Chapter 12: The Wooden Man
When Dos opened his eyes again, he found his headache was gone. But he had a question: where the hell had he ended up? Was he still within the Imperium?
Dos looked around and saw only darkness and chaos above and surrounding him. Soon, cracks appeared in the blackness, like a shattering eggshell. When the darkness shattered and disappeared, a chaotic nebula appeared before his eyes.
Why was this place so chaotic?
Planets were flattened like disks, and black holes constantly spewed out stars, planets, and other celestial bodies. Even a puddle of water floating in space was simultaneously boiling and freezing. Dos gasped in shock. Don't ask him where the air in space came from; he had no idea.
Dos quickly noticed a strange creature with a massive head, nine large eyes, and nine tentacles, each with an ever-changing number of claws. Wait, it seemed to have five tentacles now... Damn it, nine again!
Doss instinctively reached for his waist, but his hand passed directly through his body.
So he was a spirit now? And this space...
Doss had a hunch. He'd once sneaked into the Scholam archives and learned some things. This place must be a projection of the Materium, the Warp.
Being unarmed and present here made Doss deeply uneasy. His knowledge of the Immaterium was limited to its name and characteristics; he knew nothing of its dangers or how to escape.
The mysterious creature's gaze made him feel cold and uneasy all over.
In the distance, blue-pink spatial turbulence swept toward Doss. He heard mysterious whispers and hysterical screams. When he came to his senses, the spatial turbulence had grown even closer. Many of the circular continents struck by it shattered into fragments.
Doss's expression was grim, for he knew what it was, a Warp storm. He glanced toward the mysterious creature's location, but it had vanished.
Doss's anxiety finally subsided. He knew what had happened. A Dark God, the god of scheming and forbidden knowledge, Tzeentch had targeted him. He'd just finished dealing with Khorne's followers.
As the Warp storm drew nearer, Dos understood the source of the whispers: the collective howls of countless deformed daemons. They wandered through the Empyrean, destroying everything in their path.
Just as he was about to close his eyes and await death, a huge shadow enveloped him; he couldn't help but open his eyes. Don't ask him how he sensed it; that's just how surreal the Warp was.
A Luna-class cruiser engulfed in flames sailed over Doss's head. Doss was quite sure the living didn't pilot the ship, because golden flames emanated from the Luna's interior and engulfed the entire vessel.
A dozen such warships appeared around him, and numerous Astartes and Imperial Army ships flew out from the Luna patrols to engage the daemons in the Warp storm.
However, neither the Army nor the Astartes wore helmets, for their heads were skulls that emitted the same golden flames. Some commissars and Astartes even had golden halos above their heads.
Doss had only one thought at that moment: the Warp was utterly insane.
Suddenly, a powerful force pulled Doss backward. Everything before him rushed forward rapidly. Dos felt dizzy and simply closed his eyes.
When the pulling force disappeared, Doss tried to open his eyes, his blue pupils filled with helplessness. "Where am I again?"
Unexpectedly, a voice spoke in his mind: "A territory belonging solely to humanity within the Immaterium."
"Who?!" Doss whirled around. His hand quickly reached for his waist, then he withdrew it sheepishly. "Don't hide."
A black star silently rotated in deep space, surrounded by numerous fiery Luna cruisers.
"I am right before you." The black star remained unchanged, but Doss knew with certainty it was speaking.
"I've heard Dark God loves to play tricks. What are you planning?" Doss stared intently at the black star.
"I am not that repulsive... thing. I am the Master of Mankind, or you may call me The Emperor."
Doss sneered. "Don't even try. If you want to kill me, then just do it. The Emperor's image is clearly that of Sol, bringing light and warmth to Terra, not a dying black star."
The black star flickered.
"The image others perceive depends on their own comprehension. In their eyes, I'm like a golden sun, bringing them light and hope, so that's what they see. And you, little time traveler from the 2K era?"
Doss appeared calm on the surface, but his heart was in turmoil. His biggest secret, hidden for over a decade, was exposed in a single sentence!
"What are you saying? I don't understand," Doss said, trying to appear composed.
"There are plenty of transmigrators like you from the 2K era, but they're all dead because their thinking couldn't adapt. After all, this is the 40K era, 38,000 years in the future. But you're different..."
