harleyscars Chapter 64 Destroyed Spaceship
Chapter 64 Destroyed Spaceship
The transport units were carrying the wounded from the rear of the position. Half of the antiseptic tape and hemostatic agents were used up; Liz's fingers trembled slightly as she stitched, but she didn't stop.
The veterans of the garrison retreated from the front lines. Some were bandaging wounds on their arms, some leaned against the bulkhead with their eyes closed, motionless, and some were changing magazines with trembling hands. Carlos dragged his injured leg against an ammunition box, the power armor's servo system humming intermittently, but he didn't report it.
A fresh claw mark appeared on Kara's carapace. The cunning tearing claw had sliced into the seam of her shoulder armor, deflecting its trajectory. Several fragments of chitinous exoskeleton were stuck in the seam of her breastplate, which she was using a knife to pry them out from the gaps in the armor plates.
As Liu En passed the medical station, Liz looked up at him. Her lips twitched slightly, but she didn't speak. She lowered her head and continued sewing.
The chieftain's body lay dozens of meters in front of the battle line. His carapace was intact, without wounds or bloodstains. The servitors dragged him into the pile of corpses while cleaning up the battlefield.
Kara reported the casualties in the garrison channel: a dozen seriously wounded, dozens lightly wounded. After tallying the numbers, she added, "Not a single one died."
She paused. "Captain."
Liu En did not answer. He walked to the patriarch's corpse, his field covering it, his consciousness reaching it. The decomposition command was issued. The complete carapace body transformed into a cloud of atoms that surged into the warehouse. The patriarch's central nervous system, carapace structure, and the chitinous fiber arrangement of his claws—all were archived in a higher-dimensional space, tagged "Terren, Gene Thief, Patriarch, Complete Nervous System".
He created a new subdirectory in the database: "Terren Zerg Infiltration Unit Command Node Analysis," and placed the chieftain's central nervous system data into it. The blueprint for the purebloods was also completed during the battle—the corpses of those cunning individuals whose central nervous systems had been dissected remained intact, but Liu En had touched them one by one while cleaning up the battlefield, completing the atomic-level information on their muscle tissue and exoskeletons. The tag was "Terren Genestealer Pureblood Complete."
After the cunning thief retreated, the team rested behind their position in the rendezvous area. Liu En leaned against the inside of the arched breastwork, his consciousness instinctively extending forward. He scanned the edge of the rendezvous area and the hidden space where the chieftain had previously concealed himself, finding nothing unusual. But further away—deeper into the right-hand passage—his senses detected an unusually empty area. It wasn't a passage, nor a cabin, but a vast, complete storage space. The sedimentary layer was extremely thick, and the entrance to the passage had been completely blocked by multiple collapses; no bee servants had ever explored this area before.
Liu En stood up and said in the garrison channel, "Pack your gear. Keep moving."
Kara didn't ask any further questions. The pack-type servitors organized the supplies, the transport servitors carried the sample boxes on their backs, and the veterans inspected the gun barrels. The team crossed the intersection and entered the passage on the right.
Behind them, the cunning man's corpse was piled up in the corner, and only a small patch of compacted debris remained where the clan leader had once fallen.
Liu En walked at the head of the group. The passageway made a sharp right turn after the junction, and the corrosion marks on the walls were more severe than before, but the structure was basically intact. The beams of searchlights swept across the bulkheads, and occasionally one could see the engineering markings of the early Empire—the double-headed eagle design was more elaborate than that of the M41 era, with a scepter under its talons.
His consciousness instinctively stretched forward. Five kilometers away, deeper into the passage on the right, that unusually empty area became increasingly clear. He quickened his pace.
Kara asked in the channel, "Captain, what's going on?"
"There's plenty of space ahead," Liu En said. "Just follow along as usual."
He traversed several winding passages until he reached the bulkhead sealed off by multiple layers of collapsed debris. Shattered armor plating, broken pipes, and collapsed beams piled together, scrap metal and debris gleaming a dark gray under the searchlight. The field of perception covered him, his consciousness reached him, and the decomposition command was issued. At the boundary of his perception, the collapsed debris transformed into an atomic cloud, peeling away layer by layer, like an iceberg melting.
