Trailblaze
"Congratulations on passing the assessment. From this day forward, you will become a new Astartes."
Tiris, the former Planetary General of Tillius, looked at his son with a complex expression. In his initial despair, he had simply wanted to come here to live out his days in retirement. An Astartes could have children, but their offspring were ordinary humans. Now, his second son had passed the basic trials and would become a glorious Astartes. From this day on, he would bid farewell to his secular life and wage war among the stars according to the will of humanity and the Lord of Trailblaze.
Now, in the Imperium's most turbulent hour, a son of the Emperor had finally stood up once more.
As time passed, hundreds of millions of people were transported from all corners of the galaxy to the handful of planets controlled by the Lord of Trailblaze. A new forge world was constructed. Mark X power armor, Terminator armor, Centurion armor, Leman Russ tanks, Hydras, and countless other vehicles and munitions were being produced, now arrayed in the various warehouses on Trailblaze.
A brand-new Solar Auxilia was also re-established, and they had already entered the time-accelerated chamber within the Thousand-Person Theater to begin their training.
All of this made Tiris's blood boil with excitement. The Astartes, who had been divided among various legions, were being reintegrated. Everything pointed to one conclusion: a new crusade was about to begin. And Tiris, leading a newly-formed Dark Angels force of over a thousand warriors, would be a part of it.
"My son, you must offer your loyalty to the Lord of Trailblaze and the Emperor. It is because of them that we can live such a life," Tiris's wife said, walking over to gently stroke her child's head.
They were now living a life they could never have imagined before. Hunger and cold were distant memories. The benevolent 996 system had moved countless workers and farmers to tears of gratitude, and they now threw themselves into their work with even greater passion in their private time. Production quotas were being pushed to new heights with every cycle. It was now rare for Zhou Ye to need to personally catalyze food supplies.
Although Tiris and his few battle-brothers had initially viewed each other with suspicion, the misunderstanding had since been resolved. He would now take up his mission once more—to step onto the battlefield again for the Emperor, for humanity, and for the Lord of Trailblaze.
It wasn't just his family. In the past few years, countless families had seen their children chosen to become something they had never dared to dream of: a demigod of the Emperor.
---o---
In the core of the city, within the basement of Zhou Ye's palace.
"Done. Finally, fucking done."
Looking at the device before him, he let out a sigh of relief. He glanced at Klee No. 3 beside him, who was also wiping sweat from her brow. Because one Klee was not enough, Zhou Ye had created new Armed Puppets. However, despite using the same technology, the new puppets' efficiency was nowhere near the original Klee's. In the end, after consulting with Klee, he had created a dozen more based on her template.
This finally freed him up enough to handle all the miscellaneous tasks. He had been so busy he hadn't even had time to formulate a new plan.
"The Imaginary Computer is complete. Phew..."
Zhou Ye breathed a sigh of relief as he gazed at the massive computer. One of the other shithole aspects of this universe was corruption. The ever-present, insidious corruption. On Terra, even the vellum used to record edicts had to be blessed, and one had to kowtow to it periodically, lest the contents be altered and corrupted by some unseen force.
Back on Aestia, Zhou Ye had encountered a book in the Ecclesiarchy that had been corrupted, changing the word "Emperor" to "Lord of Change" and tainting the entire church. So even Zhou Ye had to take certain precautions with his own records. While he himself wasn't afraid of it, and those he had... influenced... were also largely immune, a little caution never hurt.
This computer was no exception. He had established a direct link between it and his Paths. In the future, all his phones would connect to this computer via the Star Rail network, and its computational power would be colossal. Thanks to the nature of the Herrscher of Reason, Zhou Ye had integrated every absurdly powerful concept he could think of into it. This machine could be described as a synthesis of the Elysian Realm, a Martian noosphere, and the Simulated Universe.
A special AI worked in the background, assisting with processing all kinds of data. He had already rush-produced several hundred phones and data-slates, distributing them to key personnel to leverage the computer's power for their work.
As for the Chaos Gods trying to corrupt this thing? Zhou Ye figured if they could corrupt this machine, the Emperor might as well surrender, and the Adeptus Mechanicus could scrap all their Titan Legions.
"Now I can finally relax a bit. The AI's intelligence is still a bit weak, but it will accumulate data over time. And I've made preparations," Zhou Ye muttered, looking at the machine. True, his methods often bordered on the blasphemous, but that no longer mattered. He had prepared sufficient countermeasures. Corrupting this thing was a practical impossibility. Now, he could finally take it easy.
"Seriously, I was about to work myself to death. I even had to open up a section of the Thousand-Person Theater that was supposed to be for processing the Space Hulk."
Zhou Ye grumbled. It had happened one day when he was idly chatting with his head chef, Ashira. He had mentioned his workload, and Ashira had requested that a section be partitioned off. Now, countless Astartes and Solar Auxilia were in there, conducting accelerated joint training exercises.
As for the damned Codex Astartes, the rule about Space Marines not participating in civil administration, the complete separation from mortal armies—Zhou Ye had flushed it all down the toilet. The Horus Heresy had spiraled out of control mainly because of the four Chaos Gods. The secondary reason was the "peerless wisdom" of a certain psychic pony-man; it had little to do with Astartes governance.
In any case, Zhou Ye had now confirmed his approximate location in the galaxy. Once the Great Rift opened, his position would be within the Imperium Nihilus. Hiding completely would become difficult. The opening of the Great Rift would make the Warp more active everywhere, and new Mandeville Points would form in places that previously had none as the barrier between reality and the empyrean weakened. So, Zhou Ye had to prepare.
