Chapter 267: Post-War and the Technology Crisis
With the retreat of the Chaos fleet from the void, the outcome of the ground battle was no longer in question. Without Abaddon's command, the various Chaos factions could only fight for themselves. It still took a full month to cleanse the Cadian system of all remaining Chaos forces.
In the end, Cadia had been saved.
News of the victory on Cadia was quickly transmitted back to Terra. The Chaos warships that had failed to escape the void had fought a desperate last stand, but their resistance was futile against the combined might of dozens of Astartes Chapters and the massive Imperial fleet. With the destruction of the final Chaos vessel, only a silent graveyard of wreckage remained in the void.
A rough post-battle tally estimated that nearly two hundred Chaos warships of all classes had been destroyed. The number of Chaos prisoners executed was countless, and many more valuable captives were taken. Inquisitors from all the nearby sectors were summoned. They needed to extract more intelligence from the mouths of these traitors, and it was certain their workload in the coming period would be astonishingly high.
The two remaining Chaos Titan Legions were eventually annihilated by a loyalist Titan Legion from Mars, supported by orbital strikes from the fleet. The priceless Warlord-class Titans were reduced to metal scrap. The Adeptus Mechanicus had been particularly zealous in the elimination of these renegades. Titans were the rulers of the ground, but they were fragile when faced with the threat of a naval warship.
Although Abaddon's crusade had failed, the damage inflicted upon Cadia and the surrounding sectors was still immense. Many planets had been destroyed by Exterminatus, some even detonated entirely. The time and cost required to rebuild these worlds would be enormous. These were all important resource and strategic planets located close to the Segmentum Solar. Some planets that were deemed to have lost all value were simply abandoned by the Imperium.
With the activation of the Null-Field, the Eye of Terror appeared to have shrunk slightly. While it had not been closed entirely, it was no longer expanding. Lucan's ultimate goal had been achieved. Not only had he prevented the fall of Cadia, but he had also dealt a devastating blow to the forces of Chaos. It was foreseeable that it would be almost impossible for them to gather another fleet of sufficient strength to threaten the Imperium for a century, perhaps even longer.
Khorne's ability to corrupt mortals had been reduced to its lowest point. The corruption of mortals by a Chaos God is not something that can be accomplished overnight. This would greatly reduce the pressure on the Imperium.
Unfortunately, they had failed to destroy the last Blackstone Fortress and the Vengeful Spirit. Lucan also did not yet know that Abaddon had been sealed away by Trazyn. All attempts to locate the Warmaster in the final stages of the battle had come up empty. The Imperium's official assessment was that he had managed to retreat with his fleet.
What concerned Lucan the most was the battle between the DOOM Slayer and Khorne. Khorne's realm had been left in shambles. After it was over, Lucan had even inquired with the Emperor about the outcome. He could not scry on the DOOM Slayer as he could with his other StarCraft units. The answer he received from the Emperor was that Khorne was definitely hurting, but he was still a long way from being killed.
The end of the Slayer's summoned duration had allowed him to leave Khorne's domain. The Blood God could only watch him depart, seething with impotent rage. The battle had cost Khorne a significant portion of his divine essence. His losses were greater than anyone else's. The shattering of his mortal cults meant that recovering his strength in a short time was now an impossible dream. He had even sealed off his own domain, entering a rare period of dormancy. He needed not only to recuperate but also to reshape his daemon legions. However, as long as war existed in the material universe, he would still draw a continuous stream of power from it; the process would just be much slower without the offerings of his followers.
The weakening of Chaos did not make Lucan complacent. After all, as long as humanity existed, it was almost impossible to truly kill the Four Gods. Both negative and positive emotions would nourish their rebirth.
Furthermore, Chaos had not come away from this war completely empty-handed. Post-battle intelligence indicated that as they retreated, the Chaos forces had managed to salvage a great deal of wreckage from his StarCraft technology. A nearly destroyed Gorgon transport had even been dragged back into the warp by the retreating Warpsmiths. They did not yet know the true purpose of the warp drive, but they had seen the effect of tactical jumps. These Warpsmiths would certainly attempt to reverse-engineer the technology.
Lucan was not confident that the Warpsmiths could crack the secrets of the warp drive. Without Vashtorr's blessing, they were far less capable. Although their research was aggressive and without limits, their habit of simply binding a daemon to a problem they couldn't solve had, ironically, limited their own innovation.
However, it was only a matter of time before the powersuit was reverse-engineered. The suits had become too widespread, and Lucan could not control where every suit he sold ended up. From his earliest days in this universe, his dealings with the pioneer fleets had shown him that the Tech-priests of this galaxy were fully capable of cracking the suit's technology. The only reason the Mechanicus of the Koronus Expanse hadn't mass-produced them was due to the cost. They treated it as a technological reserve, producing only a small number. After all, why go to the trouble of producing them yourself when you could buy relatively cheap ones from him?
Without a Barracks, the production cost of a single powersuit was not low. Even if the armor plating was downgraded, the cost of the cold fusion core inside was prohibitively high. Individuals and elite units could afford the best equipment, but for mass deployment, the most cost-effective option was always chosen.
If the forces of Chaos were willing to bear the cost and effort, they could still produce a considerable number of powersuits to arm their own troops. Lucan worried that in future wars, his own equipment would appear in the ranks of the enemy. He had to find a way to prevent this, or to always maintain a technological advantage so significant that it constituted a "dimensional reduction strike" against his foes.
The death of Vashtorr had left the Warpsmiths without a leader. For the remaining ones, whoever could crack these new technologies would gain a higher status and a greater voice within the Dark Mechanicum's forge-synods. They might even have a chance to replace the fallen Vashtorr as the new leader of the Warpsmiths. Vashtorr was dead, but the forces of Chaos still needed them. They were still the primary suppliers of Chaos wargear. Whoever could produce powersuits for the Chaos warbands would surely receive patronage from the largest ones.
Even if there was a one-in-a-billion chance that Chaos could crack the warp drive, Lucan had to nip it in the bud. Having the ability to jump himself, he knew how disgusting it was to face. He had no desire to spend his future mopping up Chaos guerrilla squads all over the galaxy.
But what worried Lucan the most was not Chaos, but the Orks. If the Ork empire ever came into conflict with Imperial forces equipped with powersuits, it was almost certain they would be able to figure out the technology. Imagine a galaxy-spanning Green Tide where every Ork Boy was equipped with a powersuit. The thought was terrifying. That race had no concept of production costs.
However, if Lucan could load the third game program, all these problems would be solved.
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