Behind the bulkhead was a short passageway, leading to a heavy, airtight door made of adamantite. The door's surface was heavily corroded, but the etched emblem remained—an Imperial eagle with outstretched wings, a sun beneath its talons. Below the emblem was a line of High Gothic script:
"Solar Auxiliary Army 24th Battalion - Central Armory"
The Solar Auxiliary Army. An elite force from the Great Crusade. The unit's designation—the Twenty-Fourth Battalion—signifies that it was one of the "Old Hundred," a member of the original one hundred mortal battalions personally formed by the Emperor during the Terran Unification Wars.
The airtight door's sealing and locking mechanism had aged and jammed. Liu En's consciousness probed into the lock cylinder, atomically reshaping it. Several rusted gears re-engaged, and the latch disengaged. The door slowly slid open under the residual pressure of the hydraulic push rod, emitting a dull metallic friction sound.
The beam of the searchlight swept in, and everyone stopped in their tracks at that moment.
This is a gigantic warehouse. Hundreds of meters long and wide, its ceiling so high that searchlights cannot reach the top. Shelves stretch from the ground into the distance, each shelf filled with sealed crates. The crates are marked with the serial numbers of various equipment belonging to the Solar Auxiliary Army and the Ordnance Department's control markings. The aisles between the shelves are wide and flat, large enough for six-legged pack animals to pass side-by-side.
It wasn't just one cabin; it was an entire armory.
Kara's voice came through the channel, tinged with barely suppressed shock: "Captain... what is this?"
"The equipment depot of the Solar Auxiliary Army. Stored during the Great Expedition." Liu En walked into the warehouse. "The items are complete and numerous. Mark the coordinates; we'll transport them on the return trip. We're only taking samples now."
Castellan mechs established a perimeter at the warehouse entrance. Transport mechs waited at the corner of the aisle. Liu En led several transport mechs into the area between the shelves.
His consciousness spread rapidly across the shelves. Sealed crates of the Sun-type Void Armor filled over a dozen rows of shelves, four sets per crate, the armor coated with the distinctive bronze hue of the Sun Auxiliary Army. Cases of the Kalibraf laser rifles were stacked in layers, the rifles longer than the Imperial standard laser rifle, their scope bases integrally molded. Multi-barrel laser cannons, molten lava guns, plasma pistols, automatic cannon feed mechanisms, heavy explosive gun components—each weapon category had its own dedicated shelf area. There were also large quantities of charging packs, ammunition boxes, molten lava bombs, fragmentation grenades, and smoke grenade launchers.
The parts section had more items than the weapons section. Energy cores, hydraulic actuators, optical sights, communication terminals, tactical data boards—each category occupied several rows of shelves, with labels on the sealed boxes clearly indicating the model and batch number.
Deeper into the warehouse, the aisles between the shelves suddenly widen, and the floor is covered with reinforced, non-slip steel plates. Here, truly heavy equipment is stored.
First came several rows of "Viper" type reconnaissance tanks, lightly armored, six-wheel drive, with multi-barrel laser cannons mounted on their turrets, and the tactical markings of the Solar Auxiliary Army etched on the sides of their hulls. They had slumbered in sealed bags for thousands of years, their rust-proof coatings intact.
Further inside is the Chimera armored personnel carrier, a standard model from the Great Expeditionary period, heavier than the M41-era variant, with mounting brackets for additional armor on the front hull. The heavy explosive gun on the turret is covered by a dust cover, and the tracks are supported by mounting brackets to prevent deformation from long-term storage.
Deep within the warehouse, in the most spacious area, stood three "Leman Russ" battle tanks. These weren't the later simplified models, but standard battle tanks from the Great Expedition—longer hulls, thicker gun barrels, and thicker additional armor plates on either side of the turret. The inscription of the 24th Battalion of the Solar Auxiliary Army was etched on the hulls. The main gun muzzle was sealed with a plug, the toolboxes on the sides of the hull were intact, and the hatches were tightly closed. On shelves beside the tanks were stacked ammunition boxes—armor-piercing, high-explosive, and incendiary rounds—stored categorized and clearly labeled by batch.
