It took me a few weeks to finalize a deal with the head-strong Votann. That Ironhead name wasn't for nothing. It was also true that Ironhead had been hiding from the Imperium for thousands of years on Necromunda, while its squat cloneskeins worked in secret to gather minerals and resources, disguised as regular abhumans. Also, the Votann was quite right to fear what it would happen, should the Cult Mechanicus discover it. Dissection and then taken apart circuit by circuit, while its data-looms and complex quantum data-base were being cracked open and probably purged.
Only after the Blade AI instantiated her new fork mind and could discuss things on their special matrix network, did the Ironhead Votann relented. "You could have told me the Lancefire League already had a Hold in the Galactic Core." the old machine grumbled as I was constructing four more data-cores to increase its storage and computation speed.
"You wouldn't have believed my words anyways." I countered with a shrug.
"That's correct. I would have suspected another Imperial trick or false flag." The Votann muttered in agreement.
"Right. Anyways, we are in agreement for the next part. You and the cloneskeins will take over mining and smelting operations for the Lancefire Domain, as a subsidiary to the Lancefire League in the Eastern Fringe called Ironhead-Lancefire. This will include contacts with the Tau Empire and trading minerals towards them, in return for advanced techology and scientific theories." I concluded while jumping off the next huge metal head and sinking it far below the surface.
"You could also construct new data-cores without stepping on my head. You don't even need physical contact!" the Ironhead Votann protested as I moved on top of the next metal head.
"...Close proximity ensures Warp protection via my Pariah genes. The risk is low, but should some data-daemons sneak inside your personality matrix? It would be bad." I answered as I sat down, and rubbed my armored ass on its dignified metal face.
"What science interests you the most, Khal Lancefire?" the Votann asked while enduring the indignity of my Terminator ass scrapping his nose.
"For now, gravity and anti-gravity theories. Using STC-made grav plates is only a partial solution. And I want better grav-chutes and grav-repulsors for my Sentinels and Thalax suits, maybe even for the larger Knights or Titans." I explained while deftly assembling the adamantium internal scaffold and power coils inside the next data-core.
"And what then? Your silly tech-priests will still need STC templates to construct the devices, by hand and tentacle. I've seen enough of their kind!" the Votann complained in a disgusted tone.
"That part is true. But we also have an university of science down on Forge Retribution. We have independently rediscovered the radio already, and we're working on television and radar systems next!" I declared in a proud voice.
"...Radar? That's 433 steps behind the nearest gravity collapsing device, and at least 700 steps away from the earliest anti-grav devices." the Votann exclaimed while sniffing and almost making me fall off its nose.
"I do have an idea for the next research steps, Ironhead. Electro-magnets for the first radars, then superconductors and magnetic levitation. Then rediscover the Higgs bosons with a particle accelerator and thus the Higgs gravitic field. Not too sure afterwards, but that's why we're gathering the brightest minds to our Temple of Knowledge." I mused with a thoughtful voice.
To think even basic appliances like the radio and TV had to be discovered again, while humanity travelled the stars in huge weaponized cathedrals.
Without tech-priests and engineseers, not even simple combustion engines could be built or repaired, not to mention vehicles and trains or lasguns and whatnot.
Things worked somewhat better in my domain, but even after two centuries of hard work and industrial development, I barely had wood-working and the printing press available to the public at large. The last decade had produced domestic textile mills and a clothing industry, and also canned food and basic medications like vitamins and pain-killers, but no antibiotcs and vaccines without a Magi Biologis being involved.
Overall, my lands were somewhere about the start of WW2 as tech levels, while the Imperium was before WW1 or worse. While early radars would be useless against Eldar or Necron fighters, there were still other enemies like Orks and Tyranids who could be easier engaged at range with radar-guided balistics.
Stolen novel; please report.
Sadly, while the Mechanicus did have very advanced devices and weapons, including quantum logic-engines and exotic particles and many more, they also had no ideea how they worked or why.
