Chapter 130: In Transit (2-in-1)
/ Verifying...
/ Access Level: Crusade Fleet Oversight
/ Authorized.
/ Data Type: Report
// ID c0001342
[From 741.M41, July 9th, the Crusade Fleet departed from Baal. Beginning with the support of the first world on September 10th, the Crusade Fleet began to reclaim the Imperial planets on the eastern fringe of the Ultima Segmentum that were under attack, at an extraordinary speed. The Eastern Fringe Crusade is now entering its final phase.]
[From 741.M41 to 743.M41, the Crusade Fleet has, for the Imperium, annihilated the offensive forces of 32 xenos species and multiple Chaos factions on 492 planets, including 13 Imperial Shrine Worlds, 12 Hive Worlds, 4 Knight Worlds, and 1 Forge World.]
[At the same time, during its advance, the Crusade Fleet has also reclaimed 22 lost Imperial worlds. Lord Romulus has individually assessed their development value. Missionaries of the Ecclesiarchy and work-groups from the Inquisition have evaluated these planets. After a comprehensive judgment, only 5 have the potential to be directly integrated into a sector. The rest will require technological support from the Imperium to promote their development.]
[The current composition of the Crusade Fleet includes a joint naval fleet of 2 Gloriana-class battleships, 21 battleships and battle-barges, and numerous escort warships. The participating parties include 13 Astartes Chapters, with the Adeptus Mechanicus and the Ecclesiarchy providing armed support. Under its command are a total of two million Astra Militarum troops. And with the addition of the Rogue Trader Dynasties, the Imperium can more conveniently preserve the fruits of the crusade's victory.]
Aboard the Dawnlight, Aglaia sat at her desk, the documents beside her neatly organized, the tip of her pen scratching out sharp characters as she worked on her mission report.
Faced with such a massive gathering of forces in the crusade fleet, a military power with the Black Templars as its main component, the High Lords of Terra, who had been summoned to the Throne twice, finally showed an extraordinary turn of speed. Orders and warnings from the various High Lords arrived like a snowstorm, their words filled with a thick anxiety and unease.
However, the crusade fleet ignored these orders. After a simple refit at the Bushlin Hive, they had unhesitatingly pushed towards the galactic east. The High Lords of Terra, seeing this, and realizing that the fleet's destination was not Terra, tacitly shut their mouths and no longer provoked this powerful military force.
And this fleet, unlike that of Solar Macharius, did not present them with over a thousand almost useless Imperial worlds, the workload of which they still hadn't finished. The main work of the fleet was on the extermination of xenos and Chaos, basically giving the various sectors along the way a major cleanup.
Of course, they did not completely ignore it. They silently sent representatives, trying to act as their eyes and ears to monitor the fleet's movements.
But the crusade fleet was moving far too quickly.
By the time the representatives of the High Lords had just arrived at Baal and were still in shock at the brand-new scene, the crusade fleet had already swept across the galaxy like a thunderbolt, heading straight for Tigrus, twenty thousand light-years away.
And so, the work of reporting back to Terra ultimately fell to Inquisitor Aglaia, who had been following the fleet all along, because she was the only one who could get first-hand intelligence.
Her "excellent handling" of the Pierdra situation had won Aglaia high praise from Terra, and a subsequent series of evidence had proven that she had not been lying. Her reports became the only reliable source for the High Lords of Terra to understand the crusade fleet's movements.
'The Archmagos is truly fast,' Aglaia thought, recalling the report sent by her colleague. A cold sweat broke out on her forehead. She gently wiped it away, a chill in her heart. In just a few years, a planet could be made to disappear without a trace. And she, a small, unsupported Inquisitor, if she were to truly disappear, would probably be nothing more than an insignificant speck of dust in the galaxy.
[As of 743, June 8th, the Crusade Fleet has docked at a major commercial port under the Hendirek Rogue Trader Dynasty for rest and refit, preparing to head to the final destination of the Eastern Crusade, the Forge World of Tigrus, for final reinforcements, and will ultimately proceed to Macragge.]
[Signed: Inquisitor of the Ordo Originatus - Aglaia Hesiod.]
Click~
'Perfect.'
As the final stroke was made, the ink, which had been mixed with a saint's blood, just happened to run out, leaving a perfectly appropriate touch of imperfection at the end of the signature.
