The sound of the man-eating storm, composed of fine particles, battering the old abandoned building, echoed in Kasjia's ears.
Not long after leaving Kalliston Fortress, to avoid the successive natural disasters, Fulgrim suggested they rest for a while in a nearby abandoned factory.
Walking inside the derelict factory made of steel, with the dense drumming sound from outside, there was a unique sense of security and leisure.
Though he didn't know where Fulgrim was leading him, he followed in her footsteps.
"We shouldn't worry too much about the workers."
"The livelihood of Kalliston Fortress currently relies entirely on factory production. Herod is now busy scrambling for power and won't have time to make a move against them."
"After the storm subsides a bit, we can use the previous secret passage to sneak back into the factory and move the necessary supplies here."
"And then we can launch—"
"Wait, what is all this?"
Walking down the iron ladder step by step, Kasjia, following behind Fulgrim, pointed to a floor in the dark, abandoned basement.
There, a large amount of purified water, food, and various sanitary and medical supplies and protective suits were stored. Dozens of boxes made the already small room even more crowded.
Even in terms of weapons, there were several boxes of ammunition, dozens of sharp blades, and rifles.
As for outside the room, a new piece of machinery occupied about two-thirds of the area, starkly contrasting with the rusty and dusty surroundings.
"Didn't expect this, did you?"
The puzzled Kasjia met Fulgrim's fair chin, lifted high in pride like a peacock displaying its feathers.
She was already prepared.
For the failure of the marriage alliance, the internal disputes of the nobility, and the turmoil caused by the power grab, she had already made thorough countermeasures.
She had stockpiled necessary supplies in an uninhabited area far from the fortress in advance, and she even had a detailed plan for the counterattack to come.
As for discussing the next course of action with Kasjia earlier...
Hee hee.
That was just to tease you.
The perfect Fulgrim had already planned countless feasible scenarios and would choose the most suitable one based on how things developed.
The planning and calculation ability of a Primarch was simply not something a mere mortal like Kasjia could ever hope to match.
Seeing Kasjia's slight embarrassment, Fulgrim comforted him:
"Although fleeing directly without preparation was a bit reckless, and your plans for the climate, escape route, and future counter-strategy were quite naive..."
"But as an ordinary person, being able to guess Herod's plot and provide a corresponding solution is already very impressive."
Pat, pat. She patted his head.
"After all, you did say you were going to 'save' me."
Fulgrim enunciated that word very heavily.
She wasn't wrong.
But why did it always feel like she was mocking him?
Kasjia thought as Fulgrim ruffled his hair while helping him into a protective suit.
Sigh.
What a bad woman.
And Kasjia was about to be played with in the palm of this bad woman's hand.
He could only say his luck wasn't very good.
He had been dealt the rare perfectionist all-rounder among the Primarchs.
If it were one of the other, slightly less intelligent Primarchs, perhaps he could have taken the opportunity to become their military advisor or chief librarian, thereby gaining their favor.
Like Angron, for example. Or Angron.
Or even Angron.
Even Leman Russ would have been better!
"What do we do now?" Kasjia asked helplessly.
They couldn't possibly fight their way back with just this equipment.
Although it was certainly feasible given the Primarch's combat prowess, a large-scale armed conflict would likely cause irreversible damage to the already fragile sanctuary ecosystem.
If the other side chose mutually assured destruction and blew up the entire fortress, all the survivors would be exposed to the severe radiation storm, and the consequences would be unimaginable.
"We need to fix this thing first," Fulgrim answered.
"You might not believe it, but currently, only about ten percent of the systems in Kalliston Fortress are operating normally."
"I've studied the system's operational pipelines before."
"In ancient times, this was Kalliston's power station. The vast majority of the fortress's functions depended on the energy supply from here."
Fulgrim approached the machine after putting on her protective suit, explaining to Kasjia while she worked.
"Fixing this place is equivalent to gaining control over the fortress's various functions."
