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Chapter 157: After Ten Thousand Years, It's Time for a Change
🕑 Added 2025-09-18 12:04:06 +0000 UTCChapter 157: After Ten Thousand Years, It's Time for a Change
There is never a smooth and easy war. In this universe, there is only bad news and worse news.
The Ultramar defense line, built around the ocean fortress world of Tyros as its core, composed of nearly five thousand Astartes, mostly Ultramarines, including dozens of Imperial capital ships and one hundred and twenty Astra Militarum regiments, had been torn to shreds.
High Marshal Helbrecht sighed inwardly.
Although the complete annihilation of the Imperial Navy in the Ultramar sector was a bad thing, surprisingly, he had finally found a familiar feeling of past battles in it.
The crusade fleet's offensive had been far too smooth, so smooth that it didn't seem like something the Imperium could accomplish.
As expected, the situation in the Ultramar sector was the normal standard for the M41 Imperium.
The normal situation in the past was: the sector defense fleet is completely wiped out—the enemy and our forces begin a stalemate around the sector—the sector government receives the news and reports it, and Terra spends a few years or a few decades to deal with it—due to the efficiency of information transmission, the support from the Astra Militarum, Astartes, and Adeptus Mechanicus arrives one after another, both sides gradually increase their stakes, and the intensity of the war gradually rises with the passage of time—
By the time the next round of support from the Imperial Navy arrived, the planet would either have been retaken through the heroic sacrifice of the Imperial soldiers, or it would have already fallen to Chaos, or been plundered by xenos.
It was rare for them to arrive in time.
And the beginning of all this tragic sacrifice—
It was a problem that could have been easily solved if the Imperial Navy had just "cautiously analyzed the strength of both sides, fought around the planet's anti-aircraft system, and fired a couple of shots at the planet's surface after winning the space battle."
Anyway, he felt that the reason for the defeat was definitely not unrelated to the Navy going off on its own, or some faction arbitrarily changing the defensive line, or the Terra government redeploying troops, which had caused a series of chain reactions, to the point where Ultramar had to send an urgent request for aid.
"Lord Romulus," Helbrecht began.
"Speak," Romulus said, taking a deep breath. As the initiator of the meeting, he had even forgotten that everyone had arrived, and was still pondering the problem.
The four lords should have some understanding of the Imperium, especially the one who was in charge of the entire crusade, who had also spent a lot of effort to integrate a series of combat experiences, compile them into a manual, and then send them to Calgar on Macragge through a special channel of the Inquisition.
Helbrecht looked at the seemingly calm expression, but from the tightly furrowed brow, he saw an emotion of deep-seated grief.
To be able to see through all the enemy's moves, and still have practical guidance, and still fight like this...
It was a good thing the elders did not know the current environment of the Imperium. He estimated that when the detailed battle report analysis came out, to be able to maintain a mentality like Lord Romulus's would be considered good self-cultivation.
"I will use the Black Templars' emergency contact protocol to understand what happened in Ultramar."
Helbrecht didn't know what else to say. He could only do what he could. The Black Templars' footprints were all over the galaxy. Almost all five of the Segmentums had their fleets. Long before everyone had decided to aid Macragge, there had been two small fleets that had not received the Emperor's call, patrolling the North Ultramar sector. They were now fighting under the command of the Master of Ultramar, Chapter Master Calgar of the Ultramarines. They should be able to bring back first-hand news from the battlefield.
"The Inquisition will also use its own channels to gather evidence and restore the truth of the incident as much as possible," Aglaia quickly added. She had quite a few information channels recently. The direct contact method of the Grand Master of the Officio Assassinorum, and the various High Lord councils had also more or less granted her authority, hoping that she could make a good contribution to the Imperium.
One could only say that she was thankful that the crusade fleet was willing to bring her along to play. A large pile of benefits had just fallen into her lap. The phone number of the Grand Master of the Assassinorum... under normal circumstances, she shouldn't have known it until she died.
Many of her colleagues in the Ordo Originatus were already trying to curry favor with her, just hoping that in their future historical research activities, they could get more support.
Sigh, to be able to act with the crusade fleet is such a wonderful thing.
But now, someone wanted to cause trouble. Someone intended to add a stain to this crusade, which should have been completed with absolute victory and glory from beginning to end.
"If you have any questions about information gathering, you can come to me," she said directly, seeking stability in all things.
