'This was never what I wanted.'
'I never considered popularizing the Primaris Space Marines at this very moment.'
'I once promised Lord Guilliman I would improve the Adeptus Astartes' surgical procedures. I have tirelessly rushed about for the sake of his resurrection, spending ten thousand years on this endeavor.'
'I have always held immense hope for the future. Even across ten millennia, even as my own personality fragmented, I persistently fulfilled my duty, knowing full well these creations might only shine their brightest long after my death.'
'But is this reasonable?'
Standing atop the deserted bridge alongside Romulus, Cawl stared at the data-slate in his hand. It displayed various modified versions of the Mark X power armor. They had even made them fully compatible with the original version he had developed, allowing modular components from different sections to be equipped onto the base model.
He could not remember exactly how his initial thought process began or ended, but the conclusion was simple: let anyone who infringed on his intellectual property burn.
"The credit will still bear your name, Archmagos."
Romulus replied, "No one will forget your contributions or your story, even if you yourself have forgotten them."
Cawl showing up at their door was entirely unexpected. In truth, when the Transmigrators decided to stealthily roll out the Primaris Space Marines, they had not overthought the consequences.
They simply wanted to popularize the Primaris surgical procedures and equipment first, while taking the opportunity to trample on the Codex Astartes a little.
Take the Crimson Fists, for example. At first, they had been quite reserved, insisting on adhering to the Codex Astartes. However, after witnessing the overwhelming performance of the Primaris Space Marines, they quickly relented and were now thoroughly enjoying the benefits.
"..."
Cawl let out a long breath, then sealed off his pressure release valves.
To be completely honest, conversing with Romulus gave him the exact same sense of trepidation he had felt when facing the Emperor all those years ago.
It was like standing before a being who understood you better than you understood yourself, someone who saw your future far more clearly than you ever could.
"Your Dark Angel is truly one of a kind."
Cawl attributed all of this to that elusive Dark Angel. Even when the planet of Pierred was engulfed in chaotic warfare, the Archmagos had completely failed to notice what that particular knight had been doing.
"Sometimes, I suspect he even knows the exact origins of this very body of mine."
There was no hostility between them; the atmosphere felt as relaxed as two old friends having a casual chat.
"Hmm?"
Romulus revealed a slightly surprised expression before he quickly caught onto what Cawl meant.
Arthur had just become the scapegoat for absolutely no reason.
His good brother usually spent his days monitoring the entire battleship, sparring with Rameses, taking over biochemical research, gathering local intelligence, and casually fighting various high-ranking officials to maintain good relations—
Cawl was merely a hypothetical rival to them, not even ranked in the first tier of concerns. No one had the free time to actively interfere with the Archmagos's career.
The Armor of Fate's various technologies had only just been fully decrypted. The calibrations involving the Warp were so complex that even Dantioch couldn't comprehend them. If the Lord Commander truly never woke from his slumber, no one would be able to shoulder the blame.
Romulus thought to himself as he shared a portion of their database with Cawl.
In truth, most of the data had been stolen by Karna. No one would ever suspect that this Angel—so laid-back in peacetime and utterly berserk in battle—could also moonlight as a petty thief.
Back then, although they could rely on the retrieved keywords and the hard work of the daemons to search the Warp and directly unlock the relevant technologies, the group still lacked the ability to reverse-engineer a full production line solely from the finished products.
It wasn't until Dantioch arrived that the Transmigrators' truly formidable capabilities were completely unleashed.
Everyone became a walking industrial master machine.
Lately, the battleships of the various Chapters had been stuffed to the brim with all sorts of STCs related to Adeptus Astartes equipment.
As for the exact details, it was better not to ask. That was a secret.
But this misunderstanding was fine. Arthur was a Dark Angel, after all.
They were all Angels anyway; there was no need to draw clear distinctions.
Romulus could not help but chuckle inwardly. The Transmigrators' scanning abilities were truly terrifying. Combined with the daemons' search capabilities, they functioned like a walking super-decryption device.
He just wondered if, at this rate, some utterly outrageous rumors would start spreading in the future.
"Additionally, you should change the signature. Do not associate this with me."
