Forge Master

A Forge Master was a Space Marine who had been sent to Mars by their Chapter as an exchange student, returned after completing their studies, and then accumulated extensive experience as a Tech-Sergeant. Once their knowledge and abilities were roughly on par with those of an Adeptus Mechanicus Sage, they could become their Chapter's Forge Master.

The reason people had to be sent away to study was mainly that, since humanity's Dark Age of Technology, the Old Night had caused humanity to lose vast amounts of technology. Even after the Great Crusade and ten thousand years of the Imperium's development, humanity had still never reclaimed its former glory.

As a result, much of humanity's technological creations could now only be used by those who knew how to operate them.

Forget manufacturing them—even maintenance was specialized knowledge, tightly controlled and monopolized by the Adeptus Mechanicus.

All of the Imperium's weapons and equipment were produced and maintained by the Adeptus Mechanicus. This stemmed from the agreement the Emperor had personally signed with Mars, and there were no exceptions anywhere in the Imperium.

Although the various Legions had retained a certain degree of equipment research and production capability during the early Imperium, and the Adeptus Mechanicus's position had declined somewhat after the Great Heresy due to Mars's civil war, its monopoly over technology was only stronger than it had been ten thousand years ago.

Bro might have thought that, after transmigrating into the Warhammer universe, he could produce weapons and equipment himself and break the Adeptus Mechanicus's monopoly. In reality, no one would buy equipment produced by bro without the Adeptus Mechanicus's approval.

The Adeptus Mechanicus could even brand bro a technological heretic, then send a Titan Legion to blast you all into the sky one by one.

Don't find that strange. The Adeptus Mechanicus really could do that, and the Imperium might even have to help issue an Exterminatus order.

Under such circumstances, Space Marine Chapters likewise had no choice but to rely on the Adeptus Mechanicus for the maintenance and manufacture of their technical equipment.

More capable Chapters, such as the well-connected Ultramarines, could keep several Adeptus Mechanicus Sages within the Chapter to help manage and maintain their various weapons and equipment. The teams of Tech-Priests led by those Sages could also serve the Chapter well.

But even so, the Ultramarines still retained a considerable number of Tech-Sergeants and Forge Masters.

Meanwhile, the Dark Angels, who had no secrets, the mechanically ascended Iron Hands, and those Black brothers who had invested in forging talents all had their own special tricks.

Yet even so, if they wanted to train Tech-Sergeants and Forge Masters, they still had to send people to Mars to study.

In a sense, this also made Tech-Sergeants the most excluded figures within a Chapter, because their long years as exchange students on Mars left them emotionally distant from their Chapter brothers.

Moreover, worshipping the Omnissiah and the Machine God inevitably conflicted somewhat with the widespread worship of the Emperor within Chapters, even though both were officially legal faiths of the Imperium.

As for Forge Masters, although they were highly senior, important, and respected members of a Chapter, they could also be considered the Chapter's senior officers furthest removed from its center of power.

Other than the Iron Hands and Salamanders, it was difficult to find examples of Forge Masters holding important positions within their Chapters, much less becoming Chapter Masters.

And for the current Rostov II, a Forge Master carried extraordinary significance.

This was not merely a matter of being able to restrain Ovilia. What stood behind a Forge Master was a Space Marine Chapter.

The influence a Space Marine Chapter could exert far surpassed that of an exiled technological heretic, even if that heretic was a Sage.

What a Tech-Sage could provide was often not immediately apparent, especially when it came to increasing combat power. After all, not every Sage was called Belisarius Cawl and could pull out ten Chapters at any moment.

But a Space Marine Chapter, no matter how impoverished or miserable its circumstances, could still send out a squad of Astartes.

And the official description of a five-man squad of ordinary, generic Space Marines was that it was sufficient to put down a planet-wide rebellion.

Thus, when a Forge Master of the Deathwatch appeared at the starport of Rostov II, every noble and powerful figure on the planet was stirred. The treatment and reception they offered were even grander than when Chen Xi had assumed office.

Chen Xi did not care much about that. After all, an Inquisitor-Planetary Governor could never compare to the Forge Master of a special Chapter like the Deathwatch.

After a brief welcoming ceremony, Chen Xi boarded the orbital elevator with the shop owner, who had already adopted the alias Farlan Gutierrez, and Mai Mai, who was using the alias Malin.

"Gutierrez's identity is that of a Deathwatch Blackshield Forge Master, and you claim your original Chapter was the Imperial Fists." Chen Xi was reconfirming their identities to avoid any oversights. "And Mai Mai, you are a Rogue Trader named Malin, my Inquisition acolyte. You possess a Rogue Trader warrant issued by Primarch Ferrus Manus, but the one you are using now is merely an ordinary warrant issued by a High Lord. You can fill in the name of your Rogue Trader Dynasty yourself.

"Additionally, Twilight, as a naval colonel, is responsible for commanding the Sword-class vessel we exchanged for. It will not be landing on the surface for the time being. You both understand all that, right?"

"Understood. But my Volkite Pistol and Forged Great-Axe can't be used right now. They're just decorations. The prompt says they need to be unlocked with points," Gutierrez explained to Chen Xi.

Though he had successfully activated this custom-made game piece through Adventure Mode and could use a Space Marine character, the relic equipment and signature weapons on him were restricted and temporarily unusable.

"Who told you to add so much stuff to your character? Still, it isn't a major problem for now. As long as you go down there and kill a few Flayed Ones, that should solve it. You ought to have enough points then." Chen Xi glanced at Gutierrez's relic Volkite Pistol and the Forged Great-Axe modified from a Necron Phase Blade, then could not help shaking his head.

Originally, according to the Servo-skull responsible for the transmigration, each of them had an allowance of one hundred points in Adventure Mode to equip their own game pieces.

After all, Command Mode allowed them to deploy an entire squad. There was no reason Adventure Mode should restrict them to bare-bones characters.

But after discussing it with his three friends, Chen Xi had decided to pool all four of their points and exchange them for a Sword-class Frigate.

The three-hundred-point exchange had nearly emptied the four of them out. Mai Mai and Twilight were now both bare-bones characters, using bare-bones weapons as well.

Fortunately, a Rogue Trader and a naval colonel did not need to throw themselves into battle often, and there was not much danger in staying aboard the ship under normal circumstances.

After all, despite being called a frigate, a Sword-class Frigate was 1.6 kilometers long and carried more than twenty-six thousand personnel.

The main reason they had exchanged for this ship was to make their future operations more convenient.

After all, a warship, even if it was only a frigate, could conduct orbital bombardments and make Warp voyages. That would greatly help expand everyone's range of activity and improve their ability to handle all kinds of problems.