The first thing after the battle, of course, is to loot!!

The last of the Light Lizardmen were wiped out, and the star system was fully incorporated into the rule of Imperium. The survivors began to clear the battlefield and tend to the wounded, while intact units swept the surrounding areas to purge any remaining xenos.

Flesh regenerated as twisted tentacles retracted, reshaping into a complete arm. Hogg did not mind displaying his inhuman side before the legion; the goofy yet loyal Blackwatch Legion soldiers only saw this as the Primarch's divine power—Father was truly supreme.

Kicking aside the corpses blocking his path, squads of mechanical troopers dispersed into the core buildings of the royal city. Hogg wanted to see what the shield generator capable of supporting a continental-level barrier actually looked like.

The blue beam of light shot from within into the sky. Two guards pushed open the heavy doors with practiced efficiency. The room was packed with dense piles of xenos corpses; it seemed all the old, weak, sick, and young who had fled into the city were here. No wonder he hadn't seen any xenos civilians.

An excited Candice Laza approached the massive machine in the center of the hall. Lasers fired from her tentacles, scanning the powerful artifact before her.

"My Primarch, I can confirm this is human technology, likely a planetary shield generator from the Dark Age of Technology. However, it is damaged; otherwise, we would have encountered a powerful shield enveloping the entire planet."

Mechanical tentacles roamed the surface of the device. A switch was triggered, and the massive blue beam dissipated as the machine ceased operation. In the shadows of the machine, Hogg and his men discovered a squad of xenos who had committed suicide, along with several cages containing the corpses of numerous xenos, with wires connecting them to the massive device.

That long-lost human technology had been repurposed by xenos to defend against humans—it was a perfect example of the dark humor inherent in the Warhammer universe.

Logistics units and the Imperial Guard began their work. The Blackwatch, suffering from a hoarding instinct, collected the plasma weapons scattered across the battlefield, while the fleet's transport units began helping to move various supplies from the xenos warehouses.

Combat engineers built a research facility near the royal city. The outer shell of the building housing the shield generator was dismantled, and the entire device was crated and shipped to the Blacklight to await reverse engineering.

During those few short hours of the final annihilation battle, the intensity of the fighting had rivaled the Apocalypse Wars. Heavy armored targets were lost in whole formations, and two Warlord-class Titans were so crippled they had to be sent back to the factory for major repairs.

Even the Blackwatch, who inherited Hogg's powerful regenerative abilities, lost an entire grand company. Many experienced veterans were among the fallen; faced with overwhelming plasma fire, the Mark III Power Armor worn by the Blackwatch simply could not hold, and in some cases, the gene-seed could not even be recovered.

Compared to the casualties of the Space Marines, the losses of the Imperial Guard were even more severe, with entire regiments wiped from the roster. This was only in two hours; the final figures for the entire campaign were still being tallied, but war was always accompanied by such losses.

Looking at the report on the display panel, Hogg felt a headache coming on. The Fourth Company had suffered the heaviest casualties, with only a few tech-marines remaining. The former Fourth Company Captain, that short man with the green buzzcut, had been amputated from the chest down and sent directly into a Dreadnought.

"I need to reinforce the Fourth Company."

Opening his tablet to check the leaderboard for new recruits slaughtering xenos, Hogg began his appointments: Ginny would take over as Captain of the Fourth Company, and Jill Valentine would serve as the Deputy Captain, commanding 700 female Space Marines.

As the fires of war subsided, Rogue Traders from Imperium and ships loaded with massive amounts of supplies landed on Aiers.

Three days after the battle ended, in the conference room of the Blacklight, several Rogue Trader heads were granted an audience with the Primarch.

Hitlari House had originally been a large family near the Alicia sector. The family leadership, who had previously listened to orders but refused to acknowledge authority, was purged and raided by the Blackwatch. The surviving Hill Albert became the new family patriarch.

As a Gene-Primarch, Hogg had the authority to issue Rogue Trader warrants. After leaving a signed permit for Hill Albert, the Imperial Administratum renamed the Hitlari House to Albert House and entered it into the Imperial database.

"My Primarch! The colonists brought from the nearby Death World have arrived."

"Very good, Albert. You've done well." He waved a hand to signal him to sit, then continued:

"I don't care how you govern, as long as you don't drive the people to despair. Of course! You have been to Alicia; if you cannot meet the minimum living standards of the residents of Alicia, then the local Planetary Governor will simply disappear—physically.

I have no use for the incompetent. I will leave a squad of Blackwatch in this system to oversee local development. You may handle the Imperial Tithe as you see fit, but my share must not be short by a single credit."

Having risen from a down-and-out collateral relative to the new head of the family, Hill Albert was completely subservient to the benefactor who had helped him reach his position. He did whatever he was told, even if the Imperial Administratum came knocking, it wouldn't matter.

Knowing the principle of the carrot and the stick, Hogg continued:

"Of course! I know your difficulties. I will leave the dumping of Alicia's supplies to you. I only want population; I don't care where you get them from, even if they are abhumans, as long as they are loyal to the legion, they can settle here. My Chief Steward Emilia will communicate the other details with you."

"Follow me." After completing the transformation surgery and becoming a Space Marine, the Blackwatch Chief Steward Emilia Aziz led Albert away to sign a series of regulations guaranteed by the Blackwatch Legion.

A conquered planet required colonization, and people had to be brought in from elsewhere for development. Since Hogg couldn't conjure them out of thin air, the time spent waiting for the colonists became a period of rest and refitting for the Blackwatch.

Fully grasping the legacy technology of the Dark Age of Technology was no easy feat, but for Hogg, who had absorbed fragments of the Void Dragon and become a knock-off, budget-version C'tan, it was not a problem.

Emerald electricity danced, and the nearby tech-priests began to cheer. These lunatics believed Hogg was the incarnation of the Omnissiah. In truth, it wasn't far off—wasn't a shard of the Void Dragon imprisoned on Mars? The numerous members of the Adeptus Mechanicus began their signature human craft: prayer.

As a high-dimensional remnant, praying to Hogg was entirely meaningless; Hogg's power would not increase through faith.

However, an interesting phenomenon was that if certain fanatics who prayed to Hogg died, their souls would traverse the Warp, fly toward that mass of pitch-black, twisted tentacles, be captured, and then vanish into nothingness.

After brainwashing a few test subjects, Hogg confirmed this was no accident. Only the souls of true believers had the chance to reach the tentacles and be dissolved, as if erased by an eraser.

Moreover, being prayed to from the heart by others was indeed quite pleasant, and these tech-priests had become much more obedient, so Hogg let it be.

However, in this universe, absolute death was a mercy some races craved, and soon, a group of special visitors would intrude upon Hogg's life.

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