Chapter 350: Palu Webway Seminar |
Time passed swiftly as they explored the expanded zones of the end times and observed Pader and Paderd's experiments.
Half a month later.
In the Palu Homeland, Lino and a group of Palu Boyz sat on the ground in the open clearing before the weirdboy hut.
"Pader, you go first. Tell us how the Warp Energy Compressor experiments are coming along," Lino said.
"Yes, Boss."
Pader, clad in a coarse cloth robe, stood up and stepped into the center of the circle. He glanced around the gathered crowd and said, "Lads, let's skip the nonsense and jump straight to seeing what the latest generation of the compressor can do."
Pader gestured toward Pengpa, who was suspended in the amniotic tank. "Help me pull up an image of The Warp."
"Right away." Pengpa nodded. He closed his eyes and channeled his observations of The Warp straight into the holographic projector.
The holographic device, suspended in mid-air, cast an image onto the ground in front of Pader.
In the projection, a colossal machine—resembling a massive Morkanaut—was humming with activity.
It had its arms spread and its head thrust forward with its jaws wide open, striking a roaring posture.
Warp energy was sucked into the machine through a super-flashy siphon engine inside its "nasal cavity." A mekboy manning the controls popped open the machine's "chest cavity," exposing its intricate internal structure for everyone to see.
Four colors of Warp energy—red, blue, purple, and green—flowed through the energy conduits as docile as lambs.
After passing through a filter, the four distinct energies separated seamlessly into four pipes without a drop of cross-contamination.
They entered four pre-treatment containers, where a low-concentration anti-psionic energy medium began "sterilizing" them.
This "sterilization" didn't target physical germs or real-space contaminants; it targeted the raw emotions inherent within the Warp energy.
To prevent the anti-psionic energy medium from over-neutralizing the Warp energy, the duration of this sterilization process had to be controlled with absolute precision.
Roughly ten seconds later, the first batch of Warp energy was fully sterilized.
Before entering the device, this batch of Warp energy had a volume of 1,005 cubic meters.
After sterilization, its volume had dropped exactly to 1,000 cubic meters, a perfect showcase of the exacting computational precision of Pader's team.
Applause broke out across the clearing before quickly dying down as everyone returned their focus to the demonstration.
Post-sterilization, the Warp energy in all four conduits ran pure and clear, completely purged of all emotional resonance.
They pooled together in an energy hub before being compressed by a three-stage particle accelerator.
In the first stage of compression, a shockwave generated by Monocrystal powder essentially blow-molded the Warp energy, forcing it into a mold and shaping it into a rough slab.
During the second stage, a Monocrystal stamping hammer pounded the Warp energy slab. This maintained its outward shape while loosening its microscopic structure.
Then came the third and most crucial stage.
A pulse of anti-psionic energy medium at a very specific frequency restructured the slab's microscopic lattice, manually realigning the energy particles.
Because of this anti-psionic energy medium, the third compression stage caused a slight loss of Warp energy.
After roughly a minute, the three-stage compression process concluded.
The device's "mouth" vented a burst of air and spat out the Warp energy, now fully compressed into a solid Monocrystal slab.
The mekboy took measurements of the Monocrystal slab and produced a string of data:
Total volume: 400 cubic meters.
The initial 1,005 cubic meters of Warp energy had been compressed into 400 cubic meters of Monocrystal. Converted to mass, that was 2,000 tons. A 40% compression rate—a full 10% increase from their early 30% benchmarks. A resounding success.
Pader then demonstrated the rapid, large-scale mass-compression of Warp energy.
Ten Warp Energy Compressors ran simultaneously at full load for a scheduled three-hour operation.
While waiting for the final output, Paderd took center stage to present his own team's experimental results.
Pader and Paderd were cut from the same cloth; they both carried Land's distinctive style and personality.
Without a word of preamble, Paderd started his live demonstration.
A second holographic projection materialized. This time, the scene was set in real-space.
It showed a space outpost constructed entirely of Monocrystal. Every single panel of exterior armor was pure Monocrystal, creating a perfectly sealed environment that completely shut out cosmic background radiation, Warp interference, and other negative elements.
At the same time, because the outpost existed in real-space, psionic energy rituals performed inside could still commune with The Warp, though the Monocrystal shell significantly dampened their efficacy.
In the very heart of the outpost sat a gargantuan greenskin mushroom.
It stood a full thousand meters tall. The cap spanned roughly five hundred meters across, while the stalk measured about two hundred meters in diameter. It looked at once slender and incredibly sturdy.
