Chapter 61: The Father's Party and the Son's Party
Not all of the Magi were part of the "Property and World Salvation Plan."
The reason for the frequent infighting among the cog-heads is their love of categorization. Just like classifying matter and living things, if a group of things shares a common characteristic, it can be classified as a category. This is very much in line with the teachings of the Omnissiah: clear, rational, and logical.
But people are complex. They have different personalities, preferences, and talents. So there are many, many ways to categorize them.
As a religious group, with a god that is one in three, and with different interpretations of that one god, and different doctrines, it is no wonder that on such a fundamental issue, no Tech-Priest would dare to pound their chest and claim they know all the "legitimate" and "heretical" factions in the Adeptus Mechanicus. Only Mars truly knows.
And this is just the big picture. When it comes to a group of individual cog-heads, five people can form ten cliques. Ten is the mathematical limit, and the limit of a normal cog-head. But it is not the limit of a heretek cog-head. They would throw a daemon into the mix.
So, the Tech-Priests in the allied forces were nominally a single entity, but in reality, they were a collection of different small groups, which in turn formed two large groups.
The "Veyl Party," dominated by the Manufactorum Magi, could also be called the "Father's Party."
The "Omega Party," dominated by Magos Laust, could be called the "Son's Party."
The "Father's Party" was composed of the Manufactorum Magi who had profited from the situation, their students, followers, vassal Tech-Priests, and those who wanted to become vassals but had not yet succeeded.
The "Son's Party" was composed of the Magi and Tech-Priests from the original settlement, the Manufactorum Magi who had lost out, and the Tech-Priests who had been inspired by the Omega-series.
The "Son's Party" was smaller in number but had a close relationship with the Worker-Soldiers. And because the settlement had been continuously supplying the allied forces with supplies, their relationship with the commanders was also good. They now had a home-field advantage over the "Father's Party" in the allied forces.
The "Father's Party" was larger in number and had a greater reserve of technical knowledge, but with more people came more factions. They were also ostracized by the commanders and were in a disadvantageous position as the away team.
For now, the two parties had no conflict of interest, so they were outwardly harmonious but secretly wary of each other.
Magos Laust: I don't want to be the leader of this "Son's Party" at all.
Omega: I want to be the party leader! I want to be the party leader! I am the party leader! Laust, give it back to me, you...
The primary goal of the "Son's Party" was to break through to the Grand Manufactorum as quickly as possible, rescue Omega, and, while they were at it, take the pitiful assets of the "losing Magi" with them. So their forces were concentrated on the "Relief of the Grand Manufactorum" front.
The Magi of the "Father's Party" had too many immovable assets in the Grand Manufactorum district: large relics, large laboratories, vast collections, and so on. Their goal was to ensure that the Grand Manufactorum was not destroyed. So they had only one objective: to destroy the warp rift. Therefore, the "Son's Party" did not participate in the "Father's Party's" plan.
Back to the "plasma reactor." The reason the Magi of the "Father's Party" wanted the "reactor" itself was not that they lacked the technology to make atomic weapons, but that they lacked the materials to make them. The Imperium and the Adeptus Mechanicus had always had very strict controls on "exterminatus weapons." For example, the Deathstrike missile with an atomic warhead. This "atomic weapon" was so destructive that deploying it without just cause and a clear purpose was punishable by death. This weapon was also called the "Final Fire" by the Departmento Munitorum.
Obtaining permission to deploy these weapons was a process filled with religious and administrative complexities and could take months. Although the Imperium often used "Exterminatus," its attitude towards the act of destroying an entire planet's biosphere and all life on it was very serious. This action was only taken in extreme circumstances:
The presence of a potential or actual extinction-level strategic threat to the entire Imperium on the planet's surface, which could spread to other Imperial worlds.
When the cost of controlling or retaking the world for the Emperor was deemed too high, or the threat of mutation, disease, or Chaos heresy spreading to other parts of the Imperium was too great to be contained by conventional means.
Therefore, Exterminatus was rarely ordered on planets of great strategic value or importance to the Imperium. Usually, the order could only be given by a high-ranking officer from the Astra Militarum, the Imperial Navy, or an Adeptus Astartes Chapter, or by an Inquisitor. And the Imperium would investigate every "Exterminatus" order. If even a shred of evidence was found that it was unnecessary, the signatory of the "Exterminatus" would be executed. The most common rumor about the "Exterminatus" in the Imperium was that everyone who had ever signed one had died, either at the executioner's block or by the hand of an Officio Assassinorum assassin.
Precisely because of this strict management, Forge Worlds, as the producers of these "world-destroying weapons," also had very strict controls on the raw materials. Taking Teyedan as an example, its exterminatus weapon material warehouse required the personal, handwritten writ of Fabricator-General Veyl. After multiple verifications, and under the escort of a custodian, could one enter. All actions inside were permanently recorded.
