"Inquisitor-sama! You finally replied!!"
After receiving Duanmu Huai's communication, Dardaniel immediately put on a look of someone who had narrowly escaped death, which made Duanmu Huai want to laugh when he saw it.
"Alright, stop acting in front of me. It's just a colony. Even if you lose it, you won't die."
"Hahahaha...…"
Having his act exposed by Duanmu Huai in a single sentence, Dardaniel smiled awkwardly.
"Isn't this just to highlight your importance and my admiration for you...…"
"Cut the crap. Get to the point."
"Yes...…"
Dardaniel immediately restrained the smile on his face and became serious.
"The situation is actually like this...…there are some things I didn't explain to you before...…in fact, in one of the colonies...…we discovered what appeared to be the wreckage of a battleship from an alien civilization."
"You've never seen those alien creatures before?"
Hearing Dardaniel's report, Duanmu Huai asked curiously, while Dardaniel gave a bitter smile.
"How should I put it, Inquisitor-sama? I'm just a merchant wandering around these barren star regions. If you're talking about human civilizations or alien creatures, I've seen a fair amount of those, but as for alien civilizations...…I really haven't had much direct contact with them."
"Alright, continue."
"Yes. At the time, my thought was to send some people over to see if they could scavenge anything good. So I first gave orders to one of my trusted subordinates stationed there. He secretly went to that battleship with some of the colony's personnel at the time, and found some jars and odds and ends inside...…he said he didn't know what they were and planned to bring them back for analysis. I didn't think too much of it back then, but after that, the colony never sent me any further messages. I felt uneasy, so I proactively contacted that trusted subordinate, but he didn't respond to my communications either."
"Mm...…most likely they found something they shouldn't have."
Duanmu Huai remained quite calm about this. There were far too many similar cases.
"Yes, but at the time I still wanted to know the situation of the colony, so I sent another team over. As a result, after they arrived...…they sent me this."
As he spoke, Dardaniel opened the feed. Duanmu Huai then saw a ruined steel corridor appear on the screen. It was full of holes everywhere, even bearing traces of gunfire and artillery. At a glance, it was obvious that a fierce battle had taken place there.
"And then?"
"That's all."
Dardaniel shook his head.
"Only this, and then I lost contact with that squad as well."
"So you sent a second team?"
"Yes...…"
At this moment, Dardaniel was truly suffering inside. Although, as Duanmu Huai said, losing a colony wasn't a big deal for a Rogue Trader like him, the problem was that every single coin he invested in it was his own money!
Making a capitalist lose money hurt far more than watching someone else make money.
"This time, I required them to stay in contact with me the whole way, but...…this time, their ship was destroyed before it even landed!"
"Mm?"
Hearing this, Duanmu Huai's expression immediately turned serious.
"You're saying the ship hadn't landed yet?"
"Yes, Inquisitor-sama. That's why I came to you...…"
At this point, Dardaniel was genuinely scared.
To be honest, if people had simply gone missing on the planet's surface, at most it would mean that the planet itself had problems. If worst came to worst, he could just treat it as a financial loss and write it off. But this time, his ship had been destroyed before even entering the atmosphere. That definitely couldn't have been done by local native creatures!
If the other side was a spacefaring civilization, then Dardaniel would be completely at a loss.
He had been so frightened by space pirates before that he surrendered with his hands up. If he really had to clash with some proper space fleet, there would be only one outcome—certain death.
So Dardaniel could only seek help from the Inquisition.
"Hmm...…"
After hearing Dardaniel's report, Duanmu Huai frowned and thought for a moment.
"Do you have records from that time?"
"Yes, I have the recorded footage from then."
As he spoke, Dardaniel played it. Duanmu Huai then watched the footage in front of him. On the screen, a neatly dressed man was solemnly giving a report.
"Report, we are about to reach the target planet. Everything is normal so far. No abnormalities have been discovered...…"
However, before the man could finish his report, a loud bang suddenly interrupted him. Then Duanmu Huai saw the ship on the screen violently shaking, and the man was thrown directly to the ground. He hurriedly scrambled back to his feet and shouted loudly.
"What happened!"
"Report, we're under attack!"
"Attack? Who is attacking us?"
"I don't know, they...…oh God...…"
Accompanied by another explosion, the footage froze at this point.
"Mm...…"
Staring at the footage, Duanmu Huai tapped his finger lightly.
