Chapter 450: Let Me See!
The command center fell into a dead silence, with only the low hum of the cogitator arrays' cooling fans echoing.
Warnings from the future, the evolutionary possibilities of the gene-seed, the prophecies of the Eldar, and the assassinations by the Dark Eldar... A massive amount of information transcending conventional cognition converged here, requiring the wisdom and decisiveness of a Primarch to sort out.
Dorn's gaze swept over the three again, finally settling on Ryo. "Magos Ryo, your assessment of this?"
"The logical chain is complete, and the evidentiary support is preliminarily established," Ryo's synthesized voice was without fluctuation. "The physiological data and future information provided by Brother Reid possess extremely high research value and strategic early warning significance.
"Illyndiel's prophecy and the Dark Eldar's motives for action can corroborate each other.
"I recommend adopting a strategy of prudent contact and limited cooperation, prioritizing the acquisition of future threat intelligence and verifying the feasibility of the gene-seed optimization path."
Dorn slowly paced to the star map, staring at the countless points of light representing the Imperium's territory, as well as the red areas symbolizing threats.
The War of the Beast? The Black Crusades? The disasters represented behind these names, if they could be known in advance...
He finally turned around and made a decision.
"Brother Reid, Sister Catherine, you are temporarily incorporated into the Imperial Palace guard sequence, subject to the supervision and interrogation of the Custodes. All the information you brought will be processed and analyzed with the highest priority." His gaze was like bedrock. "As for you, Eldar Illyndiel, while Magos Ryo is on Terra, you may move within restricted areas under the surveillance of the Mechanicus Skitarii. Any transgressive behavior will be deemed hostile."
He did not trust them completely, but he also did not reject the warnings and possibilities brought by the future and the xenos.
He chose the approach that best served the interests of the Imperium: control, research, and utilization.
"Ryo," Dorn said finally, "regarding the gene-seed optimization, I need a more detailed feasibility report. Also, ensure your 'crucial exploration' does not draw fire upon yourself."
The meeting ended.
The orders were issued, and the three were led away separately.
Ryo knew that Dorn needed time to digest this information and coordinate the intricate factions within Terra.
As for him, he also gained another powerful, albeit unspoken, support to continue advancing his research, especially regarding Lady Astarte's legacy and the deep mysteries of the gene-seed.
Deep within the Imperial Palace, inside Ryo's temporary laboratory.
The atmosphere here was entirely different from Rogal Dorn's command center filled with tactical star maps.
The air was thick with a mixed scent of ozone, sterilizing agents, and faint biological pheromones.
Precision analytical instruments lined the walls, emitting a low hum. Servo-skulls hovered among them, their data probes swaying slightly like tentacles.
On the central analysis platform, Brother Reid's massive body lay flat. Most of the armor plating of his power armor had been removed, revealing the tightly connected biological interfaces and reinforced artificial tendons beneath.
Ryo's huge mechanical body stood beside the platform. Dozens of slender mechanical tentacles extended from his back, operating various sensors and samplers with micrometer precision, plugging into Reid's exposed physiological interfaces.
His crimson optical lenses focused steadily, data streams cascading across their edges like a waterfall.
The comprehensive physiological examination of Reid was an unprecedented opportunity.
This was not researching an unfamiliar, powerful individual, but rather examining a technical answer sheet from the future, written and continuously perfected by his own hands.
As the examination deepened, detailed data reports were continuously generated, compared, and archived within Ryo's core processor.
The physiological parameters within Reid's body, which far exceeded those of contemporary Astartes, did not merely mean stronger muscles or harder bones.
Their ingenuity lay in the synergistic optimization and deep integration of the entire biological system.
"Gene-seed expression profile comparison... match rate ninety-nine point eight-seven percent. Key mutation nodes... confirmed consistent with the preset optimization path." Ryo's synthesized voice whispered in the silent laboratory, as if confirming foreshadowing laid down long ago.
He saw the perfect integration of the Sus-an Membrane and Betcher's Gland. Their neural connection pattern was not a simple repair, but a more efficient, entirely new connection blueprint reverse-engineered from the compensatory mechanisms discovered during the treatment of the Inductii warriors.
This was exactly the next-step plan he was currently conceiving but had not yet fully verified.
He detected microscopic energy conduction networks embedded within the bones and muscle fibers. This was clearly a further development of the application of Genesis Particles in biological materials, capable of more efficiently distributing bioelectricity and nutrients to enhance continuous combat capabilities.
This shared the exact same foundational principles as the Genesis Particle ecological experiments he was currently conducting.
What drew his attention the most was Reid's "controllable psychic potential."
In-depth scanning revealed that this did not stem from direct warp taint or uncontrollable mutation, but was achieved through a series of precise genetic markers and neuroendocrine regulations.
In specific areas of Reid's cerebral cortex and the core sequences of his gene-seed, Ryo identified his own unique biological encoding technology, derived from Lady Astarte's original blueprints.
These encodings acted like precision biological circuits, constructing an endogenous, stable psychic generation and regulation system, keeping its energy output constantly within safe thresholds, and perfectly synchronizing with the power armor's psychic deflection field generator.
"Psychic resistance enhancement mechanism... confirmed based on the 'neural insulating sheath' theoretical model. Psychic guidance pathways... consistent with Lady Astarte's initial concepts regarding the 'third-stage' potential guidance."
Every discovery was like reading a technical log that he himself would write in the future.
Reid's body was the most intuitive and perfect physical manifestation of this log.
Every technology within it bore his distinct technical style: a profound understanding of the Emperor's original design, the inheritance and development of Lady Astarte's blueprints, the exploration of the boundaries between biology and machinery, and the ultimate pursuit of system stability and controllability.
This was not just future technology; this was his, Ryo's, technology.
It was the result of his gradual accumulation, verification, and optimization over a long period of time, ultimately becoming systematized.
An almost pure sense of logical satisfaction circulated within his processing core.
This was not emotion, but the highest level of confirmation—the research path he had currently chosen, the legacy of Lady Astarte he guarded, and his goal of strengthening humanity through knowledge, were proven to be correct and feasible in the foreseeable future.
Reid lay quietly on the analysis platform. Even though he was undergoing examination, he remained conscious and cooperative.
He could feel those precision probes scanning and sampling within his body, and from Ryo's steady and unfluctuating optical lenses, he could sense an extraordinary kind of "focus."
(End of Chapter)