Warhammer 40k: Ours Journey

Chapter 51: Trust in Yourself

"I'm done over here," Karna announced, suddenly appearing. He casually greeted the crew members as he walked, not caring if they responded, before tossing a data-slate to Romulus.

"The whole ship, 11,409 souls. A lot less than an Imperial Navy vessel. Most of the facilities, including the macrocannons, are automated, with data processed by cogitators and controlled by Tech-Priests." Karna had the distinct feeling that his survey of the ship had gone unusually smoothly, as if the ship itself had been cooperating with him.

"I knew it," Romulus said, his expression one of vindication as he scanned the detailed data. The Imperium wasn't afraid of automation because of Chaos corruption; they just didn't value human life. The grease-monkeys could operate a ship with a tenth of the crew of an equivalent Imperial model and achieve full combat effectiveness, and you didn't see their ships being specifically targeted by Chaos.

While it was still necessary to be wary of AI and potential Chaos corruption, the internal regulations of the Adeptus Mechanicus had already given Romulus an acceptable psychological threshold. Right, from now on, we'll model our automation on the Mechanicus. We have plenty of drone-bodies to serve as control nodes anyway, so we don't need to turn real people into cogitators or servitors.

Romulus's mind was already racing, drafting a reform plan for their new ship.

"Let's not get bogged down in problems. Let's talk about something happy, like our gains," Karna said, keenly sensing Romulus's mood and proactively changing the subject. "Oh, and here are the new blueprints I unlocked. See if there's anything useful." He manipulated his interface and shared the information.

"This is..." Romulus's eyes widened as he scanned the new additions to their production line module. Production lines for various patterns of bolter weapons, a production line for Indomitus-pattern Terminator armor, and a bunch of corrupted data labeled "Armor of Fate."

"How did you get this?" Romulus asked. To avoid provoking Cawl, he hadn't even let Arthur deliberately scan the production lines during the bomb disposal. How had this Angel managed to swipe the blueprints? And Cawl was ruthless; he had immediately re-tasked the production lines in the aft section of his Ark to produce equipment for the Carcharodons, unwilling to take even the slightest risk.

"I have two pairs of eyes," Karna said with a grin, pointing to his head. "The Black Rage, you know. It's reasonable for my actions to be a bit... excessive."

"Nice," Romulus gave him a thumbs-up. It looked like they wouldn't have to spend points on ammunition anymore. As for the Indomitus Terminator armor, while its performance was indeed inferior to the Tartaros and Cataphractii patterns, it was very well-suited to the combat doctrines of modern Space Marines. As long as they weren't creating it with psycho-materialization, the more, the better.

"But what's with this corrupted data?"

"Data redundancy, or an incomplete result. It's a common phenomenon when I unlock blueprints in the Warp. I usually clean it up before sharing it with you guys," Ramesses, who was still drafting his research proposals, replied. "If you break it down, you can separate out the finished components." He fiddled with his own interface and, a moment later, had isolated a miniature power generator and a new material structure.

"So what's this for?" Romulus asked.

"Maybe we can install it in the power armor's energy systems?" Ramesses mused.

"And who's going to do the modifying?" Karna asked, the question hanging in the air.

"..."

The three of them looked at each other. None of them were mechanically inclined, not even in their past lives. As for the knowledge they had dredged from the Warp, knowing something and being able to apply it were two different things.

"It seems our team is still missing a specialist in mechanics," Romulus said. He wondered if he should go and "arrest" a grease-monkey to work for them. Maybe Cawl knew a guy.

Making a note of it in his work log, he turned to Ramesses. "Have you figured out your 'Stormcast' project yet?" Romulus hadn't forgotten the idea of having the Emperor learn from the Four Gods and create His own daemonhosts. It would allow them to expand their forces to an incredible degree in a short amount of time.

"I have some ideas, but it's still missing something compared to a daemon ritual. Daemons can be stuffed in, but Old Man Gold's boys can't," Ramesses explained. "My current theory is that it's a problem with the faith-anchor, but I don't have a shrine world to experiment on. The key is, he doesn't speak in plain language, so I'm just left guessing. I'll keep making the calls, though. Sooner or later, I'll filter out a personality of Old Man Gold's that can actually hold a conversation."

Ramesses consolidated the data from his manipulation of the daemonhost during the mission. He was quite pleased. Roping Cawl into their mess had directly altered a pre-ordained event, which had earned him a huge amount of research funding. Although Romulus had already allocated him a generous share, when it came to burning money, the more you had, the more fun it was, right?

