Chapter 351: Greenskin Tide |
"Is this the Palu Astronomican summoned using the Flash Boyz?"
"Yes, Boss. As you can see, Paderd and I gathered five thousand Flash Boyz and divided them into five groups of a thousand, each corresponding to a Palu Astronomican. The intensity of their psionic energy light falls far short of a humie Astronomican, but this approach of prioritizing quantity over quality is the correct way to use an Astronomican."
Pader said respectfully,
"The five Palu Astronomicans you see before you are the gantries of the Palu Webway. While their appearance and form are vastly different from a true gantry, their purpose is identical. Please, watch our demonstration."
Paderd pressed a button on his Dataslate.
On the holographic display, an engineering ship placed a square container into The Warp.
This object was assembled from Monocrystal plates. It remained in a state of absolute stasis, functioning like an isolated segment of the Webway.
For convenience, Paderd labeled it the "Monocrystalline Pod."
Previous experiments proved that the Monocrystalline Pod would remain completely immune to the chaotic fluctuations of The Warp, maintaining its absolute stillness.
For the most part, a Monocrystalline Pod could be used to construct a Warp beacon.
The five Palu Astronomicans Pader erected in The Warp used these Monocrystalline Pods as their foundations.
Atop the base sat a rather rudimentary psionic energy acceleration cylinder. Flash Boyz were stationed inside. Through successive layers of acceleration and pressurization, the Palu Shadow scattered outward in the form of a pillar of light.
This pillar of light acted much like a magnet.
When it struck a Monocrystalline Pod and magnetically interacted with another "magnet" inside the pod, the magic happened.
The Monocrystalline Pod moved!
Driven by their attraction, the internal "magnet" propelled the Monocrystalline Pod toward the Palu Astronomican at a speed far surpassing conventional Warp travel.
Upon reaching its first destination, it was drawn by the light of another Astronomican, hurtling swiftly toward the next destination.
The five Palu Astronomicans passed the Monocrystalline Pod along in a perfect, continuous loop, completing the first full circuit flawlessly.
Paderd pressed the button again.
The engineering ship released four more Monocrystalline Pods in rapid succession. Now, a total of five pods glided back and forth between the five Palu Astronomicans in a smooth, seamless cycle.
Paderd pressed the button once more.
In the center of the space enclosed by the five Palu Astronomicans, the engineering ship deployed a hundred Monocrystalline Pods at once. They formed a massive matrix, resembling neat stacks of shipping containers on a dock.
That wasn't all.
The engineering ship flew a full 360 degrees around the matrix of Monocrystalline Pods, deploying rows of Palu Astronomicans above, below, in front, behind, and on both sides of the cluster.
The Palu Astronomicans formed a loose cubic framework around the matrix. Working in perfect unison, they shuttled the Monocrystalline Pods back and forth. The sight was dizzying, yet the movement flowed naturally, without a single collision or moment of lag.
The most miraculous part was that the Palu Astronomicans themselves, acting as gantries, could also be relocated by the other Palu Astronomicans. This process mirrored the movement of the Monocrystalline Pods, relying entirely on the mutual attraction between the beacons.
So, the question was: where did this attraction come from?
The answer was simple.
Cleave a Flash Boy's head in two. By separating the left and right hemispheres of the brain, a natural attraction formed between them on both a psionic energy and quantum level.
In the material universe, such brains were used to craft Holler Boxes.
But within The Warp, they served as the very source of attraction for the gantries and the Monocrystalline Pods.
After Pader and Paderd's demonstration, the audience sat in quiet awe, faintly grasping the concept behind the "cross-node all-to-all communication technology."
Lino, however, harbored a minor doubt:
"Pader, Paderd, I understand the theory behind this technology, but there's a problem. Transporting Monocrystalline Pods between Palu Astronomicans seems faster than normal Warp travel, but I still feel like this method is essentially just Warp travel. It isn't as convenient as the Webway. After all, moving the pods still eats up a considerable amount of time, right?"
"You are correct, Boss. Next, Paderd and I will reveal the most critical secret of the Webway."
Pader bowed slightly and addressed the room:
"I'm sure you have all noticed a certain phenomenon. When we depart from a Webway node on the far western edge of the galaxy and pass through just a few Webway gates, we somehow arrive at the far eastern edge. How do we cross the entire galaxy by simply stepping through a handful of doors? Please, look here. Paderd, switch the perspective to the interior of a Monocrystalline Pod."
"On it."
The hologram shifted, abandoning its sweeping view of the pod matrix to dive straight into the interior of a single pod.
