Warhammer: In the Name of Ashes

Thought of the Day: Waiting is a virtue, but being waited for is not. (Dawu)

Calvin knew that Constantine's return would definitely bring the greatest resources he could mobilize.

But when he walked out of the official residence and looked up at the apocalyptic scene in the sky, he was still shocked by the heritage of these mechanical priests in the Order of Omen.

Hundreds of black spots appeared from the end of the sky and magnified visibly to the naked eye of people on the ground, and then magnified again, eventually turning into steel palaces one after another. And they gathered in a group to block Calvin's entire field of vision, as if they were using mechanical power to create a cosmic spectacle like a solar eclipse.

That's not all. More small spaceships rained down behind these large ones. The source was a faintly visible black cloud on the horizon that was countless times larger.

You cannot describe the magnificence of this scene in words. This is the embodiment of the highest essence of human industry since the Dark Ages. It is also a scene that people who stay in the ignorant era on this planet cannot understand.

People within a hundred kilometers can see this scene of doomsday divine punishment. Faced with this horrific scene beyond their knowledge, they can only kneel down and pray to calm their fears.

Fortunately, those who came were friends rather than enemies. Calvin's eyes were locked on the forerunners among them, and he penetrated the flames that were still burning against the air on the steel body and found their unique marks.

The golden outer ring has upper and lower teeth, and a lion with the same color and texture raises its head and roars. This is the exclusive emblem of the Order of Omen, an organization under the Emperor's throne that is different from Mars and exists independently.

"Constantine!" Calvin chanted.

"Constantine!" Elvis's figure appeared behind Calvin at some unknown time. He did not know the relationship between these outsiders and Calvin. He just held the weapon taken from the Chapter's mothership in one hand. The personal communicator spoke to Calvin in High Gothic that was difficult for the locals to understand.

"The other party calls himself Father Constantine and is searching for your location through a global clear text broadcast."

Elvis kept his eyes glued to Calvin's reaction in order to make the quickest choice.

If these outsiders were within Calvin's plan, then everything would be easy; if not, then he would have to discuss how to escape with the adult in front of him.

After all, even the Primarch without the support of the Legion would still be unable to stop the power of the Mechanicus.

"Reply him, I'm right here." Calvin's voice made Elvis breathe a sigh of relief. He converted Calvin's words into communication codes and sent them out with the instrument in his hand.

As expected, he, Calvin and others soon saw one of the forerunners descending on the spaceship, turning towards their direction under the second adjustment of the rocket engine.

"Good day, Lord Calvin. Thanks to the Emperor's blessing, I have been able to fulfill my mission."

The figure of Father Ursula Constantine appeared from the corridor on the lower deck of the spaceship, and behind him were several colleagues who were also wearing red robes.

The red robe he wore only made Elvis understand his identity, but it was the consecration prayer that was completely different from the members of the Mechanicus he had seen before that made the Apothecary of the Astartes truly remember his identity. This particular priest lived.

Compared with fifteen years ago, the priest's figure has changed dramatically. His face remained the same, but his height became almost the same as Calvin's. The three-meter tall burly body is hidden under the red burqa, making people wonder how much of it is still part of the original human.

This mechanical priest, who had obviously gone through many changes, had the same impression as Calvin, without being too polite. He said directly to Calvin:

"According to our plan, we now have two options. One is to completely intervene on this planet and adjust its continental plates to suit our next development; the other is to completely abandon this place and start a new one on another nearby planet. , to adapt to the subsequent industrial nest layout and orbital factory deployment.”

"Choose the second one. Move the agricultural population here to the new planet as the initial population of the industrial labor force. As for the northern peoples, leave them to the war groups as a source of recruitment."

In an understatement, Calvin determined the fate of hundreds of millions of people here for thousands of years to come. Such a decision comes from his understanding and evaluation of the environment here over the past ten years.

It is not suitable as an industrial planet to undertake production tasks. Not only is the minerals on the entire planet lacking, this will not be a problem with the subsequent addition of mining planets.