From beneath the mushroom, the glowing Fluorescent Spores nestled within its gills were particularly striking.
Two squads of Palu Boyz appeared on either side of the giant mushroom.
One squad wore blue combat armor; the other wore red.
The two sides opened fire on each other with Heavy Bolters, locking into a furious firefight.
A heavy shot rang out.
The red squad suffered a casualty as some unlucky sod took a direct hit to his visor, dropping dead on the spot.
The projection's perspective shifted upward.
The giant mushroom's gills emitted a faint green glow. Luminous threads traced along the ridges, all converging on a single Fluorescent Spore.
That spore swelled rapidly until, like an overripe apple, it detached completely and plunged into a freefall.
Then came the spectacular part.
As the spore fell, dozens of tiny pores opened along the mushroom's stalk. Alchemical potions, alchemical mists, alchemical syringes—an entire cocktail of growth-accelerating substances—sprayed precisely onto the plummeting spore.
Ten seconds later, the spore hit the ground. By then, it had already grown into a small mushroom complete with its own cap.
Its cap had been genetically modified with a highly porous, high-damping structure, utilizing friction to cushion the impact of its landing.
Within five seconds of landing, the mushroom "blossomed and bore fruit," churning out a brand-new Palu Boy in red armor.
The Biological Armor and bio-weapons already growing on his body provided baseline protection.
Along the surface of his Biological Armor sat several protrusions resembling mechanical locking clasps.
These clasps emitted a pulse toward the dead body on the ground. The Power Armor on the corpse detached, scattered into individual components, and was reeled in by a micro-tractor beam from the clasps, snapping rapidly into place over the new Palu Boy's Biological Armor.
From the moment the red squad took a casualty to the moment they were reinforced, barely three minutes had passed. Such infantry replenishment speed was nothing short of astonishing.
Of course, in an actual live combat scenario, that reinforcement speed would take a significant hit.
For one, firefights rarely happened directly beneath the giant mushrooms, meaning reinforcements would still need time to reach the front line.
Additionally, real-world environmental parameters wouldn't be this perfect. The current demonstration was running on standard atmospheric pressure, room temperature, Terra gravity, and absolutely zero psionic energy interference. In real combat, every added interfering factor would slow down the reinforcement speed by at least half.
Even so, Paderd's experimental results were well worth the applause. This giant mushroom was effectively a greenskin version of the Infinity Circuit.
Clapping filled the air.
Everyone cheered in celebration.
Now they just had to wait a while to see the results of the Warp Energy Compressors running their full-load mass production.
Lino pressed his hands down to quiet the crowd and spoke up.
"We didn't just gather today to check on Pader and Paderd's experimental progress. There's another major issue we need to discuss."
Lino gave Palcador a nod.
Understanding perfectly, Palcador stood up, strode to the center, and briefed everyone on how the yellow weasel and the knife-ears were transferring the powers of the Chaos Gods into the age of rebellion. He then unveiled the Palu Empire's strategy for advancing into the end times.
Right now, the plan only had a rough framework and core objectives. The details still needed to be fleshed out, which was exactly why Lino had called everyone here for a brainstorming session.
Palcador sat back down, and Lino took over.
"Before the bulk of the Palu Empire transfers over, our vanguard forces need to establish the Palu Webway first. I want to ask all of you—what flaws do you think The Old Ones' Webway has?"
Lino swept his gaze around the group. The boyz who caught his eye looked eager to jump in, clearly harboring plenty of complaints about The Old Ones' Webway.
"Tell you what, we'll go one by one. Ailong, you're the garrison commander of the Palu Homeland. You defend our territory. I want to hear your thoughts first."
Ailong was sitting in the very back row—he didn't have much of a choice given his sheer size.
He pounded his chest and said, "Boss, the weapons system in The Old Ones' Webway is incredibly unreliable. Its command privileges have massive loopholes—way too many people can use it. I fink that if we're gonna install strategic weapons inside the Palu Webway, the control rights absolutely have to stay in your hands, Boss!"
Ailong sounded thoroughly disgruntled. Clearly, he was still holding a grudge over the time the knife-ears had laid siege to the Palu Homeland.
Lino nodded.
"Ailong's right. The strategic weapons and other major facilities in the Palu Webway must remain under my control. Beast, what's your take on it?"
Beast crossed his arms, striking the pose of a Cogitator as he gathered his thoughts.
