Logic Wins Support

Altar 3 of Hive Lukpo.

Kivior-15 withdrew the data probe of his mechadendrite from the data-slate brought by Murawski.

The designation Kivior originated from the Magos who led the Mars exploration fleet that discovered Vostonia; it was an identifier with a glorious history, used by many local members.

The extended "15" was a custom addition by the Magos to highlight this unit's unique personality, much like the Custom-23 of another Tech-Priest.

Thierry spoke first: "Magos, as you can see, Puhach is dead. Nimrod, the new king from Tezwork Hive, has already occupied the Hive Spire and the Upper Hive."

Murawski added: "Magos, Puhach had long since become a madman. Without King Nimrod's appearance, Lukpo would have collapsed in the near future."

"Foolish Puhach, fragile human."

The voice resonating from within the red robes indicated Kivior-15's assessment. Puhach's idea of pursuing a perfect body was not wrong; he had simply overestimated the wisdom and endurance of fragile flesh-and-blood life.

Murawski and Thierry exchanged a glance; they naturally understood the Magos's stance. Without his tacit approval, the Mad King could never have ruled Lukpo for so many years.

The white-haired Marquis hurriedly said: "Magos, King Nimrod has already noticed the recent decline in Lukpo's production capacity, and he has promised to restore it rapidly."

Thierry then added: "King Nimrod has already achieved this in Tezwork, and an agreement has been reached with Magos Kaminski."

Kivior-15 did not speak. Red and green binary code flickered across his golden mechanical eyes as he contacted Magos Kaminski through the exclusive communication channel of the Adeptus Mechanicus high command.

After a torrent of binary data surged for a moment, the Magos spoke.

"I am going to meet this new king. Lead the way."

Sixteen standard minutes later, Kivior-15 met the new king. Having more faith in the perfection of the mechanical body than Kaminski or Puhach, he only spoke after a five-minute standoff with his new king.

"Kaminski tells me you have restored production in Tezwork and completed reforms in the Lower Hive domes."

"But you did not resolve the xenos pirates as agreed. Instead, you attacked Lukpo and slew Puhach, who was blessed by the Omnissiah. This is a breach of contract."

Nimrod shook his head. "On the contrary, I attacked Lukpo precisely to fulfill the contract."

"Your words do not follow logic."

"To deal with pirates, one needs starships. All three of Tezwork's ships have departed under the command of Robert Boleslaw."

Nimrod's eyes gleamed. "I did not attack Mazov or Szczecin first, but Lukpo, specifically for the House Piatkowski frigate."

After occupying the Hive Spire and searching Puhach's palace, he had gained three major harvests.

First, naturally, was the foundation of House Piatkowski: the STC for mag-lev trains and some fragmented technology regarding mechanical augmentation.

Second, were the potion materials that only he could utilize to their maximum potential. He found a total of twenty-five types, amounting to forty-three items of potion material.

Beyond completing another "Sailor" potion, his greatest gain was gathering two sets of "Know-it-all" potion materials.

Nimrod found the main ingredients for the "Know-it-all" potion in the study: two data-slates from deceased Tech-Priests.

He then found seven auxiliary materials in the laboratory: unused Mars-grade I helical gears.

He did not yet have a suitable candidate, otherwise, he would have long since ordered Bukayo and Rawlslev to head to other hives, kill a few Tech-Priests, and acquire their data-slates.

The final harvest was the frigate docked at the starport.

Unlike the Tezwork warships scattered among the three major families of Boleslaw, Fender, and Kournikova, Lukpo had only one ship: the Piszczek.

Upon discovering this, Nimrod immediately dispatched Bukayo and the 7th Company, carrying the command keys, to board a transport craft and head to the spaceport to seize control of the Piszczek.

At the same time, he used his "Extraordinary Eloquence" to reorganize his response based on this new information.

After advancing to "Barbarian," the extraordinary abilities from his time as a "Lawyer" had all been enhanced to varying degrees. The improvement to "Extraordinary Eloquence" was not as significant as his ability to capture loopholes in rules, but it was greater than the improvement to his ability to extract information from data.

"With a frigate, I can venture into the star sea and strike at the xenos pirates."

He pulled out a data-slate. He had spent fifteen minutes using his superhuman brain to process data from all factories in the Lukpo Upper Hive over six work cycles, using his ability to extract key points to create charts.

"The trapezoidal chart in the first table is the production statistics for the B-14 Weapon Foundry during the day shift, every ten minutes, for the six cycles preceding Lukpo's occupation."

"As you can see, after working for more than five hours, production dropped rapidly, with a decline of 8.52%."

He tapped his finger to bring up another table.

"This is the production statistic for the same factory, same shift, and same time, five cycles ago. You can see that the output for the first standard hour is only that of the third standard hour of the previous day, and by the fourth standard hour, it begins to drop rapidly, by 10.83%."

Nimrod showed the charts to Kivior-15 one by one, letting the data speak for itself.

Finally, he pulled up a comprehensive industrial capacity chart, using Mars Credits as the unit of measurement to track the production capacity of the Lukpo Upper Hive over six work cycles.

"This chart shows that the total production capacity of the Lukpo Upper Hive has fallen from 2.508 billion Mars Credits per work cycle to 1.635 billion."

"Combined with the previous charts, one conclusion can be drawn: Lukpo's production capacity is declining rapidly."

"Data accurate, logic rigorous, conclusion correct."

Kivior-15 immediately provided his assessment, then asked the giant before him.

"King Nimrod, how should this be resolved?"

"Naturally, by solving the root problem. There is only one reason behind this, and that is the issue of food."

"Workers are not machines, not servitors, and certainly not bodies of steel."

"The weakness of flesh," Kivior-15 looked down upon the flesh-and-blood mortals, yet he had to accept reality, "Kaminski and I request that you fulfill your promise as soon as possible."

"Of course, I always keep my word."

"I require twelve work cycles to prepare."

After occupying Lukpo, Nimrod finally realized the severity of the food crisis.

The 1st Vostonian Regiment had suffered relatively low losses in the battle, so he decided to launch an attack on Mazov and Szczecin ahead of schedule, intending to set sail immediately afterward to deal with the xenos pirates.

Seeing Nimrod effortlessly gain Kivior-15's recognition of his status as the new King of Lukpo, Thierry and Murawski finally set aside their last remaining concerns.

The giant not only possessed god-like combat power, but he was also not insane like Puhach; when not in combat, he was rational and wise, grasping the points that concerned the Magos, winning support through logic, and achieving his political goals.

The two thought in unison: The landscape of Vostonia will change; Nimrod will unify all thirty-three scattered Hive Cities and become the one true King.

Considering that he would soon be leaving Lukpo and heading into the star sea, Nimrod decided to postpone the reforms of Lukpo until his return.

"Murawski, you are temporarily in charge of the administration of Lukpo."

"As you command, my King."

After Murawski left, Nimrod sent messages to Rawlslev and Bukayo, summoning them to the palace for a military conference; he intended to initiate a new round of military expansion.

Szczesny was also specifically named by him to attend this meeting.