This campaign of encirclement and suppression could hardly be deemed a triumph; the Joint Fleet itself had caught scarcely a glimpse of the pirates' silhouettes.
Yet, in terms of sheer results, it was far from a total failure.
The pirate lairs hidden deep within the Maelstrom had been utterly razed, and the pirate fleet itself had been brutally cleaved in half by the Iron Men. Though Huron's whereabouts remained unknown, Jaghatai Khan harbored no illusions; the traitor would undoubtedly emerge to plague the Imperium again soon enough.
However, Jubal's body had fully recovered. Though he had been bedridden for a considerable time, Jaghatai was confident that with a period of rigorous retraining, his Chapter Master would soon stand upon the field of battle once more.
Perhaps this was the Emperor's way of granting Jubal his own personal vengeance.
In truth, the Panacea had done far more than merely knit Jubal's wounds; it had begun to continuously enhance his genetic expression. His physique grew taller and broader than before, his musculature denser, and his mind sharper. Upon re-entering training, Jubal quickly perceived the profound alterations within his own flesh.
Even though he knew these effects stemmed from that legendary Panacea, it did not stop him from attributing everything to a miracle wrought by the Emperor's divine will. After all, word had spread that these Iron Men had been recovered by the noble Lord Regent, Roboute Guilliman, guided by the very hand of the Emperor.
The sheer convergence of these coincidences caused a certain entity dwelling within the Immaterium to twitch its lip in inexplicable irritation.
Yet, none of this disrupted the material universe.
As a multitude of Iron Men industrial vessels arrived in the war zone, the Adeptus Mechanicus fleet of Lucius, which had been preparing to translate away, silently cut its engines.
The Joint Fleet had already dissolved. With the Red Corsairs vanished into the void, Marneus Calgar had no time to linger. The Ultramarines required his command, and he was the first to lead his Chapter fleet away, skirting the edge of the Maelstrom.
Meanwhile, the Chapter fleet of the White Scars began to partition. A portion of the vessels would return to Chogoris, while the remainder would follow Jaghatai Khan.
Since the Tech-Priests of Lucius had given their solemn vow, the Khan was more than willing to pay them a visit. Of course, aside from buying what he needed with coin, Jaghatai, as a noble Son of the Emperor and an extension of the Imperial Will, possessed numerous other methods to secure his ends.
When a Primarch was absent, the bureaucrats of the Imperium always found countless excuses to delay the distribution of materiel and munitions that should have been delivered long ago. Not even Ultramar was exempt from this parasitic inertia.
The Ultramarines maintained their own dedicated logistical pipelines to replenish their gear, and they excelled at statecraft and expansion. As one of the most powerful Adeptus Astartes forces in the galaxy, the Imperial high lords and scribes did not dare push them too far.
However, the situation was entirely different for the Salamanders and the White Scars, despite their homeworlds also residing within the Segmentum Ultima.
The Salamanders were master artificers, capable of forging their own wargear, making them far less reliant on the tithes of the Departmento Munitorum. The White Scars, however, possessed no such specialized craft, a vulnerability that had grown increasingly severe after Chapter Master Jubal fell.
The magnanimous Vulkan, upon his return, had chosen not to immediately purge the regional branches of the Departmento Munitorum and the Adeptus Terra for their negligence.
But that did not mean Jaghatai would turn a blind eye.
When the Primarch of the White Scars strode through the grand archways of the regional Munitorum and Adeptus Terra headquarters, many of the Imperial bureaucrats still attempted to conjure excuses to placate this Son of the Emperor.
However, the moment Jaghatai produced a decree bearing the personal sign-manual of Roboute Guilliman, agents of the Inquisition stepped forward from the shadows, causing many present to break into a cold, terrified sweat.
Within a single Terran month, vast shipments of military hardware, munitions, and logistical supplies were routed directly to Chogoris in overwhelming quantities.
Following this, Jaghatai contacted his long-absent brother, Vulkan, requesting the Lord of Drakes to forge him a new, customized jetbike. Vulkan, naturally, would never refuse a brother's request; forging and crafting wargear was his foremost passion, and fashioning a single jetbike was a trifling task for a Primarch.
