Hammer 40k: Far East Storm

"Just private scientific research is prohibited, not to mention these STCs that are full of scientific and technological knowledge. Once the Mechanicus learns about STCs, they will be like hungry wolves and snatch them away at all costs. This is how they monopolize 'science' in their own hands."

"I know, this is what the Mechanicus has always done."

"How can you be so indifferent? Can't you see the danger? If it were just a simple monopoly, I wouldn't say anything, but the Mechanicum's attitude towards science is amazing. They are not researchers, but believers. , they do not learn knowledge, but worship knowledge. In their eyes, science and technology are not a means of knowing and understanding the world, but an idol, a thing used to worship the Mechanic God. , they actually believe that there is a soul in the precision machinery, and the reason why the machinery can operate normally is the existence of the mechanical god. Of course, I admit that there are mysterious souls hidden in some precision machinery, but it absolutely cannot be some kind of god. , even gods are created by us humans, but the Mechanicum does not think so. What is even more strange is that the Mechanicum believes that knowledge is a manifestation of sacredness, and all creatures or cultural relics that possess knowledge are therefore sacred. Machines are sacred, so casually exploring these 'sacred objects' without permission and prying into the sacred secrets is a blasphemy against the Mechanic God and a violation of the Mechanicus. In order to maintain their gods, Scientific research has become forbidden. Even within the Mechanicum, the development of technology is extremely slow. This is why the empire's technology has been regressing over the years. Can you imagine that nine thousand years ago? The standard weapons that were equipped by the entire legion in the emperor's era have now become legendary super weapons. The antiques from nine thousand years ago are now much more powerful than the newly manufactured weapons. They have almost become legendary weapons. Cherished legendary weapons, what kind of joke is this? Not to mention that many high-level battleship empires can no longer be built. The reason is that those manufacturing technologies were accidentally lost by our lovely Mechanicus. "

Li was silent. Vivien was right at all. In Li's opinion, the Cult of Mechanicus was not like an organization composed of scientific researchers at all, but more like a church created by a group of archaeologists. Their mission was to spread the disease all over the galaxy. Discover the ancient STC, then obtain knowledge from it, use the standard template for production, supply the produced products to the empire, and then go back and search from the vast sea of ​​ancient documents, investigation reports sent from all over the universe, and various intelligence Clues were revealed and more stcs were unearthed. Of course, most archaeological operations end in failure. Even if stcs are excavated, most of them are too damaged to be used. The relatively intact stcs are already a dream for the Mechanicus. In thousands of archaeological operations, if only one or two useful manufacturing templates can be found, it will be the blessing of the Machine God.

"You mean, if we continue like this, we may return to the Stone Age?" Li pondered for a while, "Well..., I'm sorry, I can't imagine that such a powerful empire, just because of the Mechanicus, is currently a It doesn't sound too harmful. This sect that has been helping us maintain the war, because of it, the empire is completely destroyed, and mankind is entering extinction like this? Okay, this is a bit too surreal." Li shook his head." That’s ridiculous.”

"This possibility is not impossible," Vivien said seriously: "What you think is absurd is just that you are emotionally unable to accept this terrible reality, but your reason cannot refute my words, because you know that the Mechanicus What kind of virtue is that?”

"Yes, I know, so what does this have to do with your body?"

"I must protect the family secret. This STC was accidentally discovered by my grandfather during an expedition. This sophisticated machine full of technology and wisdom was buried deep in the planet for unknown reasons, so it escaped That terrible storm has withstood the test of time and has been properly preserved until now. This is so difficult. You can't imagine its precious brother. If all the knowledge in it was properly unearthed, Announce it to all mankind and use that knowledge where needed. What a feast it will be. All enemies will crawl at the feet of mankind, and the glory of mankind in the golden age will return." Vivien's passionate speech suddenly stopped here, and then his voice with a hint of sadness came from the speaker, "But it can't be done now. All we can do now is hide, continue to protect this secret, and bury him in the Milky Way." Deep in the Far East.”

"This is the gap between ideal and reality," Li shook his head and sighed, "The ideal is to save all mankind, but the reality is that we can only hide deep underground and act like ground rats."

