After leaving the suffocating pressure of the Emperor's Audience Hall, they moved to a room that was comparatively plain, though guarded just as heavily.
Thick stone walls shut out the outside world. Inside, there was only a massive stone conference table and several chairs of the same material.
Rogal Dorn sat at the head seat, his gaze once again locking onto Osiris.
"The Emperor's will must be carried out," Dorn said bluntly, his voice low. "But how we carry it out requires strategy.
Osiris, this technology came from you. You have the clearest understanding of its impact. Tell me your perspective."
Osiris's mechanical frame adjusted itself into a more stable position on the stone chair. His crimson optical lenses met the Primarch's eyes.
"My lord Primarch, the power of the warp drive lies in redefining distance and connection.
It can greatly ease the Imperial fragmentation and communication delays caused by the instability of the Warp. But precisely because of this, its rollout cannot be reckless."
He paused briefly, organizing his thoughts. "It directly challenges the monopoly of the Astropathic Houses and the Choir Astra. Indirectly, it affects the Adeptus Mechanicus' absolute control over interstellar navigation technology, and may even shake the power structure of the High Lords.
The Imperium has just endured the Horus Heresy and lost several Primarchs. The entire system is a gravely wounded giant, barely stabilized.
Right now, it cannot withstand the violent upheaval that a technological revolution would bring, especially one that touches every entrenched interest group.
Stability must be the first priority.
The expansion must take time, must be step-by-step, and above all… must have a strong hand capable of balancing all sides, preventing internal fractures and infighting before the technology even becomes widespread."
Dorn listened in silence, his thick fingers unconsciously tapping the stone tabletop.
Osiris's analysis struck directly at the heart of the issue, matching Dorn's own buried concerns.
After a moment, Dorn let out a nearly inaudible sigh, a sound carrying a rare fatigue that did not match his unyielding image.
"You're right. Stability outweighs all." He lifted his eyes, seeming to look through the walls toward some distant past or unreachable future. "If Roboute were still here…
He understands better than I how to navigate this political mire, how to weave words into a net that forces all those scheming factions to at least maintain balance on the surface. He was good at that."
Osiris' optical lens flickered faintly.
He heard the subtle thread in Dorn's voice, a rare admission of reliance on a brother, and the weariness of facing this complexity alone.
His reply was calm, tinged with an insight that seemed to come from a distant era. "According to the Emperor's original framework and design, Lord Roboute Guilliman was meant to be shaped as a 'Son of War.'
His template leaned more toward a pure military commander and strategist."
Osiris stated this as if presenting an objective fact. "One could say… his adoptive parents on Ultramar educated him too well.
So well that he developed political foresight and administrative mastery far beyond his initial design."
The words dropped like a stone into a still lake, stirring waves in Dorn's heart.
He remembered.
He remembered the ancient xeno-gene cult long purged from existence, the Astartes woman who ultimately took her own life in a laboratory, and the possibility that the being before him, this reserved sage, might possess origins far older and deeper than he displayed.
The conference room fell into deeper silence. Dorn did not ask further, and Osiris did not elaborate.
Some things were better left unspoken.
The ghosts of the past and the burdens of the future intertwined quietly in that stark room.
After completing the audience, Osiris was placed in a heavily guarded technical laboratory deep within the Imperial Palace.
Its equipment far surpassed what he had in the Death World base, and a team of silent tech-priests, answering directly to the Palace itself, were assigned as his assistants.
They were efficient, but lacked the obsessive curiosity for technical nuance found in Neksum or the Martian Mechanicus. They resembled precise instruments, utterly obedient.
Rogal Dorn's orders were clear and specific: design a framework to integrate the warp drive into the Imperial Navy's current Luna-class cruisers.
Crucially, it was not meant to replace the existing Warp jump engines entirely, it was an additional propulsion system.
"We need it to enable rapid maneuvers in realspace, or maintain basic mobility during severe Warp storms, not to discard a system we've relied on for millennia," Dorn had emphasized before departing. "Produce a workable integration plan. Demonstrate its practical value."
Osiris understood the reasoning.
It was a compromise, showing the warp drive's benefits without immediately overturning the current order, giving the Empire time to adapt.
He immediately began work, calling up the full schematic of the Luna-class cruiser and cross-referencing it with the warp drive's core data stored in the Cogitator Array.
The laboratory was filled only with the soft hum of data streams, the whirr of servo-motors, and Osiris's synthesized voice issuing precise instructions to the tech-priests.
Meanwhile, Rogal Dorn faced a different battlefield.
The Emperor's will was as unquestionable as divine decree, but implementing it meant cutting through the thorny undergrowth of Imperial bureaucracy and vested interests.
Although Osiris had advised caution, and Dorn agreed restraint was necessary, that did not mean he would tolerate endless obstruction or feigned compliance.
He was not Roboute Guilliman. He neither excelled at, nor had patience for, political dance.
His way was more direct, fitting for the master of the Imperial Fists.
When he gathered the High Lords involved, the Martian representatives, and the envoys of the Navigator Houses, Dorn did not give any opening remarks. He simply announced the Emperor's decree and the decision to test the integration on Luna-class cruisers.
Predictably, opposition erupted instantly.
Navigator envoys argued vehemently for their irreplaceable role; Mechanicus representatives questioned the technology's origin, reliability, and who would oversee its integration; certain High Lords fretted over the ripple effects on Imperial economy and military structure.
Dorn listened, his face as expressionless as carved granite.
Only when the noise subsided slightly did he speak, quietly, yet with a cold weight that crushed the room.
"I did not summon you here to hear objections. The Emperor's will has been issued. This is not a discussion. This is a notification."
He looked at each person in turn, his gaze sharp as a blade.
"The Imperium can have only one will, the Emperor's. Any obstruction, delay, or attempt to twist that will shall be treated as treason."
His tone never rose, but the icy edge in the words froze the air.
"Understand it. Accept it. Then consider how to execute it. Those are the only choices I grant you."
There was no room left for bargaining.
The meeting ended in an atmosphere thick with tension and fear.
Dorn had no need for political compromise. With absolute strength and unwavering loyalty, he forced unity.
He knew resentment would grow in the shadows, but with the Emperor asleep and the Imperium struggling to recover, he believed iron-fisted order was far more valuable than endless internal squabbling.
His task was to clear the political obstacles for Osiris' plan, no matter how brutal the method.