Infinite Stream Metaverse

Chapter 726: The End of the Forging Command
Battleship HMS Rectification, captain's room.

"Teacher, why are you here?"

Fu Qinghai stood up from behind his desk in surprise.

"Don't pretend to be surprised, little Locke. You knew I was coming. Your men must have informed you."

Master Quinto, a hunchbacked and skinny man in a red robe, walked in with a giant gear-axe taller than him. He angrily slammed the end of the axe handle on the floor:
"And you know exactly why I came here. Don't act dumb in front of me. I performed your transformation surgery myself. I know how smart you are better than anyone else!"

"Okay, you say."

Fu Qinghai sat back in his seat helplessly.

"I have sent you an astropathic message before. We have only obtained the wreckage of two battle moons, and the core areas of these wreckages are severely damaged. We have no way to reverse-analyze and replicate the Ork Orcs' teleportation technology with these wreckages. We don't have such strong scientific research capabilities. Phaeton is just an emerging forge world, not Mars!"

Master Quinto waved his mechanical arm and said angrily:

"You know it yourself. Unlike those battle moons whose cores were blown up, Ullanor has the most complete Ork technology. Why did you want to execute the extermination order on Ullanor? Why did you let Mars execute the extermination order? You are the de facto supreme commander of the human coalition forces, you are the commander-in-chief of the Empire and Lord Guilliman. You are the biggest contributor to the victory of this war. You have the power to hand over the disposal of Ullanor to Phaeton, not to those hypocritical idiots on Mars!"

You were also a former Tech-Priest of Mars.

Fu Qinghai thought to himself.

"Calm down, teacher, calm down."

Fu Qinghai pressed down with both hands.

"I know all the situations you mentioned, and I also explained it in my reply to your message: Ullanor is the base camp of the beasts and the final battlefield of the Beast War. Too many institutions, too many departments, too many eyes are all focused on this place. Even if I give the disposal rights of Ullanor to Phaeton, you can't dismantle and study the alien technology openly."

Fu Qinghai spread his hands and continued:
"The same goes for the Battle Moon above Terra. It's sandwiched between the Throne World and the Red Star, and too many people are staring at it. How can we conduct research under the watchful eyes of everyone? Moreover, it was emptied by the Martian Mechanicus before the battle was over. What's left in orbit is just an empty shell. It has no value to us anymore."

So far, the Phaeton Forge World has obtained two Orc battle moon wreckages, one is the one above the Endin Hive World, and the other is the one above the Cordela Mining World. The two battle moons have one thing in common, that is, the energy core was blown up, one by Fu Qinghai and the other by Vulcan, and neither can provide many complete samples of Ork technology creations for the Phaeton Forge World.

"But……"

Master Quinto wants to say something else.

"Don't worry, Sensei."

Fu Qinghai interrupted Master Quinto.

"I can assure you that what we give to Mars now will be returned to us soon with interest. I also admit that the scientific research strength of Phaeton Foundry World is not as good as that of Mars, but it doesn't matter. Mars will research the results for us. I have my own plan. Be patient and give me some time. I will give you a big surprise, a big surprise."

Fu Qinghai gave a mysterious smile.

Master Quinto walked out of Fu Qinghai's captain's room with a trace of doubt on his face. After leaving, Master Quinto suddenly felt a little strange - the bionic mechanical maid who had been serving tea and water in the captain's room before, the hateful intelligent toy of little Locke, did not appear today from beginning to end?

…………

Ullanor, orbital space.

A mechanical ark is hovering here.

Compared with the mechanical arks of other great sages, this mechanical ark is extremely large and has a very strange shape. Its shape is similar to an inverted pyramid, with a length and width of nearly 20 kilometers. This is the mechanical ark of Kubik, the commander of the Martian forge.

Surrounding the Mechanical Ark were a large number of Adeptus Mechanicus warships, painted in dark red and deep black, showing that they belonged to Mars. Surrounding the Martian fleet were even larger numbers of Human Empire warships, densely packed throughout the entire orbital space.

