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Chapter 162: Oh No, It's Karma
🕑 Added 2025-09-21 13:19:22 +0000 UTCChapter 162: Oh No, It's Karma
"Fortunately, the T'au have many allied races. The coordinates of these planets can be found," Ramesses said, his fingers sliding across the floating holographic star-chart, psychic fire coiling around his fingertips like fireflies. He then delivered a piece of news that was neither good nor bad, his voice calm but with a subtle tension, as if weighing some invisible cost.
"Don't tell me we really have to draw lots one by one?" Romulus's face froze, not even an eyebrow twitching. If they happened to stumble upon a Kroot world, they might get bogged down. Any race that had clashed with the human Imperium during the Great Crusade and had survived was no simple matter.
"Burn some daemons. Help me calculate it. We need some time for a refit anyway," Ramesses said, initiating a prophecy ritual again. The light of the ritual spread at his feet, like flowing mercury, making his profile flicker between light and shadow.
"..."
Arthur said nothing, just gave Romulus a slight nod and then turned and left.
The internal affairs of the fleet were piling up, and the Dark Angels' accounting ceremony was still ongoing—scratching each other's claws, sniffing each other's breath, abandoning silent and cryptic words in favor of a fist-to-flesh exchange to prove their mutual loyalty.
When this ritual was over, he would have to personally meet with the Fallen Angels who had been coming to him one after another.
I feel like I'll be the first among the Dawnbreakers to officially form a legion.
Standing before the terrace, looking at the Dark Angels who were conducting a ceremonial meditation not far away, Arthur looked at the list Zabriel had given him. The number of Fallen Angels who had responded had already reached five hundred. If they all arrived, it would be an entire Dark Angels Chapter.
And then there was Alpharius...
'A Grand Company, numbering between 1,000 and 2,000, with nine captains, Hydra being one of them.'
Arthur narrowed his eyes.
This Alpha Legion, which seemed to have fallen to Chaos but had not, still required investigation. Its structure was still intact, but its internal problems were as tangled as a spider's web.
Among them were traitors who had to pretend to be loyalists, those who had completely betrayed, and even those who seemed loyal but were actually traitors, and... the true, loyal Alpharius.
They called themselves the "Eyes of Humanity" and operated in the central and southern regions of the Ultima Segmentum. Relying on their powerful intelligence network and secret infiltration, they had quietly infiltrated a large number of the Imperium's Schola Progenium.
"..."
This Imperium is like a sieve. Heretics and xenos can just come and go as they please.
These Alphas would disguise themselves as loyalist Astartes Chapters, go to these regions to recruit human neophytes or mortal agents, in order to complete the great plan of the Hydra's sons.
Although this great plan, just like the Dark Angels' little secret, was extremely mysterious.
At the very least, Ramesses had dug through Hydra's soul several times, and this so-called great plan was for the continuation of humanity. As for the rest, it was not very clear.
As long as they didn't turn to Chaos and didn't pull any stunts that challenged the bottom line, the transmigrators' tolerance for rebellion or non-rebellion was relatively high. And among the traitor legions, these who had not turned to Chaos were indeed much more cunning than the legions with pointed heads and unclear minds.
'Planning to use a borrowed chicken to lay eggs, huh.'
Looking at the insignia on one of the Dark Angels at Hydra's side, and analyzing the information within it, Arthur smiled.
Hydra was currently tentatively proposing a neophyte recruitment plan to the Legion and was, to a certain extent, displaying their control over the Imperial government in that sector. As long as Arthur nodded, a steady stream of qualified neophyte aspirants would be input into the crusade fleet.
However, the origin of the gene-seed was another matter.
Hydra had been paying close attention to the Apothecarion formed by the Redeeming Angels. It was clear that he intended to intervene in the Dark Angels' neophyte recruitment. He had recently been assisting Romulus with administrative affairs and had a clear understanding of the crusade fleet's financial strength and some of its secrets. It was not strange for him to have this idea.
Right now, even the Imperium itself couldn't pull out a fully mechanized force composed of Stormbirds, Mastodon transports, and various super-heavy vehicles.
"This ship is getting more and more lively."
Watching the Dark Angels, who had completed their meditation, disperse, and Hydra, after looking left and right, finally enter his office with his documents, Arthur turned and left.
"Bros!"
A few minutes after Arthur had left, another voice sounded in the transmigrators' hut.
Having finally dealt with the clingy sons of the Angel and now able to set up his own little nest, Karna pushed open the door.
"Your emperor has returned."
"Hmm."
"Yo."
The two who were still busy gave a symbolic wave, signaling for Karna to stay on the side for now.
"What's with the long faces?"
With a wave of his hand, he set up a pile of furniture and then moved closer.
"We're looking for an important planet of the T'au Empire. We're afraid of finding one of their xenos allied race's planets instead," Romulus explained, looking up, his pen not stopping for a second, like a broom sweeping at high speed. "Our goal is to get the Slipstream Module, and then cross the Damocles Gulf to bring that fleet up to support Ultramar. We can't get bogged down."
They had a rough idea of the T'au Empire's actual combat strength. The Vespids and the like were fine, but the other allied races were all sorts of monsters and fiends. Who knew what kind of dirty tricks they had.
"Is the timeline of the Warp non-existent?" Karna asked, plopping down.
"Theoretically, yes," Ramesses replied, handing data to Romulus.
"Then just go and search for the Bork'an Sept world," Karna said, gnawing on a chicken wing. "I remember this planet wasn't originally a T'au planet. The original inhabitants couldn't possibly be psychically weak."
Bork'an. The Sept world had once been the homeworld of a xenos species called the Piktons. This xenos was the first alien ally the T'au Empire had incorporated during its expansion. But the strange thing was that after the T'au had begun to live with the Piktons, the Piktons, who had lived on their homeworld for who knows how many years, had suddenly been collectively wiped out by a mysterious plague.
And the local T'au had, coincidentally, been immune to this disease, and had remained safe and sound from beginning to end, and had continued to reproduce on this planet.
This incident was also recorded in the Black Library.
"..."
Ramesses immediately narrowed his dead-fish eyes and looked at Romulus.
Damn it, I got sidetracked by you, complicating a simple problem.
My little pixies!
Don't you know how hard it is to catch high-quality little pixies now? The environment in the Warp is getting more and more tense, and it's getting harder and harder to reach out.
Recently, Vashtorr has also discovered something is wrong and has started to attack me. I'm even considering finding a new supplier.
"Don't look at me. I really didn't think of it," Romulus said, rubbing his temples with a pained look. "There's really a lot going on recently. You know how abstract Imperial affairs are."
"I know. But brother, you can't be assimilated," Ramesses sighed, extinguishing the flame in his hand, and then inputting the keywords into the Warp.
In the park, the daemons began to work diligently under the command of the "Lord of the Formless."
The random culling that had terrified the daemons had finally ended.
For now.
"Found it."
A moment later, Ramesses opened his eyes.
At the same instant, the planetary coordinates also immediately appeared on Romulus's processing panel.
As long as the Warp-presence was slightly obvious, everything was easy.
"Understood." Romulus nodded, received the message, and then quickly issued a command.
[Xenos planet coordinates have been acquired. All ship Navigators are to quickly plan a course.]
[Final refit duration is 39 Terran hours. The crusade fleet will then depart.]
[Begin countdown now!]
(End of Chapter)
