Chapter 105: Modification, Bionics, and Electro-Priests
"Faith is a dangerous thing. One slip, and you can make a big mess." Omega, regretting not having cracked down on the "Maiga god" cult in the first place, looked at the Tech-Priest-style Korsa training camp and made up his mind: the next time something like this happened, he would definitely invite the "cultists" for a cup of tea.
The original savage primitives had now been upgraded to techno-barbarians, their bodies' steel content clearly exceeding their organic content. The landmark of this place was not the various training grounds, but the modification center located in the middle of several training camps. A constant stream of meat-bags went in, and a constant stream of curious or show-offish people with new bionics came out.
Amidst a path of kneeling figures, Omega walked into the modification center. The moment he entered, he saw a group of priests already waiting for him in the hall. Among them were many young faces, all of whom had grown up from the original apprentices in the years since they had set out.
The educational reforms Omega had implemented on Teyedan had made the quality and growth rate of the apprentices there far exceed those of other Forge Worlds. But in terms of efficiency, they still couldn't compare to vat-born like him and Louis. But this did not affect the speed and proportion of the 40,000 adult apprentices Omega had taken with him who had been promoted to priests. Not to mention, Principal Omega's "Operation Wild Goose Strike" was still ongoing, which made those sweethearts under the rod even more eager to become priests so they could be with their lovers sooner. However, Omega had also heard that there had been cases of people working too hard and a third party getting involved. Omega, who considered himself an educator, had only secretly watched a few "do you love her or me" melodramas through the surveillance, but had not interfered.
Omega was not surprised to be greeted by the priests. What surprised him was that Jacob was also here. From his attire, he knew that Jacob had just come from the operating table.
"Thank you all for your hard work."
"You are the one who has worked hard, honored Magos Omega," they replied in unison.
After a few polite words and asking them for their opinions, Omega found Jacob. "Jacob, why are you here? And what's with those Korsa people?"
Jacob sighed. "I know you've always been against the cult's practice of forced modification. But with the battlefield the Korsa people are about to face, do they have a choice? Before you went into seclusion, didn't you promise them that their bloodline would continue? You know what these Korsa people did. They chose the elders to take care of the children, and left behind everyone who could hold a weapon. Everyone. The old who were about to die, the children who could barely lift a sword. They were all left behind. They risked everything just to have a better chance of victory. The more they trained, the more they understood what they were facing. The more they understood, the more desperate they became. They understood that they needed strength. When the first Korsa person who voluntarily applied for modification appeared, more and more Korsa people began to have the same idea."
"Is that so..." Omega murmured.
"After discussing with Magos Laust, we decided to agree to the Korsa people's request. The modified Korsa people can greatly enhance the defensive strength on Korsa. We believe that you would have hesitated in the face of this problem, but you would have eventually agreed."
"Yes... I would have eventually agreed." Omega rubbed his head. Laust and Jacob were the ones who knew him best. They were making the difficult decisions for him. "Thank you," Omega said to Jacob. But the honest man Jacob's next words made Omega's jaw drop.
"But we didn't expect the Korsa people to be so receptive to modification. Usually, a primitive civilization like this values their bodies very much. They are even buried with their bodies as intact as possible. But these Korsa people not only all accepted it, but they even have a similar idea to the cult's 'the less organic matter, the closer to the Machine God'. Later, we analyzed that it might be because they started to believe in you."
The Omnissiah cub retorted, "Nonsense! I don't have that kind of ability." But Jacob's thought was, how do you prove you don't? The facts speak for themselves. The several million Korsa people were the iron-clad proof. But he knew Omega. He knew that he had always denied the fact that he was an Omnissiah cub, and he had always been dismissive of other cult beliefs. This was also one of the proofs of a "true god."
Jacob, who had anticipated this reaction from Omega, had already prepared another set of words. "You misunderstand. I don't mean that you made the Korsa people like this. It's that the Korsa people, after seeing the guards and the Automata around you, as well as us and the Skitarii, developed the idea that the more modified, the closer to you."
"You guys too. You didn't even explain it to them," Omega complained.
The Tech-Priests had, of course, explained to the Korsa people. But mechanical ascension was a major mainstream faction of the Adeptus Mechanicus. This involved the "political correctness" of the Adeptus Mechanicus. Moreover, they did not have the Omnissiah cub's perfect body, which could go without sleep for days and still be full of energy. A mortal cog-head, if he didn't modify himself, how could he learn more sacred technology? The explanation given to the Korsa people was also the Adeptus Mechanicus's set—just get modified!