Basic science will take time to catch up, even in my enlightened domain, because there weren't any real teachers to teach science. A few study groups with Demiurg and Tau captives had began producing some results, but the Demiurg clones were mostly STC based anyways, while the Tau were locked in their caste knowldge, separating every science field into unmeshable portions.
Several Air caste Tau worked on basic aerodynamics, the Earth Caste captives tried to explain their metallurgy and construction methods, while the Water caste had social sciences. On the other hand, the Fire caste had warfare doctrines aplenty, also structured into strict paths like our own Codex Astartes and Infantry Primer Manuals.
The Blade and Speranza got the task of reading and compiling the alien knowledge into something usable by our colonists, and reduce our dependency on tech-priests and rituals where-ever it was deemed safe enough. Nobody wanted to make a mistake and allow a Nurgle plague to infest our food or medicine industry. The city-sized bonfires over in the Ultramar domain were warning enough, even after the Plague Ships got blown up.
Things got so bad we had to stop tradeships from Ultramar and turn them back, lest they carry a dormant pathogen and infect billions in the Lancefire domain as well.
Even so, Orks and Space Hulks still roamed the galaxy and carried disease everywhere, and they couldn't be stopped with a trade interdiction order.
By the next year, my domain was also struck by plague and disease, and hundreds of planets were quarantined to slow the spread and allow my Thalax cyborgs and Space Marines enough time to burn down the infected people and cities.
Which is when an Eldar cruiser emerged from a hidden gate, carying Sister Stern and her mentor harlequin the Solitaire Mnemorach.
I extended my dimensional sense towards the incoming cruiser, to find both main characters were now immune to dimensional shift, so instead I stepped through and arrived on their bridge.
A dozen Eldar Aspect-Warriors opened fire at me with shuriken catapults and electric bolt spells, so I just laughed. "Guys, if you want to die and join Ynnead you only need to ask. I am not one to mind a small genocide in my spare time!"
"Leave us!" the Solitaire ordered with a pulse of black nega-psi energy, which worked wonders against regular psyker Eldar. They ran out, leaving me to hug my recently deceased and revived wife.
"I heard you killed 33 Great Daemons, my dear! Even better than my personal best record." I congratulated Sister Stern while pawing her plump ass.
"I don't mind...but there is worse news, husband mine. I saw inside of the Astronomican as I roamed the Valley of Death. There is a small child, sleeping with one eye closed. The other eye saw me, and I felt judged." Ephrael Stern spoke in a grave tone.
I threw a water ballon back at the stupid clown and sat down with my wife in my lap. "The Star Child, yes. All Navigators see him now." I answered with a small nod.
"It knew me, Pef! It looked inside my soul, and counted my dead Sisters trapped inside." Stern spoke in a pleading voice.
I sighed and patted her head. "When the Emperor fought Horus, he couldn't strike the damned traitor, because he still loved his son, no matter how corrupted he had become. So, the Emperor cut off his compassion and mercy, and sealed them inside the Astronomican. Yet, the Warp is still the realm of emotions." I explained in a patient voice.
Mnemorach froze, his next paint ballon barely tied in his hand. "That would be a giant joke, Pef Lancefire. To see the Fall of Humanity caused by mercy."
"It won't be a Fall like you created with Slaanesh, my Eldar friend. If that was the case, the Emperor would have asked me to kill yet another Warp God." I countered with a careless shrug.
"Ah, yes. The famous God-hunter, in his human flesh. And yet unable to stop a simple Chaos Plague?" the Solitaire teased me in a joking voice.
"Luckily, I did marry the Demonifuge, Menmorach. You can deal with the plague, right?" I asked my stern wife, who nodded sternly at me.
"And heal the infected as well. Lady Isha taught me a few tricks." Ephrael added as she leaned in to kiss me.
Some men do have all the luck, right?