"Glory to the algorithm! The Machine God has blessed us with its divine knowledge!" the Fabricator General of Forge Phaeton chanted in religious ecstasy, as their new planetary data-core came online, filled with wondrous old and new STCs.
I even donated the new Namer IFV template, which was mostly the work of Felicia Tyber, the new Fabricator of Forge Retribution. Using a Merk-wa tank chassis, the new vehicle outmatched the Chimera in every single aspect, from speed and armor to firepower and troop comfort.
The Titanium Namer PDF version less so, with its small twin-autocannon turret and triple-multilasers on side mounts, much like the old Predators. But what we used for PDF in the Lancefire Domain would likely become the norm for the Imperial Guard, although the first production batches will be sent to Cadia and Krieg who were less likely to rebel and defect. For the Imperium was still plagued by constant rebellions, uprisings and Chaos cults, as well as genestealer infestations and other xeno-caused defections.
A dozen different templates of Merk-wa and Namer STCs covered different weapon systems, each optimized against different enemies, but those would go to the Stormtrooper Regiments of the Inquisition, Skitarii cohorts, the Sisters of Battle and the Astartes Chapters. My Auxilia model didn't catch on in the Imperium Sanctus, and only the Ultramarines used a similar Auxilia model in the Imperium Nihilus. I swear I tried, but nobody would listen.
However, the deployment of Tarantula turrets for the defense of important points did catch on, expanding the use of Automated_Defence_Force for Astartes and the Castellan_Sentry_Gun_Defence_Force for the Imperial Guard. Not quite in the numbers and strength of my Steel Rain strategy, but any change was welcome.
As for drones and other airborne vehicles like the Aquilla light interceptors, the Imperium was lacking, preferring to give up the air in favor of heavier ground presence. The Aeronautica Imperialis was a part of the Imperial Navy, and thus they had few reasons to adopt laser drones and ground support drones.
Only a few Forge Worlds or Iron Hands successors adopted the drones as part of their integral strategy, since spending lives was seen as cheaper and less production intensive. I saw human lives differently, but perhaps I was wrong. For the cost of a million drones, you could equip 20 infantry regiments, and gain a similar firepower.
"Have you decided what kind of Sentinels and Knights you want to fabricate?" I asked the Fabricator as his metal tentacles shifted the holoscreen between many templates.
"You are not going to impose an option for us, Lord Lancefire?" the Fabricator asked with a surprised tone.
"Impose? Advice at most, Archmagos. Ion Shields and weapons will work wonders against Necrons, while melta guns and flamers work great against the Tyranids. As for the rest, it depends on who is holding the weapon, things like training, skill, loyalty and mental resilience. Without Blanks and dampened cloneskeins, the armies of humanity may always turn, given a sufficiently strong daemon or xenos psyker. Or even a human rogue psyker." I answered with a nod towards the Grey Knights assembled below the main Spire, bestowing their blessed hex wards and techorcist sigils on the Titans and other automata of the Mechanicus.
"Ion Sentinels are so wasteful, though. Too fragile to stand in a battle-line, unlike tanks or Knights. Maybe 100 Sentinels for each Skitarii cohort, and see how it goes by comparing statistical data over the next millennium. Same for the antigrav Kataphrons, especially the Retribution-pattern covered in adamantium and Blackstone battleplate. As for the other matter, the Bequest_of_Phaeton ? My tech-priests are split on the origin of the mysterious new templates, and I fear a schism may occur the next time our auto-forges start printing new vehicles." The Fabricator asked with a pleading voice.
'Blade, you have something on that?' I asked inward.
'The Constructor AI had enough of producing the same garbage for 10000 years. But I think it likes your new models, especially the Merk-wa. However, it finds the Namer disappointing, because you moved the engine in the front. It wants a front ramp like on the Land Raiders.' the Blade advised me in an amused voice.
