Unified Government

At the same time, the lower courts also shouldered the task of legal popularization.

In addition to preaching the Imperial Regulations and Imperial Law, the courts also used the contents of the Badab Codex to try defendants while explaining the general contents of the codex to the surrounding crowds.

The Badab Codex was a legal code written by Huron based primarily on the laws and regulations of his past life, combined with the practical realities of Warhammer and various characteristic laws of the Imperium.

After all, the various laws and regulations of the Imperium were still dominated by ordinance law—especially the Imperial Law, which was a code formed by statutes and precedents promulgated by the Emperor during the Great Crusade, with precedents and statutes continuously added over more than ten thousand years.

Given the rigidity and extremism of the Imperium of Man, there was naturally a great deal of abstract nonsense within it.

For instance, under special circumstances, being kidnapped was considered a crime, and the punishment could even be heavier than that of the person who kidnapped you.

A classic joke from the M3 era: "An employee was hit and killed by a car, which caused the company's project to be delayed. Can I demand compensation from the employee?"

Such things were no joke in the 40k Imperium. No matter the reason, if you were conscripted by any department and failed your mission, it was your problem, and at most your superior died with you.

Even if you were made to split your forces into 13 routes alone to seal the Eye of Terror, failure was still your problem.

Such mind-bogglingly abstract laws naturally did not suit Huron's appetite. By comparison, even the marriage law of his past life suddenly looked quite pleasant.

Therefore, in order to change this atmosphere, the Badab Codex came into being.

Originally, Huron intended to wait until he finished completing his national focus, and while core-ifying Badab, gradually push forward the Badab Codex.

Plans, however, failed to keep up with changes. Since the nobles of Badab had already been purged ahead of schedule, he had no choice but to establish a unified government early and carry out legal popularization.

This was also the reason why Odinson had hastily left after presiding over only a single public trial.

Palatos Hive had undergone over a week of martial law. With a massive portion of the original ruling class wiped out clean, the entire hive had a mountain of affairs that needed handling.

Although Palatos, like the Imperium of Man, wore the skin of a unified government while actually operating as a medieval feudal autonomy, the sudden disappearance of the ruling class still triggered some chaos.

After all, power abhorred a vacuum. If you did not occupy it, there would naturally be all sorts of monsters and freaks rushing to occupy it.

Because of this, Huron convened a plenary meeting of the Chapter's higher-ups and the Auxilia's higher-ups.

"These are the current projections, everyone take a look first," Huron said, sitting in the primary seat while watching servo-skulls distribute documents to the attendees. "Broadly speaking, centralization, a five-tier structure, religious control, and the unification of the Chapter and government will serve as our main principles."

Odinson glanced over the contents within. They were largely similar to what he had discussed previously with the Chapter Master, with only a minor change to a few personnel details.

All administrative personnel of the new government were uniformly appointed by the central government, and civil servants were selected through unified examinations. This was to eradicate the abstract situation of the past where nobles had vassal entourages, and those vassals had entourages of their own, thereby maintaining consistency in the source of authority.

The five-tier structure consisted of the sector, sub-sector, planet, hive, and region, beneath which were grassroots autonomous organizations such as districts and communities.

The current framework was only practically designed down to the planetary government level; the sector and sub-sector levels only possessed a general framework without practical significance.

Taking the Badab planetary government as an example:

The Planetary Governor was Odinson, who served as the highest administrative head, military commander, and judicial leader of the planetary government.

The Planetary Council was composed of representatives from various hives, various industries, and figures from all walks of life, responsible for reviewing and approving laws, budgets, and major decisions.

The Planetary Administration was the executive organ of the planetary government, responsible for coordinating the work of the government's various subordinate departments. The chief executive was appointed by the Planetary Governor and currently concurrently held by Odinson, while the deputy chief executive was Old John.

The planetary government established various bureau-level departments corresponding to the central ministerial departments, such as the Bureau of Internal Affairs, Bureau of Finance, Public Security Bureau, Bureau of Economic Development, Bureau of Construction, Bureau of Education, and Bureau of Health.

At the same time, two independent departments were established. One was the Supervisory Commission, which reported directly to Sector Governor Huron and possessed functions including anti-corruption, administrative efficiency monitoring, and investigations into official dereliction of duty.

The other was the Audit Office. Independent of the Ministry of Finance and headed by the Auditor-General, it was responsible for the financial auditing of various government departments and public institutions.

The overall architecture of the government was roughly as outlined above.

Religious control involved bringing the Ecclesiarchy into the scope of management—or rather, replacing the previous native Badab Ecclesiarchy with a new Ecclesiarchy created by the Astral Claws Chapter, incorporating the Ecclesiarchy into the government's administrative management, and even specially establishing a "Bureau of Religious Affairs."

As for the unification of the Chapter and the government, there was nothing much to say. Whatever the hell nonsense about Astartes not being allowed to meddle in politics or interfere in mortal affairs—that did not apply between the Astral Claws and Badab.

Although most Chapter members had no great interest in becoming government personnel, over a hundred Astartes with administrative experience, led by Odinson, would hold key positions within the government to enhance its operational efficiency.

Externally, deputy chief executive Old John would serve as the nominal "Planetary Governor," achieving nominal "mortals ruling mortals."

The Chapter would also subsequently attempt to purchase, manufacture, and capture naval warships of all classes. These non-Astartes-exclusive warships would exist under the name of the "Badab Planetary Fleet," but would actually accept the command of the Astral Claws Chapter.

All in all, superficial appearances would be maintained fully so as not to tear faces with the High Lords. As for whether the High Lords would refuse to care about appearances, of course they would not.

In the original timeline, the Astral Claws failed to pay the gene-seed tithe, withheld the tithes of the Badab Sector, and even plundered the tithes of the Culln Sector externally, yet the High Lords endured and endured again.

In the end, it was the Culln Sector that snapped, summoning the Fire Hawks Chapter, which harbored old grudges with the Astral Claws. The mutual hostilities and summoning of allies by both sides ultimately triggered the Badab War.

The little things he was doing now were mere child's play.

Besides, given the Imperium's information-communication capabilities, by the time they truly confirmed that he was violating the Codex Astartes to illegally expand his military, goodness knows how much time would have passed.

Just like when he had the astropath contact the Lamenters and Mantis Warriors: nearly a year had passed, and they still hadn't established a stable comms channel with either.

By the time the Imperium reacted, who would be the one with a formidable military remained to be seen.

After everyone finished reading the documents, Huron asked, "Does anyone have any opinions or questions?"

Old John raised his hand: "Chapter Master, why am I being appointed as the deputy chief executive?"

Since Odinson was concurrently holding the post of chief executive, the deputy chief executive was already the actual second-in-command of the government, second only to Odinson.

Old John truly did not feel that he had done anything remarkable enough to deserve such high honor; surely those Astartes battle-brothers were more suitable than him?