While Jaghatai was busily exerting his authority for the sake of his sons, the Magi and Tech-Priests who were originally supposed to rendezvous with Archmagos Belisarius Cawl remained lingering within their fleet. They watched, thoroughly entranced and infatuated, as the Iron Men industrial vessels reclaimed the shattered husks of the starships, performing what could only be described as forging a fleet from the void itself.
The efficiency of the Machine Weavers was staggering. Although these industrial vessels lacked the capability of a Heart of the Forge Titan to unleash massive, sweeping nanite swarms to consume all wreckage simultaneously, their gravitic technology easily reined in the fractured hulls, pulling them together with ease.
Typically, large shipwrecks held hidden dangers, but to the Iron Men, any surviving enemies posed no threat whatsoever.
Even though the Machine Weavers were merely industrial craft, their sheer manufacturing capability was their ultimate weapon.
A few Chaos Space Marines hidden deep within the macro-rubble attempted to launch boarding actions to seize a vessel and flee. However, they were met by a mechanical army constructed right before their eyes. The seemingly defenseless industrial ships possessed a terrifying combat capability when backed by raw resources.
At a speed that left the Magi and Tech-Priests of Lucius utterly bewildered, the industrial fleet cleared the entire war zone. Right before their optical sensors, the automated vessels manifested thirty heavy assault ships and long-range strike cruisers out of nothingness.
This method of fabrication, reminiscent of Necron void-weaving, made them realize one thing: why those ancient, rediscovered relic-ships differed so radically from the current vessels of the Imperium.
Quantum printing achieved instantaneous formation: highly efficient, rapid, and flawlessly precise.
In contrast, an Imperial vessel required material processing, plate-layering, keel-laying, structural assembly, countless welds, thousands of rivets, and a myriad of tortuous, archaic rituals.
Witnessing this method of creation with one's own eyes would make anyone view the Imperium's current manufacturing techniques as primitive and obsolete.
The eyes of the Tech-Priests flickered with a manic, obsessive light, exposing their absolute fanaticism and lust for this technology.
This was the true majesty of the Omnissiah!
Compared to other sub-cults of the Adeptus Mechanicus, the scions of Lucius valued efficiency above all else and were renowned for their audacious behavior.
They took the initiative to hail the industrial fleet.
"O great and ancient mechanical constructs, embodiments of the Omnissiah's divine will, your humble, devout worshippers implore your guidance."
Yet, the reply from the machine intelligence was far more concise than the elaborate jargon of those who claimed to be servants of the Machine God.
"Dialogue analysis complete. Please state your precise request."
The blunt words caused the Magi to hesitate, but they pressed on regardless.
"Request... ah, an invitation to visit the Forge World of Lucius."
"Visit Forge World Lucius? Please provide a specific objective. A purely diplomatic visit holds no utility for the Iron Men."
The Magi exchanged glances through their bionic lenses, then spoke with utmost caution.
"We seek technological enlightenment."
"Request for technological enlightenment recorded. In accordance with established protocols, the authorization of advanced technology requires the verification and audit of Imperial Regent Roboute Guilliman. In the absence of such authorization, we can only provide optimization of current technology or specific finalized fabrications. Do you accept?"
The protocols personally coded by the Emperor were far more comprehensive than anything Guilliman could devise. To prevent these tech-mad zealots of the Mechanicus from inadvertently triggering another catastrophic Age of Strife, the Master of Mankind had implemented rigorous safeguards into the core programming.
Yet, this specific safeguard had remained dormant until it was triggered today by the daring Lucius Tech-Priests.
The Magi had no desire to have a Primarch constantly monitoring their forge-temples, and they knew exactly how to navigate the situation.
"Technological optimization will suffice. Tell us, what is the required tithe?"
To any sect of the Adeptus Mechanicus, knowledge was never free.
For the first time, they received an open-ended calculation.
"Variables apply based on real-time parameters. Mineral resources, technological schematics, or precise historical data are all deemed to possess equivalent value."