Chapter 122: Route Planning
"You're back."
Romulus, still organizing the crusade's route, greeted him without looking up. He glanced at Arthur's mission brief, then couldn't help but comment, "You can really see that stuff? You're a regular Grand Seer."
"I couldn't at first," Arthur said, shaking his head and casually tossing a candy wrapper into the disposal chute.
Their shared abilities were beginning to specialize according to their individual behaviors. Recently, having dissected so many bodies, he could now tell the degree of a body's deterioration at a glance. Combined with the nature of his work, his own scanning logic could now deduce an object's production date with very low error.
When he looked at an Astartes, he could subconsciously see his characteristics, his physical tendencies, and so on. It had made teaching those sons of the Angel much easier. At the very least, he could spot any physical problems with a single look.
It did seem to validate Ramesses's initial theory of [Establish Cognition, Collect Information, Complete Entry]. For example, when looking at the same high-tech Great Crusade-era tank, Romulus would see its combat data, Arthur would see its production number, date, and operational wear, and Karna would just get a bunch of basic keywords. As for Ramesses, who knew what his divergent mind could see.
"Where's Karna?" Romulus asked.
"With the Angels," Arthur replied. Karna was responsible for handling the psychological problems of the Angel's sons. He was responsible for drilling the hell out of them. Even the contingent of Blood Angels who were following the crusade fleet had been selected by Arthur, because Karna had gotten too familiar with them, so he had to be the bad cop.
Right, messing around on Baal. Romulus nodded.
"And Ramesses?"
"Catching daemons in the Warp and spying on Vashtorr," Arthur continued. "Ramesses is interested in daemon engines. He plans to study a similar operational model to let mortal souls control war machines. But the ultimate goal of this research is to try and decipher the interactive model between the real universe and the Warp."
"Secondly, he is also writing the latest edition of the Librarian's textbook."
Right, messing around in the Warp. Romulus nodded again, then went back to organizing his data.
"How is the popularization of the initial version of the Primaris surgery going?"
"Very smoothly. As long as it doesn't involve Warp-power or genetic-level modifications, the various Chapters are very receptive to it," Arthur said, reviewing the information he had. "Also, some of the Blood Angels' Apothecaries are already trying to research a certain type of biological organ to replace the 'Magnificat Organ Regulation System,' attempting to use this organ to suppress their genetic-level thirst for blood. The specific data has not yet been delivered."
"Dante's workload is about to skyrocket," Romulus said, his mouth opening, but he didn't know what to say. He could only think that it was to be expected from the Blood Angel Apothecarion that, in the future, would believe Fabius Bile's crap and create the Bloodfiends, leading to the assault on the Sanctum Angelis and the theft of Sanguinius's blood. The idiocy was hereditary.
"I feel like the Primaris Marines we're promoting are actually quite conservative for these Chapters?" Romulus asked.
"Correct." Arthur nodded. When he was teaching those Apothecaries, he had taken a very close look and found that his own bottom line was the highest. At the very least, the degraded version of the Primaris surgery they were promoting had had its Warp-component removed. Every single one of those Apothecaries wanted to go and mess with the genes, or ask a Librarian to perform some ritual and do some rotten Warp-stuff.
Say what you will, there was a reason that the first to be corrupted in a Chapter were always the Apothecaries. They knew too much, and they sought too much. The key was that their psychological age and their understanding of the world could not support the knowledge they possessed.
"This is the material from the investigation, graded according to the severity of the situation. It's mainly concentrated in the Blood Angels' lineage," Arthur said, presenting the report.
"No matter how beautiful the flower, we shouldn't let a young child run to the edge of a cliff to pick it without stopping them," Romulus said. Looking at the cases in the report, he decisively forwarded what the Apothecaries were planning to Dante.
"Few people are able to cast aside those childish and ignorant ideas to do the right thing," Arthur nodded. He was beginning to suspect that the people they had met when they had first transmigrated had all been hand-picked by Old Man Gold. Every one of them was the type who could stand on their own and didn't cause trouble. Ever since arriving on Pierdra, and up to now, the humans they had encountered had gradually become more... human.
"..."
The atmosphere between the two grew quiet again. After the simple communication was over, all that seemed to be left was an endless state of work. Arthur fell into deep thought, occasionally disappearing, and bringing back new information for his partner upon his return.
Romulus carefully went over the gains from Baal again. Thanks to the trust of the various factions, he had participated in almost the entire construction process on Baal, so he could get first-hand information in a timely manner. The future development framework for the Blood Angels had been established. With Dante watching over it, there was no need to worry about any problems. The Primaris Space Marine technology had been disseminated, and had even passed the Inquisition's review. Now it was up to the various Chapters to see what they could do with it.
Arthur had also run through the new combat doctrine in detail with the sons of the Angel. His own combat simulations hadn't stopped. The remaining problems would need to be discovered and corrected in a higher-intensity war.
The "Thirstwater" creatures native to Baal, which could instantly drain the moisture from a carbon-based lifeform, had also been recorded. There was nothing left on this planet that was worth their time.
Not long after, Romulus's voice sounded again. "It's time for us to depart."
Arthur was slightly taken aback, then nodded. It had indeed been a bit too relaxed recently. Combat was just leading Space Marines to beat up on cannon fodder. Sometimes he couldn't help but imagine, if humanity's opponents were all this kind of xenos, they wouldn't have to live in such dire straits.
But it was clear that the beings that had long been rooted in humanity's side were not something you could just ignore.
The war was never over.
"I'll leave the offline communication to you. If you need any data, just let me know. I need to plan the crusade's route." The crusade fleet's destination was Macragge, yes, but that didn't mean the massive fleet would do nothing on the way. The Emperor directly opening a path in the Warp was an exception. According to the normal crusade procedure, no matter how critical the destination, the fleet had to deal with the enemies of the Imperium along the way as much as possible. After all, everyone understood Warp travel.
This was a good opportunity to build relationships. Such a massive fleet only needed to divert a small portion of its strength to be able to eliminate the incursions and rebellions that were a headache for many sectors, and the leaders of the fleet would also gain the friendship of the various sectors. Don't think that this so-called political capital and friendship is useless. The honor-debt of the Imperium is something that cannot be neglected. When you're short on men, money, and ships, and you're being investigated by various Imperial factions, you just have to give a shout, and these sectors might just pull something out for you.
High Marshal Helbrecht had already tacitly agreed to let the four elders take the lead of the fleet. Since he, who was most familiar with the crusade procedure, was like this, the other members naturally had nothing to say. Since the Black Templars were leading them by the hand to gain relationships and honor-debt, Romulus naturally could not betray that trust. He had to plan everything perfectly.
The fleet could not remain in Warp-jump continuously; that would easily lead to half of it being lost by the time they reached their destination. Nor could they be held up by any one incident, to prevent the local Imperial forces from being wiped out by the time they arrived. At the same time, they had to maximize the benefits for the participants, prepare war plans, plan the route, reasonably allocate combat power, and ensure supplies. These were all things the navigator of the fleet needed to guarantee.
Earning this reputation was not easy.
"Alright." Arthur's figure flickered and then disappeared.
"Sigh, it feels like this work will never end." Romulus took a sip of the drink a servo-skull had brought him, and then once again immersed himself in his busy work.
(End of Chapter)