23: Chapter 23 Titans (Two-in-One)

As Xia Xingchen walked into the depths of the treasury, and the lights slowly illuminated the colossal object ahead, Xia Xingchen was completely stunned.

What a majestic physique, what a sacred creation.

This was the first time Xia Xingchen had witnessed the Imperium of Man's god-machine with his own eyes.

Standing before Xia Xingchen was a Titan.

A Titan capable of crushing an entire legion.

A Titan capable of razing an entire city to the ground.

A Titan capable of easily turning the tide of an entire war.

Nuwa's Servo-skull quickly found the technical manual beside the Titan. After extracting all the information, a blue light screen appeared before everyone, detailing all the parameters of this Titan.

Model: Mars Alpha-pattern Warlord-class Titan

Height: Approx 33 meters

Total Weight: 2500 tons

Power: Mars-pattern micro-plasma fusion reactor (abdominal core)

Crew: Captain: 1 (Mind-linked master control); Weapons Officer: 4 (Sub-control for each main weapon); Sensor Officer: 1 (Early warning/fire control calibration); Helmsman: 1 (Maneuvering control); Tech-Priest: 2 + Servitor squad (Battlefield maintenance)

Endurance: Reactor self-sustaining, capable of fighting for months without resupply

Main Armor: Multi-layer Adamantium-Ceramite composite armor (thickness over 2 meters), equivalent to 3000mm+ rolled homogeneous armor

Void Shield: 6-layer void shield generator, capable of continuously withstanding Titan-class firepower and orbital bombardment

Resistance: Basic Warp shielding, psychic interference resistance, Chaos corruption protection

Right Arm: Bellicosa-pattern Volcano Cannon

Left Arm: Titan Power Fist

Shoulders: Hive Missile Launcher, Turbo-laser Destructor

Waist/Turret: Four twin Vulcan Mega-bolters

Close Defense: Laser Cannon array, smoke/decoy launchers, anti-air pulse point defense

The Titan stood silently before Xia Xingchen, like a supreme sacred knight, awaiting its monarch's summons.

For ten thousand years, the Titan had remained silent here.

This Warlord-class Titan was painted red on its main body, the most common color scheme of the Adeptus Mechanicus; the joints were iron-black, clearly distinguished from the main body, allowing one to identify the moving joints at a glance.

It was obvious that this Titan had no clear affiliation, bearing no family crests or identification marks.

Xia Xingchen could only conclude one possibility:

This Warlord-class Titan had just been completed before the Forge World was destroyed, and before it could be delivered to the Titan Legion, the flames of war had already swept across the planet.

Forced by necessity, the Tech-Priests on the planet had transferred it to the underground treasury to prevent it from being captured or destroyed by rebels.

Xia Xingchen took several deep breaths in front of the Titan before he could barely calm his excited heart and slightly trembling hands.

But when Xia Xingchen turned his head to have someone inspect the Titan, he found that the members of the Iron Heart Society were even more uncomposed than he was.

Leovitos knelt on the ground on the spot, his mechanical synthesized voice chanting prayers to appease the Machine Spirit.

The remaining members of the Iron Heart Society also prostrated themselves on the ground like devout pilgrims, staring fixedly at the Warlord-class Titan before them. Some were even so shocked that they forgot their prayers, only repeating over and over: "Praise the Omnissiah! Praise the Omnissiah!"

Watching this scene, Xia Xingchen knew they needed some time to calm their emotions.

Xia Xingchen left the time to them and turned to lead his guards and Servitors to begin moving other supplies.

Nowadays, the main labor force of Xia Xingchen's team was the Servitors.

These modified Servitors were extremely useful, capable of easily carrying objects weighing several tons, and without the need for rest, they could work continuously.

The first thing to be moved was the Double-Headed Dragon Main Battle Tank STC Template; this would be the core equipment of his future ground armored forces.

Xia Xingchen directly had Nuwa personally escort this blueprint back to the transport ship's storage room, while simultaneously notifying the dream star that except for essential crew, everyone else was to land and assist in moving the supplies.

The group walked back out of the underground tunnel, which was over a thousand meters deep.

Nuwa's Servo-skull quickly listed an inventory, and the mechanical printer spat out a paper report.

Xia Xingchen took the list, which clearly recorded:

Warlord-class Titan: 1

Double-Headed Dragon Heavy Main Battle Tank STC Template (complete manufacturing blueprint, mass-producible)

Imperium standard Leman Russ Tank: 300

Great Crusade-era Land Crawler transport: 700

Mars-pattern Lasgun: 20,000

New standard Lasgun: 8,000

Standard Power Axe and Chainsword: 400 in total

Imperium standard flak armor and matching armor: 30,000 sets

Automatic turrets and heavy artillery: 300

Countless types of ammunition, filling the entire warehouse

"How long will it take to transport all these things back to the warship?"

After an instantaneous calculation, Nuwa gave a precise answer: "The total weight of all equipment, including the Titan, is about 3700 tons. The dream star carries 30 standard shuttles and 50 transport ships. A standard shuttle has a single-trip capacity of 20 tons, and a transport ship 5 tons, for a total single-trip capacity of about 850 tons. Theoretically, the transport can be completed in 2-3 days. However, it is necessary to build an underground deep-well elevator to transport supplies from the treasury to the surface, which will take at least a week. Adding the Tech-Priests' consecration and appeasement rituals for the god-machine, an additional 2-3 days will be required. Calculated comprehensively, it is expected to take 15 days to complete everything."

