Warhammer: Angron Training Manual

Chapter 429: Trip to Mars
……

Mars.

Smelter No. 3.

The entire smelter is located... somewhere on Mars.

It's not that it doesn't have an accurate coordinate location, but the location of this coordinate location is so unimportant that the people of the Mechanicus are unwilling to use a few bytes of information capacity to store such an inconspicuous place, so they use "somewhere" to refer to this smelter.

Outside of the Quadrant, no one of the priest rank or above would know the number of this smelter: Number Three.

But today, this unremarkable smelter hidden in a corner welcomed a guest.

Quadrant was sitting in the transport plane and looking out the window.

The smelter was exactly the same as he remembered, without any changes. The only difference here was not the facilities or buildings, but the people.

The people here no longer spent 90% of their day smelting metals. Instead, they gathered in the open space between the large facilities of the No. 3 smelter, squeezed together like sardines under the whip of the supervisors in charge and their servitors, and pointed their heads at the transport planes.

"It's a cruel place, exactly the same as what I remember." Quadrant retracted his gaze, "This is where I lived and grew up after I was born and gained the ability to remember."

Qin Xia looked out of the plane window, but he was not looking down at the smelter, but rather taking in the surroundings.

The environment on Mars is extremely harsh.

The sky was filled with industrial waste gas that was squeezing in like a black curtain. When the transport plane passed through the industrial waste gas just now, Qin Xia even felt that the plane would crash directly into it.

Below the industrial waste gas is an endless smelting area. They have obviously been neatly arranged and planned. The appearance, orientation and location of the industrial facilities are all exactly the same.

Therefore, this smelting area reveals a kind of programmed coldness.

The transport plane slowly landed on the apron of the No. 3 smelter like a speck of dust falling on a circuit board.

White Knight ace pilot Kova gradually shut down the transport plane, then put on a heavy set of breathing and protective equipment and walked out of the cockpit to check by himself whether the transport plane's engine was corroded when it just passed through the industrial exhaust gas.

Qin Xia and Quadrant walked out of the cabin.

The workers at the smelter had been restrained by their supervisors. They looked up and clapped their hands as hard as they could after watching the transport plane land.

But their eyes were colorless and their faces were expressionless.

Only the cheers, which seemed completely different from their attitudes, came from the semi-arc-shaped artificial respirator implants on their faces.

The supervisor came over immediately, saluted Quadrant with the gear, and then asked Quadrant enthusiastically if he was tired and where he wanted to go next.

He was very enthusiastic, too enthusiastic to be a Martian.

Quadrant thought he would be treated coldly, but he was not.

Qin Xia, who was standing by, knew the reason.

To a smelter supervisor, the Quadrant’s status or past didn’t matter at all. An ant like him only needed to know one thing—the Forge General’s apprentice had now returned to Mars and wanted to take a look around the place where he grew up.

The grudges and disputes among the top leaders have nothing to do with an unknown ant in the gutter on Mars.

That was exactly what the supervisor thought, so after greeting the quadrant, he performed the Sky Eagle salute to Qin Xia, who was obviously an imperial staff member.

Then came the supervisor's servitor - a creature whose frontal lobe had been removed and mechanically modified to become an unconscious mechanical slave.

It came closer, and behind the tracks of its chassis was a small cart, on which was placed an air purifier. The device contained a synthetic olfactory factor that could turn the smelter's scalding and metallic air into the smell of a plant called grass.

But the quadrant doesn't need this thing, and Qin Xia can't use it with his helmet.

But this was an act of flattery on the part of the overseer, who presented the only thing he had to offer.

Quadrant looked at the workers.

The workers still applauded, thinking the prosthetic hands they received for free as adults were overkill for this kind of thing.

But those workers were not full-body prostheses after all, and they looked extremely tired.

Quadrant could even guess what these people had been through - they were not taking a day off today for this reception, but were taking out their daily sleep time a long time in advance to rush work and exceed production targets, and only then could they free up time today to welcome guests.

The Overseer knew that Quadrant had a habit of revisiting old places...

"Give the workers a day off," Quadrant said to the overseer.

"The smelter will be shut down for a day." Qin Xia looked at the quadrant. "You don't have real management power on Mars, nor are you qualified to bear the consequences. What if the smelter is shut down and pressure from the upper levels is applied here, and the workers who are on vacation for a day are turned into servitors?"

The supervisor looked at Qin Xia with gratitude.

Quadrant found that he was indeed lacking in consideration in this regard. He had to agree with one point his mentor said, which was that he was really dumber than the robot servant in matters other than scientific research.

"I'm sorry," said Quadrant.

Qin Xia shook his head slowly and ordered the supervisor: "Let the workers here take a day off."

When the supervisor was in a dilemma, Qin Xia said, "I don't know who the director of this smelting area is, but I know his immediate superior is a sage named Kerr. My pilot will report this to Sage Kerr later, and my insignificant request will be approved by his assistant's assistant."

Hearing this, the supervisor immediately nodded and signaled the workers to go and rest.

Then Qin Xia signaled to the supervisor that it was time to leave.

