“I honestly never imagined you would be able to restore even a portion of the Telstarax, let alone finish building an entire sector in such a short time. How did you achieve this? In its day, it took over a century to construct, but that was a completely different era with different resources and capabilities.”
My presumed “father” strolled through the corridors of the steel ring, occasionally glancing into closed offices or observing the laboratories and shipyards where our first spacecraft were being built and serviced.
His calm, detached face betrayed nothing of what he felt about the sights before him; even my armor-integrated facial recognition scanners returned only errors.
It felt as though I were facing not a human, but an alien wearing a human skin, so unnatural were his physiological reactions.
I never stopped tracking every movement of this “man,” whose height and appearance seemed to shift every time I looked at him.
One moment he appeared as an ordinary, unremarkable passerby whom the eye would never linger upon; the next, he became a giant taller than myself, radiating power and light.
This unknown threat posed an obvious danger, though its exact nature remained elusive.
Thus, I needed to learn as much as possible:
“You know when it was created? Even the most ancient chronicles merely mention that it has always encircled the planet’s orbit, though such a thing is nonsensical. With that level of insight, it feels as if you saw it being erected with your own eyes.”
“At that time, I was on Terra conducting my own research, but news traveled fast across the galaxy in the past—especially when it concerned an event of such magnitude, one that would lead to the development of one of humanity’s most technologically advanced worlds. I try not to miss such moments,” he said with a faint smile, glancing at a group of workers and guards who were staring at the two of us in confusion.
“However, I still wish to know: how did you repair it all? With the help of an STC? That is what they call the databases of past technological blueprints that must have remained on such a remarkable planet.* Or is something more… non-human involved here?”
There was no audible threat in his words, yet it could be felt nonetheless as the air temperature dropped several degrees and power surges flickered across the entire Telstarax section.
A sorcerer of unknown power, whose threat level rose with every passing second—to steady myself, I injected a new dose of reagents.
Cold once again enveloped my mind, cutting off all emotion.
“Some memory banks containing remnants of blueprints and calculations from the people of the past did indeed aid my work, but I primarily utilized the technology of robotic xenos I have dubbed the ‘Precursors,’ whose pyramids lie near my craft’s landing site. I studied their tech for years, eventually creating my own prototypes by merging their concepts with the thoughts of the ancients, while adding a few developments of my own,” I replied, looking directly into his eyes.
This was the first attempt to verify if he was who he claimed to be.
A simple trap, but it might suffice for now…
“You did not land in a ship, but in a specialized protective capsule, designed and created by me personally. Special tempered carbon glass, combined with metal delved from the depths of Luna and forged in the finest smithies of Terra. It bore your identification mark—two crossed lines representing the number ‘ten’ in the primary language of the Imperium. For you are the tenth Primarch I have created,” he stated in a didactic, almost lecture-like tone, effortlessly sidestepping my verbal snare.
“However, these ‘Precursors’ concern me. Over thousands of years, entire xenos civilizations could have risen and fallen here, but none could have reached such a level of technology in so short a time. Furthermore, this design raises questions; it strongly resembles certain beings I had fleeting dealings with tens of centuries ago. Not the best sort, even among aliens—it is well they are long extinct.”
“I found the ruins of their civilization guarded only by a few primitive machines. Many have yet to be breached, but if the idea interests you, I can turn them over if required. Much of the tech has been reverse-engineered into roughly similar analogues, but absolute understanding is unlikely. Some of their methods are far too complex, such as inexplicable and virtually infinite energy sources drawn literally from thin air…”
“I would be grateful,” he replied briefly, then stopped abruptly near a massive hangar housing the latest spacecraft, currently being prepped for a journey to other worlds.
The Emperor of a foreign state began to watch from a distance as the people prepared for the upcoming voyage.
They were conversing and inspecting the machine that was to carry them to the third planet from the sun in this system.
Their task was to investigate the mass of space debris almost entirely choking that planet’s orbit and determine if any life forms or functional machines remained there. Visit novelping.com for the full chapter.
In our home, there is no room for such threats.
“Curious. Their genetic codes are suspiciously similar, yet they clearly do not consider one another kin. Have you been performing cloning and genetic modification experiments on them?”
No longer surprised by how he could know such things, I simply answered his question calmly:
“My knowledge of biology is quite limited, but the necessity for a healthy new generation is far stronger. I had to seriously address the issue of my people’s small numbers, and the fact that ‘classical’ methods would take generations to increase our population. Thus, I invented simple chambers for mass-scale population reproduction. There is no tampering with the genome, as I understand nothing of it. We simply select the best and healthiest individuals and collect their genetic material. As a result, the children grow without health issues and are virtually indistinguishable from other residents of the Towers. Though, we manage the shortage of food and materials for these ‘vita-wombs’—as they were called in the past, and whose analogues I found at one of the planet’s poles—only by a near-miracle and by growing reagents on the farms of the last existing ocean.”
The man shook his head and then turned his gaze toward me.
Within it, one could see sparks of something incredibly powerful, ready to burst forth at any moment.
“Suppose so. Not the best approach—very costly and inefficient—but within the realm of the permissible. I will say now: any attempts to genetically modify a human to the point where they are unrecognizable are forbidden by me. Likewise, attempts to truly clone humans and grow them in a year or two. The bodies might turn out healthy, but souls are not so easily reproduced.”
