"I will provide three Dauntless-class cruisers to assist the three Legions in their return to Holy Terra," Karl said, "Axis, you should also replace your Sword-class frigate."
The cost of four cruisers was something they could easily bear. It was an unthinkable slight to have a Primarch and the Imperial Princess travel back to their homeworld in a vessel as humble as a frigate.
"Haha! What you don't know," Vulkan began with a laugh, "is that the Father has been secretly developing a superluminal engine! The Sword-class frigate before you is actually equipped with the Imperium's latest prototype, making it theoretically more precious than a Gloriana-class battleship."
This new engine was the secret to Axis's swift arrival. Without such a vessel, not even traversing the Eldar Webway could have brought him to their side so quickly.
"A superluminal ship, a superluminal engine!" Perturabo, Primarch of the Iron Warriors, exclaimed with excitement. "We actually have such a thing! Does this mean we can finally be free of Warp travel?"
This was true faster-than-light travel, a technology that could revolutionize the Imperium. Journeys through the Warp were fraught with peril. Even with Navigators and the guiding light of the Emperor's Astronomican, the probability of catastrophe was alarmingly high. For ordinary merchant vessels, the chance of safely reaching their destination through the Immaterium was barely over seventy percent. The remaining twenty-odd percent were either lost forever to the tides of the Warp, destroyed, or would emerge centuries off course.
The benefits of a superluminal engine were incalculable; it was the pinnacle of technology for which humanity had always yearned.
"Currently, we have only developed ten-times and twenty-times lightspeed versions," Kasha explained, "The ten-times variant can only be fitted onto smaller ships for transporting goods between a few star systems. The ship Axis and I are traveling on is equipped with the twenty-times engine, and even that has only just been successfully installed on a frigate. It cannot yet be mounted on cruisers or battleships. We still have a long way to go before we can completely abandon Warp travel."
Escaping the necessity of the Warp was no simple feat.
"Even so, that's monumental," Karl said, his face alight with excitement. "Father will truly lead humanity into a new renaissance. This superluminal engine will change the future of mankind."
Even a twenty-times lightspeed engine, if it could be deployed across the Imperium's fleets, would mean that at the very least, shipping and transport within a single Segmentum would no longer require the dangers of the Warp.
"He will," Axis affirmed, "This is only twenty times. In the future, engines capable of thirty, forty, or even a hundred times the speed of light will be created."
After some further discussion, the Primarchs began the handover.
The Children of Tomorrow Legion provided two Dauntless-class cruisers, while the Iron Warriors offered one.
The members of the three visiting Legions aboard Axis's frigate transferred to their new vessels. The small flotilla then proceeded to the star system's Mandeville Point, where they tore open a rift into the Immaterium and began their journey toward Holy Terra.
The Emperor and Magnus would personally guide their passage, ensuring they reached their destination safely and without encountering any of the anomalies common to Warp travel.
The remaining two Legions, the Children of Tomorrow and the Iron Warriors, comprising a force of 270,000 Astartes and over a hundred million mortal soldiers, began preparations.
Their vast fleets would set a course for the western galactic front. There, they were to rendezvous with Lion El'Jonson and Leman Russ to unite their forces against the Rangdan.
"Axis, you have not a single soldier under your direct command right now. Are you sure you do not require some of our Astartes?" Karl asked.
"There is no need. I am returning to my homeworld. There, I can gather my sons," Axis replied confidently, "Do not worry. If Horus is so blind as to appear on my world, then his fate is sealed. I promise you, there will be no issues."
The two Primarchs nodded in understanding. After a final farewell, the assembled forces departed on their three separate paths.
"Lord Axis, we have selected the nearest Webway portal for you. We will guide you to the planet Nuceria now," Cassandra of the Harlequin Troupe said.
Axis nodded.
Under the guidance of the Eldar, the frigate passed smoothly through a shimmering portal into the Webway and began its journey toward Nuceria.
Along the way, the Emperor would occasionally contact Kasha, providing Axis with the latest intelligence.
In the original timeline, it had been the Emperor and Guilliman's Ultramarines who had brought about the ruin of Monarchia. This time, however, it was the Emperor and Axis's own Golden Legion who had carried out the censure.
