20demayo Chapter 89 So, you're called Kaka?
Chapter 89 So, you're called Kaka?
Chapter 89 So your name is Kaka? (4K6 Complete)
They're all done killing.
Andy lifted his leg and stepped over Deacon Kaka's head.
The head was shattered, and a layer of red and white matter covered the carpet.
Just a few dozen minutes ago, this deacon was sitting elegantly in that expensive office chair covered with human skin, holding a glass of red wine, trying to talk to Andy about "cooperation agreements," "technology sharing," and "talent retention" in that arrogant, riddle-like tone typical of superiors.
Now, he doesn't need to talk about it anymore.
Bauer and Roger were huddled in a corner of the office. They weren't seriously injured, but they were quite frightened.
They were simply following Andy's instructions, taking the list he gave them, and going to the black market to buy up goods.
As soon as they entered the so-called "free trade zone," they were surrounded by a group of thugs wearing exoskeletons and carrying explosive guns. They were quickly subdued and killed by the heavily armed guards accompanying them, and then the two of them were hooded and brought here.
Instead of beating them, these people treated them well, showed them many alien technology blueprints they had never seen before, and tried to poach these two key technical personnel from Andy.
This method is actually very clever and much more effective than directly using torture to extract confessions.
Unfortunately, they miscalculated one thing.
They underestimated Andy's tolerance for "technicians being kidnapped." They simply didn't understand how sacred and inviolable the concepts of "technology" and "productivity" were in the logic of an engineering genius.
In this universe, there are many forces that you shouldn't mess with.
For example, the Tribunal, and the Astartes.
In the port of call, there is a name that is considered taboo by many: "Casbari Cassidy".
This gang isn't the kind that just collects protection money and engages in street brawls.
They are a registered and legitimate commercial organization in the official imperial archives, holding "letters of marque" issued by the empire, and possessing the privilege of conducting trade, providing armed escort, and even colonizing the Colonus expansion area.
Behind them stood certain high-ranking nobles of the Calissis Sector.
In other words, they are the black gloves who do the dirty work for those big shots, the "semi-official" administrators of this chaotic star system.
Under normal circumstances, even traveling merchants and wandering travelers would be treated with respect at the port of call and would only dare to unload their goods after paying all the taxes.
Because touching them is tantamount to touching the purse strings of the entire star sector's bureaucracy.
But Andy didn't care.
No matter who's behind you, if you dare to touch my people or my productivity, you're hindering my farming endeavors and murdering my future!
Andy's approach to this behavior was simple.
There was no negotiation process.
Andy, leading the Storm Squad and fifty heavily armed guards, stormed straight through the gates of their headquarters.
The sounds of high-explosive crossbows exploding and hellfire guns sizzling lasted for about thirty minutes.
This commercial fortress, touted as the safest and most heavily defended in the entire port, was pushed from the first floor to the top floor.
Kaka's armed forces are positioned as a combination of security and gang warfare. Their equipment is quite sophisticated, making them perfectly capable of suppressing riots, deterring pirates, and confronting gangs of similar size.
However, judging from the results, they were not always prepared to fight a high-intensity conventional military war.
So you're called Kaka, right? So you're the riddle teller, right?
I hate riddle tellers!
"Alright, it's all done."
Andy walked up to Bauer and Roger and reached out to help them up.
"As long as no one is missing an arm or a leg, that's fine. Let's get to work. Come on, let's open the door to that vault."
"Since we're already here, we can't go back empty-handed."
Bauer sniffed, looked at the corpses scattered on the ground, and instantly regained his composure.
"Coming right away!"
Kaka's vault door was made of a high-strength composite material that could withstand the bombardment of a macro cannon.
But the door held up for less than three minutes in the face of the molten metal bomb that Andy brought.
"Bang!"
The heavy door collapsed, revealing the space behind it—a huge, temperature- and humidity-controlled underground warehouse.
But rather than a warehouse, it's more like an exhibition hall of alien technology.
The shelves were filled with all sorts of oddly shaped items that emitted an eerie glow; these were the core assets of the "Frozen Trade."
In the legal system of the human empire, any contact with, trade with, or even possession of alien objects is an absolute capital offense, known as "alien defilement."
However, when faced with interests, the law often becomes flexible.
Especially in the gray areas of ports on the fringes of the empire, the trade in exotic artifacts not only existed, but was also on a massive scale.
The name "condensation" has two meanings.
First, these items were mostly taken from cold, abandoned spaceships, lifeless alien tombs, or recently deceased alien corpses, carrying a chilling aura from the void.
