6: escape

Something... or rather, something that was once human, squeezed through the opening.

It roughly maintained a humanoid shape, wearing a tattered, slime-covered crew uniform. But its skin was an unnatural dark red, covered in bulging veins and oozing pustules. One arm had mutated into a massive fleshy tentacle with a four-lobed maw at its tip, while the other had become a bone-like scythe structure. Its facial features were twisted and displaced, leaving only a large, dripping maw that opened and closed continuously, making a "ho... ho..." wheezing sound, while two faint, mad pink flames burned within its hollow eye sockets.

"By the Emperor..." Oleg groaned in despair.

The mutant let out a non-human shriek, and its fleshy tentacle lashed out like a whip toward Lina, who was closest to it!

"Lina!" Han Zhe lunged forward instinctively, knocking the terrified girl aside. The tentacle brushed past his back, striking the metal pipes and leaving deep dents and a patch of corrosive slime.

Kahn's reaction was startlingly fast. Almost the instant the mutant appeared, he had already drawn his old-fashioned Laser Pistol. "Bang!" A scorching beam of light shot out, accurately hitting the mutant's chest and burning a charred hole through it.

The mutant staggered, letting out a roar of pain, but it didn't fall! Granulation tissue writhed frantically at the site of its wound, as if it were already healing! It turned toward Kahn, its bone scythe whistling as it swung down!

"Scatter! Aim for its head! Or burn it!" Kahn roared as he scrambled to roll away from the scythe. The scythe sliced into the floor where he had just been standing, leaving a deep gouge as if cutting through tofu.

Han Zhe picked up a broken metal pipe from the ground, his palms drenched in sweat. Oleg clutched a large wrench, trembling violently. Lina sat paralyzed on the floor, her face as pale as paper, but her hand gripped the gear amulet tightly as her lips moved in a silent, rapid prayer.

Abandoning Kahn, the mutant seemed to judge that Han Zhe and Oleg were lesser threats, attacking both with its tentacle and scythe simultaneously!

Just then—

A sudden change occurred!

The slumped Lina suddenly snapped her head up, and from her eyes, two bursts of blinding, pure silver-white light erupted! The gear amulet in her hand shattered with a "crack," and an invisible, powerful force exploded outward with her at the center!

"Get away!" The young girl's voice carried an unprecedented authority and pain.

That force formed a translucent shockwave that slammed hard into the pouncing mutant!

"Aargh—!" The mutant let out a scream of genuine agony as the dark red hue on its body instantly dimmed and its pustules burst. The bone scythe cracked, and its entire body was slammed against the wall by the invisible force, becoming deeply embedded. Its twisted limbs twitched frantically, unable to break free for the moment.

Psionic power! Lina's psionic abilities had forcibly awakened under the stimulation of extreme fear and a life-or-death crisis!

But after releasing this strike, the silver light in Lina's eyes quickly faded. She let out a soft moan as blood seeped from her nose and mouth, and she slumped unconscious to the floor. The shock of the psionic awakening had placed a massive burden on her untrained and fragile mind and body.

"Now's the time!" Kahn seized the opportunity and rushed forward, pressing the Laser Pistol almost directly against the mutant's head embedded in the wall and pulling the trigger repeatedly!

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Three beams of light completely reduced that twisted, mutated head to charcoal. The mutant's twitching stopped, and its remains rapidly withered and carbonized, finally turning into a small pile of foul-smelling ash.

A brief, dead silence followed. Only the faint sounds of explosions, gunfire, and screams from across the ship remained, along with the piercing echoes of alarms in the pipe room.

"She..." Oleg looked at the unconscious Lina, filled with both shock and fear.

"A Psyker..." Kahn's expression was grim as he holstered his still-hot pistol. "We're in deep trouble now. But... it might also be an opportunity." He quickly checked Lina's condition. "She's still alive, just unconscious. We can't stay here, and we can't let anyone else on the ship find out about her, especially the Tech-Priest and those fanatics. They'd burn her as a heretic, or worse."

"What do we do?" Han Zhe helped Lina up, feeling that she was as light as a leaf.

Kahn's eyes flickered as he thought rapidly. "A boarding action has already begun. Whatever is coming, this ship is finished. The main corridors must be blocked or turned into battlefields. We have to find another way." He looked at the ventilation duct the mutant had broken through. "That thing came down from above... Above us is... near the Secondary Navigator. There might be an independent small comms station or... an emergency escape pod interface?"

[Warning: High-intensity combat fluctuations and a sharp increase in Warp contamination concentration detected. Environmental energy is chaotic. Passive scanning is being interfered with. host detected in contact with active mutant biological remains; mental impact received; vital signs fluctuating. Energy recovery process accelerating... Current Energy: 6.7%... Continuing to rise...]

