Chapter 109: Heretics, Detoxification, and the 42k "Tomb Raiders"
Omega didn't know what the "Xenos Hybris" faction was. He only knew that the Inquisition was a vast, loose, and complex organization. Every Inquisitor had their own ideas on how to best protect the Imperium. Based on their different philosophies and methods, the Inquisition was actually divided into countless factions. Even worse, legally, every Inquisitor was of equal rank. How much they could accomplish depended entirely on the strength they could muster and the number of allies they could call upon. A Grand Inquisitor was just an Inquisitor with a lot of power, or simply the head of a particular faction.
"Is your... Xenos Hybris faction... legitimate?" The moment he asked, Omega regretted it. With a name like that, it couldn't possibly be legitimate. And sure enough, when Fenni heard him, her expression immediately darkened. Her eyes seemed to be accusing the little cog-head of having no conscience. Who was it that had just been worrying about him?
"Haha, I didn't mean anything by it. I was just wondering what your faction's...claim...is?"
"Our faction believes that humanity should learn from the achievements and failures of other xenos. An overly strict policy of xenophobia is detrimental to the Imperium. Xenos have at least some value, especially in the fight against Chaos. Some of their technologies are quite valuable to humanity's current situation."
Well, that's a heretical faction if I ever heard one. I knew Fenni was not right, Omega muttered to himself. But no matter what, Fenni was his friend, and he was no orthodox cog-head himself. So he said, "Hmm, your faction's ideas are quite progressive, quite... inclusive."
"Of course. We are not like those Puritans who worship ancient laws, who are extremely hostile to xenos or warp phenomena, and who firmly believe that anything related to the enemy will bring corruption and lead to the destruction of all humanity."
The Inquisitor's expression and tone as she said this carried a sense of "the masses are ignorant, only I am awake." It was very much the vibe of a fanatic, very much in line with Omega's stereotype of an Inquisitor. Was she right? Something felt wrong. Was she wrong? There seemed to be some truth to it. After much hesitation, Omega still said, "Well, Fenni, you should still be careful. Not all technology is safe."
But even if the Inquisitor didn't speak, Omega could read the meaning in her eyes: You, a cog-head who has recreated a cataclysmic plague, have the nerve to say this?
Hmph! You ungrateful Inquisitor! Omega turned and walked away in a huff. Just as he was about to disappear from her sight, he said, "Don't forget to notify me before you hold the divination ritual."
The little cog-head was now in a hurry to go back and patch his nanites. He planned to seal away "Grey Mist 4.0" as his trump card. If anyone ever really pissed him off, he would send them a big can of it and make them regret it.
"Grey Mist" and "Detox" were essentially the same, only different in their materials, behavioral programs, and design philosophy. "Grey Mist" was a weapon, designed for the efficiency of killing, resistance to various interferences, and maximum endurance after leaving the host. "Detox" had many more requirements and limitations. It had to be used in conjunction with Omega's medical device to have a therapeutic and detoxifying effect. The materials used had to be harmless to the human body, and there was no consideration for endurance. The moment it left the host, it would immediately shut down due to a lack of power.
Omega had originally not used biomimetic materials so that "Detox" could stay in the human body for a longer time. He now planned to switch the material of "Detox" back to biomimetic materials, remove the function of absorbing bio-electromagnetic fields for energy, and integrate the function of releasing a medical energy field into the portable medical device he had designed. "Detox," using biomimetic materials, was an upgraded version of a medical robot, so Omega was not afraid of exposing it. Teyedan had been selling it for so long and no one had said anything. No one would think that a nanite that could only operate in a medical bay was a weapon.
"If I had known it would be like this, why did I go to so much trouble?"
"It's all your fault, you bugs!"
Omega, full of resentment, returned to his lab and took his anger out on the already-cold Gorgon swarm sample, kicking and punching it. But he accidentally hit the chitinous shell of a Gaunt and had to squat on the ground, clutching his fist, for a long time. Then, muttering "I won't stoop to the level of a dead bug," he pulled out his experimental records, found the data he needed, and began to design the dumbed-down version.
An unreliable weapon is not a good weapon. An uncontrollable weapon is not a good weapon. These were the criteria of the Imperium of Man for judging the quality of a weapon. Now, Omega felt he should add another one: a weapon that would cause trouble for its creator is not a good weapon.
Fortunately, every small step forward in technology is incredibly difficult, but regression is much simpler. It didn't take Omega more than a few days to complete the design and refinement of the dumbed-down version. The medical device, which he could have easily lifted with one hand before, now had to be carried on his back. This made Omega look at this technological creation, which other cog-heads would have kowtowed to, with disdain. "Let's just leave it at that. I'll go and see if the ruins have any surprises. I still have to prepare another gift for the Tyranids."
