Cyrus: I Understand. Now Tell Me, Who Do You Want Me to Kill?

Gauss Rays.

They were devastating weapons equipped by many Necron dynasties.

They worked by generating powerful electromagnetic force, destroying the target's atomic bonds and annihilating it at the atomic level.

Cyrus knew how terrifying these things were, but he did not know much about their principles. He only knew that the beams they fired were green. Among Imperial equipment, aside from certain gear fitted with force-field frameworks that could resist them, neither the composite Ceramite power armor they wore nor the Imperial reinforced-plasteel Dreadnought chassis could block a Gauss Ray attack.

As long as one was hit by this ray...

Even an Astartes like him could only be instantly killed.

Even within the Imperium, the Adeptus Mechanicus on Mars had yet to figure out how these rays worked, let alone develop them and equip soldiers with them.

Yet these people had only obtained them half a month ago, and they had already reverse-engineered them?

Wasn't that a little too insane?

And they said they were only limited by resources and could not equip them yet. In other words, as long as they had enough resources, they could manufacture an unlimited number of Gauss Ray weapons.

Absolute killing weapons against organic life.

This was definitely good news.

The kinetic weapons used by the Astartes were called kinetic guns.

By storing energy, these weapons could fire immensely powerful energy shells.

Even weapons like that played a huge role on the battlefield, let alone Gauss Ray weapons.

Besides the Gauss Rays...

There was also the Living Metal beside them, as well as the Soul Protocol at the end.

Though he did not know what the Living Metal project was researching...

They knew the direction of the Soul Protocol research.

One of its purposes was to duplicate memory data, preserve the soul, and await resurrection for battle.

The Gauss Ray research made him realize...

These people were not joking.

They really were researching these things.

And they truly might be able to develop this technology.

"Lacking resources?"

Brown happened to pass by. Hearing the question raised by the tall Astartes, he answered directly.

"Not somewhat lacking. Severely lacking."

He walked toward them.

He had also heard Cyrus's question on his way over.

"Chief!"

"Master Brown."

Brown stepped onto a machine crate that had followed him over and nodded at those greeting him.

Then, looking at the weapons behind the transparent glass with his hands clasped behind his back, he said, "Just building the Synapse Condenser consumed every resource on our homeworld. In fact, every project you see is currently at a standstill."

Brown jumped down from the machine crate and walked deeper into the laboratory. Cyrus found himself following behind him. "The research here is only a small part of our Research Department. Our true research station is established on the homeworld. Our fields of study include biology, physics, engineering, wonders, megastructures, society... multiple disciplines."

After taking a few steps, Brown stopped. The machine crate moved before him again, and he stepped onto it. Looking at the Soul Protocol experiment underway in the laboratory, at another alien screaming miserably after being burned by a failed extraction, he shook his head and continued.

"Ever since Lord Cisrain entrusted us with establishing the Synapse Condenser, the Sacred Khala has connected our people together. I know we can study any technology through reverse engineering. We can develop even larger naval warships. We can build gravitational slingshots for faster-than-light jumps. We can comprehend every physical law in the universe. To reverse-engineer an apparently impossible project, we need only weeks, perhaps even days."

"But the price..."

"Is merely the vast resources required to keep the Synapse Condenser running."

As he spoke, the lights overhead flickered again, as though confirming his words.

Brown turned and looked at Cyrus.

"So, we are not short on resources. We are desperately short on resources. We need a great many resources. We need worlds to provide us with electricity. We need worlds to provide us with alloys. We need worlds to provide us with population computing power. We need people to contribute. We need people to sacrifice. We need far, far too many things."

"At present, with the strength of Gamma's single planet, it may take ten generations, a hundred generations, perhaps even a thousand generations of effort to build a faster-than-light fleet."

"The pain is temporary."

"The future is bright."

"When the Sacred Khala connects every one of us, we will transcend throughout the entire world."

Brown covered his chest and looked at the weapons lying silently in the laboratory.

They possessed the technology, yet lacked the resources to show it to the world.

That was an immense regret.

"..."

Listening to Brown's words...

Cyrus was not completely swayed by them.

He merely extracted even more crucial words from Brown's keywords.

One planet would require ten, a hundred, or a thousand generations of effort.

Then...

The direction was clear.

Obtaining more planets could shorten that process?

Over the past few days, Cyrus had also worked hard to gather information related to this world.

From some battle ruins and written records...

They had roughly figured out where they were.

There was a high probability that this place was the territory of some small Xenos Empire that had always opposed the Imperium.

He had heard of this place.

It was called the Tau Empire.

A humanoid empire.

They revered the Greater Good.

Nearby seemed to be the Five Hundred Worlds of Ultramar in Segmentum Obscurus.

As long as they could establish contact with that side...

They would immediately stop lacking supplies.

Population computing power?

They could have as much as they wanted.

Alloy resources?

They could mine as much as they pleased.

As for electricity and energy?

Just name what you wanted, and someone would deliver it.

Cyrus knew that the Five Hundred Worlds of Ultramar would absolutely be willing to provide him with every resource he needed.

The only issue was that they did not have any astropaths with them. Though they possessed some psychic talent, they could not directly contact the Astral Court and convey their needs to those people.

"So, a few more planets can solve the problem, right?" Cyrus looked at Brown below his knees. "Take us to see Governor Cisrain."

"..."

"..."

Easy for him to say.

They only had three science ships in total, and the naval port had not even been completed. With the Synapse Condenser and naval port both needing construction, where would they get enough resources to conquer another planet?

For the Astartes...

You only needed to give them a clear order and let them carry it out.

As for the rest...

Just leave it to them.

"Chief, I'll take them to see the Governor first." A scientist bowed to Brown, then nodded to Cyrus and the others. "Everyone, the Governor is in the main control room. Please follow me."

What was the hardest thing in Warhammer 40K?

The Emperor's mouth after the universe was destroyed. "I am not a god."