Warhammer: The Time Traveler

Chapter 19 The Little Beidou Project

Inside the temporary workshop, the energy level finally stabilized at a reassuring threshold. The "Thunder-7" battery allowed Chen Yu's miniature fusion reactor to breathe a sigh of relief, enabling him to devote more energy to long-term planning.

“The survival baseline has been temporarily stabilized. Next, expand the perception range and deepen the control and understanding of the surrounding environment.” Chen Yu issued instructions to the suspended servo skull. “We cannot always react passively. Information is a more fundamental fuel than promethium.”

He walked to a corner of the workbench, where the extra results of the past few days were displayed—three newly "born" servo skulls. Unlike the first servo skull, which came from the Martian forging world and had an ancient history and exquisite craftsmanship, these three were products of local materials: the skulls themselves came from the remains of wanderers recovered during the previous clearing of the mine, and had undergone thorough cleaning, disinfection, and metal reinforcement; the interiors were filled with sensors, processors, and power units salvaged from abandoned terminals and electrical appliances in the town; the exteriors were rough and even slightly grotesque, with exposed cables and welding marks clearly visible, and an unstable light flickering in the eye sockets.

They are pragmatic creations born of resource scarcity, but within the knowledge system of Mechanics, their core functions—scanning, drawing, data transmission, and basic logical judgment—are realized.

"Initialization complete. Loading collaborative mapping protocol." Chen Yu's mechanical tentacle connected to the data interface of the last replica skull and injected commands. "Task: With the main workshop as the origin, conduct millimeter-level terrain scanning, underground structure penetration detection, energy signal tracing, and life sign monitoring within a 15-kilometer radius. Prioritize drawing a complete geographic information map, identifying all potential resource points, structures, and anomalous areas."

Four servo skulls—one a finely crafted original, three crude imitations—simultaneously glowed from their eye sockets. They silently ascended, piercing through the temporarily opened hatch in the garage roof, flying towards four different quadrants, and quickly disappeared into the dusky sky.

Chen Yu returned to the main terminal. On the crude multi-screen array, data began to cascade down like a waterfall. Four different data streams were transmitted back in real time, gradually weaving together into an increasingly detailed dynamic map.

The initial information matched expectations: rolling sand dunes, weathered rock formations, twisted metal debris, and thermal signals from radiation-mutated organisms…

But as the scan deepened and the penetrating waves continued to provide feedback, the secrets hidden beneath this desolate desert began to quietly emerge.

Chen Yu's attention was drawn to the data transmitted from one of the replica skulls. It was responsible for scanning a seemingly ordinary rock wall area in the northwest of the town. The ground-penetrating radar echo revealed a huge man-made cavity inside the rock wall, with an unusually regular structure and a depth far exceeding that of naturally formed caves. More noteworthy was the detection of extremely weak but stable low-frequency energy signals deep within the cavity, which were not the usual radiation or geothermal activity.

Almost simultaneously, another skull was discovered beneath an old sewage treatment pumping station in the southeast corner of the town, leading to a large ventilation duct almost completely blocked by sand and waste. The duct was robust, its alloy material a stark contrast to the cheap materials used in surface buildings, and it extended downwards, ultimately pointing in a strikingly similar direction to the cavity beneath the northwest rock face.

“An underground structure. Massive in scale. Not for civilian use.” Chen Yu mobilized all four skulls to conduct focused scans of these two areas.

Preliminary surveys indicate that the main part of the underground infrastructure lies directly beneath the town, at a depth of approximately 50 to 100 meters, almost completely covering the town's foundation. The northwest rock wall serves as one of its main entrances, while the ventilation ducts in the southeast are part of its air exchange system. The town above ground appears as a clumsy lid placed atop this hidden behemoth.

"Prioritize clearing and exploring the southeast ventilation duct entrance. It's closer to the main workshop, and the environment is relatively controllable," Chen Yu instructed his "old buddy"—the original servo skull.

The servo skull executed the commands efficiently. It guided two other replica skulls, using precise micro-laser cutting and miniature impact drills, to spend hours clearing the silt from the bottom of the pump station, revealing a rusted but still sturdy ventilation shaft cover. After the forced demolition, a dark, downward-sloping passage was revealed, from which cold air carrying the smell of stale engine oil and trace amounts of radioactive dust poured out.