Secondly, this is a shady business. The goods must be kept "refrigerated" to avoid being discovered by the authorities. Once exposed, all those involved will immediately become corpses and be completely "out of the game."
The profits here are frighteningly high. A small Eldar trinket can be exchanged for a batch of fine gold once it reaches the hands of a noble in the Nest City.
Andy walked into the warehouse, and the electronic eyes began scanning him frantically.
The first thing he noticed was the row of display cases at the entrance.
The cabinet contained dozens of small items that looked like rings, necklaces, or brooches.
They are made with extremely fine craftsmanship, and their surfaces are covered with intricate micro-circuit patterns.
[Item Scan: Joka Digital Weapon.]
[Evaluation: A masterpiece of miniaturization engineering.]
Don't be fooled by their appearance; they are not jewelry.
This is a miniature weapon made by an alien race called the "Joca ape".
Those gorillas are natural mechanical geniuses; they can fit high-powered laser emitters, thermal melts, and even fusion shield fields into a tiny ring.
Within the imperial aristocracy, this was the ultimate self-defense weapon, and also a symbol of status and power.
Imagine you're shaking hands with someone at a banquet, and they suddenly move their finger, and your head is vaporized by a jet of hot liquid—how exciting!
Andy picked up a ring and weighed it in his hand.
He wasn't interested in the thing's destructive power.
That's about the power it has. It might be okay to hit an enemy who isn't wearing armor, but it's just a tickle to a regular army.
What he values is the battery technology inside.
The ability to pack enough energy to generate a thermal jet into such a small volume is exactly what Andy urgently needs.
If we can reverse engineer it and apply it to our own engineering drones, the battery life could be increased at least tenfold.
"Pack it all up, take it all with you."
Andy tossed the ring into the box behind him and continued walking inside.
The deeper you go, the larger the objects become.
Soon, Andy stopped in front of a huge machine that looked like a twisted black hourglass.
This thing was at least two stories high, and the surrounding air seemed to be distorted. When Andy got close to it, he even felt a slight error in his internal clock.
[Item Scan: Hrud Time Entropy Increase Generator (Damaged).]
[Evaluation: Hazardous equipment involving a time dimension.]
In the Warhammer universe, when Xenomorph technology is mentioned, many people's first thought is Big Mac.
But in reality, the most valuable components are often the "condensing facilities".
This refers to large-scale equipment used for production, maintenance, and environmental modification.
For example, this huge thing in front of us is a creation of the Hruds.
The Hruds are alien beings that live in time rifts. They possess a property called an "entropy field," which accelerates the flow of time around them.
This machine is a man-made entropy-increasing field generator. Once activated, it can cause the materials within its coverage area to age and decay rapidly.
Even the hardest steel will rust into dust within minutes under its radiation.
The Hruds typically used it as a weapon or to speed up certain incubation processes that required a long time to complete.
Andy looked at the machine; its logic core was running at high speed.
Using it as a weapon? What a waste!
This stuff is perfect for use as an industrial catalyst!
Some special alloy materials require decades of natural aging treatment to eliminate internal stress, and the fermentation process of some high-energy fuels also takes several months.
With this, Andy can finish in just a few minutes!
This is a farming marvel!
"This is a valuable item, please be careful not to bump or damage it."
Andy gave a special instruction to the heavily armed guards behind him.
"Disassemble its core components and take them back for testing."
Keep going.
In the corner of the warehouse, there was a pile of white, bone-like objects that felt warm and smooth to the touch, yet had a metallic texture.
These items were not scattered haphazardly, but were neatly cut into the shapes of boards and pipes.
[Item Scan: Spirit Race Netherworld Bone.]
[Evaluation: Psionic conductive material, subspace resonance matrix.]
This is an old friend of theirs; their tech tree is entirely focused on psionic technology.
The Netherworld Bone is not a naturally grown bone, but a physical substance "sung" out of nothingness by the Bone Singers of the Spirit Race using subspace energy.
It is a skeleton, a plastic, and a metal.
It possesses extremely strong self-repairing abilities and is a perfect conductor of psionic energy.
To the Cult of Mechanics, this is absolutely heretical material, because it was made through warp magic and is tainted with the scent of souls.
Any orthodox priest who sees this will scream and demand its immediate destruction.
But in Andy's STC database, there is a complete set of plans for "inertization of psionic materials".
Once processed with special physical methods to remove its psionic activity, this substance becomes an excellent raw material for creating advanced neural interfaces and psionic interference-resistant shields.
Andy's current exoskeleton lacks a neural interface and relies solely on hydraulic sensing because it lacks this highly sensitive conductive material.
With this pile of Netherworld Bones, Andy could create a true "Power Armor Nerve Bundle".