After arranging the production of the dumbed-down "Detox," Omega rushed to the excavation site of the ruins. Looking at the "wolf smoke" of the Korsa holy land from the airship, the little cog-head was sure that Magos Laust was a "tomb raider" cog-head, relying on a large number of people and brute force to create miracles. "Heh heh, it's time to let these brutes know what technology is."
The guards behind Omega were already used to their "little master" having these occasional fits of madness and saying strange things. At first, they had tried to decipher if the great Omnissiah cub was trying to convey some divine oracle that was difficult for mortals to understand. But they were just tools. Although they had been upgraded by the Omnissiah cub and had become better tools, their wisdom was not enough to understand the deep meaning. So they could only record it and compile it into a book—The Sayings of the Omnissiah Cub—and wait for a destined person in a future generation who could understand its wisdom.
Archeology was a great undertaking worthy of a cog-head's full devotion, so great that when the number one man in the fleet came to inspect their work, there was not a single person to welcome him. This made the little cog-head, who prided himself on being approachable, very unhappy. "Just you wait. I'll make things difficult for you," Omega grumbled as he walked in. He was mainly angry that they hadn't even arranged for someone to guide him. In such a large archeological site, how was he supposed to know where the "main chamber" was? In the end, he had to contact the cog-girl and, after confirming her location, he finally had a target.
Omega, who hadn't seen the cog-girl for a long time, almost didn't recognize the dusty, dark-skinned, dirt-covered ghost before him as the fair-skinned, beautiful, image-conscious, and a little vain cog-girl he knew. "How did you end up like this?"
"What's wrong? Is there something strange?" Rhea, not at all self-aware, even looked herself up and down. She didn't see anything wrong. Wasn't everyone like this?
"Err... never mind. How's the excavation of the ruins coming along?"
"We can now be sure that the Korsa holy land was once the center of Korsa. A super-large city ruin is buried beneath our feet. To excavate more relics and technology before the Tyranids arrive, we had to abandon the ruins at other locations and concentrate all our strength here."
"Let's go! Show me what the ruins look like," Omega said excitedly.
"Come with me."
Under Rhea's guidance, Omega learned that the archeological site he was now seeing was just a series of "tomb-raiding tunnels," a stopgap measure to race against the Tyranids. The normal procedure would have been to remove all the earth covering the ruins to ensure that nothing was missed. But that method required too much work and too much time and was not suitable for them. After some discussion, they had decided to use the "tomb-raiding tunnel" method, to strike at the key points and go straight for the most essential parts of the ruins.
"Oh, I see. But how did you determine the location?"
"We found a map by repairing the data we found at other ruins. Although the map is incomplete, it's enough for us to locate this place and to get a general idea of the city's layout," Rhea explained, operating the elevator as she spoke to the curious Omega. They were now about to descend into the underground ruins through the elevator in the tunnel.
Omega, who had been scared by the Inquisitor's "Blood Tide," was a little worried that they would encounter a "super-mummy" as they dug. He asked worriedly, "Can we be sure of the reason for the decline of the Korsa civilization now?"
"From the extent of the damage to the ruins, they had a civil war. We've detected traces of atomic weapons, and not just here, but at other ruins as well."
Hearing this news, Omega's heart settled back into his stomach. At least the Korsa civilization had not been destroyed by some out-of-control forbidden technology.
"So, the Korsa people now are the descendants of the survivors of the nuclear explosion."
"It should be said that their ancestors lived in relatively remote areas and were probably engaged in physical labor. Because from the power of the atomic weapons we have deduced, the two or three warring parties were all aiming to completely wipe each other out. There was no possibility of survival for those living in the cities."
Hearing the bad news, Omega shouted, "Then the ruins must be severely damaged!"
"Yes. But my father and the other experienced priests say that ruins are almost always like this. If it weren't for such a devastating attack, there would not have been a civilizational schism and regression. If some of the people who had mastered the technology had survived, the Korsa we see now would not be a feral world. It might have been a civilized world."
"But don't be disappointed. We've also found a lot of technological relics."
On the way down, Omega, who was "tomb-raiding" for the first time, was a little nervous. His little heart was pounding. His little habit of fantasizing was acting up again. He had already imagined a 42k version of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" for himself.
When the elevator stopped with a slight shudder and the doors opened, a spectacular archeological site was presented before his eyes. The lighting equipment, hanging from the ceiling nearly a hundred meters high, illuminated the endless underground space as if it were day. Countless thick load-bearing pillars supported an unknown volume of earth and rock above.
One transport vehicle after another, fully loaded with earth and rock, poured the collected soil onto a conveyor belt. As the conveyor belt moved, the earth and rock were scanned by instruments, and the man-made objects inside were sorted out by mechanical arms and placed on another conveyor belt. On this conveyor belt, apprentices were identifying these objects. Those they were unsure of were handed over to the priests for further identification.
"Have the 'tomb-raiding strongmen' progressed to the level of industrialized tomb-raiding?!" the little cog-head muttered another strange phrase that no one else could understand.