Steel & Oil: Warhammer 32K

"That's because everyone here is far too much of a zealot."

Lin spared no mercy in his ribbing, even though he understood why humanity in the Warhammer world had ended up where it was today. That didn't change the fact that he found the Adeptus Mechanicus's aesthetic sense a touch too extreme.

Was that hunchbacked sort of mecha really good-looking?

Just look at the thing he'd cobbled together—now that was pure, genuine sci-fi style!

"And the cockpit's far too small, with no internal passageways either. I honestly can't tell how this mecha is even supposed to be operated. Compared to a Titan, this thing looks more like an enlarged Knight mech..."

Christina went on with her sharp critique, though that line of criticism was cut off directly by Lin.

"That's because It only needs a single pilot."

This statement clearly startled Christina. She turned her head toward Lin, her gaze laden with thick astonishment:

"It's really the same as a Knight mech? How did you manage that?"

Although many Knight mechs belong, in appearance, to the same stylistic family as Titans, sheer size is the most conspicuous gap between them. Aside from the Rapier-class Titan, which is no longer produced, even the largest Knight mech is only on par with a Warhound-class Titan.

Put that way, it might seem the Titan utterly trounces the Knight mech, but in truth each side has its own advantages.

A Knight mech requires only a single pilot capable of bearing the machine-spirit in order to fight in battle—and although the Knights able to meet that condition are exceedingly few, it is still far more lenient than a Titan, which requires several professional members of the Titan Congregation to keep operational.

Even the smallest Warhound-class needs seven or eight crew working in concert to function. Yet this mechanical behemoth before them, only a little smaller than a Reaver-class Titan, actually needed but a single pilot?

In fact, this Thundergod Mecha was born straight out of Titan technology.

The larger the schematic, the more effort it took to reproduce. After that earlier battle at Cath Maximus, Lin had recovered from the spaceport a good deal of wreckage from Warhound-class and Reaver-class Titans.

The process of dismantling the wreckage gave him no small amount of inspiration, but for all his hurrying, it wasn't until after that fight with the greenskins was finished that he managed to produce this engine of slaughter.

But in the process of localizing the Thundergod Mecha, he again ran into obstacles.

In another world's Tyren Empire, those humans who did not live in the cesspit of the Warp had, as a matter of course, mastered highly intelligent and integrated technology. The military manifestation of these technologies was that even a large mecha needed only one pilot.

The pilot needed only to issue the most direct commands, and the bulk of the operations would be handled in their stead by auxiliary systems.

But this was Warhammer 40K, where intelligent automation was the greatest taboo, and even semi-intelligent systems that toed the red line were a precious treasure the grease-monkeys never let show.

If he wished to preserve the Thundergod Mecha's defining trait of having only a single pilot, the only choice Lin had was to imitate the Knight mech.

He covered the Thundergod Mecha's entire body with the most basic electronic processors, then concentrated the signals from these processors into the cockpit.

These signals would ultimately be handled by the pilot plugged into the cockpit via neural link. The pilot would use their own brain as the computer for the entire mecha, achieving control over it.

But this was precisely the major reason a Knight mech could not do the same—the larger the mecha, the more data must be processed.

The computational capacity of wetware has an upper limit. If one is immoderate about size, the deluge of signals fed back while operating the mecha will burn out the pilot's brain.

The Warhound-class's size is already the limit for most Knight pilots—so what of the even larger Reaver-class?

What's more, the Warhammer world also has the so-called machine-spirit...

The machine-spirit is one of the underlying codes of the Cult Mechanicus. This mysterious, unfathomable thing can indeed shield the machine itself so that it functions normally in places invaded by the Warp, where the physical laws of the material universe are thrown into chaos. This is also what gives the tech-priests' mumbo-jumbo its genuine practical effect.

If one loses the machine-spirit's protection, then the Deputy Forge Director whom Lin had earlier beheaded is the best reference for what the tech-priests face when confronting the powers of the Warp.

But for those who must jack their own nerves directly into the machine, the existence of the machine-spirit also increases the mental pressure they must bear while operating it.

This mental pressure, stacked together with the enormous computational load of operating a large mecha, made it nearly impossible for this eighteen-meter Thundergod Mecha to be operated by a single person.

But if he were to follow the Titan style and build a huge cockpit, then construct within the Thundergod a network of passageways for some twenty-odd crew members to move about and perform maintenance, the mecha's frame would have to be enlarged, the manufacturing procedures would grow more complex along with it, and components could only be custom-made rather than produced in modular fashion...

By then, every problem inherent to the Titan itself would manifest, one by one, in the Thundergod.

