Chapter 6 The Elephant in the Room Getting to the Roots
"Okay, my friend. Our schedule is very tight and we don't have time to hold a celebration ceremony for you." Calvin stood up from the throne and said to Constantine, who was stretching and adapting to his body.
The surrounding Gray Knights had moved a series of armed racks near him, and placed on these racks was a complete set of modified Holy-type power armor.
Constantine refused the Gray Knight's help, and had no intention of letting the mechanical slaves enter the silver hall. The silver hair on the back of his head spread silently, and then he assembled the armor modules on his body piece by piece.
Speyer did not know when he appeared behind Calvin, watching this magical scene with the original body and the Gray Knights present.
The entire armor-donation process took less than ten minutes, and what appeared in front of everyone again was a silver-armored giant that was no different from other gray knights.
"Let's go..." Calvin waved his hand, and the Gray Knights silently carried away all the weapon racks.
The three of them turned and walked towards the corridor on the side of the Silver Hall, which was the exclusive space belonging to the War Council.
There are no personnel stationed along the corridor. As the mothership of the Gray Knights, this battleship is the last of all the Queen of Glory to be commissioned.
Due to the Legion characteristics of the Gray Knights and some technological explorations of the Empire, this battleship is undergoing modifications similar to those of the Chaos side's Trinita Prayer - that is, the Gray Knights themselves will complete most of the command and driving work of the battleship.
The Silver Hall, as the superstructure of the battleship, is no exception. Except for the key nodes leading to the public area ahead, there are no Gray Knight sentries here during daily hours.
Unlike the other two who remained silent because of their thoughts, Constantine watched everything along the way with interest.
And following the footsteps of a few people, a cabin that was finally not that tall appeared in front of them.
Boom!
Putting the helmet in his hand on the rack beside the wall, Speyer turned around and found a seat to sit down. Calvin waved to call Constantine back, who was still admiring the view from the porthole. The temporary meeting of the War Council with only three people was held.
A hasty start in this cabin.
"Where's Marduk?" Constantine asked. After going through the sublimation ceremony, he certainly knew the current list of members.
There is obviously still a huge gap in the staff of the Parliament, and its functions are still a long way from being truly complete. But as far as the existing members are concerned, Marduk is obviously the best candidate to be responsible for communicating with the Empire's state church.
"He is near Baka now and can't catch up with our meeting.
I will open a passage for him to listen in the Pure Land later, and now we will discuss important matters."
Calvin also opened the stone high-backed chair and stretched out his legs to sit on it. There was no need for him to exist as a member of the original body here, and naturally there was no need for him to maintain his usual solemn demeanor.
"Okay, let me listen first." Constantine also found a seat and waited for the two of them to speak.
"What should I say first? Oh, let me think about it..." Spier looked at the two of them, and then remembered something that had been ignored before.
"The logistics records between Hupper and Mars have been checked. They are indeed providing some special supplies to Mars, and there is no relevant record on Terra."
"Where's the supplies list?" Calvin's expression became serious. He first watched Speyer transmitting the data to the projector, and then looked at Constantine with questioning eyes.
The latter understood what Calvin meant and turned his attention to the words on the projector. As the green High Gothic letters continued to refresh on the screen, his brows also raised high.
"Where did you get this thing..." Constantine pointed to some words that were marked by the data summary function and appeared repeatedly in multiple lists.
"Don't worry about this, come and tell us about these things..."
Speyer was still flipping through relevant information about Hepper, trying to find something useful in it. Although Calvin had reached an agreement with them, the God of the North Wind was still a regret that he could not let go.
"Not enough, but I have a vague inference." Constantine interrupted Speyer's words, then raised his head and said to Calvin:
"Astartes is the substance used by Astartes to maintain hormone balance."
"Oh, that's nothing..." Spier replied, but the moment he raised his head, he saw Calvin's eyes.
"Where's the quantity?" Calvin asked slowly while looking at the document, and Speyer finally realized the seriousness of the problem.
If this is not an accidental material transaction, but a secret agreement that has lasted for who knows how long...
"1000, the standard batch output of a gene seed breeding equipment on Mars."
Constantine's tone is still calm, but his eyes have become excited. He is obviously aware of the value behind this agreement, while Calvin has shifted his focus deeper.
"How long is the cycle?"
"Do you mean starting from gene seeds? Then if you add in the training of personnel and a few random checks of genetic adaptability... it will take fifty years or more. But..."
"But that doesn't prevent them from running multiple batches at the same time?"
After Calvin's words fell, the entire conference room fell into a brief silence.
Yes, a fixed training cycle can indeed limit the ultimate production capacity of a single project.
But that's Mars, the industrial core of the entire empire. Who says they have to honestly choose a single project?
If calculated based on the cost of large-scale production and the window period of the related gene component cultivation cycle, I am afraid that multiple projects running in parallel would be the best choice for these wealthy motorists!
"The trouble is big..." Spier murmured to himself. Even someone like him who had little interaction with the Astartes knew how big a crisis was involved behind this project.
There is no need to consider the direction of Terra at all, because since the Emperor sat on the Golden Throne, it is impossible for anyone to have the confidence and prestige to control and organize such a large-scale Astartes expansion!
"I didn't know they could still be trusted like this..." Spier was talking about nothing else. It was the unreliability of Mars in the war after the Beast Wars.
He couldn't understand why anyone would trust these mechanical cultists so much and would hand such dangerous authority into their hands.
"Let Nicholas know that I need him to come."
Calvin suddenly opened the communication channel and ordered the Gray Knights to communicate with the envoys of the Forbidden Army. The two people in the venue also instantly understood his intention:
If there is one force that cannot be bypassed by this level of military expansion, it is only these emperor's personal guards.
"Sir..." A few minutes later, Nicholas appeared in front of the three people in the conference room.
Calvin, on the other hand, waved his hand and motioned for his old friend to find a seat and sit down.
"We have discovered some situations, so there are some things that we need to verify with you..." Calvin's tone was a bit complicated, because the lack of this kind of intelligence proved to him that despite such sincerity, the eyes of the Empire were in the eyes of the Forbidden Army.
Maybe it's still not the highest level.
Nicholas sat in his seat and listened intently, and the original body's tone also made him feel pressured.
"Please say..." Nicholas responded.
"Does the Empire currently have any plans to expand its military force against the Astartes?" Calvin asked.
"Yes, Terra has always had a complete process.
According to the agreement with Mars, Terra has been closely observing the status of the Astartes Chapter. When their battle losses reach a certain level, the relevant processes will be initiated..."
"I mean legion level." Calvin's words interrupted Nicholas' summary, and the latter finally came to a rare pause after hearing the long-lost word "legion".
"What do you know?" Nicholas looked at the original body in front of him, his eyes still remained firm.
In the eyes of the original body, this kind of reaction is almost the same as recognition. (In the eyes of the original body-level life, the observation of other life can reach a very microscopic level, and if he happens to have a long-term understanding of this person,
Contact, then this person will no longer have a secret existence in his eyes.)
It’s good to know, it’s good to know…
The tension in Calvin's heart finally relaxed, but a sense of distrust followed closely behind him.
The remaining two people in the conference room exchanged glances with each other and did not easily express any opinions on this occasion.
"If you are referring to Mars, then it does exist." Nicholas also noticed the atmosphere in the conference room, and after careful thinking, he still gave a positive answer.