The servo-driven skull flew into the channel first, its powerful sensors penetrating the darkness to transmit the internal structure back in real time.

The tunnel's interior walls are smooth, made of high-performance composite materials, with a clearly visible military-grade eagle emblem. The tunnel extends downwards for hundreds of meters before connecting to a larger space.

It was a small outpost or security node. Scattered throughout the room were overturned tables and chairs, shattered monitors, and several skeletons long since weathered to skeletal remains, fragments of military-grade uniforms clinging to their bodies. The emergency lights on the walls were long gone, but a scan of the servo skull revealed a violently damaged data terminal interface in one corner of the room.

The skull cautiously approached the damaged terminal interface. A data probe, as thin as a hair, extended from its jawbone and connected to the break. "Attempting data recovery... residual data fragments detected... parsing..." Chen Yu stared at the screen.

Fragmented log files, snippets of experimental data, and torn sections of engineering reports... were salvaged bit by bit. The text was mostly incomplete, interspersed with numerous company terms and military codes, but the key information was enough to piece together a startling truth:

"...The seventh outpost of the Little Beidou Project...the environmental camouflage layer ('Flinttown') has been completed...effectively concealing the main entrance..."

"...Arasaka's satellite reconnaissance frequency has increased again... We must ensure the 'beacon' is absolutely concealed..."

"...Abnormal neural activity patterns recorded...Subject 7 exhibited irreversible cognitive distortions...suspected to be related to secondary interactions with the 'visitor'..."

"...Headquarters order: All Beidou facilities to enter maximum silence...cut off all non-essential power sources...physically isolate the core database...await final disposal instructions..."

The information flow abruptly stopped, and subsequent data appeared to have been completely erased by some kind of strong electromagnetic pulse or physical means.

The Little Beidou Project? A battle against Arasaka? Abnormal neural activity? A "visitor"?
Chen Yu's optical lens narrowed slightly. The town on the surface was a disguise, an "environmental camouflage layer" built to conceal an underground military research facility! This facility belonged to military technology, designed to develop a certain project for the company during wartime. Judging from the fragmented information, its core seemed to be related to using some kind of wandering artificial intelligence from "outside the black wall," known as "Visitors," to counter Arasaka's "Soul Killer" project. Those technologies such as energy transmission and neural interfaces were likely just accidental gains during the research of this dangerous byproduct.

With the end of the corporate war and the change of landscape, this dangerous plan was urgently suspended and sealed, and the town on the ground also lost its meaning and was gradually swallowed up by the wind and sand and oblivion.

“A ruin that attempted to manipulate demonic power…” Chen Yu muttered to himself, a hint of cold interest in his voice. His experiences in the Warhammer universe had instilled in him a high degree of vigilance towards any attempt to exploit Abominations or similar dangerous entities, but he was also well aware of the enormous risks and rewards that might be involved.

There might be sealed fragments of stray AI data, intact old-era military-grade hardware, protected energy cores, or even research records that haven't been completely destroyed—all of which are far more valuable and dangerous than scavenging for trash on the surface.

"Old buddy, continue trying to retrieve any readable data fragments, focusing on structural diagrams and energy circuit diagrams. Other units, deploy concealed vibration sensors and energy fluctuation monitors centered on the ventilation duct entrance and the northwest rock wall entrance. Raise the monitoring level to the highest." Chen Yu quickly issued a series of instructions.

The four skulls sprang into action once more. An invisible surveillance network began to quietly unfold, centered on the town.

Chen Yu returned to his workbench, retrieved all the scan data on the underground facilities and fragmented information about the Little Beidou project, and began in-depth research. Exploring a secret base that might involve runaway artificial intelligence was no easy task. He needed more detailed structural diagrams, stronger firepower, more abundant energy, and contingency plans to deal with information contamination and electronic warfare attacks.

That buried secret was like a tempting yet dangerous bait. His logic was racing, calculating the risks and rewards, and he began planning the first step in exploring this technological graveyard.

The expansion's boundaries have extended from the surface into the underground. A new chapter is about to unfold amidst the dust and shadows.

(End of this chapter)