Under Tom's unusually remorseful account, Mordred finally understood what had happened—and, if he put it that way, he was partly to blame as well.
With Serenity's population base far too small, Atlas had spent the past two years recruiting people like mad to meet the demands of daily operations and fill the population void on Serene World.
So after the Eighth Company Captain volunteered, Mordred entrusted him with the immigration work. Tom lived up to that trust, taking his slave-catching... ah, no, his immigration squad and following behind the other legions to pick out recruits.
It should have been a wonderful arrangement. Serene World was undergoing comprehensive development and needed people everywhere. And with the Great Crusade in full swing, what it had in abundance were newly annexed colonies.
From Mordred's perspective, the Imperium of Man was an interstellar power, yet its systems could not even be called backward. They were practically inferior to an advanced feudal system.
Rather than tying people's living standards entirely to how humanely their planetary governors behaved, they might as well come under his command to build planets. At least they would have enough communal food to eat, with the occasional extra serving of Serene Wandering Chicken.
In theory, this approach had every benefit and no drawbacks. The Second Legion gained population, ordinary civilians escaped the turmoil of war, and even the other legions could obtain supplies while Tom hauled people back and forth. It was practically Qin Shi Huang playing landlord with one family—three winners at once!
However, the subsequent developments went unexpectedly wrong, just as expected.
Seeing how beautifully Tom handled the work, Mordred followed the imperial tradition of using a useful tool to death and gave Tom another position—that of recruiting officer—so he could select promising candidates from among the immigrants to replenish the legion's ranks.
But after considering everything except one crucial point, Mordred overlooked the origin of his own Eighth Company Captain, Klaus Tom. That brat had returned from studying abroad with the Eighth Legion.
The Eighth Legion had developed from an initial pool of recruits drawn from Terra's underground Hive Cities. It did not take a genius to guess what sort of legion it was. Aside from maintaining fealty, nearly every member was a villain.
Tom had grown up in that sort of environment. It was only thanks to Mordred's powerful gene-seed that he had not become a lunatic himself.
After receiving Mordred's appointment, Tom began to think. Picking people from among the refugees was too troublesome. Anyone who could be taken down in one sweep by the Imperium, even if they were good laborers, was bound to be a weakling. He might as well recruit from a Death World.
So, which Death World was closest to Serene World?
The answer was Catachan!
After arriving on the planet the Emperor himself had discovered by personally performing a boarding action, Tom found the red-headbanded men there exceptionally tough. Even if they could not become Space Marines, they were still first-rate recruits for the auxiliary forces.
Even better, Tom discovered that Catachan was practically a natural training ground. Anyone who could survive there for half a year without dying could be mass-produced into a mighty warrior. For a while, he felt as though Heaven had given him a cheat that let him farm points.
Whenever he imagined bringing back a huge number of recruits and receiving praise from his father in front of all his brothers, Tom grew so excited that he went berserk. It took skinning several dinosaurs to calm him down.
But a new problem arose. The Second Legion's gene-seed compatibility was simply too low. On Catachan, that hellhole that even the Emperor would shake his head at, the human population was not even as large as Serene World's. It could not possibly meet the recruiting demand.
At that moment, the influence of Tom's studies with the Eighth Legion became apparent. He came up with an idea so astonishing it could shake the world: capture people from other Death Worlds, then throw them onto Catachan to play wilderness survival. Would that not allow them to mass-produce mighty warriors?
Hearing this, Mordred could no longer hold himself back. He grabbed the little brat and gave him a thorough beating, chopping and stewing him like firewood while cursing:
"Tom, you really are a damn genius! I suspect your intelligence is as high as 250."
"Thank you for the praise, Father. To be honest, your former subordinates all praised me for being smart." Perhaps he considered this some great achievement, because even while being reprimanded, Tom wore a proud expression.
This only made Mordred angrier. He knew better than anyone what his former subordinates were like. They were either Ogryns or Dog-men, and even the smartest among them was Rambo, that big black dog.
"Enough, enough. Hurry up and tell me what happened afterward. I don't want to hear about your thought process. I'm afraid I'll catch something from you, you white-skinned Ogryn. Get to the point!"
Tom shrank his neck and continued:
"But all the Death Worlds with good recruits already had owners. The other legions thought the same way, so I had to look for one myself.
"Thanks to your power, Father, we were able to make safe jumps through the Warp. I kept searching until I reached an unknown sector, where I saw a planet covered in lava, with an especially huge moon beside it."
"An especially huge moon? And covered in lava?" Mordred seemed to know where it was.
Sure enough, Tom's next words confirmed his guess.
"The planet was called Nightfall by the local natives. After I arrived in that world, I discovered it was filled with High Temperature radiation. The humans there were extremely tough, with vitality that was off the charts. Aside from having very dark skin, they were perfect recruiting candidates."
"So you went down there and captured people?"
"Yes! And for the sake of sustainable development, whenever I found a clan, I only took one-tenth of its people and left behind enough supplies for them to recover.
"But instead of being grateful, they called me some kind of Daemon and said their guardian would destroy me.
"I didn't pay much attention at first. After all, no one knew whether this guardian was merely a local legend. But just as I was preparing to withdraw, a huge black monster wearing armor decorated with all kinds of bones came rushing out, waving a massive iron hammer and shouting nonsense.
"Then we decided to tease the big idiot. We opened fire with the Stormbird's autocannons and pounded him for ages. We had no idea what he was saying, but we could tell he was furious. He pointed at us and shouted in Hidden Language!"
By this point, Mordred was completely numb. To make Vulkan so furious that he started hurling abuse—you had really done a fine job!
"Perhaps he was too agitated, because that big black fellow actually tried to throw a stone at us. Heaven knows how he managed to throw it so high, but it smashed the Stormbird's glass.
"This was the Stormbird I had just received. Such behavior meant he was no ordinary native. We had to Strike Hard, so I launched two Death Strike Missiles.
"But that monster had far too much blood. The explosions didn't kill him. He even flipped us off, so I called in an orbital bombardment."
"..."
Mordred was speechless. He even suspected that this bastard had been the one to suggest shooting him with a Lance back then.
"Tom, I really want to beat you to death. Just wait. I'll deal with you when I get back. What are you standing around for? Hurry up and assemble the troops and take me there!"
"Oh, right. Remember to protect the group we captured from Nightfall Star. Treat them as well as you would treat me. And that Stormbird—have it hauled away and scrapped."
Still feeling uneasy, Mordred summoned Joseph and ordered him to keep a close eye on the Eighteenth Legion's movements and ensure that not a single detail leaked out.
"Oh, dear. This absolutely must not get out. Vulkan, my brother whom I've never met—your Resurrection Armor had better be working!"
Before you continue