Unwelcome Visitors

On the ships of the Blackwatch Legion, new equipment was being installed in a flurry of activity. Watching the tech-priests bustle about, Ace felt a deep, sorrowful bitterness.

There was a time when he was a leader among the Legions, boasting and drinking with his brothers, scouring the galaxy for treasures in high spirits. But now, having lost his beloved, he could no longer be a brother to them.

Dazed and listless, Ace returned to the 4th Company and walked into the former Dreadnought hangar. As expected, the sight of Ace—now transformed—sent the other Dreadnoughts into fits of hearty laughter, which only made him, or rather, her, even more irritable.

Watching his former subordinates laugh so hard that smoke began to pour from their chassis, Ace could take it no more. "Damn it all! If I've changed, none of you are getting away with it. Everyone, damn it, change for me!"

She decided that as soon as the reconstruction chambers were ready, she would take her good brothers in for modification. If they couldn't be brothers anymore, they would just have to be sisters.

The reason Hogg Menethil placed such emphasis on the protection and firepower of the Blackwatch Legion was to minimize casualties as much as possible. Although the Blackwatch Legion had begun to mass-produce troops and had even absorbed a portion of the Eldar, time was short. There were fewer than 20,000 new recruits at the Alicia base, and the fleet he had brought out totaled only 30,000. But the primary strength of the fleet remained the Imperial Guard; what could a mere 50,000 Space Marine achieve?

Thinking of the 250,000 Ultramarines that Guilliman had churned out by managing Macragge before the Great Crusade, even though Hogg knew Guilliman was loyal, he couldn't help but mutter, "This child is terrifying; he must be brimming with ambition."

"Sigh! If I had two million Space Marine in my hands, I'd just steamroll everything. Even Emperor would have to call me 'Daddy.' Is the recruitment selection too difficult? That can't be right; even the survival training on Catachan has been reduced to four months!"

Lost in his fantasies, Hogg couldn't help but speak his thoughts aloud.

Emilia was long since accustomed to such blasphemous remarks from her Primarch.

She had joined the Blackwatch Legion out of admiration for Hogg, hoping to get close to the Primarch and take action. Who would have thought that she would wake up one day to find herself his daughter? Hogg only concerned himself with the broad strokes of the complex administrative affairs, leaving everything else to her, making it seem as if she, Emilia, were the actual Legion Commander.

As for her former admiration, it had long since been eroded by Hogg's absurd antics. Forget it!!! Just treat it like raising a child, Emilia could only comfort herself as she watched Hogg rolling on the floor and complaining.

"My Primarch, since you always say Macragge is rich in resources, why not go see your brother? Wouldn't it be reasonable for us to recruit some people from there?"

"..." "That's right! Why didn't I think of that? Guilliman is so good at management; as his eleventh brother, it wouldn't be too much to ask for some men, would it? Emilia, you're so clever, you're almost catching up to me."

"Yes, yes! My Primarch is the smartest. Now go play! I have work to do, don't bother me here."

Even the superhuman physique of a Space Marine left Emilia feeling exhausted as she buried herself in the mountain of paperwork.

Leaving the Legion Commander's office, Hogg arrived at the bridge and issued orders: the fleet would leave a squad of warriors at Coral to await the arrival of the Alicia mining team, while the rest of the ships would set sail for Macragge. At the same time, he had the Astropaths send a message to Guilliman: 'Thirteenth brother, your older brother is coming to find you.'

Once the order was given, the engines of the Blacklight Fleet began to accelerate. The Eldar ships, acting as navigators, moved to the front of the fleet to guide the main force into the Webway.

Guilliman, known as "Guilliman," had many cool nicknames in the future, such as the "Strongest Duelist," "Eldar Breeder," and "Negative-Psyker Ogryn."

Of course, this was just banter. As a Primarch, Guilliman had basically maxed out his skills in administration and operations. Compared to his other anthropomorphic brothers, he was perhaps the most normal one; after all, he had both parents during his childhood.

Before Emperor found him, Konor, the Governor of Macragge, had treated him as an adopted son and had his steward, Tarasha Euten, look after Guilliman. The two had acted as father and mother figures throughout Guilliman's childhood.

Konor was a perfect, wonderful father (a thousand times better than Emperor), but he was later assassinated in a coup. Euten, who remained, cherished her adopted son Guilliman even more.

A few years ago, Emperor personally led a fleet on the Great Crusade and heard the story of Guilliman on the planet Espandor. Later, Emperor saw Macragge, which had been ruled by Guilliman for five years. At that time, Macragge was self-sufficient and had already begun trading with surrounding star systems. Then, of course, came the cliché reunion.

Guilliman, having received his own Legion, had actually conquered more worlds than anyone except the Luna Wolves, but he still preferred to manage his home base—a point on which Hogg was exactly like him.

But the scale of the Macragge sector was too vast; it wasn't some backwater like Alicia. With 500 worlds, Macragge could truly be called a small empire, and the people there could surprisingly live to be 40 years old, which made the "benevolent rule" of the Empire look quite pathetic.

In ancient times, if a prince possessed a fully self-sufficient territory with a prosperous population, a submissive government, and a strong, well-equipped army, which minister—other than Zhu Biao's—could feel at ease?

Therefore, the other Primarchs were incredibly jealous, all claiming that Guilliman was a man of great ambition.

Having finished the trivial administrative tasks as usual—reports that would have been complex and chaotic for a mortal—Guilliman had processed them in less than an hour. According to his usual routine, Guilliman would have taken a break to drink a cup of tea, but his mother, Lady Euten, handed him a message.

"Child, your brother, the Primarch of the Eleventh Legion, the Blackwatch Legion, Hogg Menethil, is coming to Macragge for a visit, and he is bringing his fleet." The usually composed Lady Euten did not seem happy about this news.

"Blackwatch? What are they coming here for?"

Opening the letter, there was only one sentence: [Thirteenth brother, your older brother is coming to find you!] This plain, unremarkable sentence made Guilliman, who was sensitive to politics, think too much.

Guilliman did not know much about his brother; the information he had was collected from merchants arriving from the Alicia sector. The only unique thing was the Blacklight Cult that came with the merchant fleets.

On Guilliman's bookshelf sat a copy of the so-called Blacklight Scripture, which he had read himself, and he had even attended a prayer ceremony once.

To be honest, Guilliman found it quite interesting and had even acquired a small Primarch figurine. At the same time, the Blacklight Cult had no rhetoric or behavior that harmed Macragge, and its doctrines highly overlapped with the Imperial Truth, merely adding a worship of his brother.

However, Guilliman became vigilant regarding the Blackwatch Legion. For no other reason than that this Legion was too special; in the internal exchanges between the Primarchs, it was believed that this Legion, like the Space Wolves, was a "Gendarmerie Legion" directly under their father, Emperor.

Perturabo, the only one who had interacted with Hogg, remained tight-lipped, and some veterans said that the Eleventh Legion, when they were still the Dark Raiders, loved to run around collecting strange things.

This made the Primarchs even more certain of the true identity of the Blackwatch Legion. And this time, they were coming with a fleet.

Having figured this out, Guilliman said to Lady Euten, "Mother! I think they are coming with ill intent. We must not let them find any fault, so let us welcome them with the highest standards. In the meantime, recall the fleet to Macragge."