Fulgrim took some parts from a nearby piece of equipment and examined them closely.
"Hand me the mechanical component from α-24."
"The fortress was previously running on internal emergency power generation equipment. But if we can repair the power plant and restore the main supply, most of the fortress's systems will be back under our control."
"Including fire control, riot suppression, and surveillance systems."
As she spoke, the instrument in front of her suddenly emitted several discordant warning red lights.
"Another error..."
"Kasjia, give me the mechanical pliers from Σ-3."
Click.
With the final click and the green light signifying connection, Fulgrim wiped the fine beads of sweat from her clear forehead.
Repairing the instrument took a while, but fortunately, time was what they had in abundance right now.
"Phew. Alright, now all that's left is to activate it and gain authority."
Their gazes fell on an ancient computer—or as it's called in this world, a Cogitator—connected by countless mechanical pipelines.
[STARTING UP... 1%]
[STARTING UP... 2%]
She had put in a lot of effort to reactivate this old Cogitator.
Judging from the countless densely packed new machines and materials set up nearby, she had tried to sneak here long ago to carry out repairs on this Cogitator.
"I had originally planned to come and restore the power supply after the marriage alliance was settled, but Herod ruined that plan. Now I can only use this method to forcibly seize control of the fortress."
As she spoke, Fulgrim's hands flew across the buttons on the Cogitator.
Her speed was so fast that Kasjia could only see afterimages.
"You did all of this by yourself?"
"Of course!"
"It wasn't actually that complicated," she answered Kasjia's question with a hint of showing off. "It was mainly the lack of many key materials on Chemos, otherwise it could have been fixed much earlier..."
"You have absolutely no idea how I managed to use such low-quality materials to—"
"Kasjia."
The chattering Fulgrim suddenly paused.
She glanced around, confirming once more that it was just the two of them, then leaned close to Kasjia's ear and whispered:
"Praise me. Quick."
"Huh?"
"Praise me. Right now... anything is fine."
The Fulgrim people knew was often a calm, elegant demigod full of strength and wisdom.
Only Kasjia was fortunate enough to glimpse, when they were alone, the true form hidden beneath her perfect exterior.
Kasjia smiled at the sight.
"Ah... alright, alright. The great Fulgrim, the most brilliant engineer on all of Chemos..."
Good girl, good girl. You're such a clever girl who's so good at making machines.
[STARTING UP... 99%]
"...Eh?"
According to Fulgrim's plan, everything was proceeding smoothly.
However, it seemed the Cogitator was now having a problem.
[GENETIC IDENTIFICATION ERROR!]
[PLEASE INSERT CORRECT HUMAN GENE-SAMPLE AT THE ADMINISTRATOR AUTHORIZATION PORT]
Looking at the prompt on the Cogitator's display, Fulgrim's expression was full of embarrassment.
"There must be a problem somewhere, causing it to not recognize me..."
"Um... let me borrow your genes."
As if to cover up her awkwardness, Fulgrim lowered her head, quickly drew a bit of blood from Kasjia's outstretched arm, put it in a sample vial, and inserted it into the corresponding slot.
After a moment's hesitation, the Cogitator entered the reading phase again.
"Phew, that should be fine now."
It was actually normal that it couldn't recognize her before.
After all, a Primarch was a product of the Emperor's Warp experiments, a far cry from a baseline human.
It was quite possible that a Cogitator from the Age of Strife couldn't recognize their genes.
But a proper, normal human like Kasjia shouldn't—
BEEP!
The screen flashed with a frantic red light.
[GENETIC IDENTIFICATION ERROR!]
[PLEASE INSERT CORRECT INSERT CORRECT INSERT CORRECT INSERT CORRECT CORRECT CORRECT CORRECT CORRECT CORRECT CORRECT CORRECT CORRECT CORRECT CORRECT CORRECT CORRECT CORRECT CORRECT CORRECT CORRECT CORRECT CORRECT CORRECT CORRECT]
-------
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