The existence of the psychic control towers was undoubtedly a weighty trump card. They could forcibly bind humanity's will together, strip away all doubt and weakness, and make the Empire's citizens fight like cold-blooded machines.
"At present, more than a hundred billion Imperial troops have gathered within the Solar System. The vast majority are mortal auxiliary forces from various worlds, along with civilians and merchants who have sought refuge here."
"Not everyone possessed an absolute resolve to resist the enemy, Magos. Once humanity's numbers reached a certain point, there would inevitably be resistance factions, neutral factions, and factions that advocated compromise and surrender."
Lox stared into Magos Land's pale green eyes, his expression stern.
"I understand that what we are doing may be desecrating humanity, manipulating the last remnants of human free will. But both you and I understand that we have no choice."
Land instinctively wanted to warn Lox of the terrifying consequences should this technology be misused. This was manipulation of the human mind.
But then he realized that anyone could say such words—except the Adeptus Mechanicus. The vast use of lobotomized Servitors within the Mechanicus itself was an even more extreme desecration of humanity.
In the past, in order to avoid the use of artificial intelligence constructs, the Adeptus Mechanicus had widely promoted Servitors, creations modified from human beings.
After undergoing specialized brain surgery to remove their frontal lobes, Servitors had been stripped of most of their intellect. Some were criminals who had committed grave offenses, while others were clones produced in laboratories.
But whether the Empire had ever used innocent civilians to create Servitors was an extremely sensitive subject. Although the Adeptus Mechanicus completely denied it, Lox had seen countless investigation reports from across the worlds detailing the vile things the Mechanicus did to those humans