The treasure was right in front of him. If the Chaos Daemons took over, how heartbreaking would that be!
Eden felt a pang in his heart as he activated his psychic senses to scan the entire space hulk.
This was his advantage: controlling the miniature sun, he possessed god-like power.
He was lucky that this space hulk had not been occupied by some terrible entity.
Within the space hulk, there were only some Chaos creatures, scattered Void remnants, and a small group of relatively threatening Chaos pirates.
Fortunately, this space hulk was enormous, almost half the size of the moon.
If he were cautious, he could avoid them for a lifetime.
This meant that Eden could explore the treasure without taking too much risk!
Eden carefully controlled his psychic sense, exploring the space hulk bit by bit, searching for an STC or ancient relic that could be used to create powerful weapons.
That way, he could quickly improve his combat power, break out of the hive city, and reclaim the entire hive world.
Once the hive world was recovered, food, energy, and population would all be his—a dream start!
As his psychic sense continued exploring, Eden saw a village of Void remnants hidden within a mountain of wreckage.
These remnants were tall, dressed simply, and fed on the fungal colonies in the wreckage.
The remnants formed small teams to gather fungi from the outer wreckage, but their luck was bad—they encountered a group of Chaos creatures.
"What a pity..."
Eden thought these people were doomed. Facing such a large number of Chaos creatures, even an elite squad of the Astra Militarum would struggle to cope.
But the Void remnants surprised him.
Their bodies were incredibly strong, wielding thick alloy spears, facing the oncoming Chaos creatures head-on.
In no time, they had dealt with all the Chaos creatures.
Even though the warriors were wounded, they were still lively and energetic.
They happily carried the corpses of the Chaos creatures back, seemingly preparing for some sort of ritual.
These were born warriors.
If there was a chance to recruit them, how wonderful that would be!
The problem was that Eden was currently just a psychic consciousness, almost unable to communicate directly with these people.
He marked the village, planning to return here once he had the power to recruit these Void remnant warriors.
For now, even if Eden could teleport his physical body here, he wouldn't last long—Chaos creatures would tear him apart immediately.
Eden's psychic sense moved past the remnant village, continuing to search for places that might hold lost technology, but unfortunately, most of those areas were occupied by Chaos creatures.
Later, he found a more intact section of the ship, which seemed to be a residential area of a giant vessel, containing many valuable technologies.
This section had become a Chaos pirate hideout.
The Chaos pirates were filthy and mutated to varying degrees, with many sprouting void fungi from their bodies.
They used wet tentacles to grasp bottles of alcohol, drinking and spilling as they cursed and ranted.
"Beasts, come drink the finest Amasec!"
"Idiot, Gutrot's brew is the best!"
"You moron, do you want to die?"
The Chaos pirates quickly started fighting, and soon, one side lay in a bloody heap, unable to move.
Their minds had been corrupted by the Warp. They were more beasts wearing human skin than actual humans.
In the pirate's hangar, ships landed and took off. Chaos pirates staggered as they dragged their loot off the ships, joining the ongoing revelry.
Eden even saw one Chaos pirate carrying a Silent Sister down from the ship, though it was unclear which unfortunate Imperial ship had been raided.
Eden approached cautiously; after all, knowing one's enemy was crucial. Eventually, he would have to face these people.
Such a great treasure trove should be his alone to enjoy.
Leaving it to these drunken, thieving Chaos pirates would be a complete waste!
"Who's there?"
Just as he got closer, he was noticed.
It was a red-haired female pirate leader, with fair skin and a voluptuous figure, surprisingly without any mutations.
The red-haired pirate sat on a throne in the wreckage hall, gazing in Eden's direction where his psychic presence was.
"No way, she sensed me?" Eden froze for a moment.
Zap!
The red-haired pirate raised a melta gun and fired in his direction.
"Ha, good thing I'm in a psychic state, with no physical body," Eden thought, relieved.
Since this fiery pirate couldn't harm him, he could stay and investigate the situation further.
"I found you! Show yourself!"
The red-haired pirate seemed unwilling to give up. She floated into the air, her eyes glowing red as if she were searching for something.
A Gamma-level psyker!
A strong sense of danger surged within Eden—he had only one thought: run!
He quickly withdrew his psychic presence, moving through layers of metal wreckage, distancing himself from the ship section.
The red-haired pirate didn't find anyone and reclined back into her throne, resting her chin on her hand, looking bored. "Sigh, I thought something interesting was going to happen..."
Her name was Kaelinna, one of the Empire's most wanted criminals, charged with desecrating the God-Emperor and betraying the Imperium.
Tch, Kaelinna was still indignant.
All she had done was kill a few of the Empire's dogs on Holy Terra. Did that really warrant the High Lords ordering her death?
They even sent squads of Space Marines and several Inquisitors!
Luckily, she had escaped in time; otherwise, she'd be dead by now.
To avoid the hunt, she had been hiding in this cursed place for a long time.
How long?
Sorry, in the Warp, there was no concept of time or space—only endless Chaos.
"I wish a handsome man would just drop from the sky for me to play with..."
Kaelinna sighed, her ample chest heaving.
She glanced at the ugly Chaos pirates still brawling, growing even more agitated.
Boom!
A shockwave exploded among the crowd, scattering the Chaos pirates in all directions.
"Shut up! Get lost!" Kaelinna shouted in anger, unleashing a powerful psychic force.
The Chaos pirates scrambled to their feet, bowing in submission to their queen.
At this moment, Eden's psychic presence was still fleeing.
That fiery woman was dangerous; he needed to get far away, as far as possible.
After all, a Gamma-level psyker could not be judged by common sense—she might be able to inflict fatal damage even to his psychic state.
Rustle, rustle, rustle...
What was that sound?
Eden realized he had entered a strange place.
In front of him stretched an endless field of green rice, swaying gently in the breeze like emerald waves.
Between the rows of rice were small streams, with clear water flowing, and little fish swimming to and fro.
For a moment, he felt as if he had returned to the fields of his homeland, and the tension in his heart began to ease.
But Eden's daydream was quickly shattered, for he saw a robot in the field, a riveted metal robot.
It hummed a little tune, carrying a rusty water tank, laboriously spraying pesticide over the rice.
The metal robot suddenly sensed something, turning to face the gate with barely-contained excitement in its electronic voice.
"Welcome to Green Wave Farm, my master!"
(End of Chapter)