Aglaia of course knew where her power came from, so she had never thought of stirring up trouble. She was not a psyker of the divination school, always suspicious.
Stable. Stably handle the duties arranged by the Imperium, stably do her own job well, stably assist the crusade fleet in winning the crusade—and then, stably retire!
Continuously reviewing the news of the collapse of the Macragge defense line, still thinking about what information she could dig out of it, Aglaia's eyes showed a slight nervousness.
"She seems to be thinking about other things," Karna reminded him.
"Her villa is in the Ultramar sector, on the agri-garden world of Astria," Arthur replied on the internal channel they had accessed. "It's a private space that covers 39% of the garden world's coastline and occupies an area of over twenty-six million square kilometers."
At first, he had wondered why Aglaia cared so much about a villa. Why, after becoming an Inquisitor, was she still so attached to it?
After some understanding, he found that he had been presumptuous.
In the vast domain of the Imperium, there were only a few hundred garden worlds in total. Aglaia had directly obtained one ten-thousandth of the ownership. For this, besides spending all her savings, she also owed a pile of favors to the various high lords of the Imperium.
If she didn't constantly think about it, it would be really unreasonable.
"Then I will trouble you," Romulus said, trying to concentrate his mind. Seeing that everyone had arrived, and that they had all understood the current situation from Drakus's earlier reminder, he didn't say much more. After all, it was just a notification. The specific details of the incident could not be sent.
"Order the Navigators to begin plotting a course. We will depart first."
"Yes, my Lord!"
The various commanders quickly left, returning to their respective fleets.
The command center of the Dawnlight was suddenly left with only the four transmigrators, and their overt and covert personal guards.
"Sigh."
Romulus sighed, his expression quickly collapsing, his face full of melancholy. A question was deeply circling in his mind.
'Is this right?'
The part of him that understood the Imperium was telling him, "Yes, yes." The part that was rational and logical was telling him, "No, no."
How can we lose this?
How can we possibly lose this battle?
Because he had not yet received the detailed battle report, Romulus could only, based on the known combat power of the Ultramar sector, continuously simulate in his mind, continuously simulating the ways the Hive Fleet could break through the Ultramar blockade. And the result was increasingly unacceptable to him.
It was pure torture.
And Karna's smile had also disappeared.
The reason was simple.
Aside from the fact that they had fought a crusade for various reasons and had earned enough reputation to lay the foundation for their own unknown future, there had been no fundamental change in this Imperium.
Have they changed in all these years?
No!
If the various abstract problems of the Imperium were not solved, then even if they kept winning, winning all the way to the edge of the galaxy, when they looked back, the entire front would be exploding.
The Solar Lord, Macharius himself, was an exceptionally painful lesson.
"After the Battle of Ultramar is over, no matter how urgent the matter, it must make way for our plans," Romulus said, his face more serious than ever.
It was really impossible to expand outwards anymore. If the Imperium could fight like this on its own turf, then it had to be governed first.
In the future, the tax issue would also have to be "properly communicated" with the Terra side. He could accept paying taxes. He could accept going to support the Imperial worlds that were under attack, such as Cadia. It was worth it to throw any amount of resources into it. It wasn't even out of the question to go and provide aid to those remote sectors.
But, the Dawnbreakers had to be able to decide where these taxes should be used.
As long as it wasn't used in their own sector, right?
"Understood."
The three of them nodded seriously.
They had all directly experienced the consequences of excessive military specialization. Although such an operation had effectively avoided the appearance of a collective rebellion, the internal ideological confusion had also directly led to the Imperium's handling of various emergencies being exceptionally ugly.
Such a situation absolutely could not occur in their nation.
Ten thousand years...
The few of them looked at each other, then clenched their fists.
It was time for a change.
The Inquisitorial fleet's Invincible-class battleship, the Magnificent.
Inquisitor Aglaia always gave people the feeling that she was in a busy state, and often, it even made people subconsciously feel that she was relatively easy to fool. Her face never showed any frightening expressions, and she rarely used force to compel others to do things they were unwilling to do.
But this never meant that she was not dangerous.
In fact, as the only surviving apprentice of the most powerful Grand Inquisitor of the Ordo Originatus, Aglaia could be said to have single-handedly completed the consolidation of her own political power on Terra, and had sent all of her noble-born competitors to the Imperial Administratum.
She was, of her class, the first, and the only, Throne Agent to walk out of the library with the status of an Inquisitor.
