Fredrick watched as the first of many graves was opened. Hundreds of thousands had died in the Word Bearer's invasion, and they had only been prevented from killing more by the expenditure of vast numbers of battle droids.
I had prepared a speech for the occasion to commemorate the fallen and officially start the beginning of the campaign that would take us beyond the Kursk system and to strike against out against those who would bring ruin to our world.
I watched as bodies wrapped in white shrouds were lowered into the ground. Families of the deceased crowded around them. Fields of white carpeted many of the new cemeteries which were sprouted over the world.
Some were far too small for him to look upon and he left his gaze fall from those to other sights.
I walked among them, IG-105 and another one of his guards trailing in his wake.
I walked among the people, watching their faces, taking in the sorrow, the mourning. This was what the Word Bearer's had brought here. My own thoughts lingered upon my own conquest of this world. "Hadn't I brought similar loss and grief to many?"
No I hadn't ever allowed massacres and the wanton waste of human life that the Word Bearers had brought. I would ensure that war would never touch this planet's surface again. I may be a conqueror but they were butchers and zealots.
I finally stepped onto a stage prepared for my arrival, any doubt as to what would be required of me gone. I had to ignite a fire in the people of Kursk, to use this war, to use their suffering, the bitter memories of lost loved ones and the pride of victory over their hated foe to bind them to me.
So I spoke to them.
"Today we remember the sacrifice of so many to beat back the enemy who came from the stars to despoil our world. Today we remember their sacrifice so that we might live. All of us have given much to the cause. Even now as I speak to you, our soldiers are readying, preparing their arsenals for that day the enemy so much as thinks of darkening our skies."
"Today destiny beckons us forward, this planet and its neighbors will gift us with all the weapons we need in order to take the fight to them. As we grieve for the fallen we must never forget who brought this savagery to Kursk, our home!"
"New vessels are being laid down, and our foundries roar with the memories of the fallen, together, the union of Human will and machine might, we will create the most formidable war machine in the galaxy and use it to ensure that our enemies, stained scarlet by their sins will have no refugee, no safe place, nowhere to hide when we come for them!"
"When I first set foot upon this planet, it was as a conqueror. Yet the people of this world have impressed upon me, the Lord of Steel, the man in the machine that you alone are fit to lead the human race forward. So I ask for your patience, your resolve and your dedication. We shall labor together and build a fleet to shake the stars, one to drive the spear of vengeance into the foe."
"They came with envy and hatred, cast out by the Father of Humanity after their betrayal and now come to visit their anguish upon us. Yet their inability to be whole, to be pure will be their undoing, for we are a free people, and the true inheritors of the future. So my people, join and unite under the Confederate Flag, the flag we shall bear to the stars."
The reaction from the people was instant.
One man raised his fist to the sky and shouted his name. Others took up the cry. Soon "Lord Fredrick, and Lord of Steel were the only words Fredrick could make out. He raised his metal fist in a return of the salute.
"We shall take the stars, follow me!" Fredrick shouted. He felt alive. The attention of the crowd was upon him and they roared their enthusiasm, their love for him. "Today marks the beginning of our Great Armament."
The drive to launch new ships would take long, and officers would be needed. He had recruitment drives for naval positions. It was after all the lifeblood of an interstellar empire. They were well on the way to the construction of a Lucrehulk by the year's end. New providence class destroyers would join the squadrons and the number of ordered munificent Star Frigates was such that they had to be recorded by hull numbers as MSF 001 to 100.
Regiments of his human soldiers, were turning into divisions and those were growing Corps. The people of Kursk began to rally into the Great Armament. Factories belched smoke into the sky as blasters were churned out to arm the ever growing numbers of soldiers. The Hexagon symbol of the CIS was flying from many windows. B7782 was astounded by the sheer level of output that new orders for Tactical Droids and human clerks to process the changes.
Fredrick watched from the bridge of the Star Hammer as a new gantry was constructed in high orbit. It was built to construct two classes of ship only. Subjugator class Heavy Cruisers and the new Vengeance class Star Dreadnoughts which had been designed by HK-217 as units capable of dealing with the battleships of the Word Bearers on equal terms.
As a symbol they were also important for the morale of the people, the sight of such a large ship over Kursk would inspire confidence.
The Lucrehulk battleship, Kursk was completed within a year of the Word Bearer's defeat on the planet it was named for. The orbital dockyard, once only fit to do basic maintenance upon Imperial Escort craft and refuel other ships Plasma Cores could now dock all three of Fredrick's Capital ships and a significant portion of the frigates, destroyers and sundry sloops and transports which made up the bulk of Confederate shipping. Numerous additions had been added as asteroids were mined and smelted in growing forges. Countless laborers both in orbit and upon the surface toiled round the clock to meet the demands from Fredrick.
Fredrick had a monument to the fallen raised on the spot that the last Word Bearer's ship had departed from. It was of a human soldier and a Super Battle Droid standing atop a fallen Chaos Space Marine, weapons pointed forward.
In addition to the vast industrial expansion, Fredrick was investing in education for the masses, schools were being established, partially he would admit, to ensure that the next generation could contribute to his quest for Empire building and partially because it would give them greater ability to determine their destiny.
Fredrick found many willing and able teachers from former Imperial institutions, ones who eagerly took up the task of continuing their roles in shaping the people of Kursk, this time however with Confederate sigils on their uniforms as opposed to Aquilas.
They had held Kursk for five years, it had been inhabited for four thousand, all of those under Imperial rule. This made it critical that Fredrick reach the next generation of children and bring them up as Confederates, not as former Imperials. Yet numerous reminders of the Imperial past were all over the planet, a few isolated communities had been found that believed that they were still living under Governor Zhukov's predecessor. Imperial governors and members of its aristocracy were curiously long lived. Fredrick's body had been pressed to its limits in recent years and his injuries had confined him to his suit of armor. To many of the people of Kursk, a droid was their new lord. Yet they had accepted him, many of them simply wished to move on with their lives, and since the Word Bearer's invasion, support for his rule had exploded. His path lay in the stars above and nothing would stand in his way, yet he had to watch his new home.
It had been some time since he had the vision that set him on the path he was now on. He had to defeat that evil. Fredrick recalled some of the strange leaders he had fought under during the Confederacy, Sevrannce Tann, Dooku, the cyborg Grievous and many others. None had the sheer hold over his soul that this entity was able to exert.
They were spreading throughout the system that he had claimed, new fleets of ore haulers and mining vessels were filling the system's various asteroid fields. He was also sending surveyors to the inner rocky planets to find the choicest supplies of material for his fleets.\
They would soon embark on their crusade of vengeance. No stone would be left unturned, they would find and destroy the Word Bearer's fleet, lay their worlds to waste and then find the abomination of the realm of souls and cast that rising monster back to the pit.
Fredrick was certain, and his strength grew with every passing day, Kursk was becoming an armory world. One which would in time grow to rival any Foundry world of the old galaxy and the system would put to shame even the greatest shipwrights of old.
