Chapter 733:
The Departmento Munitorum's reply arrived five standard days later. The communication originated from a dispatch officer within the Munitorum's War Zone Coordination Bureau. Appearing on the holographic screen, the officer uniform was crisp, his demeanor strictly business. He confirmed receipt of Osiris's request, noting that within the current theater of war, a few conflict zones potentially aligned with the stated parameters.
The officer presented three distinct options:
The first was located within a star system near the Cadian Gate at the edge of the Segmentum Obscurus, where a local Astra Militarum detachment was currently purging a roving band of Chaos renegade remnants. While the enemy presence was limited in scale, they were utilizing ruined urban terrain to wage guerrilla warfare, resulting in a gridlocked engagement. The local commander was highly receptive to technical assistance.
The second was a mining world within the Segmentum Pacificus that had fallen victim to a localized Ork incursion. The greenskin forces numbered roughly one warband and had established strongholds within the planet's mountainous regions. The local Planetary Defense Forces lacked the strength to dislodge them and had formally requested reinforcements.
The third was a feudal world within the Segmentum Obscurus, where an insurgency suspected to be backed by an unknown xenos species had erupted. The situation remained heavily obscured, but the potential for a localized xenos threat was high.
Osiris rapidly evaluated the three options.
The theater near the Cadian Gate presented complex operational environments ideal for testing urban warfare and counter-insurgency capabilities, but its physical distance was significant, and any engagement involving Chaos carried unpredictable Warp-related risks. The feudal world's suspected xenos threat was far too anomalous and potentially tied to warp-craft or psychic vectors, making it poorly suited for a first systematic evaluation field.
The mining world's Ork threat, by contrast, was relatively conventional. Its varied topography was perfect for assessing combat efficacy against a standard Imperial adversary, and the combat intensity was moderate.
He selected the second option: the Ork incursion on the mining world.
The dispatch officer confirmed the choice, providing the specific coordinates of the system, secure comm-codes, and the identification telemetry of the local PDF commander. The Munitorum would formally notify the local command that a Mechanicus technical validation detachment was inbound to conduct joint operational testing, ordering them to provide all necessary tactical cooperation.
With the transmission terminated, Osiris immediately initiated deployment. He ordered the Tech-Priest teams aboard the Eternal Seeker to accelerate final equipment checks and departure preparations for Validation Task Force - Alpha. The task force would embark aboard a retrofitted Mechanicus transport vessel bound for the target world, outfitted with essential data-analysis arrays and maintenance support units. This transport would depart directly from the Eternal Seeker and, upon completing its objective, rendezvous independently back at the Nexum base.
Concurrently, he contacted his second avatar at Nexum, demanding an accelerated screening of Squad Mane's dimensional logs to secure backup testing environments.
Following this, Osiris began structuring a bulletproof, public justification for the Eternal Seeker's return voyage. As a Mechanicus Magos long devoted to cutting-edge research, his operational movements had to strictly align with his established research logic and project requirements. After careful weighing, he settled on several unassailable pretexts.
First and foremost was the necessity to return to Nexum to personally inspect the progress of several long-term dimensional research initiatives—specifically, the continuous observational data left behind by the Genesis Particle experiments within the base and its surrounding environments. The periodic review and analysis of this data were vital.
Secondly, Nexum housed highly specialized, heavily isolated biological research vaults whose environmental baselines were far more stable and controllable than any laboratory aboard a starship. Conducting sensitive gene-level validations there would significantly minimize external interference and accidental vectors.
Lastly, the ongoing operations of the Eternal Seeker and its supported initiatives required a replenishment of specific alloys and catalyst materials that could only be efficiently manufactured and stockpiled at Nexum. This fell perfectly under standard logistical maintenance to ensure research continuity.
Each of these reasons was grounded in objective fact, completely mirroring his public persona as a dedicated researcher. The Genesis Particle experiments did maintain long-term observation nodes on Nexum; the biological assays truly required rigorous environmental control; and material resupply was a basic reality of voidcraft operations. Combined, they formed a perfectly logical and necessary return to base.
Naturally, across all formal and informal channels, the relocation of the STC system went entirely unmentioned. That would remain the true, singular purpose of the voyage, buried deep beneath an array of legitimate pretexts.
Osiris contacted Sigismund. The High Marshal of the Black Templars was still within the Necromunda system. Before long, Sigismund arrived outside Osiris's private laboratory chambers.
"The Eternal Seeker will return to Nexum," Osiris stated, his synthesized tone flat and regular. "The specialized research facilities and stockpiled materials at the base are critical to advancing the next phase of the gene-seed and Titan Guard initiatives. It requires my direct oversight."
Sigismund raised no objections. The delivery of the second batch of optimized recruits to the Imperial Fists and their successors had concluded, meaning his core supervisory mission aboard the Eternal Seeker had naturally drawn to a close.
"What of the evaluation force you assembled?" he inquired.
"The Validation Task Force will embark independently via transport to the testing world. Upon completion of their objectives, they will return Nexum base on their own," Osiris explained. "The Eternal Seeker will not directly intervene in this operation, avoiding unnecessary scrutiny."
Sigismund deliberated for a brief moment. "The Black Templars maintain a garrison force at Nexum. I shall accompany the vessel to inspect the status of the deployment."
"Agreed," Osiris concurred. The request was entirely logical and would provoke zero unwanted speculation.
With external arrangements locked down, Osiris turned his attention to the most vital and hidden component of the voyage—the extraction of the STC system. This priceless relic of technological antiquity would make the journey back to Nexum within the hull of the Eternal Seeker.
The system's operational status was currently stable, meaning the relocation itself required no convoluted technical preparations. The true challenge lay in guaranteeing absolute security and concealment during transit and upon arrival. To ensure this, Osiris issued a series of compartmentalized directives.
He ordered his direct circle of Tech-Priests to place the vault housing the STC system into a temporary lockdown, citing "periodic deep maintenance and systemic calibration of core research infrastructure." For the duration of the voyage, no one outside his primary persona was permitted entry, save for three core Tech-Priests whose absolute loyalty had been thoroughly vetted. They were tasked with monitoring basic operational parameters. While these three Priests knew of the system's existence and value, they viewed the operation merely as a high-clearance maintenance cycle, remaining entirely oblivious to the deeper objective of relocating it permanently to Nexum.
Meanwhile, all other operations aboard the Eternal Seeker continued at their established pace, preserving a perfect veneer of normalcy.
Within two days, every deployment parameter had been efficiently executed. As confirmation signals of final readiness pinged across the command deck, the massive hull of the Eternal Seeker began to thrum with a low, resonant vibration. The main engine arrays entered their ignition sequence, and the void shield generators flared to life, casting faint ripples of energy across the warship's flank.
Steadily, the cruiser slipped from its anchorage, adjusted its heading, and unleashed a brilliant torrent of blue plasma from its rear thruster banks—propelling the secret-laden vessel onto the stellar lanes back to Nexum.