Horisenburg underground core industrial sector, Integrated Test Grounds.
Kaelber was running.
He was currently clad in a brand-new set of power armor.
His speed was blindingly fast.
Making a violent, sharp right-angle turn right in the middle of the obstacle-littered test grounds, the high-strength anti-slip pads under Kaelber's feet let out a piercing screech of friction.
Had this been the previous hydraulic-driven exoskeleton, a maneuver so defying physical inertia would have overloaded the hydraulic pumps, placing an immense burden on the soldier's muscles.
Now, however, this armor merely sank down ever so slightly.
The internal servomuscle bundles deadlocked in an instant, absorbing all kinetic energy before releasing it in a single burst.
Kaelber launched forward once again, his movements so unnaturally fluid they felt almost surreal.
Standing behind the glass viewing wall, Andy watched the streaming data, a flash of satisfaction gleaming in his electronic eyes.
Data did not lie.
The pure mechanical performance parameters of this assault power armor—codenamed "Vanguard-Mod 2"—had reached 50% of the original "Vanguard" power armor listed in the STC database.
50%.
It sounded like very little on paper.
In the eyes of the ancestors, it might have been a depressing figure.
Yet for an Iron Man like Andy—who truly understood how brutally hard it was to forge a set of armor in a godforsaken hole like this—that 50% was nothing short of a miracle.
One had to remember that the original Golden Age "Vanguard" was backstopped by an entire industrial supply chain; it wasn't something built on a whim.
Under Andy's current conditions, reaching half of the original model's parameters proved that Deep Space Industries' technological path had fully smoothed out, genuinely touching the threshold of cutting-edge manufacturing.
To put it bluntly, the gear Andy had built before was mere budget knockoffs.
Only this "Mod 2" could be considered their first truly respectable piece of work.
The core contributor driving this technological revolution was none other than Taoguer Bionic Material!
This substance—converted from active bone—had completely altered Andy's underlying logic regarding power armor structural design.
In the past, when building armor out of steel plates, Andy had to drill holes, cut grooves, and reserve vast hollow chambers along the framework to run wiring and install hydraulic assist tubes.
This resulted in structural discontinuity.
Every hole drilled and every connection point served as a potential stress concentration zone—a structural point of weakness.
Upon sustaining a heavy blow, these exact spots fractured first.
Taoguer material was different.
It retained the micro-properties of biological bone—porous in nature, with a pore structure that offered exceptional biocompatibility.
When designing this new armor, Andy made an extraordinarily bold attempt.
Instead of "installing" wiring onto the framework...
He allowed the Type-IV neural bundles to grow directly into the internal pores of the Taoguer material itself.
On a microscopic level, the neural bundles coupled directly with the armor's framework, behaving just like bone, blood vessels, and nerves.
The benefits of this design were game-changing, elevating structural integrity to unprecedented heights.
The entire framework of the armor became a seamless, holeless whole, allowing stress transmission to distribute with absolute uniformity and boosting impact resistance by five to six times over.
As for the plasteel used previously...
What plasteel? Never heard of it.
Beyond the topological overhaul, the evolution of the servo system was another highlight of this upgrade.
The hydraulic assist rods Andy previously used offered brute strength, but suffered from a fatal flaw: sluggish response times and massive bulk.
In prolonged combat, that sensation of being "pushed along by machinery" caused severe driver fatigue.
On the "Mod 2," Andy abandoned traditional hydraulic rods altogether. Leveraging Taoguer material's resilience alongside micro high-frequency vibration motors cut by precision machining centers, he created this servomuscle bundle system.
In appearance, they resembled silver strands of metallic fiber clinging tightly to the inner joints of the armor.
When current passed through, these fibers contracted instantly, generating immense tensile pull.
This was true "movement in sync with the body."
It replicated human muscle firing patterns, while outperforming the previous version in strength and explosive output by tens of times over.
Kaelber now needed only to fight according to his natural instincts, and the armor would automatically amplify his every movement.
Technological elegance was vastly superior to the primitive stacking of armor thickness.
Naturally, being a hand-crafted iteration, flaws inevitably remained.
Speaking of which, Andy felt somewhat helpless.
The thermal management system remained Deep Space Industries' current weak link.
The original Vanguard utilized phase-change cooling materials boasting extreme instantaneous heat absorption capabilities, maintaining stable core temperatures even when operating near a Dyson sphere.
Andy couldn't forge that material yet, remaining stuck with traditional liquid-cooling loop systems.
Though the porous structure of Taoguer material assisted heat dissipation to an extent, it fell short during high-intensity combat.
Should Kaelber execute extreme maneuvers continuously for over thirty minutes, internal armor temperatures would spike past fifty degrees Celsius.
