Warhammer 40K in a box

Chapter 260 Caul's Forge

Chen Xi had no interest in the academic disputes within the Mariupol foundry world.

During the brief meeting, he presented the expeditionary force's detailed equipment requirements list directly to the forging director, emphasizing calmly but firmly: "All orders must be delivered on time, and the quality must meet Imperial standards. This is crucial to the success or failure of the entire expedition."

The casting director's mechanical prosthetic eye flickered with an obscure light, making the figure in the holographic projection appear blurry and distorted.

He responded with only a short string of binary code, which, when translated, roughly translates to: "The forging world will fulfill its sacred duty." He offered no further comment, even omitting the usual ritualistic language of the Mechanic Church.

According to the intelligence Chen Xi possessed, this mysterious forging director had almost completely retired for the past decade, spending his days engrossed in a secret research project. His last public appearance was when he took Donya as his apprentice.

The judge's instincts made Chen Xi feel a little uncomfortable, but Chen Xi restrained the urge to investigate further.

On the one hand, the deep-rooted xenophobic tradition of the Cult of Mechanics makes it easy for outsiders to provoke a fierce reaction if they conduct investigations rashly; on the other hand, with the expedition imminent, conflict with the Cult of Mechanics at this time could jeopardize the supply of materials for the entire war.

"Perhaps we should send 32 over," Chen Xi thought to himself.

As an inquisitor of the Mechanicus, 32 was well-versed in the Mechanicus' internal rules and possessed the legal authority to investigate heresy.

She could legitimately use the pretext of "ensuring the quality of expeditionary equipment" to conduct routine inspections of Foundry World.

The thought crossed Chen Xi's mind for a moment, then he put it aside. Unless he found conclusive evidence, now was not the time to take action.

Even after resolving these matters, Chen Xi still did not leave the Mariupol Forging World. He still wanted to go to Kaul's furnace on this planet and take away the reinforcements Kaul had promised him.
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The sheer size of Kaul's furnace left Chen Xi in awe.

The difference between the two is as great as the difference between a knight mech and a Titan machine, compared to the furnace he purchased and installed in Rostov Starport.

As the shuttle slowly entered the airspace above the furnace, the view outside the porthole made Chen Xi sit up straight.

If his small but complete forging furnace is likened to a fully functional forging factory, then the forging furnace in front of us is simply a living industrial megacity.

Its sheer scale even reminded Chen Xi of the legends about the "Tower of Babel" from ancient Terra.

From a bird's-eye view, the area occupied by this furnace is probably no less than that of a megacity in the 3K era.

What's even more astonishing is its three-dimensional structure, with countless towering chimneys and golden spires piercing the clouds, some even reaching the stratosphere.

The shuttle pilot skillfully adjusted the altitude, avoiding the towering buildings.

Chen Xi noticed that among these giant structures, countless transport pipelines crisscrossed like blood vessels, transporting raw materials and semi-finished products to various processing nodes.

This connects the entire massive structure inside the furnace into a single unit, making it look like a living, steel behemoth from a distance.

Those spires piercing the sky, those factory clusters covering several square kilometers, all speak of humanity's persistent pursuit of "greatness".

Even in the technologically declining 40k era, this architectural aesthetic, ingrained in the genes of humanity, continued to influence every corner of the empire. In a sense, these colossal buildings are monuments to humanity's glorious past, the last echoes of that lost, dark age of technology.

Chen Xi slowly stepped off the shuttle, the heavy footsteps of the Terminator power armor echoing on the metal floor.

He wasn't fully armed for combat—the environment in the mechanical furnace area was far more harsh than most people could imagine.

Inside the power armor, a glaringly red warning box kept popping up on the display screen: [Ambient radiation level: 17800 roentgens], a number that is equivalent to the lethal radiation level in the center of a nuclear explosion.

The Assisted Thinker kept emitting sharp alarms, creating an uncomfortable stinging sensation on Chen Xi's auditory nerves.

"What a damn environment," Chen Xi cursed under his breath. Looking at the constantly fluctuating data on the helmet display, he had to turn off the Thinker's alarm to avoid interfering with his actions.

Under this intensity of radiation, an unprotected ordinary human would have their entire DNA chain completely shattered by the high-energy particle stream and their cellular structure completely disintegrated after just ten minutes of exposure.

In fact, he had already noticed that certain areas of the metal surface were emitting a strange blue-green glow—that was Cherenkov radiation produced when radioactive materials decay.

[WARNING: Lethal levels of air pollution detected]
[Analysis revealed: plutonium-239 particles, osmium tetroxide vapor, and nerve gas residue.]
The power armor's environmental control system immediately cut off air exchange with the outside world, switching to a closed-loop internal circulation system.

Chen Xi could hear the hum of the oxygen circulation device starting up behind him, and the air, purified three times, with a cold metallic smell, rushed into the breathing mask.

The outside air is not only full of radioactive dust, but also mixed with various highly toxic chemicals. Even a single breath is enough to cause pulmonary fibrosis instantly.

Despite the treacherous environment, Chen Xi was still able to move forward steadily under the all-around protection of the Terminator power armor.

The environment here is so harsh, not because Kaul deliberately chose a place comparable to a nuclear explosion site.

However, if such a place truly exists, it would be a divinely bestowed land by the God of Machines for the Mechanicus, because in the Mechanicus's doctrine, radiation is a blessing from the God of Machines.

The mortal body cannot withstand it; it is merely weak and frail.

This is why most of the Mechanicus's forging worlds are such terrifying environments. Only a very few places, because they need to be open to the outside world, have relatively normal environments that allow ordinary people to survive.

The furnace is now operating at full capacity, processing massive amounts of supplies for the expeditionary force's orders.

However, Chen Xi did not come here to inspect the production of the furnace. His target was what Kaul had hidden under the furnace, which was also the support Kaul had promised him.

Using the map stored in the power armor-assisted Thinker, Chen Xi successfully arrived at the door leading to the underground that Caul had mentioned.

It was a heavy isolation door engraved with the gear and skull emblem of the Mechanicus. As his power armor approached, the access control servant automatically recognized the authentication runes in the armor, and the heavy gate began to slowly rotate and open, revealing a deep passage behind it.

Chen Xi looked at the passage in front of him, took a deep breath, and then stepped into it to continue deeper.

(End of this chapter)