Kubik sat on the throne and surveyed the command deck of the Ark. Everything here was like a miniature of his Martian kingdom, and he was very satisfied with its operating efficiency. The humans, machines, and the combination of humans and machines on the deck were all operating perfectly. Everything was so pleasing to the eye.

"Five minutes and thirty-six seconds later, the orbital speed of Ullanor will be perfectly synchronized with the fourth orbit of the target galaxy."

A tech-priest reported loudly, his words a combination of binary code and various technical languages.

"Prepare for planetary teleport."

Kubik ordered in a deep voice.

"As you said, my Lord of Lords."

Many technical priests chanted in unison.

"The Dharmakaya lightning monks are already in place, forge commanders, and they are always ready to sacrifice their lives for the Omnissiah."

Another technical priest said as he bowed humbly.

Kubik nodded with satisfaction.

The mechanical ark is ready to teleport to the planet, and the timer hands are getting closer and closer to the scheduled time.

The maximum engine output of the mechanical ark, the gravitational disturbance caused by the warships approaching each other, the impact that removing Ullanor would have on other worlds in the galaxy...

As the preparations were completed one by one, endless data flowed into Kubik's multiple wisdom cores. The delicious knowledge made him feel extremely fulfilled. The Forge Commander would never forget this moment. At that moment, he enjoyed the baptism of massive data like a mortal enjoying a shower.

"The planetary transport beam is charging. The Imperial fleet will withdraw to a safe distance in six minutes, my Lord of Lords."

"Qiao Xin and Ulano will reach the optimal calibration state in two minutes. The electric monk charging array is on standby at any time."

"The Imperial Fleet has arrived at a safe location, and Qingshan Khan is delivering a victory speech for the Beast War, my Lord."

Kubik was furious when he heard this:
"Don't tell me that. His speech was meaningless, and I have no interest in symbolic events held by non-Mechanicus followers. Record it, archive it, and put it with the rest of the Imperial bullshit. We have our work to do."

"Block his bullshit speech."

The Casting Commander waved his mechanical tentacles and said:
"Keep moving forward with the great experiment!"

The mechanical ark vibrated more and more violently, the sound of metal collision was everywhere, lights of various colors flashed like crazy, and green codes flashed across the screen like a waterfall.

"The beam launcher has been amplified. Activate all core reactors and hand over the sacred source power to the electric monk for control."

The Tech-Priest continued to issue orders.

Kubik began to feel nervous, and correspondingly, the gravity throne under him involuntarily rose a few centimeters.

The success of the teleportation depends on timing, and it must be at the right time for Ullanor to occupy the original orbit of the fourth planet of the target system. According to relevant data, the original fourth planet, Josin, will enter another chaotic orbit, and then gradually stabilize over time, allowing Ullanor to occupy the magpie's nest. This is an extremely complex task that requires the joint efforts of thousands of logicians to complete.

The plan to destroy Joshin outright sounded simpler, but it would have left a destructive asteroid belt in Ullanor's new orbit, so this plan was rejected.

After the teleportation, Ullanor's orbital speed will not change, so it must be teleported to the right location at the right time, and all parameter variables must be accurate enough to push Qiao Xin away from its original orbit without crashing into it.

If there was any error in calculation during the entire transmission process and the Empire discovered the truth that Ullanor had not been destroyed, a civil war would be inevitable.

After calculation, the risk is acceptable. Kubik wants Ullanor, a planet full of unowned alien technology, and Kubik's thirst for knowledge outweighs all concerns.

everything's ready.

"Fire."

Kubik ordered:

"Let the Empire see that we have bestowed destruction upon Ullanor!"

The timer finally reached the end, and the three pointers merged into one, making a final metallic roar. Countless technicians and priests sang the hymn of destruction at the same time, and an ominous green light flashed on the holographic screen. The surging bright green energy cut through the void and pierced the sweltering equator of Ullanor. The orc world was instantly engulfed in flames.

