25: Chapter 25 Activating Titan

Xia Xingchen covered his face, pondering what to do next.

Right now, Xia Xingchen's most important task was to find the Titan Drop Pod to ensure this Titan could be transported onto the battleship intact; otherwise, the people of the Iron Heart Society would definitely get agitated.

As Xia Xingchen sat in his chair worrying, Nuwa quickly walked in.

"My Lord, good news, good news!"

Hearing the words "good news,"

Xia Xingchen immediately looked up, eyes shining with anticipation as he pressed for details:

"Tell me, did you find the Titan Drop Pod?"

Nuwa nodded immediately:

"In the deepest part of an abandoned underground storage room, we found this drop pod."

Xia Xingchen was ecstatic upon hearing this. He stood up immediately and rushed out of the tent:

"What are you standing there for? Take me there quickly!"

Nuwa hurriedly pulled Xia Xingchen back:

"Don't be in such a hurry, my Lord. Our subordinates have already transported the drop pod over."

In the next second, the roar of fighter jets echoed above Xia Xingchen's head.

Xia Xingchen looked up and saw a drop pod nearly fifty meters high slowly descending in mid-air. Eight surrounding fighter jets were working at full power to maintain the drop pod's angle, ensuring no accidents occurred.

Amidst Xia Xingchen's shock, the drop pod slowly touched down, mercilessly crushing a section of buildings beneath it into powder. The moment it made contact with the ground, it let out a deafening boom.

"Has it been checked? Can this landing pod still be used?"

"Of course. Our personnel have thoroughly inspected this drop pod. There are no issues other than a lack of fuel, and we have already refilled it."

"Bring Leovitos to me."

Receiving the command, Nuwa immediately sent out the communication.

Leovitos arrived at the scene, and as he looked up at the fifty-meter-high drop pod, he immediately began chanting a prayer:

"Praise the Omnissiah!"

Leovitos could hardly imagine that Xia Xingchen had actually found him a landing pod specifically for Titans, the kind that only appeared during the Great Crusade.

"Leovitos, everything you wanted, I have prepared for you. Now it's your turn."

Xia Xingchen spoke to Leovitos. He had given the Iron Heart Society everything they wanted; they should have no more complaints.

"I now require your Iron Heart Society to immediately begin awakening this Titan and simultaneously select a Princeps capable of commanding it."

The 'Princeps' mentioned here refers to the Titan's primary operator, who would merge deeply with the Titan's Machine Spirit to command this God-Machine.

Hearing this, Leovitos had no reason to refuse and answered respectfully:

"As you command, my Lord. We will immediately begin the maintenance of the Titan and the selection of a Princeps pilot."

Xia Xingchen nodded and urged Leovitos once more to speed up the process:

"We don't have much time to waste here. Pick up the pace, Leovitos. Don't let me down."

The red light in Leovitos's mechanical eye flickered, and he nodded heavily before immediately leading his Tech-Priests into the work.

Xia Xingchen looked up to see a massive number of transport ships and shuttles shuttling back and forth between the sky and space. The white light emitted by their engine exhausts illuminated the entire area like a miniature daylight.

In the distance, many low-flying transport ships were packing up resources from other continents, as well as machinery and production lines from factories, and transporting them here, preparing for a collective transfer to the dream star.

Xia Xingchen had already stayed on this planet for nearly ten days, and the resources had mostly been transported. Now, he was just waiting for the Iron Heart Society to finish tuning this Titan.

Three days later, the Iron Heart Society sent word to Xia Xingchen:

[The Titan's various systems have been tuned. Once a Princeps is in position to take control, basic movement can be completed.]

Xia Xingchen looked at this message and followed up with a question:

"The deep well elevator I asked you to reinforce—is it finished?"

Hearing Xia Xingchen's question, Nuwa immediately replied:

"Master, we have completed the reinforcement of the deep well elevator within three days. It can now carry at least three thousand tons, which is no problem for carrying the Titan."

After Nuwa finished speaking, she seemed to have something difficult to say.

"Between us, there's no need for secrets. If there's something, just say it."

Nuwa spoke bluntly upon hearing this:

"However, this elevator is now a one-time-use item. To ensure the Titan could land steadily on the elevator platform, we forcibly fixed the suspended structure at the bottom of the platform.

To put it simply, we have forcibly welded the entire platform to the ground's bedrock. If it were to be used again, it would take a significant amount of time to dismantle."

Xia Xingchen followed up with another question:

"The resources and other items from the underground vault—have they all been transported out?"