Then there was the population. He had originally thought he would slowly draw people from various hive worlds. But who knew there were so many planets that made hives look like paradise? The entire Lamenters Chapter had stopped going on crusades. These guys had brought him several hundred million people, though a tenth of them had been executed the moment they boarded the ships.
That tenth was a grab-bag of everything imaginable: miscellaneous cultists, Genestealers, mutants, psykers, Alpharius, a Custodian, and even some things related to the Rangdan Xenocides.
The black cells beneath Zhou Ye's feet were now just like the Shadowkeepers' vaults beneath the Imperial Palace on Terra, filled with a menagerie of monsters and demons. The Chaos Gods were clearly looking for him. Destroying the Chaos artifacts they sent was too risky, so he had to toss them into the prison and let Imaginary energy slowly neutralize them.
As for some of the others... Zhou Ye was at a loss for words. For example, that Custodian from the Emperor's Eyes... who the hell knows how he managed to sneak aboard disguised as an Ogryn. He was detected the moment he came aboard, instantly brought under control by the modified "Feathers of Crossing" I equipped my Armed Puppets with, and promptly thrown into a stasis field.
Zhou Ye's expression had been a picture when he saw the man's oiled abdominal muscles. After much thought, he had locked him up along with his dazzling golden armor. He'd deal with him whenever he finally had his showdown with the Golden Fiend. As for settling the immigrants, he simply dumped the job on the Lamenters. They hadn't been on a mission in a long time. The entire chapter, from Chapter Master Malakim Phoros down to the newest recruit—all five hundred plus of them—were now acting as scribes. Might as well see the rescue through to the end. The stupid rule about Astartes not governing? Zhou Ye treated it like a fart in the wind.
"Finally finished. Now I can get back to dismantling my Space Hulk. Right, let me check how many Space Marines I have now... DAMN!!!"
Looking at the data compiled by his computer, Zhou Ye couldn't help but curse.
A full twenty thousand. He had expanded his forces to that number without even realizing it. The Star of Trailblaze was beginning to evolve into a full-fledged Legion. Currently, half of his Astartes and hundreds of merchant convoys were shuttling back and forth along his Star Rails, intricately linking the dozen or so planets under his de facto control and conducting massive amounts of trade with the hundreds of Imperial worlds interspersed between them. Thanks to the convenience of the Star Rails, the profits were terrifyingly large.
Now, with a single command, Zhou Ye could see the prices of nearly every commodity on these hundreds of worlds and calculate the potential of each planet.
"Now I can finally collect the tithe properly. It will be calculated annually based on this data and collected once a year. This won't cause major disruption to the planets."
Looking at the computer, Zhou Ye had finally finished building his basic foundation.
"In this shithole of a universe, you really can't stop for a single second."
Glancing at the computer behind him, Zhou Ye yawned and left. With a flicker, he re-entered the Thousand-Person Theater. He had already processed more than half of the Space Hulk, disposing of all the miscellaneous junk within.
"Let's see, what should I do next? Should I make a new plan? But I feel like no matter what plan I make, it always goes wrong for some strange reason. Sigh..."
Zhou Ye shook his head. It was best to just keep developing his strength in secret. That was the only plan. He refused to believe that if he just stayed put this time, the galaxy-wide clusterfuck could somehow chase him down.
---o---
Meanwhile, on the other side of the galaxy, in the Sol System.
"Phew, we've finally arrived."
As the Black Ship slowly exited the Mandeville Point, Chris let out a sigh of relief. Warp travel was never a pleasant experience. If he had a choice, Chris would never enter the so-called Empyrean. That place was simply too bizarre.
"Next is to deliver this sword fragment to the Inquisition. The rest of this mess is none of my concern. This will definitely earn me a promotion. Even though I'm not from the Ordo Malleus, perhaps I'll get to liaise with the Grey Knights. The tide of Chaos is becoming more and more troublesome."
Chris sighed. It had only been a few years, yet he had already encountered the Daemon Primarchs Mortarion and Fulgrim. He had a feeling Chaos was planning something big. So, upon returning to Terra, he planned to warn his colleagues. The appearance of Fallen Primarchs after ten thousand years of absence, and the emergence of that mysterious new Primarch, made him incredibly tense.
But…
VMMMM!!!
The moment they exited the Mandeville Point, Chris froze. Red lights flashed throughout the ship. A beam of light shimmered, and a squad of golden-armored warriors materialized before him.
"Custodes?"
Chris stared, dumbfounded, at the golden-red giants. He never would have imagined that the instant he left the Mandeville Point, he would be ambushed. A squad of Adeptus Custodes had teleported directly onto his ship.
In that instant, a thousand thoughts raced through his mind. He even thought of his ancestors eighteen generations back.
"I haven't done anything to desecrate the Golden Throne, have I?" he thought, his mind flashing through recent events as he stared at the giants. As for Chaos artifacts, practically every Inquisitor possessed some. It wasn't a particularly well-kept secret. The Custodes couldn't be unaware of this, so they wouldn't go to such lengths just for the blasphemous items in his possession.
"Could it be... one of my Chaos artifacts is a dangerously powerful relic I don't even know about?"
"Inquisitor Chris, you will come with me to the High Lords Council on Terra. We require your report. A detailed report."
The Custodian Shield-Captain spoke calmly, looking at the utterly bewildered Chris. Without further ceremony, they escorted him and the sword fragment onto a dedicated Custodes vessel. The ship then shot forward without hesitation, vanishing in the blink of an eye.
Chris remained completely baffled. Why were the Custodes so worked up?
"Wait, could it be about that Primarch? But even that shouldn't warrant such a massive reaction. Don't tell me... it's a Fallen Primarch?"
Chris's mind began to race with wild speculation.