IG-105 had watched as Fredrick had lain in a medically induced coma as the medical droids operated on him. The injuries he had suffered as his suit seared his body from the melta blast had been extreme.

His armor was being reforged, the intense heat from the melta blast requiring reworking the cortosis which was incredibly energy intensive, but it was deemed that the expense would have been incurred by Fredrick himself so it was expended.

HK-217 has assumed command until Commander Fredrick was fit for duty. This resulted in him butting heads with B7782 who believed that he deserved overall command due to his command of the ground forces that been used in the campaign.

A pair of B2 droids flanked IG-105 as he inspected the area, moving past the medical droids and observing the machinery. The chamber was situated deep inside the core ship that occupied the center of the battleship.

The cortosis from his prior armor suit was being reforged into a usable form planetside, IG-105 had a personal hand in ensuring that this model was enhanced to prevent another such failure.

His body would take time to recover from the injuries despite the medical care, and in the meantime, they were laying plans to construct shipyards aboard the orbiting station, and the frigates were hauling in mineral rich asteroids to use as raw material for the new projects that HK-217 had placed as priority.

Planetside things were doing extremely well. New droids were pouring out of the factory in the thousands, but at a lower rate than they had during the primary phase of production, with resources being devoted to production facilities for spacecraft and advanced droids that required specialist equipment to create.

Huge numbers of droids were involved in managing their new organic subjects and dealing with the problem of integration. Unrest was widespread after the fall of the Governor, requiring large numbers of droids to enforce their rule. Though they had many collaborators, particularly those from the less affluent classes of society.

It would be many years before they accepted their new place in a growing Confederate Enclave. The two leading Tactical droids had turned to Captain Roidic the sole other organic in the fleet, to oversee the integration efforts. She had proven effective at managing them but problems kept arising, in particular amongst the displaced people from the Hive City. Evidently they were in desperate need of housing and the diaspora was spreading into other areas.

Weeks passed and IG 105 carried on his vigil, watching the new armor sealed Fredrick's organic body in a shell of metal, giving him the strength of a droid. He was present when Fredrick stepped off his metal slab and brought the bickering factions that were forming between HK-217 and B7782 back under his control.

They lacked the same vision that he possessed about the future. While brilliant they were incapable of perceiving objectives beyond their parameters. Sensors were being extended and probes were being sent to nearby star systems to establish a picture of their surrounding environment.

A group of prisoners were being lead from detention cells in the Star Hammer to a facility planetside, they looked dreadful, their confinement having proven tortuous for several as information was extracted. Several of the "Machine Cult" had been executed in confinement for escaping and attempting to sabotage the battleship.

IG-105 had considered this a regrettable exercise as they had proven to be quite bountiful sources of understanding for the various pieces of technology they had encountered.

The droid approached a woman in the column, data entries on her had reported that she was a Commissar of the ordo prefectus and that despite the length of her captivity had never cooperated with the droids attempts both ameciable and coercive to get her to give up information on the wider Imperium. Electrical scars could be seen in tears in her shift, the clothes of many of them being confiscated for purposes unknown to IG-105.

He looked at their escort, a group of ten B1 Battle droids and three Magnaguards, their electro staffs crackling as they strode past, a piece of acknowledge code being past from the commanding droid to IG-105.

One of the prisoners, was muttering something about these blasphemous machines, he was a cyborg, augmented significantly past the normal humans around him and bound with shackles that encompassed not only his natural limbs but a pair of additional mechanical arms that protruded from the being's back.

IG-105 stared into the adept's face, his purple eyes meeting the brown organic eye and a glowing red mechanical eye.

"Silica animus! You are an affront to omnissiah!"

The cyborg thrashed in his bindings striving to free himself and attack IG-105. An electro staff was pressed into the cyborg's body, purple electricity coursing through his body.

The Magnaguard judging that the adept had been pacified removed the electro staff, a fresh burn on the cyborg's chest.

"This one has been troublesome, it is controllable but dangerous." The droid said in a deep voice, as if to deflect any reproof from IG-105. He gave them the go ahead and they were brought to a hanger where shuttles to carry them to the surface awaited their arrival.

A message from B7782 flashed across his vision, an order to report to the bridge with maximal speed.

IG-105 while technically subservient to the tactical droid was annoyed, his position as Commander Fredrick's chief of security generally put him in third for general authority with only Captain Roidic being his clear superior.

