Inside the cruiser's bridge, Thomson stood before the holographic star map, his fingers like nimble dancers, tracing ice-blue trajectories as the ice-encased image of Salaxis V slowly rotated on the screen. This planet, which should have been teeming with life, now resembled a tombstone forgotten by the universe, its thick ice layers like a heavy shroud, emanating endless desolation.
"The research vessel sent data; the ice layer is over 3000 meters thick," the adjutant's metallic voice broke the silence, "but thermal imaging shows the core region's temperature is rising abnormally."
Thomson glanced sideways, noticing the slight twitch in Captain Zhou Yang's temple, a clear sign of his neural implants working overtime. Zhou Yang stared intently at the screen, a hint of worry in his eyes, his hands unconsciously clenching into fists, knuckles white.
The landing craft fleet, like a swarm of silver beetles, cut through the darkness and slowly descended onto the vast ice plain. The moment the hatch opened, the minus 150-degree Celsius cold surged in, and Thomson's power armor rapidly pressurized automatically, its surface instantly crystallizing with a layer of frost.
He stepped out of the landing craft, the ice crystals under his feet emitting a crisp cracking sound under the heavy pressure, like shattering glass—a unique resonance of an unknown mineral at low temperatures. Thomson frowned slightly, a hint of doubt rising in his heart. He squatted down, gently picked up a piece of ice, and examined it repeatedly in his hand, trying to find more clues.
"Third squad has found architectural outlines," the scout's slightly breathless voice came through the comms.
"Coordinates X-7, hexagonal structure, side length approximately 200 meters."
Thomson quickly marked the location through his tactical optics, revealing faint geometric patterns beneath the ice, like the ribs of a sleeping giant, exuding a mysterious and ancient aura. He stood up, his gaze fixed on the target direction, filled with anticipation and tension.
The research vessel's drill began to hum deeply, laser beams like scorching red lines, cutting through the ice in the gloom. Ice chips flew, crystallizing into hexagonal snowflakes upon contact with the air. This unusual symmetry made Thomson recall the records of the Old Ones, the creators of their race, in the fragmented Eldar ancient texts.
A flicker of surprise crossed his eyes, and just as he was about to speak, the drill suddenly emitted a sharp shriek, and the entire landing craft fleet shook violently. Thomson quickly stabilized himself, gripping the nearby handrail tightly, his knuckles slightly white from the effort.
"Gravitational wave anomaly!" The engineer's terrified scream pierced the channel, "There's an anti-gravity field beneath the ice!" Thomson's heart tightened, his power armor instantly engaging magnetic rail adhesion mode. He looked up to see the ice surface, as if stirred by an invisible giant hand, beginning to flow in reverse, rapidly forming a massive vortex.
In the center of the vortex, a black stone gate slowly rose, its surface runes perfectly matching the Eldar defensive arrays in the "Seeker" database. Thomson's eyes widened, a premonition of ill omen rising in his heart. He shouted, "Stop drilling!" However, it was already too late.
The moment the drill's laser beam touched the stone gate, the entire ice plain erupted in a brilliant emerald glow, the intense light burning Thomson's retinas. Relying on his genetically enhanced dynamic vision, he strained to capture the quantum encoding of the runes, his temples throbbing as if countless whispers swirled deep in his brain, attempting to invade his consciousness. He gritted his teeth, clutched his head, and struggled to resist the invisible pressure.
At the same time, Divine River Space Marine squad leader Cassius was leading his team in nearby operations. Cassius's power sword suddenly became stuck in the ice, from which a blue viscous liquid slowly seeped.
"It's alive!"
He shouted, his power armor groaning under the assault of the low temperature. Seeing the viscous liquid on his power sword crystallize into spiral patterns identical to the time runes in Eldar ancient texts, Cassius's heart skipped a beat, a sense of inexplicable unease washing over him.
"Everyone retreat!" The Librarian Psyker Ptolemy suddenly spurted a nosebleed, his third eye emitting an eerie purple light, "This is a time-stasis field!" In Ptolemy's psychic vision, the stone gate continuously released temporal ripples, each rune representing a distinct timeline branch.
When Cassius's power armor inadvertently touched the stone gate, the entire ice cavern instantly fell into absolute silence, time seemingly solidified, and the team members' movements became extremely slow, as if trapped in sticky resin. Cassius's eyes widened as he watched his arm slowly lift, his heart filled with anxiety and helplessness.
"Touch the runes in counter-clockwise order!" Ptolemy's voice became distorted with pain, "This is the escape path of the Nine Heavens Star Map!"
Upon hearing this, Cassius endured the immense pressure of time reversal, his power armor protesting with clicks and clacks in the time flow. His enhanced heart began to beat in reverse, each pulsation accompanied by intense pain. When his power sword arduously struck the third rune, the entire ice cavern began to violently distort, the team members' figures flickering between different age states, as if the gears of time had gone awry.