Frustrated by the lack of materials, the Magi of the "Father's Party," like a clever housewife with no rice to cook, now had a "plasma reactor." It could fuse most substances. With a little modification, it would be an "atomic weapon" of immense power.
Cog-heads: If the principle is the same, why can't the use be the same?
But after a field survey of the "plasma reactor," they discovered a problem: the reactor was too large and not easy to transport. This might have been a problem for an ordinary Magos, but who were they? They were the Magi who had thrived in the Grand Manufactorum of Teyedan, not some ordinary Tech-Priests.
After a complex ritual, the sacred blue-white plasma sparks inside the reactor were extinguished.
Disassemble!
With the Magi themselves lending a hand, the reactor was quickly dismantled into parts and transported to a pre-prepared secret base. In this secret base, these parts would be modified. When they were reassembled, they would bring doom to the daemons and peace to Teyedan.
In the quarantine area of the Grand Manufactorum, a bored Omega was still venting his "little brat power." He had mastered the Sixteen Forms of the Universal Divine Law of the Great Divine Mechanicus. His strength had skyrocketed by "one goose." Omega discovered that although his energy was boundless, his strength had not increased at all. There was no possibility of him turning from a cog-head into a muscle-head.
"Which one was the green maggot's enemy again?" Omega muttered to himself as he jogged. "The red bull or the blue bird? And he fought with the purple snake over a wife. The red bull's power is the most related to the body. The blue bird's change is a direct counter to the green maggot's stagnation. The purple snake's... stuff... is helpful for the... thing... but the eggshell doesn't listen to me!"
Omega, with nothing to do, was now using his ample time to think about how to solve the "not growing up" problem. Since the problem was caused by a Nurgle daemon, the solution had to involve other daemons. He would have to deal with daemons sooner or later. If the daemons didn't come to him, he would have to go to them for help. With his passive skills, he wasn't afraid of ordinary daemons, but he didn't need to provoke a Greater Daemon or their masters. He remembered that there were cases of even Blanks being forcibly twisted. Theoretically, it should be impossible, but the warp never played by the rules. He had to be careful.
Afraid that he might accidentally speak an unspeakable name while thinking, bringing the wolf to his door, Omega took matters into his own hands. Through self-suggestion, he replaced the names of Khorne, Tzeentch, Slaanesh, and Nurgle in his mind with "Red Bull," "Blue Bird," "Purple Snake," and "Green Maggot." For Omega, who could create "hentai artifacts," this was child's play.
"I know too little about the warp. I only know the basics. I need to collect books on mysticism and psychic phenomena in the future. Err... did I forget one? That's right, how could I forget the Emperor, the yellow-skin!"
The Emperor: Hahaha, I'll add another black bean to your bowl today. When the bowl is full, we'll settle the score!
"The Emperor's Living Saints and the Legion of the Damned can also be considered daemons."
The Emperor: Hmm, say that again. This time, I'll add ten.
"What would happen if I ate a Living Saint?"
The Emperor: ...Officio Assassinorum! Officio Assassinorum! I need you!
"Forget it. What's the difference between that and eating a person? I'm loyal to the Emperor... right?"
The Emperor: Without the 'right,' I could have forgiven what you said before. This time, the bowl is full. I'll get you a new one.
"Attack! Destroy these abominations!"
"For the Emperor!"
"Unleash the wrath of Vulkan upon the daemons!"
"Burn the enemies of the Emperor!"
With the Knights of Iron as the spearhead, and the Ultramarines, the Covenant of Fire, and the mortal forces as the shaft, the strongest spear of the allied forces pierced towards the heart of the Nurgle daemon army.
The gifts Archmagos Cawl had presented for Regent Guilliman's return were not just bigger, stronger, more powerful, and even smarter Primaris Space Marines. There was also the culmination of the Archmagos's ten thousand years of technological research:
The superior Mark X Tacticus Power Armour. This power armor was a combination of the advantages of all models of power armor since the Horus Heresy and the latest developments in power armor technology. It featured a modular design, making it more versatile than its predecessors. Each suit of Mark X power armor could be adapted to different mission requirements by changing the external armor plates.
In addition to the new power armor, Archmagos Cawl also prepared superior weapons and more advanced armored vehicles for the Primaris Space Marines.
The Mark II Cawl-Pattern Bolt Rifle.
The Plasma Incinerator (more stable, more powerful).
The Redemptor Dreadnought.
The Invictor Tactical Warsuit.
The Repulsor Transport (anti-gravity).
The Astraeus Super-heavy Tank (anti-gravity).
The Overlord (aerial vehicle).