Warhammer, I really didn't intend to form a second empire!

As Vulcan followed Zhao Zheng into the cabin, his gaze swept over the various heavy weapons on display, lingering for a moment on a few particularly large pieces of equipment before turning towards Zhao Zheng.

His fierce appearance was intimidating, but his eyes always held a gentle and kind look.

"Second brother, the weapons here are all of excellent quality, and the materials are not ordinary either. When I saw the design drawings of those melee weapons just now, I felt that those things could not be made in an ordinary way."

"Those materials have never been seen on Nocturne. Have you been to many places and seen many different forging techniques?"

Zhao Zheng turned his head and glanced at Vulcan, somewhat surprised by his focus.

"I guess so. I've been to some places and seen a lot of things. If you're interested, you can come to Qiankun Star often in the future. I have a lot of materials and design drawings there. I think you'll like them."

Vulcan nodded, a slight smile appearing on his狰狞恐怖 (zhengning kongbu - ferocious and terrifying) face.

"Okay, I'll come when I have time."

Zhao Zheng led Vulcan on a tour of the Epang Palace, passing several different functional areas along the way, including a new mecha testing ground under assembly and a foundry workshop equipped with a large furnace.

Vulcan showed a clear greater interest in those facilities than in the bridge and the combat command center.

He stood in front of the furnace in the foundry for a long time, watching the blue flames shooting out and the alloy billets being heated, his eyes filled with a pure focus and an undisguised passion.

Vulcan loved forging; aside from his kindness towards humanity, there was probably no hobby that could compare to the pleasure it brought him.

Perhaps this is why, in the future, every salamander could become a master forger and wear high-quality power armor.

As he was leaving, he stopped in the hangar of the Epang Palace, glanced back at the direction of the foundry as if to confirm the location of the equipment, and then turned to Zhao Zheng and said something.

"Second brother, can I use your furnace here in the future? The furnace on Nocturne Star isn't this big, and the temperature isn't this high either. There are some things that can't be made there."

"Here?"

"Ah."

It was clear that he really liked this place, and Zhao Zheng didn't say anything.

"Of course you can come anytime you want, just let Kongming know in advance."

Vulcan nodded heavily again.

"Oh, right, since you like this, I'll give you a few later. This thing isn't worth much, and if I'm not on Qiankun Star anymore, you can make them anytime without having to make a special trip."

"Really? Second Brother?"

"Why would I lie to you? Don't worry, it's made with the highest-grade materials. I'll even add some extra ingredients, so you won't have to worry about energy at all."

"Thank you, Second Brother."

"Hey, why are you saying this between brothers? Come on, let's continue the tour."

……

Vulcan stayed on the Epang Palace and the Imperial Dream for some time until the Emperor thought he was fairly familiar with the basic workings of the Imperial system, at which point he was recalled to continue his studies.

After receiving a series of materials and design drawings from Zhao Zheng, Vulcan returned to the Imperial Dream's reception room with noticeably lighter steps than when he arrived.

The Emperor was standing by the porthole looking at the star map when he heard footsteps. He turned slightly to the side, his gaze settling on Vulcan's face. Noticing the slight smile that hadn't quite faded from the corner of his mouth, he asked a question.

"You saw Zhao Zheng? How did the conversation go?"

“Great. My second brother gave me some materials and design drawings, and also invited me to use the furnace at his foundry.”

The emperor remained silent for a moment, his expression complex in his golden eyes.

"That is indeed a very good gift, and you should cherish it. However, Vulcan, your main task is to learn how to operate within the Imperial system. Weapon forging can be done in your spare time."

Vulcan nodded earnestly in agreement, without raising any objections.

……

After Vulcan left the Epang Palace and returned to the Emperor Dream, Zhao Zheng stood in the foundry for a while, his gaze falling on the furnace system that had just completed its initial debugging.

When Vulcan was here earlier, he casually mentioned some plans for the Qin Dynasty, but there was one thing he didn't tell Vulcan.

Although this brother is indeed kind and trustworthy, Zhao Zheng's plan may still be too early even for Vulcan.

Zhao Zheng stopped thinking about it and began preparing the living metals and refined gold to ensure that every weapon he made for his offspring met his expected standards, including the materials and blueprints he would provide to Vulcan later.

Vulcan stayed under the Emperor's tutelage for nearly another month.

Besides studying command and strategy, he would go to the forging area specially designated for him on the Emperor Dream every day to try out the materials and blueprints he had obtained from Zhao Zheng one by one.

His forging talent surprised even the emperor. Although Zhao Zheng did not see the first piece he created after his return, judging from the communications that Vulcan sent afterward, he seemed quite satisfied with it.

"Second brother, based on your design, I have forged a sample. I named it 'Dawn Messenger'. Its hammerhead has a three-layer composite structure, and the center of gravity has been moved forward as you suggested, so it can be carried easily or held with both hands."

