Warhammer: In the Name of Ashes

A conversation that was startling at every turn (from Nicholas's perspective) and hidden with tact, finally came to an end with Calvin's compromise.

He also reflected on himself afterwards, wondering how much of his anger was truly righteous and how much was selfish.

The answer he came up with surprised even him:

As far as his current short-term goals were concerned, these plans were not affected by the Custodes' stranglehold on his power.

To be precise, his goal has never been on Terra's small political stage;

Intrigues and intrigues with mortals were not part of his plan.

As for long-term goals?

Sorry, Calvin himself has no real long-term plan.

The revival of the Legion seemed to him nothing more than a remedy for the invasion of Chaos;

And under the vast territory of the empire, even if the Gray Knights are as large as the legions of the Great Crusade era, they are just another form of fire brigade.

How much is 100,000 people? Calvin scoffed.

In the context of the dark gods of subspace mastering super-regular weapons such as subspace storms, whether it is the efficiency of troop projection or the isolation and shielding of the empire's support forces, these are problems that are difficult for the empire to solve.

Don't say that these 100,000 people are just in the plan. Even if 100,000 Gray Knights actually serve one day, will they be considered a threat in the eyes of the gods?

Don’t forget how the Imperial Fists lost their core heritage.

What the orcs can do, the evil god cannot do?

Under a deliberate subspace storm, a large number of demon legions prepared in advance are enough to plunge an army into a place of eternal destruction.

Don't think that the Primarch is safe with the Legion's protection.

How did Mortarion fall?

When Horus was assassinated, how many legions were there around him?

More than one?

Calvin was not completely ignorant of these details that have been buried in the dust of history.

However, after the trial court repeatedly reviewed the events of that year, it still had a vague understanding of the misfortunes that some people suffered.

This is the gap in maneuverability at the strategic level, and it is also the one-way transparency of the fog of war at the strategic level!

Humanity must escape the shadow of the warp, otherwise there will be no hope for a promising future.

Humanity must have another development path besides the Webway. Even if the road ahead is full of difficulties and obstacles, it is better than waiting for the eventual arrival of species extinction in the stagnation of constant rigidity and corruption.

And was Calvin capable of planning all of this?

His past and present lives totaled less than 200 years, how could he undertake such a mission?

It should be noted that the education he received in his two lifetimes combined was just four words: "defend the family and the country."

Even if his origin and essence are so special, it cannot make up for his lack of overall strategic perspective in long-term planning of the fate of the entire race.

Everything will eventually return to the original starting point of the human empire - the emperor.

The return fleet finally set sail within a month after the arrival of the imperial guards.

Traveling together was the Mechanical Ark fleet of Ryza's Forge World.

Their huge size has become the actual main force of this fleet.

At the rear of the fleet, the trophy bound by the gravitational claws of several large battleships - the Orcs' battle moon, became an even more impressive behemoth.

Calvin is no longer involved in the specific affairs of the fleet, and most of his energy is spent in the training hall of the Angel of Punishment.

The exploration of the Gray Knights’ combat model is now Calvin’s primary concern;

The most important task again is the selection of political officers within the battle group.

The former does not have much obvious progress for the time being. After all, they are limited by their scale and have been working on the positioning of the special forces of the Inquisition's secret arm for thousands of years.

The current armaments and tactics of the war group are based on the planning and setting of the specialization route.

Even the internal information and feedback on tactical thinking are all accumulated in the direction of specialization.

The reconstruction of the tactical system is a painful rebirth in the army of any era.

Calvin did not expect to see gratifying progress in a short period of time.

The existing legion mode is a very good start. The path of light infantry combat that Calvin was familiar with in his previous life has been almost taken to the extreme by the Gray Knights in legion mode.

But that's about it, Calvin has seen the upper limit of this tactic.

The prerequisite for light infantry operations is that there is space between the enemy and ourselves on the battlefield where they can jump vertically and horizontally;

But in wars with the gods, especially with Nurgle, numbers have always been the enemy's advantage.

Not all battlefields have the conditions for the use of light infantry tactics;

It can even be said that in most battlefields, the final battle is still about the absolute density of firepower and the ability to bear injuries.

If the Gray Knights do not want to suffer heavy losses on such a battlefield, then their armaments must not be limited to light armored units.

They need a complete set of tactical equipment with full range from close to medium, medium to long range;

They need three-dimensional strike capabilities from light to heavy, from ground to air!

Only in this way can they cope with mission environments other than decapitation strikes;

Only in this way can they step out of their existing tactical positioning, face a broader universe, and assume more responsibilities.

This was the result of many discussions with his staff and the Mechanic Priest Constantine.

After careful consideration, the latter also decided to send a permanent technical team to participate in the troop construction work in the Titan II fortress group.

Representatives of Mars also received relevant news in later days.

As the central force of the Mechanicum, they cannot sit back and watch their competitors erode and win over their allies.

The armed sequence of such an important ally was replaced by the Reza Forge World from the technical standard level, which was a reality they could not accept.

But they cannot stop it simply and rudely.

Today's Gray Knights are different from the past. With Calvin, the head of the Inquisition, sitting in charge, Mars has to consider the cost of completely falling out with Calvin, the current high lord.

Attitudes always become flexible in the face of strength, and Mars is no exception.

In response, Mars' technical representatives suggested to Calvin later in the meeting:

In the Gray Knights' tactical exploration, they can make the final choice by comparing and referring to the technical solutions given by the two companies within a certain period after putting forward specific equipment requirements.

As for this healthy competition, Calvin said he is happy to see its results.

In the days that followed, he took out some existing orders and placed them in front of two Forge World representatives.

Among them, the garrison equipment of the Titan II Fortress Group attracted great attention from both companies.

A competition for production orders for Gray Knight equipment quietly started on the fleet's return journey.

It's not just a matter of equipping hundreds of Astartes:

In the eyes of the two forging worlds, this was the first order given by Calvin, the representative of the Gray Knights.

The ownership of this order not only represents the future equipment tendencies of these Gray Knights, but also competes for the attitude of Calvin himself, the upstart of the empire.

Under the supervision of Deputy Casting Supervisor Constantine, Reza World obviously has a faster response speed.

After several meetings with each other, Reza’s representatives threw out their usual trick—technical licensing.

Once this no-costs nuclear bomb-level technology proliferation treaty was introduced, it successfully drove the representatives of Mars to a dead end.

The representative of the Martian Forge World left the meeting angrily. In his eyes, this pure act of exchanging technology for standards was almost unprofitable.

This was beyond his authority, and he could only respond after receiving higher-level authorization from Mars.

A small-scale bidding came to an end, and the Ryza Forge World, as the landlord of the Storm Star Territory, temporarily won;

But both Constantine and the technical priest of Mars knew that this competition was a game between two forces;

And under the background that the two major forces have been fighting openly and covertly for nearly ten thousand years, the battle here is just the beginning.

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