On the Infinite Engine in the Terra System, Lin Yu remotely monitored the exploration progress, his brows tightly furrowed.
Since the Great Clock had never before analyzed any type of time technology, and he himself had never systematically studied psychic spells, facing the chaotic temporal turbulence on Salaxis V, though he possessed some instinctive precognitive abilities, he could not directly perform time anchoring.
Lin Yu paced back and forth in the command room, his brain working at high speed. He suddenly stopped, thinking of a "Stupid way" (clumsy method).
According to a simple cosmic axiom, with sufficiently powerful energy interference, both technological items and psychic spells would become more difficult to function, requiring more energy. Furthermore, the primary psychic suppression program developed from the genes of psychics and soulless beings, which indiscriminately suppressed all psychic reactions, should be sufficient to interfere with and suppress these psychic time spells.
After all, analyzing principles and technology from genes was merely a fundamental skill for them, the "Gods" from the Super God Universe.
Lin Yu decisively remotely activated the Great Clock's dark energy interference program and psychic suppression program, subjecting the entire ruins to psychic suppression and dark energy tidal interference. Inside the ruins, the frantic changes of the space-time turbulence and the psychic space-time stasis field were instantly hit by a strong impact. The temporal turbulence gradually began to subside and stabilize, approaching the normal time flow of the greater universe.
Cassius keenly noticed this change. He seized the opportunity, using all his strength to cleave the last rune. With a dull thud, the black stone gate slowly opened, revealing a spiral corridor extending downwards. A mysterious aura permeated the corridor, each step carved with Old Ones' meteorological symbols, glimmering with strange light in the faint illumination.
Ptolemy warned with a solemn expression, "Be careful, these runes will read your memories." His psychic shield, already cracked from the previous impact, now trembled slightly, as if it could shatter at any moment.
As the team entered the corridor, terrifying illusions suddenly appeared on the walls: Eldar Craftworlds collapsing in chaotic flames, the heads of prophets impaled high on energy spires, and agonizing screams echoing in the air. Cassius's power armor, as if controlled by some evil force, slowly and uncontrollably raised its bolter, aiming at Ptolemy's head. Cassius's eyes widened, trying to control his body, veins bulging on his forehead, sweat continuously rolling down.
"Resist it!" Ptolemy cried out, his third eye emitting an even more intense purple light. Under the psychic impact, Cassius saw his own death: his chest mercilessly pierced by a Chaos Champion's chainsword, the banner of the Lord of the Divine River burning fiercely behind him.
This terrifying sight instantly froze his fingers on the trigger, his heart filled with fear and unwillingness. In this critical moment, Ptolemy seized the opportunity to shatter the rune trap with a psychic wave, and the bolter clattered to the ground.
The team cautiously continued forward, finally reaching the central hall. In the center of the hall, the construct "Throat of the Climate" continuously injected liquid psychic energy into a core crystal. Cassius unhesitatingly swung his power sword, striking fiercely at the construct's joint.
In an instant, his vision was filled with fragments of Old Ones' memories: this device was originally intended to purify star systems corrupted by Chaos, but due to malicious interference from the Space Undead, it fell into slumber. Cassius frowned slightly.
"Don't look directly at the core!" Ptolemy loudly warned, but it was too late. Thomson's gene chain began to reorganize under the intense impact of the psychic radiation, ice crystals rapidly forming on the surface of his power armor, each crack reflecting a different future branch.
The construct, sensing a threat, suddenly unleashed an extreme cold storm, the biting wind howling past, as if to freeze everything. Cassius, quick-witted, used all his strength to push the last two guards out of the danger zone, but he himself was instantly engulfed by ice crystals.
Before losing consciousness, he saw Ptolemy strenuously insert a blue crystal into the control panel. The Old Ones' device began to operate in reverse, Salaxis V's ice layers slowly began to melt, and the extreme cold storm released by the construct also dissipated.
Lin Yu stood before the medical pod, watching Thomson's vital signs gradually stabilize. At the last moment, just before the Old Ones' device successfully reversed its operation and was about to disappear, he managed to retrieve the blue crystal from the control panel.
The blue crystal in his hand shimmered with a mysterious light, suddenly revealing new runes—an Old Ones' warning for the future: "When the stars awaken again, remember how we fell."
Lin Yu gently stroked the crystal, his eyes revealing both determination and worry. He knew that humanity would soon face not only the ever-present threat of the Warp's evil gods but also ancient, unknown entities slumbering deep within the universe.
He slowly placed the crystal into the analysis slot in the laboratory, intending to thoroughly analyze and interpret this mysterious crystal taken from the Old Ones' weather control device.