As long as you die, you are invincible, but in 40K

Amelia raised her eyebrows slightly, a little puzzled:

"including me?"

The full sentence should be "Does being excluded include me?"

But from her tone, Zhang Ge understood the meaning of this sentence without any explanation.

Although he didn't feel that Yolanda would pose any threat, Zhang Ge didn't say anything else under Amelia's gaze, acknowledging that even if she kept it confidential, it was almost the same as if he was the only one present.

The ladder was not high, only about ten meters, and with Zhang Ge's physical fitness, he quickly climbed to the ship's side platform to which it was connected.

"Long story short, this thing seems to have come alive."

Seeing that Yolanda started talking without even looking at Amelia, Zhang Ge wondered for a moment if he had spent too much time with Amelia?

Suppressing his irrelevant thoughts, Zhang Ge replied:

"Is there a possibility that he was originally a living thing?"

"No, no, that's not what I mean. I mean... I clearly didn't install any mechanical mechanisms, but you hear this sound."

There was no intention of hiding its presence. The whistling sound of the machinery became even more joyful and smooth after Zhang Ge arrived at the side platform of the ship. Only then did Zhang Ge realize that something was wrong and asked:

"Isn't this the simulated sound you made?"

"Even though I'm a military chaplain, I wouldn't do something so blasphemous."

"Don't make it sound like chaplains are of a lower order."

After complaining, Zhang Ge, adhering to the principle that seeing is believing, reached out to try to unscrew the hatch locking mechanism.

"this..."

Yolanda was about to remind Zhang Ge that it couldn't be opened, but after seeing the smoothly rotating circular valve, she wisely changed her mind:

"...it opened pretty quickly."

Compared to what was happening, a small thing like some kind of recognition was not worth being surprised at all. Yolanda's whole mind was now focused on the scene she was about to witness.

After Amelia confirmed that there was no danger, the two of them entered one after another.

"This is impossible."

But after witnessing the scene, Yolanda's heart was filled with cold water.

This sentence is not an exclamation of surprise, but an objective description of the facts.

Because there are still those brackets inside, quietly connecting the sandworm and the hull of the land craft, there is not even a spare light.

It can provide support, but it is impossible for it to produce the mechanical sound that is still roaring in my ears.

But Zhang Ge did not jump to conclusions immediately. Instead, he listened quietly for a moment and suddenly said to Amelia:

"Hit the wall with your sword, deep."

As soon as the words fell, before either of them could react, a crack appeared in the wall.

It was not the ordinary cut that Yolanda had imagined, no different from cutting on other solid metal. Electric sparks suddenly burst out, and some defective mechanical parts exploded and rolled to the ground.

The answer is clear at this moment.

Now it is not a landship shell with a sandworm inside, but a landship that has grown into the shell and is being driven by a sandworm.

"Are you sure you're using modular materials?"

"I'm sure, but..."

"but?"

"But during the construction process, I discovered that the servitors were far more efficient than I had expected. So, I revised the plan again and again, trying to keep it as close to the actual design as possible without exceeding the estimated timeframe. Even so, it wouldn't have been possible to achieve this. Filling a solid module and manufacturing a sophisticated internal structure require a different amount of time."

Yolanda spoke very quickly, and rather than explaining to Zhang Ge, it seemed more like she was trying to convince herself and her previously established worldview in the face of this phenomenon.

"How do you ensure your control over the servitors?"

"Of course, it makes its own decisions, with the machine spirit assisting in the calculations, just like the auxiliary fire control machine spirits commonly found on some weapons."

After hearing this, Zhang Ge had basically solved the case.

Damn it, it wasn't Yolanda who was building this thing from the beginning, but Old Deng himself, the ghost that lingered on the sword. They repeatedly induced Yolanda to modify the plan, and then on that basis, they smuggled their own stuff into the shell that was supposed to be solid.

When precision wasn't required, it was certainly more efficient to build only a portion than to fill the entire solid block - and they included the green orcs in their calculations.

The problem of accuracy was not solved by the construction process, but by making the orcs think that this thing was really a landship, and then letting their thinking power act as a catalyst to bridge the gap in accuracy.

In the end, the result became like this. The only outsider who was not included in this system was the reinforced bracket that Yolanda originally thought was the "core" and did it herself.

Zhang Ge felt that at this moment, the red robe on her body seemed to be closer in color to the red ball on the clown's nose.

Chapter 148 You must be sweating profusely, Akaolan senior management

Zhang Ge did not intend to hide his guess. After all, Yolanda did not intend to hide it from him at the first moment of the accident. It seemed that she was still trustworthy.

He adheres to the principle of trusting the person to the end, and maintains the expectation that everyone he trusts will stab him in the back.