"The atomically separated coupling matrix is ​​currently stable."

"Quantum separation was successful, and the material's electrical potential is neutral."

"The subspace entrance will open in 0.4 seconds."

Inside the mechanical ark, dozens of mechanical arms pulled down the joysticks at the same time, prayers in binary jargon sang algebraic hymns, the roar of the transmission engine continued to rise like thunder coming from far away, the Dharmakaya electric monks chanted harmonious melodies to amplify the sacred source of power, and the noise of the mechanical roar gradually turned into a uniform singing, joining the priests' ensemble.

"Transmission begins."

The mechanical Ark let out a wail in the unbearable surge of energy. A hole was torn in the real world, but the other end was not the subspace, but a place named "subspace" - a strange and short-lived mysterious realm that exists between the physical universe and the spiritual world.

The overloaded control console exploded with a series of electric sparks, and the holographic images flickered continuously. Light bulbs exploded, cables broke, and the uncontrolled source force leaped in the form of deadly arcs, killing dozens of technical priests in an instant. Alarms of mechanical failure sounded all over the deck, but their warnings were completely drowned out by the roar of the great experiment continuing to move forward.

The unstoppable tremor reverberated through the bones of every crew member, and then suddenly disappeared. Like a ship that finally passed through a reef area, the mechanical whimpering stopped, and the violent vibrations degenerated into smaller and less predictable aftershocks.

On the last holographic projection device that was still in operation, the large green arcs flickering in the void gradually disappeared, and the planet in front of the mechanical ark had completely disappeared.

Ullanor, disappeared.

“Praise be to Om Messiah!”

A large group of technical priests cheered loudly:
“We succeeded, we succeeded.”

Several mechanical servants came forward and removed the bodies of the technical priests who had sacrificed their lives for the God of All Machines.

"Contact Qingshan Khan and tell him that we have used the Relic Technology of the Restored Order to drop this planet into the core of the nearest blue supergiant star. Ullanor is no more. He will want to congratulate me personally."

Kubik smiled and spoke.

Just blame it all on the Restoration Order.

Anyway, no one knows how many super weapons left over from the dark technological era the Restoration Order still retains.

Kubik then issued the order:

"Strip Ullanor of all useful technology as quickly as possible. Don't leave any Orc remnants on the world. The device that can peel off the crust and create a new battle moon must be dismantled. If someone colonizes that planet in the future, they must not find any trace of the Orcs' existence."

"As you said, my Lord of Lords."

His Tech-Priest replied in a sing-song voice.

“Glory to the Omnissiah, who has given us knowledge and charged us to continue to perform His great miracles as we have always done.”

Kubik praised loudly, then activated his gravity throne and left the command room through the cracked ceiling.

The rest of the crew did not hold any celebrations, they just kept working. For these fanatical believers of the God of All Machines, success itself was the reward they deserved.

……

At this time, on the bottom deck of the Mechanical Ark.

A man dressed as a servitor was struggling to climb and wriggle in a narrow tube filled with thick and thin black cables.

The lower deck where the servitors were placed was only equipped with a minimum life support system to ensure the activity of the wetware. The temperature here was very low and the oxygen was thin. The assassin had already begun to tremble due to lack of oxygen. She fumbled with numb fingers and finally found a flaw in the tangled copper cables and optical fibers. She connected the data interface left to her by her teammates before they died. After checking the surrounding environment, she immediately contacted the Grand Master.

Isolde pulled out a palm-sized data tablet, with the bolded emblem of the Court of Assassins displayed on the black screen.

"Red Sanctuary, Mariazet Isolde, Temple of Callidus." The assassin said in a hoarse voice: "Confirmed."

Isolde is the only surviving assassin of the Red Sanctuary team who was ordered to lurk on Mars.

"Identity confirmation... Line detection... Line security." A line of small words appeared in the middle of the data tablet.

