allendalepharm Chapter 90: Terrible Maps, Terrible Land, Terrible Memory
Chapter 90: Terrible Maps, Terrible Land, Terrible Memory
Chapter 90: Terrible Maps, Terrible Land, Terrible Memory
Shinbang, core bridge.
"Enter, enter all."
A dozen or so memory chips, bought from the black market, were inserted into the data interface of the holographic projector.
With a buzzing sound of data being read, the air in the center of the hall began to distort.
Countless points of light converge, attempting to construct a complete three-dimensional star map.
However, what Andy saw was not a clear and detailed navigation map.
Instead, it's a tattered jigsaw puzzle riddled with black holes, fault lines, noise, and gibberish.
Looking at the fragmented light and shadow before him, Andy fell into a long silence.
This stuff cost him dozens of boxes of high-purity antibiotics, plus a huge amount of hard currency he'd stolen from Helios.
Is that all?
It doesn't even qualify as a complete star sector overview; it's more like a bunch of vague markings like "maybe there's a star there" or "maybe someone died here."
But this is actually quite normal, since star maps are never objective geographical mapping data.
You think you're buying a map? No, you're buying someone else's diary, earned with their life!
In a time when subspace travel technology is extremely reliant on starlight.
Today's safe passageway may become the epicenter of a subspace storm tomorrow.
A planet that existed last month might be eaten by aliens whose names you might not even know, or blown up by the Inquisition next month.
Therefore, the star charts circulating in the market are often less effective than mutant star charts, and are full of sellers' subjective speculations and false information fabricated to inflate prices.
The fact that Andy was able to buy this batch of data-readable chips shows that these shady dealers in the port city still have some conscience.
Andy reached out and fiddled with the hologram, removing the obviously garbled and duplicate data.
Finally, three relatively clear and fairly well-marked large areas remained.
These three areas extend into the deep Colonus enclave, surrounding their current port of call.
Andy has to choose one of these three options.
He first turned his gaze to the northeast direction of the star map.
A dense cluster of stars is labeled "Pagan Stars" on the hologram.
Just by hearing the name, you can tell that this place is definitely not favored by the empire.
Intelligence indicates that this area has a relatively high population density and is also the most complex in terms of power dynamics within the Colonus expansion.
"Xiao Liu, analyze this area."
Andy gave the order.
Xiao Liu's blue electronic eyes flashed, bringing up the relevant entry in the database: "The Heretic Stars are mainly composed of human colonies that have not been formally recovered by the Empire, pirate strongholds that have betrayed the Empire, and a large number of small and medium-sized alien civilizations. They have frequent trade activities, but are extremely lacking in order."
In the context of the empire, the definition of the word "paganism" was very broad.
It doesn't necessarily refer to a madman corrupted by chaos who sacrifices living people every day to summon demons.
In the empire's official dictionary, if you don't worship the emperor, or if you worship the emperor incorrectly, then you are a heretic.
If you accidentally become the disciple of some six-legged emperor—what else can I say? Prepare to be bombed.
Most of the humans in the Pagan Stars still retain human technology and live their own lives. Occasionally, they will do business with Eldar, Dwarves, or other aliens that they find agreeable. Similarly, the aliens should be relatively easier to talk to.
To Andy, these guys weren't exactly good people either, but compared to those Chaos believers whose brains were full of shit, they were practically adorable little angels.
Andy stroked his chin: "This place sounds nice."
Having a population means having productivity, and having trade means having resources circulating.
Moreover, because it is not under the jurisdiction of the empire, it is very politically inclusive, and no one cares whether Andy and his ship are unregistered.
As long as he has resources, he can establish himself here.
Of course, this kind of "freedom" comes at a price, and the price is usually very high.
In the pagan world, due to the lack of a unified, authoritarian regime, the most blatant law of the jungle prevails.
You might make a deal with the ruler of this planet today, but tomorrow he might sell you to the Dark Eldar to be a loli.
Or perhaps you've just built a factory on a planet, only to have it destroyed by a passing green-skinned orc the day after tomorrow.
The spirit of contractual obligations is practically nonexistent; betrayal and double-crossing are commonplace.
To survive here, you have to stay on high alert at all times and trust no one.
After careful consideration, Andy has temporarily listed "The Heretics" as a backup option.
Then, he looked towards the northwest direction of the star map.
The area was covered by a large number of red high-risk warning signs.
[The World of Abandoned Babies].
hiss!
Just from the name, it doesn't sound like a good thing!
Intelligence indicates that this is a death zone filled with ancient curses, excessive subspace radiation, and various unspeakable monsters.
Many planets in this region bear the remnants of human civilization, but there are no living people on them now.
Moreover, the name "World of Abandoned Babies" itself is full of strong religious metaphors and a sense of despair.
In the minds of the Empire's people, these planets were orphans abandoned by the God-Emperor.
A planet that has lost the protection of the God-Emperor is like an infant that has fallen into a wolf's den.
The malice of the subspace will rapidly encroach upon this place, blurring the lines between reality and illusion, and distorting the laws of physics.
When you venture into such a place, you not only have to face the harsh natural environment, but also the monsters that crawl out from the depths of people's hearts.
Andy zoomed in on the map.
At the edge of the world of abandoned babies, directly west of the port of arrival, there is a very conspicuous sign.
A giant icon depicting a skull and crossbones.
【Enentif World】
A small note was attached: "Extremely dangerous, green-skinned swarms rampant!!"
