Chapter 42: The Sky is Falling! I'm Not Growing!
The debut of the OMG-series of infantry equipment gave Omega's "Worker-Soldiers" the confidence to laugh in the face of their enemies and say, "Your cover is as pathetic as you are."
As these were the initial, laboratory-produced versions, untested by the fires of war, Omega only arranged for small-scale production to equip the troops who were conducting live-fire training exercises underground. Subsequent improvements would be based on their performance on the battlefield and feedback from the soldiers.
Omega had recently discovered that the Greenskins under their feet weren't very green at all. A Magos explained that it was due to the lack of sunlight underground. These "Pale Orks" had very little chlorophyll in their bodies, hence their pale skin. But "Pale Orks" were still Orks. Even though Omega was intentionally suppressing the speed at which they could acquire resources, these Pale Orks had already started to learn how to shoot guns and build vehicles. Fortunately, Douglas and his men were strictly enforcing his "corpse collection order," so the number of Pale Orks couldn't grow. Besides, this was a "little Catachan"; a wild Ork Boy born in these tunnels wasn't guaranteed to survive long enough to "think" his way back to his tribe.
Looking at the ever-growing pile of "Ork-brand starch" in the warehouse, Omega was starting to find these Orks more and more agreeable.
Half a year passed in the blink of an eye. The OMG series had been iterated to its fifth generation and was now mostly mature. He had spent this time making incremental changes based on combat feedback, and had also been slowly and subtly adding small modifications to the OMG series, like a frog in slowly boiling water. The Magi had turned a blind eye to his little tweaks.
The biggest change was to the "Falcon" autogyro. Not only did it now have missiles, but it also had a pair of bionic wings. The entire airframe had been modified to be more bird-like, and various functional instrument panels had been added. With these changes, the "Falcon's" range, maneuverability, take-off and landing distance, maximum flight altitude, and maximum payload were several times greater than the original. Some talented pilots could even achieve a vertical take-off.
(P.S. Most of these technologies were stolen by Omega through his clandestine observation of Magos Laust's "Archaeopter." The hangar door had been secretly opened for him by Rhea, after he had sufficiently flattered her.)
Outside, the battle for the spaceport between the Temple and the Archmagos was nearing its end. The Archmagos's side still had strength to spare, while the Temple was at the end of its rope. The fate of the spaceport and the future of Teyedan would be decided soon.
The number of scavenger teams sent out had increased several times due to the abundance of vehicles, and their search range had also expanded. But now, they could no longer find any people or supplies. Omega decided to pull back completely and begin strengthening the settlement's defenses.
The walls were built as high as they could go, and the "moat" was dug as deep as they could dig it. With an inexhaustible supply of geothermal energy and tireless mechanical power, the walls grew higher and thicker by the day, and the moat grew wider and deeper.
The reason for all this was that he knew the disappearance of the living was undoubtedly related to cults and Chaos. Daemons could appear at any moment. The settlement had no void shields, so he was forced by reality to resort to these primitive defensive measures. If he could just find a broken "void shield generator," he would risk exposing his secrets to set one up for the settlement. A shield that used warp technology to subtly distort spacetime around the point of impact to deflect ranged attacks, a shield that wouldn't break unless it was overloaded—how powerful, how WAAAGH!
"Sigh..." Omega lay his head on his desk and sighed listlessly.
"What's wrong now, Omega?" Rhea asked.
"Sigh. I have a feeling... they're coming."
Omega's words made everyone in the room's heart sink. They knew what "they" meant. At the very beginning of the war, he had told them what desperation would attract.
Realizing that his words had done nothing but lower morale, Omega quickly tried to recover. "Our firepower is enough to take down any monster! I was just worried that if the Archmagos and the others are gone, I'll have to become the Fabricator-General!"
"Hahahaha! You really know how to dream, Omega!"
"A man without a dream is no different from a can of Grox meat," Omega retorted.
"Yes, yes, of course."
"Omega, should I have a Fabricator-General's robe made for you in advance?" Rhea teased.
Omega struck a selfless pose. "Our great Teyedan has been through a great calamity and is in need of rebuilding. I, your Archmagos, should lead by example, be frugal, and abandon the extravagant and evil habits of my predecessor. Today, I will wear these old clothes..."
"Haha, Omega, you're still... what's wrong with you?!" Rhea's teasing turned to concern. In the span of a few moments, Omega's face had gone from red to green, from green to white, from white to black, and finally from black to a sickly yellow.
The others also noticed Omega's strange state and rushed over, worried. Omega had never been like this before.
"These old clothes..."
"These old clothes?"
"These old clothes!!"
