Inside the Research Station's main control room.
Beyond the transparent glass, the horizon under the daylight met the eternal night sky.
The vastness of space, with distances spanning light-years, stretched everything out.
Planets were like glass marbles floating in an ocean, needing a long time to meet.
Inside the glass room.
A star map projected by the research ship's explorations showed a simulated green starfield, purple Chaos Beacons, and territorial borders belonging to different factions.
Above and to the left was the Ork warband of Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka.
The size of the Ork Empire was unknown, but judging by what the research ship had found on its way past, Ork spores had already appeared in the nearby asteroid belt. The closest Orks might be less than a light-year away.
To the right, the research ship had discovered eleven star systems marked by Chaos Beacons. These eleven systems formed a defensive line, completely blocking the way farther right. To pass through, he would inevitably have to fight Chaos first. With only one research ship, he'd be done for before he could take them out.
If he went around Chaos and headed down to the right, he'd run into the Tau Empire and the Xenos under its leadership. Crossing the heart of the Tau Empire was all but impossible for him at present.
And even if he managed it, it would be pointless.
Of course, he could also head upward. But if he went out that way, he'd reach the edge of the Milky Way, where he might find just one star system in dozens or even hundreds of light-years. Progress would be far too slow.
Fortunately,
the research ship currently out exploring had found two neighboring planets he could claim.
One was a hydrology planet, the other a desert planet. Both were suitable for habitation, and no one else was competing for them.
As it happened, one could supply him with power, and the other with alloys. Add the one sphere of consumer goods from Ozrax, and he'd have a self-sustaining cycle. He hoped they had plenty of people. Ozrax was short on population, so he'd brought people over from the homeworld—but the homeworld's population was limited.
"I have to secure these two planets before Chaos and the Tau Empire do."
The distance between star systems could easily span light-years, and he needed to move faster.
These two nearby systems were crucial to his technological development.
Cisrain enlarged the two planets on the display and studied their terrain.
At the same time, he checked the various figures in the Stellaris Template.
[Happiness: 75][Alloy Output: 60K][Consumer Goods Output: 15K][Power Output: 25M (trillion watts)][Power Demand: 87M (Synapse Condenser: 50M)] [Units: K, M, G, T, P, E] [Project Progress] [Engine Progress: Fusion Engine 100%, Dark Matter Engine Research 0%] [Communications Progress: Photon Communications 100%, Tachyon/Psionic Communications 0%] [Energy Progress: Nuclear Fusion 100%, Dark Matter Research 0%] [Biology Progress: Gene Virus 24%, Gene Enhancement 1.9%] [Navy Progress: Naval Port Construction 12%] [Reverse Engineering: Soul Protocol 1.7%] [Reverse Engineering: Living Metal 0.1%] [Reverse Engineering: Gauss Technology 77%] [Reverse Engineering: Wetware Engineering.] [Weapons Progress: Positron Strike 0%] [Weapons Progress: Interstellar Lance Strike 0%] [Weapons Progress: Hyperspace Phase 0%]
As his territory expanded,
Cisrain faced the same problems as the Terra Empire.
He needed faster fleets and faster communications equipment.
The fleet's current travel speed was too slow.
And with the power shortage, all of the projects above had ground to a halt.
"Faster-than-light, tachyon, ghost-signal, and psionic communications; matter-antimatter and dark matter engines; Dyson spheres and stellar-scale energy; black-hole matter extractors—I need all of them."
"But what I need most is to secure resource planets first, so production can reach a dynamic balance across primary industries—food, minerals, and energy—secondary industries—consumer goods and alloys—and tertiary industries—technology. Right now, technology is advancing, but primary production, especially energy and ore, can't keep up. I need to acquire planets that can produce more resources as soon as possible and restore the balance."
"These star systems, caught between Chaos, the Tau Empire, and us, have to be secured."
(Knocking)
"Come in."
The door opened.
In the dim light, the star map's glow cast Cisrain's shadow long across the room.
His exaggerated Power Armor was draped with a silver-gold cape that trailed on the floor. Cisrain stood with both hands braced on the table, studying the map.
"Lord Governor, they've arrived."
"Understood."
Cisrain turned and looked at the Astartes. Cyrus removed his helmet, and the Talon men behind him followed suit, laying themselves bare.
Cisrain said nothing about what he needed. Instead, he spoke with great sincerity:
"Thank you for your efforts, everyone. Your ship has already been towed into the harbor. You may have to wait a while before you can leave. I had the scientists on Gamma Planet upgrade your Power Armor with tougher Grade III alloy. Its strength and hardness have at least doubled, while its weight has gone down by a tenth."
"Chief Brown already told us," Cyrus said, stepping forward. "Lord Governor, I believe you need our help more than ever. The Chaos forces that appeared on Ozrax may be plotting something. I can feel that this is far from over. They wouldn't have appeared on this planet out of nowhere."
As he spoke, the star map flickered, and the entire office dimmed for an instant.
Cisrain hadn't even turned on the lights in his office. It was clear that every resource had been poured into research and technology. The lights in the laboratories outside were on without pause, while in here, darkness hung thick.
From top to bottom, everyone was doing their best to conserve resources and keep the Research Station powered.
The governor himself was leading by example, carefully conserving resources.
No wonder so many people followed a governor like him.
"Are you talking about this?" Cisrain said, pretending not to know much about it. Then he stepped aside, allowing Cyrus to see the star map behind him. "Our research ship did detect other pillars of light. It seems there's a fleet as well."
Once the projection of the starfield rebooted, the purple beacons Cisrain had marked earlier appeared again.
And across these eleven star systems,
each system showed a set of coordinates that seemed to connect to the depths of the Warp.
The eleven rifts looked as though they were tearing open the fabric of reality, cutting off the place where they were from everything behind them.
"Yes. A research ship from our homeworld just detected them."
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