"Boss, I feel like The Old Ones' Webway has a super low transit efficiency. Compared to navigating The Warp, it's definitely fast, but it's still not fast enough. I just thought of an idea recently."
"Oh? Let's hear it."
"Sure thing, Boss. I'll use the holographic model to show you guys. I can't really explain it in just a few words."
Beast got to his feet, walked over to the holographic device's control panel, and began tinkering.
"My Wraithbone inspiration comes from a gantry—you know, the kind of engineering equipment used to quickly move cargo containers around. Maybe we could design the Palu Webway into a setup that uses a gantry paired with a bunch of cargo containers."
A third holographic projection appeared.
In it, Beast placed a gantry, flanked by cargo containers stacked like small mountains.
"Let's assume we gather up a force inside Container A. This force's destination is Container Z. There's a distance of tens of thousands of lightyears between the two. If we take The Old Ones' Webway, the troops in Container A would have to find a viable route first just to reach Container Z, which burns up a ton of time."
Beast slapped a button on the holographic device, and the gantry on the screen began to move.
"Now, suppose our Palu Webway has a command dispatch center that can control the gantry. It grabs Container A, drops it right next to Z, and temporarily links the spaces inside the two containers together. Then the troops in Container A could reach their destination without having to scout routes or slog through a long march."
Everyone's eyes lit up.
Pader and Paderd exchanged a glance and began whispering to each other, looking rather excited.
Beast continued, "Designing it this way has two benefits. First, the dispatch command privileges stay entirely in the Boss's hands, so we don't have to worry about the Palu Webway getting taken over by some rubbish thing. Second, transport is fast and convenient, and combat units won't have to waste energy on scouting, meaning they can focus entirely on fighting. As for the downsides, I figure designing the actual 'gantry' is gonna be pretty tough. With my brain, at least, I can't come up with a blueprint for it."
Lino smiled faintly.
"Not bad, Beast. Your idea has some real feasibility. Pader, Paderd, what do you two think?"
Beast returned to his seat.
Pader and Paderd stood up in perfect unison and spoke simultaneously, "Boss, Boss Beast's hypothesis is an established theory in the communications field known as cross-node all-to-all communication technology. It's primarily used as an ultra-high-speed, high-throughput, low-latency communication solution between Cogitator Arrays."
The moment the conversation veered into highly technical jargon, the Palu Boyz completely blanked out.
Fortunately, Lino, being a "modern man," had a higher capacity for accepting human tech and managed to keep up with their train of thought.
"Alright, expand on that a bit, but try to keep it simple," Lino said.
"Will do, Boss. I'll explain, and Paderd will demonstrate," Pader offered.
Pader and Paderd divided the labor. One stepped into the center of the clearing while the other went to man the holographic device's control panel.
"Simply put, it goes like this," Pader started.
"During cross-node communication, communication between different nodes relies on various gantries. Internal communication within a node uses The Old Ones' Webway transit methods. At the same time, gantries capable of moving across nodes are installed inside the nodes, all uniformly dispatched by the gantry responsible for internode communication..."
The Palu Boyz stared blankly, as if listening to an alien language.
Even Lino felt his head spinning.
Operating on the principle of "leave professional matters to the professionals and keep amateurs from backseat driving," Lino asked, "Pader, compared to The Old Ones' Webway, how difficult is this plan to build, and what are the maintenance costs?"
"Boss, achieving cross-node all-to-all communication technology is actually less difficult than building The Old Ones' Webway, but its maintenance costs will be a bit higher. In exchange, the transit efficiency of this tech is about fifteen times that of The Old Ones' Webway. It's 50% less efficient than a Flushing device—which uses quantum entanglement for ultra-long-distance deployment—but its operating costs are at least 90% lower."
Talk was cheap; the experimental results would do the real talking.
"If you start experimenting now, how long will it take you two to produce results?" Lino asked.
Pader glanced over at the Warp Energy Compressors currently running their mass compression.
"Boss, there's a little over two hours left before the mass compression experiment wraps up. We can throw together a basic Palu Webway prototype device for you within those two hours and demonstrate its effects right here."
Lino raised an eyebrow. "Alright, get on it, then. We'll use this time to hammer out the exploration plans for the end times."
"You got it, Boss."
Pader and Paderd pulled out their Dataslates to dispatch messages, remotely commanding their teams to kick off the new experiment.
Two hours later, an "Astronomican" blooming with green light rose from the ground in the holographic projection, followed by a second, a third, a fourth, a fifth...
