Chapter 177 03.0176: "Sudden mutiny???"

"The time is ripe, and we can start the next part of our plan." A man in a monk's robe, with only his thin chin showing from the shadows, said with a sly grin.

"I thought you had almost forgotten about it!" said the fat high priest who had attempted to kidnap and sacrifice Horatio and Farida, angrily, leaning on his cane.

The blue veins on the smooth and shiny forehead were bulging, with a purple tint, which was very scary.

"It is said that the chief of the Navy's intelligence department has collected a list, which may implicate us! We must destroy it!"

The fat man yelled, "You don't know how anxious I am now! I wanted to take action a few days ago. If it weren't for you, I would..."

The expression on that face was exaggerated and hateful. It should have been a man's face, but perhaps because of excessive secretion of female hormones or some other reason, it showed an artificial feminine feeling.

"A trump card must be played at the most appropriate time. I forgive your short-sightedness, hehe." The gray-robed man smiled.

The fat officiant's teeth were grinding with anger.

"Get out of here! I'll take care of the rest myself!"

Boom!
The heavy double doors slammed shut with a groan of pain.

The gray-robed man laughed neurotically, his voice getting louder and louder, and finally disappeared into the darkness.
-
At the same time, in Abyss Port, inside a research room in a casting enclave.

A busy tech-priest was tinkering around collecting research samples.

Her movements were furtive and as cautious as a thief.

At the same time, he was as busy as a squirrel carrying nuts. The prosthetic limbs and neural dendrites behind him shuttled back and forth between various devices, like the snake head of Medusa and the appendages of Arachne.

Several servo skulls floated around above the red-robed woman's head, their artificial eyes constantly emitting terrifying red light, as if they were investigating something.

Behind her, maids and butler robots made of biochemical skin, transformed into doll-like ones, were constantly obeying the instructions released from the source power circuit and carrying out the orders of the female priest.

Their movements are gentle and quick, and the artificial skin does not leave any fingerprints or traces.

Suddenly, a microbial abnormality occurred in a laboratory dish, causing Lati-EB2A1, a technical priest who was skilled in both engineering and biology, to turn his head mechanically in alertness.

Her head, which was mounted on a stabilizer, remained motionless, but her body turned 90 degrees to the right, and she then walked towards the experimental dish where the abnormality occurred.

The bright red artificial eye emitted a cold red light, shining on the experimental dish.

The dish contained the liquid 'mercury' that Horatio had seized from the neck of the Black Mechanicus priest he had killed on the Plague Ship.

Father Ratti's brows knitted.

Because in principle, low- and middle-level priests like her are not allowed to come into contact with the products of the Black Mechanicus.

To avoid fatal suspicion of technological heresy, she handed the sample over to her mentor.

But unfortunately, a few days after the tutor got the experimental sample, he followed the great sage Cambrius to Lucius Agrippina for a tour of academic research.

Today, she was supposed to be alone in her own laboratory doing her homework.

But there is a technical problem that cannot be solved due to technological blockade.

She racked her brains but could not figure it out. Driven by her thirst for knowledge, she did something extraordinary that was taboo in the entire Mechanicus.

——While her mentor was traveling with the great sage Cambrius for an academic seminar, she secretly used the waste code to paralyze the access control robot and slipped into her mentor's laboratory.

The sample was also placed in a laboratory dish by the instructor.

There was nothing abnormal at first.

But just now, a nanoscale reaction occurred inside, which was scanned by one of the servo skulls sweeping from above and captured by her mind with amazing computing power.

The beautiful goddess just bent down, and her artificial eye continued to adjust the resolution and magnify.

When the magnification reaches the limit of the advanced analytical prosthetic eye.

There was a rare look of surprise in Lati's original eyes.

She saw that the pool of liquid that looked very much like mercury was actually billions of nanoworms.

They condense together and look as round and shiny as a drop of mercury.

Now, these nanoworms suddenly became agitated.

Originally condensed into a drop of water, they began to crawl everywhere and spread in all directions.

This strange phenomenon made Father Latti curious.

After carefully checking to make sure there was no one around, she used a prosthetic limb covered with bionic skin to carefully pick up the experimental dish, and returned to her laboratory with her servants after cleaning up all possible traces.

As she walked out of the laboratory, a semi-finished robot servant that was immersed in a tank of green nutrient solution, had its eyelids cut off and was supposed to be unconscious, moved its muddy yellow eyes.
-
A few minutes later, on the Doomsday-class battlecruiser HMS Indefatigable.

The communications officer on duty suddenly received an urgent transmission from the Retribution-class 'Sacred Will'.

