While waiting for the Terran mission to arrive, Soshyan was not idle. Although there was still a lack of supplies and personnel, some repair work on the Scar of Victory had already started.
The first area to start is the outer area, where the border formed by the metal cables adjacent to the dock is surrounded by a swarm of welding drones.
In order to inspect each damaged block, maintenance personnel dismantled most of the armor, leaving the decks directly exposed to the void, but they would soon be covered with heavy anti-ablative armor plates, and only the most powerful space Ordnance can penetrate it.
Inspectors floated between steel latticework, lifting half-finished bulkheads ahead of loading payloads.
The priests of the Mechanicum hurried through the gaping cavity, distributing binary instructions everywhere, assessing, measuring, and directing.
Soshyan spent two hours driving the shuttle to tour the entire Star Castle, shuttling between the steel cliffs and the cabins between the arc flashes.
Loken accompanied Soshyan, who walked at a leisurely pace, showing off everything he could, clearly extremely proud of himself for presiding over the job.
"We spent a lot of time to restore it, sir. Thanks to the internal structural design drawings of the Ramirez-class star fort provided by Mars, we were able to work so smoothly."
The shuttle pivoted on an invisible axis, then began to climb, gliding between rows of half-finished decks.
Occasionally, a thoroughfare opens, allowing one to get a glimpse into the heart of the fortress, whose complexity is formidable.
Soshiyang observed all this, silent, but his eyes deep in his face took in everything.
Loken knew very well that when he was in such a mood, it was best to keep silent.
The Chapter Master is studying the fortress as he studies every weapon in its possession - looking for flaws in it, assessing its power.
“These sections can be completed within weeks.”
The shuttle passed through a circular opening that was opening, exposing the pillars of a hall like a rib against a deep sky filled with stars.
"This will then become your strategic research room, sir. By the way, we have expanded the space of the center to accommodate more arrays of meditators."
Soshyan leaned forward in his seat, resting his elbows on his knees.
A larger hall slowly came into view. The dome made of armored glass was inlaid with concentric annular arch beams. The elevator rotated on the center line, and a large number of Thinker computing cores were pulled and loaded into the grooves under the dome.
There are thousands of slaves working in this space alone, and most of them can only barely be called humans. At the same time, Lovelace can be seen commanding.
The deck of the shuttle trembled, as if it had been hit by some kind of atmospheric interference, and the observation window was temporarily filled with cracks caused by static electricity.
"A brief blast of oxygen fueled by gravity."
Loken explained.
"Would you like to land for a closer look, my lord?"
Soshyan nodded in agreement, still studying the superstructure around them, staring at the beams and skeletal pillars like a priest tearing the flesh of a divination sacrifice.
As the shuttle descended toward the illuminated decks, enveloped in a vibrating teardrop cloud of gas maintained at survivable temperatures, the worst of the background radiation had been eliminated.
Then the shuttle's legs extended outward, steam clouds filling the matte gray deck below.
At the base of the unfolding slope, a delegation from the Adeptus Mechanicus was waiting. A phalanx of twenty Skitarii Guardians armed with long-handled war staffs is accompanied by a limp Mechanicum monk in a scarlet uniform.
This person has a distended rib-like mechanical chest with a crab-like gliding device underneath, and his face is a mask as smooth as a mirror.
This is the envoy of Zhao Akada.
"Captain Soshyan, welcome."
This envoy's name is Jairzinio Zavala, a sage from Zhao-Arkadar. He replaced the previous envoy, which also reflects the importance that the Forge World attaches to the Suffering Alliance deal.
In fact, they value not only this single transaction, but also the friendship of the entire Suffering Alliance. Especially Soshiyang expressed that the alliance hopes to have more cooperation with the Forge World in the future. Even after signing the contract, Zhao Aka Da posted it immediately.
One hopes to revive the world, but suffers from isolation and helplessness.
One needs to regain his strength, but a penny is too much for the heroic man.
One is wealthy and the other is powerful, so the two naturally hit it off.
Although Zhao Akada cannot fully undertake the repair work of the entire Star Fortress, they can at least restore some of its functions first, and the rest can take their time.
"Master Zavala, thank you for your hard work."
Soshyan stretched out his arm, gently held the opponent's raised robotic arm, and then looked around.
"It's progressing faster than I thought."
"The main reason is that this area has not been too seriously damaged, and the only time-consuming work is to clean it up."
Under the leadership of Master Zavala, they entered a circular hall with a diameter of one hundred and thirty meters.
The hall was emitting a gentle light at this time - although Soshyan could not find an obvious light source.
The walls of the hall are mechanically polished rock, with the exception of a scalloped section, the polished and reflective nature of which makes it look like marble.
The wall that was not made of stone seemed to emit light as if it had an internal light source. A curtain of energy invisible to the naked eye swayed and jumped in front of the wall, revealing a rippled and charming rainbow light in the multi-spectral enhanced vision.
This is the central hall that has been expanded and renovated. Only the most basic work has been completed so far. Those walls are huge display screens that have both imaging and projection functions.
There is a leaf-shaped arch in the center of the wall, and the simple door is equipped with a number pad and wheel.
Soshiyan walked over and stood in front of the energy field and then turned and looked at Irzinho Zavala.
"I came into contact with the priests of Mars a few days ago. They seem to be prejudiced against some forge worlds in the Storm Star Territory, and even call some of them wizards. Did you know?"
Obviously, the "certain worlds" Soshyan refers to are Zhao Akada.
In fact, this is not a lie. He did communicate with the representative of Mars. The other party did not like the world of Zhao-Akada, and he did call the technology priests above him "wizards."
"Wizard? No, I don't know, but what difference does it make? In the end, ignorant people will still mistake sufficiently advanced technology for witchcraft."
Irzinho Zavala recounted without emotion.
"A long time ago, we were ahead of all other worlds in our era in certain technological advancements. At that time, we also entered into a contract with the Thousand Sons."
"I know that. Perhaps it is for this reason that you are despised by Mars?"
"It doesn't really matter."
"How did your technology get lost after that?"
"No, it's not lost."
The Techsage's multispectral eyepiece made a slight clicking sound, indicating that it was rotating.
"We voluntarily gave up those technologies."
"Why?"
"Because it is too dangerous, our ancestors tried to use technology to create a consciousness far beyond human beings... That consciousness will not be bound by the technology of natural laws, and can twist those laws into what they want. Everything about them The struggle is all about making it a reality.”
"It sounds... quite heretical indeed."
"So they gave up."
Soshyan looked at the technological sage and wondered whether it was really wise to be associated with that marginalized forging world.
But then, an announcement interrupted his thoughts.
"Sir, Terra's envoys have left the subspace node."
