Black Box Fabricator

Helping the Waste Mine Society establish production capabilities was something Gu Hang had planned from the very beginning.

Gu Hang had no interest in the meager mineral output of the Waste Mine Society; these people struggled just to feed themselves, so where would any surplus value come from?

Only by developing them could Gu Hang achieve his goals.

And Gu Hang's goals were by no means as simple as just getting these people to pay taxes. He wanted to build the entire planet into a more prosperous place; he needed more troops, more weaponry and equipment, and a greater material foundation...

The Waste Mine Society was a starting point, but it was also an important model. If he succeeded, he intended to replicate similar models continuously.

But first, he had to make this model work.

Originally, his plan was to rely on the Quintet, the starship floating in the sky.

When Gu Hang departed from the Pegasus Sector capital to serve as the governor of Nuxiao Planet, he certainly didn't arrive alone. He was one of the core members of the contemporary Gu Family, and the Gu Family was a long-standing political dynasty in the Pegasus Sector.

The Quintet, a Watchman-class Strike Cruiser belonging to the Imperial Navy of the Pegasus Sector, had carried him all the way from the sector capital.

After completing the mission of escorting the governor, the Quintet did not depart. It would remain in orbit around Nuxiao Planet for a two-year mission. It would obey the governor's orders, serving as the strongest backing for his efforts to revive the entire planet.

Only Gu Hang enjoyed such treatment; the previous few governors had been dismissed with just a single frigate.

Theoretically, with the Quintet floating in orbit, Gu Hang could walk sideways across Nuxiao Planet without fear. On the wasteland, nothing existed that could threaten the Quintet. Conversely, the Quintet could conduct terrifying orbital bombardments on any location on the planet's surface.

At the same time, the Quintet could provide Gu Hang with tremendous help in other areas.

This eleven-kilometer-long starship was equipped with a crew of over one hundred thousand. Among them were Servitors, slaves, combat personnel, technicians, elite marines, mechanics, psykers...

All kinds of people performed different functions.

In a sense, such a massive ship was like a city drifting in the sky.

The crew was primarily replenished by drafts from various planets, but because space travel was so long and opportunities to leave were rare, many crew members were simply the offspring of those who had coupled on the ship. They were likely born on the starship, died on the starship, and never left it in their entire lives.

This massive sky-city could provide Gu Hang with many things. The three thousand servants, three hundred Servitor soldiers, and thirty marines he started with were all brought down from the starship.

He had originally intended to source the requirements for building up the Waste Mine Society from the sky as well.

The Quintet could provide manpower and weaponry. When Gu Hang said he would select one hundred soldiers from the Waste Mine Society and arm them, he wasn't just talking nonsense. He planned to get the ammunition from the starship.

However, some of the production equipment in his plan was not easy to obtain. He had originally intended to get it from Revival City; after all, he was the planetary governor and the head of the Nuxiao Planet Alliance. Even if his actual control over the Alliance was insufficient, there were always ways to fleece them.

But now, it seemed that wouldn't be necessary.

The [Technology] function of the system provided things far more powerful than anything he could get by fleecing the Alliance.

Without a second thought, he called Patel over and told him about the plan to launch a production line, which thrilled the leader of the Waste Mine Society.

After sending Patel away, Gu Hang left the Waste Mine Society and headed to the outskirts.

His soldiers were also stationed outside, and the people of the Waste Mine Society had begun to emerge one after another, starting to build their ground camp under the leadership of a man named Old Butch. Patel began selecting the one hundred Waste Mine Society soldiers who were about to undergo training, and he soon finalized the candidates.

To be honest, Gu Hang was not very satisfied with these people from the Waste Mine Society as a source of soldiers. They were born of hard labor but were malnourished, making it difficult to develop strong and excellent physical fitness. Not only did they look a bit thin and small, but their bodies also carried many hidden injuries from long-term, grueling work.

Although they possessed a spirit of endurance and hard work, they still could not be considered excellent soldiers.

But he had no other choice right now.

The three thousand servants he had brought down from the starship in the temporary camp were no better off.

Next, Gu Hang left behind one hundred Servitor soldiers, and taking the rest of his men along with the one hundred newly recruited young men from the Waste Mine Society, he headed toward the temporary camp.

He did not intend to wait for Yan Fangxu, who had gone to mop up the remnants of the Prisoner-Dead, to return; that guy wouldn't run into any trouble. After he completed his mission, he would still need to leave behind a squad of elite marines to be responsible for commanding the Servitor soldiers left at the Waste Mine Society.

Those mindless Servitor soldiers had no independent combat capability.

After a few hours, Gu Hang returned to the temporary camp.

The entire camp was still a bustling construction site. After initially leveling the ground and using local materials to build crude walls and simple structures, most of the servants were busy with one thing: building a landing pad.

The landing pad was for the starship—not to let the starship land entirely, of course, but to facilitate the docking of transport planes flying down from the starship with the ground.

This was not a particularly efficient method of transport; on some planets with better conditions, space elevators and orbital starports were the mainstays of interstellar transport.

However, due to the conditions, how could Gu Hang afford to build a space elevator or a starport right now? He could only rely on the transport craft carried by the starship to conduct transport work between the ground and space.

This required a landing pad, or even an airport, to improve efficiency.

The total workload for completion was not small, but there was no need to do it all at once; just getting a usable version up and running was enough.

After briefly checking the construction progress, Gu Hang found an empty, unoccupied space outside the camp and manifested the two Black Box Fabricators.

The two fabricators were truly "black boxes."

Jet-black, unknown materials formed these two square, massive black boxes.

The two were of different sizes, looking like two buildings. With one "door" at the front and one at the back, one was for feeding in materials, and the other was for outputting the Finished Product Black Box.

Gu Hang scratched his head, feeling a bit dumbfounded.

The system hadn't mentioned that these black boxes were this big.

How was he supposed to move these?

He would have to use engineering machinery; relying solely on human labor was too exaggerated.

But upon second thought, Gu Hang felt that he didn't necessarily have to transport these two things to the Waste Mine Society. To use the Finished Product Black Box, he could import ore from the Waste Mine Society—even though this went against the promise he made to Patel about building a production line for them.

Actually, there is no conflict here; the Finished Product Black Box will certainly be used to produce the highest-grade Alloy Plasteel materials, so the output volume won't be very high.

As for the production lines at the Waste Mine Society, they will rely on the various components produced by the Mother Machine Black Box, which will be transported to the Waste Mine Society to be assembled on-site and construct an alloy smelting plant.

It is easy to imagine that as both camps continue to develop, the transportation and exchange between them will become very frequent. Building roads is certainly necessary, but transportation equipment is equally important.

He did not want his subordinates to spend eight hours every round trip pushing flatbed carts.

Vehicles and engineering equipment—these things are in high demand.

His gaze drifted toward the sky.

It seems he will have to fleece the Quintet again, and that includes the one hundred sets of weapons and equipment promised to the Waste Mine Society.

However, just thinking about having to deal with that woman makes Gu Hang feel a bit annoyed.

Although the word count is still low, I ask that you gentlemen please try not to hoard the chapters; the new book period really needs everyone's support!

If you could help me recommend it to others, that would be even better!

I have always wanted to write a book with a Warhammer setting, and I am working hard to write this one well. I hope to achieve good results and not let everyone down!

Hong Bu bows in gratitude!