From what he could see, the other side seemed to have appeared suddenly and launched a surprise attack, so much so that Dardaniel's people were wiped out before they could even react. Of course, this was probably also related to the fact that his subordinates lacked experience in interstellar combat. Generally speaking, transport ships like this would be escorted by a large number of warships, but according to Dardaniel, he had only sent a single transport vessel—judging by the outcome, it had clearly been treated as a live target.
But what kind of civilization could it be?
Appearing and disappearing without a trace...…Don't tell me it's those damned black-skinned Drukhari bastards!
Although the possibility wasn't high, it wasn't nonexistent either.
After all, when it came to old scheming bastards in the galaxy, weren't these assholes the first ones that came to mind?
"I understand. I'll go take a look."
Thinking this, Duanmu Huai made his decision.
"Oh right, send me the coordinates of that planet. What was it called again?"
"LV426."
After that, Duanmu Huai rested briefly for a day, then set off together with several squads of Night Watchers, boarding a warship and heading toward that planet.
This time, Duanmu Huai didn't bring anyone else. It wasn't that they were unwilling to come, but rather that Duanmu Huai was being cautious. After all, the Dark Eldar could be said to be one of the most infamous races in the galaxy, bar none. Basically, if you encountered Dark Eldar—whether one or a group—killing them would absolutely count as doing the universe a favor, with not a single innocent among them. These bastards were not only fast, but also specialized in stealthy ambushes. Therefore, this time Duanmu Huai didn't bring a large force, only a single company of Night Watchers. Even the ship he chose was a Cobra-class missile destroyer known for its speed, leaving the heavily armed Lunar-class cruiser and other ships behind.
After all, the hit-and-run tactics of those black-skinned bastards were truly a headache.
Ordinary warships couldn't even catch up to them.
With the help of the Webway, traveling to planet LV426 wasn't difficult at all. Duanmu Huai hadn't even finished a cup of coffee before the planet appeared in front of him.
For safety's sake, Duanmu Huai had already dispatched several reconnaissance craft to patrol the surrounding area, but they found no trace of any warships. Of course, Duanmu Huai wouldn't become blindly optimistic because of this. How insidious those black-skinned bastards were was something Dardaniel might not understand, but Duanmu Huai certainly did. Thus, he ordered the warship to remain concealed and continue scanning the surroundings at all times, while also conducting a scan of the planet itself.
From the scan results, most of the planet was indeed barren and lifeless. However, there was one location with a massive number of life signatures—and they were basically all underground.
Alright, looks like it's time to crawl into tunnels again.
"Mm...…this area seems to be right where the colony facilities Dardaniel mentioned were located...…"
Comparing the map, Duanmu Huai frowned.
Could it be that the people previously sent here didn't die?
No matter what, he would find out once he went there.
Thinking this, Duanmu Huai gave the order.
"Prepare to deploy. Let's go see what this place...…is really up to."
Soon, three Night Raven Blackstar gunships roared as they launched from the warship, flying toward the planet ahead.
The entire planet was shrouded in thick clouds, with flashes of lightning and rolling thunder visible from time to time. Violent air currents howled straight toward them, making the Night Ravens pitch and sway like a lone leaf boat in a stormy sea. Duanmu Huai remembered Dardaniel mentioning that he had built atmospheric terraforming devices on this planet. From the looks of it, this was clearly part of that process.
Breaking through the clouds, torrential rain slammed toward them, pelting the windows with crackling sounds. Duanmu Huai skillfully turned on the windshield wipers—hm, it seemed that no matter the era, this was truly a revolutionary invention.
It wouldn't be outdated even in another thousand years.
Very soon, Duanmu Huai located the colony area below. On the ground stood a gigantic steel structure shaped like a volcano, with thick streams of white smoke spraying out and billowing into the sky. Beside it was a row of steel buildings that looked similar to those on Pandora. However, at this moment, the outer walls of these buildings had all been sealed shut with iron blast doors. If not for the lights still shining around them, Duanmu Huai might not have thought there was anyone here at all.
But...…there was actually light...…which meant the energy supply here hadn't been cut off? That was unexpected. Logically speaking, if there was still power, then communication failure shouldn't have happened. Or was there some hidden secret here that no one knew about?
Duanmu Huai piloted the Night Raven Blackstar and circled the entire colony, but saw no signs of intense fighting. The buildings were completely intact.
At least, on the surface, that was how it looked.
Meanwhile, the augur displayed those life signals as being underground beneath these buildings.
It seemed that now, there was only one choice.
If you don't enter the tiger's den, how will you get the tiger cub?
(End of chapter)