And it was precisely because of her methods and abilities that were so astonishing that when the high-level officials of the Administratum on Terra mentioned this Inquisitor, the first reaction in their minds was not that she was the Grand Inquisitor's apprentice, not the glory of the Ordo Originatus, but she herself.
Under Aglaia's command was a group of spies called the "Grey Hats." These nameless individuals, from the Terran nobility, with their own respective goals, patrolled Terra and the entire galaxy for her, searching for all valuable information and historical texts, as well as establishing connections with the various high-level officials.
And it was for this very reason that she could, upon learning of the crusade fleet on Terra for the first time, seamlessly take over a series of tasks issued by Terra.
Did you really think that the High Lords, whose personal professional qualities had reached the pinnacle of humanity, could be fooled just by you writing a pile of reports of unknown authenticity?
Fooling them was not a problem. But the prerequisite was that you had to do a good job and satisfy your leader. Only then would you be qualified to have them turn a blind eye.
But at this moment, this Inquisitor-Lord was indeed feeling a tension that was second only to the time on Pierdra.
Aglaia was grateful for her past, which had given her the chance to survive to this day.
After all, not every psyker in their childhood, after experiencing an incursion by the Black Ships of the Arbites, could still, under the careful screening of the Custodes, keep their life and then become an Inquisitor.
Compared to her colleagues, Aglaia believed she was much more emotionally stable, had excellent discernment ability, had a specific understanding of her own capabilities, and her professional ability was not bad. She could quickly find a suitable position in a group.
Because she would discern, not just rely on intuition to handle certain things.
Fortunately, she also had this talent.
This had allowed her to survive the silent slaughter in the library during her youth, and had also allowed her to form a deep friendship with a considerable number of nobles who had been tormented by their family environment until they were no longer human.
Aglaia believed that all of this was a result of her childhood experiences, and at the same time, she couldn't help but marvel at her own luck.
In her childhood, the Emperor's Custodes had given her a chance. And after she had grown up, Lord Arthur had also given her such a chance. Otherwise, she would have long since died because of this damned psyker identity.
Aglaia sincerely believed that others, the children who were similar to her, should also have such a right. She was also trying, trying to see if a better environment could nurture better people.
So Aglaia had chosen Ultramar, chosen a garden world.
She had used her connections, hired the best teachers, arranged the best growing environment for them, and then had sent her subordinates, who had suffered a similar fate, to send the psykers she had personally screened over.
From the Emperor's Custodes, to herself, and then to what she had seen and heard on her journey, it all proved that she seemed to be on a correct path.
But she seemed to have overlooked a problem.
Looking at the planet far away from the viewport, one side of Optus's fortress was already under the sun's rays.
The magnificent building had been turned into ruins. What should have been a rich gold was now, because of the fires of war, a monotonous iron-gray.
This was war. It only brought destruction.
No matter how brilliant the spark, it would be left with nothing under the grinding of a war that destroyed nations and races.
"Lady Aglaia."
As a Grey Hat, whose entire face was hidden in a holographic image, entered through the door, Aglaia had a bad premonition.
The crusade fleet left Optus just like that.
The various parties began to collect information about the destruction of the "Macragge defensive line" through their respective channels, and would then have specific discussions in a series of meetings. This would be a long process.
The reason was also very simple.
Limited by the vastness of the Imperial domain and the abstractness of information transmission, no matter how anxious the transmigrators were, they could only order their fleet to head to Macragge first. After all, besides this one urgent message, everyone's specific understanding of the Ultramar sector was still at the "stable and improving" stage from their previous daily communications.
And then they had received a big one.
In short, because of the incomplete information in their hands, for now, besides increasing their travel speed, the fleet could do nothing.
Fortunately, the Emperor protected. Although the Navy had ultimately pulled a big one, which had directly led to its own complete annihilation, the crusade fleet's stable voyage had still not been interfered with by the great enemy of Chaos.
The Navigators could still stably determine the time of arrival at Ultramar.
The crusade fleet would continue to head south, first to the forge world of Tigrus, which was south of the homeworld of the Blades of Obsidian Chapter. There, Archmagos Cawl had prepared the final round of supplies for everyone. Then, they would prepare to pass through the northern space of the ancient Five Hundred Worlds of Ultramar—a mysterious space that had not yet entered the Imperium's sight, shielded by a Warp storm.
The fleet would pass through there at its fastest speed and then aid Ultramar.
