Steel & Oil: Warhammer 32K

"The Mechanicus has always been a self-serving organisation. That has never changed.

Lin knocked on the floor, drawing Kurande's attention to the small forge-furnace that had been assigned to them.

"This furnace may once have belonged to a dead Mechanicus priest... but that's beside the point. What matters is this: the moment you become a Mechanicus priest, you are entitled to a private workshop like this one on any Forge World. You can conduct your own experiments here. Everything within these walls becomes your personal property."

"So ask yourself — what happens when a Forge World evacuation doesn't have the capacity to move everyone?"

Kurande was beginning to understand. "These priests would lose everything they own..."

Lin nodded. "Exactly. And those possessions are the very foundation of their advancement within the Mechanicus. A Mechanicus priest stripped of them might as well be killed outright — there's no practical difference."

"When the Archmagi withdraw, they take their knowledge with them. They load the most valuable production lines into their Forge Ships. They even bring along a good number of the priests under their command — but make no mistake, that isn't mercy. It's necessity. An Archmagos's standing requires those assets to be maintained. Everything else? They've never given it a second thought."

"So the reason they don't dare announce their intention to abandon this Forge World is that they're afraid of a revolt from below?" Kurande cut straight to the heart of it. "Once word gets out, the priests who have no evacuation ticket and no intention of surrendering their property would tear this place apart in civil war?"

"Precisely. And that is exactly the opening we need to seize this Forge World."

Lin walked out onto the rooftop terrace. He gazed out across the planet's spaceport for a long moment, then turned back to face Kurande.

"Well? Isn't this a good deal more exciting than your plan to capture the Starwhisper relay station? Care to throw your lot in with me?"

Kurande was silent.

He trusted this man without reservation — the Forge World Huangquan VIII Archmagos who had led the Imperial Fists veterans out of Cthonia.

But even without Lin having uttered a single word about risk, Kurande could feel the dangerous undercurrents running beneath this plan.

The cautious choice was to refuse, return to Terra with all haste, and organise a proper defensive line against the Orks.

But without some extraordinary measure, could the Imperial Fists truly hold Terra?

He wasn't certain.

Standing before Lin, Kurande found himself dimly grasping something of the pressure his gene-father must have borne during the Siege of Terra.

He tried to talk himself out of the reckless impulse — to go back, give everything he had, and defend Terra. But there was another voice inside him, insistent and low, telling him that giving everything he had simply wasn't enough.

If Terra fell even after he had given his all, then what was the point of giving his all?

"I only hope you already have a complete plan, Archmagos Lin."

Kurande exhaled. "I have no desire to see the Imperial Fists — the ones you only just pulled back from the cliff's edge — thrown away because of a decision I made."

It was as good as saying yes. Lin was quietly satisfied.

Resilience did not mean blind obedience to the rules. The bone-deep zealotry of the Black Templars was equally a facet of Dorn's sons. But that was not the source of Lin's satisfaction — he was simply glad that Kurande was willing to join a plan with Lin himself at the helm.

That meant unconditional trust.

"Then let's not waste time. What's the plan?" The decision made, Kurande was all business. "Through what channels do we spread word that the Forge Director intends to abandon this planet? What role do my warriors and I need to play?"

"The Forge Director still controls Forge World Cath Maximus. He controls its voice. A few rumours won't be enough."

Lin shook his head. "And even if this Forge World descends into chaos, a hundred Astartes is not enough to seize the initiative in a battlefield turned civil war."

"Then what exactly is your plan...?"

"We start with the most powerful faction on this Forge World." Lin let the words hang with deliberate weight.

He thought of the Titan captain with the wine-red hair and blue eyes — the intensity with which she had studied the war moon, sizing the Greenskins up as worthy opponents.

"Archmagos Lifar was previously assigned to monitor the Titan captain's physical condition. We start with him."

He left Kurande and the remaining warriors behind to wait for their organs to finish cultivating, then set out to find Archmagos Lifar.