In that case, what Lin had labored to produce would not be the Thundergod Mecha, but merely a recast of a Titan.

Such a thing held no meaning for Lin.

And this was precisely why Lin had sought out Christina.

Christina was a Titan captain who had transitioned into the role from being a bio-priest specializing in brain science. Her qualification for becoming a Titan captain seemed to be her unique technique for relieving the pressure from the machine-spirit.

Judging from the earlier battles, Christina handled a Warlord-class Titan with effortless ease, and would not, like other captains, find her own thoughts conversely affected by the machine-spirit.

If he could obtain this technique...

Lin said nothing, only staring at the questioning Christina.

Christina, who had originally meant to question Lin further about how he'd managed to let a single person operate so large a mecha, abruptly caught his meaning.

Good grief—no wonder he invited me here to spectate. Turns out he was thinking of robbing me blind?

"It's a technique of multiple consciousnesses."

Christina didn't hide or hold it back, but she clearly had no wish to discuss it at length either: "The principle is to split off different personalities to share the mental pressure, then finally consolidate the memories of the different personalities to carry out operation."

This technique sounded like something the Alpha Legion would use.

Lin fell into thought, though, in urgent need of building up his armaments, he had no intention of changing his mind: "This technique can indeed share out the mental pressure..."

"But it also carries the risk of personality derangement. And besides, even if it can ease the machine-spirit's mental pressure, how do you intend to solve the problem of computational load?"

"Just modify the pilot a bit—implant an auxiliary computational unit in the brain and that'll do it."

"Even if you keep this mecha's operability at the bare minimum to ease the pressure, so long as it's sustained, high-intensity combat, in the end it'll still burn out the pilot's brain."

"That's why I also have an ultra-powerful cooling system."

The carrier platform delivered Lin and Christina to the front of the Thundergod's cockpit. Lin opened the cockpit and showed Christina that unique technique of his from another world.

An operating system inherited from Armored Core.

The humanoid combat weapons of Armored Core all possess extremely high mobility. To counter the G-force compression inflicted on the pilot during high-mobility maneuvers, the cockpits of their humanoid mechas have an externally-connected bodily-fluid circulation system.

This system can draw bodily fluid out and pump it back in, thereby reducing the pressure borne by the pilot.

But in the Warhammer universe, what circulates inside need not necessarily be bodily fluid—it can also be coolant.

Lin summoned a Servitor he had modified to demonstrate this circulation for Christina—the Servitor's brain was jacked into the mecha to serve as wetware, and the intense computational pressure caused its brain temperature to spike dramatically.

But the bodily-fluid circulation system pumped coolant into its already half-mechanically-modified body. It carried away the excess heat, keeping the brain at a warning threshold close to meltdown yet never actually burned out.

"So long as it's paired with your technique for easing machine-spirit pressure," Lin announced, "this mecha can truly achieve single-person operation."

Christina stared blankly at the Servitor strapped into the cockpit. Although it was only a demonstration, she could already imagine what state this mecha's future pilots would be in inside.

They would be strapped into the cockpit, enduring the torment of a data deluge and the risk of split personalities to operate this large mecha, their only solace the coolant that had replaced their blood...

Where had this demon engine come from?

But she could indeed see that, so long as she was willing to assist, they really could create a large mecha piloted by a single person!

Such a thought made her heart stir with excitement. As a former tech-priest equally enamored of innovation, she had already begun to envision how such a mecha would carve a swathe of slaughter across the battlefield.

But she still kept a taut poker face, the better to make herself seem more serious: "What sort of return do I get?"

"The return I can offer is that you'll no longer be a commander without troops."

Lin's meaning was plain: so long as Christina agreed to share the technique, all these Thundergods manufactured would be used to reinforce her Titan legion, which had been reduced to a single half-crippled Warlord-class Titan.

Christina was somewhat surprised. She had only wanted to find a reason to convince herself, and hadn't expected Lin to be so direct.

Although this meant Lin had designs on her Titan legion...

She was still very satisfied with his answer: "Deal."

Lin's hand clasped together with Christina's, and the final obstacle to putting this machine into actual combat was resolved.

A Thundergod Mecha piloted by a single person was clearly inferior in combat efficacy to a Titan of equal size manned by thirty-some professional crew members.

And cramming as much firepower as possible into a smaller platform also meant the Thundergod's structural strength and flexibility were likewise inferior to a Titan's.

Its defensive performance was far below a Titan's, and having had its operability trimmed away to preserve the advantage of a single pilot, it could not, like a Titan, play at fisticuffs with others at close-combat range.

