Chapter 221: All Quiet on Terra |
After briefly sorting out the internal affairs of Astorgius, the Dawnlight led the fleet, navigating around the turbulence of the Warp currents as they followed an ancient warp route toward the source of the distress signal.
Along the way, the Dawnbreak Fleet relocated nearly two billion surplus pilgrims from the Cardinal World—who were, in reality, the colonists of this era of the Imperium—settling them across thirteen colony worlds that met the standards of the Wings of Dawn during their comprehensive sector survey.
These so-called colony worlds were essentially feral or Feudal Worlds that lacked the means to elevate themselves to the Imperium's average technological standards.
For the Imperium, or perhaps ever since the Dark Age of Technology when uninhibited technological barbarism became the norm, humanity's expansion had been rather indiscriminate.
Due to prohibitive development costs and the Terra Throneworld's perpetually overloaded workload, these backward worlds with low strategic value and no irreplaceable resources were given little to no opportunity for development.
The investment was completely disproportionate to the return, meaning they were largely left to their own devices to develop by chance. Various active Imperial factions would occasionally drop by for a round of Darwinian selection to harvest combat-capable talents, but otherwise, they rarely interacted with these worlds.
After completing the survey, Romulus discovered that the Dawnbreak Sector—which was considered a strictly prosperous sector—contained nearly a thousand Imperial worlds, yet the Imperium had genuinely utilized very few of them.
Thus, adhering to the principle that one's own domain must be properly managed, changes were set in motion.
An integrated civil service system comprising various technical personnel, Adeptus Astartes, and mortals was organized. Pioneer Teams formed from the surplus populations of major planets assumed control of these colony worlds, aggressively intervening in their development.
An accompanying Administratum official respectfully handed over the report.
"Thank you."
Romulus accepted the files, placing them in the secondary priority area.
After bowing, the Administratum official turned directly back to his desk. His fingers immediately resumed their focused work across the interfaces, aided by a connector welded to his scapula that suspended equipment over his shoulder and extended down to the desk before him.
This Administratum official was responsible for monitoring the development status of various planets. As a former aide to the Sector Governor of the Dawnbreak Sector, he also provided the Wings of Dawn with essential information, including the composition of the ruling classes and the distribution of resources across the planets.
The aide returned to his workstation with measured, practiced steps.
Before him, documents whose calculations had already been completed by the Astartes were piled up like a mountain once more.
Next, he simply needed to input this data and submit it to the Primarchs' Executive Council. Afterward, he would make a duplicate copy to be reviewed by the Primarch before dispatching it to Terra.
Hiss—
A neural-maintenance chem-stim was injected directly into his cranium, banishing his fatigue. The aide glanced at the remaining supply from the corner of his eye.
'I prepared too much again.'
He thought to himself, then leaned forward and immersed himself entirely in his work.
He needed to finish processing this data as quickly as possible. Afterward, he was scheduled to audit a meeting of the Primarchs' Executive Council and provide written recommendations once it concluded.
Contingency plans continuously calculated within the aide's mind.
The Primarch's ruling council was far from lacking in mortals.
The Wings of Dawn acknowledged that the Astartes were physically and biologically superior to ordinary humans, allowing them to shoulder far heavier responsibilities, but this did not mean mortals were completely excluded from the political system.
After all, just looking at the commanders across various battlefields made it clear that, in terms of strategic vision, mortals were not necessarily inferior to the Astartes. It was merely the sheer, exaggerated volume of calculations required by the Imperium's administrative system that made it impossible for them to bear.
Therefore, with the Astartes integrated into the governance system, there were dedicated personnel to handle the tedious calculations, allowing the mortal officials to better utilize their strategic capabilities.
Zzt—zzt—
An unusual grating sound echoed from his writing implement. At that exact moment, a servo-skull deployed a fresh pen nib soaked in Dawnbreak Holy Oil and swiftly welded it into place.
"..."
Withdrawing his gaze from the remaining two-thirds of his ink reservoir, the aide paused for just two seconds before diving right back into his duties.
Compared to the crushing workloads of his past, his current burden was actually a significant relief.
'These High Lords really are out of ideas.'
On the other side of the room, only after Romulus finished dealing with the colony development files did he pick up the documents from the High Lords.
It was just another batch of formulaic replies, entirely devoid of any substantive value.
Romulus did not particularly mind the various administrative branches of the Imperium establishing a presence in the colonial territories within the system.
Although their leaders always seemed to be brewing some malicious scheme, those grassroots civil servants were top-tier talents who had survived the brutal, mandatory filtration processes of the 41st Millennium. They greatly reduced the management costs for the Wings of Dawn when establishing planetary governments.
In any case, Romulus was not afraid of the Imperium gaining too much influence within the sector and causing colonial taxes to skyrocket beyond what the residents could bear.
Those who actually wanted to get things done would be put to work, and those who tried to stir up trouble would be eliminated, conveniently freeing up positions for others to be promoted.
As it turned out, after a few months of enthusiastic meddling, the High Lords suddenly went dead silent.
'It is understandable, though. By now, every department on Terra is likely drowning in rivers of blood.'
Stamping the document to indicate it had been read, Romulus could not help but shake his head in exasperation.