Regarding the weapon serial numbers, Cawl scrambled the data into a mess of unreadable code.
He didn't particularly care about the associated benefits. If he were simply chasing profit and power, he could have lived with more authority than anyone else—even becoming the Fabricator-General wasn't out of the question. He only cared about a promise and the pursuit of truth.
"Alright."
Romulus nodded, fully understanding Cawl's intentions.
To put it bluntly, Cawl had no intention of taking the fall for this. He had, in fact, diverted a massive amount of industrial capacity right under the noses of the Adeptus Mechanicus, building an extremely comprehensive equipment system that ranged from power armor to vehicles.
If an investigation ever took place, the pressure would be too much for him to handle alone, so he couldn't afford to have this traced back to him. Of course, it wasn't that he was afraid of losing—in fact, the odds of him winning were quite high—but simply because, win or lose, the aftermath would be incredibly difficult to manage.
They would just pretend that this technology had been thrown together by their group of ancient relics. If anyone asked, they would simply claim ignorance of the Imperium's new systems. If the Inquisition had a problem with it, they could go take it up with the expeditionary fleet.
That way, it would be much easier for Cawl to manipulate things from behind the scenes.
As for whether these ancient warriors could withstand an investigation, Cawl wasn't the least bit worried.
They had known each other for less than a year, and these warriors had already figured out all his deepest secrets. He highly doubted that bureaucrats born from the Imperium's bloated system would be able to uncover anything at all.
"Why are there no modifications for the armored vehicles?"
Noticing that Romulus's database contained very little information regarding vehicles and heavy mechs, Cawl voiced his inquiry.
For once, his tone carried a rare hint of relief.
'Finally, something hasn't been leaked.'
"...After conducting some tests, Archmagos, we found your vehicle designs to be a bit too... imaginative."
Aside from the power armor, the various brand-new infantry weapons, and the anti-grav vehicles, Cawl's other designs—such as the Invictor Tactical Warsuit and the elongated version of the Sicarans—were certainly rich in imagination.
At first, the Transmigrators stubbornly refused to believe it. How could the supposedly omnipotent Doraemon Cawl create something useless?
They took them out for field testing and ran numerous simulations, only to discover that while they were slightly stronger than the Imperium's current arsenal, the improvement was extremely limited.
Their final evaluation: overly flashy, and entirely inferior to the heavy armor systems of the Great Crusade era.
Perhaps the technology and knowledge Cawl had accumulated over eons was enough to make him look down upon his peers, but he wasn't quite the universal genius he believed himself to be.
"Here is the testing report."
Romulus laid out all the data from their combat simulations and live-fire exercises.
"...Thank you for providing this battlefield feedback."
Cawl silently received the data, already planning to shut down the production lines for those specific vehicles.
At the same time, his sense of trepidation grew increasingly profound.
Setting aside how his technology had been leaked in the first place...
How on earth did this group manage to draw up plans, produce the finished products, mobilize the Adeptus Astartes, and extract comprehensive combat data in such a ridiculously short amount of time?
"Could you provide me with a copy of your heavy armor production lines?"
he asked.
There was no need to use the freed-up industrial capacity to produce more Mark X armor. Based on the mindset of these ancient warriors, the future likely required all these Chapters to achieve autonomous production of their basic wargear. He would be better off building up his mechanized reserves.
These ancient warriors seemed to assume that, in the near future, the vast majority of the Adeptus Astartes would likely have to face heavily isolated environments for extended periods.
Cawl pondered this, feeling that he, too, should begin consolidating and relocating his dispersed industrial forces scattered across the Galaxy.
"No problem. Regarding STC technologies, I believe there are many areas where we can collaborate."
Romulus nodded. After heavily freeloading off the Archmagos, it was only right to offer some benefits in return.
"I demand technology sharing, at least concerning the Adeptus Astartes."
"Agreed."
Romulus's decisiveness made Cawl feel significantly more at ease.
"By the way, have you currently thought of a rollout plan for these armored vehicles?"
Cawl asked again.
"Our current plan is to rely on mortal auxiliary forces."
Although they were distributing gene-seed to various Chapters to encourage mass recruitment, Romulus wasn't radical enough to staff the entire armored division exclusively with Astartes.