“Could you elaborate on that?” I asked reasonably, noting the confirmed existence of a spiritual essence.
This sorcerer clearly understood “magical” phenomena, and even a throwaway phrase from him could expand our knowledge of the universe.
“No,” the Emperor replied easily.
“The first thing you must remember is that there are some questions whose answers are too dangerous for any mind. They bring no peace or tranquility; only death and madness follow in their wake.”
Having already grasped the rules of the game, I merely nodded.
It was obvious this murky warlock would not tolerate the slightest rule-breaking on my part, yet saw no restrictions for himself.
A very poor policy, both for an ordinary man and for a leader.
Even I adhere to the laws I have established, lest I become a blind dictator, so detached from my people that I fail to see a coming rebellion.
“I am capable of making exceptions to the rules for those individuals who truly deserve it,” the sorcerer said sharply, suspiciously in tune with my thoughts.
“As long as you remain useful to the Crusade, certain liberties are quite permissible. You may continue building your miniature state or researching xenos technology, but only so long as it happens quietly and behind closed doors. Remember only the primary rules for which there is no forgiveness: no creation of Artificial Intelligence, and no dealings with the spawn of the Empyrean or aliens who wish humanity only harm. There are other details, such as the ban on experimenting with Pariahs or attempts to create your own religions, but those can be discussed later—when the fleet arrives in this system with your brothers and your sons.”
“I don’t recall having children,” I replied coldly.
The longer our conversation lasted, the more stimulants I had to use to keep my mind orderly against this sorcerer’s influence.
“You cannot even imagine,” the man replied, continuing to move.
“These are ordinary men, enhanced with additional implants and biological modifications based on your blood. I call them Astartes—Space Marines—who serve as the tip of the Crusade’s spear. They are stronger, smarter, and far more resilient than an ordinary human, and their will is like adamantium. They have already helped me unite Terra, conquer the Solar System, and bring thousands of worlds into our state. For now, all your sons have been recruited from the finest warriors and engineers of the Imperium’s heart, but once they arrive here, you may begin recruiting from the local inhabitants. Preferably male adolescents, as they have the highest chance of surviving the transformation process.”
By the end of our talk, we finally reached the final destination: giant steel doors sealed with the finest security systems I had personally erected.
Created through the molecular assembly of nanites, these doors were backed by hundreds of lethal weapons and scanners, ensuring no one entered without my knowledge.
Eighteen levels of security, each with its own password known only to me…
“This is exactly the place I was looking for,” the man said with a slight smile, and the doors began to slide open of their own accord.
The machinery remained deathly silent, as if something had completely hijacked its control—just like all the other tech surrounding my “father.”
Stepping inside, we were met by dozens of metallic boxes emitting a soft bluish glow.
All were in “sleep mode,” as nothing was currently required from the ancient memory banks; all information had long since been extracted and copied onto my primary servers.
Effectively, they were merely backup storage units—which, nonetheless, must never fall into enemy hands.
“The Standard Template Construct system is the crown jewel of humanity. Tens of thousands of samples containing blueprints and technological patterns that can be utilized during colony development. The Long Night was not kind to them, so such a gathering of blueprints is perhaps the greatest collection in the entire galaxy. I am not certain even I have more samples left after the Great Loss,” the Emperor said calmly, walking among the sleeping machines.
“The majority were found in the ruins of Telstarax, though quite a few samples were preserved among the wastes as well. Although, I must admit I don’t find them all that useful. Any units still capable of reproducing new tech possessed very nasty artificial intelligences that prevented anything useful from being done. In the end, I had to destroy them all, dismantling the memory blocks, but I failed to reproduce a single ‘serious’ weapon from their records. Neither time-eaters nor black hole synthesizers—the workings of which could be glimpsed by digging through the minds of lesser AIs.”
“And you shouldn’t, for those weapons should have been laid to rest long ago,” the warlock said, frowning.
“They killed too many people. I forbid you any attempt to develop such things, for there is no enemy in our galaxy today for whom they would be necessary. The keyword is ‘today,’ but we shall set that conversation aside for later. When the representatives of the Mechanicum arrive, we will discuss in more detail which technologies must never be developed under any circumstances.”
I held my breath, instead diving into thoughts regarding my future projects.
All technologies for countering sorcerers surged to the top of my priority list, becoming the most important things I would ever need to develop.
They had been high on the list before, but now they received maximum priority.
Because it was impossible to truly fight such an “Archmage” whose abilities were unknown, especially when there was a non-zero threat that his starfleet could glass my planet from orbit.
For even if I had ships, and they were capable of putting up a decent fight, a single world will never prevail in open war against an empire a thousand times its size.
A more flexible and subtle approach was required.
* It is not widely known, but it was largely thanks to Ferrus and the STCs found on Medusa that such strong relations were built between the Imperium and the Mechanicum at the start of the Great Crusade.
The Iron Hand presented these technologies to them as gifts, and—what a coincidence—it was after this that his Legion became famous for having the largest amount of military hardware and supplies, which always flowed steadily to a Legion often sent to deal with the wild technologies of the Long Night.
What a coincidence indeed.)