As for the High Lords, even though they had initially agreed that the Custodes, Administratum, Legal Department, and Inquisition would all hold vetting authority over these positions, it was obvious they currently had no time to care about such matters.
Previously, after many anti-corruption campaigns escalated into anti-heresy purges, Rameses—being the loudmouth he was—had mockingly brought up the massive cache of sacred skull relics hidden on Terra to Navaradaln, satirizing the inaction of the Custodes.
In a timeline where they did not exist, when the Great Rift tore the galaxy apart and Guilliman awoke and returned to Terra, eighty-eight of Khorne's Daemon Armies, led by eight Khorne Greater Daemons, set foot upon the soil of the Terra Throneworld, staining its skies blood red.
How did they manage to set foot there?
There were sacred skull relics capable of summoning eight Khorne Greater Daemons right on Terra, having been smuggled in disguised as Imperial Creed holy relics.
Although they were still over two centuries away from the opening of the Great Rift, anyone with a brain knew that Rome was not built in a day, nor were sacrifices gathered overnight.
This was the Throne World, after all. Even though the chaotic brawls among various madmen during the Unification Wars had left behind plenty of deadly anomalies—and relics of the Four Chosen Gods were not exactly unheard of—they were all tightly controlled under the watch of the Custodes' Shadow Gaol Shield Guard Cohort.
And yet, this massive influx of Chaos creations bleeding into the civilian populace...
Did they just want to throw the Throne World away?
At first, the Custodes on Terra had been quite bewildered after enduring a furious scolding from Navaradaln. Figuring they had nothing better to do while cooped up in the Imperial Palace anyway, they decided to investigate.
To their shock, they actually found something.
It started when participants in the Blood Games discovered anomalies within a lunar Imperial Creed pilgrim fleet. Upon investigation, a crystal coffin and the artifact contained within it exhibited highly suspicious traits.
The subsequent outbreak of a Tzeentch daemon invasion even resulted in the loss of a Custodian—a severe blow exacerbated by the lack of assistance from the Sisters of Silence.
This immediately set the Terra Custodes on edge. Mobilizing every technological asset at their disposal, they initiated a sweeping scan of the Throne World to weed out any potential Chaos corruption.
The results revealed that the issue was not isolated to the transient population.
Down in the underhives, they unearthed a nest of genestealers, numerous Chaos Cults, and scattered elements of the Aeldari, among other external threats.
Furthermore, the Custodes uncovered a substantial cache of Chaos artifacts hoarded among the upper-crust nobles and bureaucrats who ostensibly adhered to the Imperial Creed.
Khorne artifacts, in particular, were alarmingly common.
In an Imperium of Man that practically worshipped death, sacred objects fashioned from human bones and corpses were exceedingly common. This gave the followers of Khorne the perfect loophole to exploit—after all, the Second Brother also had a deep fondness for skulls.
Trajann was numb with absolute rage. He spent half his time furiously berating the Grey Knights for their dereliction of duty, and the other half recalling the Sisters of Silence, who had faded into obscurity following the War of the Beast, all while holding the various High Lords accountable.
The High Lords themselves were equally stunned. No one could have anticipated that a single offhand remark from a Primarch would unearth such a staggering array of threats hidden right beneath Terra's surface.
This was the absolute center of Imperial power, yet they had spent their days sitting blissfully atop an erupting volcano without the slightest inkling of danger.
Even the Fabricator General of Mars turned his unblinking gaze inward and discovered a host of bizarre techno-heretics within his own ranks.
And so, purely because of someone's mocking quips, the highest echelons of Imperial power, from top to bottom, simultaneously poured all their energy into the Terra purification efforts.
Recently, the Throne World had descended into utter chaos. Heads rolled by the thousands as the purges swept through the streets, while the Martian Mechanicus seized the opportunity to violently excise its own techno-heretics.
Thanks to the Custodes stepping in to assist and the fact that the plots were discovered ahead of time, smoothing things out shouldn't be too much of a problem.
Romulus mused optimistically. He then set down the documents and addressed the captain, who was deeply focused on piloting the vessel.
"Captain Aurora, how much longer until we reach our destination?"
"Roughly... two standard Terran hours, my Lord."
Guided by the Navigator, Aurora maintained strict control over the ship, ensuring the fleet adhered to its projected trajectory while deftly avoiding the perilous aetheric reefs and chaotic anomalies.
Such maneuvers could hardly be considered strenuous. After all, ever since they began serving the four Primarchs, completely stable warp travel had become the norm.
However, the sheer excessive calmness of their voyage still led her to sense a slight abnormality.
"My Lord, the Navigator reports that as we draw closer, the influence of the Warp bleeding from realspace in the adjacent sectors is rapidly dissipating. We may need to translate back into realspace ahead of schedule and rely on our physical thrusters to enter the star system, just to prevent any unforeseen incidents."
Aurora reported this after briefly communing with the Navigator.
"Very well. Proceed as you suggest."
Romulus nodded, his mind already beginning to calculate just what exactly was hidden upon this planet.
Something capable of banishing the Warp's influence and stabilizing reality...
How incredibly hard to guess.