"It's all worth it, the feeling of enduring the gap between ideals and reality, the pain of being alone and silently guarding a secret without telling anyone, the weight of a huge responsibility on my body, and turning myself into this. Living like a monster without humans or ghosts, all the pain I endured was worth it," Vivien said fiercely: "All of this was to protect this secret. At that time, brother, you left home. , I have no descendants, because I have been obsessed with research for a long time, and research must be done secretly, so I don’t even have anyone around me who I can trust. No, even if there is someone who can trust me, I don’t trust such a big thing. If I leave the matter to him, how can I safely leave such a major matter to others? So I changed myself into this, my body is connected to the machine, and my spirit is always connected to stc. In this way, I I will protect these secrets all the time. As long as the machine is maintained regularly, I can protect them forever.”

"Do you want to protect the future of all mankind, or are you just trying to gain knowledge? For you, there may be nothing happier than swimming in the ocean of knowledge." Eating and sleeping are just a matter of time. It's a waste of time. If only I could do nothing and just read quietly for the rest of my life, you said this more than once."

"Hmph, you remember it so clearly. But I want to tell you, I did this out of responsibility. When my grandfather discovered this precious stc, the first thing he thought of was to dedicate this great discovery to the God Emperor, so he The God-Emperor was secretly informed as soon as possible. At that time, the God-Emperor had just signed a covenant with the Mechanicus of Mars. If this matter was made public, then according to the covenant, this precious STC would be handed over to the Mechanicus. Gangsters, the great God-Emperor had long seen the thoughts of those gangsters. He did not allow his grandfather to reveal this secret. Instead, he asked his grandfather to continue to hide this secret and protect it so that no one from the Mechanicum knew about it. Maybe At some point in the future, the empire will have its own research institutes and scientific research institutions. The Mechanicum of Mars will become one of the many scientific research institutions in the empire, rather than a ridiculous religious archaeological organization like the current Mechanicum. At that time, this precious stc will naturally play its role, and the God-Emperor will use this knowledge in the most correct place. Unfortunately, the God-Emperor was betrayed later, and this secret was handed over to me and has been kept secret ever since. I protect it until now.”

"It turned out to be the will of the Holy Emperor..." Li Leng hesitated for a while before sighing, "Okay, so what do you want to do now? Use this STC to defeat the Mechanicus?"

"Are you kidding? An ant will also think about murdering an elephant?" Vivien said: "Brother, you don't have to worry about this. I still have this kind of self-knowledge, and I can hide it well from the mechanical god. The teacher discovered that it was already protected by the God Emperor. Moreover, although this STC is precious, it is not as useful as you think. Each STC has a complete protection system. If it is not its original owner, it will not be able to protect it. To access the files, I have been fighting against this protection system for so many years. To this day, the files I can browse only account for less than one ten thousandth of all the files on this STC."

In nine thousand years, he has only obtained less than one ten thousandth of the "knowledge". It seems that many of them are basic theories. This is indeed a bit inefficient. Li sighed and asked: "Then you are in a hurry Did you give up the position of governor to me because you want to continue to fight against that defense system?”

"My time is very limited, and I have no time to waste on meaningless things. Countless precious knowledge is in front of me, but I can't see it. Do you know how painful this is? Although I am now There is no need to eat or excrete, but I still need to rest and manage the territory, which will waste a lot of time on me. Not to mention that I have to be careful to guard against the Mechanicus. After all, there is a foundry in this system. The world is still spinning around the star of Reach above our heads. These messy things are so annoying that they prevent me from dedicating myself to work, but you have to do these things otherwise. The room will be destroyed by others, but it’s okay now, brother, you are back.”

All the doubts were solved. Why did the founder of the Li family let the family take root on such a remote and desolate planet? Why did the governor's throne return to his own butt after nine thousand years? It turned out that it was all for That stc which is visible but intangible.

"I see, I understand my position," Li nodded, "just like the nanny the family hired for you."

"Help is mutual, and I can do a lot for you, brother."

"For example?"

"The battle suit you wear close to your body, you are really in a fighting state at all times. Don't worry, I will never hurt my brother, this is just a routine test," while saying this, from the huge machine There were eight slender metal arms deep inside. Some of the arms had metal probes at the front, while others emitted light blue light. These arms like spider legs surrounded Li and probed up and down, and then they were withdrawn. Inside the body of the huge machine, "After the inspection, go back to the clothes you are wearing. This is a simplified version of the empire's early scout uniform, the G03 type combat clothing, a classic design. Compared with the original version, Although the performance has been reduced, the cost has been reduced even more, and the cost-effectiveness has been greatly improved. With my current ability, I can slightly adjust and modify your battle suit. After the modification, the comfort and performance will be improved. In terms of overall performance, it can be improved by 20%.”

