After briefly finalizing the details of the cooperation, Fu Haoran stood up and called his chief technology officer:
"Priest Kallen, please come here, I have an important mission."
Kallen put the tools away slowly and walked towards the bridge.
Half of his face is covered with a shiny prosthetic body, his right eye is a mechanical prosthetic eye that glows red, and the three fingers on his left hand are replaced with micron-level mechanical operating pliers. The faded Omnissiah sacred pattern is embroidered on the Tech-Priest robe.
His back was straight and his expression was rigid, but his eyes contained the reserve and pride of Tech-Priest engraved in his bones.
Kallen Greer was born on the ninth floor of Lucius Forge World Hive City.
Both his parents were assembly line workers, and his mother died of an accidental mechanical failure when he was five years old.
No one is held accountable or compensated because the lives of workers are worth less than gears.
At the age of ten, he was selected to become a technical apprentice.
It's not because he is gifted, but because he was more obedient than other children during the test.
He polished a standard part a thousand times, but he didn't doze off.
Over the next two hundred years, he worked his way from apprentice to Tech-Priest.
There are no adventures, no noble people, everything depends on one word.
After surviving seventeen Hive City riots, and during the same period when the apprentices died and went crazy, he was the only one left.
I have spent countless sleepless nights, memorized obscure teachings, wiped sacred parts, memorized tedious parameters, and endured scolding and corporal punishment from high-ranking priests, just to learn more skills and get closer to Machine Spirit.
Varok Archmagos accepted him as a "half-anonymous disciple", not because he was fancy, but because he needed an errand boy.
It took him two hundred years to start from the lowest level of parts wiping apprentice, to become a technical assistant step by step, and then to be awarded the title of Tech-Priest.
In the past two hundred years, he has seen fellow apprentices have their apprenticeship revoked because they misremembered a parameter, and he has seen fellow apprentices being burned as heretics for questioning dogma.
He was always cautious, but still could not suppress his inner curiosity about the nature of technology.
This curiosity eventually became his original sin of being abandoned.
Kallen knows very well that with his talents and abilities, he can become Tech-Priest in this life, which is already the manifestation of Omnissiah.
He didn't dare to ask for more. It was just a promotion invitation email from a former junior, but it betrayed his heart.
My junior fellow apprentice who started at the same time as me, who was brought in by himself back then, became a Forge World sage just by digging out half a set of STC fragments, beating him for two hundred years!
If you don't accept it, you won't accept it. Kallen knows very well that when he was kicked out of Forge World, it meant that he was given up.
Kallen remembers very clearly the last time he met Varok Archmagos, the other party's comment to him:
"Kallen Greer, you are too obsessed with the nature of technology, trying to explore the underlying logic of Machine Spirit's operation, unwilling to blindly believe in the "non-explorable" prohibition, and lacking the absolute obedience and piety that Mechanicus Cult believers should have."
"I don't need a thinker, only an executor. With your characteristics, you are not worthy of staying in Forge World. Being sent to a remote planet is the greatest forgiveness for you."
When Varok Archmagos said this, he didn't even look at him, his eyes were always staring at Data Pad in his hand, and his tone was as calm as if he was stating a test report of scrapped equipment.
That day, Kallen felt that he had been abandoned by Machine God Omnissiah.
Desperate, he wandered to the Hive City planet controlled by Fu Haoran and became Tech-Priest here. For him, it didn't matter which Planetary Governor he worked for, it was just another place to perform mechanical maintenance tasks.
He will never forget the day he was kicked out of Forge World. The conservative priest threw the Machine Spirit underlying logic Data Pad that he had studied all his life into the Melta furnace in front of everyone in the Foundry Square.
He watched helplessly as his two hundred years of hard work turned into ashes, but he didn't even have the qualifications to reach out and grab it.
The fighting slaves watched eagerly from the side.
Melta The heat wave of the furnace made his mechanical prosthetic eyes hot, but not a single tear could flow from his eyes.
As early as the year he became Tech-Priest, he had his tear glands removed and replaced with a humidity-regulating prosthetic body. He was not even qualified to cry for his own hard work.
He looked at the fire and told himself: Kallen, you don't need to think, you just need to execute.
From then on, he no longer explored the underlying logic of Machine Spirit, and no longer questioned the unreasonableness of the dogma. He just mechanically completed the technical maintenance tasks assigned by Planetary Governor every day, and strictly abided by every prohibition of Machine Cult. His face no longer had any waves, only rigidity and numbness remained.
