Chapter 495: Restarting the Experiment
The existence of the avatar brought a revolutionary change to Ryo's research paradigm. His logical core swiftly completed a reallocation assessment of resources and tasks.
Within the Spear of Dorn fortress on Necromunda, Ryo's main body still stood silently before the main console of the core biological laboratory.
His crimson optical lenses steadily swept over the real-time data streams of twenty cultivation vats. Inside were the candidates undergoing memory engramming and physiologically accelerated development.
The optimized cultivation of the gene-seed, the planning of subsequent modulation protocols for those thirty test subjects, and the deep application research of the Cloneskein and Barrier Tech parsed from the STC system—these core projects requiring the support of his massive computational power and profound knowledge reserves were all personally overseen by the main body here.
Skitarii Marshal Ignis stood solemnly by the main body's side as usual, responsible for handling base defense coordination and command transmission.
Meanwhile, on the fortress's landing pad, a small transport shuttle blessed by the Adeptus Mechanicus was preparing to launch.
Standing beside the boarding ramp was a figure cloaked in standard red Tech-Priest robes.
The robe's hood was pulled low, obscuring most of the face, revealing only a jawline with somewhat soft contours. Protruding from beneath the sleeves were hands disguised to look like mechanical augmetics.
A metallic respirator clung to his mouth and nose, emitting a faint hiss with his steady breathing, while crimson optical lenses shielded his original eyes, steadily scanning the data streams.
This deliberately constructed disguise, conforming to the characteristics of low-ranking members of the Adeptus Mechanicus, perfectly concealed the pure human flesh-and-blood nature beneath.
This was Ryo (Avatar). His current identity was that of a low-ranking Tech-Acolyte who had just finished advanced studies on the forge world of Nexum, ordered by Magos Ryo to return to the Death World base to assist with management.
The transport shuttle's engines ignited, spewing blue exhaust flames as it slowly lifted off. It eventually broke free of Necromunda's gravitational binding, sailing into the vast sea of stars, its destination pointed straight toward the Death World.
Ryo (Avatar) stood by the viewport. His internal consciousness maintained a seamless connection with the main body far away on Necromunda, sharing sight, hearing, and all sensor data.
A bizarre sensation of split perception enveloped him: one part of his consciousness clearly processed the environmental parameters within the transport shuttle, while another part remained anchored in the laboratory where his main body resided, monitoring the gene-seed cultivation progress.
This experience of dual parallel processing, unified in consciousness yet physically existing in disparate locations, was something he had never experienced during his previous existence as a purely mechanical entity.
The voyage passed steadily in an alternation of Warp drives and Immaterium navigation.
When the transport shuttle exited the Warp and the grey, desolate sphere of the Death World appeared in his field of vision, the perception weight within Ryo's (Avatar's) consciousness belonging to the main body quietly decreased, focusing primary attention on the task at hand.
The transport shuttle was cleared to land on the base's main landing pad.
The airlock opened, and Ryo (Avatar) stepped down the boarding ramp.
The thin air of the base, carrying the scent of metal and dust, surged into his lungs through the respirator covering his face. This was the unique "scent" of this place, something only biological senses could capture.
His crimson optical lenses (disguised to look no different from an ordinary low-ranking Priest's) rapidly swept over the pad area. Skitarii patrol squads, bustling servitors, and the faint roar of the Titan bays in the distance—everything was as usual.
The Skitarii forces stationed here saluted him; their orders were to cooperate with the work of this "acolyte."
He did not head to the core command center, but walked directly toward the biological research zone located deep within the base, adjacent to the canyon experimental zone.
Several acolytes responsible for the daily maintenance here were already waiting.
"Welcome back, my Lord," the lead acolyte bowed respectfully. "By the directives issued by the Lord Magos before his departure, the research zone is in a state of maintenance."
Ryo (Avatar) nodded slightly, responding with a modulated, somewhat youthful synthesized voice: "Following the will of the Lord Magos. Take me to inspect the core experimental zone, and retrieve all project logs."
Stepping into the Genesis Particle laboratory protected by multiple energy barriers and physical isolation doors, the scene inside was almost at a standstill compared to when Ryo (Main Body) had left.
Most of the monitoring screens were in low-power standby mode. The energy field generators used to contain and direct the Genesis Particles were silent. Only the foundational environmental maintenance systems and security monitoring were still operating.
A faint scent, a mixture of ozone and complex organic molecules, lingered in the air, but it lacked that sense of hyperactive energy characteristic of high-intensity experiments.
"According to the directives issued by the Lord Magos before his departure, all active experiments have been suspended. Only baseline environmental monitoring and sample preservation are maintained," the acolyte brought up the project logs. "The ecological evolution observation data from the canyon experimental zone continues to be transmitted back; no anomalous fluctuations have been detected. The long-term observation of the lake ecosystem by the hovering research station is also proceeding according to pre-set parameters; no new guidance protocols have been initiated."
Ryo (Avatar) walked to the main console. A data cable popped out from his mechanical arm and connected to the data port.
Massive amounts of historical data instantly flooded into his processing unit, synchronously cross-referencing with the relevant information in the main body's memory banks.
After confirming that the project was indeed in a state of complete suspension, he issued a directive: "Initiate research sequence restart protocol. Prioritize the resumption of correlation analysis on the Alpha and Omega samples. Synchronously calibrate the Genesis Particle generator. I need to assess the impact of long-term dormancy on equipment precision and sample viability."
"Directive confirmed." The acolytes immediately began operating the consoles, directing the servitors to commence preparatory work before activating the equipment.
The restart process lasted for several standard days.
Energy conduits were repressurized with power, sensor networks underwent point-by-point inspection and calibration, and sealed biological samples were retrieved for viability assessment.
Everything seemed to be methodically returning to the right track.
However, just as active research was about to fully resume, some extremely subtle, hard-to-capture anomalies began to manifest.
The first issues arose in the long-term monitoring data feedback from the "Genesis Zone" on the dead planet's surface.
During the first comprehensive data review conducted after Ryo (Avatar) restarted the research, a series of unexplainable, minute deviations sharing common characteristics began to surface.
The continuous atmospheric composition monitoring records indicated that over the past three standard months, the daytime minimum readings for carbon dioxide concentration had abnormally stabilized at 0.035% seven times. This value happened to be the exact theoretical average of the standard baseline fluctuation range.
Viewed individually, each reading was within the instrument's error tolerance margin. However, the probability of precisely hitting the exact same value seven consecutive times was so low that it did not conform to random distribution models.
More widespread anomalies appeared within the environmental monitoring network.
(End of Chapter)