Liu En's consciousness swept across the outlines of each piece of heavy equipment, quickly archiving their model, location, and storage status in the database. He didn't open the hatches of each vehicle; there was no need. Superficial perception was sufficient to determine whether the internal structure was intact, whether the power system was rusted, and whether the weapon platform was repairable. Most were well-preserved, a few had slight surface corrosion, but the core components were intact.
He said in the garrison channel, "The Solar Auxiliary Army's equipment depot contains armored units: Viper Tanks, Chimeras, Lemanrus, and Heavy Sentinels. The models are old, but they're well-preserved. The sealed crates are scattered in number and batch, suggesting they're supplies sealed off from the later stages of the Great Expedition, untouched for thousands of years." He reported the coordinates in the channel. "This is the largest single find deep within the wrecked ship. Taking it all isn't practical; we'll mark it first and systematically transport it on the return trip."
Kara replied in the channel, "Received. Coordinates recorded."
The transport-type mechs took several boxes of samples from the shelves—a set of Sun-type Void Armor, a Calebraw laser rifle, and several spare parts—and stacked them at the warehouse entrance. Liu En didn't deliberately demonstrate the disassembly process; he simply had the mechs move the samples while he walked through each shelf, his consciousness scanning each piece of equipment, archiving the necessary material composition information. He didn't disassemble the heavy tanks and armored vehicles on the spot; he only marked their precise coordinates and storage status.
Liu En took one last look at the densely packed shelves and the silent armored vehicles deep inside the warehouse. His consciousness swept across the entire area one last time, making sure nothing was missed.
He turned and walked out of the warehouse. The transport servitors carried the sample boxes on their backs, while the pack carrier servitors readjusted their loads. The group crossed the cleared passageway and returned to the main road.
"Keep moving forward," Liu En said on the channel.
Kara didn't ask where they were going. The veterans checked the gun barrels, the armed servitors changed their charging packs, and the transport servitors followed carrying supplies. The group entered the right-hand passage after the fork in the passage, extending deeper into the wrecked ship.
Behind them, the airtight, adamant gold door of the massive warehouse slowly slid shut. The remaining pressure on the hydraulic push rod finally dissipated, and the door slammed shut at the end of the track with a dull thud. The insignia of the Solar Auxiliary Army, along with the silent chariots, flashed in the afterglow of the searchlights and disappeared into the darkness.
The passage narrowed further, and the twists and folds on the walls became increasingly dense. The bulkheads here were not standard Imperial engineering structures—multiple layers of armor plates had been violently compressed, melted, and re-solidified, with pipes weaving through the layers, forming a three-dimensional labyrinth difficult for an ordinary person to discern. Liu En's consciousness swept forward, and every void behind each layer of bulkhead, every hidden crevice, became clearly visible in his perception.
At the end of a side road almost completely buried by debris, his consciousness detected an anomaly. It wasn't an ordinary compartment—it was a layer of adamantine armor, multiple layers of adamantine armor plates welded together into an airtight cube, no more than two meters square, encased deep within layers of twisted bulkheads. The adamantine's signature characteristics were crystal clear: high density, low radiation, like a silent metal tombstone embedded in the wrecked ship's flesh.
Liu En said in the garrison's channel, "You guys stop here. The passage ahead is too narrow. I'll go in and take a look."
Kara didn't ask any further questions. The group stopped at the fork in the road, and the veterans stood guard. Liu En walked alone into the fork, which was mostly blocked by the collapsed debris. The field covered him, his consciousness reached him, and the shattered bulkheads and broken pipes silently turned into a cloud of atoms. He passed through three layers of flattened compartments and stopped in front of a wall of adamantite.
This wall wasn't part of the original structure of the wrecked ship. It had been deliberately welded there, with rough welds, multiple layers of armor plates stacked together, and no markings or handles on its surface. But Liu En's consciousness had already probed behind the wall—it was empty.
The field of vision expanded, and consciousness reached. The adamantine armor plates transformed into an atomic cloud at the atomic level, peeling away layer by layer. When the last layer of armor plates disappeared, a small compartment, roughly several meters square, was revealed.
