56: Chapter 56 The Metal Tear of the Gravity Well

The stormclaw's engine roared like a giant beast with a punctured lung struggling in its death throes. The cockpit was filled with the dim red glow of emergency lighting, and hydraulic fluid seeped from cracks, dripping onto the metal floor with a sizzling, corrosive sound. The metallic sweetness of scorched metal mixed with the smell of ozone filled the nostrils. At 60% damage, this Warhammer-era assault craft had become a lame stallion, liable to throw its rider into the abyss at any moment.

"At the end of the vertical shaft, turn right in thirty meters and enter the gravity well landing zone."

THRONE-01's voice vibrated directly in the temporal lobe, the electronic static of the 71% synchronization rate feeling like sandpaper rubbing against the eardrums.

"Warning: The machine spirit is refusing throttle commands. It thirsts for blood."

The end of the passage suddenly opened up.

The gravity well landing zone was a vertical cylindrical space a hundred meters in diameter. The walls were covered with riveted armor plates from the Emperor's era, with rust crawling over the rivets like dried blood. The stormclaw's searchlight swept across the walls, illuminating a metal nameplate half-buried in corrosion.

"Scan that identifier." Lin Yuan's command was brief. His fingers tightened on the control stick, his knuckles turning white.

The scanning beam locked onto the nameplate. On the rusted metal surface, high gothic words were engraved: Ark Protocol - STC Prototype - Seventh Gene Farm.

"Confirmed." THRONE-01's voice suffered a rare stutter, crackling with electrical noise. "The Black Tower is a gene farm left over from the Emperor's era. H-New-076 lead... physically verified."

Lin Yuan's fingertips tightened on the control stick. A farm. Not a laboratory, not a fortress—a farm.

Chen Duo was the crop. He was the weed that had accidentally mixed in.

The searchlight continued to sweep, illuminating the giant gate engraved with the double-headed eagle at the end of the landing zone. The Sowing Pod gate. They had arrived. The end of SP-002's exploration.

But in front of the gate, three-meter-high spherical automated defense sentries were awakening. Optical sensors lit up with a crimson glow. The Purge Main Force was already waiting there.

"How did they know the route?"

THRONE-01 projected a tactical map: twelve Cleanserss distributed around the perimeter, two heavy assault vehicles blocking the exit, and three automated sentries completing the pincer movement. Red threat markers spread like cancer cells.

"Chen Duo's dual-heartbeat frequency in the chest cavity has risen by 40%. THRONE-00 is observing us through him."

A metallic snap came from the back seat. Chen Duo reloaded his laser rifle, his movements precise in a way that didn't belong to a wasteland orphan. His pupils dilated into a non-human pitch black in the dim light, and the edges of his irises glowed with a faint gold, like molten brass.

Lin Yuan saw those eyes in the rearview mirror.

It didn't look like Chen Duo. It was as if something older and colder was peering at the world through his eye sockets.

"Chen Duo, report status."

"I can see the thermal currents of the bullets," Chen Duo's voice was soft, carrying a metallic resonance. "And... those things up there are singing. They're singing about the harvest..."

The automated sentries opened fire.

Armor-piercing rounds exploded in a string of sparks against the stormclaw's frontal armor. Lin Yuan yanked the steering, the damaged hydraulic system letting out a sharp metallic scream. The vehicle performed a suicidal drift in the landing zone, its tracks biting into the ground as it charged toward the gate.

"The machine spirit is refusing maneuver commands!" THRONE-01's alarm was sharp and piercing. "It demands destruction! It wants to drag us to hell with it!"

Lin Yuan bit the tip of his tongue, the taste of blood exploding in his mouth. He forced control of the fire systems, and the twin heavy bolters let out a roar. The 25mm shells tore an automated sentry into burning fragments, and metal shards rained down on the armor.

The Purge Main Force moved.

Soldiers advanced under alternating cover. A rocket streaked past from the left, and the blast wave plunged the cockpit instruments into momentary darkness. In the dark, Lin Yuan heard Chen Duo's breathing change. It became long, heavy, and carried a dual rhythm.

The moment the cockpit lighting returned, Lin Yuan saw that Chen Duo had plugged the neural interface into the weapon's fire control system. His spine was arched backward at an impossible angle, like a bow drawn to its limit.

"Connection complete."

Chen Duo's voice became a dual-tone; one voice belonged to himself, and the other was deeper and more ancient.

"Electromagnetic trap detected. Three o'clock direction, one meter underground. Evasion path: None."

"Why did you interface with the fire control?" Lin Yuan questioned through the neural link, his voice kept extremely low. "You know this will accelerate the gene-seed fusion! The stabilization time will be shortened from 36 hours to 28! You're committing suicide!"

