Chapter 18Forge
Down in the tunnels of mine 888M, kilometres under the surface of Ferrous Prime, an Adeptus Mechanicus Lexmechanic named Surjunctive sighed in annoyed exasperation, running a metal hand through her long metal hair of cranial data cables. These iron ore quality reports were proving to be very concerning.
Surjunctive scuttled on her metal feet around the metal floor of her demountable mine supervisor office, her long hair of data cables dragging on the floor behind her, she looked out a window with her bionic eyes, her blank metal face hiding her emotions from the world.
Surjunctive was a "Lexmechanic", a type of tech priest. Technically she was a member of the Ferrous Prime ruling class, but by tech priest standards she was pretty low ranking down the hierarchy of power. She was very low ranking in the grand scheme of global politics, but certainly not the lowest type of tech priest, in fact she had an entire team of lowest ranking tech priest "rune priests" under her command.
Surjunctive wasn't satisfied to stay a mere Lexmechanic, it was a necessary stepping stone on the path of the ambitious. It was also a highly unfulfilling job in general that was little more than bureaucracy and boredom, all she ever did was compile and analyse data into the central computer records, terabytes of iron ore reports and logistics records, absolutely none of it remotely interesting or satisfying to process.
Lexmechanic Surjunctive might be a lowly nobody in the grand factories and machine temples of the surface, but down here in the deep iron ore deposits where no one more important wanted to go, Surjunctive was queen, the uncontested leader of mine 888B, the official mine administrator in charge of all operations and personnel and equipment and supplies of the entire mine. Nothing official happened without her digital signature, she imported all the food, she imported all the supplies, she got all the credit for production success but also got all the blame for any failures.
The hierarchy of "common" tech priests from lowest rank to highest went: "rune priests" the entry level new younger tech priests, then "Lexmechanics" (Surjunctive's rank), then "transmechanics" who installed and maintained critical communication technology, then various ranks of "tech priest enginseers" who specialised in the construction and maintenance and repair of machinery of all types, then finally highest of all "electro-priests" whose role was mostly a religious ceremonial role in the Adeptus Mechanicus religion.
Above these common types of tech priests were the true ruling ranks of the "Ruling priesthood". In hierarchy from lowest rank to highest rank they were: "artisans" who designed new machines, then "genetors" who studied and managed biological systems and biological sciences, then "logis" who were executive level administrators and data analysts and statisticians who basically ran the forge world, then "magos" who were the ruling body of the religious priesthood, then the deputy ruler the "fabricator locum" who was the second highest person on the planet, then finally the "fabricator general" who was the ruler of Ferrous Prime.
Surjunctive had to slowly work her way up through all these ranks one at a time if she ever wanted to become a magos on the ruling council. She needed to succeed in every one of these positions with superb performance records to get promoted over the long course of her career, any setbacks or failures would see her promoted no higher.
Surjunctive could not endure to rise no higher than the lowly rank of Lexmechanic, a woman of her ambition would not be satisfied with such a lowly station in life. She was determined to do well and get herself promoted to transmechanic as soon as possible.
Surjunctive turned in her office and grabbed a sample rock of upper medium grade iron ore that had been sent back by her superiors. She crushed the rock in her metal hand with mechanical strength and hurled the crushed remnants at a wall in terrible anger.
"This… This-this GARBAGE was sent up to the smelters from MY MINE!" Surjunctive shouted in her bionic voice at the assembled subordinate tech priest rune priests in her office.
"Do any of you UNDERSTAND just what this could do to my PROMOTION PROSPECTS!?" Surjunctive continued.
"You rune priests are in charge of the menials, it's YOUR JOB to make sure that they are only digging up HIGH GRADE ORE, not this RUBBISH!" Surjunctive screamed at them.
"It doesn't make sense, the geological predictions predicted only high grade iron ore in our calculated dig patterns. Yet this medium grade iron ore is continually encountered." One of the rune priests said in a bionic voice of indeterminate gender.
"Doesn't it strike you as suspicious that the medium grade iron ore only appears near the end of a menial's overtime shift? I have studied the data, menials are tens of thousands of tons behind quota and then in the space of less than an hour they produce what, 30 to 50 thousand tons to finish their quota, all of it this medium grade garbage? Doesn't that make any of you suspicious?" Surjunctive asked derisively.
"What is the suspected origin of this inferior ore if not from the mine?" A rune priest asked.
"I suspect criminally obtained, black market deals. I have had far too many crates of food and other supplies go mysteriously missing in industrial accidents, far in excess of past statistical trends. The menials are stealing MY SUPPLIES and bartering them to some criminals in exchange for medium grade ore that makes me look bad!" Surjunctive snarled mechanically.
"Should the suspected Menials be turned into servitors in punishment Lexmechanic?" A rune priest asked seriously.
"If only a few Menials were guilty then yes, but there are too many Menials implicated in this offence. I would lose over 10 percent of my Menials in such a punishment, it would be disastrous to my iron ore quotas if I lost so many. I need an alternative way of dealing with these criminal menials." Surjunctive fretted nervously.