Jacob, who did not dare to tell Omega what the priests were doing in private, said a truth, "You know how low the cognitive level of those Korsa people is."
"Alright, alright. Since it's already like this, you can just continue. By the way, what's with those people?" Omega pointed to a group of Korsa people who were kowtowing not far away. These Korsa people, men and women, old and young, showed no signs of modification.
Jacob looked in the direction of Omega's finger and said, "They are all high-IQ talents who have been screened. It would be a waste of their talent to make them warriors, so we plan to absorb them and train them to become apprentices."
"I see. You did the right thing. We need a steady stream of new blood to ensure the vitality of our explorator fleet."
This was the only thing Omega had heard in the past two days that had made him feel gratified. He was so happy that he even went over to these new bloods and encouraged them, telling the young ones to study hard, that the future was theirs, and telling the old ones to study hard too, that with technology, their age was the prime of their life for adventure.
After encouraging them, Omega felt that since he was already here, just going through the motions would not reflect his concern for his subordinates as a great leader. So he stayed at the modification center to guide the priests in bionic modification and bionics. Although Omega himself was not modified, he was very knowledgeable about how to modify others. His skills were also very high. Otherwise, the price of "bionic parts" on Teyedan would not have been beaten down by him to the price of cabbage. Many priests had come to Teyedan to settle down precisely because of the high-quality, low-price, and superior-performance bionic parts. This was also the confidence that Laust and the others had in agreeing to the Korsa people's request. If it had been any other cog-head, they would have thought that these savages were trying to take advantage of them and would have turned them into servitors to punish them.
Omega had originally not been very interested in these bloody technologies. But one time, when he was wandering around, he had heard a Tech-Priest complain that his four-handed heart was always malfunctioning. Omega had been greatly dissatisfied. He had not expected that on the Teyedan he had rebuilt, a priest would need to use a four-handed bionic. He believed that the black-hearted capitalists had not at all grasped the "new Teyedan spirit" of him, the crown prince. He had resolutely thrown himself into the research and development of bionic parts. He would use the price of cabbage to bankrupt the black-hearted cog-heads.
The ending, well, let's not talk about it. It is worth mentioning that for a while, Veyl had sold off his collection to deal with a cash flow problem.
Overall, the second day's inspection was much better for Omega than the first. Although there were also some unexpected things, at least it didn't make him go back at night and continue to chatter to the Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer.
As for the third stop, Omega decided to go and see those warlike savage warriors. He chose this place mainly because he was now a little worried about the Greenskins. He planned to go and see the Greenskins that the Inquisitor was in charge of after he had recovered. The savage warriors' range of activity was in the great Greenskin forest. To separate them from the other Korsa people, when Omega had decided to let them hunt Greenskins for points, he had built a hunting town for them on the edge of the forest. Here, they could rest safely, exchange for equipment, or treat their injuries.
Looking at the fantasy-style hunting town he had designed, the little cog-head's inner desires were once again satisfied. Although Warhammer had all the elements of fantasy, the style was too bizarre. Each race was more outrageous than the last. It couldn't satisfy Omega's little fantasies. Fortunately, he had the ability to satisfy himself.
But things that made him unhappy always appeared when he was happy. He hadn't even gotten close to the fantasy town when he saw someone bullying someone else through his telescope. And the bully was an acquaintance of his. How could Omega, who had just been fantasizing about being a hero, stand it?
"Stop! You bunch of gangsters!"
"Magos Omega, it's the Brotherhood."
The head of the gangsters, who was not ashamed to parade around with a group of "tattooed" naked men, dared to talk back to him. Omega was angry. He pointed at the blue man and said, "I say you are gangsters, you are. Why were you bullying him? Aren't you all in the same group? I've only been gone for a little while, and you've already learned to bully your own people!"
The blue man, seeing that Omega was angry, quickly explained with a fawning smile, "Magos, you misunderstand. He's not with us. We are the Corpuscarii, he is a Fulgurite."
Omega, who knew the history of the two factions of the Electro-Priests, couldn't continue to blame the blue man. But he still couldn't stand the sight of the blue man leading a group of people to electrocute one person. "The Tyranid enemy is at hand. There are other Magi who are willing to come to Korsa to help. We can't bully their followers. Pay attention to unity. Don't do this again in the future."
"We didn't do anything to undermine unity. He's not from another ship. He's from our ship."
"Hmm?! Wait. When did a Fulgurite Electro-Priest appear on my ship? Why don't I know?"