Chapter 32(OB)
Much later Z8C joined Jen and Seth in the tent at their invitation. He sighed with bliss when he was able to breathe without an air mask for the first time in many decades.
"It's been over 40 years since I last breathed without a mask. By the Emperor it is good to breathe unaided once again," Z8C said in wonder.
"Spend the night in here with us friend, you are always welcome in our home," Seth said fondly.
"I am indebted to you for this privilege, I would greatly enjoy that. Now let's have a look at your baby," Z8C said humbly.
Jen ushered him over to look at Christopher. The baby was still unsettled but seemed too tired to go on crying for the time being. Z8C gazed at the infant in wonder.
"Magnificent, a Wsuian child born the natural way, profoundly astonishing," Z8C said in awe.
Z8C gazed at Christopher in silence for some time, before eventually remembering himself and engaging in small talk about the weather.
"What are you even doing here on a blimp of all things?" Jen asked with a smile.
"The blimps? Oh they are the blimps of logistics platoon bravo of the 302nd Wsuian Light Infantry Regiment. Now that the rivers are low it is making a shambles of military logistics by boat, the blimps are the easiest solution the Regiment could manufacture at short notice," Z8C said with a chuckle.
"How do blimps even fly in this gravity?" Jen asked.
"Buoyancy Jen, buoyancy. As a told you on the day you arrived on 1D8V-44, buoyancy is one of the few things that behaves the same in any gravity. The local atmosphere is extremely heavy in this high gravity, and the hydrogen in those blimp gasbags is extremely light. The sheer weight of the sky pushes the gasbag upwards, carrying along anything hanging off it, absolutely huge lifting power," Z8C explained and continued.
"Each blimp can lift almost 4 Terran tons of weight, more than enough to carry ammunition boxes to men in the field. The lift is so great that the gasbags need to be compressed by internal air balloons full of heavy local atmosphere to increase the gasbag weight to prevent the blimp shooting up to the top of the atmosphere near low orbit!"
"This high gravity and high air pressure is a positive boon for hydrogen blimps, just astonishing how much they can lift here on 1D8V-44!"
"But isn't hydrogen dangerous, it explodes? Oh wait not without oxygen it doesn't," Jen fumbled.
"Yes, not without oxygen. In an oxygenated atmosphere hydrogen blimps are positively suicidal to use, but 1D8V-44 doesn't have enough oxygen in the atmosphere to combust hydrogen. If an enemy laser shoots a hole in one of the gasbags, it will simply deflate very slowly without a fireball, and will gently float to the ground over time. Very easy to patch up the hole on the ground and produce more hydrogen by hydrolysis," Z8C explained.
"Have the blimps been shot much?" Jen asked in alarm.
"Yeah heaps of times. Barely a day goes by when the eldar don't shoot a hole in at least one of the blimps. The walls of the blimp cars are made of ballistic plastic, easily resists shuriken catapult fire and lasgun fire. The windows are resistant to shuriken and other projectile small arms fire, but beams of light like lasers pass straight through unhindered. The gasbags draw most of the fire, but are always patched and refilled within the hour," Z8C reassured her.
"So if they are delivering ammo to the front lines what are they doing here?" Seth asked curiously.
"They are officially here on a surveillance mission, but in reality they are here to let me collect money for glorious Wsuioo. Colonel A1A has made Wsuian economic interests his greatest priority, especially since achieving victory on 1D8V-44," Z8C said frankly.
"Achieved victory?! You mean the war is won already!" Seth exclaimed in shock.
"No of course not victory in the war, I mean victory in the REAL objective of Colonel A1A," Z8C explained.
"What objective is that?" Seth ask curiously.
"The 3 primary objectives are to intimidate the entire planetary population into becoming Wsuian customers, to create a planet wide testing ground for the promotional 679 line wife models on an Imperium Planet, and to capture an eldar bone singer alive to make eldar technology for Wsuioo. All three of these objectives are successful, Wsuioo is delighted with this victory," Z8C said with brutal honesty.
Seth cursed in disgust at this treacherous behaviour on the part of Colonel A1A.
"That's why the doctor tested the baby, it was for the scientists back on Wsuioo, this planet is to be a testing ground for the success of the 679 line," Z8C said apologetically.
"Wasn't the Colonel going to enslave the 1D8V-44 population?" Jen asked in shock.
"He wanted you and the other 679 line wives to think that he would in order to stir you up into agitating the locals into becoming customers. The stealing from everyone not a customer was likewise deliberate to force the entire population to become customers." Z8C said and continued.
"You didn't honestly think that you were actually outwitting an S99 did you? They are the smartest line in existence, everything that has happened so far has been the Colonels plan all along. Why enslave the population when he can just make them all willingly cough up 50 thousand credits each? Wsuioo is making over a billion credits in sales from 1D8V-44 now!" Z8C explained sadly.
"But what about the eldar invaders?" Jen asked numbly.
"The 302nd Wsuian Light Infantry Regiment has already captured a live eldar bone singer and that bone singer has already just arrived safely on Wsuioo to be tortured into making eldar technology for Wsuioo. Wsuioo will make trillions of credits from this technology. The regiment has no further interest in wasting lives capturing new ground and will not be engaging the enemy except in a defensive role," Z8C said sorrowfully.
Jen and Seth gaped at Z8C in alarm, lost for words at this cowardly behaviour.
"An additional 5 regiments of ordinary Imperial Guard soldiers will be arriving soon from other nearby frontier worlds to join in the fighting on 1D8V-44, should be arriving next month hopefully. These regiments of normal men will continue the advance to capture ground from the eldar," Z8C reassured them.
