Chapter 13: Damn! It’s too big! It’ll crack!

Distant sunlight reached the asteroid belt as hazy halos.

A shattered Lunar-class cruiser drifted in shadows.

Hull ravaged by weapons—crew corpses and debris glittered faintly.

Suddenly, shadow eclipsed light.

Another Lunar-class emerged from the belt.

Approached the wreck—tentacles snared it.

Hundreds of worker bees swarmed from bio-hives, gathering floating bodies and materials.

Tyranid bio-forms boarded via organs, scavenging bio-mass.

“Hehehe, jackpot.”

Virtual pod: white-haired loli wiggled pale feet, smug.

Chen Xing calculated.

Lunar-class crew: ~50,000.

Rogue trader mods: up to 100,000+.

This one Navy-grade.

Bow torpedo tubes removed for cargo holds—trader mod.

But holds mostly looted.

Damage: mostly energy weapons.

Engines pulverized—pro pirate work.

Herkes complex—Tyranids, Chaos too.

Orks out—too sloppy for engine-targeting.

Eldar/Dark Eldar out—no shuriken scars.

Left: Chaos reavers or mundane pirates—looted cargo.

Hope they don’t return.

Phew~

Chen Xing flipped, silver hair floating.

Felt growth—chest budding?

Hull growth mirrored avatar development.

Future curves—lips curled, “ehehehe” lewd giggle.

[Host, you okay?]

“Nothing,” Chen Xing righted. “System, scan ship for goodies.”

System: subway elder phone.jpg

[Host, I’m female-frequency system—not personal AI.]

“Hehe,” Chen Xing smiled. “Warp drive salvage—maybe graft to my hull.”

[Warp drive!]

System energized.

With Navigator, transplant drive—warp travel possible.

Safe Mandeville exit from danger.

Disguise infiltration safer systems—energy easier.

Hours later, tentacles tore adamantium deck and keel.

Exposed: colossal machine.

1 km long, 300m diameter!

Lunar-class warp drive.

Complex, vast—Dark Age ideal and hubris.

Human galactic conquest cornerstone.

“No no, too big!” Chen Xing head-shook. “Stuffing this in—I’ll break!”

[Host, relax body—might fit.]

“No,” Chen Xing refused. “Too big! Force it—I’ll shatter!”

1km core alone—plus peripherals.

Full function: rebuild reactor arrays, auxiliaries.

Might reshape to Lunar—hive ship to Gothic fleet? No.

Radical surgery—impractical.

Wait… external mount?

Idea nixed.

Warp mid-journey drop? Exposed sans armor—weak point.

Explosion—game over.

“System bro, analyze warp tech?”

[Impossible. Nope. Forget.]

System triple-denied.

Chen Xing eyed disassembling drive—intact, pity to waste.

“Got it,” mind flashed. “Onyx, find tech-priest corpses for engine maintenance. Extract memories—grasp principle, maybe grow my own.”

(Honored Lord, understood. Searching, extracting.)

Sparking decks: zoanthrope floated, psionic field radiating.

Eyed ripper-devoured crew.

Synaptic orders: find tech-priests, bring!

Moments: warriors dragged red-robed cyborg corpses.

Tendril pierced mech-brain, memory extraction.

Flood of data—Onyx dazed.

Priests clueless on function!

Daily: bizarre rituals, holy oil, binary prayers to Omnissiah.

Startup: subsystem ops—how? Unknown!

Key clue: all built via STC templates.

Dark Age AI-driven database—all peak human blueprints.

Input resources/demands—STC outputs custom plans.

No user tech knowledge needed.

In 40K, Mechanicus with STC built blindly.