On the seventh day, Lynn discovered that someone else had entered the Hive City.
He cautiously observed through the binoculars he had found.
He discovered a Sister of Battle.
Perhaps it should be said, a former Sister of Battle.
That day, he was minding his own business looking for things in the ruins, looking at those traces of former humanity, when he suddenly felt something was wrong.
He couldn’t pinpoint what was wrong, but anyway, it was the feeling of having someone around.
Someone else had entered this abandoned Hive City.
He immediately hid behind cover, poking his head out to look.
The Hive City was still very quiet.
It was gray and hazy, shadows mixing in the depths, pipes crisscrossing, buildings scattered, and all utterly silent.
It was no different from the previous days.
But Lynn still felt something was off; it was just that feeling of having one’s survival space intruded upon.
He asked the system, “System, did you sense anything?” [What?] “Like…
the feeling that someone came.” […I did not.] “Useless,” Lynn said scornfully.
[Say that again?] “You expect me to say it just because you told me to?
I won’t.” Lynn pulled his head back, circled to the left side of the cover, hunched over, and ran two steps to the left, finding a spot with a gap.
He had found a pair of binoculars in that storage room earlier.
The lenses were surprisingly still intact and usable after a wipe; wasn’t this coming in handy right now?
He pulled out the binoculars, raised them to his eyes, adjusted the focus, and swept a glance into the distance.
Things in the distance drew closer, magnified, and became clear; he saw more pipes, more bridges, and more ruins.
Still, there was silence.
He swept another glance to the side, slowly looking through those gaps.
Then he saw fire.
Unlike the dark red torches held by the cultists, it was a real, orange-yellow flame.
Lynn aimed the binoculars in that direction, adjusting the focus, adjusting, and adjusting again.
The fire was in the corner of an abandoned passage, built from broken pieces of wood and unknown combustibles.
By the fire sat a person.
Lynn’s breath paused for a beat.
She was not wearing power armor, just ordinary clothes, like a neat military shirt and black trousers tucked into boots… though they were not very clean and were covered in dust.
Her appearance was somewhat disheveled, but she was still a heroic-looking person.
Her hair was dark, tied behind her head, and slightly messy, with a few stray strands hanging beside her face, illuminated by the firelight.
She had no power armor and no weapons.
Sitting by the fire, she was a bit disheveled, but…
her hands were resting on her knees, and her back was as straight as a ramrod.
Lynn put down the binoculars, rubbed his eyes, and raised them to look again.
It wasn’t a hallucination.
There really was a person, a woman, in the bottom level of the abandoned Hive City, entirely alone with her back as straight as a javelin.
“System,” Lynn said, his voice trembling a bit, “did you see that?” [My field of vision is tied to your sight; whatever you see, I can see.] “Is she a living person?” [Ghosts probably wouldn’t start a fire, would they?] “Makes sense…
Is she a Sister of Battle?” For some reason, the first time Lynn laid eyes on her, he felt she was probably a Sister of Battle.
[Judging by her attire and demeanor, it is very likely.] The Adepta Sororitas is the Imperium’s Sisterhood of Battle.
It is an all-female organization affiliated with the Ecclesiarchy and one of the Emperor’s most loyal warriors.
Their faith is their weapon, and they are willing to offer all their loyalty to the Emperor without hesitation.
They undergo rigorous military training, wear holy vestments and power armor, and wield bolters, with combat prowess no less than that of the Space Marines.
On the battlefield, they are the most fanatical and fearless troops, and the least likely to retreat.
But how could a Sister of Battle be all alone, holding no weapons, wearing no power armor, and not wearing her holy vestments, and appear in the ruins of this abandoned Hive City?
He didn’t know.
Some accident must have happened; Sisters of Battle do not easily part with their equipment.
Her current state meant she had experienced something drastic.
Lynn raised the binoculars again and carefully looked at the woman.
Her face was half-lit by the firelight, but he could see her clear contours, regular features, and an indescribable heroic spirit between her brows.
There was a shallow cut on the side of her face, extending from below her eye into her hair.
Her eyes…
Lynn adjusted the focus even finer.
…Her eyes had vertical pupils.
They were like those of a reptile, a lizard or snake or something: vertical and narrow, brownish-yellow vertical pupils.
Lynn’s hand shook a bit.
“System, her eyes——” [I see them, vertical pupils.] It was a mutation.
This Sister of Battle had mutated somewhat; her eyes had turned into vertical pupils.
It could be Warp radiation, a genetic mutation, or contamination from some psychic energy.
When humans are affected, parts of their limbs might undergo mutation; this might also be the reason why she appeared here.
However, seeing a mutation, one must first suspect whether she had been corrupted.
The influence of Chaos powers is the main cause of human mutation.
But she had started a fire, was sitting by the fire, exhibited no chaotic behavior, and seemed to have retained her human sanity.
“Are there any examples of mutating but still maintaining normalcy?” [In Warhammer 40k, mutation does not necessarily equal Chaos corruption; some mutations are on a physical level and do not affect sanity,] the system said.
In Warhammer 40K, the Imperium’s attitude towards mutants is, “better to kill the innocent than let the guilty go free.” The Inquisition’s rule is that a mutation is a mutation; all mutations must be purged, and they do not distinguish between “good mutations” and “bad mutations.” This should explain why a Sister of Battle would be unarmed and alone here.
Lynn looked at the woman again.
So she might be a former Sister of Battle exiled by the Inquisition.
She lowered her head and poked at the fire, her movements very light and very steady, exactly like a normal person’s, without the slightest sign of madness.
Then she clasped her hands together, her hair falling down to cover half her face, her lips moving slightly as she prayed: “A spiritu dominatus, Domine, libra nos.
From the lightning and the tempest, Our Emperor, deliver us.
…” Almighty Lord, we beg for Your protection.
Against the lightning and the tempest, Emperor of Man, deliver us.
Against the plague, temptation, and the fires of war, Emperor of Man, deliver us…
…
She was praying to the Emperor.
A Sister of Battle with mutated eyes, sitting alone in the bottom of an abandoned Hive City, without weapons or power armor, was praying to the Emperor.
Lynn stared blankly for a long time.
Seeing this scene, he couldn’t describe what he felt in his heart.
The Golden Emperor had now become withered bones sitting on the throne, half-dead.
Could the Emperor, who was already unable to fend for himself, truly still hear the prayers of his subjects?
Lynn was silent for a long time.
“System.” [Hm?] “Do you think she could become our teammate?” [Uncertain.
The Sisters of Battle have absolute loyalty to the Imperium, but her current state is uncertain.] Even if her sanity was intact, she might be highly reactive and on edge.
If Lynn suddenly approached, it was hard to say whether her first reaction would be to attack.
Lynn didn’t know if she was a friend or foe, and she didn’t know if Lynn was a friend or foe.
Thaniel_a_goodchild.