Warhammer 40K in a box

Chapter 448 Mutants and the Children of the Stars
If you're really short on cash, or can't find a legitimate way like through the Mechanicus, various Nest City gangs do sell cybernetic bodies, but the quality and safety of these items are rather questionable.

Those dark operating rooms were filled with rusty tools and suspicious liquids.

Although installation is included, you can't guarantee that the person who installs these prosthetics on you isn't planning to remove them after you die and resell them to the next person.

The gang doctors' methods were shockingly crude, resulting in a 70% infection rate after surgery.

This process typically takes only a few months.

Those gang-run cybernetic black markets are like a never-ending revolving door; people keep going in, and people keep being carried out.

It does save a lot of money.

A second-hand respirator modified by a gang might cost only one-tenth the price of one from legitimate channels; of course, its lifespan might also be only one-tenth.

Of course, if none of these options suit your taste, there are other choices in the Empire.

This galaxy may be cruel, but opportunities also exist.

For example, if you undergo biological modification and become an Astartes, then harsh natural environments will no longer pose a threat to you, since Astartes were designed to maintain combat capabilities in various extreme environments.

Those superhuman warriors who underwent nineteen modification surgeries can even survive briefly in a vacuum.

If becoming an Astartes seems too difficult, the bio-engineering technology of the Mechanicus can solve the problem.

Those technicians in red robes possessed astonishing biochemical knowledge.

Although the Mechanicus advocates abandoning the flesh and blood and embracing the blessings of metal and machinery, this does not mean that the Mechanicus has a low level of biochemical modification.

On the contrary, their understanding of the nature of life may be more profound than that of any other organization.

It should be noted that the Empire's genetically engineered slaves are even taller and stronger than the Imperial Guard.

These giants, over three meters tall, can work in the harshest environments; their muscle tissue is tougher than steel.

However, they don't have high intelligence or thinking ability; they are just a group of human forklifts and loading/unloading tools.

These pitiful creatures often don't live past five years, dying from organ failure.

Even in various hive cities, those hive city gangs possess a large amount of bio-modification technology, both legal and illegal, enough to change a person so much that they wouldn't even recognize themselves.

From simple muscle enhancement to complete appearance transformation, anything can be bought on the black market if you can afford it.

To reiterate, for the empire, even if you are a commoner at the very bottom of the social hierarchy, there is still more than one way to solve a problem.

The only difference is what price you have to pay.

The standard of living in the Empire world is indeed uneven; the gap between the two Empire worlds is even greater than the gap between a person and a dog.

Some worlds are inhabited by people living in paradises that resemble utopias, while others are veritable hells on earth.

It is no exaggeration to say that in the empire of the 40K era, you can see all stages of human civilization and technological development, from the most primitive tribal societies to very futuristic interstellar civilizations.

This vast nation spanning the Milky Way is like a living museum of civilization.

The pinnacle of human technology can even create extinction machines capable of annihilating Primarchs, autonomous machines that feed on concepts. However, at the same time, the galaxy is not lacking in human colonies whose technology has degenerated to the primitive stage.

In those forgotten worlds, inhabitants worshipped metal sheets that would not rust as a gift from the gods.

Although the Empire has lost a great deal of technology, it still possesses the formidable strength to dominate the galaxy.

Those ancient STC templates and relics from the Dark Ages continue to offer hope for human survival.

Generally speaking, the blessings brought by this powerful legacy left by ancient humans do not flow to the ordinary people at the bottom of the empire. Those technologies that change one's destiny are always in the hands of a few.

Just like the workers Chen Xi saw at the airport when he arrived.

These ragged figures constituted the empire's most basic labor force.

These people were just wearing ordinary overalls, with their faces covered by strips of cloth or simple breathing masks, and they were cleaning up the burnt-down ruins of the airport through manual labor.

Their movements were mechanical and practiced, clearly indicating that they were accustomed to this harsh working environment.

Just across the road from them, the airport defense forces, clad in full armor, were using fully enclosed helmets with breathing masks, while further away, the combat nuns in full power armor were even further away.

This stark contrast silently speaks to the class differences within the empire.

However, these ordinary laborers were considered to be living a relatively good life in the empire, at least they had stable jobs and incomes and were able to support themselves relatively easily.

Compared to their compatriots struggling to survive at the bottom of the hive, they seem to be living in paradise.

In fact, while these laborers were clearing the airport ruins, another group of imperial citizens lived beneath their feet, in the pipe area beneath the airport streets.

Those dark and damp tunnels were crammed with lives deprived of sunlight.

However, their citizenship is usually not recognized by the imperial authorities, and in many cases, even their human rights are not recognized.

In the Empire's archives, they were merely pests that needed to be periodically removed.

They were forced to live in cramped areas such as sewers or ventilation ducts, avoiding contact with ordinary citizens of the Empire, and were even deprived of jobs.

These people, abandoned by society, formed underground communities, struggling to survive by supporting each other.

These people survive by scavenging garbage and collecting sewage from the streets. A few lucky ones manage to sneak aboard a voidship when it docks at the airport and start a different life.

For them, boarding the spaceship meant escaping this hellish world.

These people didn't find a good place; they just changed their environment and continued to endure it.

Life on the Voidship is equally arduous and fraught with unknown dangers.

Moreover, it is highly likely that they will die due to various accidents when the voidship first leaps into warp space.

For untrained ordinary people, subspace travel is nothing short of a nightmare.

These people are mutants, born in the void of the universe, and can also be called children of the stars.

Their genes mutated due to long-term radiation exposure, and their bodies often exhibit obvious abnormal characteristics.

A significant portion of them constituted the large group of low-ranking sailors on the Imperial Voidships. After all, for the captains of the Voidships, it didn't matter whether there was one more or one less person on board.

These mutant sailors are like replaceable parts, with a perpetual oversupply.

Because warp jumps always result in casualties, the Voidship usually replenishes its lost crew in various ways every time it docks at a port.

Sometimes it's a legitimate recruitment, but more often it's direct kidnapping or deception.

For the same reason, the cult ideology of Chaos and the contamination of Genestealers will also spread, and be carried by the Voidships to the more distant Empire world.

These unseen threats are often more deadly than open wars.

(End of this chapter)