No one could refuse an Inquisitor's request. Very quickly, the hangar doors of the planet-cracker ship opened. Duanmu Huai piloted the Night Raven Blackstar slowly inside, then turned his head to look at the people behind him.
"Here, I need to remind you of something. From this moment on, you are my—Grand Inquisitor Duanmu Huai's—servants. You are not allowed to doubt or oppose a single word I say. To put it simply, you must obey my orders unconditionally. Do you understand?"
"Th-this… okay."
Although they didn't know why Duanmu Huai was saying this, the girls still obediently nodded. For safety's sake, Duanmu Huai had them all put on cloaks and masks, and only then did he open the hatch and step down from the Night Raven Blackstar.
At this moment, standing on the landing pad was a man with greasy makeup, whose hair looked like it hadn't been properly washed in years. He stood there nervously, looking at Duanmu Huai. When he saw the rose knot emblem on Duanmu Huai's chest, the man—who looked somewhat effeminate—nearly rolled his eyes and fainted on the spot. Still, he pulled out a handkerchief, wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, hurried over to Duanmu Huai, and humbly lowered his head.
"W-welcome aboard the Iron Hammer, honored Inquisitor. I am Murphy, captain of the Iron Hammer. Th-this… may I ask what I can do for you?"
"Report your situation."
Duanmu Huai didn't even look at the captain, striding forward as he spoke.
"I want to know what this ship is currently doing here, and what you have done."
"Th-this, of course… as you can see, the Iron Hammer is a planet-cracker ship. We are currently carrying out planetary cracking and refinement operations here… We use gravity tethers to pull apart the planetary crust, then disassemble it, survey the mineral deposits, and refine them. Th-this… we have complete Imperial documentation. USS is a legitimate Imperial enterprise. We absolutely have not—"
"You don't need to tell me that. I have eyes."
Duanmu Huai rudely interrupted the captain. The latter's body trembled violently, and he immediately lowered his head. Meanwhile, Duanmu Huai continued walking toward the captain's quarters, observing his surroundings as he carefully thought things through.
What happened on this ship?
Under normal circumstances, when a Human Empire warship encountered trouble, it was either desecrated by Chaos Gods, invaded by Tyranids, or suffered warp erosion or storms. But if that were the case, they wouldn't form soul fragments—instead, they would be directly absorbed into the warp domains of the Chaos Gods.
Since this warship had produced soul fragments, it meant that it must have encountered some unimaginable problem.
Yet those problems…
Had nothing to do with demons or aliens?
Could it have been heresy?
After reaching the captain's quarters, Duanmu Huai looked at the captain and asked:
"Has anything strange happened on your ship?"
"Th-this…"
Hearing Duanmu Huai's question, the captain shook his head.
"Sorry, Inquisitor. I haven't received any such reports…"
"I need all reports. Including recent entry and exit records for this ship, mineral extraction records, recent crew casualty reports. Also, find someone familiar with this ship. This place has been requisitioned by the Inquisition. You understand what I mean."
"Of course… I'll go right away. Please wait…"
After leaving those words behind, the captain hurried out. Duanmu Huai sat down on the luxurious sofa and closed his eyes to rest. Aegis sat on his left shoulder, Lani on his right. Anne and Grea sat on either side, nervously looking around.
Only after the surroundings fell completely silent did Duanmu Huai open his eyes.
"How is it? Any discoveries?"
"I haven't detected any unusual fluctuations here."
Lani shook her head. Anne gave the same answer, while Grea hesitated slightly.
"I don't know… I just have a bad feeling… This place feels strange…"
Duanmu Huai didn't speak. He narrowed his eyes, lightly tapping his fingers on the table before him. Ever since boarding this ship, he had felt a peculiar sensation—a kind of tension that was also exciting. It was as if he was about to encounter something dangerous, yet somehow related to himself.
"Sir Knight… what do you think… happened to this warship for it to be destroyed?"
Anne lowered her voice and asked softly.
"At present? I'm not sure. Generally speaking, this kind of situation could be caused by infection with some kind of plague, or an external attack, or a Tyranid invasion. But honestly, I'm more inclined to think these people dug up something they shouldn't have."
Duanmu Huai felt the last possibility was the most likely. Creating a soul-fragment world required a momentary explosion that exceeded tolerable limits—like when certain values exceed a critical threshold and cause a computer to crash. Plagues or Tyranid invasions clearly couldn't reach that level of intensity. And if it were Chaos Gods, the ship would have been swallowed directly into the warp.
So…
It was more likely like a primitive digging up a nuclear bomb, and then—boom—everything was wiped clean.
Probably.
Before long, there was another knock at the door. The captain entered again, respectfully handing a document to Duanmu Huai. Duanmu Huai took it and began flipping through it rapidly.
From the report, the planet-cracker ship's operations appeared highly regular. Every three months, a transport team would come to deliver supplies and take away refined minerals and raw materials. At other times, the ship operated strictly according to company instructions. Overall, nothing in the records appeared out of the ordinary…
Duanmu Huai's gaze stopped on a line near the bottom, and he frowned.