Inside was a Warp exit leading back into realspace.
The moment he saw the exit, sudden realization hit Lino, sending a tingling sensation crawling across his scalp.
Right, right, that was it!
The Monocrystalline Pod might be pulled around by the Palu Astronomicans, but its internal Warp exit would not close as a result!
Suppose Pod A contained a Warp exit leading to the western edge of the galaxy.
Even as the pod itself moved through The Warp, its exit would remain firmly linked to that western edge.
Now, imagine a Palu squad on the eastern side of the galaxy. They open a Warp entrance and step into Pod B.
Drawn by the Palu Astronomicans, Pod B docks with Pod A.
The squad enters Pod A, walks through its Warp exit, and steps back into realspace—arriving instantly at the western edge of the galaxy.
This was the secret to the Webway's rapid, galaxy-spanning transit!
The Webway built by The Old Ones required a squad to navigate the paths and find the correct exit on their own.
The Palu Webway constructed by Pader and Paderd bypassed that entirely. It eliminated the need for wayfinding and trial-and-error. The Palu Astronomicans managed the logistics centrally, dropping the squad directly in front of the right door.
The difference in efficiency between the two was stark.
"Not bad, Pader, Paderd. Your proposal is highly satisfactory. Beast, your input was solid as well."
Lino nodded with a smile and asked,
"Does this system have any flaws?"
"It does, Boss." Pader swapped the holographic feed back to the matrix of pods and Palu Astronomicans.
The image zoomed in on a single Palu Astronomican.
"Boss, this Astronomican looks identical to the rest, but it's actually the most critical piece of the puzzle. It serves as the origin point for the entire coordinate system. The spatial parameters of every other Palu Astronomican and Monocrystalline Pod are calculated based on its position."
Lino fell into thought:
"In other words, we have to protect it at all costs. If it's destroyed, we risk losing the origin point, which would trigger the collapse of the entire Webway system. Is that right?"
"Yes, Boss. Paderd and I came up with two potential solutions."
Pader brought up a separate holographic screen displaying their concepts:
"The first solution is to anchor it to a celestial body in the material universe that will never disappear. We record its physical coordinates and build the Palu Astronomican in its corresponding location within The Warp.
"The second solution is to find a permanent landscape within The Warp itself, record its Warp coordinates, and build the Palu Astronomican there.
"We can implement both methods simultaneously to create a double failsafe."
A permanent celestial body in realspace.
A permanent landscape in The Warp.
Lino pondered this for only a moment before blurting out,
"Wouldn't the best place to build it be the Eye of Terror, then?"
"Yes, Boss."
Lino took a quiet breath, slowly realizing that a trip to the end times Eye of Terror was inevitable.
The very foundation of the Palu Empire relied on Warp Energy Monocrystals. This meant that the Palu Orks were forever tethered to The Warp.
The Warp could exist without the evil gods of chaos, but The Warp itself had to remain. Otherwise, the Palu Empire would have no way to harvest the energy required to forge Monocrystals.
Since The Warp had to endure forever, the Eye of Terror would naturally persist right alongside it, perfectly satisfying the requirements for the Palu Astronomican.
Moreover, conquering the Eye of Terror was a crucial step in exterminating the chaos gods.
It wasn't hard to conclude that the Eye of Terror was currently a highly contested, must-win territory for the Palu Empire.
"Pull up the galactic map of the end times."
"Right away, Boss."
Pader tapped his controls. Several holographic screens merged to form a sprawling, flat map of the galaxy.
The Great Rift that would emerge in the future had already been plotted on it.
It stretched from the top-left corner down toward the bottom-right, cleaving the galaxy cleanly in two. The Eye of Terror sat right in the middle of this rift, slightly offset toward the upper left.
The Dark Imperium had devolved into a private playground for rubbish things, with hundreds of millions of new rubbish things spawning in the darkness every single day.
To conquer the Eye of Terror, they first had to sever the supply lines feeding the rubbish things in the Dark Imperium, halt their reproduction, and wipe them out entirely.
Then there was the Palu Astronomican. Not only could it relocate Monocrystalline Pods, but it could also function as a standard Astronomican.
Lino narrowed his eyes as an idea took root. He turned to look at Gold Coin, the dean of the Palu Academy, who was sitting nearby:
"What's the progress on the Greenskin Tide project?"
Gold Coin was deep in thought, his face entirely serious.
