Author Note: Talking heads. This one could be a bit dry.

While few of the surviving Orks had seen the capture of their Warboss his sudden absence was noticed by the horde. Their attack faltered and soon the army was losing cohesion.

The remaining operational Titans began to drive back the Ork invasion force and soon they were in full retreat. With the Ork main fighting force decisively routed both Saacronal and Atar urged that pursuit be maintained.

"Do not give them an opportunity to regroup. Cut them down and purge the entire region of them."

Terminators that had been held in reserve deployed with the faster moving tanks, easily overtaking fleeing orks and laying waste to them. It was retribution for the many days and weeks the humans had spent on the defensive learning how to fight.

Two days later one of the Eldar Warp Spiders looked over the remains of the battlefield. Ocean winds had helped to blow away much of the smoke of the battle but the occasional vehicle still burned.

Broken tanks, wagons, Titans and Gargants littered the battlefield. After hasty recovery operations the humans had conducted dispensed chemicals over the region, charring any organic material of orkoid nature. Metal and ash were all that remained.

While the humans had fought much like children truly this had been a battle of Epic proportions.

Farseer Lananelle addressed the leaders of the alliance, gathered to determine their next course of action.

"The orks on this world have, for the moment, been driven back. They will fight among themselves until they can determine a new leader. This could take days, weeks, months, even years."

"Have we learned everything needed for our army to stand in a real fight?" asked Thorin Saacronal of his officers.

"I believe so." replied Dorst. "We've seen what should be some of the most powerful weapons the Orks have ever fielded. With this it's a matter of redesigning our weapons to be more effective and resilient. That can be handled through simulation."

"Then I suggest we remove the remaining Orks immediately so the planet can be terraformed back into a habitable state."

The Admiral called up displays showing the main Ork concentrations.

"Sustained bombardment of the northern latitudes once our new ships launch. Pound them flat with cutting beams and lances."

Sinite was quick to point out a flaw in the admiral's overall plan.

"Even with the Orks destroyed this planet does not have a biosphere capable of surviving the removal of all orkoid life on the surface. It will be rendered uninhabitable for an extended period."

"We still need the factories we're building here."

"Just put an atmospheric containment field over the base."

"What if we-"

The meeting momentarily devolved into discussions between the engineers before Saacronal called for quiet.

"The Eldar can aid in cleansing this world." the Farseer explained. "An Autarch from my Craftworld will arrive bringing with him the Engines of Vaul, specifically Void Spinners. These are capable of breaking down anything on a molecular level, all while seeding the planet with new life.

Many among our people consider this a detestable use of technology once used to create the maiden worlds but these are desperate times."

"Very well." The admiral turned to look towards Atar. "Does our esteemed Chaplain have anything to add?"

"This world was already lost to the Orks before our arrival. Exterminatus by the Imperium or "Cleansing" by the Eldar makes little difference. At least this method will put more of them in danger than ours."

"Quite. Serth, you're next with the Ork capture program you began."

Tapping a few buttons the displays lit up showing scans of several different types of Ork, all of them looking to be larger than average Nobs bordering on Warboss size. Except for the Warboss himself that is. Despite surprisingly few augmentations the Ork must tower above most others.

"These are scan's we managed to take before activation of the stasis fields currently holding our guests. They're bigger than any of the local Orks we've seen since our arrival. Most of those from the Ork fleet have been on average 2-3 times as massive as the Orks from this system. Even the goblins are bigger, though to a lesser extent.

Atar shakes his head. "WHY would you go to the trouble of capturing an Ork Warboss?"

Lananelle is the first to answer. "As detestable as they may be an Ork Warboss may be of some value."

"Always looking for more pawns in your machinations Witch?"

A stern look from Vadith is enough that Atar keeps any additional outbursts to himself.

"What do you have in mind?" Asks the admiral glancing back and forth between Serth and the Farseer.

Serth leans forward. "I had hoped to use them against the Tyranids."

"The idea does have merit. The Eldar and the Imperium have both made use of Ork mercenaries at times. A sufficiently powerful leader could attract more Orks to follow them. The trouble would be balancing the need to support them with the threat of them becoming unstoppable once more."

"Sounds like a weapon that could blow up in our face." Saacronal sighs. "Investigate it off world, not near this system. See if it can be made to work but hold off on actual implementation until more contingencies are in place."

Plans are made for a new transport ship to be set aside for dealing with the captured Orks.

The last issue on the table for the meeting is what to do about the fleet's limited numbers.

"We will soon have the ships and war machines necessary to fight in defense of this galaxy and survive within it. We still lack numbers.

The Eldar are beginning preparations for one plan that may help us in that regard but we both have concerns about it's odds of success. We need alternatives which is why I asked members of each group to prepare notes before the meeting."

Elgar is the first to present work by one of his teams. Simplified automatons intend to be more resistant to corruption than true AI.

"We've been working extensively at reducing the level of the personality constructs in our war machines based on examples described by Brother Chaplain Atar. The current models we can produce are better used escorting human ground troops or vehicles. Those we deployed with the Titans and APC's in the recent battle are heavily restricted by the need to protect their mothership.

It will take time to come up with ones that are autonomous yet deemed as safe. The two ideals are counter to each other in this case. It may not be possible to have both."

This wasn't quite what the old admiral wanted to hear.

"At the very least we'll be able to use our Titan Legions with relatively little manpower. That must count for something." points out Vadith.

Sinite speaks up. "I'm sure the need for manpower in wartime is one that will never fade."

Next up is the team backed by the intelligence gathering portions of the fleet. They believe that it may be possible to recruit from within the Imperium of Man.

