[h2][center]In Pursuit of Science and Truth.[/center][/h2]

With the matter of the Edict of Tolerance and Xenos rights defended on the Council floor, Micholi's presence at the Council meetings took a more observational role in proceedings, with the Primarch taking the opportunity in order to get some much needed work done. That wasn't to say that he wasn't listening and paying attention to all matters being discussed by the Council at any given time since any issue being raised so that the Emperor and the Primarchs could weigh in on it was generally an important one and deserved being paid attention to, but few subjects required his direct input. The issue of Braining was one in which he didn't really care one way or the other to much and while Augor and Eiosha clashed over it, Micholi had been simply working on a dataslate. 

It was after the Council had retired and in the privacy of his spartan offices that what Micholi was working on was finally brought to completion. However, despite being able to recall every word of the document with accurate precision, the Primarch took the time to review it again in order to check his wording with great care. 

The document in question had been in the making for a surprising long time, through only once the Council was announced did it finally start to take a physical form. History had always been a passion of the Primarch and the chance to try and shed some light on one of the key moments of galactic history (even if only from a human perspective) had long been on his mind, but Micholi had re-framed from doing so sooner for political reasons.

Sparking scientific discussion about the early days of the Age of Strife and the possible causes of the Warp Storms that were truly the final nail in the coffin of Humanities former galactic ambitions [i]could[/i] be viewed in a negative light by some; While it had taken a long time, Micholi did believe he had managed to find the correct wording for the document to ensure that the reader would clearly be able to see that all theories and ideas presented within were developed via the recovering of data and information much like an Explorator Fleet rather then actual first hand experimentation would ensure that any case made that he had breached the Treaty of Mars would fall flat on its face... but he had already factored in that there were going to be those who claimed such anyway.

The foreword was respectful and humble, written to appease the Mechanicum of Mars and make it clear to the reader that Micholi's intentions were purely those of a fellow historian and scientist seeking to start earnest discourse and promote the sharing of information so that an accurate picture of what happened to bring an end to the Dark Age of Technology and herald in the Age of Strife could be reached. It also made clear that the data and information that the following theories were based on were from incomplete and (at times) questionable sources and as such should not be treated as absolute truth, even if they were penned in the words of a Primarch. Instead, it should be viewed as Micholi sharing what information he had picked up during the cause of the Crusade and that based on it, these were the most sound theories he could establish with what he had access to. As new data was found, such theories would either be updated or disproven and cast aside as required.   

The first theory to be presented for judgement was that the storms of the Age of Strife were triggered as a result of an over usage of warp drives and warp travel technology on a galactic scale over a (relatively) short period of time. This was clearly a topic that had the potential to be highly controversial and Micholi treated it with the respect and care it was due. The Primarch tried to establish the action of tearing open a rift between Reality and the Warp as akin to that of soil degradation in mass scale farming; There is the possibility that the more one tears open a rift between the dimensions, the less stable local space around the area will become and that doing this over and over again over an extended period of time would cause negative results.         

The second theory was a brief look into human nature and the stresses of desperation. Namely, evidence suggested that the Age of Strife proper began before the Warp Storms that isolated or consumed countless planets due to conflicts such as the war against the Men of Iron, civil wars within humanity itself and invasions by hostile xenos species such as the Orks (which evidence suggests were a blight on the galaxy even back in the Dark Age of Technology) taking advantage of the general chaos. Being assailed by threats, the powers that be of Humanity might have started to explore projects to turn the tide that would have either been ill advised or outright insane under normal circumstances. The theory suggests that the warp storms might have been the result of a currently unknown experimental device that went horribly wrong... or, considering humanities history of weaponizing technology, horrifically [i]right.[/i]

The tone of the second theory was that of a cautionary tale. The desperation and panic tended to create more mistakes and disasters then miracles and that trusting completely in an experimental, untested idea over tried and proven methods to win the day can easily lead to catastrophic results.    

The third theory was almost certainly the one that had the possibility of causing the least controversy. Supported by the facts that a great number of Dark Age technology was clearly produced with the assistance of the Men of Iron before they betrayed humanity and that prior to the warp storms of the Age of Strife that humanity was [i]winning[/i] the conflict against the Men of Iron, even if it had come at great human cost, there was a strong possibility that the warp storms of the Age of Strife were created by some unknown weapon or device developed by the Men of Iron as a last ditch effort to wipe out humanity and all other organic life. It is unclear if this might have been done with some idea of the Men of Iron capitalizing and trying to win the war once the storms abated or if it was done as an attempt to take organic life down with them out of spite, but since the Men of Iron's grand new campaign never manifested and organic life is still here, it can safely be said that either way their final gambit failed.

The epilogue itself retreaded the ground that the three theories presented were done with incomplete data discovered during the cause of the Crusade. It stressed that at the time of writing, actual experimentation into any of these ideas would be illegal in the Imperium and by the Treaty of Mars. Uncovering data and information in pursuit of knowledge to further bring understanding to this dark and bloody period in history was clearly alright through. 

There was a recent addition to the epilogue that Micholi found himself debating keeping in through because it was about the Emperor and the Treaty of Mars: 

'I am aware of the fact that the Mechanicum has long held the view that one day the Emperor would review and ease up on some of the restrictions of the Treaty of Mars once Humanity was prepared to handle these otherwise dangerous fields of study. I feel the need to offer the possibility of hope to support your faith in that belief. I do not claim to be able to understand the motives of the Emperor, but while he is a warrior and diplomat of unmatched, legendary skill... the Wars of Unification on Terra and the Crusade we are currently fighting were first and foremost won in the Emperor's laboratory due to his skills as a scientist. 

At the time of writing this, the Emperor has deemed to promote one of the Primarchs to continue leading the Crusade in his stead as Warmaster so that he may return to Terra. While it is true that he has countless duties and responsibilities to take care of, I earnestly believe that one of them will be to return to the laboratory in time. I cannot begin to guess what the Emperor might deem worthy of his attention to investigate, but if his insights can discover a means to make these dangerous and restricted fields of study safe enough for humanity to explore them properly, we might see some restrictions eased in time.' 

For a moment, Micholi considered removing that section. It was purely observational, but he still remembered Augor's annoyance with him for 'claiming to know the motives of the Emperor' during the debates. Then again, Augor was smart and prescriptive enough to recognize that what he had written was likely true. 

If nothing else, it would help the document do its job of distracting the more hard line members of the Mechanicum from the results of the Council about the Edict of Tolerance. Sending copies of the document to his various siblings for peer review, Micholi submitted a copy to Mechanicum channels like any other thesis developed by a Tech Priest in order to be reviewed.