Not long ago, in the reception room of the Imperium's Departmento Munitorum.
The decor here had an old-fashioned air, with plenty of large leather sofas and simple wooden tables. The bright red ornaments had quite the style of ancient Terra.
Some important areas of the Royal Court often did not have too much machinery or psychic equipment. Instead, they were rather stripped back to basics.
It was safer that way.
"The Royal Court will approve a new armaments budget. You can further expand the scale of the army and weapons production.
"We may be able to bring in more xenos armies as well, while expanding the scope of our strikes against other xenos—"
The Minister of Economy came over and sat down on the sofa beside Ari, skillfully lit one of the other man's treasured cigars, and began speaking at length.
He no longer had the resentment from before, and seemed like an old friend.
In fact, he and Ari were old friends of many years. They had known each other back on Earth Planet, only later he had transferred from the Storm Army Group's logistics system to the Royal Court's Departmento Administratum.
Their previous clashes had merely been due to slight differences over the Imperium's development path.
But after the Supreme Will was issued, under the state of total war, all differences had vanished, leaving only one road.
They had to cooperate with each other.
The Minister of Economy put forward several plans, including the cleansing of other xenos apart from the Necrons.
Of course, there were also subsequent financial measures, resource control, and development.
???
As Ari listened to the Minister of Economy's planning, his head buzzed.
This member of the Conservative Faction, who had previously proposed cutting the army and clamored for peaceful revival, was now making