Chapter 55 02.0055: "Lady Serving the God of All Machines"

Horatio rested well that night, feeling the most peaceful and tranquil feeling he had ever felt since he came into this world.

After a brief meal and thanks in the early morning, the shuttle's engine roared and quickly rose into the air.

"Mr. Horatio is really impressive, Mom." Thei smiled with narrowed eyes.

"Of course, he's great. But he's not worth your emotional investment right now, dear.

He still has a long way to go in his training, and it is also very dangerous. The more you like him, the more painful it will be when you learn of his misfortune. This is my personal experience. "

The lady sighed, smiled bitterly and stroked her daughter's soft hair: "You are still young and don't understand these."

"If he had simply died I wouldn't have cared for him, mother."

The girl opened her eyes and spoke cruel words that were very much in line with the Warhammer world with a bright smile.

"Only a strong man is qualified to stand beside me and shoulder to shoulder with me, but I think Mr. Horatio has the potential."

"Oh, of course, dear. There is no better girl than you on the entire planet."

The beautiful woman smiled and took her daughter's hand and walked towards the palace-like residence.

“Only the strongest man is worthy of the best you.

As for whether Mr. Horatio can become such a strong man, I think time will give us the answer. "
-
"It's a sunny day, a good day for reporting!" said Brigadier General Peru happily.

From high in the air, Horatio could see the entire Gothic university.

It covers an area of ​​at least 8000 square kilometers, and the largest university on earth is less than one-tenth of its area.

The campus has a huge artificial ocean, forests, mountains and other diverse landforms, and all six colleges of Gothic University are located here.

The colleges are connected by huge covered bridges, and each college has a different and suitable planning and design style.

Ravensburg College is like a super-enlarged version of the combination of Cambridge, Oxford and Warwick universities. Its architecture adopts a classical Baroque mixed with Gothic style. It is majestic and has a strong sense of history and academics.

Seen from the air, Plymmor Girls' College looks like a castle courtyard in elven mythology, with a symmetrical structure, magnificent magnificence, and white walls and golden tiles, which is extraordinarily luxurious.

The cathedral in the Saint-Savovine Seminary is towering into the sky. It is a purely Gothic building. Although it looks monotonous and old-fashioned, the huge main building and countless sculptures make up for it.

The Abyss Port Polytechnic Institute was filled with thick smoke. All kinds of huge machines, both civilian and military, were lined up in the yard. There were also various laboratories scattered in various blocks. The planning was not so much random as it was that the sages and priests inside had spontaneously divided the territory and school districts.

The Gothic School of Political Science and Economics is adjacent to the Planet's Ministry of the Interior. The two are essentially connected, and the bureaucrats can always call on the servants who are studying there to help with free work.

The styles of St. Abridal's College vary depending on its campus. The naval campus is the largest, with a Gothic red brick building. There is even a Cobra-class destroyer with a length of 1.5 kilometers and a fin width of 300 meters parked on the surface on the huge Square of Honor for students from all majors to learn on board.

Even the smallest warships in the Imperial Navy looked huge and majestic when compared to the surface buildings.

Although she is small (not small at all!), she has everything she needs. There is a surprisingly large (relative to ground buildings) light macro turret on the bow, four torpedo tubes the size of a teaching building, side-by-side twin plasma engines, and four huge horizontal T-shaped cooling fins that are very iconic and help the battleship to stay stable on the reinforced ground.

"Get ready, Mr. Horatio. We'll be landing in one minute. Put on your hat and tidy up your ribbon. Welcome to the cradle of the Gothic Fleet!"

"Mr. Peru, isn't this the Chusi Academy?"

"Wouldn't it be impossible to use such excellent teaching equipment and teachers if they were only provided to the loyal descendants?" Brigadier General Edward laughed heartily.
"You have classmates who are preparatory students for the Officer Candidate School.

These people are not loyal heirs. Their parents are middle and low-level officers in the Imperial Navy, naval sergeants, warrant officers, civil officials and other people who serve the Imperial Navy. They also hope that their children will join the education system established by the Navy.

After all, not everyone can send their children directly to serve as candidate officers on board, and each ship does not have so many vacancies.

The only difference between preparatory students and loyal marines is that if their academic points do not meet the requirements, they will not be transferred to the loyal storm troopers. Instead, they will be awarded a military rank corresponding to their academic points after graduation and assigned to serve on ships as full-time sergeants.

Military prep is also the only chance for these kids to compete for a spot as a midshipman, so they are very competitive.”

The Zhongsi Academy consists of four parts: the Zhongsi Training School, the Sergeant Training School, the Officer Preparatory School, and the Military Academy.

Zhongsi Nurturing School provides closed training for Zhongsi children under the age of 12 and carries out preliminary screening.

The sergeant training school is equivalent to a military high school.

The officer preparatory school is equivalent to university preparatory + junior college/public courses. The junior college here refers to Western-style vocational education. Since officers are military professionals, Western-style military academies are all junior colleges.

The military academy adopts a model that combines university professional courses with graduate student training.

The shuttle landed on the tarmac.

"Lord Peru, everything is ready." Lord Sterling's captain, who had been waiting here for a long time, stepped forward to greet him.

"Thank you for your hard work, Captain Sterling."

Horatio followed the two men into the tallest main building, which was shaped like a bridge.

When he stepped into the building, the solemnity of a Gothic cathedral hit him. The three of them walked up the spiral staircase and stood in front of a huge room. The door slowly opened, revealing a dark and cold room.

"Come in," said Brigadier General Edward.

"here it is?"

"The place where Zhongsi's surgery was performed." Captain Sterling replied.

