As the saying goes, admiration is the emotion farthest from understanding. Since joining Blackwatch, the Alaitoc Craftworld Eldar's lives had been turned upside down.
They no longer had to worry about being corrupted by Chaos Gods, nor did they have to run around like dogs with nowhere to call home. The civilians had begun new lives, joining the Blacklight Sect of their own accord and honoring Hogg as the Holy Father.
But for Cordelia, who had spent some time with Hogg, the halo around the Holy Father had shattered into pieces.
Once, she too had thought Hogg was a savior, a perfect man, just like the civilians did. But no matter how hard a jokester tried to act serious, he was bound to let the mask slip.
Never mind his usual laziness and habit of working for three days before taking two off. Ever since the Eldar joined Blackwatch, strange Eldar lewd images had been circulating through the Legion. Those caught with them denied everything, frightening Cordelia into thinking they'd been corrupted by Slaanesh. She had no choice but to report it to Hogg, only to discover that the source was the very savior she'd once admired.
The good news was that Hogg had no airs about him at all. He truly treated the Eldar who joined Blackwatch as his own people. The bad news was that he really did treat them as people.
The slightly heretical Blackwatch lads were delighted by the Eldar's arrival, after all. Having such powerful warriors among them would greatly reduce the difficulty of taking fortified positions.
But while some rejoiced, others were unhappy. The Imperial Administratum that had come with Blackwatch was displeased. Every Legion had its secrets, but Blackwatch was the first to openly associate with an alien species—and it didn't even pay taxes. The Administratum had come along only to go through the motions, completely sidelined by the Legion.
But the Administratum couldn't do anything about Hogg, so it reported him to the Internal Affairs Department and slapped him with a charge of colluding with aliens.
The Internal Affairs Department knew Blackwatch's ways, but this time the matter was too serious. So it sent Inquisitor Sean to meet the Primarch. The notice was delivered quickly, and Sean soon boarded the Blacklight.
Once inside the ship, Sean saw several Eldar stationed aboard a sacred Imperial warship. It was nothing short of blasphemous. The Space Marines, the Emperor's Angels of Death, were behaving even more strangely. Their gear had been repainted, but it was clearly not made with Imperial technology. Worst of all, they were living alongside those damn alien scum, chatting and laughing with them.
Bah! It was unbearable to watch.
"By the Emperor! I must still be dreaming." The Internal Affairs Department used alien technology here and there, but they did so in secret. Blackwatch's behavior went far beyond ordinary collusion. They had to come down hard.
Resolved, Sean continued on his way. After seeing more and more bizarre things, he was about to lose his temper when he finally met the Primarch.
Seeing the Inquisitor enter looking ready to explode, Hogg was puzzled. He'd been slacking off and tending his fields this whole time. When had he managed to offend them?
"Inquisitor Sean, what brings you here?"
Sean got straight to the point. "Primarch, you can't go on like this. Colluding with aliens is forbidden by the Imperial Truth. As the child of the divine Emperor, you, a Primarch, must not collude with aliens!"
So the Eldar joining Blackwatch in such large numbers had brought them here to demand an explanation.
Once he understood, Hogg was furious. When he'd wiped out the aliens and brought the star systems around Alicia under control, they'd profited handsomely. Sure, he was colluding with the Eldar, but setting the facts aside, were they really going to turn on him now?
"Sean! Watch your words. What do you mean, 'colluding with aliens'? I'm making allies. If you don't understand, don't go spouting nonsense. The Emperor has approved this."
Knowing he was in the wrong, Hogg could only keep bluffing. He walked over to the Inquisitor and bent down, as if afraid anyone might overhear them.
"After I returned, the Emperor told me about the Grand Plan. I can only tell you that everything I'm doing has the Emperor's approval. There's no need for you to investigate; it would be completely pointless.
"Have you not noticed that, even though I've been so lax about the Crusade, no one has come to hurry me along? That's the proof. But those Administratum fellows are in the way, interfering with the Emperor's great plan."
Though Hogg had no concrete evidence for anything he said, Sean had his own sources after years in the Internal Affairs Department.
The Emperor had requirements for how quickly the Primarchs were to advance the Great Crusade. Yet Blackwatch's laid-back pace was exceptional among all the Legions. What's more, rumors had it that Primarch Hogg and the Space Wolves of the Sixth Legion were both Legions meant to serve the Emperor within the Imperium.
"Right! Now it all makes sense!"
First, one thing had to be established: Primarchs would never betray the Emperor. That meant all the contradictions could be explained. Blackwatch, entrusted with a special mission, was one step in the Emperor's great strategy.
Those damn Administratum parasites had actually tried to sabotage the Emperor's grand design! No wonder the Administratum, which normally wouldn't have anything to do with them, had come crawling to their door.
"Primarch, I understand! It's all part of the plan. Carry on as planned, and I'll take care of the aftermath. If you'll excuse me."
Inquisitor Sean left the Blacklight in style to carry out that nonexistent so-called Grand Plan. Hogg was left looking utterly bewildered. I haven't even told him what the plan is. Why'd he just leave?
To be honest, Hogg's clumsy lie couldn't fool even himself. But the problem was that all of this rested on an information gap.
First, to humanity in this era, the Primarchs were the embodiment of the Emperor's will and would never rebel. Second, the Eldar who had joined Blackwatch were too few to have harmed any humans. Most importantly, the Eldar were generally easy on human eyes—not some ugly freaks.
You had to admit, in any world, looks mattered. The more human you looked, the more likely you were to survive. If you looked like an Old God, you'd get a bolter round before you could say, "Maybe try again in your next life."
But this little incident had also given Hogg a wake-up call. He couldn't keep slacking off. He had to at least get moving and set an example for everyone else.
A day later, Blackwatch, which had been slacking off for nearly a year, began to assemble.
Vast quantities of supplies—enough to equip several Legions—were stockpiled. Even the several Dimensional Pockets Hogg had installed aboard the Blacklight were packed full. The Eldar vessels in the spaceport were painted in Blackwatch colors and incorporated into the fleet.
Once the fleet had assembled, it set sail. This time, however, it wasn't traveling through the Warp. It was taking the Webway.
The humans entering the Webway for the first time marveled at its grandeur. After all, it was the high-speed highway once built by the greatest Overlords in the universe, the Old Ones. For humanity, which could only drift through the cesspool of the Warp, it was truly advanced.
Knowing that his only contribution to command would be yelling "F2A," Hogg let the former Legion Commander, Lyla Lynn, return to her old post as fleet commander. Cordelia would serve as her deputy, while he, as Legion Commander, would be a hands-off leader and a powerful fighter.
After nine days of smooth sailing, the fleet arrived safely in the Ultima Segmentum. The reconnaissance force sent ahead had also reported back.
According to the battle report, most of the planets in the surrounding star systems had already submitted to Imperial rule. After all, the Alicia Sector, where Blackwatch had previously been based, lay at the intersection of the Solar Segmentum, Segmentum Obscurus, and Ultima Segmentum, making it part of the rear.
Blackwatch had previously faced only minnows and nobodies. But the farther they traveled, the weaker the Imperium's control would become.
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