So I didn't transmigrate, I just came to 38,000 years in the future. This is even worse than transmigration. At least with that, there was a hope he could find a way back...
Dos's mind raced. "Are you a Perpetual? I remember you only appeared in the 2000s, right? The Scholam textbooks mentioned some of that."
"No... Back then, the land I lived in was called Rome... the city-state of Rome... That was a long time ago..."
Good God! So this was some supreme ancient who'd lived for over 40,000 years? But why had he come here?
"Because you have this talent, you were able to meet me. I helped you activate your psychic potential... "
"It's getting late. You should go... We'll meet again sometime."
"Wait—"
Everything before Dos's eyes rushed backward, and the world plunged into darkness in an instant.
"Did you sleep well, Comrade Commissar?"
The first thing Doss saw when he opened his eyes was the green tent ceiling of the regimental headquarters. Wait, shouldn't he be lying on a bed in the medical tent right now? Why was he in the regimental headquarters?
He straightened up, but his head slammed against the command table with a loud thud, making Doss wince in pain. Only then did he realize he was lying on the floor. The chair... He remembered that the Krieg never used chairs, so the regimental headquarters had none.
Carefully getting up, Doss put on his cap. "Why wasn't I in the medicae tent?"
0361 didn't even glance at him. "The chirurgeon said you're not injured, so there's no need to waste a bed."
That made so much sense he couldn't refute it.
Dos thought of 6827. Grayish-white embers swirled in the air like moths. The scorching air distorted, making everything shimmer and warp. Two intertwined skeletons, their flesh vaporized by intense heat, calcified black bones...
"Have you brought back the equipment you acquired from the heretics?" Doss asked.
"Four working logging machines and two Earthshaker cannons. Not bad, Comrade Commissar. Perhaps I underestimated you."
"That's good..." At least their sacrifice wasn't in vain. Dos didn't say the rest of the sentence.
"By the way, what did you get from the Stuar's?"
After a moment's thought, Doss decided to confess honestly. "Canned fruit and munitions."
"This?" 0361 produced two small metal boxes.
Dos got anxious. "No, how did you know where I put it?" Doss snatched the can back and held it protectively, like a mother hen protecting her chicks.
"Didn't you just put it on your cot?" 0361 retorted.
Okay, he really didn't have anywhere else to put it, so he just threw it on the bed. "Wait a minute! That's not right! What were you doing in my quarters?"
"Good question. I thought you wouldn't make it back from the front lines alive." 0361 nodded. "It saved me considerable effort, Comrade Commissar."
"So you were planning to pack up my... belongings and give them to the next commissar, is that it?" Doss's blood pressure rose again.
0361 nodded to indicate he had nothing to add.
Doss wanted to lash out, but he didn't know what to say. Fool? Idiot? Moron? That's just how the Krieg were. Even a high-ranking officer like 0361 lacked experience in interpersonal relationships. They didn't try to please anyone, they didn't say nice things intentionally, they just followed their hearts, as emotionally responsive as a block of wood.
Doss remembered a poem.
When you describe a person
Like a piece of wood
They may not know
A tree
Because of exploitation
Only then did it become wood.
Thinking this, Doss fell silent. 0361 was telling the truth. When did telling the truth become a mistake?
Doss thought of the dead Krieg, whose humanity was suppressed and who never lived decent lives. Even for a colonel like 0361, the best thing he'd ever eaten was a protein bar as hard as steel, and the most exciting story he'd ever heard was a fairy tale about the Great Crusade of the 30K era.
Thinking of this, Doss couldn't help but feel sad. He blinked his sore eyes and took out a can of fruit, handing it to 0361. "This is for you, something to eat. I'm leaving now."
0361 didn't say anything, which made Doss even sadder. He didn't know why; perhaps it was because he'd figured some things out. At this moment, Doss truly felt that the God-Emperor sitting on the Golden Throne hundreds of light-years away was nothing but a bastard.
Doss lifted the curtain at the regimental headquarters and went outside, where he bumped into a lieutenant colonel delivering documents.
"You son of a bitch, Commissar Doss!" The lieutenant colonel's words nearly made Doss faint. He thought it over and realized he had brought this upon himself. All his earlier emotions had vanished because he knew who had taught this lieutenant colonel.
"0361!!!"
[End of Chapter]