Andy's eye twitched.
Why are these old acquaintances like a persistent skin condition, following me everywhere I go?
"Enentef" is a massive orc empire. Although these greenskins have a very skewed tech tree, consisting of a junk collection, their sheer numbers and extreme warlike nature make up for it.
Most importantly, for players like Andy who prefer a farming-focused playstyle, the green-skinned orcs are absolutely the worst neighbors in the world, bar none.
The concepts of "peace," "trade," and "development" simply do not exist in the social structure of the Greenskin.
They only have two things on their minds: fight, and then find someone stronger to fight.
You can't reason with them, let alone do business with them.
They don't need complex industrial systems, because I figure if this gun can fire, then it can fire.
They don't need agriculture either, because they are fungi themselves. When they die, they turn into spores, and next year a bunch of little Ouk and little Poopy will grow.
If you live next door to them, the only thing you can do is work day and night to build walls and cannons, and then wait for them to come rushing over like a tide to your death until they drain you dry.
"No, we can't go to this place!"
Andy decisively drew a big red X in the northwest direction!
What he needs now is development and accumulation, not to engage in a pointless war of attrition with the Greenskins!
Moreover, the Greenskins were dirt poor; even if they won, they wouldn't get any spoils—just rotten meat or junk—it was a pure loss-making venture.
Finally, Andy turned his gaze to due north.
That is the only way to the Halo Sector, and also the most incomprehensible area on the star map.
【Hecate's Rift】.
A huge fault appears in the star chart here.
There were no planetary markers, only a chaotic, distorted expanse of gravitational waves and subspace readings.
Sisyphus added from the side, "Andy, the person who sold us the map specifically instructed us that this is the last place we should mess with."
"It is said that there is a scar in the real universe, where the laws of physics often break down, and many ships that go in never come out again."
"Even those who did emerge were driven mad by the crew, who claimed to have seen—a whale?"
Andy remembered the Hecate Rift; it was the chasm that completely separated civilization from the wilderness.
Further north lies the true Halo Deep Space.
The spatial structure here is extremely unstable, and the veil of the real universe is as thin as a sheet of paper.
Conventional navigation devices will completely fail here, and even the starlight is distorted.
To get through here, you need not only top-tier spaceships and shields, but also navigation capabilities that can completely ignore the interference of the laws of physics.
This is why the Halo Sector has remained undeveloped for tens of thousands of years; the barrier to entry is too high, keeping 99% of explorers out.
"A whale?" Andy grasped the key point. "You mean the Void Whale?"
Sisyphus nodded, his face a little pale: "To be honest—I don't know what you mean by Void Whale, but I've heard them say that it's a living Void Catastrophe that's at least several thousand kilometers long."
Void whales are beings completely beyond human biological understanding. They may not even be carbon-based organisms. They swim in the void, feed on subspace energy as if it were plankton, and are so large that they can generate their own gravitational field.
To them, human starships are like slightly harder grains of sand.
If you accidentally run into this thing, you can basically just restart the game.
Andy looked at the area marked as the rift, and then at the darkness behind the rift that represented the [Halo Sector].
That was his ultimate goal.
The Halo Sector holds countless relics from the dark age of technology, the final piece of his agricultural empire puzzle.
But he also knew that the Halo Sector contained not only treasures, but also something older and more terrifying than chaos.
Moreover—there are secrets hidden there that even the emperor is unwilling to mention.
For example, the legendary Zadan Xenomorph, a terrifying being that nearly wiped out the Empire's Space Marine Legion, has many remnants hiding there.
And then there's Kailis, an ancient monster capable of devouring stars.
This place is like a sealed Pandora's box. Although it may contain the hope of saving humanity, the price of opening it may be the release of an even more terrible despair.
Andy rubbed his temples, feeling a bit of a headache.
He suddenly felt a little regretful.
I regret why I was so focused on farming chess pieces and watching the grudges and feuds between the Primarchs and the Chaos Gods in my past life.
"If I'd known I'd be time-traveling, I should have memorized those brick-thick rulebooks for the 'Wandering Merchant' role-playing game!"
Andy silently complained to himself.
Of course, Andy can't be entirely blamed for this.
Most Warhammer fans focus on grand narratives such as the War of Heaven, the Horus Rebellion, the Black Crusade, and the Unbreakable Crusade.
Who would bother to study the geographical details of a remote sector like the Colonus Expansion?
What a waste of time!
Andy is in this situation now. He knows the general trend, but when it comes to how to make a living in this specific "small plot of land," he's completely clueless.
"Alright, stop thinking about useless things."
Andy cleared his mind of those chaotic thoughts and looked back at Xiao Liu: "After careful consideration, which way should we go now?"
Xiao Liu was silent for a few seconds, clearly performing a complex weighted calculation.
"Based on the current resource situation, ship condition, and potential profits," Xiao Liu suggested, "we recommend that this ship prioritize heading to [Heretical Stars]."
Andy nodded.
This coincided with his own thoughts.
In a farming-style game, the most important things are territory and population. Fighting the greens yields no benefit, and going to war with the super aliens is pure suicide.
The safest development path is to go to the heretical planets and establish order amidst the chaos.
"Then it's settled." Andy stood up and waved his hand. "The next target will be Heretic Stars."
"We're going to set up our stall there!"
"Understood, the flight path has been set."
The engines of the new ship roared once again.
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