"I need to put a stop to this without losing any production. I want all implicated Menials given a public pardon notice letting them know that I am aware of their transgressions but have chosen not to take any disciplinary action, I also want this pardon notice to include a warning that I will not be so forgiving in the future if any further transgressions occur. That should spook them into compliance, they will know that I am on to them." Surjunctive said cunningly.
"That is very merciful Lexmechanic…"
"It's not mercy, it's pragmatism. I don't expect to be here a year from now, I expect to be promoted. I don't care if the menials are criminals, they will be someone else's problem to deal with. What I care about is short term QUALITY PRODUCTION!" Surjunctive snapped.
"I want you rune priests to be more vigilant in monitoring the menials. I want random surprise Skitarii inspections of all implicated menials at their work stations throughout the day and night, I want the menials to be scared and on edge, I want them to feel like they will be caught the moment they do anything illegal." Surjunctive commanded harshly.
"And what if they are caught doing anything illegal in the future?"
"They will be turned into servitors with no pain relief, lobotomise them LAST, AFTER all the amputation and mutilation and surgery, so that they experience the maximum suffering. I want you to VID RECORD the entire surgery with FULL AUDIO, and then send copies of the recording to every menial they know and force the menials to watch it. The others will think twice about crossing me in the future." Surjunctive said darkly.
…
Pi was busy at work, directing servitors to dig up an impossibly cruel amount of iron ore. She was crushed by fatigue, her only consolation the knowledge that the peddlitute would arrive later with more iron ore to help Pi get some sleep tonight.
The work was endless and monotonous.
Without warning a squad of threatening Skitarii entered Pi's tunnel, escorting a metal faced tech priest of the rune priest rank?!
Pi bowed her head instantly in respect to the tech priest, wondering why he was here.
The tech priest approached Pi directly and handed her an official letter sealed with the synthetic wax seal of the Lexmechanic herself?!
"This is your official, one time pardon for your crimes. The Lexmechanic has personally reviewed your criminal case and mercifully decided not to turn you into a servitor." The tech priest opened in a mechanical voice!
Pi fell down on her bottom in shock and wailed in terrified turmoil.
"We have been aware of your crimes for some time now and we have been watching you. Had it been up to me you would be dragged off to become a servitor right now. The Lexmechanic is more merciful, but she will not show this mercy a second time." The tech priest continued as Pi sobbed on the ground.
"From this moment forth, every single gram of iron ore you send to the smelter will be HIGH GRADE iron ore of regulation quality or above. Is that clear menial?"
"Yes yes! I'm sorry! I was just so tired! The iron ore quota is SO high and I wasn't getting enough sleep, I didn't mean to hurt anyone!" Pi sobbed.
"The flesh is weak, you are a cog in a great machine, and cogs don't get tired. If you have some serious medical problem then report to the medical unit for treatment, otherwise do your duty or be replaced by another cog." The tech priest said mercilessly.
"Thank you for showing mercy." Pi whimpered in heavy gasping sobs.
"Your thanks are not required, your PRODUCTION is what is required. Do not fail again, mercy won't be shown twice." The tech priest said coldly.
Pi nodded, sobbing and gasping too much to even speak.
"Get up and get back to work menial, complete your iron ore quota or I will GLADLY return to you to drag you away to be turned into a servitor!" The tech priest rune priest snapped!
Pi got to her feet with a squeak of fright and frantically directed servitors to dig iron ore in sobbing tears, her whole body shaking all over, her gas mask full of snot from her heavy tears.
The rune priest and his Skitarii bodyguards left, Pi was left a sobbing gasping shaking wreck, so terribly afraid and feeling so guilty. She worked as though the rune priest was looking over her shoulder and whipping her, her adrenaline so extreme that she was frantic to work faster and faster.
Pi was more scared than she had ever thought herself capable of being scared. She imagined hidden cameras everywhere, the wrathful tech priests watching her every move.
Pi had so much raw adrenaline that she even skipped her next meal break and several toilet breaks. She wet herself in her rad suit when she couldn't hold her bladder anymore, too scared to stop working for a moment until her quota was reached.
Pi was a shaking, adrenaline filled wreck, too shaken to even feel tired long after midnight. She reached her quota in the early hours of the morning but she was far too worked up to sleep. She simply kept working, getting started on tomorrow's quota before it started, her rad suit reeking of urine and unwashed sweat.
…
The quality issues with the iron ore disappeared overnight. Surjunctive had correctly predicted that the Menials were now too terrified and anxious to take any shortcuts in meeting their excessive quotas.
This was a very good thing and not just for Surjunctive's promotion prospects, the Imperial Guard was now desperate for even more vehicles and weapons and equipment.
The now infamous "Pyrrhic Push" offensive on Broadmeadow had been an unmitigated disaster despite being technically an Imperial Guard victory. The entire spearhead of over 10 thousand Leman Russ tanks and 20 thousand chimera armoured transports had been decimated by over 50 percent, with most of the lost hulls so radioactive that they couldn't even be salvaged for parts.
