Astart/Astart Phase Two

Chapter 35: Astart and Astart-II

One hundred men can take a city.

One thousand men can conquer a world.

Ten thousand men can defeat an entire civilization.

This is the most intuitive statement of the Astart' combat power.

In his previous life, Sui Bian was initially unable to distinguish between the Space Marines of StarCraft and the Astart of Warhammer 40,000.

However, after crossing the threshold of Dawn of War: Soulstorm and Dawn of War II, and being guided by a certain colonel up-uploader on Bilibili, he officially stepped into the Warhammer 40,000 rabbit hole.

Sui Bian's progression even reached the point where he could do commission painting for miniatures.

When Birkin told him that the G-Virus was nearing completion, the super-soldiers he wanted to create based on the G-Virus's characteristics were "angels" like the Astart.

Angels who protect humanity.

The only thing that left Sui Bian feeling uncertain was that the key to creating Astart lay in the "Gene-Seed," and the foundation of the Astart originated from the Primarchs.

Furthermore, the Gene-Seed possessed somewhat "magical" components; after all, it was the product of a deal between The Emperor and The Four Ruinous Powers.

Therefore, Sui Bian providing the concept of Gene-Seed to Birkin and Rebecca was purely a gamble—perhaps the products of the G-Virus might actually contain similar glands?

At the very worst, the System Store and the lottery should eventually be able to exchange for similar super-soldier technology.

One must know that the UNSC, which uses the MA5B, possesses another famous super-soldier unit from the world of science fiction and gaming—

The Astart-IIs.

Since the System Store could exchange for the MA5B, there was a high probability that Sui Bian could roll for the manufacturing technology of the Astart-IIs, though the exchange points would undoubtedly be astronomical.

He would have to save up some money.

However, whether it was the Astart or the Astart-IIs, super-soldiers required years of cultivation and training from adolescence before becoming true soldiers.

There was no room for haste.

He would let Birkin and Rebecca experiment repeatedly using his clones for now; the current focus of the mission remained the extraction of serum from his blood.

Although the serum's effects were not as potent as those of the Astart or Astart-IIs, the transformation process was extremely short, making it the most easily achievable goal at present.

Returning to the matter at hand.

When Sui Bian finished explaining the concept of the Gene-Seed, both Birkin and Rebecca fell into a silence.

Yet, after only a few seconds, Birkin's eyes suddenly lit up. He stood up as if he had suddenly grasped some inspiration and said to Sui Bian with excitement:

"Mr. Sui! Your line of thinking is not impossible! But it requires using your clones for a large number of experiments. No time to lose! Quick! Draw blood!"

With that, Birkin ignored the reactions of Sui Bian and Rebecca and strode out of the conference room.

Seeing Birkin leave the conference room first, the four Zetas responsible for monitoring him followed behind, leaving the originally cramped conference room feeling somewhat empty.

In truth, without the pressure from Spencer, coupled with his gradually deepening personal friendship with Sui Bian, Birkin was no longer as timid and submissive in front of Sui Bian as he had been two months ago.

Already accustomed to Birkin's fiery personality, Sui Bian merely glanced at the open automatic metal door, then turned his head to look at Rebecca, who was still in a state of slight shock, and reminded her with a faint smile:

"Let's go, Officer Chambers. Once you have obtained my blood samples, I will arrange for someone to show you around the Hive.

By the way, there are many empty dormitories on the second floor. You can move into the Hive to work directly when the time comes, and assist Dr. Birkin in extracting the serum from my blood as soon as possible."

"This... alright, Mr. Sui." Rebecca nodded.

Next.

Sui Bian and Rebecca left the conference room and headed to a nearby laboratory.

Subsequently, Birkin personally operated the equipment to draw blood from Sui Bian, who was sitting in a chair, collecting 700 milliliters of blood and tissue samples for the Hive.

Having obtained Sui Bian's blood samples, Birkin immediately directed the researchers to divide the samples into two batches.

One batch of blood and tissue samples was used for cloning-related matters, with Birkin instructing the researchers to begin preparations for cloning immediately, while the other batch was immediately refrigerated, waiting for the serum extraction work to begin tomorrow.

After giving instructions to the researchers, Birkin returned to his exclusive laboratory to finish the final work on the G-Virus as soon as possible.

It was mainly the Gene-Seed concept provided by Sui Bian that made this genius, Birkin, unable to wait to conduct experiments; he felt a surge of motivation to "play god."

As for Rebecca, after witnessing Sui Bian donate his blood, she was taken by a researcher who had no experimental assignments that day to familiarize herself with the third and fourth floors of the Hive.

After familiarizing herself with the Hive, Rebecca left to go to her rented apartment in Raccoon City to pack her luggage, preparing to move into the Hive that very night.

Rebecca felt the weight of the responsibility on her shoulders; time could not be wasted, and she wanted to begin the serum extraction work tonight.

The main reason she chose to join the police force after graduating from university was her hope to do something for this world through personal action.

However, through what she had seen and heard today, she discovered that the way to contribute to the world was not just by being a police officer maintaining order with real guns and blades; she could also create more valuable things through the knowledge and thinking in her mind.

While the two geniuses, Rebecca and Birkin, were busy, Sui Bian was not idle either. He headed to the Hive's High-Tech Weapons R&D Center.

He spoke with Wang Zhaofeng, who was busy at work, and told him about his plan to form a super-soldier unit, hoping that this Chinese-American doctor could begin conceptualizing power armor exclusive to super-soldiers in advance.

Sui Bian also mentioned that he had already obtained full authority over the company, so there was no need to worry about R&D funding.

After explaining the concept of the power armor, Sui Bian handed the blueprints for the Neuralyzer to Wang Zhaofeng, hoping that mass production could be completed as soon as possible.

After roughly reviewing the blueprints in the workshop, Wang Zhaofeng indicated that although this product was also epoch-making technology, the Hive still had the capability to crack and mass-produce it.

Furthermore, Wang Zhaofeng was very self-aware this time, never once asking Sui Bian about the origin of these blueprints from beginning to end.

As for the only Neuralyzer currently available, it was in the hands of the Lieutenant.

Since the corporate forces located in Europe still required a thorough cleansing, the Lieutenant and Omicron had a greater need for the Neuralyzer than the Hive did.

After handling this matter, Sui Bian headed to the third-level detention area without a moment's rest.

The Alpha team led by Hunk and the technical personnel had arrived in Raccoon City two hours earlier than them, and that Plague Doctor had also been transferred from Paris to a cell within the Hive.

It was time to have a talk with the Plague Doctor about whether or not to provide him with an exclusive laboratory.