The Arrival of the Stranger
"How dare he treat me like this? He bullied me when we were in the Empire, and he still bullies me now that we're no longer here. What does he take me for?"
"Dorn, you speak!"
"They're family."
Perturabo fell silent, a surge of impotent rage Burning Fiercely within her. Strangely Dorn's words had certainly broken her.
"Impossible. If he considered me family, he wouldn't order me around like that and threaten me with my sister. He's more despicable than Emperor."
"So what's your choice? Anyway, your sister is in the hands of the Second Son. Since you know what kind of person he is, why don't you think about what will happen to Kalliphenni if you fail to complete the mission?"
"And I must remind you, Magnus and I have been working with Mordred for a long time. We knew about the dangers of Chaos even before you did. While there's still time, why don't you surrender?"
"Surrender? I, Perturabo, never surrender. I will take back everything I've lost, not because of Kalliphenni, but to prove I can do it."
"So what exactly did you lose?"
"Shut up, why are you talking so much? If we can't open up the T'au Star Sector in five years, and even if Kalliphenni loses a single hair, you just wait, Dorn, I won't let you get away with this."
Dorn remained silent, simply watching Perturabo use his left brain to attack his right brain, uttering incomprehensible words, while he himself enjoyed this last moment of leisure.
On the other hand, Terra didn't care at all whether Perturabo would obey Mordred. In any case, the Empire's next large-scale military operations would focus on the T'au Star Sector.
If Pepe and does her work obediently, he'll punch her less; if she doesn't, he'll punch her more. In short, she's definitely going to get a beating.
That's how operations work. The breakthrough from zero to one is the hardest. It's incredibly difficult to make 100 yuan from 1 yuan, but it's much easier to make 10,000 yuan from 100 yuan, even with the same 100-fold difference.
Ever since Abaddon, the Chaos Warmaster who Victorious in a Hundred Battles in a single battle, declared that the era of the Primarchs was over, Guilliman awoke the moment the Great Rift opened.
In these short 30 years, with Guilliman's awakening, Primarchs have returned one after another, and now the Imperium has seven Primarchs, all of whom are still alive.
Initially, the three leaders of the Second Imperium needed to launch a surprise attack on Terra to purge the court of corrupt officials, but now that's no longer necessary. With its snowballing growth, the Imperial Army has increased to an unprecedented level.
Thirty years is a short time, but it is also a long time for ordinary people. It can be said to be the time it takes to train a generation, and it is also enough to train two batches of Space Marine in full.
Atlas's total military strength reached 21,000 men. Although this was less than the 70% of the logistical support it provided during the peak of the Great Crusade, it was more than enough for this half of the empire.
Moreover, Atlas relies not only on Space Marine; Canned One are merely the sharpest spearhead. Its true strength lies in the entire Atlas military-industrial complex.
Spartan Project is on track, the Lizardmen are gradually recovering, lost technologies are being restored one by one, and the number of ships is being put into use at an annual growth rate of five percent. Not to mention the Astra Militarum, which is the cornerstone of the Empire.
With the Legion's return, these ordinary yet valiant soldiers will work alongside Astartes, gaining access to superior weaponry and equipment.
The Imperials are not afraid of death, but they are afraid of dying meaninglessly. Faced with an invincible enemy, the soldiers can only fight with their lives. However, due to communication, transportation, logistics, and even the sabotage of various forces, one messy battle after another is fought.
It's not that the soldiers are incompetent, nor that the commanders are incapable; quite the opposite, it's that they are too capable, so capable that they only believe they are right, that only they are Fealty, and that everyone else is Vermin, an Ambition, or a piece of trash.
With each person possessing an average of 800 cunning schemes, and with internal wars being even more brutal than external wars, and with everyone being a master of internal warfare, the empire managed to hold out for a full 10,000 years. Its resources were truly exceptional.
With the Primarch's return, even a scoundrel like Sisyphus will gain everyone's loyalty. After all, the Primarch is the Primarch, the Son of the Emperor, born with leadership, filling the void that has always been missing in the Imperial system: trust!
