Warhammer 40K in a box

Chapter 549 Confusion
The air inside the bridge was thick and stagnant, with only the low, rumbling hum of the engines deep in the deck and the faint hissing of electrical current from the internal components of the holographic star map projector.

Chen Xi shifted his gaze from the rotating star map to the pure void and darkness outside the heavy porthole, cut off by the edges of the warship's armor.

Hathor's words, like a heavy piece of metal, fell into his turbulent thoughts, temporarily suppressing the turmoil within.

“Yes… pointing to the real enemy.” Chen Xi repeated in a low voice, his eyes regaining their sharp and steady edge.

"Get ready, Hathor. Back on the Rostov II, we still have many 'swords' to sharpen and many 'holes' to plug. Before this ship sinks, wherever it goes, we'll make it burn as brightly as possible."

The moment he finished speaking, several lines of scarlet encrypted runes silently appeared on the edge of the tactical holographic projection platform and began to scroll upwards.

MaiMai's intelligence flow was connected to the highest-security channel on the bridge:
Target identified: Inquisitor Kassim Warren
Monitoring Node: Rostov III Foundry World, Outer Industrial Zone/Residential Hive
Event A: Warren's informant, codenamed "Raven-7," has made contact with the target—Lieutenant Ptolemy Warren, logistics lieutenant of the 3rd Regiment of the Rostov Defense Forces.

Point of contact: A small, abandoned hangar in section H-7 on the lower deck, through which items are secretly passed via a maintenance opening in a ventilation duct.

Background of the target: During the previous Rostov Expedition rotation support, the lieutenant had briefly been in charge of the supply coordination work for the Ash Knights Chapter's temporary outpost (not involving core secrets).

Transmitted content: An encrypted data packet (low-level encryption, currently being deciphered). The content is highly suspected to be a request for a copy of the supply flow records handled by the lieutenant during his logistical support for the Ash Knights, covering a specific time period.

Event B: The same informant, "Raven-7," operates within the "Anvil and Spark" tavern in the outer labor settlement area, using small amounts of credits to gather information. The primary focus is on the specific distribution of various products manufactured in Rostov.

Chen Xi's eyes suddenly turned cold and sharp, like a hawk locking onto its target in an instant.

Warren's net has begun to tighten, its tentacles reaching into the seemingly insignificant outer edges.

"Closely monitor the contact points and maintain absolute secrecy." His voice was deep and decisive, without any inflection.

"Assess the scope and level of information Lieutenant Warren might have access to. Don't alert the informants unless absolutely necessary. I need to know what Warren is trying to piece together from these fragments."

Hathor nodded slightly, his metallic fingertips gliding rapidly across the cold screen of the data pad, producing a subtle yet distinct scraping sound: "Understood. Initiate Phase Two of 'Operation Confusion'."

Her commands, transmitted via the highest level of encryption, instantly reached the non-core research area and peripheral information nodes of the Rostov III casting world:

Command: Selectively release information about the "Bastion Shield" project through controlled channels.

Core Content: This project emphasizes that it is a next-generation kinetic energy impact buffer and heat dissipation integrated shield system developed specifically for the Knight Mech. It highlights its significant role in improving battlefield survivability and the high-tech bottlenecks encountered during its development.

Release channels:

A secondary technical briefing for non-classified technical priests.

The “spontaneous” discussion of technical difficulties in the Tech Priests’ rest area.

A "technical summary fragment" was "anonymously" leaked within an internal low-privilege communication network. Target effect: To draw external attention to a real, technically challenging, resource-intensive project with significant tactical value, but completely unrelated to core secrets.

The command has taken effect.

Soon, new ripples of information began to spread in the noisy outer areas of the Rostov III foundry world, far from the core furnace zone.

In the secondary technical workshop area, filled with the smell of engine oil and steam, a technical briefing for non-core priests is underway.

The junior technical priest, who was giving the lecture, stood behind the oil-stained podium and stated in a flat tone the design goal of the "Fortress Shield"—to significantly improve the survivability of the Knight Mechs under heavy firepower.

He pulled up an energy field model diagram, pointed out several areas flashing red light with a pointer, and highlighted the current challenges in controlling heat dissipation and the stress limit of the main structural material under high-intensity impact.

The priests below the stage were mostly wearing worn red robes. Some were taking notes on data tablets, while others were writing on parchment with quill pens. Occasionally, a low, binary buzzing sound could be heard as they discussed the specific heat dissipation channel design in the model diagram.

In the tech priests' rest area, filled with a faint smell of ozone and engine oil, several figures in red robes gathered around a data screen.

The screen is repeatedly playing a simulated test video: a test knight mech with its energy shield activated is subjected to simulated artillery fire, and the shield flashes violently before collapsing.

One of the priests pointed to the moment the shield failed in the video and said in a flat, mechanical voice, "The kinetic energy conversion efficiency cannot break through the critical threshold. The core bottleneck of the 'Fortress Shield' remains here. The redundant design of the main heat dissipation channel still seems insufficient to cope with the peak load in actual combat."

The two people next to him gave a servo hum of agreement. One of them brought up another set of data streams, and the blue light from the screen illuminated half of their metallic faces. They began to discuss possible optimization directions for the heat dissipation array.

Meanwhile, within the vast and complex internal network of the Foundry World, in the secondary communication layers with lower privileges that connect countless peripheral terminals and primary servers, several seemingly ordinary "technical summary fragments" quietly emerge.

These fragments are like ghosts, meticulously erased of any data identifiers that could trace their origin.

The content itself is fragmented and scattered, like pieces peeled off from a complete report, yet its direction is exceptionally clear: it reveals the existence of a project codenamed "Bastion Shield" and unequivocally points out its core objective—to provide an unprecedented protective barrier for powerful knight mechs.

What's even more striking is that these excerpts candidly record the specific and troublesome technical bottlenecks encountered during the research and development process: "insufficient energy field stability," "poor adaptability in extreme high or low temperature combat environments," and "exponential growth in energy consumption leading to ineffective compatibility with the Knight's existing main weapon system," among other core issues.

These fragments, bearing the marks of secrets, quickly circulated quietly among non-core technical apprentices, junior recorders buried in piles of data all day, and maintenance workers running between peripheral equipment.

During brief breaks, in noisy maintenance corridors, or in poorly encrypted internal communication channels, they were copied, forwarded, and whispered about, gradually becoming a mysterious topic of conversation amidst the tedious and heavy work.

Thus, beneath the vast shadow of this hierarchical, steel behemoth-like world of forging, a top-secret project—real, technologically complex, consuming massive amounts of resources, and possessing disruptive tactical value—began to slowly flow and spread along pre-established, informal channels that bypassed core monitoring nodes.

These carefully released fragments of information, like tempting bait thrown into murky industrial wastewater, float silently, waiting for invisible probes with pre-set frequencies to identify and capture them.

(End of this chapter)