(Bonus update 29/50, with thanks to Son of the Round Clam, Pete Griffin for the tip.)
Li Qinwu walked out of the Inquisition's office building, looked up at the yellow-green sky of toxic gas, and sighed.
Now he was sure: Sigurd had kicked him away like a ball!
A precious asset like a warship was a major matter for any faction. Deciding what to do with one required a meeting of all the senior leaders.
Clearly, Li Qinwu's 2 political points with Sigurd weren't enough to make him risk proposing at the meeting that Li Qinwu be given a warship.
So he had chosen to pass the buck, kicking the problem of Li Qinwu over to the Adeptus Mechanicus!
Standing on the busy street, Li Qinwu sighed. He was out of options. He could only visit the Mars Office on Terra first and see what happened.
Fortunately, the Inquisition had arranged a grav-car for Li Qinwu so he could ride to the Mars Office on Terra. After all, the two offices were over 500 kilometers apart!
Li Qinwu climbed into the grav-car and sat in the back.
The driver operated the engine and took off, hovering at an altitude of 800 meters before speeding toward the Mars Office on Terra.
For most of the journey, Li Qinwu traveled through yellow-green toxic clouds, unable to make out the surface at all.
The warlord wars and the subsequent industrialization had completely destroyed Terra's environment. Beneath its atmosphere, clouds of biochemical toxins lingered year-round.
Whenever it rained, everyone had to find shelter nearby, or the rain would cause their skin to ulcerate and kill them!
Looking at the toxic clouds outside, Li Qinwu grumbled inwardly. The British really do love putting bits of their own reality into their fiction.
Britain's capital, London, was