Consequently, Lorgar's festering hatred was now directed not at Guilliman, but at Axis. It was only logical, then, that Lorgar would choose Axis's homeworld as the target for his vengeance. A single planet was far easier to attack than the five hundred worlds of Ultramar.
"Axis, the Father has asked me to relay the current situation," Kasha said, her voice grave. "Your Legion has been divided into two forces. One hundred fifty thousand of your sons are led by our son. He is currently operating alongside Guilliman's Ultramarines, and it is said Sanguinius has joined them as well.
"The remaining one hundred thirty thousand are under the command of Khârn. They have received orders from Horus, who has fabricated a story about a massive Ork fleet preparing to assault your homeworld. He has dispatched Lorgar to assist in its defense. Of course, this Ork fleet is a lie. Once the Word Bearers arrive at Nuceria, they will almost certainly launch a direct attack."
"Vicious bastard," Axis sighed, a sense of weary disappointment washing over him. "It's a shame. I actually had a good impression of Lorgar in the beginning."
He reflected that if he had never disappeared, the incident at Monarchia might not have occurred.
He would have done everything in his power to prevent it. The future Imperial Cult was a matter of great importance, and Axis had intended to weave his own tenets into its faith, which would have required a figurehead to champion it.
Now, he had made a bitter enemy of the Imperium's preeminent preacher. His plans for the future religion would need significant revision. The Ecclesiarchy would be established after the Primarchs all vanished, so once the Great Scouring was over, he would need to maneuver carefully on that front.
The journey through the Webway was astonishingly swift.
Compounding this, Axis's vessel was able to engage its superluminal drive even within the ancient tunnels, allowing it to cover the vast distance in an exceptionally short time. They arrived in the Nuceria system even before Lorgar's Word Bearers Legion.
Returning to his old home, Axis was filled with a complex wave of emotion. For him, only a few months had passed, but for his sons, their father had been gone for nearly a century.
As his ship entered realspace, Axis's psychic senses immediately registered a familiar presence, the powerful machine spirit of his flagship.
It was the Solus Prime. Sensing the return of its true master, its father, the ship's spirit surged with powerful emotions. It immediately dispatched a small lander which intercepted the frigate and brought Axis and Kasha aboard. Before he could even set foot on his homeworld, Axis was taken back to his flagship.
A virtual projection of the Solus Prime's consciousness appeared before him, its form shimmering with joyful energy. "Father! It is so good to see you. I knew you would return. I have been waiting for you, waiting for your homecoming. And for you as well, great Mother. I always believed you would recover and return to the Father's side!"
"You have waited a long time, Solus Prime," Kasha said with a warm smile.
"Report the situation to me," Axis commanded gently, "My son. You acknowledged him, did you not?"
"Yes, Father," the spirit replied. "It was I who helped removed the young master's embryo from his mother's body when he was but a few months in gestation. The situation at the time was extremely critical. Please, Father, forgive my unilateral action."
"You saved my and Kasha's son. What crime is there in that?" Axis asked. "I have heard you also crafted a flagship for him."
Only the Emperor knew the true Solus Prime had remained here, orbiting its master's homeworld.
All others believed the vessel commanded by Axis's son was the original.
"Father, during the third war against the Rangda, I served as the flagship of the Golden Legion," the machine spirit explained, "During that campaign, we successfully captured two Rangdan celestial-class satellite weapons. I used one of them to perform my own retrofits and maintenance. I repurposed the other into a flagship exclusively for your son, and I created a special replica of my own spirit to serve as his vessel's consciousness, a proxy of myself."
"I see. Are my belongings still here?" Axis asked.
His most precious treasures were stored aboard the Solus Prime: the large cache of fruit from the Tree of Might, the seeds of that same tree, and the summoner containing the energy of a God of Destruction.
"Rest assured, great Father, I have guarded them with the utmost care," Solus Prime replied. "Aside from a portion of the Tree of Might's fruit which I gave to the young master, I have kept everything else safe. You may access them at any time."
The master's possessions had to be guarded vigilantly. Axis' child had no idea of the immense secrets this ship truly held.
"Good," Axis said, relieved, "And one more thing. What is the status of the Necron? And have you made any progress researching the superluminal engine I tasked you with before I left?"
...
..
.
It's 200 ps for every bonus chapter!