I watched Palisade walk away, he disappeared into the tangle of machinery with a grace almost comparable to my own. While there was a path to the hanger that didn't involve such physical contortions this was faster, and it just felt right to be buried so deep in a tangle of machinery light couldn't hope to reach you.
We weren't any further apart than before, like Palisade was thinking at this very moment, physical distance had long since stopped being a factory. The factory was with the factory, it was as simple as that.
My suit of armor did have a speaker system, which was kind of important if I was going to be giving a guide tour. I was more than aware enough to know that it was a ploy to give even more conversational power over to the Emperor, but that was indicative of me playing by human negotiation principles. Or really any negotiation.
No, I couldn't say I cared enough to lower myself to political power plays. So I just started walking down the corridor, absently pointing out what each tube and conveyor was moving and to where. The primarch's actually looked interested in the tour, which was a bit odd. But it was fairly obvious the Emperor was only paying minor attention and I felt a prickle on my spine like someone was staring at me, though the Emperor was decidedly not. It was the same sensation I had gotten while stuck in the warp, just less tainted.
I had just been going down the list of everything manufactured in this section of this base, largely fuels and other burnable's and compstables. When the Emperor asked his first question, well it was really more a statement. "I saw the pylons scattered through the landscape outside, those were what you used to pull this planet from the warp?" he damn well knew that was the case, Isha had described them like Immaterial hooks sunk into the planet holding it in the materium. If the weakened goddess could tell this thing could too.
I had my armor nod its head, "correct, though the production centers for those are rather more isolated given the exacting environmental conditions some of the components require. I imagine even a primarch would struggle in temperatures exceeding the surface of the sun." not an exaggeration, the pylons had been awful to produce and hellish to automate. Rapid temperature shifts, force enough to make a neutron star, outright flipping gravitons. That whole section was bathed in energy forms I still didn't have names for. Sanginus smiled at that, and I noticed he seemed to do that alot. "I grew up on a desert planet, and at times I thought the temperatures couldn't be that different" he finished with a light chuckle and the other two laughed in kind, humor. Can't say I'd heard a joke in….. I think Labyrinthine had made a mocking carving of a biter a few years ago. And the Daemons might have said something, Isha kept seeming to find something funny as well. But just making a joke? That might be a Nauvis first.
I didn't actually have a premade sound for laughter, so I just let out a shallow nod, "I'd love to hear more about how you grew up, or just your life in general. I don't doubt that you've had quite a few adventures." "that we have" Horus spoke with a nod. And honestly talking for this long had been grating on me, I had better things I could be doing than talking to these people, better things to do than letting some little godling probe me for weaknesses like he'd already decided I was a threat. So I prodded Balistraia and had her take control of my vocal systems, and she did a disturbingly good impression of me, given she could see and simulate my thoughts.
She talked the Primarch's through each stage of a Tank's construction and how it's various weapon systems could be rapidly modified or changed based on the situation. Modularity having gotten a boom awhile back, and I turned myself to my tasks, designing more equipment for space activities and trying to formulate ever stronger materials to use for my various armors and structures. At a certain point more density had a decreasing pay off in durability and I was trying to both cut the cost and increase the strength. I would have my damned cake and eat it too.
I did keep an eye on my body though, even if I could have left with only the barest remaining fragment of my attention with it. And I noticed something disturbing, the Emperor's eyes occasionally glanced at wherever the bulk of my attention was falling, and he wasn't even being that subtle about it. It was that awareness that kept me from jumping out of my armor when his voice came from the wall in my experimentation suite. "I cannot say I have ever been ignored like this before, it's novel" his voice was laced with humor, but well, creepy god speaking from within my walls. And the minds couldn't even hear it, it was worse that he was still occasionally talking with Balistraia. Multitasking was only okay when I did it.
But this was my place of power, and I feared nothing within these halls. And compared to some of the stuff both the bugs and Daemons had done this wasn't even a blip on the radar. Intangibility was a bitch to deal with. "You asked for a tour of the factory with me, I am still technically giving you the tour. If it needs my direct attention it will gain it." unlikely, Balistraia was many things and being competent was one of the first. "But since you're bothering to speak in this manner I assume you have some topics you wanted to ask me specifically" at this point my feelings of annoyance were growing rapidly.
First the Orks bothering me, simple enough just kill them, then the Eldar, simple enough let Isha deal with them but it was far more annoying than the orks. Now Humans added into the mix? Patience was not one of my virtues, and mine was rapidly draining. This galaxy could just leave me alone and I'd ignore it just the same, but it had to involve itself in my business. Can't a man build an automated solar system spanning factory without being bothered every few months?
"You would be correct, I plan on taking Palisade with me to take his rightful place in my Imperium" if he would just get to the point that'd be fantastic "and I wanted to insure there would be no complications with that." and by that he meant me stopping Palisade from leaving, as if I needed a threat to let Palisade do what he wanted. He was more than capable of surviving anything this galaxy could throw at him, and if he couldn't and somehow died? Well Oblivion would be too kind a fate for whatever dared take from me.