"Will they also stop Wsuioo from turning 1D8V-44 into a socialist slavery society?" Seth asked darkly.
Jen and Z8C cocked their heads at this bizarre question.
"Why would Wsuioo make 1D8V-44 into a socialist slavery society? For that matter isn't that a contradiction in terms?" Z8C asked in confusion.
"But isn't Wsuioo some snowflake leftist socialist slavery society?" Seth insisted.
"Wsuioo is a culturally ultra conservative single party slave society, ruled by a single elite caste, with all individuals organised in a communist type living framework. The system is a million miles away from anything resembling socialism, and is in many ways more of a right wing fascist system with it's set castes and enforcement of social inequalities, but is left wing in terms of communist type shared property, lack of private property, and in the universal housing, health care, education and other essentials provided free to all individuals," Z8C explained.
"I have seen some snow flakes up in the mountains of Wsuioo, they were very pretty," Jen added confused.
"Not snowflakes that fall from the sky, snowflakes as in effeminate homosexual communists who cry about their feelings and can't stand being offended, you know, left wingers," Seth explained to Jen.
"I don't think Wsuioo is like that at all husband. There is no room for worrying about feelings on Wsuioo, the Wsuian people cry not from hurt feelings but cry because they are being made to sleep all night naked in refrigerators, or because they are locked in starvation cells with no food as punishments, or because they are being overworked to the brink of death. It is not a place for the weak or sensitive, the imperfect people end up in the blender. Some of the female lines are bred to be lesbians, if that's what you mean by homosexual communists, but I don't know of any male homosexuals on the entire planet. It is a hard place for hard people," Jen said humbly.
"Then what are the pansy type of left wingers?" Seth asked.
"This town perhaps?" Z8C said dryly.
"Very funny smarty pants, but you must know that we are right wing as can be. Jokes aside will we now become some horrible oppressive Wsuian socialist planet?" Seth urged.
Jen and Z8C cocked their heads at these bizarre words, terribly confused.
"I can safely say that Wsuioo will not be enforcing socialism in any form, Wsuioo has never enacted any form of socialist policies either on Wsuioo or on any other planet." Z8C said in confusion.
"But isn't Wsuioo a socialist government planet? You just said that they are communists," Seth said, clearly getting frustrated.
"OH! You mean COMMUNIST, I see I see. Yes, Wsuioo has a communist type organisation. Communism and Socialism are not the same thing, socialist ideals are in opposition to everything Wsuioo stands for." Z8C exclaimed.
Jen nodded, finally understanding what Seth had been talking about.
"Wsuioo will actually have a vested interest in making 1D8V-44 as right wing as possible over the next 100 years to increase capitalist focus, and will try to alter local politics to become more right wing," Z8C explained.
"Oh well that's ok then, I am already proudly as right wing as they come, always have been." Seth said with a huge sigh of relief.
Jen and Z8C both cocked their heads yet again at the thought of Seth being right wing, it was just a bizarre contradiction in terms for a man of his character.
"What's with the looks?" Seth asked.
"I think there is some confusion about the term right wing. It doesn't fit a man of your character," Z8C explained diplomatically.
"What's wrong with my character?" Seth asked sounding offended.
"Nothing is wrong with your character, that's why you CANNOT be "as right wing as they come" as you put it. You are not evil enough to be ultra right wing," Z8C explained gently.
"Wait what? I'm getting so confused by this terminology. What do you call the people who are decent people who just want what is best for themselves and everyone else?" Seth asked.
"Something to the left side of the political spectrum. Maybe a socialist or at least a left leaning centrist. Definitely not ultra right wing, ultra right wingers are people like those Inquisitors who nuke entire slums for the crime of being poor." Z8C began.
"Left and right wing is primarily determined by attitude to inequality and the poor. Wsuioo is technically left wing on some levels because it ensures everyone is housed and fed, but in terms of social justice Wsuioo is right wing as it sells slaves and has fixed castes that make it impossible to remove inequality. Somewhere like the hives of some hive worlds that deliberately make laws to prevent the poor from escaping poverty, do nothing to help the poor survive, and even actively cull the numbers of poor people in lethal military purges, these places are textbook examples of right wing systems. The Imperium of Man as a whole is an ultra right wing organisation," Z8C rambled.
"Wait... Are you saying that the Imperium of Man is EVIL?!" Seth exclaimed.
Z8C and Jen frantically denied this with loud shouts of "NO" and superstitiously made hand signs to ward off blasphemy, and looked horrified at the destination logic and reason had led them to! Seth looked horrified too.
"Reason begets doubt, doubt begets heresy, heresy begets retribution," Jen said religiously.
"Blessed is the mind too small for doubt. A small mind is easily filled with faith," Z8C added superstitiously.
"Light your way in the darkness with the pyres of burning heretics," Seth added, making superstitious gestures himself and looking horrified.
Jen felt sick at the thought of the heresy they had very nearly strayed into! Reason and inquiry was such a perilous thing, it could spawn no end of heresy if one let logic and reason look at the Imperium of Man! Seth and Z8C looked as sick and horrified as Jen felt, and all three of them fervently prayed mantras of ignorance and closed mindedness to ward off heresy! That had been too close for comfort!
***...
After an hour of frantically praying for ignorance, Jen and the others felt a bit better. Jen felt the comforting ignorance gird her mind with blind faith, better armour against blasphemous conclusions than any rational argument could be.
That had been a near disaster, far too close for comfort, and she just wanted to forget it had ever happened.
To be continued