Many people wonder why human STCs are compatible with alien materials.
The technological concepts of humanity in the Golden Age were vastly different from those of the Empire.
That was the most glorious and arrogant era in human history. In the eyes of people in that era, everything in the universe was a resource.
They don't care about anything sacred, nor are they afraid of anything blasphemous.
If it works, then use it!
The original design of STC was to enable colonists to survive in any environment and using any available resources.
Therefore, in the underlying logic of the black box, there is no concept of "heresy" at all, only "good materials" and "bad materials".
Mental burden? Not at all!
"Pack it all up, pack it all up!" Andy waved his hand.
Besides these, there are many other good things in the warehouse.
For example, several damaged Titanium Drones.
Although it was blown to pieces, the anti-gravity lens and the core of the deflector shield generator inside are still intact.
Although the Titans started their technology late, they are indeed skilled in plasma and shield miniaturization.
Andy plans to reverse engineer this technology to upgrade his drone.
The current Raptors are powerful, but too fragile; they'll shatter after being hit by a single explosive shell.
If you can equip Titanium's deflector shield, your survivability will be improved by several levels.
Finally, Andy found a black fragment in a cabinet sealed with a static field.
The surface of the fragment was as smooth as a mirror, yet it did not reflect light, as if it could devour the surrounding light.
[Item Scan: Blackstone Fragment (Possibly a relic of the Fearful Dead).]
[Evaluation: Extremely dangerous, anti-subspace properties.]
Andy's hand froze in mid-air.
Black Stone.
This is a true weapon of mass destruction; it can seal the subspace and also amplify it.
The obelisk over there in Cadia was made from this thing.
The fact that this thing is here shows that Kaka's reach is indeed quite far, and he may have even come into contact with some relics that he shouldn't have.
Andy didn't dare to take it directly with his hands, but instead had the guards move the entire stasis chamber away.
He can't use this thing right now, nor can he modify it, but he'll keep it as a trump card to use against psionicists in the future.
An hour later.
The underground vault, once filled with priceless treasures, is now cleaner than Andy's face.
Andy even had the shelves dismantled because they were made of high-strength alloy, which could be melted down and used to make bullets.
Andy stood in the middle of the empty warehouse, looking at the mess, and nodded in satisfaction.
This wave of "harvesting" propelled his tech tree progress bar forward by a significant margin.
It has solved four major challenges: micro-energy, industrial catalysis, neural materials, and individual soldier shields.
The combat power of the new ship will experience a qualitative leap after this digestion and absorption.
Andy walked out of the vault and returned to his office on the top floor.
Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.
Sisyphus had already arrived and, seeing Andy come out, excitedly went to greet him.
"Andy, that's incredible!"
"Kaka is really gone! Oh my god, their entire armed forces have collapsed!"
"The entire port is in chaos right now. The other dukes are all watching and no one dares to make a move."
"Should we take this opportunity to seize the territory?"
A glint of ambition flashed in Sisyphus's eyes.
To replace Kaka and become the new king of the port is the ultimate dream of any merchant.
But Andy shook his head.
"No," Andy replied, "We don't need to take up territory; it's too much trouble."
"Once you occupy a territory, you have to take charge, maintain order, deal with imperial officials, and guard against attacks from other gangs."
"We don't have the time or the energy. The power vacuum here is actually a good thing."
In this dark universe, order often means constraint.
If Andy really does get to the position of "Grand Duke," he will become the first to rise to power. Merchants and ronin will come to him, the Inquisition will come to him, and the Imperial Navy will come to him.
But what if it's chaos?
In the chaos, no one cares what a ship is doing or who has bought any contraband.
What Andy wanted was a chaotic, free market, not a well-ordered haven.
"Sisyphus, listen up."
Andy gave the final strategic instructions.
"You don't need to be a grand duke, you just need to be a good merchant."
"Tell those people outside: we welcome anyone who wants to do business, but we don't care who wants to take over our territory."
"But there's only one."
Andy held up one finger.
"I have the right of first refusal to acquire all the non-standard technologies and condensation facilities in the future port."
"Anyone who dares to sell what I want to others, or hide it from me, will be in trouble."
Andy pointed to the corpse of the senior deacon at his feet.
"This is what happens."
Sisyphus paused for a moment, then understood what Andy meant.
They take no responsibility, only enjoy the rights.
As long as the highest-end supply is controlled, it doesn't matter who is the apparent boss.
"Understood." Sisyphus nodded respectfully. "I will pass on the message."
Andy nodded and strode outside.
"Let's go, back to the ship."
"Oh, by the way, do you have any deep-sky star maps?"