Warhammer: Black Emperor

Chapter 314 Initiating the Development of Royal Court Cultivator Armor
“Master of the Forge,” Nimrod said, turning to Rosicky Cech first.
"I spoke with Vokhan in the War Council. He will be going to Saturn to develop new armor."

“You will select ten ‘generalists’ to travel to Saturn and join the research and development.”

"As you command, my lord."

After Rosicky accepted the order, Nimrod pushed a glittering data crystal in front of him.

"This data crystal contains a replica of the standard crafting template for the Hunter's Set."

"Using the technology you learned from Volkan, based on power armor and combined with the adaptive technology of the Hunter's Suit, develop a version suitable for the Royal Court monks."

[While the Hunters of Necromonda are generally not as powerful as those of Astartes, their Hunter sets have their merits and are suitable for those of extraordinary ability.]
One advantage of the Hunter's Set compared to other armors is that it evolves itself based on the user's daily usage habits, optimizing its combat performance.

The extraordinary individuals who climb the sequence ladder gain new abilities with each advancement in their sequence.

Compared to other imperial armors that are relatively fixed after manufacture and can only be slightly modified, the Hunter's "experience point system" is most suitable for extraordinary individuals.
However, the current Hunter has two major disadvantages and cannot be used directly.

One issue is that the current suit technology is only suitable for ordinary people and needs to be improved to adapt to Astartes, who possesses superhuman physical abilities.

Another issue is that the Hunter's Armor is expensive to manufacture and is best made to order, making it impossible to popularize it across the entire legion in the short term.

Ninglu's plan was that once the version adapted to the shadow of order was successfully developed, it would be popularized from top to bottom according to the ranks of the royal court.

After the master of the furnace left, Ninglu began to ponder which battle groups to mobilize for the "First Randan War".

He first used the example of Urian Bendreig's "First Randan War" from his memory as a template.

Bendreig led a fleet of one hundred capital ships, including three Queen Glory-class battleships.

He mobilized 50,000 soldiers from the First Legion and 100,000 Imperial auxiliary troops to participate in the battle.

The battle losses were 10,000 Astartes, 50 capital ships, and one Glory Queen-class battleship.

After recalling the events, Ning Lu asked:
"Is the Ramirez-class star fortress, which was overseen by Ryan Ramirez, completed?"

"My lord, Starfortress is complete. The Great Sage, following your orders, has incorporated technologies such as the Punishment-class reactor into the Starfortress template, developing a new standard construction template."

"According to the calculations of the great sage, its overall performance is 33 percent higher than that of the prototype."

Ning Lu breathed a sigh of relief after hearing this.

In the void war of the "First Randan War", the greatest threat to Randan was the artificial war satellites. Fortunately, I had the enhanced Ramirez-class star fortress, which almost offset the threat.

Therefore, there's no need to sacrifice the Glory Queen-class battleships to collide with war satellites.

Excluding artificial satellites, Bendreig's Imperial fleet has naval superiority; I have more warships.

Ran Dan has a massive number of drones, but my warship also has an automatically recharged void shield to deal with them.
"Since he personally led the construction of the first Starfortress, it will be named after him, Ramirez."

"Immediately order the troops to move into Star Fortress and familiarize themselves with the situation."

Randan's war satellites, built at the expense of millions of humans, would require millions of personnel to operate.

The Ramirez-class star fortress also requires millions of personnel to operate.

"The Emperor has entrusted me with the responsibility for the new threat posed by Spiral Morse."

"The aliens' home planet is Randan, and from now on, all records about them will be classified as such."

"Randan possesses a complete technological system comparable to that of the Empire, but its scale is somewhat smaller than that of the entire Empire."

Ninglu, recalling what he knew about Ran Dan's techniques, continued:

"The Legion's technical sergeants should collect Randan artifacts and study them carefully, including what I have mentioned below: war satellite manufacturing, void ship camouflage reading technology..."

"The Master of Arms is in charge of this matter."

"The war between Tongrandan and I will last for decades. I have decided to form the Broken Claw Order."

Ning Lu directly used the name of the future "Dark Angel" to refer to the main force against Ran Dan, which would be "Shadow of Order".

"Chief Pharmacist Mikel is in charge of leading the pharmacists in the autopsy."

"The other shadow orders require members to kill four overlords to join the order."

Ning Lu recalled Ran Dan's tactics and characteristics, and continued.

"Randan is actually a huge alliance of alien races, including brain-eaters and bone-eaters."

“Elite warriors from each race are selected and called Overlords. They possess the same combat power as Astartes, but with better weapons and personal energy shields.” “A warrior who kills four such Overlords is enough to prove that he did not rely on luck and is qualified to join the Order.”