While not enough to scald a man alive, it was far from comfortable.
An even more glaring issue remained.
Energy.
The original Vanguard relied on cold nuclear fusion batteries—a single unit lasting for decades while delivering massive, stable energy output.
Though high-energy storage batteries represented the absolute peak of battery tech Andy could currently produce—crushing the Imperium's offerings in energy density—chemical energy was chemical energy at the end of the day, separated from nuclear power by an unbridgeable chasm.
This made the "Mod 2's" operational endurance its single biggest pain point.
Under full-power combat conditions, the battery pack could sustain operations for only around 150 minutes.
Once that time elapsed, Kaelber would have to find a place to swap batteries, or risk becoming an unpowered tin can getting gang-tapped by enemies.
This served as a stark reminder to Andy that climbing the technology tree could not be rushed.
Breakthroughs in fundamental physics couldn't be solved merely by scavenging; until micro-fusion technology was mastered, the energy bottleneck would persist long-term.
Out on the test grounds, Kaelber brought his movement to a stop.
Removing his helmet, his face beamed with an expression bordering on ecstatic.
"Boss, this feels way too awesome!" Kaelber praised endlessly. "I feel like I could punch right through a landship!"
"Is that so?"
Andy connected to the comms: "While output power has increased, it hasn't boosted you to the point of going toe-to-toe in melee against a landship."
"Besides, we'd better use these sparingly."
"The production cost of this thing is something even I cannot ignore."
Production cost was the primary barrier restricting large-scale deployment of this god-tier wargear.
Although most raw materials were converted—appearing to cost little on paper—the time and labor costs were staggering.
The growth cycle for Taoguer Bionic Material was fixed, stock of Type-IV neural bundles was limited, and core components required hundreds of hours of cutting time in precision machining centers before coming off the assembly line.
Andy ran the math.
At current production capacity, Deep Space Industries could forge at most five sets of this power armor per month—and that was assuming no other high-end equipment was being manufactured.
Thus, this gear was destined exclusively for the elite of the elite.
As for the regular heavy escort team?
They could stick to the T-9000 exoskeleton—sturdy, durable, and easy to fix when broken!
Andy felt a mix of emotions.
This power armor brought together all of Deep Space Industries' peak technologies: high-purity alloy framework from the material molecular reconstructor, Taoguer bionic material and neural bundles from the xenos technology parsing station, and nanometer-precision parts from the precision machining center.
This set of armor stood as a milestone in Deep Space Industries' technological evolution.
It proved Andy's development strategy was sound. So long as the path remained correct, dedicated effort could still yield equipment capable of turning the heads of Space Marines.
However...
There was one issue Andy felt compelled to self-reflect upon.
Aesthetics.
Andy stared at the power armor shimmering under the lights—a deep blue bordering on black, complete with a subtle gradient effect.
How should he describe his current feeling...?
Regret. Deep regret!
When originally designing the paint scheme, Andy felt the Golden Age's gray, white, and black palette was utterly bland and lacked personality.
Since this was their signature wargear, it needed style and prestige.
On a bizarre whim, he put together a color palette tool and mixed a shade named "Deep Sea Ultramarine Blue," complete with a highlighted gradient finish along the pauldrons and cuirass.
On the blueprints, it had looked undeniably sleek, exuding a mysterious, high-class depth.
Now that the physical item was built and standing before him...
Wasn't this a bit too... flashy?!
The high-saturation blue yielded an insanely high reflectance rate in dim environments, making it look like a walking neon billboard.
On the battlefield, anyone who wasn't stone-blind would spot it first thing.
This wasn't armor for a tactical assault vanguard—it was a tank suit with a built-in taunt aura!
Furthermore, standing alongside the dusty gray Vanguards nearby, the artistic contrast was as jarring as two completely different movie sets.
"Did I... overdo it?"
Andy rubbed his metallic chin.
This paint scheme contradicted Deep Space Industries' long-standing doctrine of "keep a low profile and build wealth quietly"!
It was way too flashy!!
Should he change it back?
Spray it back to gray? Desert yellow?
Andy hesitated for a long time.
Repainting was a hassle—it required re-mixing the paint and stripping down the armor for re-coloring, costing another two days of delay.
Besides...
Flashy as it was...
He had to admit...
It looked damn cool!
For a crew of warriors who risked their lives daily, perhaps this in itself provided a massive morale boost?
"Forget it," Andy ultimately decided. "We'll leave it as is!"
Since performance met standards, minor cosmetic details could be left alone.
The armor was tough enough to withstand focused fire anyway.
Besides, who said a development-focused faction couldn't have a little flair?
Let this splash of "Deep Sea Ultramarine Blue" become their enemies' worst nightmare!