The supervisor left, and Quadrant walked side by side with Qin Xia to leave the apron, while Kova began to contact the Sage Kerr who had sent a welcome message on the transport plane's communication channel. "Thank you." Quadrant suddenly said as he moved forward.

"You mean the vacation?" Qin Xia glanced helplessly at the quadrant beside him. "Even if I didn't come with you, it would be the same if you contacted the sage named Kerr yourself. It's not that you don't have the qualifications, you just don't know how to do it."

"Why would Sage Kerr allow me to do this? I don't know him, I've never even seen him." Quadrant asked in confusion.

Qin Xia spread his hands. "So, when this sage named Keer suddenly heard from his assistant one day that the apprentice of the Casting General was looking for him, and then learned that the apprentice wanted to give a smelting plant under a smelting area under his management a day off, would this sage refuse, or would he disgust you with such a trivial matter?"

Quadrant thought for a moment and nodded: "That's true, but I just can't think of it."

"So I accompany you to Mars not just to give you a pass." Qin Xia said with a smile.

The two entered a facility at the smelter.

This looks like a warehouse built on an underground smelting furnace. The area used to store supplies in the warehouse is bordered by some drawer-like cabinets.

"This is where the workers live." Quadrant walked to a row of cabinets and pulled open the door. The cabinet opened like a drawer.

Qin Xia saw that the cold and rough metal formed a small space where only a person could lie down. There were some breathing holes on the walls of the small space, which were used to transport some extra oxygen produced by the device that supplied power to the smelting process, to prevent people living inside from suffocating.

"These... residences. They all look standardized, with the same length, and stacked up to dozens of meters high." Qin Xia looked at them and asked, "What if someone is taller?"

"Saw off the leg and replace it with a prosthetic one," Quadrant replied. "Biological bodies cannot be customized, but prosthetics can."

"Hiss..." Qin Xia took a deep breath and looked at the black cabinets in front of him. "During the reign of the High Knights of Nuceria, the living conditions of slaves were better than this."

Quadrant closed the "drawer" and reached out to gently touch the Mechanicus symbol inlaid on the surface of the cabinet.

A gear with a skull in the middle.

This symbol symbolizes the purity of mankind and the teachings of the Mechanicus.

"I was chosen by Kel Bohar because of my intelligence. Ever since I moved out of this smelter to be an apprentice, I have always heard him say: You are the one chosen by the God of All Machines, the blessed one."

A gentle, low voice came from the inferior sound-generating device that was deliberately retained in Quadrant's newly remodeled body.

"I asked him to help me change the living conditions of the workers at the No. 3 smelter, because the night before I left this hell, I promised my best friends that I would ask the sage to improve the environment of this hell."

"Then Kelber told me that this is the will of the God of All Machines. Those who are born inferior and do not possess knowledge can only serve the God of All Machines in this way."

Hearing this, Qin Xia felt a little worried for Quadrant, because someone as tongue-tied as Quadrant would definitely not be able to refute Kalbohar's twisted logic at that time.

Quadrant continued.

"I told him that if I was truly the chosen one of the God of All Machines, then I, as the chosen one, believed that the followers of the God of All Machines should not live like mechanical parts. If the God of All Machines was truly the god of the human race and its creations, then he would not allow it."

"And then, what did he say?"

"He said: Well said, I will order the workers in the smelter to be transformed into robot servants."

Quadrant looked helpless: "Later he didn't do that, but he didn't do anything either."

Qin Xia nodded: "You still have a close friend in the smelter? A childhood friend who was fed with you until he could talk and walk, and then sent to the smelter?"

"Yes." Quadrant nodded, "He worked himself to death along with the others I know, and their bodies were used to increase the carbon content of metals after their death."

Qin Xia sighed.

The two walked out of the warehouse together and came outside.

When Quadrant was about to go to the next place, another transport plane dropped from the sky.

The person who walked out of the transport plane with the Mechanicus symbol printed on it was not Kalbohar, but the Mechanicus woman Qin Xia had met before, named Zeth.

He wore close fitting bronze armor and smelled of perfume. These were features that made him look nothing like a Mechanicus.

Qin Xia remembered that when the conflict on Dawn Star was about to end, Kelber and Malcador came to Dawn Star together to attend a meeting. Kelber expressed his desire for Nuceria to execute the Mechanicus members including Zeth.

The Quadrant pleaded with Kelbor for Zeth, and then broke off completely with Kelbor.

So it was natural that Zes came here after learning about the Quadrant's arrival and came here specifically to thank the Quadrant.

Quadrant once explained to Qin Xia why he pleaded for Zeth, because when he first started to be an apprentice to Kelbor, it was Zeth who took good care of him.

Szeth came closer and saluted the Quadrant.

The quadrant returned the gift with a gift of gears.

Communication between Mechanicus personnel was always simple. After talking in some binary language, Quadrant asked Zes in human language that Qin Xia could understand.

"I want to see Belisarius Cawl."

"Belisarius Kaur?"

Szeth had no idea who this was.

Until the priest beside him checked the information and told Zes: "He is an apprentice of one of your subordinates."

Zeth said without hesitation, "I'll arrange it for you right away."

(End of this chapter)