Perhaps due to the unfolding of the Great Rift, humanity is rapidly evolving into a Psychic Power race, and the compatibility rate of Atlas's Gene-Seed has increased considerably, reaching at least a passable level.
Five years later, the recruits who had been working themselves to the bone at the Catachan training camp would be assigned to their companies, Mordred was confident that he could bring Atlasian past 30,000.
There will be even more legions with high compatibility rates with other Gene-Seed. At that time, the Empire will begin the second phase of the Indomitable Expedition, reclaiming the Storm Sector and T'au Star Sector and launching an initial expedition against the Imperium Nihilus.
The existing foundation has been laid to a near certain extent. Once a full-scale war begins, the various legions will grow rapidly like a snowball, sustaining the war effort through warfare.
Everything was going well; Mordred, now with some free time, had already begun preparing for the Aeldari's annexation plan. But unexpectedly, Perturabo suddenly appeared, bringing Dorn with him.
Looking at Gregor, who seemed oblivious to his own purpose and unaware of what he should be doing, Mordred thought to himself, "This is truly a stroke of luck. I'm short-handed right now, so the Iron Warriors can finally be formed."
"Gregor, come with me in a bit. We're going to change your Paint Scheme. From now on, you're Iron Warriors. You'll be Atlas for now."
"Huh? Your Great Commander, but we are Iron Warriors!"
"So what? I don't care if you're the Imperial Fists or the Iron Warriors. You haven't done anything heinous. At worst, we'll just expand the legion."
Pointing to Abo Sister, who was still sitting blankly on the armrest of the Golden Throne, Mordred felt bewildered. He grabbed this Canned One that didn't even know who her Primarch was and walked out. "When you get back, conduct a full genetic test within the Legion. The Imperial Fists will be under the command of the Black Templars from now on. Pick out people like you and form the Iron Warriors."
"Once a civil engineer, always a civil engineer. I was wondering what was missing before, turns out it was you bunch of Engineering Boys. Perfect timing, get out there and start cleaning ashes."
He thought he was going to suffer some inhuman punishment, but nothing happened to him. Gregor was completely dazed when he was taken away. It wasn't until he was thrown into the workshop and sprayed with Iron Warriors Paint Scheme that he realized he was no longer the Imperial Fists.
This experience didn't just happen to Gregor; the entire Imperial Fists was summoned to the square in front of the Imperial Palace for an on-the-spot kinship test.
The results were quite encouraging. Of the Imperial Fists that had been guarding Holy Terra, 47% were reskinned Iron Warriors, and of the remaining half, 13% were Alpharius. Only 40% were true Imperial Fists members, while the Black Templars Sons of Dorn.
I don't know why, but they were clearly in the same legion before, and were all good brothers, but not long after they changed their Paint Scheme, the two groups started to dislike each other.
Fortunately, there was A-Fa, whom no one liked, otherwise this group would have started fighting on the spot.
Afterwards, Lysander, the former Captain of the Imperial Fists, became the new Legion Commander, Gregor became the Legion Commander of the Iron Warriors. Everyone had a bright future, except for those A-Fa who were singled out.
According to the Empire's existing historical records, Alpharius was actually Fealty, but Alpharius disappeared a long time ago, and their eccentric behavior was disliked by everyone.
In addition, the fact that Omega was kidnapped by the Khorne was a stain on his reputation, so he was eventually sent to guard Beta-Garmon IV on the frontier of the Sol Sector.
But to his surprise, this group of A-Fa were anything but honest; they had already infiltrated the Imperial Fists. As for what they were up to, Mordred had no idea.
He couldn't wrong innocent people, so after much deliberation, he had no choice but to send them to Catachan to enjoy their newfound wealth.
But what Mordred didn't know was that as he took Gregor back to his hometown to allocate supplies, ships, and weapons to the Iron Warriors, a group of sneaky fellows had been Serenity waiting for a long time.
The leader was named Eldrad Ulthran.