Lin Fan and Cain hurried to the central Divination Tower. The thing had crashed down from an Ark Mechanicus belonging to a Kaos Magos.
It could house large numbers of troops while sustaining tens of thousands of high-powered augur arrays.
Beneath the Divination Tower lay the high-energy reactors that maintained the planetary shield. The Adeptus Mechanicus had always favored piling all the good things together, with no regard for how separating them could reduce losses during an attack.
But considering that their Skitarii were indeed formidable, and their weapons and equipment far surpassed those of the Astra Militarum, few people could likely fight their way into the reactor complexes buried deep underground once they had gathered together.
Their weapons consumed energy at an equally alarming rate. A single volley from one unit of Skitarii could power a hive city for several years.
Perhaps it was better for them to stay near the generators. At least no one needed to worry about the charge levels in their power packs.
On certain energy-starved planets, impoverished lower-class citizens used isotopic crystal fuel rods extracted from radioactive wastelands to keep their air and water purifiers running.
Those even poorer used fluorescent cloth strips for lighting, or dim Promethium lamps while mining valuable ore beneath dangerous mine shafts.
Ventrillian Prime used furnace reclamation instead of the more common washing methods. An item's value had always depended on abundance and scarcity.
But the Divination Tower was not where they held meetings. The Adeptus Mechanicus had always resented ignorant Astra Militarum officers entering their sacred technological sites, so they would rather spend more resources building a field command center around the Divination Tower than let them meet inside it.
"Greetings, Commander Zizek."
As they entered the conference room, they found everyone had been waiting for some time.