Ron had an impression of Admiral Mallen; he had met that high-ranking officer of the Imperial Navy some two hundred years ago.
Back then, Guilliman had formed the Indomitable Fleet, and Admiral Mallen had been the commander of the Calades Battle Group of the First Fleet.
He had led hundreds of warships and the Ultramarines into Imperium Nihilus to reclaim lost territory, pushing deep into the fringes of the Ultima Segmentum.
That had been the Imperium's first reclamation of fallen territory.
"Time really flies.
Two hundred years had passed, and the Imperium had undergone earth-shaking changes.
Yet part of the Indomitable Fleet left behind by the former Lord Regent still followed orders from two hundred years ago, fighting for the Imperium deep among the stars, in the dark fallen zones—"
Ron was rather moved.
There was no helping it. The Imperium's territory was simply too vast; even crossing it at the speed of light would take 100,000 years.
That showed the importance of Warp travel and the Webway. Otherwise, there was no way he could manage such an enormous Imperium of Man.
Even so, there were still many places the Imperium could not properly reach, especially the unreclaimed frontier regions.
In those places, fleets from the Indomitus Crusade and the Hope Crusade were still fighting on, reclaiming territory.
In certain godforsaken corners, the wars of the Horus Heresy were even still continuing.
Whether loyalist or rebel, none of them knew Horus was already dead, or that the war had already ended.
Admiral Mallen, along with the Ultramarines, Adepta Sororitas, Astra Militarum, and others in Phase Space, were the sort of forces that continued to fight on distant frontiers.
They had been unable to make contact with the Imperium and had all but been forgotten.
"After all, the Pariah Nexus is