The lines flickered for a second, and Wangorich's black and white image appeared in the center of the data tablet's screen.

"Isolde, it's nice to meet you. Now please tell me, is what I just saw real?"

"I'm afraid not, Grand Master."

The Callidus assassin lowered his voice and said:

"Kubik lied. They didn't destroy Ullanor, they teleported it somewhere else, and they planned to plunder it thoroughly and then cover it up."

"madness."

Wangerich's eyes turned cold:

"Where is Ullanor now?"

"I only know the name and number of the galaxy. If it is really located at the location indicated by the number, then according to the numbering rules, it is currently in an uncolonized galaxy somewhere on the edge of the Solar Sector. That galaxy is similar to the solar system, with nine worlds orbiting a star. The Adeptus Mechanicus is very excited about the successful realization of planetary teleportation. They call it the 'Great Experiment'. Apart from this, I can't tell you more. The data core of this ship is highly encrypted and I don't have the relevant decryption skills. I can only report to you verbally."

"Give me a name and a number."

"The name of the galaxy is 'Perlucida', the name of the planet is 'Josin', and the number is PL-SS042002-9001."

"Perlucida Galaxy? Never heard of it."

Wangerich nodded and said:

"Well done, Isolde, evacuate immediately."

…………

Mars, the forging commander forges the temple.

The Casting Commander's Casting Temple is located between the Encyclopedia Temple, the Frictionless Piston Temple and the Acheron Groove Casting Temple Group. This is the largest building cluster on the surface of Mars. The black hardened scar embedded in the red earth can be seen directly from the space orbit with the naked eye.

Kubik's single-person elevator took him to the vestibule of the meditation room. The one-meter-thick steel hatch slowly fell down with a "boom". The Casting Commander silently formulated the follow-up plan in his mind while accepting the most complicated security protocol inspection.

"Well……"

Suddenly, Kubik bent down in pain. The anti-gravity device that had been holding up his huge body suddenly failed. The gravity of Mars was immediately imposed on him, and the mechanical structure emitted a series of mournful cries. Kubik's intelligence core was running rapidly, wanting to know what happened in this place.

The Forge Master tried to establish a data link between his mind and the Martian mind cluster, but there was no response, and even his fault self-detection program did not issue any alarm. He staggered to the control console next to him and inserted a mechanical tentacle into the socket, and immediately found the problem.

The turbulence of data is as empty as a dry riverbed.

This is impossible, someone must have tampered with it.

Kubik retracted his mechanical tentacles and walked towards the vestibule door, which should be guarded at all times.

"Why bother, Commander Kubik."

A voice came from behind the Forge Commander:
"Do you think I would come here unprepared? There's no need to look for your men. They're already dead."

Kubik froze.

The voice behind him continued:

"Didn't you expect to meet me here?"

"Drakan Wangorich."

Kubik turned around slowly, and sure enough, the Grand Master of the Assassin's Court was standing alone behind him:

"I am honored that you are willing to come here in person."

"Oh, you are an important person, Forge Commander."

Wangerich was wearing a rust-red robe uniform of a tech priest, holding a light needle pistol in his hand, with a plasma reactor hanging under the barrel, and the muzzle was pointed at the Forge Master. Kubik's database did not retrieve this weapon, and it looked like a weapon specially customized for the Lord of Mars.

"How did you get in?"

Kubik asked in a deep voice.

"You want to know?"

Wangerich seemed to be both sarcastic and boastful:

"Your rule on Mars is far less stable than you think. After all, I am the Grand Master of the Assassin's Court. If you don't do your job well, then I have to do mine well."

"Statistical analysis of Terran history shows that 7 percent of tyrants die from complacency before success."

Kubik deadpanned.

At the same time, he quickly searched in his mind to find out who betrayed him: Biological Sage Elden Udequix? Or Domination Sage Adeptus Macanny? Or Great Sage Van Aiken? They all seemed to be suspects.