Zhao Zheng sat in the lounge of the Epang Palace, looking at the communication message. He tapped his fingertips lightly on the edge of the table and then replied with a short message.

"That sounds good. Bring it to me next time we meet."

News from Vulcan quickly reached back.

"Well, definitely."

Chapter 76 What Ran Dan alien? Isn't that a speed bump?

When Zhao Zheng returned to Qiankun Star, it was two weeks after Vulcan had officially begun his studies on the Emperor Dream.

As the Epang Palace entered the outer reaches of the Qiankun Galaxy along its predetermined route, the points of light from the docks, defense platforms, and transfer stations distributed along its orbit formed a uniform network of light under the starlight, encircling the entire Qiankun Star in the center.

Zhao Zheng stood in front of the porthole for a while, confirmed that the arrangement of the light spots had not changed significantly, and then looked away.

The matter of Vulcan is temporarily settled, and he now needs to turn his attention back to the affairs of the Qin Dynasty itself.

The Great Qin Expeditionary Fleet is currently venturing into two star systems, constantly expanding the territory of Great Qin. Every day, Great Qin's territory is rapidly expanding, and countless resources are being transported out from Qiankun Star and various logistics regions.

It was thanks to the exceptional abilities of Kongming, Xiao He, Wang Meng, and others that the group of young officials they trained were all shrewd and capable; otherwise, the administration of the Qin Dynasty alone would have exhausted many people.

As for the issue of Astartes' inability to engage in politics, Zhao Zheng could only say, "Go away, why are there so many rules?"

When Kongming picked him up at the airport, he had a brand new data board in his hand.

The daily scheduling and administrative tasks had accumulated over the past few weeks, and the documents that needed his review were neatly arranged in the to-do list, categorized according to priority.

Zhao Zheng took the data panel and walked towards the elevator shaft while quickly browsing through the catalog. He found that most of them were routine production capacity reports and logistics scheduling records, but only one item marked "Frontline - New Discovery - Pending Confirmation" caught his attention.

Another new discovery at the front lines? Is it an STC template? Or some kind of dark technology?

He stopped, clicked on the entry, and glanced at the summary.

The entry came from the front lines of the Misty Starfield and was marked as "Marshal Yue Fei - Third Expeditionary Fleet of the Misty Starfield - Abnormal Signal Record".

The abstract contains only a brief description: "Signs of unknown alien activity have been detected in sector A-13 of the hazy star field. The signal signature does not match any known species in the Imperial records. Initial contact was unsuccessful, and the situation has been transferred to observation."

After reviewing the data, Zhao Zheng handed the data panel to Kong Ming without making a judgment on the spot.

He needed more information to determine whether this alien was worth investing resources in dealing with, or whether it was just a small alien population that had not yet been included in the Imperial records.

The alien messages that could be relayed back from the front lines must be extraordinary.

He returned to his underground office area in Chiyang City and processed the documents in batches.

Most of the applications regarding production capacity and logistical scheduling had already been filtered during Kongming's initial review. Only a few items involving cross-stellar resource allocation required his personal approval. He signed off on each of those items and then put the data panel back on the desktop.

A supplementary report was sent back three days later regarding Yue Fei's situation.

The report included more detailed signal analysis data and several high-resolution images, showing that the activity area of ​​the unknown alien population covered several star systems in sector A-13, was not small, and that their signal characteristics were indeed beyond the range of known Imperial species.

More importantly, Yue Fei added a speculation at the end of his report: "These aliens seem to be systematically collecting and preserving some type of biological tissue samples."

Zhao Zheng's eyebrows twitched slightly when he saw that sentence.

He did not reply to Yue Fei immediately, but instead pulled up the original record and video data of that signal and looked at it repeatedly on the table.

The alien individuals in those images exhibit morphological characteristics that are not quite consistent with any known species in the Empire. Their limb structure and body surface patterns show a highly adaptive evolutionary direction, but their specific origin or threat level cannot yet be determined.

After all, with so many aliens in Warhammer, who knows whether they are mutants or native aliens, powerful and bizarre, or weak and helpless.

The Imperial Dragon Legion has already eliminated so many aliens, and who knows, many of them may have caused the Empire considerable trouble during the Great Expedition.

In his report, Yue Fei mentioned that he had dispatched a small reconnaissance squadron to conduct passive observation along the edge of the signal range for a period of time.

The aliens have not yet taken any proactive actions to attack or drive away the Imperial ships.

After seeing those images, Zhao Zheng felt a sense of familiarity, but he couldn't quite place where he had seen them before. After all, he had been in Warhammer for so many years, and some memories were hard to recall unless he deliberately tried to recall them. For a moment, Zhao Zheng really hadn't paid much attention to them.

Therefore, Zhao Zheng's first reaction after seeing those images was not confusion, but a subtle sense of familiarity.

