The two old foxes emerged from the conference room looking thoroughly refreshed. Even though Archbishop Froes was entirely mechanized, everyone could still sense his delight.
His mechanical arms swayed slightly at an unusually lively frequency, and the screen above his head occasionally displayed a technical index or some binary remark in 01000110.
He hurried toward his laboratory, apparently struck by a new idea.
By comparison, our great, discerning, exceedingly wise Chapter Master of the Crimson Tide was far more composed.
Evan swaggered toward the shipyard, brazenly tossed the hard drive to the Adeptus Mechanicus personnel on guard, and bounded up the steps three at a time onto a brand-new Strike Cruiser.
At his command, three Strike Cruisers roared out of the Adeptus Mechanicus docks.
The docks shook violently, and a profusion of binary curses drifted behind the Strike Cruisers' exhaust plumes.
The three Strike Cruisers were named:
Silent Fire;
Supreme Abyss;
Azure Celestial Pool.
Why those names? No particular reason. Once he assembled all thirty-two someday, that would be a truly magnificent sight.
With the Blessed Forest and the Light of Dawn, this region now had five warships and nearly four hundred warriors, enough to sweep away every lurking monster.
But the surrounding enemies were not nearly as weak as Evan imagined.
Evan's territory lay on the edge of the Great Rift. Follow the Warp routes a little farther to the side, and you would reach the Great Rift itself.
The corresponding region of the Warp was a terrifying storm on the scale of the Great Rift, leaving the barriers of reality around those worlds impossibly thin.
Mortals there were all but insane.
Leilo commanded a Strike Cruiser to protect their homeworld, while Rogier and Evan each commanded two warships, attacking in different directions.
Had Maturio not stubbornly refused to