Chapter 24: A Fisherman Can Fish Anywhere
"Omega, you called us all over here. What great discovery have you made?" Louis asked, rushing over to a mysterious-looking Omega.
Omega pointed to the wastewater discharge well in the distance. "There's a living creature down in that well!"
"Oh. Is that it?"
"Hmm? What's with that reaction? Why are you all looking at me like that?" Omega saw the "is that all?" expressions on their faces and began to feel a little foolish. But he decided to press on. "Look, this is where they dump industrial waste and radioactive water! What kind of creature could survive in a place like this?!"
Louis threw up his hands. "Lots of them. The Imperium has so many Death Worlds. They're just unsuitable for human life; they're teeming with native flora and fauna."
"But... but this is a Forge World! Even the atmosphere is artificial!"
"No native life doesn't mean no alien life," Louis explained patiently.
"Alien life?" Omega was still not convinced. "Who would release animals on a Forge World for fun?"
"Me," Louis said.
Omega's thought: Where's my cannon? I need to vaporize this boring cog-head!
"You... why would you release animals?"
"The lab was getting crowded. I spent a lot of time and money acquiring them, and it seemed a shame to just incinerate them. So I tossed them in here to let them adapt and survive."
"You..."
"It's not just me," Louis said with a shrug, as if it were the most normal thing in the world. "Everyone does it. Don't be fooled by the five-meter-diameter opening of this well. It connects to a fissure and a massive underground cavern system. The entire macro-clade's factory district dumps its waste in there. Someone estimated that even so, it would take several thousand years to fill the cavern."
"So... what if the things in there get out? Isn't that dangerous?" Omega asked, making one last attempt to justify his alarm.
"Aren't there alarms and automated gun turrets outside? They're to keep them in."
"..."
From the "Chronicles of the Divine Child of the Great Divine Mechanicus Sect":
In a year unknown, the Divine Child Omega discovered the entrance to the lost Sect's 'Gu Cultivation Grounds.' He specially invited his fellow sect cultivators to join him in a treasure hunt. However, due to the malicious provocations of the treacherous Louis, the group dispersed before even entering the treasure grounds. Among them, the spoiled and arrogant elder's daughter, Rhea, even humiliated the Divine Child, saying, "Go play by yourself, little brat." The Divine Child was greatly angered and swore in his heart: one day, he would avenge this humiliation!
Omega was now moodily shooting at rocks, muttering to himself, "Just you wait until a true 'Gu King' is born down there. You cog-heads and cog-girls will be crying then. I'm certainly not coming to save you!"
He'd never imagined there were cog-heads like Louis, who made such a significant contribution to the biodiversity of a Forge World. And judging by his casual attitude, there were plenty of others like him. Omega had previously had a good impression of priests like Louis who were interested in biology. The only place you could see a living, breathing creature other than a human on a Forge World was in their labs. After this incident, his impression of them had dropped significantly.
Still, he was curious. What was it like down in that underground cavern now? A vibrant, thriving ecosystem? He was reluctant to send his servo-skull down to check; if it broke down in there, he'd never get it back.
A thought struck him. He clapped his hands. I don't have to go in, but they can come out! I'm destined to be the first fisherman on this Forge World.
With his skills, hand-crafting an alloy fishing rod was a piece of cake. He'd use canned meat for bait, opening it just enough to let the scent out to attract the "fish." He'd add an automatic line-retraction and alarm system so he wouldn't have to watch it and could continue his patrol. Plan approved! Let's do this!
The fishing gear was prepared smoothly. After some calculations and with his skilled operation of the "Omega," he was able to cast the bait with pinpoint accuracy into the fifty-meter-deep well. But for several days, he caught nothing. The canned meat began to rot.
On the other side of the world, the temple Magi and the Archmagos were still locked in a deadly struggle. Regardless of the outcome, the strength of Forge World Teyedan would be severely diminished. This was the downside of a battle between evenly matched opponents; the outcome of the war was uncontrollably spiraling in a direction that benefited neither side.
Omega asked around and confirmed that Teyedan did not yet have its own Titan Legion. He knew then that this war would likely consume the Forge World's accumulated resources of the past one or two hundred years. If a xenos or heretic force were to attack now, their great Forge World would be doomed.
The remaining priests had lost their initial excitement of watching the battle and were now filled with worry. If anyone was still happy, it was the workers and children. They had never had such a long holiday. But behind this joy was a deadly crisis.
