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Chapter 307: Repairing the Panacea STC
🕑 Added 2025-09-19 11:10:31 +0000 UTCChapter 307: Repairing the Panacea STC
"This is the Panacea? Why is it so small? Didn't the Blood Ravens' report say it took up more than half the chamber back in the Dark Eldar facility?"
Pavian excitedly circled the shattered STC, observing it. Although the Mongorte Dynasty already possessed miraculous STCs like the Barracks and Factory, this was the first native Warhammer STC they had acquired, let alone one of this significance. Even with the Dynasty's current development and its considerable influence among various forge worlds and Mechanicus factions, no Tech-priest had ever been willing to sell an STC in their possession. To a "Gearhead," such a thing was priceless.
The reassembled Panacea STC was much smaller than they had imagined. Only a single SCV was working on its restoration, while ranks of Tech-priests sorted the fragments the Blood Ravens had brought back, ensuring no part was missing.
"This is indeed what it looked like when my Chapter and I found it," said Gabriel, who had returned to the Dynasty. His condition was much improved. Lucan had purified the Chaos energy from his body, but the physical mutations caused by the warp were irreversible. He had been brought here to test the miraculous properties of the Panacea STC, to see if it could repair his mutated body.
"STC units are rarely large," Cawl explained patiently to the others, though he too was visibly excited. "These were tools created by ancient humanity to facilitate colonization. Why would they be large? It is only when they are put into mass production that they require a vast amount of ancillary machinery to support their output. That is why you saw what you did before."
The group watched in silence as the SCV fused the countless fragments back into their original form. The moment the restoration was complete, Cawl and Pavian rushed forward impatiently. They ordered the Tech-priests to connect the power cables to it. As a massive amount of energy flowed into it, the damaged STC began to whir back to life.
"Praise the Omnissiah! All systems are operational! That's it!" Cawl declared, not bothering to hide his praise. "Gabriel, the item you have brought back will completely change the Imperium's dire situation in the face of Nurgle!"
"Cawl, Pavian, can the Panacea STC be mass-produced?" Lucan asked.
"Of course," Cawl confirmed. "Its servo-system will actively tell us how to build the appropriate ancillary production equipment. The power of an STC is that as long as we provide it with our existing resources and technology and then make a request, it will provide a reasonable solution within the limits of its capabilities and our own. And just as we suspected, the Panacea not only produces medicines to cure diseases, but it can also cure genetic and physical flaws."
Hearing this, Lucan immediately had Pavian connect the data from the Dynasty's administrative network to it. This saved everyone a considerable amount of time. All existing resources and technologies were stored in the network and could be imported directly.
Lucan then had a sample of Gabriel's blood extracted and placed into the STC for analysis. Just a few minutes later, the Panacea provided a complete solution to reverse Gabriel's physical mutations. The required materials, synthesis process, and application methods were all clearly listed. As long as they followed the procedure, they would achieve the desired effect.
Theoretically, a civilization at any stage of development that possessed an STC could receive a solution after making a request. But if that civilization's level was too low, even if the STC provided a solution, the complexity and time required to reach the goal would change based on that civilization's level.
Hearing that his body could be saved, Gabriel smiled. Although he knew that his Chapter members and Lucan would not brand him a heretic because of the physical mutations, most Astartes still pursued the purity of their flesh.
With the solution in hand, Cawl immediately began production. Using existing resources and technology, a special biological serum was delivered to Gabriel just half an hour later. As Cawl injected it into his body, Gabriel quickly discovered that his body was beginning to change. The overgrown, alien flesh was losing its vitality and was sloughing off on its own. Within a few breaths, the place where the mutated flesh had been was marked by only a faint scar. After a follow-up treatment with a nano-med gun, Gabriel's body was as if the mutation had never even occurred.
Upon further examination, Cawl discovered something even more profound. As an Astartes who had long fought against Chaos, his body's original genetic code had contained some minor deviations. This was one of the key reasons why the Imperium required the various Chapters to regularly submit their gene-seed tithe—to monitor their purity. But under the influence of this serum, the purity of Gabriel's physical body was now terrifyingly high.
Everyone marveled at the miraculous power of the Panacea.
But Lucan saw even greater value in it. The effect of repairing genetic defects was indeed comparable to the Genetic Ascension in Stellaris. However, it did not have the ability to increase the genetic strength of the species. Lucan felt that he could combine the Genetic Ascension he would eventually unlock with the Panacea STC. He could use the Panacea to eliminate the negative traits in a species' genes, which would in turn save him gene points, allowing him to spend them on more important areas.
He currently only used Physics research points from his Stellaris tech tree; his Society research points were still accumulating. And in the Society tech tree, there was a technology called "Gene Tailoring," which provided two species modification points to grant humanity more powerful genetic traits.
Thinking of this, Lucan immediately opened the system and, without hesitation, spent 10,000 Society research points to unlock the technology. Two points might not seem like much, but it could greatly enhance the capabilities of the human race itself.
Lucan began to look through the available genetic traits in the system. The particularly powerful ones, like "Very Strong," required three or four points. Its in-game description said that limb strength would be so great as to subvert the laws of physics, which sounded absurd. But on the other hand, the "Strong" genetic trait only cost one point. Its description read: "When conducting ground operations, they can become unstoppable warriors."
Lucan had already decided on the two traits he wanted that would immediately increase the combat effectiveness of his troops. These were the 1-point "Strong" trait and the 1-point "Rapid Healers" trait.
[Rapid Healers: This species can recover quickly after being injured.]
If he were to rely on conventional reproduction and iteration, it would take a massive amount of time for everyone in the Dynasty to possess these traits, let alone replacing all of humanity in the galaxy.
But Lucan didn't need to do that right now. He just needed a portion of his combat troops to possess these traits. The Dynasty already had artificial human forces produced by cloning vats. They could perfectly integrate these genetic traits to create a new and more powerful generation of artificial forces. With the current output of the cloning vats, after a certain amount of education, they could quickly produce a batch of gene-enhanced soldiers.
"I wonder just how 'unstoppable' this strength will be," he mused. "Will they all be on par with Astartes? Perhaps I should test this round of genetic modifications on the Blood Ravens first?"
