This is our Warhammer journey

Chapter 211 Internal Problems
"Still watching, still watching."

Karna's voice came from behind, carrying a hint of laziness and helplessness.

Arthur was engrossed in reviewing the records in his hands when he heard this. He paused for a moment, then raised an eyebrow and turned his head away.

The afterglow of the setting sun shone through the window lattice, dancing on Karna's pale golden hair and casting a soft halo around it. He looked at his companion, who should have been busy in the church sanctuary, and a hint of surprise flashed in his eyes.

"Why are you starting to imitate Ramses?"

Arthur closed the book in his hand, the engravings rubbing against each other making a slight rustling sound.

"Have you finished training the students? Have you finished handling the church's propaganda? Have you completed the ideological reorganization within each subgroup? Have you completed the communication and reorganization with the local state church...?"

He counted slowly and deliberately, and with each item he mentioned, the bells of the distant cathedral would strike softly once.

"Stop, stop!"

Karna quickly raised his hands in a gesture of surrender.

“Even my mom doesn’t pay this much attention to me.”

Arthur stopped talking at the right moment, shook his head, and looked down at the record again, his gaze falling back on the dense ciphertext.

"Sigh, let me hide for a while."

When Karna saw that Arthur was no longer asking questions, he relaxed and plopped down on the bench.

He turned his head slightly and glanced at the Astartes below, who, though unable to hide their excitement, maintained their discipline with taut faces. He couldn't help but let out a soft sigh of relief, and his tense shoulders finally relaxed a little.

Karna understands the fervor of the people of the Empire, but sometimes he really can't handle it.

Recently, five Primarchs gathered in Macragge. From Imperial nobles to pilgrims who could only survive by working on Imperial ships in the universe, they all seemed to have found an outlet for their emotions and flocked to Macragge.

The cheers of hundreds of millions of people filling mountains and seas, the tears streaming down the wrinkled faces of the elderly, the young people holding up homemade holy symbols, the children being carried on their parents' shoulders, and everyone shouting the name of the Primarch at the top of their lungs.

He has placed almost all his hopes on you, and the pressure is far more terrifying than when he went to the mountainous areas to help alleviate poverty.

The impoverished mountain villages of my memory overlap with the crowds of people before me, both filled with expectant eyes, but the weight here is a thousand times heavier.

But he couldn't just ignore it.

In this universe, faith is a real thing. If you don't occupy this high ground, someone else will. And who knows what you'll actually worship then?

Karna thought of the people struggling at the bottom of the hive, of the poor people bewitched by heresy, and of the bodies he had seen with his own eyes, twisted and deformed by their faith in evil gods.

At least he can actually turn this faith into food and water to give back to the believers, instead of making you grow tentacles or alien organs.

Thinking about this, Karna couldn't help but feel a deep sense of pressure.

The people under the empire's rule are actually very resilient and devout. They would not have come into contact with those heretical beliefs unless they were truly forced to the point where living was torture.

In this universe, it's a blessing to have faith in a reliable being.

"Are you still analyzing past cases of the Icarus Protocol? Aren't you even looking at the readily available combat reports?"

He casually grabbed two pastries from the table, and with a deft flick of his finger, magically produced a document bearing the seal of the state religion, which he then pushed in front of Arthur.

“The representative of the State Education Society came to see me.”

He said.

Arthur looked up from the tactical log, glanced at the document, and his brow furrowed almost imperceptibly.

"It's just the annihilation of a pioneering fleet; it has no reference value."

He shook his head, his tone indifferent.

Previously, the Steelwing Man waged wars of annihilation and technology recovery against the entire forging world; dealing with fleets was just a small part of those large-scale combat plans.

But the way his fingertips lightly tapped the edge of the document betrayed his thoughts.

Tarentius is putting pressure on them.

The Forged World Tarentus is a powerful Mechanicus faction within the Alteramar universe.

Towards the end of the swarm invasion, a pioneering fleet, mainly composed of industrial technology teams, entered the affected area.

On one hand, they intend to annex the forging cities that suffered heavy losses in this incident to expand their technological reserves. On the other hand, due to the existence of numerous industrial worlds like Cos, the Cult of Mechanics has been trying to reduce the proportion of production capacity of these industrial worlds in order to strengthen its industrial control over the Altrama space region.