He went to the bridge but took his time, a pair of lesser magnaguards flanking him. They entered the bridge to see see a small holotable displaying a map of the system and sites for planned shipyards and refineries. B7782 and HK-217 were both present and in the middle of some sort of debate over the placement of certain production priorities.

"IG-105 reporting as requested." He said his silent entourage behind him.

The two tactical droids paused in their debated and turned to him.

"IG-105 we have discovered a small outpost on the outermost planetary body of this system, we are tasking you to bring this outpost into our fold."

HK-217 broke in once B7782 was finished, "you will be provided with a Munificent class frigate as support and several C-9979 transport to ferry your force, launch at the earliest possible interval, fighter craft will be dispatched to escort you there."

IG-105 accepted his assignment placidly, this would be an excellent exercise of his capabilities.

"You have discretion for composition of your force, be advised however that the gravity of this planet is low and it lacks an atmosphere. This will impact conditions on the planetoid.

IG-105 gave a burst of static acknowledgement and began sorting through his database of combat droids. He could see that one of the Munificent frigates was being tasked for transport alongside a number of C-9969 transports.

Preparations were rapid with droids, funneling into the massive storage racks of the frigate and tanks were loaded onto transports. Vulture and Hyena droids clambered onto the sides of the frigate and attached themselves to its hull.

IG-105 watched from the bridge of his frigate as the Star Hammer grew small and distant. A impressive army was stowed away in the transport at they raced towards the outpost. Several days passed and they were nearing the planet, moving at a low sublight speed. It was an icy ball far from the reaches of its star's embrace, surrounded by a net of asteroids that had been caught in gravity well.

IG-105 turned to one of the blue chested OOM droids manning the bridge equipment.

"Deploy the fighters, interdict any craft that attempt to escape, and bring our bulk transporters down to the surface."

Vulture droids streaked by the bridge and hyena bombers followed in their wake, defensive flak fire began erupting from the installations and numerous of the heavier icarus las cannons vented their fury towards the bombers. It was a small base, in particular compared to previous fortifications encountered in this system.

Drop ships were breaking formation from the frigate and braving the hailstorm of ground fire to bring their troops down unto the battlefield. Rockets rained down from HMP gunships and turbolasers from the frigate pummeled the largest gun emplacements.

Tanks emerged from the landers, and they began to fire into the outer embankments. IG-105 had Persuader tank droids advance under the covering fire from AATs with B1 battle droids following in their wake. DSD-1 gave precision fire against automated defenses fixed to the walls.

Heavy Bolters slumped in their servitor mounts, their mechanisms destroyed. Shock rifle armed Persuaders battered the gates and in the end, a salvo of proton torpedoes fired by Hyena bombers melted them to slag.

The droids rolled into the abandoned center of the outpost, pausing to scan the area, the array of sensors detecting nothing. It was abandoned, only the now disabled servitor operated defenses offering any resistance.

Old scorch marks covered a massive adamantine door, an immense hole had been slagged through it and the edges looked like some immense beast had clawed chunks out of it before whatever force that had melted the door broke through.

Six destroyer droids covered the door and B1 battle droids busied themselves with the business of combing over the collection of buildings. Some contained recognizable traces of equipment or provisions but the entire place had been looted.

IG-105 had reached the surface in a shuttle and looked around at the place, despite the numerous servitor and machine spirit emplacements no trace of anything human remained.

"Lock down this site, bring in mobile cannons and dispatch probe units to completely investigate the site. I want a detachment of one line battalion stationed here."

Several subservient command B1 droids hurried to enact his plans. Comms channels established by the Munificent frigate made quick work of the data transfer as within the bowels of the Star Hammer, a battalion of droids was readied for this work.

The request for the J-1 mobile cannon droids would take longer as these were a rather low rate production model and B-7782 was using them for establishing the defensive ring around their capital. The massive W-165 turbo laser was being constructed near the city and even ahead of that colossal gun was frigate and capital shipyards in order to reconstruct the Confederate Navy.

Since the victory, immense efforts had been levied from droid and human hands alike to construct the immense drydocks and foundries needed to create the war ships. This place demanded a careful inspection.

The wind rippled his cloak and and the droid's frame was painted in the wain light of the distant star. Light flashed along his gold plated face plate and enhanced frame. The strange thing to IG-105 remained that whatever had been here first had cleaned the place of all life and yet left no trace of the Imperials who would've been the garrison.