"Don't worry about it, If he wants to leave he can. I have never forced him to stay even after we designed space craft and he actually could leave." If Palisade had decided to go off and make his own factory separate from my own I wouldn't have stopped him, he'd just never bothered. Also feels needed to point out he hasn't yet said anything new. "I know that, your care for him is true."
--
"I know that, your care for him is true" and as odd as it felt to say The Emperor wasn't lying. The twisted mass of metal that masquerades as a soul really did care about his son, as much as a machine could anyway. But well, the machine wasn't a mortal, meaning that the Emperor's plans to just wait for his Primarch's parental figures to die of old age wasn't feasible. Nor were any less subital means of removing the influence this Maker had on his child. The amount of force needed to actually put this thing down would not be inconsiderable, he could do it certainly but it'd be a long fight.
No, the Emperor would actually need to negotiate with it. This creature that used to be human, that had the traces of the vanished Isha on its soul, who had survived the dark gods best efforts to kill or corrupt it. A Thing that had once been human and had now become more. But there was plenty to be gained from this if it went well, an entire new forge system, not a forge world, a forge system.
At least one of his son's would benefit from an industrial force not scene since before the dark ages, the weaponry was more advanced than anything his Imperial army had. Though the maintenance similarly scaled upwards, he'd already looked at the designs and how the weapons were crafted, and aside from the fact that they shouldn't work they would need to be maintained or fixed by this factory's equipment. But it would still advance his plans by decades, time he desperately needed.
"But would he have your support if he comes with us" The Emperor wouldn't push on this, letting an uncontrolled empire grow burned him but losing a primarch would be worse. And if he tried to force the Maker into the empire he would both be forced to kill the Maker and his son. Making this whole trip a wasted expenditure of resources and time. No, some concessions could be given.
The Emperor watched as the area which held the bulk of the Makers soul kept moving, his various tests continuing while his soul sent millions of orders and received enough information to equate him to some supercomputers. And he watched a faint indignation grow within it, the feelings far muted from what a humans soul would show. "You Imagine I would leave something I put so much effort into alone? Even if he were not a living breathing creature I would not be so inclined. No he will have what support I can afford to give ""and what support would that be? The Pylons? Ships without even FTL capabilities? An army of metal machines?" The Presence was dismissive of him, in a way no creature with a soul had been in quite a long time. And The emperor wasn't even sure he would get a response.
"I already answered your question, I will give what aid I can afford. Either bring up a new topic or continue your tour." The emperor had been planning on offering imperial designs for war ships and warp drives on the condition the majority of those ships got shipped to the great crusade. But he could tell that that was something he would need to bring up with Palisade. This Maker cared little for what was outside his purview and the Emperor doubted there was much he was willing to offer that the other would care for.
If it was true that he had only been designing war capable spacecraft for less than ten years it wouldn't be long till they had ships comparable to what the imperium could build. Though the tech leaps after that made it a far more considerable investment without some greater pieces of tech to study. Even ships from the golden age of humanity had been accelerated in development both by his knowledge and information stolen from ancient necron and eldar ships. If this Maker lacked those it would be hundreds of years before his tech was comparable to either.
No, the only technological information he was willing to offer would be of little use to someone operating on such a different technological base and one who was progressing so rapidly. At best he would shave years off of development and study, not exactly a long period of time when the great crusade had been going for longer than this Maker had been alive.
But he did still have major concerns, Isha, while supposedly a kind goddess, had been touched by Nurgle and Slaanesh, and had touched both his son and this Maker. "And what of your interactions with the eldar goddess, do not pretend you do not know of who I speak. I can see her touch in all the planets and most of the animals on this world." excepting anything in the oceans, and that massive insectoid hivemind still trying to find him. This was a deeply unsettling place, the Emperor still wasn't sure the oceans actually had a bottom. They could fully stretch all the way through the planet, the distinction between magma and water not seeming to matter to a fair portion of its creatures. A true death world, or more accurately a true life world.
Life only naturally evolved until it was 'good enough' to stay alive. This planet's spirit apparently endeavored to make sure nothing ever actually reached that stagnancy. No life was ever 'good enough' to live. And it was still staring at him, rallying its creatures to test themselves against his physic might. Even his conversation with this Maker was one such test, probing his inherent psychic defenses to get the slightest read on the machine's emotions.
"She fled here while we were stuck in the warp. Made some planets grow and drew even more Daemons towards us. Didn't even really notice her until Palisade pointed out something watching him in the hydroponics bay. Then we got out of the warp and she went to deal with her kids or something, can't say I cared much." that was … the truth as much as the Emperor could tell. But there were the faintest traces of deception, not a true lie but an omission. But the presence had grown rapidly more hostile with his last question, and he had no wish to push his luck just yet. He would be here a few days yet and his son might be more likely to release information. "Then I shall return to your tour, you have been a gracious host" the Emperor did not get a response, and he couldn't say he cared either. They had both not gotten what they wanted out of that.
AN-
not that happy with this one, though the next warhammer one is better so far.
likes and reviews are lovely, is a thing.