They heard him repeating the phrase over and over, his complexion worsening with each repetition. Rhea quickly said, "Omega! Omega! Snap out of it! Whatever it is, we'll face it together!"
"These old clothes... ah, oh, you... you can't face it... you can't..." Omega replied, his spirit crushed.
"We can! Everyone, right?!"
"Of course!"
"Don't worry, Omega! At worst, we'll just go and meet the Omnissiah!"
"That's right! We've lived a year longer than most people. According to the doctrine, we're more efficient. We'll get to cut in line in front of all those who died early to see the Omnissiah. Right, Omega?"
The words of encouragement from his comrades made Omega's dying heart begin to beat again. Fat tears rolled down his cheeks. "Sob, you... you guys... sob..."
Rhea stroked Omega's head with one hand and asked softly, "Omega, what happened?"
The gentle words opened the floodgates of Omega's heart. He sobbed, " Sob, I... sob... my old clothes... they were made a year ago... but... but they still fit me perfectly! I... I haven't grown an inch in a year! Waaaaah!"
(๑१д१) Who can understand?! Do you know how much this hurts a boy?!
"You little brat, you're messing with me, aren't you!"
"Sob... ahhh! It hurts! It hurts!"
Rhea only regretted that the hand she had on Omega's skull wasn't a mechanical one. No! A power claw! Then she could just crush this little brat's head! Muscle inhibitors, disengage!
"Sigh, what a waste of compassion."
"Tsk, children are difficult to raise! So difficult!"
"Let's go, let's go. We still have a lot to do. What a waste of time!"
"Should I prepare a dose of animal-grade growth hormone?"
Afterwards, Omega carefully measured his height. He hadn't grown. A few millimeters, maybe, but that could just be the time of day. This was not normal development. He measured himself for several days in a row, but there was no change. Finally, he drew a tube of his own blood and ran a test. There was a problem.
Omega roared, "Veyl, you old bastard! You made me a preemie, and now you've doomed me! You'd better be killed by the Temple! Otherwise, if I get my hands on you, I have ninety-nine ways to kill you!"
He once again gathered his old comrades to brainstorm, to see if they could find the problem from a different angle. He couldn't rely on their professional knowledge; even Rhea had to ask him about genetics now.
Rhea looked at Omega's test report, a little incredulous. "So your genes really are messed up?"
"Yes. Big time."
"What's the problem?" Jacob asked with concern.
"My body is undergoing some kind of unknown mutation," Omega replied.
"That's impossible," said Louis, who was also vat-born. He took the report from Rhea and began to study it. "We vat-born are genetically engineered. Our genetic stability is several times that of a normal person. Any with mutations are turned into wetware before they're even decanted."
"I remember my memories from the decanting. I was normal then."
"When did it start to go wrong?" Aedus asked.
"About a year ago. I grew normally for the first two years in the temple. It's just this past year that I've hardly grown at all."
"Did anything special happen?"
"I've been with you guys the whole time."
"The only manifestation of the mutation is the cessation of growth?"
Omega explained with a headache, "It's not that my growth has stopped. It's that my genetic sequence has some kind of bizarre self-repair ability. Even the aging that comes with natural growth is being repaired. My physiological age is frozen at the genetic level."
Rhea's voice came out in a ghostly whisper. "Omega, you're not going to get old?!"
The male priests: Women's priorities are so strange.
Seeing the cracking of Rhea's knuckles, Omega wisely surrendered. "Rhea... sister... I'm only nine! Nine years old!"
"Eight," Rhea corrected.
"..."
"Yes! Eight!" Omega said through gritted teeth.
"Boss," Paul said, "is there no aging at all?"
"There might be a little," Omega said uncertainly. "But the observation period is too short, and the aging is too slow. I need long-term observation."
"Oh, Omega who never grows up, hahaha," Rhea said, her tone dripping with sarcasm.
Omega's thought: Is she still mad about the other day? Or did I do something else to set her off? (Rhea: You guess! (งᵒ̌皿ᵒ̌)ง⁼³₌₃)
Louis, after reading the report, said, "If only we could contact your batch-mates now. A control group would help us determine if your mutation is congenital or acquired."
"I suspect I might be the only one left of the 1,300 of us," Omega said dejectedly.
"What about treating it with growth hormones?" Aedus suggested.
"Useless. My growth hormone secretion is normal, no different from others my age."
"This... a body like a normal child, but with this kind of self-repair ability... it's truly bizarre," Jacob said.
"It's like some external force is influencing you, Omega."
A thought suddenly struck Omega. "The warp? Have I become a psyker? How would I know?"