Xia Xingchen pondered for a moment after hearing this. It had been nearly a month since he transmigrated to the Warhammer World. If he stayed here for another 15 days, the total time spent would be nearly a month and a half. During this time, except for the transmigrators who were still wandering, most people should have already found a place to settle. However, the supplies on this planet were too critical; they were enough to save Xia Xingchen countless detours, directly giving him basic industrial capacity and heavy equipment to deal with crises. Spending one to two months for this was completely worth it.

Xia Xingchen did not hesitate at all: "Notify the entire fleet to start working. Also, go check on the people from the Iron Heart Society; if they are still praying, just interrupt them. Tell them to stop chanting; it's time to work."

Nuwa nodded, and a Servo-skull immediately went to convey the order.

"Master," Nuwa's tone was more intimate in private, "on this abandoned Forge World, there should be more undestroyed underground treasuries and industrial equipment, all of which are key to us establishing a base in the future. It is reasonable to stay here for a while."

She knew that Xia Xingchen was anxious to establish his own base. Xia Xingchen understood Nuwa's intentions and nodded, the impatience on his face fading significantly. "Let's go, let's look around some more."

In fact, there was far more than one underground treasury on this planet; multiple underground armories were scattered across other regions. A fighter jet landed in front of Xia Xingchen and Nuwa, and after picking them up, it flew rapidly to another continent on the planet. The armories distributed on this continent were far more numerous than on the main continent. Perhaps because it was not the main battlefield, there were more armories remaining here, but the vast majority had not been as well-preserved as the treasury on the main continent; only the supplies in two or three of the armories could still be used normally.

Xia Xingchen and Nuwa went in and swept the area; inside were basically some infantry equipment, as well as a small number of tanks and armored vehicles. The stored supplies were far inferior to the underground treasury discovered initially. But every little bit helps, so Xia Xingchen immediately had his subordinates mark the locations, waiting for the transport ships to come and receive them.

Just then, news came through Xia Xingchen's headset again; there had been a major discovery in the city ruins.

Xia Xingchen and Nuwa immediately rushed to the designated location. Guided by a guard, they passed through one broken wall after another, finally walking into an equipment room buried deep underground.

Just as they walked in, Xia Xingchen saw that the door to the equipment room had been forcibly broken open by the Adeptus Mechanicus, and the equipment inside was fully revealed before him.

Xia Xingchen looked around and found that there were no weapons or equipment here, only rows of large industrial equipment.

"What are these?" Xia Xingchen looked at the dark machines in front of him, curiously reached out to touch them, and was surprised to find that these devices could still start normally. Xia Xingchen was even more curious, urgently wanting to know what these devices were.

At this moment, the Tech-Priest responsible for counting the equipment walked up to Xia Xingchen and reported respectfully: "My Lord, we have discovered a total of hundreds of various types of production lines and industrial machine tools here."

This Tech-Priest also explained the condition of the equipment to Xia Xingchen: "Of all the machines, 75% can be started and used without any obstacles, and the remaining 25% only need some parts replaced to be put back into production."

"My Lord, do you need to transport them back to the warship?"

Xia Xingchen nodded immediately: "Notify the transport ships to divert a batch over here and transport all these things away."

Xia Xingchen knew very well that these industrial facilities were the foundation for his future industrial construction, capable of shortening the construction cycle of his base by countless times.

Xia Xingchen and Nuwa originally wanted to head to the next exploration point, but a hurried call suddenly came through Nuwa's communication channel. After Nuwa connected the communication to understand the situation, her face immediately became grave, and she instantly realized the seriousness of the problem.

"My Lord, I am afraid we must return to the underground treasury on the main continent immediately."

"There is a problem with the transport of the Titan."

Hearing this, Xia Xingchen immediately turned back with Nuwa and rushed back to the underground treasury on the main continent. As soon as he walked into the treasury, Xia Xingchen saw the research personnel from the warship arguing fiercely with the Tech-Priests of the Iron Heart Society.

"This Titan is a full 33 meters tall; it is impossible to transport it out intact. Aside from dismantling it, there is no other way!" A researcher wearing a white lab coat said to the Tech-Priests with a face full of dissatisfaction. In his eyes, this group of Tech-Priests was simply rigid to the extreme, actually believing in such ethereal things as machines having souls.

Leovitos could barely listen to a word he said, his eyes filled with rage, and the mechanical tentacles used for auxiliary operations, as well as the red light of his bionic eye, were flickering violently: "You are defiling the creation of the Omnissiah! I absolutely will not allow you to do this! This god-machine must be transported out whole and intact!"

The researchers were completely at their wits' end, sighing as they clutched their foreheads: "I really don't understand, are you advanced or backward?"

Listening to their quarrel, Xia Xingchen knew he had to step in immediately.

A thought had already formed in Xia Xingchen's mind: perhaps in the future, he should establish a research department independent of the Adeptus Mechanicus, specifically responsible for technological R&D.

Xia Xingchen knew all too well that relying solely on the Adeptus Mechanicus's archaeological style of research would never realize the revival of humanity, nor could it save this race on the verge of extinction. Moreover, the vast majority of people in the Adeptus Mechanicus believed that innovation was an act that went against their doctrine. All humanity should do is archaeology and excavating more STC Templates. This was tantamount to locking the human tech tree.

Although there was the Warp, the root of all evil, in the warhammer 40k universe, it was not without ways to avoid it. The Emperor had once utilized the Sisters of Silence to cooperate in resisting the pollution of the Warp, allowing Tech-Priests to develop technology. Moreover, as time entered the 41st and 42nd millenniums, the awakening of the Necron Dynasties, while bringing new and huge threats to the Imperium of Man, also brought humanity a brand-new method to counter the Warp: Blackstone technology.