The death toll was in the high hundreds of thousands, mostly from men dying of radiation poisoning after the battle was over, the radioactive fallout from the ork atomic bombs had spread in the wind to contaminate huge areas of the Imperial front lines.
The Imperial Guard had little choice but to raise even more regiments from local planets in the Pax Sector to replace losses and, of course, to beg Ferrous Prime to send them even more vehicles and equipment to replace all the losses. It was the quintessential pyrrhic victory.
But there was one piece of good news.
Behind the radioactive front lines of the Pyrrhic Push offensive location, a gigantic flying macro hauler touched down with roaring engines. A huge hatch opened on the front of the craft, and a gigantic metal foot stepped out.
Salvaged from the mountains and freshly repaired with brand new hip joints, the mighty warlord titan the "Diophantine Equation" strode forward onto the battlefield to join its brother god engine the "Gaussian Elimination".
So far titans had been the only thing that worked against the orks. It was good to have another titan operational.
The orks in the area were already keeping their distance from the Gaussian Elimination, faintly in the distance could now be heard the words "Oh zog not an'nuther one!"
The regal Diophantine Equation was armed differently to the aggressive Gaussian Elimination. Whereas the Gaussian Elimination was solely a single focused plasma spewing weapon of mass destruction, the Diophantine Equation was more balanced, sporting a range of weapons for different battlefield situations. On its right arm was mounted a colossal laser emitting volcano cannon powerful enough to burn holes through entire blocks of city skyscrapers with a single shot from kilometres away. On its left arm was mounted a huge macro gatling blaster, a type of gigantic gatling gun that fired artillery shells instead of bullets, capable of firing off over a thousand artillery shells per minute, enough to completely obliterate an entire regiment in seconds. The weapons didn't end with the arms, on each shoulder was mounted an immense plasma blastgun cannon capable of completely evaporating a Leman Russ battle tank down to its component atoms with a single shot.
With its hip joints fully replaced with brand new parts, the Diophantine Equation would not be so easy for Santa Claus to take down with a fluke bomb hit. With its balanced weaponry it could deal with any battlefield threat it encountered. The orks were in very serious trouble now.
The two titans didn't rush to advance however.
The Imperial Guard high command was scared of losing even more expensive hardware and was erring on the side of caution. The titans were to stay safely just behind the front line and not go gallivanting off into enemy territory without support.
The Diophantine Equation had enormous range and unlimited ammunition with its laser based volcano cannon so long as it had a working nuclear power reactor, (it had one super high output Martian pattern Theta-Maximal type thermonuclear plasma reactor). It decided that it would do no harm to use this laser weapon for a bit of long range ork sniping.
The huge volcano cannon swivelled around and carefully adjusted its angle to precisely point at an ork trench position. Imperial forces on the ground were advised to put on sunglasses or better yet cover their eyes for about the next thirty seconds.
Suddenly at the speed of light, a ramrod straight, terawatt hour energy beam appeared in the air for less than a second. The beam was pure white light, and so powerful that it plasmarised the air with a deafeningly loud thermal thunderclap, the plasmarised air glowed with so much heat that it gave off eyeball damaging ultraviolet light as black body radiation.
The ork trench position… Just wasn't there anymore. One moment it was there and the next the volcano cannon laser hit it, leaving a spreading cloud of ionised plasma and molten white bedrock flowing like lava.
The Diophantine Equation's thermonuclear plasma reactor throttled up as it recharged another terawatt hour of power into the volcano cannon's huge capacitor bank, the cooling system of the titan roaring as cold air was blasted into heat exchangers, the air coming out again super heated and shimmering with heat.
Plant life immediately around the Diophantine Equation withered and caught fire as the titan's huge nuclear reactor dumped terawatts of waste heat into the air around the titan, nearby guardsmen pulled back several hundred meters to get away from the oppressive heat.
The Diophantine Equation fired its volcano cannon again, evaporating yet another distant ork trench position with a blinding white flash and booming thunderclap.
The local vegetation immediately around the Diophantine Equation didn't fare well as it repeatedly recharged the volcano cannon for shot after shot, the power plant heat exchanger waste heat so extreme that it set an entire surrounding meadow on fire. But the orks that got hit fared even worse, not one single atom in their body remaining connected to another atom, the atoms not even holding onto their electron shells as they were heated into a high energy plasma.
The crew onboard the Diophantine Equation did a simple calculation comparing the amount of orks killed per shot with the amount of orks on the planet, at current rate of fire it should only take… Approximately 3.805 calendar years to kill every ork on Broadmeadow with their volcano cannon… Assuming nonstop firing, the orks didn't reproduce, the orks all helpfully lining up in position to be shot, and no downtime for maintenance, sleep or refuelling…
The Diophantine Equation gradually ceased firing, the sheer futility starting to dawn upon the crew.
The Imperium was going to need a LOT more than just two titans to win this war, this situation required firepower on a scale that even a warlord titan couldn't bring.
It went without saying that the Ferrous Prime iron ore quotas would be absolutely immense in the attempt to create enough firepower to make any noticeable difference in this war.
…