The Emperor’s Angel of Death

From start to finish, the Ork invasion of the Alathemos Forge World lasted less than a month. Though brief, the damage it caused was significant.

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The Hunter Clade alone lost two War Dogs during the defense of Ikotomia, and a Reaver Titan was heavily damaged. The orbital defenses of the two satellite worlds suffered severe damage, with Ikotomia's defense facilities losing over 87% of their capacity, essentially complete destruction. Nizkara's facilities also suffered 19% damage and destruction. Rebuilding the two satellites alone would require a vast investment of resources and manpower. Furthermore, the planet's limited fleet lost a quarter of its ships in the fight against the Orks.

On the planet itself, some factories were damaged after the Orks landed, especially from attacks originating from the Ikotomia satellite, resulting in the loss of 3 large forges and 19 small to medium-sized factories. The Adeptus Ministorum and Skitarii forces suffered over 1.2 million casualties resisting the Orks, and many priests and even Tech-Priests were killed in action.

In terms of scale, the invading Orks were just a bunch of small-time thugs to Solzhenitsyn, far smaller than the Gethsemane Orks he fought when he first took command of the Chapter, let alone the later Armageddon campaigns.

Yet, even this relatively small Ork cluster nearly caused the complete destruction of a Forge World, demonstrating just how weakened Alathemos had become.

To make matters worse, shortly after the Ork invasion, the Fabricator-General from Mars arrived to deliver the latest production quotas—higher than ever before. This matter was somewhat related to Solzhenitsyn.

Due to the recent action of the Arks of Omen suddenly emerging from the Eye of Terror, the High Lords had become somewhat concerned about that region. Simultaneously, the Emperor's Tarot indicated a severe threat was approaching. Consequently, they directed the Adeptus Mechanicus Explorators to launch countless unmanned reconnaissance drones into the Eye of Terror to gather intelligence. These drones penetrated the core of enemy territory, sending back information about the situation there.

The High Lords then witnessed the gathering of an unprecedentedly massive fleet, including a colossal and magnificent fortress—one of the Blackstone Fortresses Abaddon had seized during the Gothic War.

The information discovered by these machines triggered an earthquake within the Imperial high command. The High Lords deliberated for a long time in the palace, deciding on a course of action.

Firstly, the defensive strength of Cadia had to be immediately reinforced. Reserve forces had to be established immediately. Weapons, ammunition, and supplies were continuously transported to the front lines and the warehouses behind the defensive lines. The twenty Cadian Sector governor-level regiments were placed on full alert, recalling all companies deployed on missions outside the sector and deploying them to their respective positions, with no further deployments to be made, in order to mount a timely strategic counterattack.

Although it was unknown what the Arch-Traitor was planning, the Imperial Guard had to stand firm, repelling any invaders, no matter where the heretical hammer might fall.

In addition, every battle-ready force in the Obscurus Sector had to prepare to fight to the last bullet and the last man, defending the Cadian Gate.

The High Lords made their decision, and thus the Imperium would operate. However, what sounded easy was not so easy for everyone involved. The Departmento Munitorum issued instructions to the Departmento Logistics, initiating preparations for another massive war. The Departmento Logistics, in turn, sent a request to Mars to increase production quotas.

New regiments needed to be raised, taxes had to be increased, and Forge Worlds had to increase production output to meet the ever-growing demand for ordnance. A single sentence from the halls of power was like a stone thrown into a pond, the ripples spreading to the most distant planets in the galaxy.

Mars immediately dispatched a large number of Fabricator-Generals to various Forge Worlds to deliver the new production orders, hoping to meet the levels outlined in the demand forecasts. If a Forge World's output failed to meet this requirement, it would likely mean that the world's Forge Master would be deemed unqualified and directly replaced.

Of course, this was limited to 'small Forge Worlds' like Alathemos. The truly great Forge Worlds would not be easily threatened by Mars. Therefore, those sent to the powerful Forge Worlds were actually envoys, primarily focused on communication and negotiation, using grand principles to persuade those unruly Forge Masters to contribute more to the Imperial defense effort.

Faced with the Fabricator-General from Mars, Christopher IX, the then-Forge Master of Alathemos, earnestly conveyed the current difficulties and showed the Fabricator-General the heavily damaged facilities, hoping to temporarily reduce some of the production coordination to allow the Forge World to recover.

The result, unsurprisingly, was a rejection.

The Fabricator-General's reasoning was simple: the defensive facilities were damaged, so be it. As long as most of the production facilities were intact, that was enough to meet the production quota. After all, this place was so 'safe' that it didn't need much defense. Only potential traitors with something to hide would turn their homeworld into an iron fortress.

If they refused Mars's demands, the first punishment would be the complete deprivation of Alathemos Forge World's resource production sites, removing them from the Forge World's development sequence. If the Forge World mined privately, it would be illegally occupying Imperial resources, and Mars would have the authority to directly purge the world's leadership. Alathemos itself had few resource production sites, and even its trade quota was very low.

However, if they truly followed Mars's demands, Alathemos Forge World wouldn't even have the strength to repair its damaged defensive facilities. Not only that, but all factories would have to operate at maximum capacity, even overload. In this situation, production accidents and serious mechanical failures would be very likely, and handling accidents and repairing heavy production equipment would require time, manpower, and resources. This would lead to a death spiral, failing to complete the quota, being deprived of raw materials, losing raw materials, being unable to produce and maintain equipment, and thus failing to complete the quota even more.

So the Forge Master then proposed that if they wanted an increase in output, it had to be based on providing more raw ore and refined materials. After all, a Forge World's lifeblood is the various raw materials it consumes, and vast quantities of raw materials and chemical feedstocks need to be supplied by the output of a dozen or even dozens of mining planets.

But Alathemos Forge World currently only had two systems to maintain its operations.

The answer was still no, there were currently no newly prospected resource worlds nearby.

Alathemos Forge World continued to back down, offering to prospect and develop on their own.

Still not allowed.

At this point, the Fabricator-General didn't even bother to make up reasons, practically etching the words 'You are traitors' onto his metal face.