'Work's done!'
Aglaia stretched happily and handed the document to the shadow at her side. The shadow, as if it had come to life, extended an invisible hand, swallowed the document, and then fell silent again.
Aglaia couldn't help but feel a strange chill. Who knew when the assassin from the Officio Assassinorum had snuck up on her. Sometimes, she really felt this galaxy was a dangerous place.
Aglaia thought to herself. The safest time of her life was probably when she was in the Great Library on Terra, setting traps for her colleagues while carefully planning her own route for the day to avoid being assassinated. At least then, she felt her fate was in her own hands.
Knock, knock, knock~
A knock on the door pulled Aglaia's thoughts back to reality. "Come in."
After checking the shadow one last time, Aglaia unlocked the door.
It was Arthur.
Arthur did not enter the room. He just stood at the door, his gaze falling for a moment at her side, then spoke, "Several Rogue Trader Dynasties are meeting with Romulus. The reception ceremony is now in its final phase."
Meaning, the important talks were over. Now was the time for commercial flattery.
"I'll be right there." Aglaia's eyes lit up. She nodded, feeling exceptionally relieved. Although her days were precarious, her time with the ancient warriors was truly relaxing. Aside from the heretical technology of burning daemons, which had gotten the Ecclesiarchy and most of the Astartes exceptionally excited, the ancient warriors hadn't thrown any other strange curveballs at her.
On the contrary, the detailed documents provided by the lords allowed her to quickly communicate with all parties after each mission and produce a report that was acceptable to both the High Lords and the crusade fleet.
Walking down the now clean and smooth main thoroughfare of the Dawnlight, Aglaia felt that the best quality of the lords was that they were good at communicating and didn't cause trouble.
Often, it wasn't that an Inquisitor couldn't fudge a matter. In fact, they were also human, with their own needs. The prerequisite was that you had to hide the matter well and not let the Inquisitor know. Just like those mysterious Chapters.
"My Lord!"
At an intersection, a warrior in white-gold armor saluted Arthur.
"Greetings." The knight nodded politely and led the Inquisitor through the security checkpoint.
The Platinum Vindicators. One of the Ultramarines' successor Chapters. A fleet-based Chapter, their last contact with the Imperium had been over two hundred and sixty years ago.
Aglaia really didn't know how this Chapter, which had a high probability of having been wiped out by some kind of mechanical xenos, had shown up with a standard Codex-compliant fleet, had so easily accepted the Primaris Space Marine modification surgery, and whose style was so different from the vast majority of modern Imperial Chapters.
Typically, their religious fervor was not as strong, and they were a bit too "human." Also, their fleet's Adeptus Mechanicus style was overflowing.
Walking on the red carpet, Aglaia noticed the strange Space Marines who were chatting with the veterans of the various Chapters.
There are more and more of them...
It was quite funny.
According to the current Imperial crusade model, you first consolidate your resources, then plan your route and launch the crusade, and then you are continuously reinforced. It all depended on whether the Warp was in a good mood. Generally, the troops that charged the fastest would see their numbers drop at an absurd rate.
But the crusade fleet was quite strange. Not only was their Warp travel without issue, but their combat losses were also absurdly low. Although it was Lord Romulus's credit, he and the think tank formed by Drakus and the other Invictarus Suzerains, while shouldering the command of the fleet, could even spare the time to sort out the war-torn planets and re-plan the garrison forces along the way.
The result was that very few people had died, and more and more were joining them, including certain Chapters that had come seeking them out.
The vast majority of the members of those Chapters were like they had just made contact with this galaxy, just like Lord Romulus and the others had been at first. But compared to the elders, these warriors were more like students, absorbing experience from the warriors who had been born in this desperate age of M41.
And there were three other Chapters like the Platinum Vindicators in the crusade fleet. All of them had been out of contact for a long time, almost about to be classified as wiped out and archived, and then they had all shown up with a standard Codex-compliant Chapter's worth of forces.
As for how they had come—
Sitting at the side of the banquet hall, Aglaia began to fulfill her duty of monitoring Romulus and the Rogue Traders.
She didn't know, and she didn't dare to ask.
Hendirek Trading Port.
This was a massive military port left over from the Golden Age, and also one of the core hubs of the Hendirek Rogue Trader Dynasty. It was based on several free-floating asteroids and stretched for over a thousand kilometers.