Magos Laust had already summoned all the priests to the main hall for a meeting to discuss their next steps.
"Settle down! The situation is clear to everyone. Let's hear your thoughts," Laust said from the stage to the restless priests below.
"Magos, how long will this war last?" one priest asked.
Another priest answered for Laust. "How long? It won't stop until one side is completely annihilated!"
"Why? A result that depletes the Forge World's resources is something neither side wants. So why can't they sit down and talk?"
"Impossible. There's no room for negotiation. Or rather, the powers they represent have no intention of negotiating!"
"The powers they represent? Who could make the Fabricator-General and the Temple Magi their pawns?"
"Are you sure there's no one?!"
"Who has that... the Lord Regent... the Temple! Mars! It's over! It's truly over!"
"Terra and Mars?"
"Who else but Mars could command those fanatics!"
"No Forge World has ever been under the direct control of Terra, except Teyedan!"
"Although the Archmagos is the Regent's man, the Forge World is still nominally under Mars's authority, isn't it?"
"If it weren't under Mars's authority, there would be no Teyedan, and we wouldn't have had these two hundred years of peace. Now, Mars is no longer willing to let it be. Do you think Terra will choose to let go?"
"It's over! They won't stop even if they have to tear this planet apart!" a priest cried out in despair.
This terrified Omega and the other priests. He quickly calculated the various possible outcomes in his head and concluded that the probability of him dying without a complete corpse was almost one hundred percent. The remaining fraction of a percent of survival depended on all sorts of miraculous luck.
Omega's thought: I knew coming to Warhammer was a bad idea!
"Alright, calm down," Laust said. "Panicking will only make our situation worse."
Thanks to the rationality bestowed by the Omnissiah, the frightened priests quickly calmed down and began to think of countermeasures.
"Magos, what if we join one of the factions now?" one suggested.
"The people who left at the beginning, we can't even contact a third of them now," another countered. "If that's what happened to them, what would we be if we joined now, other than cannon fodder?"
"What if we unite with the other neutral parties for self-preservation?"
"That won't work either. We'll be targeted. The moment we unite, they'll see us as a third faction. It's not a matter of what we want, but whether we can survive after we form an alliance."
"What about maintaining the status quo?"
"The current food supply will last another week. After that, everyone will starve!"
"With our current resources, if we..." The priest didn't finish, but everyone understood his meaning: abandon all the workers and save themselves.
This time, no one objected, but no one agreed either. An eerie silence fell over the hall. It was Omega, who had been silent until now, who spoke up. "I object. I think it would be better to go to the battlefield than to do that!"
The priests all looked at him—with approval, with indifference, with anger. In their eyes, Omega was now the child who had pointed out that the emperor had no clothes, exposing everyone's hypocrisy and selfishness.
"State your reasons, Priest Omega," Laust said, gesturing for him to continue.
"First: don't forget the mountain of weapons in the warehouses. There are only a few of us. Even if we could rally some people to our side, the result would be a repeat of this war. We won't lay down our arms, and neither will the remaining workers!"
The crowd nodded. Omega continued, "Second: even if we successfully defend the temple and keep them out, in an environment of desperation without food, the extreme emotions of so many desperate workers could attract who knows what. Don't forget, on a galactic scale, Teyedan is not that far from the Great Rift!"
The opening of the Great Rift, the waves of warp energy, had caused a surge in the number of psykers. Daemons were appearing in the material universe more frequently. Although the Imperium still tried to control and suppress information about them, it was too little, too late. Anyone of a certain status could access information about daemons, let alone Tech-Priests who were always at the forefront of technology.
Omega's words sent a chill down the spines of the priests. If those things were summoned, death would be a mercy.
"Priest Omega is right. It might be better to die on the battlefield. We're not the only ones facing this situation. Who knows what the other regions will do, or what will happen?"
"Sigh, if I had known it would come to this, I would have joined a side at the beginning."
"Have you decided which side to join? If we meet on the battlefield, I won't show any mercy."
"Hah, don't worry. I'll give you a quick death!"
Hey, hey! What's with this "life and death are fleeting" attitude? I'm not done talking yet!
"Let me finish!"
Seeing that Omega still had more to say, the chattering priests fell silent again. They all hoped this unconventional "little priest" could bring them some kind of hope.
"I propose we gather all the underage individuals in the factory district and protect them. We'll take the animals from Magos Louis's lab, slaughter them, and give the workers a good meal. Then, we tell them the truth and let them choose for themselves."
Louis: "What?!"