60: Space travel is simply going from one metal can to another.

[The sword of truth - Armored Observation Window]

N-05 stood at the end of a corridor. There were no portholes here, only a single observation window three meters in diameter, constructed from half-meter-thick crystal armor.

The metal seams at the edge of the armor glinted with a cold reflection under the corridor's emergency lights.

Outside the window was pure darkness.

Terra, the planet they had bled and fought for, now floated in the distance.

It was no longer a world, but a dim, grayish-yellow sphere.

The mottled traces on the sphere's surface that were once continents, oceans, and battlefields appeared only as blurred patches of color from this distance.

Darkness. Absolute, unadulterated darkness.

Countless points of light were embedded in this darkness—distant, steady, and cold.

Their light had traveled tens, hundreds, or thousands of light-years to reach this point, having long since lost all warmth.

This was the first time N-05 had seen the universe.

Before becoming an Astartes, he was just an orphan from the bottom of a Hive City.

The largest sky he had ever seen was the simulated, unchanging twilight on the Hive City's spire.

That light always carried the warm hue of artificial filters and the faint acidic tang of the recycled air system.

"Magnificent, isn't it?"

C-19 stood beside him at some unknown point, likewise gazing at the sea of stars outside the window.

His power armor had been repaired and repainted in the iconic deep black of the First Legion.

The bullet holes and scorch marks on the armor's surface had been carefully filled, restoring its sleek lines.

"Yes, Captain," N-05 replied.

His voice came through the helmet's vox-caster with a slight electronic texture.

"It's very... empty."

"No, it is not empty."

C-19 shook his head. His voice sounded in N-05's helmet vox, steady and clear.

"It only looks empty. In this darkness hide countless enemies, countless threats, and countless lost worlds waiting to be illuminated by the Light of the Imperium."

"We conquered a Hive City, then Terra. Now, we have conquered the sky."

"But this is only the beginning, N-05. Remember, our battlefield is the sea of stars."

...[The sword of truth - Training Room]

For most of the time, the lives of the Astartes followed a strict routine.

Every day, they would spend ten hours in the training room.

This was a massive steel space. The walls were covered with various training equipment and weapon racks.

The air was thick with the scent of sweat, machine oil, and ozone.

The floor was made of heavy alloy plates, covered in dents from long-term trampling and impacts.

Two Space Marines were engaged in unarmored combat within a sparring cage.

They used no fancy techniques, only the most primitive punching, grappling, and throwing.

Every punch carried the sound of rushing wind; forces capable of shattering granite collided, producing dull, thunderous booms.

The sound of muscle and bone clashing echoed through the hollow training room.

On the other side, several recruits were performing Bolter firing drills.

There were no physical targets before them, only a holographic screen flickering with runes.

The targets on the screen moved constantly, with numbers denoting distance, wind speed, and target velocity.

"Moving target, distance 300 meters, wind correction 0.3, controlled bursts."

The command was issued.

The recruits raised their heavy Bolters. Stocks to shoulders, fingers on triggers.

With almost no aiming time, they pulled the triggers toward the void.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Flames spat from the muzzles. Casings jumped from the ejection ports, clattering onto the floor, the scalding metal leaving faint scorch marks on the alloy deck.

The recoil was transmitted through the stock to the shoulder plates, perfectly absorbed by the power armor's servo-systems.

On the holographic screen, red crosses representing impact points precisely covered the center of the moving bullseyes.

Data streams scrolled across the edge of the screen: 100% hit rate, average deviation 0.03 meters.

This was the daily life of an Astartes.

They ate, they slept, and then they trained. They were living weapons, and weapons required constant maintenance... [Holographic Operations Cabin]

Unlike the tense and regulated life on the ship, Li Cang's cockpit held only the hum of operating instruments and the flow of data on the screens.

In the center of the main screen, the settlement information was refreshing.

Campaign Settlement: Unification of Terra (Phase One)

Rating: S (Thunderous Momentum)

Reward: genesis points (GP) x 5000

Li Cang looked at the string of jumping numbers in his account. The previous debts, the anxiety over energy shortages, and the pressure of maintaining his forces' operations were substantially relieved at this moment.

His finger tapped lightly on the armrest—not out of joy, but as a confirmation. Confirmation that this path of sustaining war through war was temporarily viable.

He did not browse the tempting new units in the mall, nor did he perform any gacha pulls.

He opened the massive, nebula-like [Civilization Talent Tree].

The tree structure rotated on the screen, with countless nodes flickering with bright or dim light, representing technologies and concepts that were unlocked, unlockable, or temporarily out of reach.

The victory in the ground war only solved the problem of survival.

But to go further in the monster-filled arena of 'Epoch', he had to look toward the future.

And the future was space.

"In interstellar navigation, the most important thing isn't firepower, nor is it speed."

Li Cang's finger slid across the talent tree, passing nodes labeled 'Macro-cannon Reinforcement', 'Lance Enhancement', and 'Armor Upgrade'.

Those were direct combat power increases, but right now, he needed something else.

"It's... eyes."

Only by seeing further could one strike first. Information was the most expensive commodity in the universe.

His finger finally stopped on a T2-level node deep within the [Physics] branch.

The node's icon was a complex, radiating sensor array structure.