The system's cold notification rang in Han Zhe's mind, clearer than ever before and carrying a hint of urgency. At the same time, he felt the "scrap" he had collected in his pockets grow slightly warm.

"Go through the ventilation duct!" Han Zhe blurted out, pointing at the hole. "Kahn is right. It might lead to a relatively independent upper area, maybe even an exit!" He couldn't explain the system's prompt, but this was the only viable direction for now.

Kahn glanced at him but didn't press for a reason, simply nodding. "Oleg, carry Lina on your back. Kid," he said to Han Zhe, "you take this." He shoved the Laser Pistol into Han Zhe's hand. "I still have a Blade. Follow me closely."

Oleg didn't dare disobey and struggled to lift Lina onto his back. Han Zhe gripped the still-warm Laser Pistol; its touch was cold and unfamiliar, yet it provided a faint sense of security.

Kahn was the first to climb onto the edge of the duct and crawl inside. With Han Zhe's help, Oleg laboriously hoisted Lina up and then climbed in himself. Han Zhe took one last look at the messy pipe room and the pile of ash, took a deep breath of the air thick with blood and burnt stench, and climbed into the dark ventilation duct.

The inside of the duct was narrow and steep, filled with dust and grease, with some areas still showing the slimy trails likely left by the mutant. They could only crawl upward on all fours. Oleg, carrying Lina, struggled even more, his breathing sounding like a bellows.

After crawling for about ten minutes and turning several corners, a sharp buzzing sound, different from the ship-wide alarm, drifted from ahead, accompanied by flickering emergency lights.

[Detected independent energy node and encrypted data stream ahead. Non-standard Imperial communication frequency. Warning: Moderate Warp contamination reaction exists in this area.]

"We're here." Kahn lowered his voice, carefully pushed open a maintenance hatch ahead, peeked out to observe, and then climbed out.

Outside was a small compartment that looked like a minor observation station or a backup communication node. One wall held a flickering star map screen filled with static and garbled code, while the other side was a complex control console with some indicator lights still functioning. In the corner sat a heavy, circular hatch with a faded label: [Emergency Escape Pod - E-7].

"An escape pod!" Oleg whispered in pleasant surprise.

But Kahn and Han Zhe's expressions grew even more somber. The compartment was a mess; the control console had been violently destroyed, and two corpses lay on the floor—both wearing the uniforms of Tech-Priest attendants. They had died gruesome deaths, their bodies showing signs of being torn and cut by Blades, with the same dark red, active contamination in their wounds. Even worse, the escape pod's control panel had been smashed, with wires exposed and sparks flying.

"The control panel is broken!" Oleg's heart sank.

"Try the manual unlock!" Kahn rushed to the hatch, searching for a manual valve or mechanical switch.

Han Zhe gently laid Lina on a relatively clean spot on the floor and went over to help. The escape pod was a single-person craft, very small; they might be able to squeeze two small people inside if they tried, but there were four of them... "No good, the valve is rusted shut, or it's locked from the inside!" Kahn cursed under his breath as he tried to turn a wheel that wouldn't budge.

The ship's vibrations and explosions were drawing closer, as if combat were spreading toward this area. Unsettling crawling and scraping sounds also came from the ventilation duct—and there was more than one!

Despair gripped everyone once again.

Just then, Han Zhe felt the heat from the "scrap" in his pockets rise sharply! At the same time, the system's prompt was clearer and more coherent than ever:

[Energy level has surpassed the critical threshold: 7.5%. host detected in an extreme crisis environment; conditions for emergency protocol activation met. Initiating core function—Matter Decomposition and Basic Reconstruction Protocol (Ultra-Simplified Version). Concentrating energy... Scanning target: Escape pod door lock mechanism and control circuitry... Analyzing...]

[Analysis complete: Target is a mechanical-electronic hybrid lock, 37% physical structural damage, electronically locked. Available resources: Low-value metal/electronic components carried by host (marked). Guiding energy... Executing local reconstruction!]

Before Han Zhe could think, almost instinctively, he pressed his hand against the exposed wires of the damaged control panel while reaching into his pocket with the other hand to grab the hot parts.

A faint blue Glimmer, almost imperceptible to the naked eye, flowed out from where he touched, seeping into the damaged wires and mechanical structures. The "scrap" in his hand lost its luster at a visible rate, crumbling into fine dust. Meanwhile, inside the panel, burnt circuit nodes were bypassed by a thin, new conductive path, rusted micro-gears were "ground" down by an invisible force to clear the jammed parts, and fine metal particles emerged at broken connecting rods, attempting an extremely rudimentary "welding"... The process lasted less than ten seconds. Han Zhe felt as if a portion of his energy had been drained, feeling slightly dizzy.