"Because you can't see the trajectories I see."

Chen Duo's dual hearts were pounding wildly, as if two different sets of lungs were competing for the oxygen in the same body. His fingers danced on the fire control sphere, and a pale gold liquid seeped from his fingertips.

"Lin Yuan, you have a blind spot on your left. They'll wait for you to turn. You'll die. Death probability: 98.7%."

Lin Yuan's throat tightened. Rational calculation told him that he now needed Astartes neural reflex speed to operate the heavy bolter point-defense, which would raise the survival rate from 23% to 67%. But his moral squeamishness made his stomach churn, as if someone were clutching his intestines.

"Chen Duo, listen." Lin Yuan sent an apology code through the link, his voice hoarse. "I will record this as an involuntary sacrifice. Military Log Article 47. This is not an order; it's a request. If you refuse..."

"I accept." Chen Duo's hands were on the fire control sphere, his knuckles white from the force. "Don't apologize. Write in the log... that I was willing. Write that... I wanted to protect my brother."

The heavy bolters suddenly came to life.

Chen Duo's control was a beast's instinct. The trajectories wove into a net of death, blowing two diving automated sentries out of the air. Metal fragments burned under the searchlights like a meteor shower of steel.

But Chen Duo's body was paying the price.

Golden liquid seeped from his nostrils, dripping onto his breastplate. On his retina, THRONE-00's perspective was forcibly overlaid. He could see every weakness on the battlefield, every trajectory, and the pulse of every soldier's carotid artery. That perspective was too cold, too efficient, and too unlike a human's.

"Left side, elevation twenty-seven degrees, wind speed three." Chen Duo's voice was devoid of emotion, like a precision killing machine. "Target: Cleansers sniper. Threat level: Lethal. Suggestion: Immediate elimination."

Lin Yuan ducked. An armor-piercing round grazed his scalp and pierced the rear of the cockpit, the heat singeing the skin on the back of his neck.

Meanwhile, the heavy bolter controlled by Chen Duo had already turned, blasting the sniper three hundred meters away into a mist of blood.

Immersed in THRONE-00's perspective, Chen Duo felt his own heart being assimilated by the alien heartbeat. That sound was like a drum, like thunder, like the footsteps of some giant beast. He counted his own heartbeats; they were the only anchor points proving he was still himself.

720th heartbeat.

He looked at Lin Yuan as if looking at tactical coordinates. Protect this coordinate, as it is a necessary factor for mission success. Emotion is noise, filtered out. Lin Yuan was just a number, a variable, a tool to achieve an end.

900th heartbeat.

Chen Duo saw the blind spot exposed when Lin Yuan maneuvered the stormclaw to avoid the electromagnetic trap. The Cleansers anti-vehicle rifle had already locked onto that dead angle. Ballistic calculation complete. If he didn't intervene, Lin Yuan's death probability was 98.7%.

1080th heartbeat.

Chen Duo remembered the half-piece of compressed biscuit Lin Yuan had given him in the ruins. He remembered the sentence, "I will record this as an involuntary sacrifice." Those memories were flagged as "non-essential emotional data" by THRONE-00's perspective, and were being deleted, formatted, and turned into blanks.

No.

Chen Duo bit through his tongue, the sharp pain splitting his mind like lightning. Blood mixed with golden liquid sprayed onto the fire control panel, splashing a jarring red. He forced himself to count out the last ten seconds of heartbeats, using the pain as an anchor, tearing away the dual-heartbeat link like ripping open a sticky wound.

"I don't... need... you..."

Agony exploded in his optic nerves. Chen Duo screamed, covering his eyes with both hands as blood gushed from between his fingers and dripped onto his legs. He was temporarily blinded. The world became pure darkness and pain.

"Chen Duo!" Lin Yuan roared, his voice carrying a rare note of panic.

"I'm okay..." Chen Duo panted, his voice returning to his own, weak but real. "I can't see for now. But I can still hear. Lin Yuan, ahead! Electromagnetic trap! Three o'clock! Underground!"

It was too late.

The stormclaw's right track rolled over that area. An inductive electromagnetic mine erupted in a blinding blue light, instantly short-circuiting all of the vehicle's electronic systems. The engine let out a dying cough and stalled. The hydraulic system was completely paralyzed, letting out a hiss of depressurization. The right track broke into several sections, lying on the ground like a dead snake.

The stormclaw was completely paralyzed fifteen meters in front of the Sowing Pod gate, becoming a stationary steel turret. The machine spirit let out a deathbed roar, the reactor temperature soared, and the warning lights flashed frantically; it could self-destruct at any moment.

