"If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle."
- Sun Tzu
***
The Imperium was was researching the technology of the Mind Flayers or even Orkish one to devise better methods of countering their attacks. Even though the Orkish Tek was basically one huge impossibility to work, as nobody could understand clearly.
However, the theory that was accepted by the majority of scholars was that the Orkish Tek was working simply because the Orks willed it to work. Their collective psychic consciousness was making it to work, like a miracle.
If enough Orks believed that rockets painted red would deliver an even bigger explosion than it should be, then if enough Orks believed in this, then it would happen.
They were even researching the Arachnids, even though their technology was purely biological and, technically speaking, entirely useless to the Imperium.
Yet what was extremely useful was their gene-engineering, which became the Arachnid Swarm, which was the best at gene-engineering as they were the best architects of gene manipulation in the known Cosmos.
The Eternal Emprie of Asruya learned much from studying their enemies and incorporation their strength into their own.
Many of the technological wonders that the Imperium had in its area or their mastery over the genetic technologies were mostly learned from assimilating the technological trees of different civilizations and factions and adapting them to their own needs.
This was something that he Empire was doing for entire centuries and they were very good at it.
Hearing that the Votanns were close to cracking the system of the regeneration alloy that the Mind Flayers used, everyone in the HighCom was excited at the prospect of having much stronger starships.
And the possibilities didn't end there, but they could extend to even further areas of combat, manufacturing armors from the same materials or weapons was also not out of the question the moment they gathered enough data and perfected the technology.
Just imagining armored juggernauts wearing armors from the regenerative alloy made some of the Imperial Generals for the Imperial Army giggle inside because they would be creating perfect killing machines.
"As you wish, the Forge Masters are free to wish any number of ships they want for their research when they arrive at the Homeland. Apart from that, the rest of the starships would be stripped clean for any useful technology and material and then recyclated. Any suggestion on how to deal with the prisoners?"
Even though the Mind Flayers and some of the captured slaves would be soon enough transported to the Imperial Prisons, the question of how to deal with them was still hanging in the air.
If it were another species, the Imperium would most likely sell them, even though slavery was technically banned within the Eternal Empire of Asurya; in the eyes of Phoenixians, it was a barbaric practice.
Yet the species that they captured in millions were Mind Flayers and nobody would be that stupid to buy Mind Flayer slave. The one problematic thing about the species like Mind Flayers or Arachnids was that they were not only tremendously powerful in the aspect of Psionics, but they were also ruled by the Hivemind.
Even though the Elder Brain that fulfilled the role of the Hive Mind for the Mind Flayers, another Elder Brain could control of the Mind Flayers and Mind Fleet that was lacking the Elder Brain.
Meaning, if the Elder Brain of some MInd Fleet was killed and, the entire Mind Fleet was destroyed, and the Mind Flayers of that particular Mind Fleet were without Elder Brain, then another Elder Brain could take command of these Mind Flayers without a leader with simple Psionic command when they were in the vicinity.
That was the main reason why nobody would enslave Mind Flayers because the Mind Flayer slaves were just ticking bombs that would explode sooner or later, and take everyone with them down.
"If I may present an idea over this topic."
Tiberrius Lineage was one of the most prominent one in the entire Eternal Empire of Asurya and the founder of Tiberrius Lineage was one of the very first Beyonders in the Empire and one of the founders of the Empire.
He was also hailed as one of the greatest heroes of the Empire, and after he perished in the fight against the enormous Orkish WAAAGH!, he was forever carved into the annals of history, and hailed as the very first Imperial Saint.
Currently, aside from the Grandmaster Arsit Byrmellir, the Lord Padishah-Marshal was the strongest Beyonder in the entire Empire and was the person that had the best chance to reach the Keter-Class after his Master.
"A lot of credit goes to your new junior brother Ardyn... he did his mission splendidly, and the plan worked really well thanks to his willingness to carry the Psion-Disruption Device on his vessel."
What Grandmaster Arsit Byrmellir stated was indeed true, and on this matter, even Lord Padishah-Marshal Ardyn Tiberrius was surprised that his Master had taken another new apprentice because he knew that his Master had very high standards.
Especially after he became crippled and started walking on the Way of the Sword, and this his ridiculous standards became even higher and even more impossible to meet.
"Ardyn, I would like to ask you for a favor on this one. You see, the youngling is rather inexperienced, and while indeed powerful, he is rather lost and lacks common sense. He is interested in attending the Imperial Phoenix Military Academy on the Planet Asurya, so I would like for you to give him confirmation of identity because his current credentials are shit.
If my guess is correct, he is a former human who somehow got his hands on the Asuyras Genetic Nucleum."
Grandmaster Byrmellir stated his request because from the moment he saw his newest apprentice, he knew that it was someone who was injected with the Asuyras Genetic Nucleum.
Asuyras Genetic Nucleum was the object that created the very first generation of the Asuryani Highborne and was a marvel of genetic engineering and Psionic Powers, something that wasn't seen across the wider Cosmos for a whole millennia.
It was a very rare thing, and nowadays, only a few of them are produced within the Eternal Empire of the Asurya because it was extremely hard to produce even a single one of them due to the scarcity of the resource and enormous Psionic Energy required to successfully germinate Asuyras Genetic Nucleum.
For someone as experienced as old Arsit Byrmellir, he instantly knows that his young apprentice was someone who was a generation Highborne Asurynai after ingesting the Asuyras Genetic Nucleum.
In the end, he himself was also one, so it was only natural that he would known about it, because he still remembered the traits that one would obtain after ingesting the Asuyras Genetic Nucleum.
He speculated that even that Super-High Risk Primal Psyker Ability was somehow related to it because many of the 1st-Generation Highbrone Asuryani awakened very powerful Psyker Abilities after becoming Professionals.
"That won't be a problem, identification papers from the local Starfort are not indeed appropriate, but he would need to arrive at the Asurya and register there personally."
Lord Padishah-Marshal Ardyn Tiberrius was actually very interested in another person that had the qualification of the Grandmaster Arsit Byrmellir, and even though was rather disappointed that he did not enter the Imperial Military, as long as he was a citizen of the Empire first and foremost that was okey.
Anyone receiving guidance from his Master would have enough talent to become the strongest mortal under the Beyonder Level in due time. Not to mention, it seemed that the newest disciple of his Master, Arcturus Al-Yesod Crawford, was also someone who had Super-High Risk Primal Pskyer Ability, so it was rather guaranteed that he would become Beyonder sooner or later.
That would also be a great boon for the Empire if anyone Beyonder with Super-High Risk Primal Psyker Ability appeared within their ranks. They would finally have enough power in terms of Beyonders to push that pesky Veren Republic to the fridges of Andromeda Galaxy.
"Still... that name is rather familiar to me... Al-Yesod, where did I hear about it?"
Lord Padishah-Marshal Ardyn Tiberrius asked as he found the name Al-Yesod very familiar for a reason, but he couldn't pinpoint the reason. The name was also familiar to Grandmaster Byrmellir for a long time.
"Yeah, even to me, that name is awfully familiar, but I don't know where... though I managed to find something about the Crawford Family in the Archives, unfortunately, there is a pitiful amount of information about it too, aside from being one of the Noble Clan from Dawn Star Galaxy."
Dawn Star Galaxy was a very ancient place; even to this day, it was filled with mysteries, and mostly because there was an enormous force field that shrouded the entire Dawn Star Galaxy, so entering and exiting was nigh impossible.
One could enter or exit the Dawn Star Galaxy only through special means to be brought in and out by a powerful Beyonder.