Chapter Fifty-Nine: A "Calm" Day for the Travelers

“Chen Wei, have you finished your tactical summary?”

In the dormitory that used to be a warehouse aboard the Imperial Truth, Li Peng prodded Chen Wei with his pen and asked.

“Yes, I wrote about airborne operations on the battlefield and hive city clearance,” Chen Wei replied.

“Take a look at mine, see how I did,” Li Peng handed his tactical summary to Chen Wei.

“On suicide bombing and ways to carry more explosives?” Chen Wei glanced at the summary Li Peng gave him and immediately felt a headache coming on.

Ever since Li Peng had experienced self-detonation on Lafis, he’d been hooked; the idea to nuke Magrus had been his as well.

“How is it?” Li Peng asked, noticing the constipated look on Chen Wei’s face.

“Very creative,” Chen Wei managed after a long pause.

Previously, Wang Ming had gathered all the travelers to discuss and encouraged everyone to compile their own tactical summaries to aid future operations.

Thus, the 6,200 travelers began their extracurricular activities: the thirteen ways to wield a power sword, boltgun firing tactics, DIY methods for power armor, and hive city combat manuals—these were the more legitimate entries. Alongside them, there were also pure nonsense submissions.

For instance, methods for preparing ingredients from the lower hives, attracting Chaos with the Emperor’s True Word, or how to engage in meat grinder tactics against Chaos—sheer tomfoolery.

Wang Xiaofa, tasked with organizing the summaries, sat dazed in his office, overwhelmed by the sheer variety. He could hardly distinguish between the jokes and the genuine tactics, as every submission was reasoned and well-argued.

Beyond tactical summaries, the mechanical specialists from the First Engineer Company, drawing on their pre-crossing expertise, had concocted inventions that would make any member of the Mechanicus cry heresy.

They even converted one of the Imperial Truth’s warehouses into an experimental lab.

“How does it feel? How’s the new Dreadnought?” In the lab, a mechanical specialist asked Wu Xuan, who had once again volunteered to enter a Dreadnought.

“It feels heavier than the old one,” Wu Xuan said after taking a few steps.

“That’s normal. This time, wherever we could use adamantium for the armor, we did. Of course it’s heavier,” the specialist replied.

As they spoke, a tremendous explosion erupted from deep within the lab.

With the blast, several engineer-travelers from the First Engineer Company sprinted out from the source, shouting as they ran, “Damn! The hull’s breached, get damage control here!”

“What happened?” Wu Xuan asked the fleeing travelers, still clueless about the situation.

In the ship’s command center, acting captain Leandro Ferreira stared at the breach alert from lower deck warehouse A06.

He immediately ordered crew members handling the ship’s nanobots to repair the hull.

This was the Warp, after all; a real hull breach would doom everyone aboard.

Fortunately, the Imperial Truth’s hull was built with five layers of armored plating. Only one layer in A06 had been breached, and the nanobots quickly patched it up.

“So, what exactly were you doing in the lab to blow a hole in the ship?” In his office, Wang Ming was questioning Xu Zheng, the First Engineer Company’s commander, about the incident.

“Well, Boss, the second squad was conducting a melta assembly experiment,” Xu Zheng explained.

“A single melta wouldn’t breach the hull!”

“Boss, they were working with fifty meltas,” Xu Zheng said quietly.

Wang Ming: …

“What were you thinking?” Wang Ming asked, rubbing his forehead in pain.

“We were trying to build a super melta bomb. One mistake, and it got out of hand,” Xu Zheng confessed.

“Stop making things like that on the ship. Wait until we reach Mols. I’m truly afraid you’ll blow us all to bits,” Wang Ming said.

He genuinely feared that, left unchecked, the First Engineer Company would sink the Imperial Truth in the Warp.

“And make sure your people teach the auxiliary troops some basic mechanics before you leave,” Wang Ming added as Xu Zheng left.

He had to keep them busy or who knew what chaos they’d create if left idle.

After resolving the incident, Wang Ming made a special trip to the armory. He spoke with the traveler in charge and decreed that no large-scale explosive weapons were to be issued to the First Engineer Battalion while aboard.

“This is a battlefield medical robot. When you’re injured in combat, activate it—it’ll assess your wounds and provide emergency aid.”

In a classroom, a traveler demonstrated a tiny medical robot to the mortal auxiliary troopers.

Currently, tactical training for the auxiliaries was handled by instructors from the Astral Army, while the travelers were responsible for teaching the auxiliaries to use unfamiliar equipment (mainly by reading aloud the manual in Chinese).

Warp travel was mind-numbingly dull. The travelers spent their days practicing combat in the ship’s bays; some were so bored they began telling the auxiliaries “tales of the Golden Age” (all of their own invention).

“Boss, how much longer do we have to sail? It’s been seven months already.”

Wang Xiaofa slumped over his desk, listless, as he asked Wang Ming. In these months, he’d practically evolved into an administrative officer.

Fifty thousand mortal auxiliaries and 6,200 travelers’ affairs, big and small, were all managed by Wang Ming, himself, and a few dozen mortal commanders.

“I asked the Navigator. About another month,” Wang Ming replied, slouching in his chair, just as bored.

Knock, knock, knock…

The sound of knocking signaled more work for Wang Xiaofa.

“I worked 9-9-6 before crossing. Now, after crossing, it’s still 9-9-6. Boss, what’s the point of crossing if nothing changes?” Wang Xiaofa complained as he stamped documents.

“Same here,” Wang Ming replied, glancing at his own paperwork.

And so, during this monotonous voyage through the Warp, the travelers drew ever closer to their destination: Mols.