36 Pre-War Preparations (I)

"I saw the newspaper, Cawl. You designed a new kind of power armour," Kael Lohars said.

Belisarius Cawl showed no reaction. He was the only listener present, yet he remained unmoved by those calm but weighty words, still bent over his workbench as two mechadendrites adjusted a massive machine.

"And we need it. At least five thousand suits for the vanguard forces."

The Fabricator-General still ignored him, merely speeding up his mechadendrites.

Soon, the enormous machine emitted an exceptionally heavy, muffled boom—but this was by no means a sign of success, for the instant Cawl heard it, he swiftly hurled the machine away.

Like a cannonball, it trailed billowing black smoke as it crashed into the deepest part of his workshop, illuminating that dark corner as brightly as day at the cost of shattering itself to pieces.

"Can you do it, Cawl?"

The Fabricator-General turned around somewhat clumsily, looked at the pale-blue projection before him, and slowly nodded. Then, in a grave tone, he spoke as though the failure that had just occurred did not exist.

"Five thousand suits will not be a problem, my lord. I assure you. But that armour is still only a prototype—a test piece, an unverified and crude design."

"The reason it was able to appear in the newspapers was partly due to a small transaction between Lord Perturabo and myself, and partly due to my own selfish motives. If you wish for me to turn it into a reliable mass-produced product, then I must conduct lengthy calibration and data collection."

"And those are not things that can be overcome by my own knowledge or intellect."

He raised both hands, straightened his index fingers, then stretched his arms sideways to their limits, indicating a distance.

"There are no shortcuts in scientific creation. If a prototype