Its real problem was a lack of raw petrochemical energy and the empire's true industrial blood, promethium. This will greatly slow down the initial industrial deployment and industrial upgrading. Considering that there are already a huge number of people living here, how to carry out large-scale continental plate adjustment while avoiding major humanitarian disasters is also unclear. It will be a huge investment.

"Your will." Constantine nodded, then took two steps back to introduce several of his colleagues to Calvin.

"Solan, Deputy Superintendent of the Foundry, the Great Sage, the supreme leader of the order under the jurisdiction of 300,000 Titan Guards and nearly 1,000 Covenant Priests."

Constantine succinctly selected the more useful (useful to Calvin) parts of Solan's countless titles, and then told Calvin.

Calvin also clearly smelled a familiar smell called "full of martial virtue" from the opponent's normally armored Astartes warrior-like huge body.

Not to mention that as a mechanical priest, Constantine's rigor with data can absolutely be trusted.

Since he is said to be the leader of 300,000 Titan Guards, the man in front of him can definitely provide him with 300,000 warriors made of titanium alloy. The number will be more, not less, and their combat effectiveness will not be compromised at all. .

"The Emperor's blessing, holy Primarch. May our meager strength be put to good use by you."

This mechanical sage with a strong military character took two steps, and after greeting Calvin politely, he returned to his seat.

"The great biological sage Dewey Watson, the great geneticist, and the sage of xenomorphology, is the strongest person in the sect's biological modification. His representative works are the 22nd version of genetic modification and improvement, biological modification of beasts of burden, etc..."

The sage, who had no obvious traces of transformation and retained more of the characteristics of his original human body, also walked out of the procession and bowed slightly to Calvin.

"Lorenz, Lord of the Forge, Mechanical Prophet, Master of the Force, and the person in charge of the maintenance and upkeep of all Titans in the Legion."

Another red-robed sage walked out of the ranks.

Unlike the previous ones, judging from the fact that the gear mark on his body occupies the entire outer edge of the Order's emblem, this is a rare fundamentalist who has an understanding of the Emperor's faith and the teachings of the Mechanicum. Being so different will make Calvin need to be careful with his words when communicating with him in the future.

"As for the remaining two..." Calvin followed Constantine's gaze to the two remaining silent figures, waiting for the former's narration.

"They used to be the secret law expanders exclusive to the Order. Together with me, they were responsible for the data statistics management of the Order, and participated in the translation and interpretation of the language in the Machine Soul. But now, they are my clones. If you have any questions If you need consultation, you can look for them in my absence. ”

As Constantine's words fell, the two bodies that also contained Constantine's consciousness opened their eyes and looked in the direction of Calvin.

"Confirm identity, confirm authority...Good day, Lord Calvin." The same voice said from their mouths.

Okay, now Calvin somewhat understood the reason why Constantine's body changed and why he was stuck at the agreed deadline.

Opinions within the Order of Omen were not unified, and Constantine also experienced a fierce battle before finally being able to occupy a majority among the top leaders of the Order.

These two mechanical sages whose consciousness has been annexed are undoubtedly the original opponents, and now they have been placed in front of Calvin as trophies.

I just don’t know what price Constantine’s side paid in this internal game...

The conversation after the first meeting ended here. Calvin knew from Constantine's mouth that this time he had almost wiped out all the available resources in the Order of Bad Omen and moved them all here.

In addition to the large-scale construction ships and transport barges used to open up space for material transportation and build starports from the ground to orbit, there is also one of the treasures of the Order of Omen on the orbit:

A small mechanical ark awaits orders.

Ark Mechanical, Calvin didn’t actually understand this term, so there was no intuitive feeling. But after following Constantine back to orbit later, Calvin looked at the irregular space city with a diameter of more than 30 kilometers in front of him from the perspective of the transport ship, and asked Constantine in surprise: "This is The "small" Mechanical Ark you call?"

"Yes, it is indeed small..."

Compared with Calvin's surprise, Constantine seemed much calmer.