"Haha, really? However, I am not here to mock you. Seriously, I want to talk to you. I say, and you listen. You have to listen to me, but this is not a mockery."

Wangerich smiled, shrugged his shoulders and said:

"You know I came up from the Temple of Venninum. We have our own subtle ways of doing things. Unlike those who use sniper rifles, alien technology, or psychotic berserkers, our people are more classical and elegant. We use tricks and poisons, but that's not all."

"I have a soft spot for poison. It's convenient and safe. You can poison a person and he may not even know he was murdered. At the right time and place, you only need to carefully move a stone to completely change the flow of a river. This is the work of an assassin. With poison, people don't even know which stone has been moved."

“Very relevant.”

Kubik said in an emotionless electronic voice:

"You are a bottle of poison, Wangorich. You will corrupt everything you touch, whether it is Mars or the Empire."

This metaphor made Wangerich laugh:
"What a witty remark, Forge Master. I also feel that I am as subtle as poison, but I do not think of myself as a corrupter. I prefer to think of myself as a healer. As long as the right dose is used, many poisons are also good medicines."

Kubik said angrily:
"You will be removed from the High Lords immediately. We should never have allowed you to return to the High Council in the first place."

"If there was one thing you ever did right, it was to return me to the High Lordship, and you should have done that a long time ago."

"So you can become the ruler?"

"That way I could have prevented the deaths of billions of Imperial citizens." Wangorich shook his head sadly. "I haven't personally assassinated anyone in a long time, Kubik. You are an exception. Of all the despicable, selfish, and childish actions I have seen from the High Lords, what you did was the worst."

"You concealed the news of the rise of the beasts, which led to the fall of a large area of ​​the empire. You secretly studied alien technology and disobeyed Qingshan's orders to teleport away Ullanor... If Qingshan hadn't reminded me, I wouldn't even have realized that you were so greedy and audacious. Everything shows that you really intend to be independent from the human empire."

"Mars and the Empire are not one and the same, so how can we talk about independence?"

"Sophistry. Mars cannot survive without the Imperium, and vice versa. We are one, no matter how you argue. You are a High Lord of Terra, and you have betrayed your fellow officers, the Imperium, the Emperor - or rather your Omnissiah - many times."

"You can't just kill me like this."

"I think I can."

Wangerich smiled indifferently:

"How about this, I'll give you a choice."

Wangerich said in a leisurely tone:

"There are many poisons in the world, some harmful to living things, and some harmful to machines. When I first deployed the Red Sanctuary team, I had my planner Indel release a data virus into the Martian intelligence core, a mysterious killing code left over from the dark technological age. Your database has powerful firewalls, but they are useless in the face of this code. The virus will lurk, learn its enemy, and wait for the right time. It has been on Mars for months, gathering information and constantly evolving and improving itself. Your intelligence core is rotten to the core. Every lock, every door, and every window is useless to it."

"You're willing to destroy the empire to teach me a lesson?"

Kubik's mechanical limbs twitched:
"This behavior is meaningless."

"of course not."

Wangerich snorted:
"I give you two choices. First, you do nothing. I will use this special pistol to blow your head off. The powerful neurotoxin will destroy all organic tissues in your body. Then I will release a virus into the Martian intelligence core. The virus may destroy tens of thousands of years of hard work on Mars, or it may just destroy billions of terabytes of ordinary data. In any case, I think you will do your best to avoid this from happening."

"Do I have any other options?"

"Second, you remove your own intelligence core and give it to me, then voluntarily shut yourself down permanently. I don't want to see you again, Kubik, but I want the rest of the Empire to think you're still in power. It'll make things easier."

"You want me to kill myself."

Kubik repeated his request:
"And let another person survive as me?"

"Yes, Kubik. Ask yourself, which is more important to you, your own life or the vast amount of knowledge and research data accumulated by Mars over tens of thousands of years?"

