As the days of focused development flew by, and with the Adeptus Mechanicus working tirelessly to ramp up production and parse the technology tree of the Stellaris civilization, the promises Russell had made to the common people were being systematically fulfilled.
Famine and chaos dwindled daily, while the Governor’s prestige grew.
Conversely, the remnants of the old nobility were efficiently purged by the Ecclesiarchy, providing him with ample financial backing.
During this time, Russell struck a deal with the Ecclesiarchy.
The Ecclesiarchy, as a religion worshipping the Emperor as the sole supreme deity, ironically viewed the materialistic “Imperial Truth” espoused by the Emperor himself as heresy, because it denied the Emperor’s divinity.
Faithful members of the Ecclesiarchy had always wished to eradicate the Imperial Truth faction.
Russell secured their support in two primary ways: first, by aiding their proselytizing; second, by using his gubernatorial authority to help them suppress the Imperial Truth faction.
Under his tacit cooperation with the Bishop, scholars, teachers, and researchers who supported the Imperial Truth were secretly arrested one after another, cast into dungeons after brief religious trials.
This faction was already weak on Faya, and Russell used his personal prestige to block all their channels of public expression.
Consequently, their disappearances caused barely a ripple on the planet.
Curiously, as time went on, more and more supporters of the Imperial Truth were sent to the cells, yet none of Faya’s meager prisons were ever expanded.
The Ecclesiarchy’s clergy generally believed that those deep, pitch-black underground dungeons had become the graves of the heretics, prompting them to praise the new Governor’s piety and nobility.
Russell, however, offered no explanation as to their true destination.
Four years drifted past like a dream.
In the fifth year of Grey Wind’s arrival on Faya, six full squads of fully assembled Cybrex Warforms stood deployed on the First Moon, moved into the hangars of the Grey Tempest mothership.
It was also during this year that Russell finally relented, approving the Adeptus Mechanicus’s relentless applications to research this “relic of humanity’s Golden Age.”
With the issuance of this decree, a vast fleet of transport ships—some repaired, others newly constructed—moored in the orbit of the First Moon.
Innumerable low-level laborers and Tech-Priests waited aboard with bated breath.
Gauss, who had by now risen to a high position within Faya’s Adeptus Mechanicus, stood by the viewport of his flagship, the armored vessel *Perpetual Gear*.
Gazing at the massive Grey Tempest mothership anchored on the far side of the First Moon, his heart swelled with immense excitement.
Having spent four years digesting the handful of technologies Russell had shared with him, Gauss deeply understood just how precious the ancient scientific knowledge carried by this vessel was. Get faster updates on NovelPing.
Now, the doors to the vault were about to open.
He had received permission to take a few precious gems from within.
“In truth, deep within the hangars of this warship, there lies dormant a fully structured force of ancient Titans. Their design is extremely advanced, entirely different from the Empire’s current Titans, and should hold immense research value for you.”
“I have recently obtained their activation codes and have granted you special permission to mobilize enough transport ships to haul these god-machines out of the hangar for study. Do not disappoint me.”
These were the exact words of Russell…
No, of the Emissary sent by the Omnissiah, the great Governor of Faya, Lord Russell!
Whenever Gauss and his tech-savants recalled those generous words, tears of gratitude would well in their eyes.
Yet at such a historic moment, Russell was not present.
As the Adeptus Mechanicus launched into space, the industrious Governor was still reviewing documents in the governor’s palace on Faya’s surface.
Grey Wind, dressed as an Sister of Battle, sat on the sofa swinging her legs.
Bored, she shifted one of her hands into a tentacle and back, then into the claw of some beast, repeating the process.
The biodiversity on this planet was rather poor; after playing for a while, she ran out of templates.
Bored, she could only rest her chin on the table and watch Russell flip through his documents.
“Grand Marshal, the Adeptus Mechanicus transport ships are approaching me,” Grey Wind said softly, picking up an apple-pear from the table and taking a crisp, loud bite.
“Hmm. Keep an eye on the stealth systems. Don’t let them detect the mining traces on the First Moon,” Russell said without looking up.
“Don’t worry. Without sufficiently advanced sensors, those transport ships won’t be able to pierce the three-dimensional holographic camouflage projected on the First Moon’s surface.”
Grey Wind chewed the skin-on fruit, her words remaining perfectly clear.
“Rather than worrying about the warforge being discovered, I think you should worry more about me. The way those half-man, half-machine tech-zealots look at me now is like Gollum looking at the One Ring. I’m a bit worried they might lose their minds, run up, and hug me while crying and laughing at the same time… or something.”
She had heard Russell tell the story of *The Lord of the Rings*, and she still remembered Gauss’s reaction when Russell handed over “Solid-state Holographic Casting” and “Nanite Separator” to the Adeptus Mechanicus last year.
It had been genuinely creepy.
“They won’t. The Adeptus Mechanicus won’t force a boarding action on you; I’ve given them strict instructions.” Russell put down his documents, looked up, and smiled at Grey Wind. Read the latest chapters at novelping(.)com.
“If you do find any transport ships attempting to dock in unauthorized hangars, just fire and sink them.”
Grey Wind nodded, popped the leftover core into her mouth, chewed it up, and swallowed.
This was essentially how Russell had hoodwinked the Adeptus Mechanicus:
He had told Gauss that he only possessed partial command codes for the ancient warship.
At present, only the propulsion section and the Titan hangars were unlocked, while other areas remained under strict lockdown.
Any unauthorized approach would trigger the automated defense systems.
Of course, such life-threatening trivia would never deter cogboys who valued knowledge over life.
They would most likely brave the firepower and charge in anyway.
So, Russell had added:
“If the warship’s central intelligence determines that it cannot prevent intruders from breaching the hull, it will initiate a self-destruct sequence.”
Only then did he manage to settle the frantic technical zealots, keeping them focused on researching the novel technologies Russell had provided while waiting for the Warforms to be completed.
Grey Wind rolled over, lying down on the sofa.
“The handover has begun, Grand Marshal.”
At this very moment, in the dark space on the far side of the First Moon, armored transport ships formed a triangular vanguard alongside the Grey Tempest mothership, raising their void shields as they sailed forward.
Gauss’s flagship, the *Perpetual Gear*, was at the absolute forefront of the formation.
He sat in the master control room, his biological eye and bionic eye both staring tensely at the feed showing the beautiful hull covering the warship’s flank.
The hangar bay doors on the flank slowly parted.
Bathed in the distant starlight, Gauss cast his gaze past the threshold.
He would be the first to receive this grand legacy of the Golden Age of Technology.