After listening to Zhang Ge's explanation, Yolanda fell into self-doubt again for several minutes - considering the computing speed of a mechanical priest, the actual thinking time was much longer than the few minutes of an ordinary person.

"You mean, the prerequisite is that there is a machine spirit residing in the sword?"

"To be precise, the ritual was incomplete, and for some unknown reason, it transferred to the Knight's Machine Soul on the sword. Then, it and the sandworm finally completed the qualification ritual. As for the final result... you can see it."

"this..."

It's not uncommon for machine spirits or even souls to reside in an object. Although the most radical faction within the Mechanicus has never used the Knight Mech's qualification ritual on lower-level creatures, it is a technology from the Golden Age after all. It wouldn't be surprising if it could be used on ant bulls, let alone sandworms.

If you think about it this way, apart from the fact that the probability of these things happening at the same time is so small that there is no precedent in the database, each of them seems reasonable when viewed individually.

Zhang Ge and Yolanda looked at each other and continued:

"You don't have to look at me like that. This is the first time I've seen this happen."

Excluding the special case of Ascalon, this is indeed the first time.

"I can't guarantee I can keep it completely secret."

Yolanda said with a headache.

On the other side, Zhang Ge nodded to show his understanding.

Even according to normal procedures, such extraordinary events must be reported to superiors, otherwise no one will know whether it is just a coincidence or caused by other factors.

Amelia is a special case.

Even if we put aside the normal process, the priest is loyal to the Mechanicus first - strictly speaking, to the Om Messiah - and then to the Empire, not to mention that he is a collaborator.

"Remember to be careful with the content and avoid causing any immediate trouble. We need to maintain stability before reaching the Hyperion Sector. I believe you understand the importance of stability at this moment. I will cooperate with any related investigations later."

This is also the reason why Zhang Ge concealed the sandworm.

"What I mean is, regarding the content of our recent conversation, I have already deleted the data and records in my brain and storage, but the ocean of data is too vast and complex, and I can't guarantee that there are no remnants or that it won't be restored."

Yolanda did not forget her original purpose. She came here to investigate the abnormality in Zhang Ge. Losing trust for such a superficial thing would be counterproductive.

When there are too many coincidences, it is difficult to consider them as coincidences. There must be something more fundamental hidden beneath the seemingly reasonable surface, and we need to continue to stay by his side and investigate.

At least that's what she convinced herself.

Zhang Ge was a little surprised by this, but after thinking about it, he felt that it was not impossible for a priest with integrity in this regard to appear, so he nodded without any intention of further confirmation, which was regarded as his approval of her statement.

During the communication, after further confirming that matters related to the internal structure were temporarily concealed from others, it was already the agreed time for the people below to come to the land ship.

The personnel passed through this transfer platform and climbed up another ladder to the top open-air transport platform similar to a helipad. Although it was very simple, it appeared to have a capacity of about three to four thousand people, and there was still a lot of room left after transporting the tribesmen.

Soon after, other members of the 1st Mechanized Infantry Regiment also arrived at the scene. After confirming the situation with commanders at all levels, nearly 10,000 people were deployed to clean up the battlefield.

Soon, after the last batch of troops chasing the fleeing orcs returned, the 1st Mechanized Infantry Regiment began to return with the landship as the core.

Needless to say, the shock this thing brought to the crash site of the fleet was beyond words. Although the senior officials of Akaolan were not fools, they could vaguely realize that Zhang Ge might be doing something big when they saw the soldiers of the First Mechanized Infantry Regiment being transferred in large numbers.

But this seems a bit too big.

Originally, on the one hand, this guy had the support of the Battle Sisters and Space Marines, and on the other hand, he was very popular in the army. At the same time, the orc attack happened to delay their progress, so the various forces did not have time to investigate.

Just as they had freed their hands and before they had time to do anything, Zhang Ge threw a big surprise in their faces.

However, when the senior executives first realized what this meant, the shock brought by this surprise far outweighed the joy.

It even makes people sweat profusely.

Even without talking about its military significance, the appearance of this thing may very well mean that Akaolan has lost the means to restrain him. If Zhang Ge wants, he can let the Titan stand on it, then take away a batch of supplies, load them onto the ship and run into the depths of the desert, and the people of Akaolan will have no way to deal with him.

And if we assume the worst case scenario, the two sides will tear each other apart on the spot and then set up a battle. Zhang Ge only needs to drive this thing to attack after the Titan has used up its heavy firepower. The original plan of hoping to kill the Titan with a large number of people has become a bubble.

Even if we take a step back and say that no matter what, the impact of this incident itself is enough to further deify Zhang Ge in the eyes of the soldiers - what is a bit frustrating is that this was caused by the top leaders themselves, and now they can't suppress it.