"Engine stalled. Track broken. Machine spirit in deathbed frenzy." THRONE-01's voice was intermittent, its synchronization rate dropping to the 71% critical point like a broken radio. "Lin Yuan, the machine spirit is going to self-destruct. Need... Machine Spirit Placation Protocol... but the protocol is inside the memory seal... unlocking may expose..."

Lin Yuan smashed open the cockpit canopy. The sharp sound of twisting metal stung his eardrums. The Purge Main Force was regrouping its formation, cautiously surrounding them, the sound of boots rubbing against the ground sounding like sandpaper grinding bone.

"Unlock it," Lin Yuan ordered, his voice cold and hard. "Whatever the cost."

THRONE-01 was silent for a second. It was the longest second of its existence as an AI. Lin Yuan could hear the hum of its core processor overloading.

"Unlocking."

A painful noise of data streams swept through Lin Yuan's temporal lobe, like millions of steel needles stabbing into his brain. THRONE-01's core protocol trembled, and the memory seal cracked open a sliver. 0.3 seconds of fragments leaked out.

On a Golden Throne, twelve STCs were arranged, overlapping and flickering like imaginary projections. Ancient knowledge, forbidden truths, the deepest secrets of the Adeptus Mechanicus.

"Warning: Memory pollution." THRONE-01 immediately forced a disconnection, its voice hoarse and filled with synthesized electronic pain. "That was the Prototype Array... an imaginary projection... not a physical entity... protocol has been invoked."

The stormclaw's engine roar suddenly subsided, like a beast being strangled. The machine spirit was placated by ancient Adeptus Mechanicus code and fell into a slumber; the self-destruct crisis was resolved. But the vehicle was completely paralyzed—tracks broken, engine dead, unable to move.

Lin Yuan jumped off the craft, his boots hitting the metal floor. He turned and grabbed Chen Duo's wrist. The wrist was covered with golden veins, the skin terrifyingly hot, and two intersecting rhythms of pulses were throbbing under the skin, one of which was weakening.

"The pulse is still there." Lin Yuan's voice was very low, his fingers tightening on Chen Duo's wrist with enough force to almost crush the bone. This was the first time he had actively touched another person's skin on the wasteland, breaking his habitual emotional isolation. "Can you walk?"

Chen Duo's blind eyes faced Lin Yuan's direction blankly, his pupils dilated, but a smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.

"I can walk... brother."

That word made Lin Yuan's fingers pause for a moment. For the first time, Chen Duo had called him "brother" instead of "Commander."

"THRONE-01, scan that door." Lin Yuan raised his laser rifle, pointing it at the approaching Cleanserss, his aim as steady as a mountain.

The system's response was delayed by two seconds, as if it were still recovering from the shock of the memory leak.

"Scan complete." THRONE-01's voice was weak, as if it had exhausted its energy. "Biological lock. Requires the blood fusion of Twin Gene holders. Lin Yuan, you have Chen Duo's homologous blood in your body. Chen Duo has his own blood. The gate requires the mixture of both your blood. This is the key. H-New-077 confirmed... the dual heartbeat is THRONE-00's real-time observation window... after Chen Duo cut the link... the window is temporarily closed..."

Lin Yuan's breath hitched. Number Zero never intended to kill Chen Duo directly. Chen Duo was a living key. They were the crops, the soil, the sacrifices to open a new world.

Before them, on the Sowing Pod gate engraved with the double-headed eagle emblem, the biometric lock was lighting up with a crimson glow. A broadcast voice came through; Number Zero's voice was gentle, carrying the benevolent tone of a farm owner:

"Welcome to the farm, my Twin Vessels. Join us. Become the soil of the new world. You have proven your qualifications; now, shed your blood. Or, die here and become fertilizer for the old world."

The Purge Main Force's perimeter closed in to fifty meters. The stormclaw's machine spirit let out a low rumble; although it was no longer self-destructing, the reactor was still leaking radiation, emitting a dangerous hum.

Lin Yuan stood in front of Chen Duo, his back to the gate, his rifle aimed at the approaching shadows. His other hand gripped Chen Duo's wrist, not letting go, his knuckles white from the effort.

"Log entry." Lin Yuan said in the neural link, his voice calm. "Article 47. Involuntary sacrifice, point one. We found the door. But opening it requires blood. Our blood."

Chen Duo's blind eyes faced the sky, and he smiled. Golden blood slid from the corners of his eyes like molten metal.

"Then... give them blood," he said, his voice soft but firm. "But it has to be our way. Not as soil, but as the ones who open the door."

In the stormclaw's engine bay, the machine spirit let out a final roar like a sigh—as if in reluctance, yet also in approval—and fell completely silent. Only the ticking of the radiation counter remained, exceptionally clear in the dead silence of the landing zone.