He then added, "I have been getting some scattered responses recently. A lot of it is illogical nonsense, or him just saying 'I am not a god,' but at least it's progress." Since the Emperor had scammed them, Ramesses had been psychic-calling Him whenever he had a spare moment, just to test His current level of dementia. It was having an effect.

Anyway, the Emperor couldn't find them. The transmigrators didn't even know what they were themselves. Their psychic projections and the shadow of their Warp safe house were not their true selves. If it weren't for the Sisters being near them, the Emperor wouldn't even be able to spectate.

"You're basically Old Man Gold's dad now," Romulus said, unable to keep a straight face.

"Don't. The guy makes us pay to do his work, then you can't even get him on the phone, and all he does is send some flashy special effects. That kind of client deserves to be stuck on the Golden Toilet," Ramesses muttered, with no sympathy whatsoever. "I'm doing him a favor by just spam-calling him."

Romulus rubbed his forehead. His friend had a point.

"Looking at it this way, we still have a lot of problems," Romulus summarized. "Just with the accumulation of new tech blueprints, our own lack of professional skills is already becoming a bottleneck. Secondly, Old Man Gold still isn't speaking in coherent sentences besides his light shows, which leaves us in the awkward position of having a personnel shortage."

In truth, these problems weren't that difficult to solve. If they just found a place and settled down for a few decades, they would probably have everything they needed. At the very least, they would have the armed personnel to fully utilize the equipment they possessed.

"But it's not all bad," Ramesses said. "Compared to when we were just drifting in space, we now have a ship, and enough psychic power to provide our allies with ample wargear."

"Yes. A ship of our own," Arthur said, silently joining his companions. He tossed a holographic map he had saved to Romulus, on which he had marked the safe zones he had cleared and the locations of the sensor probes he had deliberately left for Cawl to find.

Ramesses glanced at the two of them and, not wanting to be left out, packaged his own experimental reports and sent them over as well.

"..." Romulus was speechless, but he accepted them without complaint and moved them to the top of his work log. What else could he do? His friends trusted him this much; he should be happy.

"But the process has been anything but easy. We've been here for a few months, crossed two star systems, and the whole time we've been fighting," Romulus sighed at the thought. The search for technical personnel, the accumulation of combat units, the research into their own nature—none of these were things that could be done overnight. And now, they had to spend all their time fighting.

"If nothing unexpected happens, we'll be fighting in the next star system too, and the scale will only be larger." Romulus truly wanted to find a place to develop peacefully, to do some "farming." This rhythm of arriving in a new place and immediately starting a war was unbearable. Although their souls were still growing, their blueprints were still unlocking, and their power was gradually increasing, they felt no sense of security.

These gains felt like a fleeting illusion in the face of the endless war. And it was precisely because of the war that they were unable to fully utilize their abilities. The pressure was immense.

The image of the scene on the ship's lower decks was seared into his mind. Romulus felt a real sense of urgency, a desperate need to change things, not just fight one war after another.

"Sigh~" He couldn't help but sigh. This was the 40k universe, after all. War was its fundamental truth.

"Then why not think of the battles as little episodes in our interstellar journey?" Karna said optimistically. "The Imperium may be rotten, but meeting all sorts of heroes is also fun." He had noticed that Romulus's mental state had been steadily declining since their recent contact.

"And the meaning of our battles is to lead them to victory," Arthur added. "This galaxy is filled with malice. If we want to change it, if we want to survive, we can only win."

"Winning the present is the only way to open up the future!"

"Yeah, we have to win," Romulus said, looking at the stars. No matter what they wanted to do in the future, they had to keep winning. If they won, everything was possible. If they lost, their tiny spark would be nothing more than a flash in the pan.

"Don't put so much pressure on yourself," Karna said with a smile. Romulus thinks about everything. And Arthur too, while we're trying to cheer him up, you're talking about how great fighting is, win, win, win.

"You handle the grand strategy, leave the knowledge accumulation to Ramesses, and leave the charging into battle to us. Just as we each have our own special traits, when we all do our part, it will be enough."

"You map out the road to success, and we will walk it."

With that, he nudged Arthur with his elbow. "Trust in us."

Arthur, nudged by Karna, held out his hand. "And trust in yourself, as you trust in us."

Ramesses also took a moment to smile and clap Romulus on the shoulder.

Romulus looked at his friends, fell silent for a moment, and then a relaxed smile spread across his lips.

"...Are you guys trying to PUA me?"

"If I don't PUA you, how will I get my research funding?" Ramesses said with a grin.

"Lord Romulus, give the order," Arthur said.

Romulus couldn't help but laugh, then held out his own hand. "Then—"

The four hands clasped together.

"Let's win, one more time!"