Compared to Lin and his group, who still had limited freedom of movement, Archmagos Lifar — the very man who had brought Lin here — had drawn the shorter straw. Like Lin, he had been placed in a small forge-furnace not his own, but unlike Lin, he was not permitted to set foot outside it.

However, if Lifar wouldn't come out, there was nothing stopping Lin from going in. He quickly obtained permission to enter and came face to face with the sour-faced Archmagos.

"Archmagos Lifar, you look like you've been enjoying some well-earned leisure time."

"Don't start with me! You promised there'd be some sort of reward, and instead I've been locked in here for five days without taking a single step outside! That old fossil Augustus told me he might want to interrogate me — that's the only reason he put me here — and then five days go by without him so much as darkening my door!"

It had taken this long for anyone to visit him, and of all people it had to be the very man responsible for getting him into this mess. Lifar launched straight into his grievances.

Lin simply listened with a smile, letting him pour out his misery, and only at the very end tossed in one idle question.

"Have you ever stopped to wonder why Augustus put you in here in the first place?"

"Why?" Lifar frowned, thinking it over. "Because he has a grudge against me?"

"Think a little further back. The entire Forge World has heard rumours of the Greenskin invasion. If the Forge Director genuinely wanted to verify whether those rumours were true, he would have sent one of his own trusted agents to investigate."

"Why didn't he send one of his own people? Why would a task this critical be handed to someone like you — someone guaranteed to bungle it? Why didn't he care whether you brought back the wrong information?"

Lifar began to realise something. The colour drained from his face. He looked at Lin with an almost pleading expression.

"Stop. Don't say another word."

But Lin extinguished his last hope without a shred of mercy.

"There is only one answer!"

"Archmagos Lifar — your Forge Director has known about the Greenskins all along. He simply didn't want the priests below him to find out!"

"Whether it was sending you to investigate or placing you under house arrest afterward — both served exactly one purpose: keeping the news of the coming Ork invasion from spreading!"

The colour left Lifar's face entirely, replaced by a genuine, pallid white.

He shot to his feet and lunged for the surveillance equipment, intent on smashing it — but Lin's voice reached him from behind.

"Relax. I prepared a looped false feed before I came in."

Lifar turned around and looked at Lin. His expression had not improved in the slightest.

"Out of the tiger's den, straight into the wolf's lair..." he muttered miserably, evidently having already guessed that Lin hadn't come all this way just to catch up. "You're the reason I've been sitting in solitary for five days — can't you just leave me alone?"

"Now, now, what kind of talk is that?"

Lin slung an arm around Lifar's shoulders with the same easy warmth he had shown back on Jingang. "How is any of this my fault? It's that Forge Director of yours — too busy planning his own quiet escape to recognise your contributions and your worth!"

"He locked you up — someone who knows this Forge World better than almost anyone — just to keep word of the Orks from getting out, so he could make his own clean getaway. A Forge Director like that — don't you want to hit back? Only by hitting back will your work ever receive the recognition it deserves!"

"But..." Lifar still hesitated. Revenge was all well and good, but what he really wanted was to keep his own little patch of turf intact.

"And think about it — why doesn't he want the priests below him to know? Isn't it simply because evacuation capacity is limited, and he only wants to take his own assets with him rather than the priests? You may be an Archmagos, but you and he are hardly on friendly terms. When he makes his escape, there's no chance in the warp he'll take you with him."

"Are you willing to watch everything you've built here go up in smoke? When the Ork hordes arrive and you're still sitting in this cell, do you honestly think you'll manage to fight your way onto an evacuation ship?"

Lin's words shattered the last of Lifar's defences and broke him completely. He clenched his jaw, and something hard and ruthless flickered across his face.

"I'm in. What do you need?"

Lin smiled. He knew his plan had just taken its third step forward.

"I don't need much from you. You still remember the structure of the Titan Congregation, I take it?"

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