Yet it was simple to mass-produce, with low requirements of its pilots—these advantages were enough to make up for any problem.

Lin had trimmed away a whole series of pilot-protection measures such as the dampers and the anti-thermal kinetic mesh, which greatly accelerated the Thundergod's manufacturing efficiency.

Even by the current level of production, the modular castings coming off Cath Maximus's assembly line could produce one such Thundergod Mecha within a year.

If Lin oversaw it personally, this time could even be shortened to a little over a month. This was mainly because Lin's personal involvement in production could cut out many of the consecration and blessing steps that even modular castings could not avoid.

But even reckoned by the Mechanicus's original efficiency—where you had to kowtow for every single part produced—a single year was still far superior to other Forge Worlds, where producing even one Warlord-class took decades to begin with.

If firepower and numbers could deal with an opponent, why insist on resolving the problem at the close-combat phase that demanded flexibility?

And as for handing the Thundergod Mecha over to Christina's command, Lin was likewise unworried.

This mecha's production technology was, for now, in his hands alone; Christina could only obtain reinforcements from him.

Although Christina had taken part alongside Lin in both the great rebellion at Cath Maximus and the defense against the greenskins, in order to evade the risk of Mars investigating after the fact, Cath Maximus's nominal director was Lifar. The "Gate of Fate" Titan legion, with only a single Warlord-class Titan remaining, still counted as Cath Maximus's Titan legion.

Cath Maximus now in practice belonged to Lin, so he could naturally deploy the Titan legion subordinate to this Forge World.

But this place was, after all, too close to Mars. Perhaps later he would have to consider, like those sages who had earlier evacuated Cath Maximus, migrating Cath Maximus's technology and resources to other planets.

But while other things were easy enough to carry away, a Titan legion was not so easy.

To thoroughly coax away a Titan legion, one had, after all, to offer a little sweetness first.

As for the present...

"This mecha still has plenty of room for improvement and testing, but it's already usable. By the time hostilities resume, we'll have at least two Thundergods to deliver to your Titan legion. If you're willing, we can also modify the Thundergod's arms and, for now, attach them onto your Warlord-class Titan."

Lin briefly explained his plans for the future to Christina.

The Thundergod Mecha's potential was limitless; this giant combat weapon was, for now, merely a first version barely fit for battle. Lin envisioned that perhaps he could later gather a batch of Blanks to serve as the mecha's pilots, so that the mecha could fight even amid the Warp's raging energies without the machine-spirit's protection. That way the mental pressure borne by the pilot would also be reduced, and he could load the Thundergod with even more weapons.

But this could only be done once he possessed territory and a power base truly his own.

Although he now held command of a million-strong army and several Chapters, that was, after all, an army assembled under the great cause of defending Terra.

This was his opportunity to engage deeply with the various factions and skim off some benefits. But it could by no means count as his own power.

The carrier platform delivered him and Christina back to the ground. Once more they stood on the ground and gazed up at this towering colossus of a machine.

Christina couldn't help but sigh in admiration.

"To think that we too could create such a God-Machine..."

The production of Titans relies on the layering of multiple STC technologies, and although their production has spread to the point where it can be carried out even without an STC, its origin is not innovation but the stacking up of ancient, sacred data.

It is precisely for this reason that these Titans of astonishing firepower are crowned with the name God-Machines.

Their existence, in the eyes of the Adeptus Mechanicus, is a kind of divine gift; their firepower is the very embodiment of the Omnissiah's mighty power.

Now this Thundergod, whose firepower was no less than a Titan's, also naturally fell, in Christina's eyes, within the category of God-Machines.

But Lin, who knew full well this mecha did not derive from an ancient STC, refuted her statement.

"No. It is humanity that, by its own strength, has grasped divine power in its own hands."

This pronouncement was heretical enough. Christina looked toward Lin, only to find his expression incomparably earnest.

"Every piece of steel upon Its body, every component—from the mining of the raw ore to its smelting, and then to the casting—all of it carried out by mortal hands, even though we make use of Servitors to do the work."

"Its research and development sprang from human wisdom, its basic framework was born from our pen and paper, and its prototype came from the far-from-masterful handiwork of those priests and slave-laborers upon Cath Maximus."

Lin stroked this Thundergod's rough, uneven armor plating, a proud, lofty ambition welling up in his tone.

"These machines, created out of ordinary things—though they cannot work miracles—can grant us the courage to defy the gods."

"We do not need gods."

He concluded.

"One day, humanity will use the steel it has mastered to grind every god to dust!"

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