Wangorich looked at him and asked back.

Kubik made a strange sound, a series of crackling and chirping sounds, and it took Wangorich a moment to realize that it was the laughter of the Forge Master:

"You have miscalculated this time. Give it up, Drakan. I guess you have successfully dealt with my colleagues. So far, you have eradicated the corruption. My death will not help."

"Killing you would at least make me feel better."

Wangerich shook his head and said:

"I hate traitors."

He raised his pistol and pointed it at Kubik.

The other hand held up a device:
"Give me your core of wisdom, or I swear I will kill the world in front of you, and keep my word."

Wangorich stared at Kubik, his thumb pressed on a button that could erase aeons of accumulated wisdom in the birthplace of the Mechanicus with just a touch.

"You're bluffing."

Kubik stared at him and said in a deep voice.

"I promise I'm not."

Wangerich said calmly:

"You don't dare bet with me."

Kubik was silent for several minutes.

"you win."

Finally he said:

"You greatly underestimate my loyalty to the Empire, and ask me to prove my loyalty to Mars. Then watch as this is the final act of a true servant of the Omnissiah."

Kubik pulled off his rusty red hood, revealing his massive head made entirely of metal. He raised his hand and pressed the panel on one side of his skull, and a metal cylinder as thick as his arm automatically rotated and withdrew from his head. He solemnly held the middle section of the cylinder and handed it to Wangerich.

"My core of wisdom, it records my essence."

The Grand Master of the Assassin's Court took the metal cylinder and swept it over a small instrument on the side of his belt, which then made a slight sound and lit up green.

Wangoliqi put the Wisdom Core into his pocket with satisfaction:

"You finally did the right thing."

Kubik's voice gradually became unclear:

"You will pay...the price...Wango..."

"Perhaps one day, but first you must pay for your sins and greed. Farewell, Forge Master."

The light in Kubik's green cybernetic eyes died, and his mechanical limbs folded over each other and slid gracefully to the ground.

When the Forge Master's body finally fell to the floor, Wangorich injected the neurotoxin into his body.

……

"squeak……"

The Grand Master of the Assassin's Court pushed open a hidden door.

“The work really never ends.”

Wangorichi muttered to himself, walking from Kubik's meditation room into a dark little room filled with thinker systems, one of which had a red glass eye staring quietly at the door.

Wangerich stood in front of the red glass eye, bent down, put his face close to the camera and said:

"Come on, Kubik. I know your little shelter and your little tricks. I won't let you download your consciousness data again after I leave."

He uttered a disgusted sound:
"As the Mars Forge Commander, don't you know that hateful intelligence is forbidden? This time you are really finished."

Wangorich hummed a light tune, bent down and cut the data cables of the Thinkers, then took out a bundle of clustered thermo-melt bombs, set them up and placed them where the wires were most densely packed.

"Also, I forgot to tell you that there is no killing code left over from the dark technological age. I lied to you. I don't have the ability to destroy the Martian intelligence core at all."

Wangerich turned and left the small room.

…………

Battleship HMS Rectification, captain's room.

"Boom."

The soft sound of a metal object touching a hardwood tabletop.

Wangolich gently placed the metal cylindrical object in his hand on the desk in front of Fu Qinghai.

"Kubik's core of wisdom."

The Grand Master of the Assassin's Court spoke.

"How on earth did you do that?"

Fu Qinghai raised his head and looked at Wangoliqi:

"There was no exchange of fire, no conflict, and Kubik just willingly handed over his wisdom core to you?"

Wangoliqi raised his lips when he heard this:

"How about you tell me how you got me into Kubik's forge temple without alerting all the guards, and I'll tell you how I got his wisdom core. How about that? This is a fair deal, and both of our curiosity can be satisfied."

Fu Qinghai smiled and shook his head when he heard this.

Even if you don't want to tell me, someone will tell me.

Because at that time, inside the Casting Temple...

It's not just you and Kubik.

…………