"That is a dangerous course of action." Says Atar. "Your people could easily endanger themselves or alert the Inquisition to your efforts were they not careful. Worse, you may end up recruiting dissidents and cultists. People that might betray you to the Ruinous Powers."

"That is a legitimate concern." agrees the Farseer. "The Great Enemy is a threat to all and it's corruption not always easy to detect. Not all of them are lunatics parading around covered in spikes."

Saacronal once again found himself frowning heavily.

"Then we'll place limits on the numbers of people that can be brought in this way. Allow time for them to be tested by both our people."

Finally are the Bio sciences, presented by a younger woman recently promoted in the wake of recent casualties.

"Contained within our colony STC archives are troves of data, as our engineers well know. They're not limited to vehicular or structural engineering. We've found things we didn't even know were burred. Some of them are terrifying."

She calls up the "Replicae" data. "Cloning. We don't know how fast clones could be developed with our current technology but it must be superior to that of the Imperium. The downside is that we don't know what side effects there might be. For now I'd recommend this only be attempted to bring back some of our people that have been killed in action using their medical records and DNA samples. It should provide more data on its long term suitability."

"Start with a small control group for your investigation."

"Replicae is a less tested technology but there is another our original colonists made us of. The Vitae Womb."

Atar raised his voice over the agreements of a few others.

"You must be joking. Even the Adeptus Mechanicus consider this technology abhorrent."

"I'd almost take that as an endorsement we're headed in the right direction." Muttered the admiral.

"You've seen that there is reason behind the prohibition of thinking machines. As helpful as they have been for you the rest of humanity has not been so fortunate. This may be similar."

Montoya who had kept quiet until now interrupted. "Chaplain, this is how the early colonies of man were founded until space travel became more commonplace. A small number of colonists were sent out with a gene bank from Earth and expanded their numbers this way. That still does not make it right for it to be used to produce soldiers."

He looked to the others adding this last bit.

All eyes turned to the Admiral. This was not the straight forward decision he had hoped for. Ultimately there was little choice, they needed every manpower source but it couldn't be dismissive of those against it.

"This war we are embarking upon is not just a threat to our survival but our way of life. Our people need the hope that what they're fighting for will improve the lives of their descendants. If they are unsuccessful their children may need to continue that fight.

I'll contact the shipyard and have them begin construction of a habitat ship. A place to raise and protect our next generation."

Ever since the battle the Titan bays had been a hive of activity. Some of the vehicles had been damaged badly enough to be scrapped and all needed work to modify their armor to be more resilient. The response to this was to add more adamantine and use less plasteel bonding.

Every Titan would soon carry support bays for Battle Automata, making their legs look similar in many ways to those of the Emperor class Titans. Better locations for carapace mounted lascannon for point defense had been selected and were among the first round of upgrades.

Much to the engineers annoyance the Titans Angelus Destinatus and Aurum Zapateado were seeing additional customization. Their crews had decided they wanted visible scarring or marks to indicate previous battle damage.

While more accommodating on that point what was non-negotiable was the addition of Titan close combat weapons. Having been caught in melee by several of the Ork Gargants more than half of the crews were expressing interest in at least having the option.

Power bayonets were being looked at as a cheap and quick option.

Next were Power fists with a plasma annihilator mounted in the palm. The two could be active at the same time so it was a matter of switching energy between the plasma weapon or the power fields. This was similar enough to some of the Terminator power fists that the engineers weren't outright refusing.

Lastly was the chainsword being developed from recovered Ork weapons. Wildly impractical, though seen to be effective in battle, the engineers were determined to fit it with a backup ranged weapon of some sort.

To prove that they weren't entirely mad with these requests the top rated Titan crews were now conducting regular simulations showing that they could be just as effective with these new weapons and tactics.

Elgar Dorst shook his head at some of the suggested weapons the younger people were starting to send him.

"This is crazy. I'm only authorizing the Bayonets and power fists for now. The others reduce too much of the ranged firepower. The army commanders can requisition more types for you later. Kids these days."

"What's their status?" asked Saacronal.

Montoya shrugged. "For now they're well enough. All of the Titan Princeps using their direct connection were placed under some form of neurological strain but none as badly as Joaquín and Brooker."

"Their Titans were in the fiercest fighting yes?"

"Their Titans were in melee combat, and both took extensive damage. Most of the Princeps but especially them have been operating with a higher feedback neutral link. They claim it lets them feel the movement and assess damage more closely. In that battle it would have felt like their flesh and bones were being ripped open. The physical strain this places on their body and mind is considerable."

"Then we tell them to stop doing it."

"It's not that simple. The engineers tell me their Titan's performance and efficiency were much high as a result of the connection. The pilots know this. In a serious battle situation they won't hesitate to do it again."

Saacronal made a noise of annoyance.

"Is there anything we can do?"

"We can augment their brains cybernetically to better protect against long term damage, but this is not a procedure that is easily reversible. It should only be done with volunteers prepared to serve as Princeps for the rest of their lives."

"You're sure this can be done safely?"

"The Imperium has a similar procedure."

The old admiral glared at the doctor. "That isn't reassuring in the slightest. I do not want our people to become the Imperium."

"Then you should finish what you came to this galaxy for and leave."

"I had many reasons for coming back, as did you, and you have even less time than I."

With that Saacronal headed for the door.

Montoya called after him. "Just accept that it won't work!"

Saacronal hit the door close button behind him so that he wouldn't have to hear the rest of what the Doctor had to say.

"There is only one person you could ask now."