Hearing the Boss's question, he snapped back to reality. He threw himself to the ground in a grand, full-body prostration before answering:
"Boss, the critical technical hurdles for the Greenskin Tide have been resolved. We've engineered a Mutagenic Spore capable of transmitting itself across fungi, plants, mammals, humies, and humanoid xenos. This spore retains the environmental adaptability of regular Palu spores. In exchange for halving its lifespan, it boasts vastly superior transmission speeds and infection rates..."
As Gold Coin spoke, he pulled out his Dataslate, opened a document, and offered it up to the weirdboy with both hands.
Lino scrolled through the text carefully, his appreciation for this Gretchin scholar—who hailed from the Grot Avengers League—growing by the second.
In layman's terms, the Greenskin Tide project was nothing more than spreading a greenskin plague.
Under the influence of the Mutagenic Spores, the host's genetic sequences would undergo targeted mutations.
Under ideal conditions, the infected would transform into Paru Boyz, Palu Gretchins, or Palu squigs within ten Terran days, achieving a Genetic Purity of roughly 35%. The final form depended entirely on which evolutionary path suited the host best.
Small mammals, like cats and dogs, typically mutated into Palu squigs.
For humies, the odds overwhelmingly favored mutating into Boyz or Gretchins.
Massive brutes like Ogryns would bulk up into robust Paru Boyz, with a Genetic Purity notably higher than other infected types.
The Mutagenic Spores spread through a dizzying variety of vectors.
Non-Psykers contracted the infection through conventional means: air, droplets, blood, and bodily fluids. Meanwhile, if Psykers accidentally brushed against the Palu Shadow while communing with The Warp, they stood a solid chance of catching the contagion.
Immunization and resistance against the Mutagenic Spore proved incredibly difficult.
The genetic ciphers of the Dark Eldar could lock the spores out.
The Wraithbone of the Eldar, the filtration grilles of the Space Marines, and the logic circuits and synthetic skin of the cogboys could also offer a degree of resistance.
At the bottom of the report Gold Coin provided, the Palu Academy laid out a set of predictions regarding the spore's potential.
They theorized:
On Hive City worlds and forge worlds lacking proper medical infrastructure, the infection rate of the Mutagenic Spore would exceed 90%. Furthermore, the moment patient zero appeared, the planet would be completely overrun by Paru Boyz within three months, providing a readymade armed force ready for deployment at a moment's notice.
For the rest of the Imperium's worlds, as well as xenos worlds, death worlds, and worlds controlled by rubbish things, the infection rate varied wildly between 10% and 90%.
Wait, worlds controlled by rubbish things had a 10% infection rate?
Lino paused, mildly surprised, and asked,
"Aren't those worlds completely overrun with rubbish things? How can there be a 10% infection rate?"
Gold Coin pushed up his glasses, the lenses catching the overhead lights in a brilliant, calculated gleam:
"Boss, there's a detail you might not know. That 10% rate comes specifically from the Nurgle rubbish things. The more Nurgle rubbish things there are on a planet, the higher the infection rate. Under the right conditions, it can even hit 90%!"
Nurgle rubbish things were practically walking compost heaps, teeming with fungal and plant matter. Naturally, their susceptibility to the Mutagenic Spore was far higher than that of other rubbish things.
Lino asked,
"So, once the infected Nurgle rubbish things turn into Paru Boyz, will they follow our commands?"
Gold Coin nodded, then quickly shook his head:
"They'll listen to us, but not entirely. Once their Genetic Purity passes 30%, their bodies will obey our orders, but on a spiritual level, they remain tethered to Nurgle. Most infected Nurgle rubbish things exhibit signs of a split personality. They'll try to execute our orders while simultaneously resisting them to follow Nurgle's will."
Lino turned to look at Pader. The Ork immediately understood and gave a slight nod.
"Boss, your hunch is correct. That spiritual tether can be severed by the Palu Shadow. I fink a Palu Astronomican powered by hundreds of millions of Flash Boyz should be able to cut the connection between a planet and Nurgle from hundreds of lightyears away. Once that happens, the Nurgle rubbish things that mutate into Paru Boyz will be entirely yours to command."
Gold Coin added,
"We can use the same method to sever other rubbish things from their masters. The only difference is that their infection rates aren't nearly as high as Nurgle's."
Lino took a deep breath, fighting to keep a lid on his racing thoughts and maintain his composure.
A grand, paved road to conquering the Eye of Terror was slowly rolling out before him.
"Palcador."
"Boss, awaiting your orders."
"Record everything we just discussed. Consolidate it into a formal proposal and hand it over to me. Pader, Paderd, and the Palu Academy will assist you. Name the proposal... Greenskin Tide."
