Chapter 133: The Wrath of the Lumberer
The mountain of decommissioned ordnance was moved to the Underhive in several heavy hauls. The crates were cracked open in the main plaza of the chemical manufactorum, spilling out hundreds of shattered, rusted, and blood-stained Imperial frames.
Kian Voss stood over the pile and summoned Little Joel and the two hundred militiamen.
"Strip them," Kian commanded. "I want every bolt, every spring, and every firing pin categorized. Cannibalize the best parts to create working rifles. If you can build a gun that clicks and bangs, it's yours to carry. If you can't, you stay on potato-peeling duty."
The recruits surged forward. Even though the gear was "trash" by Spire standards, to a Sump-rat, a piece of military-grade plasteel was a holy relic. Under Little Joel's instruction—who had drilled them on the anatomy of the standard autogun—they began a massive field-maintenance operation.
They worked for a full cycle, hands blackened by grease and carbon. By the time they were done, nearly six hundred rifles had been disassembled into a categorized sea of parts.
From that chaos, they managed to assemble 83 pristine, functional autoguns. The rest of the parts were either warped by heat, pitted by corrosion, or shattered by incoming fire.
"Lord Voss," Little Joel reported, wiping sweat from his brow. "We have eighty-three 'True' rifles. The rest of the frames are too far gone. Without a forge, I don't believe we can assemble any more."
Kian nodded. Eighty-three guns for two hundred men. Still a shortage.
Nephal, the black-market dealer, was prowling through the piles of leftovers with his lackeys, his sallow eyes gleaming as he inspected the scrap.
"Master Voss," Nephal croaked, "can your 'fixing' extend to these derelicts?"
"Can you do anything with them, Nephal?"
The dealer gave a toothy grin. "Give me the parts. I can't build a sniper's dream, but I can saw off the ruined barrels and replace the receivers. I can give you fifty more 'Sump-Stubs'—short-barreled trench guns. They'll be ugly, but they'll kill a man at thirty paces."
Kian authorized the "Cold-Trader Contract," handing over the parts for fifty sub-stubbers to be delivered to Joel.
As for the remaining four hundred "Unusable" frames? Kian had them moved into his private Sanctum.
Rudolphson didn't know about the Level 3 Machinist's Station. Kian didn't need "good" parts. As long as the System recognized the object as a [Decommissioned Firearm Frame], he could input raw [Metal Scrap] and "print" a brand-new, factory-standard weapon.
He handed one-third of the 100,000 rounds of ammunition to Joel for live-fire drills, then locked himself in the Sanctum.
The Weapon Smithing module had two slots.
Input: 1x PDF Autogun Frame + 5x Metal Scrap.
Process Time: 2 Hours.
Result: 1x PDF Autogun (Pristine).
It was a slow process, but it was guaranteed. However, Kian didn't start with the rifles. He prioritized the heavy hitters he'd found in the vault: three highly damaged, bone-deep rusted Lumberer-pattern 20mm Heavy Stubbers.
These beasts had been hit by high-explosives. Their barrels were bent into literal hooks, and one was missing its entire receiver cover. But to the System, they were just heavy frames.
He also found a unique piece of ordinance: a Long-barrel PDF Hand-Cannon.
Unlike the short-range grenade launchers of the 3k era, this was a hand-held artillery piece. The barrel was as long as a rifle's, thick-walled and rifled for high-pressure shells.
Kian, an expert in lethality, recognized the design immediately. It was a 50mm bore, designed to fire high-velocity sabot rounds or explosive canisters with a flat trajectory over 600 meters.
"Throne," Kian whispered, weighing the heavy steel tube. "Who fires this thing without breaking their collarbone?"
In the 41st Millennium, the Departmento Munitorum valued "Firepower" over "Soldier Longevity." If a man could fire one shell and delete a bunker before his shoulder shattered, the Munitorum considered it an efficient trade.
Kian felt that with his Strength 20 physique, he might actually be the first man in the sector to use it and live.
[CRAFTING INITIALIZED]
Slot 1: PDF Hand-Cannon (3 Hours).
Slot 2: Lumberer-pattern Heavy Stubber (6 Hours).
Kian spent the waiting time in his newly established Tactical Conditioning Center (The Gym).
He had scavenged heavy industrial weights and resistance-cables to upgrade the vault.
[SANCTUM UPGRADE: GYM (LVL 1)]
Effect: Training efficiency increased by 30%.
He sat on a yoga mat in the center of the gym and focused on his Psionics. The 10kg pipe hovered in front of him. Thanks to the "Gym Buff" and his daily sips of Sanctified Amasec, his focus was sharpening. He could now hold the pipe for twenty minutes without his nose bleeding.
Strength 20. Endurance 20. Mental Clarity 30.
He was officially a "Minor Transhuman." He was faster, stronger, and smarter than any baseline human in the Hive.
When the timers on the Machinist's Station finally hit zero, Kian stood up to retrieve his new toys. As he pulled the Hand-Cannon from the assembly rack, he froze. A golden text-box flickered over the weapon.
[Item: Artificer-pattern PDF Hand-Cannon]
Prefix: Master-crafted.
Trait: [Sunder-Shot] — Provides +20% Armor Penetration.
"It can roll affixes?!" Kian's eyes lit up with gamer-greed.
He waited three more hours for the first Heavy Stubber to finish. When it emerged from the press, the aura around it was even more intense.
[Item: The Wrathful Lumberer (20mm Heavy Stubber)]
Status: Posessed by a Furious Machine Spirit.
Description: This weapon's soul is enraged by its long dormancy in the dark. It craves the scent of cordite and the scream of the target.
Trait: [Unstoppable Cycle] — Once the trigger is depressed, the Machine Spirit will ignore ammunition counts and heat-limits. It will continue to fire until the target in its path is reduced to atoms or the Machine Spirit feels 'Satiated.'
Kian stared at the heavy gun, a cold shiver running down his spine.
"A gun that doesn't stop shooting until the job is done?" Kian smirked, his hand hovering over the barrel.
"I think I've found my new favorite argument."
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