Click.

A soft sound came from inside the escape pod hatch.

"The lock... seems to have loosened?" Kahn keenly noticed the slight change in the wheel and tried again with force.

This time, the heavy wheel let out a harsh "creak" and slowly began to turn! As he rotated it, the sealing gas at the edge of the circular hatch hissed out, and the heavy door slid inward, revealing a gap that showed the even smaller but seemingly intact interior of the escape pod.

"It's open!" Oleg almost cried.

But the crisis was not over. The crawling sounds from the ventilation duct were getting closer; he could even hear slimy friction and low growls. The explosions and footsteps from the distant corridor also seemed to be approaching this area.

"Quick! Get in!" Kahn growled, picking up the still-unconscious Lina and shoving her into the escape pod. The single-person space was instantly mostly occupied. "Oleg, squeeze in and take care of her!"

Oleg scrambled inside, pressing himself against the hull and shielding Lina in his arms.

Kahn looked at Han Zhe with a complex expression. "Kid, you..."

"Let's go together! We can fit!" Han Zhe said urgently. Kahn shook his head and forcefully pushed Han Zhe into the hatch. "Listen! This thing's design load is likely exceeded. If we both go in, no one will get away! Someone has to stay behind to operate the external launch sequence! Get in!"

"No!"

"There's no time to argue! Take them and go! I'll hold them off!" Kahn shoved him into the pod with startling strength. The interior of the escape pod became incredibly cramped as Han Zhe was squeezed against the cold hull and Oleg's body, barely able to move.

Kahn gripped the edge of the hatch from the outside, looking at Han Zhe as he spoke quickly: "The launch sequence is simple. There's a red button on the internal panel; just press it, and the ejection is automatic. Kid... survive. If you can... tell the people outside what happened on this ship."

With that, he slammed the heavy hatch shut. The pod was instantly plunged into darkness, with only a few faint indicator lights shining.

"Kahn!" Han Zhe pounded on the hatch, but outside there were only the sounds of heavy running footsteps rapidly fading away, followed by the sounds of Kahn's old-fashioned Laser Pistol firing and the roars of mutants.

Tears blurred Han Zhe's vision. Gritting his teeth, he turned and felt around in the cramped darkness until he found the red button. Above the button was a small observation window through which he could see the situation in the compartment outside.

He took one last look before pressing the button.

He saw Kahn with his back against the closed escape pod door, holding the Laser Pistol and a Power Blade he had scavenged from a corpse. He was facing several dark red mutants of various forms swarming from both the ventilation duct and the main corridor, along with... two former ship armsmen in dark blue uniforms, their eyes glowing with the same pink flames, their movements stiff yet swift.

The veteran did not retreat. He let out a raspy war cry and pulled the trigger as he charged toward the pouncing, twisted figures.

Han Zhe slammed his hand onto the red button.

A violent vibration came from beneath him, and the escape pod suddenly lurched downward, followed by a powerful acceleration that pinned him against the seat! Through the small observation window, he saw the burning compartment, filled with combat and mutation, rapidly recede before being blocked by heavy armor plating.

A second later, a blinding white light filled the observation window—they had been ejected from the hull of the tenacious.

After a brief, suffocating silence and weightlessness, the escape pod's small attitude thrusters fired, stabilizing the tumble. Outside the observation window was the boundless dark starry sky. In the distance, the massive hull of the tenacious was slowly rotating, with fire and explosions visible in several places as small fragments continuously broke away. It was like a dying beast, struggling in agony within the sea of stars.

Against the backdrop of even deeper space, a thin, strangely colored nebula slowly rotated, emitting an ominous psionic glow. Somewhere out there was the "Fortress of Resilience" on the planet Griffin IV.

[Escape pod successfully detached. Life support system initiated. Basic scanning restored. Energy Level: 5.2% (Emergency protocol consumption was significant). Detected damage to the escape pod's navigation system; destination coordinates lost. Searching for the nearest habitable signal or Imperial beacon...]

The system's voice reported calmly.

Han Zhe slumped in the cramped escape pod, breathing heavily. He watched the burning tomb recede through the window, his mind flashing with the image of Kahn's final moments, Lina's pale, unconscious face, Oleg's terrified gaze, and the madness and mutation that had festered in the darkness to finally consume everything.

The flight had not ended.

They had merely escaped from a moving iron tomb into a metal coffin drifting toward the unknown depths of space.

But at least they were still alive.

The faint blue light of the system flickered ghost-like in the reflection of the dark escape pod's dashboard.

Searching... still continuing.