He buried all his yearning for Dark Age of Technology technology deep in his heart, and only used the identity of Tech-Priest to wrap up his long-broken faith, which was the only dignity he had left.
As for ideas?
That thing is long dead.
In fact, his biggest obsession in this life has never been to become a sage, but to figure out the underlying logic of Machine Spirit's operation and regain the omnipotent technological glory of Dark Age of Technology.
But Machine Cult's ban nailed his lifelong pursuit to the pillar of shame of blasphemy.
"Sir, are you looking for me?" Kallen greeted in a formulaic manner. Over the years, he has long been accustomed to using this indifferent way to keep a distance from others to avoid being abandoned and hurt because of his differences.
When he learned that Fu Haoran wanted him to cooperate with Blue Star's people and share Power Armour and controllable nuclear fusion technology, Kallen's face instantly changed, and his tone was firm, even with a hint of resistance:
"My lord! Absolutely not! This is blasphemy against Omnissiah!"
"The empire's sacred technology can only be opened to priests blessed by Machine Spirit. How can it be shared casually with these unbaptized mortals? This violates doctrine!"
Fu Haoran was already prepared and did not argue with him. He just stood up, took out a small silver machine from his storage bag, placed it on the table, and pushed it in front of Kallen: "Look, what is this?"
Kallen lowered his head and stared at the machine, his pupils shrank suddenly, and the mechanical voice rarely showed shock. "This... this is an automatic baking unit? I have only seen it in the illustrations in the archives. I heard that it can automatically make food. It is the product of Dark Age of Technology!"
Fu Haoran didn't explain, just motioned for him to try.
Kallen looked carefully and found that although it was slightly different from what was recorded in the file, there was no difference in principle.
"Where did this come from?" Kallen raised his head and looked at Fu Haoran.
"In this world." Fu Haoran opened the tablet and clicked on a video. A fully automatic production line appeared on the screen. From the input of raw materials to the output of finished products, no one intervened. The machinery ran smoothly. There were no cumbersome prayers or complicated rituals, only pure mechanical logic.
"You see, the industrial technology here is the shadow of the pure Dark Age of Technology that is not contaminated by Chaos. Even if it only reaches the initial level, it is still a huge discovery."
"We are here not to share the empire's sacred technology with mortals, but to use the industrial foundation of this world to recycle, reproduce, and improve the technological fragments of Dark Age of Technology."
"This is not blasphemy, it is a pilgrimage to Omnissiah."
"I always believe that Omnissiah will not abandon believers who pursue the truth. Those conservatives who cling to dogma are the real false believers."
This sentence directly touched the pain point of Kallen's life. His eyes opened brighter and brighter, staring at the video on the tablet.
All Tech-Priest have been pursuing the technology of Dark Age of Technology all their lives. Now that they have seen it with their own eyes, their inner beliefs have been greatly impacted.
Fu Haoran struck while the iron was hot, and his tone was bewitching, like a devil's whisper, "There is no Mechanicus Cult here, there is no technical ban, and no one will punish you just because you are flexible."
"As long as you use your technology and cooperate with them, they can help you reproduce these Dark Age of Technology fragments. Even if it fails, we will not lose anything."
"On the contrary, you can recreate those lost crafts with your own hands and fulfill Omnissiah's expectations. Isn't this what you want in your life?"
"Here, you can recreate them with your own hands and make the light of Machine Spirit shine again. Isn't this the guidance of Omnissiah to you?"
Kallen was silent. The information flow in his brain was disordered. On one side was the teaching he had adhered to all his life, and on the other was the Dark Age of Technology technology he had dreamed of.
After a long time, he raised his head, his tone still stubborn, but unable to hide his wavering. "I... I agree to cooperate, but I am not being deceived by you, nor do I approve of this blasphemy."
"I just want to prove that what you said is wrong. I want to see with my own eyes whether this is the early stage of Dark Age of Technology. I want to personally recover those sacred technological fragments to prevent them from being buried."
Fu Haoran smiled, he knew clearly that Kallen's tough words had already shaken his heart.
As long as he can cooperate to complete the implementation of the production line, the goal will be achieved.
As for Kallen's rigid dogmatism of following the steps, adhering to standard procedures, and not allowing any parameter errors, in Fu Haoran's view, these are not shortcomings, but advantages!
He doesn't need Tech-Priest who can innovate, he just needs a technician who can perfectly reproduce the technology he brought.
It's just that Fu Haoran doesn't know that the fire in Kallen's heart that has been suppressed for two hundred years will burn harder than anyone else once it is ignited.
The sultry Tech-Priest is scary.
Especially the kind that has been held back for hundreds of years.