The long-awaited reinforcements

The entire fleet had remained stationed at the Mandeville Point for nearly a week.

The Space Station cluster had also completed its basic repairs during that week.

The power supply systems had been repaired, the void shields were functioning normally again, and the damaged defensive turrets had been restored to working order.

Fortunately, Osen's Gene Extractor had not been needed.

Sergeant Sien, meanwhile, had already begun rehabilitation training.

During this time, Iax had been teaching Farrion mechanical knowledge. He had to ensure that, if he left, Sien's Bionic Body would not become useless for lack of maintenance.

Sien had also been required to learn some basic maintenance procedures.

After all, the Bionic Body was attached to him. If anything unexpected happened, he needed to know how to troubleshoot potential faults.

Of course, all of this required ignoring the two Adeptus Mechanicus Sages who kept watching from the sidelines under the pretext of observing and learning.

This was the price Osen had promised to pay to save Hubern.

After all, Primaris Surgery performed personally by a Sage was bound to be more reliable than surgery performed by those Tech-Priests.

Hubern had successfully awakened after his Primaris upgrade. He was now the Company's only Primaris Space Marine.

During this period, Hubern had sparred with his fellow battle-brothers almost every day.

His body displayed greater strength, and his movements were more agile.

This left the battle-brothers who had once been his equals feeling rather envious.

Some had even approached the Adeptus Mechanicus Sages and Priests of their own accord, asking to undergo Primaris upgrade surgery.

But all those requests had been rejected.

The reason was simple: the surgery had a success rate of only 35–50%.

The risk of failure was considerable. Every able-bodied Space Marine was a vital asset to His Majesty the God-Emperor and the Imperium. Outside an emergency, even voluntary applications would not be approved.

Even a Sage personally performing Primaris Surgery could not guarantee a consistent 50% success rate.

After receiving his replacement Bionic Limbs, Sien had also sparred with Hubern once.

This time, however, the supremely confident Hubern had suffered a crushing blow to his pride.

Iax had used some special technology in the Bionic Limbs he made for Sien, allowing them to use Neural Pulses to accelerate Sien's reactions through reverse feedback.

Although Sien's flesh-and-blood body sometimes could not keep up.

His bionic limbs reacted far faster than even he had imagined.

Hubern had become faster and stronger, but that did him little good against a Bionic Body made with ancient technology.

The Bionic Limbs' shock-absorbing and cushioning systems vented pressure when taking hits, dissipating the force of the impact.

And Sien was not much slower than Hubern.

One took hits without a reaction; the other howled whenever he was struck.

Had Sien not reduced the power output of his Bionic Limb at Iax's suggestion, Hubern would probably have suffered broken bones again just after his body had been restored.

The two Adeptus Mechanicus Sages witnessed all of this.

Their interest in Iax grew ever more fervent.

More than once, the two had discussed how to subject Iax to powerful interference, then forcibly take him back to the Adeptus Mechanicus on Mars for data analysis and research.

But they never put those plans into action.

After using their clearance to carefully review every record that might relate to the Men of Iron, the two Sages clearly understood that any attempt to use force had less than a 15% chance of success.

And if they drove this Ancient Construct berserk, the probability that everyone aboard the ship would be slaughtered was 100%.

Through their interactions during this period, however, the two Sages had also discovered Iax's peculiar fondness for historical records and documents.

And so a peculiar exchange began.

The two Sages assessed Iax as posing no threat and successfully sent the Inquisitor on his way, stating that they would oversee him. They also began providing Iax with whatever historical records they could collect in exchange for technical guidance.

As for this arrangement, the two Dark Angels sent a message to their chapter, then remained aboard the Resolute without saying much more.

With the Inquisitor's departure, a new fleet finally arrived near the Space Station cluster.

The fleet included numerous transports carrying an entire Astra Militarum army in response to the Departmento Munitorum's relief orders.

Yet the Orks that had attacked the Space Stations had been wiped out a week earlier.

The Black Templars once again found themselves cursing the inefficient Departmento Munitorum.

After speaking with the Captain of the Resolute and the station commander, the fleet left two regiments to replenish the Space Stations' garrison. According to the newcomers, they had only received the reinforcement orders two days earlier and had spent another day assembling their troops.

They then warmly invited the Black Templars' Astartes to accompany them to the next area in need of support.

After all, the advantages of bringing these angels of the Emperor along were obvious.

Their strategic thinking and ability to coordinate command were beyond anything mortal commanders could match.

Their extraordinary combat prowess was even more important.

When necessary, the Astra Militarum could ask these Astartes to resolve problems they could not handle themselves.

Among the many chapters, the Black Templars were especially beloved by fighting troops for their zeal for battle and willingness to answer every call for aid.

If only the universe were not so vast, the Black Templars' numbers so few, and their forces perpetually scattered across battlefields throughout the cosmos.

Most Astra Militarum forces would have loved to have a unit of Black Templars Space Marines permanently attached to them.

Then, when faced with enemies far beyond the norm, they would have the appropriate force to deal with them.

After all, whenever the Astra Militarum encountered a Renegade Warband in conventional combat, a casualty ratio exceeding a hundred to one was enough to give any Astra Militarum general a lingering headache.

There was no shortage of recruits, but replenishing losses took time.

And the sheer scale of the galaxy could extend that time by an unpredictable amount.

The opening of the cicatrix maledictum had churned up tides in the warp that could cause entire shipments of reinforcements to vanish en route, or cost them most of their troops.

Troops dispatched from recruiting Planets often could only reinforce nearby fronts whose demands could never be met, while more distant battlefields usually struggled to receive replacements.

The logistical burden of maintaining a small squad of Astartes was far lighter than relying on distant reinforcements whose arrival was anyone's guess.

After all, besides the Departmento Munitorum, there was also the even slower Department of Internal Affairs.

Shortages of supplies could still be alleviated to some extent by repeatedly pressing the Departmento Munitorum. Replenishing and allocating troops, however, also required the Administratum's cooperation.

Those foolish noble lords and the tens of millions of applications submitted each day slowed the entire Administratum's processing to an incomprehensible crawl.

So much so that the Departmento Munitorum sometimes bypassed the Administratum to get things done.

And carried out certain procedures that were not entirely compliant.

But so long as it was all for the survival of the Imperium of Man and the glory of His Majesty the God-Emperor, they would generally escape blame.