"Excellent," Alex nodded slightly, his gaze turning to Cawl with a hint of inquiry. "What about the applicability assessment of the technology? Can its core principle be safely transferred to a smaller platform? For example, a knight titans?" He emphasized the word "safely," his voice echoing faintly in the vast space, quickly swallowed by the omnipresent mechanical hum.
This was precisely the question Cawl was waiting for!
His metal joints emitted a slight hydraulic hiss, and several mechanical tendrils, as if injected with high-pressure energy, excitedly sprang up, pointing precisely to an area on the laboratory's flank meticulously isolated by a high-intensity energy force field.
The pale purple force field barrier hummed deeply, and the air was filled with the acrid smell of ionization.
Inside the isolation zone, a standard Imperial Knight, like a suffering colossus, was rigidly secured to a reinforced experimental frame by heavy adamantium restraints.
Its cockpit area had been violently torn open, exposing complex wiring that extended like dissected nerve bundles, flickering with unstable electrical sparks, connected to a crudely replicated prototype of a Psyker containment unit—the metal cage-like structure internally pulsed with extremely unstable, seemingly ready-to-explode, eerie blue light—and a prototype of a replicated Ciricrux Anima core device being debugged by multiple precise mechanical arms.
The Knight's originally solemn armor surface was etched with simple, crooked runic lines attempting to mimic the sacred prototypes of Titans, appearing exceptionally fragile and imbued with a sense of technological transgression under the force field's light.
"The 'Psyker Imperial Knight' prototype, Governor!" Cawl's synthesized voice suddenly rose, overriding some of the background noise, filled with fervor for the potential technological breakthrough. "Miniaturizing and adapting the Ciricrux Anima technology for application on a Knight platform! Imagine, an Imperial Knight capable of controllably releasing Psyker power! This will be a revolutionary weapon against powerful enemies!
We strongly recommend proceeding with the next stage of preliminary Psyker circuit activation and Psyker compatibility safety tests as soon as possible! Theoretical deductions require practical data for verification and refinement!"
Several servitor skulls monitoring the prototype seemed to be affected by his emotion, their scanning beams quickening their rhythm.
Alex's brows furrowed deeply, his gaze, as if drawn by a magnet, fixed tightly on the modified Imperial Knight and the adjacent, empty, unsettling Psyker containment unit.
The cold metal surface inside the unit reflected an eerie glow, as if silently awaiting a sacrifice.
A sense of risk, like cold machine oil, heavily poured into his chest.
A psyker titan itself was a walking source of Warp instability; its power was violent and untamable, and merely approaching it could evoke a soul-level oppression.
To transplant its technology onto a knight titans, which was far inferior in structural strength, energy carrying capacity, and machine spirit stability?
Around them, lower-ranking Tech-Priest climbed like worker ants on the metal scaffolding encircling the Titan and the prototype, or chanted monotonous binary prayers before oil-stained data terminals.
Their red robes, like congealed blood clots in the dim light, and their mechanical bionics, flickering with awe or anxiety, carefully recorded every faint energy pulsation of the Titan's runes, occasionally glancing towards the prototype with a mixture of desire for forbidden knowledge and a hint of instinctive fear.
Metal particles suspended in the air danced like tiny stars under the scanning beams.
"Safety, Archmagos Cawl," Alex's voice was low and serious, with a metallic, hard quality, his gaze sharp as a blade, seemingly able to penetrate thick armor. "This is my utmost concern. Psyker backlash, uncontrolled Warp rifts, energy core overload detonation, or even the Imperial Knight's machine spirit itself violently rejecting this foreign power… any single loss of control would have unimaginable consequences.
What is the energy dissipation threshold your safety redundancy measures can withstand? What is the response time of the emergency cutoff device in nanoseconds? Is the machine spirit compatibility protocol sufficiently complete?"
"We have designed multiple redundant Psyker suppression rune arrays and physical emergency cutoff gates!" Cawl called up complex 3D design diagrams, and holographic images instantly unfolded in the air, dense data streams scrolling madly around him like a waterfall, attempting to build a wall of persuasion with a massive amount of technical details. "The initial plan is to only use Delta-grade Psykers, with the lowest rating and relatively higher controllability, for shallow connection tests!
Regarding the machine spirit compatibility issue, we are attempting to logically couple some stable circuits with its core consciousness, supplemented by standardized machine spirit appeasement protocols…"
One of his mechanical tendrils unconsciously tapped the edge of a hovering data pad, emitting a rapid clicking sound.
At this moment, Sage Olegana stepped forward, the hem of her red robe brushing against the condensation-laden metal floor, making a faint rustling sound.
Her electronic voice was clear and calm, like the hum of a precision instrument, carrying both the candor of a friend and a pragmatic assessment of the technology: "Alex, based on existing models and material performance limits, even with the lowest power settings and Delta-grade Psykers for testing, the risk of system runaway is extremely high.
If we attempt to reach the practical power required for the battlefield, failure is almost inevitable.
The core bottlenecks are twofold: First, existing materials cannot replicate the near-law-level energy containment stability found on the Titan—the Titan armor's materials themselves may contain dark technology we cannot analyze.
Second, there is a fundamental, deep-seated conflict between the Psyker's soul energy and the Imperial Knight's machine spirit will that currently cannot be reconciled.
The technology is far from mature; forced testing will bring unacceptable, immense risks, with destructive power sufficient to destroy this isolation zone and even affect the core Titan."
She looked at Alex, the light from her optical lenses steady and deep, expressing her dual position as a project participant and Alex's friend.
Alex silently gazed at the Imperial Knight prototype, which flickered with dangerous, pulsating blue light within the isolation field.
It was like a warrior forcibly grafted with alien organs, appearing exceptionally small and unstable under the silent gaze of the massive psyker titan.
The Titan's enormous body cast a heavy shadow, its rune arrays' deep, constant eerie blue light seeming to silently mock the crude imitation's sickly, flickering glow on the prototype.
Olegana's cold, precise assessment was like a bucket of liquid nitrogen poured over Cawl's fervent theoretical deductions; the iceberg of technical bottlenecks appeared even larger and harder in the stark contrast of their attitudes.
Cawl's argumentation could not obscure the immense risks involved.
He needed power, but certainly not at the cost of creating an unstable Warp bomb that would detonate at the core of his Forge World.
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