The officer was a little confused, and when he heard the urgent messages and gunshots coming from the sound array on his ears, he couldn't help but widen his eyes.

"Report to the captain! Urgent message from the 'Sacred Will'!" the officer shouted.

Commodore Peru, who was taking a nap on the fleet command throne, opened his eyes instantly.

"Report!" he ordered.

The urgent and vague voice of Vice Admiral Hood came from the sound array in front of him. "There's a mutiny on my ship! I need reinforcements!"

The last two words made Brigadier General Peru's eyes widen.

He could hear the heavy gunfire coming from the command bridge of the Retribution-class battleship.
-
Retribution-class battleship 'Sacred Will', on the command bridge.

Vice Admiral Hood, holding a pistol, sought cover at the console in front of the fleet command throne.

"Commodore Peru! Send all the shark assault boats immediately. There is a damn mutiny on my ship!"

A laser flew past the lieutenant general's head and knocked his gold-threaded general's bicorne hat to the ground, revealing a smoking laser-burned hole on it.

"Yes, General... How long can this situation last?" asked Brigadier General Peru anxiously.

"It's not optimistic! The armed forces mutinied! First, the lord captain shot and killed the captain, and then died together with the fleet inspector."

Vice Admiral Hood looked at the chaotic bridge. The General's Guards were trying their best to eliminate the mutineers on the bridge and to block the armed sailors who were rushing towards the bridge.

The captain of the battleship 'Holy Will', who had 35 years of experience in commanding battleships, lost half of his head. His bicorne fell on his abdomen, and he lay with his eyes open on the battleship's command throne.

Two more loud gunshots.

The captain of the lord who had mutinied for no apparent reason had his entire head blasted off by the fleet's quick-eyed and quick-handed commissar, who used a grenade launcher to smash him, causing him to fall sideways on the command console.

The blood short-circuited the entire display console, causing the huge machine to burn up.

The fleet inspector only had his last breath left. He lay on the cold deck, coughing up blood in pain.

Blood soaked the white naval inspector's coat, and there was a large hole on his chest and officer's neck badge, from which blood was gushing out.

Everything was going fine on the 'Divine Will', but suddenly such an absurd scene happened.

Then, Vice Admiral Hood received urgent telegrams of armed forces mutiny reported by the reserve officers on every deck and in the cabins of the ship before their death.

This influx of information left him baffled.

As the guards of the battleship, a mutiny broke out in the Imperial Navy armed forces? ? ? ?

And there was absolutely no sign of it, but a premeditated rebellion suddenly occurred in an instant? ? ? ?

This is as absurd as a gendarmerie mutiny and capture of a military headquarters.

Worse still, there seemed to be a large number of mutineers.

The general's guards, which consisted of only a few hundred people, were simply unable to stop the armed wave that came with the mutiny.

　This is why after the battle at the Cathedral of the Goddess, some people were eager for Horatio to leave Abyss Port first.

　　If he didn't leave, he would be stabbed to death by the out-of-control pilgrims who had gathered after hearing about the miracle.

　　The blame was then put on the fanatical believers in the pilgrims, and all of them were executed and silenced, turning it into a historical unsolved case.

　　A certain inquisitor learned that something big was going to happen through a sudden prophecy from his 'ally' (doubtful).

　　But the Inquisitor, who had just returned from the Calixis Sector after learning of the prophecy, had no time to investigate the conspiracy.

　　The Riddler's 'ally''s enigmatic and incoherent prophecy also didn't tell him many useful details.

　　To be on the safe side, he asked Brigadier General Peru, a former attendant of the Inquisition, to call Horatio away first. It just so happened that the Brigadier General also wanted to pave the way for him.

　　No one knows who the traitor is around them.

　　Welcome to the end of the 41st millennium, this rotten world.

　　There is no novice village, and the difficulty level is hell as soon as you start.

　　One misstep and you will be doomed.

　　Everything could be a conspiracy trap of the enemy.

　　However, all of this could be a bait for the Empire and its allies, with the mantis stalking the cicada while the oriole is waiting behind.

　　The Great Crisis of the Gothic Fleet.

　　On the ground, in the air, fighting openly and secretly.

　　Traitors and real murderers hidden in the vast imperial system.

　　There are multiple obvious and mysterious 'allies' in secret.

　　A prophecy that is both true and false, like a dream and an illusion.

　　Wise Judge, Demon Judge

　　The great value and treasures contained in the dark frontier of the Empire that not even the light of the Astronomican can illuminate.

　　The precarious Cadia and the impending destruction of the galaxy.

　　Horatio: Come, the challenge begins. But I'm not fighting alone.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)