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Chapter 277: The Iron Hands: How Could I Not Know If My Own Dad is Real or Fake?
🕑 Added 2025-09-06 13:33:52 +0000 UTCChapter 277: The Iron Hands: How Could I Not Know If My Own Dad is Real or Fake?
Guilliman's reorganization of the High Lords took a full year to conclude. The problems within the Administratum consumed a vast amount of his energy; the task of selecting new officials and restructuring the entire department was incredibly complex. A Primarch, in the end, is not a god. The chaos sown by the traitor legions was not over. The underhive population, living in hellish conditions, remained a constant and endless source of recruits for Chaos. The situation in Terra's underhives and sump-levels was far more complex than in any conventional hive world.
However, with Lucan's help, a combination of SCVs, Medics, ecological recycling systems, and a massive supply of mushroom-based food allowed Guilliman to gradually bring the situation under control. SCVs forcibly repaired the long-neglected air circulation and purification systems in the lower hives, Medics provided free treatment for the sick and injured, and ecological recycling technology even brought a touch of natural green to the sump. Most importantly, the changes to the food rations improved the quality of life for the masses.
Lucan chose not to take credit for this, instead attributing it to Guilliman. This made the citizens of Terra begin to believe that the return of the Primarch would truly change their lives for the better, making them less susceptible to the temptations of Chaos.
The last of the old High Lords to fall was Ecclesiarch Leyster. Relying on the prestige he had accumulated within the Ecclesiarchy and the special status of the organization itself, he put up a stubborn resistance to the very end. But in the end, he met his fate in an unexpected way.
His greatest mistake was to use the rumor spread by Slaaneshi cultists—that Ferrus Manus was no longer the real Ferrus—as his final act of defiance. If Ferrus had not yet entered the Throne Room to see the Emperor, this might have had some effect. But regardless of what his body had become, the Ferrus who had walked out of the Throne Room unscathed was the Ferrus acknowledged by the Emperor himself. He was still a Primarch of the Imperium.
The Iron Hands and two of their successor chapters, who had rushed from Medusa to reunite with their Primarch, were utterly enraged. The Ecclesiarchy, which on paper was no longer allowed to maintain its own military, was no match for a furious First Founding Chapter and its scions. They would absolutely not tolerate anyone questioning their Primarch. For ten thousand years, they had waited for his return.
I finally have a dad again, and you have the gall to say he's a fake?! How could I not know if my own dad is real or fake? Look at my dad's perfect machine body! Anyone who says he's fake has a problem with me!
Mechanical modification was certainly not considered heresy in the Imperium. It was just that a one-hundred-percent purely mechanical body with not a single shred of flesh was extremely rare. But many of the Iron Hands veterans were in a similar state already; they were essentially a bunch of Techmarines in power armor. In Ferrus's absence, the Iron Hands had also become a twisted bunch, consumed by hatred.
Without informing Ferrus, the current Chapter Master, Kardan Stronos, organized a strike force, charged directly into the Ecclesiarch's cathedral, and carried out a swift decapitation strike, killing Leyster on the Ecclesiarchal Throne he so cherished.
In the aftermath, the Iron Hands Chapter received only a symbolic punishment from Ferrus and Guilliman. After all, Leyster had been desperate enough to slander a Primarch.
Looking at his fanatically devoted sons, Ferrus felt a massive headache coming on. The Iron Hands' acceptance of his mechanical body was astonishingly high. Was this not the mechanical ascension that the current Iron Hands so fervently pursued? Ferrus's current state was proof that the path they were on was the correct one.
But looking at the state of his sons, Ferrus, who had always championed the supremacy of humanity, felt no joy at all. Yet there was nothing he could do. He had no way of changing his own body, and his sons were inevitably developing in a direction he had never wished for. He could only resolve in his heart that he must find a way to regain a body of flesh and blood that could house his soul.
In the end, all the seats of the High Lords were filled with people Guilliman trusted.
After becoming a High Lord, Lucan presented Guilliman with his first gift: the quantum communication system. Compared to the potential instability that the warp drive could bring to the Imperium, the negative side effects of this technology were much lower.
With Guilliman's push, the Adeptus Astra Telepathica also began to be reorganized within that year. The appearance of quantum communications put a large number of Astropaths "out of a job." To maintain stability for this group, Guilliman began to merge the Scholastia Psykana with the Adeptus Mechanicus to create a new department responsible for communications, compensating for the loss of power within the old institution. The Master of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica had no major objections. Besides training Astropaths, his organization also trained official psykers for various other Imperial duties. They still retained a portion of their power related to communications, and although their influence was diminished, they no longer had to face the extreme dangers of the warp. Astrotelepathy was not a pleasant job; every transmission was a torment to both mind and body.
For this technology, Lucan generously stated that he would not charge any fees for the necessary planets. His own Dynasty and the Cult of the Holy Machine would manufacture and install the systems for free. Compared to the other factions in the galaxy, humanity's means of communication were the most severely constrained, and also the most needed. The existence of Enigmatic Engineering meant that Lucan did not have to worry about this technology being cracked.
Lucan's generosity was also driven by self-interest. Only by promoting quantum communication technology throughout the Imperium could he proceed with the next phase of his plan. Free infrastructure is never truly free; it often comes with other political objectives and needs.
That benefit was the Warhammer world's "Internet" that Lucan had long envisioned. He hoped to use it to connect the seemingly unified but actually fractured Imperium. Humanity would then be able to unleash a power far beyond its current capabilities. If successful, this medieval empire wearing the cloak of a star-spanning one could finally achieve true central governance and real-time monitoring of its subordinate worlds. It could quickly access and allocate the vast resources of the Imperium. The massive empire did not lack resources; too much was simply wasted. If there were too few users, then this "Warhammer Web" would lose its meaning. Only with enough users could Lucan derive the greatest benefit from it.
During this year, Guilliman also began to change the policies that had been in place since before his slumber, such as the Codex Astartes. However, reforming a tome that had been followed by the Astartes for ten thousand years was not so easy. To suddenly be told that something you have always followed is wrong had a severe impact on the various Chapters.
Cawl, as he had promised Guilliman, had also begun to bring the Primaris Space Marines he had been working on for millennia to the Imperium, along with a large supply of Primaris gene-seed.
With the help of Lucan's nano-med guns, the process of upgrading the first batch of Ultramarines to Primaris was extremely smooth. The failure rate was suppressed to its lowest point. As long as a marine was mentally qualified, the surgery could be successfully performed. Any physical complications during the process could be corrected with the nano-med guns. And most Astartes were already mentally tough enough; otherwise, they would never have become Astartes in the first place.
On Guilliman's orders, teams led by the Custodes, carrying Primaris gene-seed, nano-med guns, and newly-produced quantum communication devices, were dispatched to the various Chapters and planets. As per Lucan's request, 2,000 sets of gene-seed were also sent to the Mongorte Dynasty, allowing the Blood Ravens Chapter within his domain to expand its numbers once again. Lucan also planned to have his Night Sentinels undergo the upgrade to improve their combat effectiveness and survivability on the battlefield.