"Basically, everything has been transported, leaving only some large facilities that cannot be dismantled."

Hearing this, Xia Xingchen immediately decided to abandon those facilities. Right now, the Titan was the most important thing; nothing was more important than the Titan.

"Don't worry about what can't be moved or dismantled. Transport the Titan out first and abandon everything else."

Nuwa nodded immediately and issued orders to the personnel underground, then added:

"The people from the Iron Heart Society seem to have run into some trouble and need you to go over there."

Xia Xingchen sighed helplessly upon hearing this:

"Honestly, can't anything just go smoothly for once?"

Xia Xingchen and Nuwa took the personnel elevator, descending thousands of meters into the underground depths.

When the elevator doors opened, Xia Xingchen stepped out and saw a large number of personnel transporting the last of the resources and equipment to the elevator.

This was the final trip; after this, the elevator would serve only the Titan.

Xia Xingchen walked past the crowd and went straight to the Titan.

Incense and candles had been placed around the Titan, and the floor surrounding it was covered in various prayer scriptures. Two Tech-Priests were even holding censers, continuously praying and burning incense on either side of the Titan.

Leovitos was waiting for Xia Xingchen's arrival at the base of the Titan.

A hatch at the bottom of the Titan had been opened, revealing a dedicated elevator responsible for quickly transporting the Princeps, Moderati, Servitors, Tech-Priests, and other personnel to their designated posts.

"Leovitos, what's the problem? I hope you're not giving me more difficult news."

Xia Xingchen was truly afraid of the Adeptus Mechanicus's stubbornness. He didn't want to hear anything more about the Titan being unable to fit on the elevator; that would truly make him collapse.

"It's not a major issue." Leovitos then pointed his hand toward the Titan's cockpit. "The Princeps we selected have consistently failed to awaken this Titan's Machine Spirit."

Oh, damn it!

Xia Xingchen had forgotten about this part.

One of the most ridiculous points in warhammer 40k is that Titans truly do have Machine Spirits.

After all, most of this technology is a legacy of the Golden Age and more or less involves some underlying AI logic. Combined with the influence of the Warp over ten thousand years, Machine Spirits were born within these Titans.

Without connecting to the Machine Spirit, the Titan cannot be deployed for battle at all.

Of course, if the Machine Spirit is appeased and acts on its own, that's a different story.

"With nearly a hundred and fifty thousand people on our ship, is there not a single one suitable to command a Titan?"

Leovitos nodded:

"We checked their soul strength through instruments, and they don't even meet the minimum standard for commanding a Titan."

Xia Xingchen's brow furrowed as he realized the situation. Perhaps because they were all transmigrators and even the personnel on the ship were system-generated, these people had never been influenced by the Warp, and thus their soul strength was far inferior to the native humans of warhammer 40k.

Xia Xingchen had no choice but to turn his gaze toward the members of the Iron Heart Society.

But Leovitos immediately expressed refusal. Seeing Xia Xingchen's look, he knew Xia Xingchen wanted someone from the Iron Heart Society to command the Titan.

"Honored Lord, please allow me to refuse. Regarding these Divine Creations, we are servants of the Titan, not the ones who command it."

Xia Xingchen was speechless. Could it be that he really had to do it himself and command this Titan?

Just as Xia Xingchen was debating whether to take the field himself, Nuwa stepped forward.

"Let me try."

Leovitos glanced at Nuwa, then at Xia Xingchen.

Xia Xingchen nodded.

Leovitos immediately understood and then led Nuwa and Xia Xingchen into the internal elevator of the Titan, heading straight for the main cockpit in the head.

At this moment, the throne in the center of the cockpit was waiting for its Princeps.

Nuwa walked to the throne, exposing the Brain-computer Interface at the back of her head, and then connected the interface to the Titan's core data lines.

In the next second, a full-power red light suddenly erupted from Nuwa's mechanical eyes.

"She won't have any problems, will she, Leovitos?"

Xia Xingchen now grew worried. Would the massive consciousness of this Titan's Machine Spirit directly burn out Nuwa's body?

Xia Xingchen wasn't worried about the safety of Nuwa's consciousness.

After all, there was a backup of her consciousness on the battleship. The problem was that this body was difficult to replicate, not to mention that it had appeared before everyone many times; it would be hard to arrange a reasonable new identity for Nuwa in the future.

"I cannot say for certain," Leovitos said helplessly. "After all, I am not a priest specialized in the field of Titans."

As the two were talking, a grinding sound of mechanical operation suddenly resounded throughout the entire underground fortress.