22: Chapter 22 Twin-Headed Dragon Tank

As soon as Leovitos stepped down, he beheld a scene that left him utterly shocked.

The titanium alloy gate that had once stood here had vanished without a trace.

"How... how was this possible?"

Leovitos's cognitive processors struggled to process the sight before him.

Within Leovitos's knowledge and calculations, there existed no single-person technology capable of making an entire high-pressure alloy gate disappear completely in a mere ten minutes.

Xia Xingchen offered no further explanation. Without a word, he led the group straight into the depths of the vault.

Upon entering the vault, Nuwa once again demonstrated her terrifying mastery over technology.

She directed a Servo-skull to interface its mechanical tentacles with the internal control console, immediately scanning the entire underground vault. Soon, she located the backup power source maintaining the gate's operation.

Nuwa manipulated the Servo-skull to reroute all backup power to the lighting system.

As the new commands were input into the mechanical operating system, the Machine Spirit responded slowly.

Faint light once again illuminated the entire underground vault.

Nearly two-thirds of the lighting fixtures were completely destroyed, and the remaining third operated at less than thirty percent of their intended capacity.

Nevertheless, it was sufficient for Xia Xingchen and his party to see the interior of the vault clearly.

As the light dispelled the darkness, the sight that greeted them was over a hundred Leman Russ Tanks arrayed in neat rows at the vault's center. Surrounding the tanks, layer upon layer of Land Turtle armored vehicles formed a tight, concentric ring.

Along the vault's perimeter were stacked large quantities of standard Imperial military equipment.

Leovitos walked over to inspect these armaments. Preserved in an absolute vacuum environment,

all the equipment was undamaged, as pristine as the day it left the factory, ready for immediate deployment.

At that moment, the Smith walked over to the pile of standard-issue weapons, picked up a rifle, and began scanning and analyzing it with the red lasers in his eyes. Then, as if he had discovered something significant, the red light flickered intensely several times.

The Smith handed the weapon to Leovitos.

Xia Xingchen was standing beside a Chimera armored vehicle, tapping and examining it.

This was the first time Xia Xingchen had seen standard Imperial heavy equipment with his own eyes, and the craftsmanship of this batch was exceptionally fine.

Leovitos then approached Xia Xingchen and handed him the rifle passed on by the Smith:

"My lord, you should take a look at this rifle."

Xia Xingchen took the lasgun. Though he couldn't identify the specific model, he could tell it wasn't a lucius lasgun, but another type.

"What is it?"

Leovitos did not conceal his findings and explained directly:

"This is a Mars Mk.II lasgun."

Xia Xingchen looked at the firearm in his hand, recalling the relevant lore in his mind.

The Mars-pattern lasgun was one of the standard-issue weapons of the Imperium, though its prevalence was far less than the universally used Kantrael M36 pattern lasgun.

"Is there something unusual about it?"

Xia Xingchen knew Leovitos wouldn't hand him this weapon without good reason; he must have discovered something crucial.

"Look at the forge mark and the date of manufacture on it. This is a product from the era of the Great Crusade."

Xia Xingchen lowered his gaze and his pupils contracted sharply.

M31.001, forged on the eve of Horus's rebellion.

In other words, the Horus Heresy would erupt within a few years.

This Forge World was likely destroyed during the Heresy.

Xia Xingchen turned to survey the equipment, a thought stirring within him. Something wasn't right.

These armaments alone weren't worth the Adeptus Mechanicus sealing and defending with such an impregnable gate.

Logically, the Imperium could mass-produce equipment ten times this quantity at any time.

This indicated that within this underground vault, there must be a true treasure that the Adeptus Mechanicus was willing to protect with their very lives.

"Everyone, spread out. Conduct a thorough search of this vault. The real treasure is certainly more than just these."

The group nodded and immediately dispersed to act.

Leovitos, meanwhile, began inspecting the Leman Russ Tanks and the Land Turtle armored vehicles.

The Land Turtle armored vehicle was a model long obsolete in the Imperium. Leovitos's only interest lay in studying the manufacturing techniques from the Great Crusade era.

"Can they be improved?"

Xia Xingchen asked as he walked over to Leovitos.

Xia Xingchen understood that compared to the Chimera transport, the Land Turtle armored vehicle was already outdated.

"It's difficult. I do not possess the STC Template for the Chimera armored vehicle. If we were to manually upgrade these Land Turtles, it would require entirely handcrafted modifications, resulting in extremely low efficiency."

Leovitos sounded rather helpless. He excelled at production based on STCs, not at research, development, and improvement from scratch.

"However, my lord, these Great Crusade-era Land Turtle armored vehicles are not entirely useless. I can fit them with additional armor plating to enhance their defensive capabilities, making them marginally suitable for modern battlefields."

Xia Xingchen nodded. For now, that was the only option.

In the future, once they acquired useful STCs, they could properly refit these vehicles or simply deploy them in low-intensity conflicts, or even use them for garrison and security duties.

Just as Xia Xingchen was deep in thought, Nuwa's voice called out:

"My lord, please come here."

Nuwa had ventured deeper into the vault and discovered something extraordinary.

On a platform before Nuwa rested a massive sphere. The upper quarter of the sphere had been cleanly sliced off horizontally, revealing a precise right-angled cross-section. Overall, it resembled a giant, unfolded flat-panel terminal.

"What is this?"

Nuwa immediately began explaining to Xia Xingchen:

Twin-Headed Dragon Heavy Main Battle Tank

Dark Age of Technology STC · Heavy Main Battle Tank

Crew: 3

Total Weight: 72 tons

Speed: Road 35 km/h / Off-road 28 km/h

Operational Range: 48 hours without resupply

Primary Armor: Composite Ceramic-Titanium Steel, Frontal Equivalent 700mm

Defense Systems: Light Active Pulse Point-Defense

Primary Weapon: Twin Independent Turrets · Heavy Battle Cannons

Secondary Weapons: Two Coaxial Autocannons, One Heavy Stubber

After listening, Xia Xingchen was utterly astounded.

The performance of this Twin-Headed Dragon heavy main battle tank completely surpassed that of the standard Imperial Leman Russ Tank.

Even compared to the Imperial Baneblade super-heavy tank, it was only slightly inferior.

"Is this a complete STC blueprint?"

Nuwa nodded.

This was a truly massive windfall!

Before Xia Xingchen could recover from his shock, a cry of alarm from a guard drew everyone's attention.

Xia Xingchen walked to the guard's position and stared in disbelief at the colossal object before him.

"How is this possible!!"