The Order of the Shadows is not an independent organization. A warrior can be a member of both the Orc Hunter Order and the Eldar Hunter Order, or a member of the newly formed Broken Claw Order.

Members of the order are warriors with extensive experience in this field, who can become trusted by their fellow warriors in the event of a battle.

However, this newly established organization currently knows nothing about Ran Dan. Ning Lu needs to inform the participating soldiers of the intelligence he has gathered, which will reduce the losses from probing during the encounter.

After all, in his memory, Bendreg had sacrificed hundreds of the best First Legion warriors in order to test Randan's tactic of attrition using a large army of slaves.

"Randan uses different tactics than the Empire. They will have elite warrior overlords leading a massive army of slaves to wear down the enemy."

"Afterwards, Ran Dan's war commander will lead the main force to launch an offensive at the appropriate time and place."

"..."

"Randan's Bone Eaters are so formidable that even ordinary Titans cannot contend with them, but we should not encounter them this time..."

During the Second Dan War, at least Old Man Huang had to use his trump card—the Ominous Order—to fight the Bone Eaters.

Well, Old Man Huang will probably realize by then that Randan is not something any legion can contend with.
Nimrod recalled that during the Second Randan War, the Empire deployed 300,000 Astartes and three Primarchs, including the Lion King, yet the situation remained precarious.

Dozens of Titan legions were completely destroyed in the war and could not be rebuilt.

Old Man Huang finally destroyed the Eternal Night Labyrinth, releasing the largest of the hundred Void Dragon fragments—the Martian Dragon—and thus won the victory.

"Distribute these materials to the lords of each battle group and to the troops participating in the war before the war begins."

Nimrod, taking into account the overall losses of the Caradian Legion and the current situation of other Legions, issued the order.

"Dispatch the Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Eighth and Eleventh Warbands to assemble at Lucius, the Forging World."

The First Battle Group suffered the greatest losses, and he only dispatched the Second Company, which commanded the Judgment, and the First Company, which did not participate in this battle.

"The first and second companies of the first battle group have joined the battle order, and the Glory Queen-class Judgment has joined the expeditionary fleet."

Although Bendreig's First Army Expeditionary Force numbered only 50,000, Nimrod decided to play it safe and deploy more troops, mobilizing more than half of his battle groups, even though this would slow down the conquest on other fronts.

"Inform Lucius that I need the Voidwalker Titan Legion to join the expedition."

Ninglu took another step to play it safe, considering the difference in combat strength between himself and Bendreig, and with the addition of the Titan Legion, the force mobilized for this expedition was nearly three times that of the First Legion in the "First Randan War".

In the void warfare, the Ramirez-class star fortress is the core, with three Glory Queen-class battleships as the spearhead and nearly two hundred capital ships as support, ensuring a greater advantage over the First Legion in naval battles.

To significantly reduce losses, an overwhelming force must be deployed.

"The remaining companies of the First Regiment will return to Osiris for rest and reorganization after the battle of Incaladion is over."

"The Seventh Legion will remain in Incaladion to assist Neto in controlling the city."

"Tell the Reaper Lords, together with the 'Tiger Eye' Titan Legion and the Mordred Knight families, to annihilate the raider tribes and pirate warbands in the neighboring star system, and to clear out the Talerian war beasts and the sticky carnivorous swarms of the Meteorite in the Abyss Reef."

The war beast horde is clearly affected by the power of mutation, and the chaotic influence must be purified.

"The barbaric tribes of the Humara world, their culture, and the rituals that have permeated Incaradian must be completely transformed."

"Neto's reforms will inevitably be met with resistance from the various factions in Incaladion, and the Reaper Lord will provide him with support."

The Primarch's servant realized the gravity of the situation when he thought of the rebel leader, the corrupted Sage Barnes, who had transformed himself into a half-machine, half-flesh monster.

"I will relay your orders to the Reaper Lord."

Ninglu, thinking of intercepting Tarasa from the five hundred worlds of Alteramar, asked:
"Where is the Ninth Battle Group now?"

"After the Battle of the 'Wheel of Flames', Szesny led the reorganized chapter in a campaign of conquest centered on Vostoria."

"After the discovery of the Westday system, the Ninth Chapter's conquest direction became fixed on the region between Vostoria and Terra."

After a moment's thought, Ninglu issued the order:

"Send the Ninth Chapter to the Solar System; I will meet him there."

Ninglu, taking into account the voyage and the time it would take for the prophecy dice to recharge, decided on the rendezvous point.

(End of this chapter)