Chapter 309: Changes in the Main Base - III

Kordula’s request came in after sunset.

Hans was still at the Command Center, going through whatever came in after the Strategy Center went into the queue. Most of it he approved without reading past the first line.

For this one, he had to be a little slow.

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[ Research Request ]

[ Facility ]

Tech Center #2

[ Research Director ]

Kordula Weissenberg

[ Research Path ]

Cryogenic Systems Architecture I

[ Research ID ]

XBR-DAE-CRYOSYSTEMS-I

[ First Application ]

Advanced Thermal Management

[ Source Basis ]

Pylow Cryogenic Laboratories — PCL-2 / PCL-3 / PCL-4

[ Awaiting Commander Approval ]

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It had been barely half a day since he told her to get some rest.

"This woman," his brows twitched, "very very competitive indeed."

He pulled up what Secure Intake produced from the Pylow cases, since Kordula’s request wouldn’t be the only thing that came out of them.

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[ Secure Intake — Source Reconstruction Result ]

[ Pylow Cryogenic Laboratories ]

Cryogenic Systems Architecture I — Researchable

Fusion Architecture — Researchable

DAEDALUS Integrated Engineering Foundation I — Researchable

Cryogenic Atmospheric Control I — Researchable

Cryostorm Hybrid Combat Architecture — Researchable

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Hans looked at the list for a while.

He was very surprised about the presence of the Fusion Architecture itself. It seemed that Pylow had more secrets than he expected.

And the rest of the list looked a lot cooler than what she had initially chosen.

He didn’t think she was hiding anything. She was the one who brought these cases back in the first place.

But he wanted to know why she would pick Cryogenic Systems Architecture I compared to the others.

He stood up from his seat and spoke to Dianne.

"Tell Kordula I’m on my way."

...

As he exited the Command Center, Hans glanced at Tech Center #1’s progress. Another panel opened beside him.

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[ Tech Center #1 ]

[ Research Director ]

Tyrus Shearman

[ Current Research ]

HELIX-Integrated Infantry Foundation I

[ Research ID ]

INF-HELIX-FOUNDATION-I

[ Research Status ]

Active

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"Tyrus didn’t waste time, either."

The project hadn’t even appeared among the usable options when Tyrus first became Research Director.

There had been plenty of HELIX material by then, but most of it came from different places and answered different questions.

The Nuclear Power Plant had one part of it. Conservatory Park had another. The old clinics around Grefort, the Directorate records, Silverpeak and whatever Tyrus remembered from his own work filled in more pieces without actually completing the picture.

The additional material from Pylow seemed to have been enough for the System to finally put all of them together into something that could actually be researched.

And Tyrus picked it almost immediately.

Hans couldn’t really blame him.

The man had spent his first few projects getting used to the Tech Center instead. Advanced Radar was something the System already understood well enough to give him a straightforward path.

The Personnel Induction Wing came after that, followed by the infantry modernization project he finished while Kordula was away.

Now that he had gotten used to how the Research Core handled simulations, reconstructed missing parts and turned an idea into something the System could eventually certify, Tyrus decided to go back to something much closer to what he actually knew—HELIX.

Hans opened the project summary for a moment, although most of what appeared there still meant very little to him.

Whatever HFX-1 eventually became, it wasn’t another soldier on the Barracks list. It was supposed to change the biological foundation underneath the soldiers he already had.

That sounded much more like Tyrus’s kind of problem.

"This research, I wonder what its outcomes would be."

He still wasn’t entirely sure what Tyrus hoped to get out of HFX-1. The name didn’t help much either.

HELIX-Integrated Infantry Foundation sounded impressive, but Hans learned by now that impressive names could mean anything from a better rifle to rebuilding someone’s biology from the ground up.

He could ask Tyrus about it later.

For now, the research underneath it interested him less than the one Tyrus had just finished.

Hans opened the completed-project history.

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[ Research Complete ]

[ Infantry Weapon & Gear Standard I ]

INF-NATIVE-WEAPON-I

[ Infantry Modernization Standard — Certified ]

Conscript Production Standard

→ Rifleman

Existing Conscripts

→ Eligible for Barracks Synchronization / Retraining

Army Soldier

M16A4

→ 6.8 mm Next-Generation Battle Rifle

Scout

MP7A1

→ Suppressed M4A1 SOPMOD

Machine Gunner

M249 SAW

→ 7.62 mm General-Purpose Machine Gun Standard

Missile Infantry

→ Advanced Multi-Spectral Guidance Suite

General Infantry Equipment

→ Expanded All-Weather / Environmental Equipment Standards

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The research provided a huge upgrade that he could impose upon his infantry.

Every Conscript he already had would remain exactly as they were until they went through a Barracks for retraining and synchronization. The difference was that Hans wouldn’t be producing any more of the old standard once he started using the new one.

New Riflemen would come out with M4A1s, better equipment and proper all-weather gear from the beginning.

Existing Conscripts could be brought up to the same standard in batches.

Army Soldiers remained Army Soldiers. They only stopped carrying rifles that were already considered old before the apocalypse started.

The same applied to the others.

Hans looked at the panel again.

A single research project hadn’t suddenly made every soldier stronger or faster. Nobody gained more Health, synchronization or another Tier because Tyrus gave them better guns.

But Hans had more than thirty Battalions now.

Improving one weapon on one soldier wasn’t particularly exciting. Improving the equipment standard of practically his entire infantry force was something else.

And he didn’t even have to throw away the soldiers he already trained to take advantage of it.

The refits and retrains would take hours or even days, but it was better than letting his soldiers be fitted with older equipment.

The first batch started simultaneously across several areas at once—from the Main Base, to the southern junction, to Silverpeak, and Saicine up north.

Marianne’s soldiers were still setting up camp around Pylow.

"So this is how it all works huh, System?"

The classes weren’t fixed to whatever equipment they had when he first unlocked them. Research could keep changing the standard underneath them.

A Rifleman twenty years from now could still be a Rifleman even if whatever he carried looked nothing like the M4A1 being issued today.

Hans wandered around the thought for several seconds.

"System, will my soldiers become Astartes in the future?"

The System did not answer, and Hans nodded to himself.

"Not a no, so there’s a chance."

He closed the research history and continued toward Tech Center #2.

Whatever the case was, he looked forward to it.

Now he wanted to know why Kordula, after bringing back fusion and weather-control research from a mountain full of dead scientists, had decided her first project should be cooling things better.