This is a cognitive difference caused by the isolation of the priests of the Mechanicum from outside information. In his opinion, Calvin would misunderstand the size of the Ark Mechanicus.

Unlike the ordinary Imperial Navy warships and the battle barges of the Adeptus Astartes, Adeptus Mechanicus warships rarely appear on the front lines of the Imperium's battles with xenos and Chaos.

As one pole of the Empire's double-headed eagle, their core value has always been weapons and equipment support for the Empire's armed forces, as well as technical support for some planetary worlds conquered by the Empire in the early stages of colonization.

These "technical geeks" in the eyes of other forces in the empire, except for very few exploratory outings, can hardly be seen in various territories of the empire.

But this is definitely a wrong perception.

In fact, these "tech geeks" of the Mechanicus have absolutely no shortage of reasons to go out, whether it is the research of alien technology, the recovery of a lost STC, or even the research of special "special cosmic physical phenomena" in certain areas. , for which they are willing to pay time and economic costs.

The reason why it is not known is simply because these studies are too dangerous most of the time. The mechanical priests who repeatedly jump between aliens and heretics will naturally avoid the eyes of other departments of the empire.

Their true attitude towards the laws of the empire was far less respectful than they appeared.

This point does not need to be mentioned, it only needs to be seen from the elite servitors of unknown origins in the Mars Skitarii. (There are rumors that Astartes who were missing on the battlefield were found among the army of modified servitors.)

What fits their low-key but frequent need to go out is that from childhood to adulthood, they correspond to warships of various levels in the Imperial Navy.

Anyway, the construction technology of the imperial warships is already in their hands: they have what the navy has, and what the navy doesn't have, they just have it.

In the eyes of these tech geeks who are good at technology, use productivity as a weapon, and turn around and explode their troops if they disagree, there is no mobile interstellar factory like Ark Mechanical that is more suitable as a mothership for their travels.

Yes, Ark Mechanic. As the name suggests, it is first and foremost a large-scale factory carrying most of the technical production capabilities of the sages of the Mechanicum, and an ark that carries the ability and hope to theoretically build a world system alone. Then, comes its function as a battleship.

There is no unified specification or standard for this large ship. They vary in size according to the background of the world in which they are built.

From the famous "Hope", a giant ship that covers the sky with a continental plate, to the 30-kilometer-long "pocket ark" in front of Calvin, they are all within the scope of the term Mechanical Ark.

But there is one thing: no matter how small an ark is, it is still an ark.

The industrial system installed on it has at least multiple categories and a complete system: from ore processing to smelting and casting; from energy collection to refining and recycling.

Complete self-circulation, and become a temporary war engine when necessary; under sufficient resources, supplying at least the medium and long-term war materials required by a galaxy is the minimum standard for a mechanical ark, and it is also what Calvin faced. The true face of a space city.

"What's its name?" Under Constantine's explanation, Calvin understood the true meaning of this giant beast that was not directly used as a weapon.

Against the background of the black universe, this mechanical city is brightly lit.

Across the cold and dark space, Calvin could not hear the never-ending hammering sound of the forges and smelters, but just the smoke and dust discharged from those towering exhaust pipes made him appreciate the joy of this place. The vitality of the city.

That is the power of industry, that is the power of civilization.

With it, Calvin can free the planet under his feet from ignorance; with it, all the plans in Calvin's heart become possible.

This was the last possession that the priests of the Order of Omen regarded as a housekeeper after they became independent of Mars with the support of the Emperor. This is also the biggest surprise that Constantine brought to Calvin after his return.

He turned around excitedly to thank Constantine beside him, and asked him again for the name of the city. "What's it called?"

"San Cristo." Constantine responded pointedly.

PS: Christo means a pure person, but the abbreviation of Chris in life has the meaning of "savior" and "patron" in Christianity.

Two in one, update please vote. I also recommend a book by my good brother: "I Accidentally Became the Lord of Witches". If you like the western fantasy witch genre, you can read it. Thank you for your support! ! !