In the banquet hall connected to the spaceport, Romulus was chatting with the Rogue Traders and family representatives who had come from all over.
This group, who held trade warrants signed by the High Lords, Primarchs, and even the Emperor Himself, were one of the few groups in this sclerotic and decaying Imperium that still represented the spirit of exploration. The domain of the Imperium of Man covered almost the entire galaxy, but the vast majority of the galaxy was still in an undeveloped and unexplored state. Combined with the various xenos and the endless wealth and resources of the galaxy, the necessity of a group that could operate freely and, when necessary, abandon rigid styles, had arisen.
They were the Rogue Traders, the nobles among the Imperial nobility.
"On behalf of the crusade fleet, I thank the various dynasties for their support," Romulus said from the head of the banquet hall, addressing the master of the Hendirek Dynasty.
"We also thank you. If not for your crusade, which has driven out the xenos and Chaos, the trade routes of the Imperium would have suffered an unimaginable blow." The Rogue Trader adopted as humble a posture as possible. He held a glass of golden dry red from Q'artis, his eyes constantly sizing up the officers from the various decks who had been invited.
The officers, nobles, Astartes, and so on had all been strictly segregated, resting in different areas to avoid differences in status from interfering with the recovery of morale. Long-term deep-space travel was always exhausting, but he couldn't see any of that on these crew members. From the Astartes to the Astra Militarum, from the captain to the lower-deck foremen, he could feel a strong sense of confidence in all of them. This was the natural result of a long string of victories feeding back into every social stratum.
"I truly look forward to what your next voyage will be like," the Rogue Trader said, rubbing the ring on his finger as he looked at Romulus.
"Hmm." Romulus nodded slightly, maintaining a calm demeanor.
The first to respond to the crusade fleet had not been the local Astartes Chapters, nor the Astra Militarum sent by the Munitorum, nor even the Imperial Navy fleets that roamed the Sea of Stars, but these well-informed Rogue Traders.
The four transmigrators had analyzed the Macharian Crusade. As the closest large-scale crusade formed by Imperial forces to the current era, it had considerable reference value. As a crusade with an incredibly brilliant record on paper, its effect on the Imperium had been completely negative, because the Imperium had great difficulty in effectively governing the reclaimed planets, and instead had to divert a large amount of military force to suppress rebellions and maintain Imperial control.
They all knew very well that what the current Imperium lacked was not territory, but control over its various regions. In a P-社 game, the over-extension would have been off the charts.
So Romulus had focused the crusade on the liberation and re-planning of the Imperial worlds that had been under attack.
First, to use their overwhelming combat power to quickly resolve a planet's crisis. Then, to analyze the local situation and leave a garrison force, relying on the transmigrators' information advantage to analyze the shipping lanes, and using the crusade fleet as a mobile force to reallocate the combat forces of the various star systems.
The result so far was that the fleet was growing larger and larger, and the liberated planets behind them could also handle the short-term threats with ease. Although there were cases where a planet was lost after they had left, they had preserved the maximum number of human worlds.
And this kind of fine-tuned operation had, as a result, created a sufficiently stable environment for this crusade.
And so the Rogue Traders, like sharks smelling blood, had come one after another.
After the simple pleasantries were over, Romulus stood up, led the Rogue Trader to the front of the high platform, and then asked, "Mr. Hendirek, I wonder what you know about the situation in the Optus system?"
Romulus's perceptiveness and low-key manner made the Rogue Trader quietly breathe a sigh of relief. Under normal circumstances, with his dynasty's strength, he wouldn't have to be so cautious. But the composition of this crusade fleet was a bit too complex. They even had assassins from the Officio Assassinorum.
He twitched his lips, looked around, and after confirming that the nearest person was at least ten steps away, he covered his mouth and whispered to Romulus, "The Optus system, a single G-type star system. There are traces of a large amount of artificial intervention. The only planet in the system is the ruin world of Optus. Ten thousand years ago, it served as the weapon supply planet for a certain pattern of Imperial psychic Titan. It was abandoned after the Horus Heresy and is highly likely to be related to the Eldar xenos."
"This star system was reclaimed by the Iron Warriors. At the same time that we received their request for aid to the Imperium, the local planetary governor also sent a coded message from ten thousand years ago."
(End of Chapter)