"Comprehensive improvement?"

"All aspects have been improved across the board."

"Wow." Twenty percent, this is really an exaggerated number for Li. Especially on the battlefield, where a slight difference can determine life or death. Moreover, the combat suit not only has an excellent protective effect, but its exoskeleton design can also improve a person's strength, endurance, and even sensitivity by an overall increase of 20%. It's like someone suddenly saying to you while playing a game, "Here is the thing." I will upgrade you to the best equipment. 'Same. But this is not a game where you can play again if you die, but a real reality. If you die once, everything will be over. Li swallowed, "Only combat uniforms?"

"Weapons are fine too, guns, claws, daggers, cloaks. Anyway, it's the standard equipment of a scout."

"What about other weapons? Like power armor or something like that?"

"Brother, it's normal for you to have better equipment. After all, you are the governor of the galaxy. There will always be some good things at home for you. But if the entire legion is equipped with equipment that is beyond the norm, this will inevitably attract the attention of the Mechanicus. . Do you want me to be exposed? Once I am exposed, it will not be easy for you."

Maybe it will be, no, it will definitely be wiped out by the Mechanicus.

"Then what should I do in the future?" Li asked, "Sister, do you have any good suggestions?"

"It's up to you. I'm not interested in things in the territory at all. The reason why I spent so much time managing the territory before was just to stay away from the attention of the Mechanicus. I can be calm and do nothing wrong. If you go out, you won't attract other people's attention. But now that you are the lord, brother, these things have nothing to do with me. I might as well sell all those people or take them all as slaves to mine ore; Jianyi You can build a big palace and bring in all the women as wives and concubines, whatever you want."

"So how do we contact each other after that?"

"It's best not to contact you. You are also very busy. Not only are you the Governor, you are also the leader of a Star Wars regiment. Just go about your business and don't lose the Reach Galaxy. I will come to you when needed. Yes, as for the way to find you..." Vivien stopped here, and there was a sudden mechanical sound in her body, and then the huge machinery that made up her body suddenly shook like a wave. After a while, an iron coffin was spit out from the huge machine.

The iron coffin was opened immediately, and a fair-faced female mechanical slave climbed out of the coffin. Like all mechanical slaves, she wore a long robe, and four octopus-like mechanical arms emerged from the coffin. Her back was stretched out, making her look like a thin, feminine version of Doctor Octopus.

Apart from that, she wore no other clothes, and there was a complete vacuum under the robe. The front of the empty robe is open, faintly revealing her white, sexy collarbones and weak neck, which have not been opened, her slender eyes that are tightly closed, and the beauty deep in her memory. face. She crawled out of the iron coffin, stood up with the help of the mechanical arm, and then slowly and unsteadily took two steps towards Li. Her robe swayed as she moved, and she could vaguely see his white legs. .

‘Are you really not wearing anything? ’ Li thought this with some surprise, but suddenly he became alert again. When did he start paying attention to these things?

For a normal man, it would be normal to notice this kind of thing, but for a former Space Marine, this is a bit strange. It is difficult for Space Marines who have undergone mental restraint surgery to have sexual desire for women, and the so-called "mental restraint surgery" is ultimately a kind of mental castration.

The body is changed by the curse, is the spirit also affected by the curse?

This is a dangerous sign. More and more of the characteristics that once belonged to "Astartes" are being lost from Li's body. The body is the most obvious, and there is also the fear of returning to the body. And the returning male's **.

But no matter what, it shouldn't be in a place like this, and the target shouldn't be the woman in front of him. The face of the young woman who walked up to Li was too special.

"This," Li looked at the face of the girl in front of him carefully. It was not because she was ugly, but because the woman's face looked too much like the same person. "Isn't this you when you were young?"

"What do you think? Are you surprised? It's nothing big, it just looks the same. This is not me, just a clone made from my DNA, with only skin but no soul." Vivien introduced nonchalantly: "This is Vivien 74 type mechanical slave made from my DNA and electronics, which can repair and maintain equipment. She can do everything that mechanical slaves can do, and she can also do things that stupid mechanical slaves can't do. And there is an electronic optical computer installed in her brain. As long as I am in the Reach galaxy, I can come to her body at any time through the Internet."

As he said this, the metal head closed his eyes, and the huge machine behind the head trembled, and then stopped silently.