In theory, a world-building technology team could be considered to be providing technological assistance to impoverished communities.

After all, compared to those imperial nobles, the oil makers could at least actually build the factory. Even if they only gave the empire one-tenth of the production capacity in the end, the empire could accept being fleeced. And this wasn't the first time the Mechanicus had taken advantage of a crisis like this.

The Eastern Sector, ravaged by the Zerg swarm, is an area where one can make great strides without worrying about losses. Romulus has a clear plan for the recovery of the sector and, with the assistance of various chapters, has completed the installation of STCs on the core planets.

Despite repeated warnings, the pioneering fleet ignored them and even launched an operation to seize STC.

As a result, the sage of the Mechanic Church who was leading the fleet suffered a brain circuit malfunction and died, causing the fleet to crash into a black hole and disappear without a trace. Taruntus had a lot of complaints about this.

Because of the sage's sudden death, a neural implant technology, mastered by Tarentus, that endowed individuals with psionic abilities was completely lost.

This means that in the future they will either have to find other foundry worlds to exchange for similar technologies.

Alternatively, they could only rely on the Empire's Star Speakers to maintain the operation of the pioneering fleet.

However, it is absolutely unacceptable to place one's own lifeline on the empire.

However, the Sage Council has not found a single clue. The entire pioneering fleet has vanished as if into thin air, leaving no trace of its parts.

Everyone had a vague idea of ​​who did it, but no one dared to point it out directly.

Therefore, Tarentus had to make up for the losses out of his own pocket, and at the same time, he sued Mars for starting to cause trouble for other departments of the Empire.

Then, the Empire backed down first in this conflict and had no choice but to assign the restoration work of Damocles Bay, which had been severely damaged in the previous war with the Tau Empire, to Taruntus.

"In short, during the conflict, the state religion intended to join in, but its production capacity will be reduced afterward, so it needs our help."

"Even the High Lord can't handle this."

Karna couldn't help but sigh.

"The Empire is still too reliant on the Mechanicus."

Arthur sighed softly. Compared to them, who could simply eliminate uncooperative Mechanicus sages as a sacrifice at the slightest disagreement, the Empire had much more to consider.

"However, the Cult of Mechanics also needs a way to back down. They don't dare to really break ties with us now, at least not before they reach an internal consensus."

He remained indifferent to the reaction of the Mechanicus.

Conflicts are normal; if a war breaks out every now and then, you won't even know you're still living in the 40k.

The problem the Empire currently faces with the Mechanicus is that they enjoy collecting knowledge but are not very fond of sharing it with outsiders.

During the 30K era, because of the real offline presence of the Emperor, they were still willing to share their knowledge. However, during the 40K era, they preferred to keep their knowledge for themselves. Even when the court and the Ministry of Justice came to collect technology taxes from them, they couldn't help but encrypt the technology they submitted.

During the 30K era, the Empire still had a large number of mortal scientists, and groups like the Lunar Genetics Cult had been incorporated into its ranks. However, by the 40K era, the Mechanicus had almost monopolized the high-tech field, resulting in an overall technological decline for the Empire.

In terms of military strength, the Mechanicus, which is itself a disorganized group, may not necessarily be as powerful as the Empire.

But winning is useless.

You lack technical talent and productivity talent.

Back then, all eighteen legions of the Empire had the strength to deal with the Mechanicus, but why was only the First Legion given the priority to fire under the Icarus Accords?

It's precisely because the First Legion is the only one among them with an independent industrial production system, and its personnel are trained entirely independently of the Mechanicus.

What now?
The Mechanicus handed a forging world to the Empire, and now no one in the Empire can handle it.

This is why the Mechanicus is becoming increasingly unscrupulous.

But Dawnwing is not afraid of this.

Because they really don't need mechanical teaching.

Currently, we have a partnership with Kaul for cutting-edge technology, and we also have technical talents like Danteok under our command. Because of their information input capabilities, they can handle everything at once, so they are not afraid of technological gaps.

With increased production capacity and the materialization of the soul, various large warships have been replenished after expeditions, and the combat power at hand makes it possible for the Mechanicus to hesitate to act for a short period of time.

I have everything I need, so what's the point of your sanctions?

(End of this chapter)