98: Chapter 98: Evidence of the Design and the Three-Way Deadlock

The roar of the drill echoed through twelve meters of rock, sounding like the grinding teeth of some massive beast.

Lin Yuan stared at the flashing red countdown on the hatch: 47 seconds. The grooves of the biological lock emitted a faint blue glow in the dim tunnel, their surfaces coated in thirty-year-old condensation that felt like a creature's tongue. The scar tissue in his right palm throbbed with heat, a lingering sensation from the last time he had manually welded a neural stabilization neck ring.

"48 seconds," Camilla's voice came from behind him as bio-electric chains crackled faintly between her fingers. "Your heart rate just jumped from 72 to 98. What are you afraid of?"

Lin Yuan didn't look back. He wasn't afraid of Kane's drilling machines or the concrete debris peeling off the ceiling; he was afraid of the fact about to be confirmed—whether 'Lin Yuan' was a person's name or a laboratory serial number.

He pressed his palm into the biological lock.

Six micro-probes immediately shot out from the edges of the groove, piercing the surface of his skin and precision-hooking into his subcutaneous nerve plexus. There was no pain, only a bizarre suction, as if the metal were tasting his blood. Lin Yuan gritted his teeth, tasting the tang of rust.

[PROJECT: IRON-FATHOM Genetic Authentication Initiated]

[Match Rate: 97.3%... 98.1%... 99.7%]

[Confirmed: 07th Generation Primarch, Batch XX-7-0007, Legion Commander-level Authorization Unlocked]

A cold white stream of data exploded across his retinal projection. Lin Yuan felt his stomach cramp—it wasn't fear, but a deeper sort of nausea. His body recognized this facility, his genes were cheering, but his consciousness was vomiting. The concept of 'self' he had built over thirty years shattered like cheap glass before the number 99.7%.

The hatch hissed as air pressure was released, and the black-and-yellow warning stripes slid to either side, revealing the main hall within.

"Get in," Lin Yuan's voice was drier than he expected. "Quickly."

The moment Camilla dragged DORN-00 across the threshold, Lin Yuan glanced back at the end of the tunnel. The drill's vibration frequency had changed from a low-frequency grind to high-frequency impact; they were using sonic bits and would penetrate the final layer of support rock within 45 seconds.

The interior of the main hall was colder than anticipated, the minus-ten-degree air cutting through his lungs like a knife. Lin Yuan's breath condensed into white mist, and the first thing he noticed were the walls.

They weren't metal; they were glass.

The perimeter of the circular hall was embedded with cryo-pods, each two meters tall and cylindrical, covered in thick white frost. Lin Yuan approached the nearest one, wiping away the ice crystals with his sleeve to see a person lying inside.

A man.

The same cheekbone height, the same jawline, the same short black hair. The only difference was that this corpse had a bullet hole through the center of its brow, whereas Lin Yuan did not.

"The... 01st Generation," Lin Yuan heard his own voice trembling. He forced himself to keep moving. "02... 03... 04..."

Six. A total of six cryo-pods were lined up on the west side of the hall, like some grotesque family tree. Every face was his face, just older, or younger, or bearing different scars. The 06th Generation's chest had been burned through by some high-energy weapon, while the 05th Generation appeared to have died of natural causes within the pod.

Camilla's bio-electric perception flooded the hall like a tide. Lin Yuan felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up—it wasn't static, but a sign that Camilla had dialed her perception to the highest setting. He could imagine the scene she "saw" now: six dead Primarchs plus a standing, heavy-breathing 07th Generation, appearing in her bio-electric vision like seven ghosts resonating at the same frequency.

"What exactly are you?" Camilla's voice was soft, but every word was like a nail being driven into wood. "You aren't human. You're... a weapon prototype."

Her chains unfurled silently, shifting from a defensive posture to a pre-loaded attack mode. Silver-white arcs of electricity leapt between the links, ready to burn through Lin Yuan's brainstem at any moment.

"I am Lin Yuan." He turned around, facing Camilla and his own reflections on the glass of the six cryo-pods. "I gave myself this name. No matter what workshop this body rolled out of, the consciousness is mine."

"What if THRONE-01 can control you remotely?" Camilla took a step forward, bio-electricity forming tiny lightning bolts in her pupils. "What if that 99.7% match rate means you're just an interface?"

"Then I'll burn through my own spinal cord first." Lin Yuan pulled a laser cutter from his waist and pressed it against the vertebrae of his neck. "But right now, we need this place's armory. If you want to kill me, it can wait until we're out."

DORN-00 suddenly let out a muffled groan.

The soldier, composed of fragments of fear and rage, fell to his knees, clutching his helmet with both hands. Dark red coolant leaked from the gaps in his armor—a side effect of neural burning.

"This soldier... sees..." DORN-00's voice was intermittent as fragments of an adjutant's memory hammered his consciousness. "These pods... I've seen them... in... in the shipyard..."

