Warhammer: Empire Reboot

Lawson lingered for two seconds longer after seeing the power sword.

Once activated, the force field blade can destroy molecular bonds, cutting anything as easily as cutting paper, including the chitinous exoskeleton of pure-blooded beings.

Each time a storage point is opened, the warehouse at the outpost is filled by one point.

Ammunition boxes were piled up like small mountains, hand grenades were sorted by model and packed into explosion-proof boxes, and laser magazines filled an entire shelf.

But these are just appetizers.

It was only when the search team from Class 3 found their second large target that Lawson finally sat up straight.

Chapter 53 The Complete STC That Was Found

An ammunition storage room hidden deep within the wreckage of an Imperial battleship.

It is larger than all previous discoveries combined.

.75 caliber standard explosive bomb.

The most classic medium-caliber ammunition in the Imperial military-industrial complex, the common ammunition for the Astartes bomb gun and the Astrail Locke bomb gun.

Dozens of standard Imperial military pallets, each stacked with sealed ammunition boxes.

Jia San opened a box for random inspection.

The explosives inside the box were neatly arranged in shock-absorbing foam, and the copper-colored casing of each bullet gleamed with a metallic luster under the flashlight beam.

The fuse is intact, the propellant is sealed, and the indicator light on the mass reaction core is green.

Even after being stored in a sealed environment for hundreds of years, the Imperial Arms Industry's standardized manufacturing processes still ensure a reliability rate of over 90%.

Lawson made a rough estimate based on the perspective of the third-ranked player.

At least a million rounds.

The ammunition problem went from being on the verge of a red line to being extremely wealthy overnight.

Then there's Jiawu.

Zikrus led the Fifth Division through a series of winding passages and maintenance pipelines, until they found a large armory on the lower deck of an Imperial warship wreck.

The space is rectangular and covers an area of ​​over 500 square meters.

The shelves stretched from the ground to the six-meter-high ceiling, each shelf neatly stacked with sealed weapon cases.

Lawson scanned the labels on the shelf from Jiawu's perspective, and with each line he looked at, the corners of his mouth curled up a little.

Hundreds of M36 standard laser guns.

Thousands of bomb guns, mixed batches of Lockheed III and IV models, including standard rifle and short-barreled assault versions.

Then Jiawu's flashlight shone on a row of heavy weapon racks against the wall deep inside the warehouse.

Multi-barrel rapid-fire cannon.

Ten Imperial Navy standard multi-barrel rapid-fire cannons.

Each machine is equipped with a complete base, feeding mechanism, and control system.

It is in good sealed storage condition and can be put into use after only simple functional testing and purification.

And thousands of boxes of ammunition specifically for large-caliber rapid-fire cannons.

Lawson's smile turned into a toothy grin.

If the previous supplies solved the problem of whether there were enough, this warehouse directly changed the problem to whether we could use them all.

"All supplies were transferred in batches through the armory space, with ammunition and charging batteries being transferred first. Weapons were transferred second, and heavy equipment was transferred last."

The armory has a capacity of only one cubic meter, but its ability to access supplies regardless of distance makes it a perfect conveyor belt for supplies.

Teams A3 and A5 stuffed the supplies into the armory space, while the remaining personnel at the outpost took them out from the other end and moved them into the large warehouse compartments that had been cleared out beforehand.

Assembly line operation is incredibly efficient.

However, what truly made Lawson stand up from his chair was what the Jiawu search team discovered deep inside the fourth warehouse.

A small safe sealed with an explosion-proof lock.

The safe's outer shell is cast from a single piece of high-purity ceramic steel, and its surface is engraved with consecrated inscriptions of the Mechanicus Church and tamper-proof seals.

The wax seal has dried and crumbled over the centuries, but the inscriptions cast on the metal surface remain clearly legible.

The safe was opened, and there was only one thing inside.

A metal plate.

It is about 20 centimeters square and less than 1 centimeter thick.

The material is a high-purity alloy that Lawson has never seen in wrecked ships before. Its surface is silver-gray and refracts an extremely uniform metallic luster under flashlight light.

One side of the alloy plate is smooth, while the other side is densely covered with circuit topology diagrams and data codes that are so small they are almost indistinguishable to the naked eye.

A line of standard Gothic inscription is engraved in the lower right corner of the metal plate.

