Shipping goods from the game to the World of Warhammer

As Mordax slowly zoomed in through the porthole, Rhodes' first thought was: this planet looks like a rusty planet.

Looking out from the Christina's observation module, Mordax's surface was almost devoid of any natural colors. There was no blue of the ocean, no green of vegetation, and even the yellow of the desert was covered by a layer of hazy metallic hue. Instead, there were dense clusters of industrial buildings that spread across every inch of the planet's surface like a patch of steel-colored moss.

Giant chimneys stand on the planet's surface like ancient trees in a jungle, constantly spewing thick black smoke and orange-red exhaust fumes into the atmosphere. These fumes converge in the high sky to form a thick, sky-obscuring industrial cloud layer, which, from orbit, looks like a layer of filthy oil covering the entire planet.

The shuttle detached from the Christina's hangar and plunged toward the surface of Mordax. After passing through the suffocating industrial cloud, the Forge World finally unfolded its true fullness before Rhodes' eyes.

The scene on the ground was even more shocking than what could be seen from the rails. Casting complexes lay like steel behemoths across the scorched earth. Each complex was a self-contained industrial city, with blast furnaces, smelting towers, forging workshops, and assembly lines stacked one on top of another, interconnected by countless pipes and conveyor belts, forming an impenetrable steel spider web.

The shuttle flew low over a ditch that should have been a river. The liquid flowing inside had an unnatural dark green color, with bubbles rolling on the surface. Even through the sealed walls of the shuttle, Rhodes could vaguely sense the pungent smell it emitted.

If Espera is an atypical agricultural world with clear skies, then Mordax is the Empire's typical foundry world, where the natural environment is worthless compared to the Empire's weapons and industrial output.

In the distance, what was once a vast plain is now nothing but cracked gray soil covered with a layer of metallic dust, shimmering faintly under the red light cast from the outer edge of the forging city.

The shuttle landed on a dedicated landing platform at a foundry complex in Mordax. The moment the hatch opened, a wave of heat carrying metal oxides and industrial waste gas rushed out.

Rhodes frowned subconsciously, but then noticed that the large air filters embedded in the walls at the edge of the tarmac were humming low, keeping the air around the landing zone at a barely breathable level.

He was greeted by a high-ranking technical priest.

The cleric of the Cult of Machines stood at the edge of the helipad, nearly a head taller than an average human. This height advantage came less from his genes and more from his hydraulically driven mechanical legs—two thick titanium alloy pillars replacing his original flesh and blood, producing a dull "click" sound with each step. His left arm had been completely replaced by a multi-functional mechanical tentacle, with different tool interfaces embedded at the ends of its six flexible metal knuckles. The upper half of his face was covered by a sophisticated optical mask, with two scarlet optical lenses replacing his eyes, constantly emitting subtle focusing sounds.

From the open collar of his red priest's robe, one can see that the skin below his collarbone has been replaced by large areas of metal implants, with very little exposed biological tissue, more like scattered patches on a mechanical skeleton.

Beside the tech priest, two servo skulls hovered in mid-air, slowly rotating around his shoulders. These flying drones, modified from human skulls, had their brains replaced by miniature anti-gravity engines and data processing chips. Miniature lenses were embedded in their empty eye sockets, and small robotic arms or data transmission interfaces had been installed after the jawbones were removed. A thin data cable trailed from the back of one of the skulls, connecting it to the data terminal at the tech priest's waist.

"In the name of the God of Machines, welcome, Roderick the Merchant." The voice of the Tech Priest came from a loudspeaker in his throat, with obvious electronic distortion. "I am High Tech Priest Casal, and I am here on the orders of the Forging Director to receive you."

Rhodes nodded and followed Casal into the passageway inside the foundry complex. Fortunately, the air filtration system inside the foundry city was working well. Although the air in the corridor had a lingering smell of machine oil, it was at least not enough to suffocate an ordinary human. After all, there were still a large number of human laborers working on various production lines in these foundry complexes, and they couldn't all be poisoned to death on the job.

As Rhodes followed the Tech Priest through the steel corridor, he silently pondered the true purpose of their journey. He needed to find a legitimate identity for the technological creations produced by the system, and that identity lay in the "Standard Construction Template"—or STC.

This is undoubtedly the most perfect disguise. Those technological artifacts lost in the Dark Ages come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. From a data chip to an entire mechanical device, any of them could be a carrier of STC. As long as he can convince the Cult of Machines that what he has is a fragment of STC, then no matter what new things he takes out of the system in the future, he can use the excuse of "produced by STC manufacturing template" to cover it up, and he will no longer have to worry about being labeled a "technological heretic".

However, just as Rhodes was about to probe Casal's attitude towards the STC authentication process, a shorter technical priest strode out from a side passage and blocked their way.

The new tech priest barely glanced at Rhodes before walking straight up to Casal, and both of their vocal cords simultaneously emitted a series of rapid electronic pulses.

That was the binary encryption language used within the Mechanicus. To any human without a dedicated decoding module, the alternating high and low electronic buzzing sounds were indistinguishable from man-made noise.

This binary dialogue lasted approximately thirty seconds.

Rhodes noticed that Casal's two scarlet optical lenses flickered several times during the conversation, and the two servo skulls surrounding his shoulders suddenly stopped rotating, turning their lenses toward the messenger priest.

After the hurried binary conversation ended, the messenger priest turned and left, while Casal stood there in silence for a few seconds. When he turned to face Rhodes, Rhodes could clearly sense the noticeably heavier tone in the other man's voice.

"Wandering merchant," Casal's synthesized voice was much lower than before, "I'm afraid we'll need to make some adjustments to our original reception procedures."