"I fixed the problem with your auto-forges, Fabricator. Perhaps rotate the production lines every century in the future, so the Machine Spirit doesn't feel so bored. The ancient spirits were built in an era when new machines were produced to counter each new enemy, and the Solar Segmentum had thousands of different xenos species. With the Tyranids and the Necrons, Phaeton felt the urge to provide new versions of your templates again." I said with a mild voice, then finished my cake. Tiramisu, the Mechanicus version. It was good though. Might be too much to ask for the recipe.
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
"Can my Forge World provide anything in return? We have taken advantage of your generosity, benefactor." the Fabricator General offered from the goodness of his iron heart.
I thought for a minute. "A gift of Thalax Lorica suits, maybe one million of them. And the recipe for the cake..." I dared with brazen words.
"No! You ate the cake, but can't have it too! I will write the Writ for the Thalax Suits though. We will match Graia and Lucius like that." the Fabricator growled in a low voice, outraged at my shameless demand. I knew it! Tiramisu was basically archeotech, likely found in an old cookbook kept in stasis for 40 thousand years.
And thus, 40 thousand reasons to refuse my wish. I will get another million Thalax cyborg suits though, so not that bad. I kept my face calm and polite, while inside I was crying from a broken heart.
The Fabricator printed the digitally signed Writ of Bequest, then took out an archeostylus and added a manual signature on the dotted line. "I suspect you already had those Lorica armor suits, and just needed a legal document to allow their use, right?" he asked in a suspicious tone.
"I could have given you an answer, Fabricator. Do you think the Omnissiah has only given me planetary shields and Iron Rings when he named me his Emissary? I gave you a data-core with FTL links to the galaxy, and a Reality Ward to keep the Immaterium Gheists away. I even gave you a metal moon, so that you can mine metal easily and close by. But you deny me the cake, when your Titan Legion tripled in size and strength? You will never know the answer, Fabricator! Never!" I yelled and grabbed the writ to check if it said the right things. It did.
Canis sighed at my side, his wise eyes seeing through the pretense, but he kept silent.
"Your gifts are valuable indeed, Rogue Trader. But the ancient Tiramisu cake is the soul of humanity itself. You have tasted the truth and want more of it, but enlightenment doesn't come so easy. Come back with more holy knowledge, and you may taste the sacred truth again. May the grace of the algorithm light your way, be it in the Warp or realspace, or any place in between." The Fabricator replied in a profound and serious tone, then splashed me in the face with holy oil that smelled like lubricant fluid.
"Glory to the algorithm!" I said with a serious voice as well, then shifted back to my ship.
"The Fabricator knew you were recording, certainly." Valerian observed with his keen mind.
"Suspected, yes. I might have acted a bit too grand." I answered with a shrug and sat back in my Command Throne, while my nanites kept working on deciphering the secret knowledge in my stomach.
Canis sniffed, probably from the extra oil, so I displaced the oily thing away, and on top of the Blade's cogitator core.
'I don't need holy oil! My cover is literally glowing with hex wards already' the Blade protested in my mind.
Truly, having a small army of Grey Knights was quite useful for warding anything and everything of value on my ship. Considering my next destination in the Deep Warp, a million hex wards may not be enough anyway. But how else would I make Canis a Dog God?
I needed the Old One's Weapon, and it surely will be guarded by a lot of psyker things, as well as wanted by a lot of other psyker things or people.
The Starchild also gave me a number of Psi-Titans, with their Blank Princeps and Alpha psyker batteries, to which I would add my Sabaktes to make 20 of them, a full Titan Maniple that should counter anything the Warp could throw at us. It probably won't be enough, but better to have them anyway.
I tapped my armrest to recover the Grey Knights and the Singularity sped off towards Forge Ryza at the border of the Zone Mortalis. I had a Merk-wa tank with a massive Plasma Destroyer gun as the main weapon prepared for Forge Ryza, but using the new Sunfire anti-matter bottle instead of the regular Photonic Fuel Cell of the Leman_Russ_Executioner tank.
Theoretically, the antimatter should provide at least 40000 plasma shots compared to the 12 shots of the Photonic Fuel Cell, but in practice the gun itself would self-destruct way sooner, as normal for Imperial plasma weapons. But who knows? Maybe one will reach the end of the bottle.