"What shipyard?" Lin Yuan knelt down and grabbed DORN-00's shoulder guard.

"Great Crusade... Seventh... Seventh Legion..." DORN-00 looked up, the gaze beneath his visor confused and pained. "They created you... not to lead... but to replace... when the Legion Commander fails..."

Lin Yuan felt his blood turn cold. He looked at the six corpses and suddenly understood the meaning of the "execution list." They hadn't died of illness; they were executed after being deemed "failures." And he, the 07th Generation, was the latest and final experimental subject.

"The terminal is over there." Camilla suddenly pointed toward the center of the hall, her bio-electric perception catching an energy fluctuation. "And... something is moving on it."

Lin Yuan rushed toward the central console. It was a black hexagonal prism engraved with runes of the same origin as the stc system. When he pressed his palm against it, the lights of the entire hall instantly shifted from pale white to dark red.

[STC Black Box - Basic Authorization Unlocked]

[Warning: Facility Defense Protocol Activated]

[Unauthorized Intruders Detected - Shaft Direction]

[Automated Defense System Initiated]

The roar of mechanical operation echoed from within the walls as dozens of turrets descended from the ceiling, aiming at the hall's only entrance—the hatch they had just passed through. Simultaneously, a list unfurled in Lin Yuan's retinal projection:

PROJECT: IRON-FATHOM Execution Records

01st Generation: Emotion Module Overload, executed at M2.023

02nd Generation: Genetic Collapse, executed at M2.025

03rd Generation: Ethical Rebellion, executed at M2.027

04th Generation: Resonance Out of Control, executed at M2.029

05th Generation: Natural Aging, executed at M2.031

06th Generation: Order Betrayal, executed at M2.033

07th Generation: Status Monitoring...

Lin Yuan stared at the words "Status Monitoring," feeling an absurd chill. He wasn't a survivor; he was inventory. If deemed a failure, he would become the seventh corpse in Sector B-07 at any moment.

"They've broken through!" Camilla's scream coincided with the sound of an explosion.

The tunnel outside the hatch suffered a violent collapse, but it wasn't natural; it was a directional demolition. Kane's forces had finally breached the last rock wall, and instead of rushing in immediately, they threw in three black cylinders first.

"Grenades!" Lin Yuan lunged toward Camilla and DORN-00, pinning them down behind the console.

The explosion produced no shrapnel, instead releasing a ripple of dark red energy. The moment the ripple swept through Lin Yuan's body, he felt his entire Genetic Resonance scream, as if every cell were being pulled by invisible hooks. It was a weapon specifically designed for the biological signatures of Project Iron-Fathom: an Anti-Genetic Resonance Grenade.

"Target confirmed... 07th Generation live subject..." a mechanized shout echoed from the tunnel. "Capture is priority, death is secondary."

Lying on the ground, Lin Yuan watched the dark red ripples dissipate in the air. He understood now—Kane's troops weren't just here to destroy the facility; they were here to take him. Or rather, to take "it," the 07th Generation Primarch, a precious and replaceable tool of war.

The turrets opened fire.

High-energy laser beams pierced the hatch, shredding the vanguard at the tunnel mouth. But more footsteps approached from the shaft, mixed with the hydraulic sounds of heavy armor. The facility's defense system and Kane's troops met at the entrance of the main hall, lasers and live rounds intersecting in the narrow space to form a deadly crossfire.

Camilla pressed against the side of the console, her bio-electric chains already wrapped around Lin Yuan's neck—not to strangle, but to secure him.

"Listen," she shouted through the gaps in the explosions, her voice nearly drowned out by the gunfire. "If you turn into an interface for THRONE-01, I'll burn through your brainstem first! Until then, we are armed allies!"

Lin Yuan tore open his collar, exposing the skin under his neck ring. He looked at the flickering energy readings on the console screen; the STC Black Box needed more power to unlock the Astartes Prototype Modification Pod, and the hall's backup reactor was at only 12% output.

"You want energy?" Lin Yuan pointed toward the tunnel entrance, where a Kane armored soldier was carrying a portable reactor, preparing to breach. "Take theirs."

DORN-00 stood up. With 49% genetic coverage, he had picked up a dropped Chainsword. The hum of the sword starting up mingled with the sound of the turrets firing.

"This soldier..." DORN-00 looked at Lin Yuan, then at the six cryo-pods. "Doesn't want to become like that."

"Then don't become like that." Lin Yuan pulled a bolter pistol from under the console and checked the magazine. "We are design objects, but we can choose what we fight for."

He stood up, aiming at the armored soldier carrying the reactor through the gaps in the laser fire. At the center of the three-way melee, Lin Yuan pulled the trigger.

The bolt shell left the barrel, drawing a burning trajectory through the air as it flew precisely toward its target.