After Jiawu zoomed in on the image, Lawson could see the words clearly.

[STC-AX/1152-LR, Suppressor Storm Bomb Gun, Complete Production Template]

Lawson's breathing paused for 0.3 seconds.

STC.

Standard template builder.

In the 40,000-year Warhammer universe, if there's anything that could drive the entire Imperium, from the High Lord of Terra to the Grand Forge General of Mars, insane at the same time, it's these three letters.

STC is the most precious legacy of human civilization, bar none.

Originating from the dark ages of technology, this universal manufacturing database contains a complete production blueprint for a product, from raw material formulas to assembly processes, in each storage chip.

The vast majority of technologies used by the Empire today—laser guns, power armor, and starships—are incomplete versions reverse-engineered from the remaining fragments of the STC.

A complete, undamaged STC production template is worth more than any currency in the Empire.

Historically, the discoverer of a single fragment of an STC documenting an improved combat sword—note, a fragment, incomplete—was granted the title of saint and the right to govern an entire planet.

This STC record doesn't show any combat knife.

It is a newly designed explosive gun.

"Suppressor" Storm Bomb Gun.

Complete production template.

Lawson read all the parameters through Jiawu's perspective.

It uses the standard .75 caliber and is compatible with all existing explosive stockpiles of the Empire.

The core technology is a dual-stage delayed detonation warhead. The warhead has two independent charge chambers. The first stage detonates instantly upon contact, and the shaped charge jet burns through the outer armor. The second stage is delayed by three milliseconds, and the charge jet penetrates the target's interior along the jet channel to release its full yield.

Lawson mentally simulated the process: a bullet hit Norber's heavy armor, the first part blasting open a hole, and the second part going through the hole and exploding inside.

The armor is no longer protection but a cage; energy has nowhere to dissipate in the confined space and is blown apart by its own shell.

The effective kill rate of the same caliber explosive shell against heavily armored targets is increased by nearly three times.

The barrel also incorporates an adaptive rifling system, essentially a cross-disciplinary application of power sword force field technology to ballistics. At close range, automatic spin reduction maximizes penetration, while at long range, spin enhancement maximizes accuracy. It achieves optimal trajectory at any distance.

Both of these technologies alone are enough to make the forge masters of the Cult of Mechanics kneel on the ground.

Taken together, and fully compatible with the existing ammunition supply chain, this is no better gun.

This is a system solution that can directly elevate the firepower of the entire Imperial infantry force to a higher level without changing the logistics system.

If this STC were handed over to the Empire, it would be enough to secure the dominion over a planet, along with full military support from a fleet. If it were traded with the Mechanicus, the Martian Grand Foundry Generals would wage a civil war over it.

But now is not the time to think about these things.

Since Lawson lacks the manufacturing capability, this STC is currently just an unredeemed, exorbitantly priced check.

But the check was real. And he had it in his hand.

"Place it in the armory space. Store it separately," Lawson said. "Protect it with the highest priority."

"Understood." Jia Wu carefully placed the STC template into the armory space.

The transfer operation lasted approximately six hours.

The large warehouses at both outposts were crammed full.

Tens of thousands of laser-charged magazines filled the shelves, sealed ammunition boxes were piled up like small mountains, and grenades and explosive tubes were sorted by model and packed into explosion-proof boxes.

The components of the ten multi-barrel rapid-fire cannons were disassembled and stored separately at two outposts to avoid losing all heavy weapons in a single attack.

Lawson sat at the command post of the forge outpost, reviewing the inventory of supplies.

The ammunition problem has been solved.

The firepower problem has been solved.

A qualitative leap in melee equipment.

In a single day, his troops went from being barely adequate to having excessive firepower.

Chapter 54 The Forgotten Astartes

Lawson closed the list, satisfied.

When Jia San pressed him for details about whether there were any other places worth visiting, Fekus's one eye flickered.

"There's a very big, far away place. It's not an armory, but it's full of big, dead humans wearing metal suits."

Jia San relayed this information to Lawson in real time.

"A large human wearing a metal shell."

Lawson's fingers stopped moving.

In the Warhammer universe, only one existence fits this description.

Astartes Space Marines.

Space Marine corpses are worthless; the genetic seed degrades within hours of death and leaves no molecular trace even after hundreds of years.