The consequences of this are obvious... Strictly speaking, soldiers are loyal to the empire, not to the top leaders themselves. If there is another party that can better represent the empire than the top leaders, then it is hard to say who the soldiers will listen to.

Of course, although Atwood, who was the core decision-maker at the time, was aware of this, he did not care about these political undercurrents.

He represents the Space Marines, and his job is not to manage the affairs of mortals. If the situation is not dangerous and the Primarch is not setting an example, he would even prefer to stay in the study to study books or martial arts.

Atwood would rather have as many trusted men under his command as possible. How can he defend the empire with a bunch of insects?

On the downside, the hive city was lost and it was impossible to unite more forces. On the upside, Atwood didn't care and even secretly supported Zhang Ge. The top leaders found that they had inexplicably fallen into this embarrassing situation without doing anything.

On the Thunderhawk gunboat.

The senior executives, with various thoughts in mind, boarded the landship together with Atwood.

Before the crash, they had received a reply from the Hyperion District. When they landed on the ship, there was only half an hour left for the arrival of reinforcements.

The complex internal affairs must be brought to a clear conclusion before contact with the Hyperion Sector.

This is the only consensus reached by senior executives with different goals.

Chapter 149: Leading Big Brother

However, as soon as they got off the gunboat, the top leaders sadly discovered that not only could they not unite the upper and lower levels, but they were even beginning to split among themselves.

Needless to say, the Mechanicus is not over yet, and here comes another landship. I used to think that they came to Acoran to be exiled, but I didn’t expect that they came here to gild themselves.

On the Star Army side, although the general discovered that Zhang Ge was not among his subordinates, on the one hand, Zhang Ge was still one of his own, and on the other hand, he had always been dissatisfied with the nobles who relied on their local resources to try to take advantage of the Star Army, so he maintained a neutral attitude.

More importantly, the nobles themselves were divided into several factions.

Some surrenderists think it's better to just join the fray if they can't win. It doesn't matter who they serve as a noble. Judging by the current trend, serving a planetary governor isn't necessarily as promising as serving this person. At least the governor can't pull a Warlord Titan out of his pants, right? Who knows, maybe they can even get a new hive in the future?

Some think that the worst that can happen is to give up some interests, as long as the power is not taken away. Judging from Zhang Ge's performance all along, he is not the kind of person who is keen on power... It is better to say that he seems to have no interest at all. As long as they can still enjoy the benefits and power, it doesn't matter. Why take such a big risk to go against him?

At the same time, the military nobles were the main force of the surrender faction - after all, they were military nobles and they still had some ideas in their heads.

At the beginning, when Zhang Ge was alone, he still had hope in the street fighting. But when Zhang Ge led the First Mechanized Infantry Regiment to defeat the Chaos, a large number of military nobles began to remain silent.

Later, after discovering that the Titan had received a flying modification, the military nobles disappeared from discussions about defeating the flying Titan with a group of infantry and small tanks.

Now the faction that was determined to find a way to check and balance Zhang Ge has become a minority. For them, the already difficult situation has become even worse - even though the talks have not even started yet and they haven't met anyone yet.

Of course, Zhang Ge, who stirred up a new round of turmoil, was not aware of these problems at this time - or he was too lazy to pay attention to them.

I'm here, doing whatever reasonable things I can think of. The worst that can happen to you is that you can all come together and stab me.

To some extent, his thoughts were similar to Atwood's. He didn't want to care about political matters at all, and status and the like meant nothing to him.

What he missed most was really the days when he was still a private. If he had a choice, he would have refused without hesitation when the political commissar asked him to be one.

The crowd with various thoughts vaguely divided into different groups according to factions, and soon approached Zhang Ge, who was sitting bored next to the tribesmen and listening to their stories.

When he realized that everyone was approaching, he stood up, brushed off the sand and dust on his body, and walked towards them.

The two groups that finally converged stopped in a relatively open area on the transport platform. After several guards set up a few civilian force field generators to resist the wind and sand, several servants pulled out metal folding tables and chairs here to set up a temporary meeting place.

Seeing how formal they were, Zhang Ge thought they were going to question him, so he had no intention of sitting down after Atwood took his seat.

After all, although the corps commanders in this world have extremely high autonomy, this is a joint action by everyone. In any case, it is a large-scale troop deployment without going through formal procedures, so it is normal for them to want to question me.

After waiting for a while, I found that the people around me didn't seem to have any intention of sitting down. They were talking and laughing with each other as if the tables and chairs didn't exist. I had no idea what they were doing.

What? Are the customs different? Do you prefer to hold meetings while standing?

With a hint of doubt, Zhang Ge tentatively found the nearest seat and sat down.