That would simply be far too extreme.
Fortunately, the Cadians were fairly reliable. Recently, the Commissar had finally managed to contact the Departmento Munitorum and was applying for reinforcements. Though with the Munitorum's usual efficiency, it was uncertain whether those reinforcements would actually arrive.
"Good. Send me a few copies of the relevant operational case files."
Cawl sighed softly. He had been about to offer a portion of the Primaris Space Marines he currently had on hand to help these ancient warriors pilot their tanks. It was obvious they were severely short on manpower. After all, unless you peeled back the armored shell, who could possibly tell what was driving inside?
Now that someone was taking the lead, he could also start sneaking his own personnel into the various Chapters.
Oh, right. He needed to check if there were any entirely annihilated Chapters that hadn't been officially archived yet. When the time came, he could directly rebuild them as Primaris Space Marine Chapters.
"By the way, Archmagos, do you happen to control any shipbuilding facilities in the eastern Ultima Segmentum? Specifically, ones that are not under the control of the Adeptus Mechanicus."
'You even know that I've been secretly siphoning the Imperium's industrial capacity?'
'And just what exactly are you all trying to do?'
They had used their ancient identities to establish ties with various Chapters, leveraged their technological superiority to export armaments, incited those Chapters to challenge the Imperium's authority, distributed production lines to guarantee supply chains, and basically strong-armed the Blood Angels into industrial development on Baal to achieve a self-sustaining military expansion.
'And now you want shipbuilding capabilities?'
'Oh, let's not forget pulling the Adeptus Mechanicus to your side.'
Thinking back on how unbothered Romulus had been by his confrontational questioning, Cawl's hand gave another slight tremble.
'This feels very familiar. This feels far too familiar.'
'No matter what period of history you place this in, this is the textbook definition of a rebellion!'
'Is the next step purging the Codex-compliant factions within the Adeptus Astartes, and then marching straight on Holy Terra with blades drawn?'
'Can a combination of Dark Angels and Ultramarines truly produce such a bizarre chemical reaction?'
"Is the future truly that dangerous?"
Cawl asked tentatively, not genuinely expecting to receive an answer.
"Indeed. Not only will we face enemies from beyond the Galaxy, but the great enemy of Chaos will no longer be satisfied with the Imperium's currently rotting state. They are preparing to plunge half of our territories into total ruin."
Romulus gave a firm nod. They truly had no intention of rebelling. In just over two hundred years, the Great Rift would tear the Galaxy apart. At that time, enemies would pour out in numbers vast enough to level mountains and fill oceans. Who in their right mind would start a civil war and drain the Imperium's strength right before that?
The Imperium's territory was far too vast. Romulus was not arrogant enough to believe he could conquer the Imperium in two centuries and then integrate its forces to directly face Chaos.
If they were going to fight a civil war, it would only be after the Great Rift opened and the galactic situation stabilized.
"Then I do have one."
Cawl nodded.
"Once the campaign to reinforce Ultramar concludes and you have established your homeworld, I will begin the transfer process."
Of course, what he was relocating wasn't just the shipbuilding facilities, but also Pierred, located on the edge of the Ghoul Stars.
Cawl recalled the planetary computator on Pierred. He had originally planned to take it over and transform it into a Forge World to serve as his own technological reserve. However, as things stood, relocation seemed to be the much safer option.
These ancient warriors were, for the moment, trustworthy.
Even though they were steeped in secrets, formed factions, challenged authority, and actively sought independence.
But they did not taint themselves with Chaos, nor did they associate with Xenos. On Romulus, Cawl could not detect even the slightest trace of a connection to the Warp.
As long as they didn't touch those unspeakable horrors, Cawl had absolutely no interest in interfering, even if Romulus genuinely wanted to kick off another grand Heresy.
For now, they needed to strengthen their ties, even if it required him to make a few sacrifices.
Cawl gazed at the technologies that had originally belonged to him, the deeply buried doubts in his eyes never fully fading.
'At the very least, I need to figure out what they are actually doing.'
'The infiltration capabilities of the Dark Angels are simply terrifying.'