The compartment was extremely cramped, barely enough for a few people to stand. A small adamantite pedestal was fixed to the ground, and embedded in it was a fist-sized stasis field generator. A pale blue energy barrier maintained a cubic space about a meter square above the generator, but the barrier was extremely weak—the halo flickered, and the edges kept collapsing inward, like a candle flame about to burn out; clearly, the power supply system was nearing its limit.
Inside the barrier, a document floated in frozen time. It was parchment—real parchment, not the thin data sheets common to the Empire. The edges were gilded, and the surface was embossed with the insignia of the 24th Battalion of the Solar Auxiliary Army and the eagle emblem of the Terran Supreme Council. At the bottom of the document, a handwritten signature flickered in the stagnant field's dim light.
Liu En's consciousness probed into the barrier. His superficial perception told him it was the fibrous structure of parchment, the molecular arrangement of mineral ink on the paper's surface, and the distribution of carbon elements at the tip of the signature. It wasn't a digital copy; it was the original. A document legally establishing the Solar Auxiliary Army battalion, issued by the Supreme Council of Terra and personally signed by the Emperor, during the Great Crusade. A single document represented a standing elite force of 120,000 men. This was a privilege reserved for one of the hundred battalions established during the Emperor's initial unification of Terra. These were the Old Hundred.
He didn't reach for it. The stasis field, though weak, was still functioning. Recklessly reaching in would either result in being torn apart by the time field, or the document instantly turning to dust the moment the field dissipated. Thousands of years would catch up with it in a second.
Liu En covered the entire static field generator with his field of view. His consciousness touched upon it, and the decomposition command was issued. Not just dismantling the outer shell, but the entire unit. The adamantite outer shell, magnetic field coils, spacetime adjustment ring, energy confinement cavity—all were reduced to atomic clouds at the atomic level and poured into the warehouse. The generator was completely decomposed, and the blueprints were archived.
The static position has dissipated.
The document, suspended in mid-air, lost the support of the time freeze, swayed slightly, and drifted towards the ground. Liu En reached out and caught it. The paper hadn't aged—the stasis field had disintegrated at the last moment before completely failing, and the contents inside hadn't undergone time compensation. The parchment felt rough, the gold foil at the edges was slightly peeling, and the ink was somewhat faded, but every word was clearly legible. The ornate High Gothic script, the seal of the Terra High Council, and the signature at the bottom—the handwriting was fluid and solemn, each letter pressing against the parchment fibers, as if written with boundless patience, stroke by stroke.
Liu En folded the document and put it into the inner pocket of the power armor's chest plate.
He glanced at the empty compartment. The installation marks of the stasis field generator remained on the adamantite walls, and there were dents from the base on the floor. He activated the field, his consciousness reaching the area. The adamantite walls, the floor base, the welding marks—the entire compartment dissolved into an atomic cloud at the atomic level, surging into the warehouse. Only a smooth dent remained on the wall, blending seamlessly with the surrounding distorted bulkhead, showing no trace of human intervention.
Liu En turned and walked out of the fork in the road. The collapsed debris behind him was rebuilt and sealed off, and the rubble and pipelines were restored to their original buried state.
"Keep moving forward," he said in the garrison channel.
Kara didn't ask. The group set off again, the beams of searchlights sweeping through the passage. No one knew what had been hidden in that side path, no one knew that Liu En had an extra piece of parchment from thousands of years ago in the inner pocket of his breastplate.
Continue deeper into the wrecked ship.
Kara didn't ask where they were going. The veterans checked the gun barrels, the armed servitors changed their charging packs, and the transport servitors followed carrying supplies. The group entered the right-hand passage after the fork in the passage, extending deeper into the wrecked ship.
Behind them, the airtight, adamant gold door of the massive warehouse slowly slid shut. The remaining pressure on the hydraulic push rod finally dissipated, and the door slammed shut at the end of the track with a dull thud. The insignia of the Solar Auxiliary Army, along with the silent chariots, flashed in the afterglow of the searchlights and disappeared into the darkness.
Continue deeper into the wrecked ship.