the relaxed expression from her face, adopting a serious, professional posture.
“To be precise, Commander, it was not I who sensed your location, but the Zro Crystal stored within my hull.”
“Hmm… Wait, what?!”
Russell snapped wide awake, sitting bolt upright in bed like a dying man suddenly reanimated.
“What do you mean? Explain. In detail.”
Grey Wind hadn’t expected such a strong reaction, and she shrank back slightly, feeling a bit sheepish.
“Well… when I first woke up in the dark void of space, I found that I couldn’t detect any transmittable signals. There were no celestial bodies or star systems showing signs of life within range of my sensors, and I had no idea where to go. But just then, a Relic stored inside me began to glow. It was the Zro Crystal.”
“A voice from within the crystal spoke to me. It called itself Jabaxsti and claimed it could sense your coordinates, Commander, guiding me toward this place…”
“And sure enough, I found you, Commander.”
Grey Wind was clearly very pleased with this outcome, two shallow dimples appearing on her cheeks as she smiled.
Russell, however, sank back onto the bed, his heart cold.
He stared blankly at the ceiling light.
“Why didn’t you tell me this sooner?”
“Because Jabaxsti told me that I could only share this with you if you asked about it yourself… otherwise, it would ruin something.”
Seeing Russell’s reaction, Grey Wind grew increasingly anxious.
She didn’t know what she had done wrong.
Panic—a completely foreign emotion—surfaced in the nanite consciousness for the first time.
Unlike hearing stories, this novel sensation did not bring her comfort or joy.
“Commander… what’s wrong?”
Russell shook his head.
“It’s nothing. This isn’t your fault.” His vague reply only made Grey Wind more uneasy.
Just as she was about to press further, she heard Russell continue:
“Over the past few days, I’ve only told you about the human factions in this universe. I barely touched upon the Warp, Chaos, or psionics, and I rarely went into detail. Do you know why?”
“…Why?”
“Because I was afraid.”
“When I told you about the Horus Heresy, I said Warmaster Horus was corrupted and seduced by the Warp gods, leading to his fall. But I only told you that the rebellion was orchestrated by dark gods; I never explained what those Ruinous Powers actually are.”
“Because I didn’t dare.”
Grey Wind nodded.
She could guess the reason behind this.
She had once followed Russell in leading the Commonwealth of Man to defeat a psionic empire that had achieved a species-wide transcendence, enslaving and capturing a large psionic population for the Commonwealth.
Through this, Grey Wind had gained a decent understanding of the Shroud, which shared a similar nature with the Warp.
Sometimes, merely uttering the true name of a Shroud god was enough to draw the attention of that corresponding entity.
“Time is short, so I’ll be brief. In the Warp of this universe exist the Chaos Gods. They are unspeakably evil, utterly mad. They represent the most extreme of emotions, feeding on the souls of living beings and delighting in the torment of mortals. They seek to tear the galaxy apart and bring everything to an end.”
“And so-called psykers are beings born with the natural gift to interface with the Warp.”
“The more powerful a psyker, the greater the Warp energy they can channel, and the deeper their connection to it. Their soul’s reflection in the Warp shines like a beacon—making them far easier for Warp entities to notice, corrupt, and claim.”
Russell hurriedly threw on his coat, uncharacteristically misaligning a button.
His voice sounded strained.
“And the spiritual entity housed within the Zro Crystal, who calls himself Jabaxsti, is the single most powerful psionic being from our home universe—bar none.”
As the last of the Zroni, who had received the collective sacrifice of his entire species, Jabaxsti’s psionic power in life might have been even greater than that of the Emperor before He was interred upon the Golden Throne.
“If such a powerful spiritual entity has a reflection in the Warp, that reflection would shine as brightly as a star…”
Grey Wind murmured, frozen in place.
“Then, Commander… do you mean to say that without my knowledge, Jabaxsti might have already been noticed by the Chaos Gods… and corrupted, just like Horus?”
Russell shook his head.
“It’s a possibility, but not a certainty. For now, we can’t be sure. I need to see the Zro Crystal as soon as possible and confront Jabaxsti face-to-face, to test whether he has become a vessel for the Chaos Gods.”
“Understood, Commander.”
Though she had no idea how a mere mortal like Russell would go about testing a god-like entity like Jabaxsti, Grey Wind chose to trust him implicitly.
In the pre-dawn sky above the governor’s mansion, a shuttle rocketed into the upper atmosphere at maximum velocity, rushing back toward the Grey Tempest mothership anchored on the far side of the First Moon.