It feels like something you saw a long time ago suddenly reappears in front of you, but you can't remember its name for a moment.

He sat at the table and watched the images again from beginning to end, from the limb structure of the alien individuals to the distribution of their body surface patterns, and then to their behavioral patterns in the images.

Those signs that were slowly moving around the edge of the star system didn't seem like they were searching for something; they seemed more like they were marking out boundaries.

Zhao Zheng tapped his fingertips twice on the edge of the table, but ultimately decided to stop worrying about what kind of creatures those aliens were.

Who cares what it is? Anyway, we should just exterminate aliens.

No matter what they are called, once they are targeted by the Imperial Dragon Legion, there is only one fate.

That very night after seeing those images, he sent a concise reply to Yue Fei.

"The location of the alien signal has been confirmed. It has been listed as a priority target for elimination. There is no need to wait for further reconnaissance. We can begin the extermination process immediately."

After issuing the reprimand, Zhao Zheng temporarily put the matter aside.

He trusted Yue Fei's abilities. If anything unexpected happened on the other side, Yue Fei would report it to the rear in a timely manner, so he didn't need to keep a close watch on the front line all the time.

He still has many things to handle, including the quarterly assessment of industrial production lines within Daqin and the deployment progress of a new batch of agricultural modules in the Hexin area.

However, Zhao Zheng's judgment on those aliens was actually correct, even if he couldn't remember them completely for the time being because of his hazy memory, but that didn't matter.

With an expeditionary fleet of the Imperial Dragon Legion standing there, those alien fleets couldn't possibly stop it.

Unless it's an alien of Ran Dan's caliber, with the Qin Dynasty's existing firepower and tactical system, it can achieve complete suppression within a few days of initial contact.

Zhao Zheng was not nervous, because like Yue Fei, he had enough confidence in the power he held.

Any problem? One hit of the Starshattering Cannon and even the biggest problem will cease to be a problem.

If so, then let's do it again.

The hazy star field, sector A-13.

Yue Fei stood on the bridge of the Great Wall-class battleship "Wumu", where a holographic tactical panel displayed the real-time situation of the star cluster ahead.

The signal locations previously marked by the reconnaissance squadrons are now covered by more precise scan data, and the alien's activity trajectory at the edge of the star system has been recorded line by line into his tactical map.

He had already made the battle plan after receiving Zhao Zheng's approval.

The commanded fleet, after deploying its formation, will advance simultaneously from two directions to cut off the alien fleet's possible retreat path.

The actual size of those alien ships was larger than previously estimated by passive observations. A rough count suggests that there were over several thousand ships distributed across three adjacent star systems, maintaining a relatively loose defensive posture.

Yue Fei glanced at the order, but didn't linger. He turned to the main control panel.

"Led by the Ironborn Fleet, launch the first round of fire suppression against the concentrated area of ​​the alien fleet from the front."

"The Second and Third Fleets will deploy from the north and south flanks respectively, and advance in tandem after the Ironborn Fleet begins its suppression, compressing their operational space and prioritizing the elimination of their main ship formations."

"The main guns of the Wumu are in standby mode, awaiting further instructions."

Yue Fei's voice was transmitted to the command terminals of each fleet through the communication channel, and then dense movement trajectory markers began to appear on the holographic tactical panel.

The markers unfolded one by one according to their respective formations and directions, forming a clear offensive formation on the star map surface ahead.

Upon receiving the order, the Ironborn Fleet advanced in neat formation. Their ships were smaller than the alien capital ships, but more numerous, forming an arc-shaped line of hundreds of ships after they were deployed.

The alien ships reacted when the Ironborn fleet entered their sensor range.

Their formation began to slowly adjust its course, turning its bows toward the Ironborn fleet's direction of advance, and the energy shields on their surfaces showed an increase in brightness.

The Ironborn fleet did not slow down; they maintained their original cruising speed and continued to advance.

Once within range, the Ironborn ships in the front row began to unleash their first round of conventional firepower in alternating firing patterns. Macro cannons and light spears traced dense ballistic trajectories in the air, accurately landing on the outer perimeter of the alien formation and creating continuous flashes on the energy shields of those ships.

After enduring the first round of conventional fire, the alien fleet maintained its original formation without any obvious chaos or retreat. Furthermore, its outer formation began to slowly extend towards the flanks, attempting to encircle the Ironborn fleet.

Yue Fei noticed their turning movements, but he did not adjust his original battle plan because of this; he simply continued to wait for the advance of firepower.

After the Ironblood Fleet completed its second round of firing, Yue Fei issued new orders.

"The forward fleet maintains suppressive fire and advances steadily; the first fleet completes its flanking maneuver from the north flank, cutting off the connection between the alien formation and the star system behind it; the second fleet advances simultaneously from the south flank to prevent them from breaking out from that direction."