The moment Horatio stepped into the door, it slowly closed again.

He looked around and saw two rows of tall and magnificent Roman columns in the middle of the room, with flags embroidered with the imperial double-headed eagle hanging on the columns.

The golden-red carpet in the middle formed the path to the surgical altar. The sunlight shone on the red carpet through the cool-toned glazed windows on the walls on both sides, as if inviting visitors to come forward. Horatio looked forward and saw a lonely figure standing on the altar.

His eyesight was good enough for him to see who was coming, but because it was too inconsistent with the stereotype he had in mind, he blinked to confirm again.

Finally, he was sure that he was not mistaken. It was a tall, slender, and upright woman, holding the Axe of Mecha, and wearing the red robe of the Mechanicus.

She stood beside the life-detecting meditator array on the altar, awaiting his arrival, two surgical servo skulls floating around her.

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Horatio Cochrane. I'm Lati-EB2A1, an engineer and a genetic assistant. I will be in charge of your operation. Please come forward."

The woman's voice sounded smiling, gentle and crisp, and it was clear enough even from a distance. It was obviously supported by a specially made high-level sound array.

[Latti-EB2A1? The Tech-Priest who created the Myrmex specimen? She was in charge of my surgery? ?]
Horatio felt a little hairy.

As Horatio drew closer to her, he was able to take in her more clearly.

The red robe on the priest was a relatively new set of holy vestments, and together with the brand new Mecha Axe in his hand, it showed that he was either a newly promoted priest who had just been promoted from an apprentice, or he had a very strong obsession with cleanliness.

Of course, Horatio thought it more likely to be both.

The face under the crimson hood replaced the upper right half, and was replaced by a cold artificial eye glowing red;
Her face was thin and long, and the transformed part still could not conceal the mature charm unique to a thirty-year-old woman. Her skin was smooth and fair, and her facial features were three-dimensional and delicate. It was impossible to imagine that she could be associated with the Mechanical Order.

The only remaining brown pupil stared at Horatio intently, with an expressionless face, like a flesh-and-blood sculpture with pipes embedded in it.

"Zhongzi, I believe you are ready to sacrifice yourself for the Divine Emperor."

When Horatio approached, she unexpectedly smiled, and the expression on her face could even be described as 'sweet'.

It was also at this moment that Horatio realized that she was not looking at him, but was staring at his metal hand.

"Hello, Venerable Father Ratti."

Horatio bowed to her respectfully, "I am ready to serve the God-Emperor faithfully."

"The God-Emperor commends your courage and devotion."

As she spoke, she raised her mechanical hands, which were mounted on human arms, and gave Horatio a gear salute - a variation of the Sky Eagle salute, with her fingers spread apart.

The two bright red steel prosthetic limbs behind her pinched the hems of the holy vestments on both sides and gave him a lady's salute.

The fusion between human body and steel, the running-in between humanity and machinery, and the extremely impactful contrast surprised Horatio.

As she moved, a wonderful aroma mixed with a faint smell of motor oil drifted into Horatio's nostrils. He was sure that it came from the technical priest.

Its aroma is different from the strong and pungent holy incense burners commonly used by the state religion. The olfactory experience it brings is very... strange.

The smell is very light, like exhaust gas, vanilla, kerosene, sandalwood, musk, botanical herbs, floral scent, motor oil and many other ingredients, which are burned layer by layer in a certain order, and finally the pungent smells are discarded, leaving only the industrial fragrance on top.

It’s hard to say whether humans like it or not, but I guess machine spirits will like it very much.

Horatio looked at the lady in front of him - he called her that, although he was not sure that there was really a difference between men and women in the Mechanicus.

I have to say that her ability to manage facial expressions is quite good, and she always maintains that warm and friendly smile.

But upon closer thought, these actions actually created an unrealistic and huge sense of disconnection from her identity.

From his understanding of the Mechanicus before he traveled through time, the descriptions he obtained were simply a collection of negative stereotypes.

Selfish, dull, crazy, weird, rigid, isolated, cold, autistic, arrogant...

But the lady in front of me does not fit these negative words at all in terms of appearance.

Whether this was an appearance or a reality, Horatio didn't know.

Two mechanical servants slowly walked towards Horatio. As servants of this female priest, they were dressed in quite unique styles.

They look like exquisite male and female servants respectively, and their clothes are obviously not cheap. It is not difficult to guess that this technical priest must have been born in a wealthy upper nest and made the choice to serve the God of All Machines.

He opened his arms, and the servitors methodically removed his clothes. Their movements were gentle and continuous, not at all clumsy like the servitors he had seen before.

"For a Tech-Priest, you look quite unusual, ma'am."

She turned her head smoothly and mechanically, tilted her head slightly and smiled at Horatio, as if she saw through his confusion.

"I like this name. It's been a long time since anyone called me that."

The red-robed woman smiled even more brightly, and her only natural eye narrowed into a slit:

"Even though I am a tech-priest, I still have a sense of propriety in my heart. I treat all individuals equally in terms of etiquette.

The great cause of serving the God of All Things is not in conflict with the life of a lady. The divine and wise Ohm Messiah encompasses everything, and He favors those who can seamlessly sync the two together like gears meshing together. "

Looking at her overly warm and friendly smile, and thinking of the intelligent biological specimens she had made herself, Horatio felt a little afraid.

——A simple person cannot become a qualified technical priest, he can only become a machine servant.

"Please lie down, the operation is about to begin."

The goddess couldn't wait to touch Horatio's iron arm.

　The academy part will not be too long. After a dozen chapters, it will be all about killing for the Emperor. There is also a preview of jumping into the Nurgle plague ship!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)