"I'll be down there in a moment, Fabricator!" I spoke with my mind distracted by the immense numbers of humans and bionic servitors toiling for the Forge World and its mega-docks.
While I have seen even larger Forges like Mars or Triplex Phall, who were able to construct many more capital ships at once, Forge Goth was also a Hive World, with maybe 200 billion people using most living space, and many unlivable places as well.
But did they have a billion troops armed and ready to defend the system from an invasion? Of course not! Barely 1/100 of that.
It was like the Imperium of Man was not in total war for its very survival, against Chaos and xenos.
If some enemy managed to land on Illevar, we did have 200 PDF divisions, mostly infantry, to defend the place and make any enemy bleed. Not that landing would be easy, considering the substantial fleet and the arrays of space forts and orbital lasers.
Forge Goth, in comparison? They were wide open, possibly relying on their Titan Legion or the Skitarii Maniples.
Only a dozen space forts and some 50 capital ships? I felt like slapping them over and over, the leadership of course.
'You can deploy in the Underhives with my Marines, Lash. Try to keep them safe while I re-position most of the star system.' I spoke gently, and unleashed my sons on the poor gangers and cultists polluting this word.
Adding a hungry C'tan was only the icing on the cake.
Firstly, an outer layer of metal asteroids, for a fort belt guarding the outer minefield. Then a million ice and methane comets from the outer cloud, brought inside the fort belt perimeter for safer mining in case of a siege.
Then a second line of metal asteroids, both for mining and a secondary fort line englobing the inner sphere.
Then a thousand more ice comets near the space docks, to ease water and reactor re-fueling.
And then, let's start cleaning the obvious mutated genestealers and painted Chaos cultists. The Sun may glow brighter for a second.
An hour later, I began to tire and leaned on Canis for support. "Hey buddy! I work so hard, see?"
"Wooo? Woof!" my wolf explained politely. Right! I did have a more important job to do.
Click! We moved next to the busy Fabricator, who was filling requisition documents and inspecting ship logs. "You could have a hundred Acolytes doing the boring job, Fabricator." I spoke politely, while my right hand flicked the Null Box on my chest open.
The giant spider in red robes froze for a second, then turned to measure Canis and me with a dozen types of augmented senses.
"Lord Lancefire... this Ordo_Sinister ? I can't say they are familiar. Also the Inquisition, going by the encryption." he remarked with a second glance at my pretty large wolf. They were similar in size, in fact.
"It is the first branch of the Inquisition, founded by the Emperor himself. Also called his Left Hand for an important reason. Save that file and I'll show you." I said in a soft voice. The big stick will come soon.
"...Compliance!" he droned in a monotonous voice. He obviously computed more meaning from my words than I thought.
Another click and we arrived back on the Black Lament, and in front of two Psi-Titans belonging to the Collegia Titanica, which was not a training school for future Titan pilots.
"The big Psi-Cannon is called Sinistramanus Tenebrae. It can kill even Greater Daemons if fully charged. The Emperor built them by hand." I declared a bit proud. There weren't many people who saw such relics, or lived to tell the tale after.
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"I understand Lord Lancefire. The demonstration was not needed, as we did obtain so much from our expedition already." the Fabricator said with a slightly awed or greedy gaze at the waiting Titans.
"You may be satisfied, but I am not. I invested a great deal of trust and valuable resources into this trade, yet I find your Forge is pitifully defended and almost overrun with genestealers and cultists. My Space Marines are already cleaning your Underhives, and some valuable minerals or fort emplacements were re-located in better position. But you will need to work much harder, Fabricator. A billion troops for defense, and minimum of 10000 system corvettes for your fleet." I demanded while taking out a set of schematics for corvettes, and even Fringe space forts designed by my own hand. And lastly, a planetary mantle Reality Cage.
The Mechanicus in general did have everything just provided, but it wasn't distributed equally or fairly. Some places had many more STCs or tech-priests, even STC Constructors. Other Forges worked only by hand, and wasted billions of work-hours to construct and assemble a tank or torpedo.
With a greedy tentacle, the ancient spider mecha grabbed my new dataslates and downloaded everything on his internal cogitator core.
"I see...do you have divine knowledge of an impending invasion, Lord Lancefire?" the Fabricator asked in a subdued tone.
"You've heard of Chaos, Orks, Necrons, Tyranids?" Are you waiting to be stomped into the ground before you prepare defenses? Don't answer that!" I demanded more forcefully.
"As you command, my Lord..." the big spider said in a dour tone.
"More docks, and use the Deus mining drones. They are simple enough to control with a mind implant. And don't forget my other stuff." I concluded with a sad voice.
Click, and the Fabricator returned to his office a bit richer, and a lot more burdened.
Another click, and the Mourners also deployed in another Hive City, to begin easy live-firing tests on helpless criminals.
I just kept watch, while mentally attributing score points and demerits for mistakes.
The Lamenters were already quite experienced, and could take care of themselves, especially with support from 4000 Tech-marines.
Gangs and cults on a Forge Worlds did sometimes have an advanced weapon like a bolter or melta-gun, so they had to proceed with some caution, but generally it went easy enough.
The Terminators had triple-multi-lasers as their infantry-cleaner, while the other arm held a heavier weapon like plasma cannon. They simply mowed down hundreds of gangers with impunity, although rarely some big mutant appeared that needed a heavy gun to lay down.
A few Leviathans already got their Demiurg upgrades, making them even more lethal. Ion guns were rather more deadly than simple bolters or lasguns, especially the Ion Beamers who could fire a long beam of ion sub-particles and simply sweep an entire room with one shot.
Swooosh. A missile slammed into a Rosarius shield, making my son tumble and fall from a high ledge.
Sigh! I flicked my boy back onto solid ground, and behind the missile team.
Phase blade came out, and he took revenge in a slash. 'Pay attention, Laur!' I admonished him mildly.
This was live training after all. People could get hurt!