113: Chapter 113 The Imperial Navy Tactical Evaluation Bureau is Officially Established

As the briefing room door slid open, Marcus Aurelian was reviewing the reserve node redeployment plan submitted by the fifth group of cadets.

The Arbiter of the Adeptus Arbites, Hasseldorf, walked in, still wearing his charcoal-grey robes, carrying an adamantium-reinforced file case in his right hand and leaning on a wooden codex staff older than himself with his left.

He was followed by two Adeptus Arbites clerks, each holding a stack of newly completed official documents.

Marcus stood up to shake his hand; Hasseldorf's hand was gaunt yet strong, with unwashed red correction ink still staining his knuckles.

"The official establishment document for the Imperial Navy Tactical Assessment Bureau has passed the Council of High Lords with a unanimous vote."

Hasseldorf took a parchment scroll from the file case, its wax seal stamped with the twelve seals of the High Lords.

He handed the scroll to Marcus, "You are the Director. The Bureau reports directly to both the Council of High Lords and the Imperial Navy High Command, and is not subject to the unilateral jurisdiction of sector governors or naval flag officers. Marshal Heinrich will concurrently serve as the first Deputy Director, and Justicar Bern will serve as the Psyker Security Advisor representing the Grey Knights. From today, the Self-Check Protocol reports from your cadets will be directly incorporated into the Bureau's formal assessment process, no longer just academic exercises."

Marcus unrolled the scroll and read it line by line.

He looked up and said to Hasseldorf that the Imperial Military Academy cadets had just completed their first batch of Self-Check Protocol simulations, and the reports had already been forwarded to Heinrich and Terra; now, these reports had a formal institution to receive and execute them.

Hasseldorf sat down at the conference table and leaned his codex staff against the edge.

He took a bound textbook from the file case— "Manual of Hostile Logic Deduction and Self-Examination".

The cover was still dusted with creep duct debris that had drifted down in the simulation chamber.

He opened the title page, pointed to the Brood Queen's quote and Marcus's annotations, and said that he had already cited these two lines at the beginning of the Coalition Legacy chapter of the imperial codex.

The Coalition is gone, but the legal definitions, tactical data, and self-check methodologies left behind by the Coalition are all permanently preserved in the imperial codex under the name "Coalition Legacy."

The Empire will not erase history just because an ally has left; the Coalition is proof of the first time in Imperial history that it fought side-by-side with xenos, and this history is protected by Imperial law.

He flipped to the appendix of the textbook and pointed to the technical attachments of The Swarm that the cadets had unearthed, point by point.

"The legal definition of The Swarm remains frozen in the codex. The tactical analysis templates left by The Swarm have been reverse-compiled by the Empire into optimization plans for independent combat systems. The Swarm taught the Empire how to examine itself through the eyes of the enemy—this methodology is now permanently institutionalized in the form of the Imperial Navy Tactical Assessment Bureau."

He took a copper door plaque from the file case, engraved in High Gothic with the words "Imperial Navy Tactical Assessment Bureau," and a line of small text in the bottom right corner: "Through the enemy's eyes, examine one's own shield."

"This is an old plaque I removed from the Imperial Navy Headquarters archives; you shall hang the new one yourself."

Hasseldorf placed the plaque on the conference table, "The Military Academy has cultivated the Empire's first generation of naval Commanders who examine their own defense systems using the mindset of The Swarm; this institution should be inaugurated by their Dean."

Bern sent a holographic communication from the Griffin IV Anchorage.

The deep coupling plan between the Grey Knights' psyker early warning array and the Holy Power monitoring network had completed its first round of field tests according to the Bureau's technical specifications, and the resistance rate of the Fortress III Void Shield filter layer against psyker infiltration had stabilized at the new, optimized threshold.

He stated that the Bureau's technical analysis standards directly cite The Swarm's four-step closed loop and Self-Check Protocol; all Grey Knights psyker early warning data can be connected to the Bureau's database, and the calibration parameters of the Holy Power monitoring network are fully compatible with the Bureau's vulnerability scanning templates.

Oldenburg sent a report from the flagship of the Third Assault Fleet.

The fleet engineers are conducting a new round of Self-Check Protocol simulations, and the results will be submitted directly to the Bureau for filing.

The redeployment plan for reserve nodes across all anchorages in the Ultima Segmentum has entered the execution phase, and exposed nodes will be withdrawn behind the Griffin IV Anchorage before the start of the next rotation cycle.

He said that after the establishment of the Bureau, the fleet's Self-Check Protocol simulations would no longer be academic exercises, but formal procedures of the Imperial Navy. Every simulation report must be archived, every vulnerability must be rectified within a time limit, and every rectification must be verified.

Heinrich sent a brief confirmation from the Shield of the Emperor.

The field test for the concurrent limit of the independent fire control system was completed during the last defensive exercise, and the test data had been compiled into a formal report according to the Bureau's requirements, serving as the benchmark file for the independent combat capability of the Shield of the Emperor.

He stated that after the establishment of the Bureau, the independent combat capabilities of all Imperial Navy ships would be incorporated into a normalized Self-Check Protocol system, subject to regular review and continuous optimization.

Marcus looked around the briefing room.

Hasseldorf's codex staff was leaned against the table, and the adamantium file case still contained unretrieved drafts of codex amendments.

Bern's hologram glowed quietly at the other end of the conference table, and Oldenburg's fleet report scrolled and updated on the data pad.

Heinrich's confirmation signal was hoarse and firm on the fleet channel.

He picked up the copper plaque, walked out of the briefing room, and hung it on the adamantium hook directly above the briefing room hatch.

The Imperial Navy Tactical Assessment Bureau was officially inaugurated at the Griffin IV orbital dock.

He stood straight and said to Hasseldorf, "The Empire no longer waits for allies; the Empire evaluates itself, corrects itself, and defends itself."

This was the first lesson taught to the cadets at the Military Academy, and it was also the phrase inscribed on the Bureau's plaque.