Node Name: 'Argos' Class Beyond-Visual-Range Sensor Array

Type: Ship Upgrade Plug-in (Unique)

Effect: Significantly increases the fleet's detection range and scanning precision.

Capable of penetrating conventional stealth fields and electronic interference, and performing deep structural scans on targets.

Unlock Cost: 2000 GP

"You're the one."

Li Cang did not hesitate and clicked confirm.

The points in his account instantly decreased by 2000.

At the same time, on the 3D structural diagram of the 'sword of truth' on the side of the screen, the standard sensor arrays originally located on both sides of the bridge and various parts of the hull began to change.

Virtual modeling data streams covered them, and the structures of those arrays extended, becoming more complex. More secondary antennas and energy focusers were marked out, forming a detection network with wider coverage and higher resolution.

Upgrade Complete: 'Argos' Class Sensor Array has been loaded onto the 'sword of truth'.

Li Cang looked at the now more 'perceptive' ship model and nodded.

"When we get to Mars, I'll be able to see from orbit exactly how many good things that old fox Kelbor-Hal has hidden under his forge."

He closed the talent tree interface and glanced at the remaining 3050 points.

"The rest of the money must be saved."

"Maintenance for the Astartes, and... the research and development of the next generation of Gene-warriors, that's where the real money burns."

Just as he was planning the future resource allocation in his mind, a sharp, short alarm suddenly sounded in the operations cabin.

Warning! Instantaneous fluctuation detected in the Geller Field!

Fluctuation Source: Unknown Warp Turbulence.

The alarm sounded for only half a second before disappearing, as if it were just a system false positive.

But Li Cang's brow was already furrowed... [The sword of truth - Armored Observation Window]

N-05 was wiping down his Bolter. He sat on the floor by the observation window, leaning against the cold bulkhead.

In his hand was a soft cloth stained with gun oil, carefully wiping every cooling groove on the barrel.

Just then, the lights inside the ship flickered without warning. It wasn't an outage, but a momentary, unsettling dimming, as if something had briefly sucked the energy from the light source.

Simultaneously, an inexplicable, nauseating sense of vertigo instantly enveloped him.

The feeling didn't come from his stomach but acted directly on the depths of his brain, like a discordant current surging through his neural synapses.

It lasted for less than a second, but in that second, his visual sensors experienced a momentary burst of static noise, and a sharp ringing sounded in his auditory channels.

Cold sweat seeped from his forehead, quickly absorbed by the power armor's lining system.

"What happened?" he asked a veteran nearby who was maintaining a Chainsword.

The veteran's movements didn't pause for a moment; his withered fingers were applying thick lubricant to every joint of the chain.

"Just a small bump in the Warp, recruit," the veteran replied without looking up, his voice raspy and carrying an indifference born of habit.

"You'll get used to it. As long as the Geller Field holds, those 'things' can't get in."

The veteran paused and pointed out the window with an oil-stained finger.

"Don't look out there."

N-05 was taken aback.

He instinctively turned his head and looked into the deep darkness outside the observation window.

In that pure black background, he saw... something.

It wasn't a star, nor a planet, nor any known matter or energy phenomenon.

It was a... color.

A color that could not be described in words, nor defined by any known spectrum.

It appeared there abruptly, like a rift tearing the canvas of reality, shimmering with a mad and twisted luster.

It existed for only an instant. Shorter than the blink of an eye.

But in that instant, a voice—or rather, a perception—pierced directly into his auditory processor.

It wasn't a language, nor any known sound.

It was like a forced amalgamation of countless broken noises, sharp shrieks, and a malicious low chuckle, then stuffed into his ears through countless layers of heavy fabric.

"..."

N-05 shook his head violently. He shut off external audio input and restarted his auditory processing unit.

Looking out the window again, it was still that same cold, dead sea of stars.

The vox-caster held only the low hum of the power armor's internal circulation system and the faint syllables of Tech-Priests chanting binary prayers in the distance.

"An illusion?"

He frowned. In the implant's system logs, that previous half-second was marked as 'momentary sensor interference'.

But that nauseating feeling piercing the depths of his brain didn't seem like a simple equipment failure.

C-19 walked over. His footsteps were heavy and steady.

He didn't look out the window, but simply walked to N-05's side and patted a spot of blood on his shoulder plate that hadn't been fully cleaned.

"The Tech-Priests' preliminary diagnostic report is out."

C-19's voice came through the vox, still steady, but N-05 caught a hint of tension that was being deliberately suppressed.

"Engine energy output curves are within standard ranges. Geller Field generator readings are stable. They've categorized it as a normal Warp background radiation fluctuation."

A normal fluctuation.

N-05 did not press further.

He understood the unspoken meaning in C-19's words:

The Tech-Priests found no abnormality, but that doesn't mean the abnormality doesn't exist.

Sometimes, the most terrifying 'normalcy' is itself a warning.

"Prepare yourself."

C-19 pointed out the observation window. In the distant depths of the darkness, a planet was gradually emerging from the void.

It did not carry the blue-brown colors of life like Terra, but was a uniform, dull rust-red.

The planet's surface was covered in crisscrossing patterns, like a massive circuit board—the energy pulses of the unimaginably vast Forge-factory complexes beneath the surface of Mars.

That red planet, like a giant, indifferent eye, rotated silently in the void, watching this black steel sword as it sailed out from the cradle of Terra.

"We have arrived."