"Fifteen miners died in an accident three days ago? What was the cause?"
"Those idiots messed up the procedure."
Speaking of it, the captain sounded utterly exasperated.
"They were supposed to replace the previous shift and carry out maintenance on the gravity tethers. But while changing into maintenance suits, one of them opened the hatch without pressurization, causing unimaginable decompression and an explosion. Thanks to them, I had to halt operations for repairs until everything was restored. Fortunately, I consulted a lawyer—this doesn't count as a workplace injury, so we don't need to pay compensation."
"Under normal circumstances, it shouldn't be possible to open a hatch without pressurization."
"I'm not sure either. Probably some malfunction somewhere."
"Is there footage from the incident?"
"Of course."
The captain nodded.
"That's evidence the company will later use to demand compensation from them."
As he spoke, the captain activated a terminal. Soon, footage appeared before Duanmu Huai. In the video, a group of miners were changing into maintenance suits in a locker room. One of them, after putting on his suit, walked toward the hatch as if sleepwalking, then reached out and pressed the button. Immediately, piercing alarms sounded. The other workers saw this—some shouted and tried to stop him, others hurriedly put on their suits.
Unfortunately, it was too late. In the next moment, the entire hatch burst open, and the workers were instantly sucked out, disappearing in the blink of an eye.
"Wait."
Duanmu Huai raised his hand and pointed to the corner of the screen—amid the scattered debris, a leg could faintly be seen.
"There was a survivor?"
"Yes. He was the foreman of that shift, Keller. But he's gone insane."
"Insane?"
"Yes."
The captain nodded.
"He had already put on his maintenance suit, so he survived. But after we rescued him, he kept babbling nonsense. The doctor believes the shock caused a mental breakdown, so he was given sedatives. But the effect wasn't very good…"
"I want to see him."
Duanmu Huai put down the report.
"Where is he?"
"In the medical ward's observation room… I'll have someone take you there."
Soon, a man who looked like the captain's deputy appeared before Duanmu Huai. He kept his head down, not daring to look at him, and led them deeper into the ship. After taking an elevator through several sections, the group arrived at the medical ward.
Here, Duanmu Huai finally saw the man the captain said had gone insane.
At this moment, the man was confined in a room, his entire body tightly bound by restraints—even his mouth was gagged.
"What's going on here?"
Duanmu Huai looked at the doctor beside him. The latter spread his hands helplessly.
"This wasn't my idea, but he's completely insane. Ever since regaining consciousness, he's been trying to commit suicide. I tried large doses of sedatives and medication, but the effect was limited. In the end, we had no choice but to restrain him like this and wait for the transport ship in a few days to send him back."
"I want to talk to him."
As he spoke, Duanmu Huai pushed open the door and walked inside, stopping in front of the restrained man. He reached out and undid the restraints—
But the instant the restraints came off, the man suddenly shot out his hand and grabbed Duanmu Huai's arm tightly. This startled Anne and Grea, who stepped back in shock. Duanmu Huai, however, didn't care at all. He simply stared into the man's eyes.
They were cloudy, bloodshot, shattered eyes.
"Tell me. What did you encounter?"
Duanmu Huai glared at him and asked coldly, then ripped out the gag from his mouth. At that moment, a piercing scream erupted, making everyone shudder. But in the next instant, the icy aura of destruction and terror bursting from Duanmu Huai completely suppressed the man's wailing.
"Answer my question. What did you encounter?!"
Duanmu Huai stared viciously at the man. The man's once-clouded eyes slowly seemed to regain clarity.
"N-no, no, it wasn't my fault! It wasn't my fault! I don't know why it turned out like this! Kyle wasn't normal—ever since work started that morning, he wasn't normal! It was like he had a nightmare, all dazed. I told him to rest, not to take the shift! But he refused. He said he had to go out. He said someone outside was calling him… I didn't know what he was talking about! I never thought he'd do something like that! A-and…"
At this point, the man's expression became even more twisted and terrified. He grabbed his head with both hands, scratching until bloody streaks appeared.
"After that, I heard it too! I heard it! It was inviting me to go out too! No, I don't want to go out! Don't—!"
The man's blood-smeared face twisted grotesquely. Duanmu Huai continued to stare at him.
"Who wanted you to go out? What did you hear?"
"..."
This time, the man didn't answer. The clarity that had returned to his eyes seemed to dissolve again into murkiness.
Then, the man opened his mouth.
But what emerged was not the man's hysterical voice—it was the clear, childish voice of a young girl.
"Twinkle, twinkle, little star, filling up the sky so far…"
The girl's singing echoed throughout the room, making everyone's hair stand on end. In the next moment, the man stared at Duanmu Huai and gave a bizarre smile. Then his neck suddenly twisted to the side—
And he went still.
"..."
Duanmu Huai silently dropped the corpse in his hand and stared out the window at the endless sea of stars.
"It seems… we've run into trouble."
He then spoke.
(End of Chapter)