Chapter 419– The Ninth Expedition Sets Out for the Warhammer Universe! Figure King Trazyn!
"The galactic expedition isn't over yet. Once we finish settling Prospero, invite them to join the Great Crusade and assign a war zone to the Megacorp."
"Whatever territory they conquer is theirs. Spoils of war will be split 50/50 with the Imperium, and we'll supply their energy and logistics."
The Emperor had already planned his countermove.
Since the Megacorp wanted to step into Imperial space, then let them—side by side with the Imperium in the Great Crusade, expanding the galactic pie together, conquering the stars as allies.
The Megacorp wanted to piggyback off the Imperium's tech relics? Well, the Imperium wanted to piggyback off the Megacorp's fleet!
The Warhammer universe's Milky Way was vast and filled with complex powers. The Imperium's costly solo crusade would never unify the galaxy quickly.
But with help from the Megacorp, the Emperor could finally breathe a little—retreating to the shadows to restructure the Imperial power hierarchy at his own pace.
"Yes, understood."
Malcador took the order and relayed it to Paul, who promptly passed the message back to the Myriad Realm Base Headquarters.
After receiving the Emperor's stance and intentions, Li Ang nodded repeatedly, genuinely impressed. He had to admit—the Emperor was a brilliant statesman.
Far-sighted. Bold.
Li Ang had expected the Emperor to be wary of his "bold" proposal and reject the request to send in Megacorp fleets.
To his surprise, not only did the Emperor accept the deal, he even invited them to join the Great Crusade—to conquer the galaxy together.
Such generosity and vision left many Megacorp executives at a loss for words.
They were used to scheming and outwitting their enemies. This was the first time they'd met an opponent who walked the path of upright righteousness.
"The Emperor's political game is next-level."
After much discussion, the Megacorp leadership could only arrive at this dry conclusion.
Originally, the Megacorp had planned to establish a foothold in the Warhammer universe, then slowly work toward unification and finding a way to subdue the Emperor.
They never expected the Emperor to counter with a tactical retreat—welcoming their fleets with open arms. The only cost? Cooperating in the Crusade and sharing the burden of the warp's pressure.
A flawless move.
Li Ang thought it over. Given the current situation in the Warhammer universe, the Emperor had maintained internal Imperial stability while keeping the four Chaos Gods relatively quiet.
With faster-than-light travel tech now in the Imperium's hands, a collapse of the empire seemed unlikely.
From here on, the Imperium's development focus would be clear: expand its influence and absorb the rest of the galaxy.
After two centuries of crusades, the Emperor's Primarch legions had already unified most of humanity's lost worlds.
Over a million human planets were now under Imperial control—what remained were the toughest targets.
The Eldar. The Orks. The Tyranids. The Necrons.
These would be humanity's next adversaries.
By bringing in the Megacorp, the Emperor clearly intended to borrow their power to sweep across the stars.
"Have Jack Wells lead his forces out," Li Ang ordered.
Since the Emperor had shown good faith, Li Ang had no intention of acting dishonorably. The human faction would conquer the galaxy together—burning through the warp and into the stars!
…
Universe 003: Edge of Tomorrow.
The Megacorp's Ninth Expeditionary Fleet, with Jack Wells as supreme commander and hes deputy, slowly passed through the dark, yawning stargate—bound for the Warhammer universe.
This expeditionary force would be stationed there long-term, remaining until the unification campaign was complete.
The fleet's sheer size was staggering: 270,000 warships.
Most were five-kilometer-long Infinity-class carriers, forming an expeditionary force like no other. Even if the entire Imperial Navy of mankind were combined, it wouldn't amount to even a fraction of the Megacorp's fleet.
The Imperium's backward tech and industrial deficiencies severely crippled its productivity.
On Imperial shipyard assembly lines, workers still had to burn incense and pray while tightening bolts—hoping not to be tainted by warp demons.
Such absurd, convoluted practices made the Imperium's military production hopelessly slow.
When Horus launched the Great Heresy, even the total number of warships he commanded was under 5,000.
Cruisers over 10 kilometers? Only about 2,000.
Battleships over 15 kilometers? Just two or three hundred.
The rest—frigates and destroyers—barely counted.
And in the post-Heresy era, a declining Imperium once fought a ridiculous war where it had to defend against 10,000 Tyranid ships with barely 300 of its own.
All signs pointed to a hard truth: even in the present day, the total number of Imperial warships probably didn't exceed 20,000.
Beyond industrial shortfalls, the Imperium also suffered from severely bloated internal ship design.
AI technology could massively streamline ship operations, saving manpower and space.
But the Imperium strictly banned AI.
So Imperial ships were massive and inefficient. Even a basic cruiser could stretch over 10 kilometers.
In contrast, a 10-kilometer Megacorp ship could function as a full-fledged carrier.
Without AI assistance, Imperials had to manually operate every ship subsystem.
This required large numbers of highly skilled humans.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of citizens in the Imperium were illiterate drifters. Only a tiny minority had access to education.
And due to constant warfare, most Primarchs—except Guilliman—cared only about conquest, not post-war reconstruction.
Some planets couldn't even provide basic food and clothing.
The primitive transport systems meant Imperial decrees barely reached across worlds.
In short, despite the Imperium's dazzling image, it was held together entirely by the Primarchs' legions.
Behind the curtain was a mess of scarcity, chaos, and starvation.
This time, the Megacorp dispatched nearly 300,000 ships for a long-term stationing in the Warhammer universe. Their goals:
Boost local human technological advancement
Improve productivity
Launch coordinated military operations
Accelerate the unification process
As he watched Jack Wells lead the fleet through the gate, Li Ang nodded slightly.
He wasn't worried about anything going wrong.
This wasn't just a fighting force—these warships carried entire production lines, research teams, and countless resources.
As long as they found a stable place to anchor, they could build their own power base in no time.
Now that Jack had entered the gate, the Megacorp had officially gained a foothold in the Warhammer universe.
Prospero system – outer orbital zone.
Trazyn the Infinite slowly lifted his cold, skeletal body and leaned over the observation array he had personally crafted, watching as a massive human fleet docked across the system.
He was surprised—by his recollection, humanity didn't possess this many warships.
"Did the Emperor dig these out from some forgotten corner of the Golden Age? Where did all these unfamiliar ships come from?"
At first, Trazyn hadn't paid much attention to the arriving fleet. After all, this was Imperial territory—human warships weren't out of place here.
But with the disappearance of Magnus the Red still circulating in whispers, he had hoped to take advantage of the situation and "borrow" a few Thousand Sons gene-seed samples for his personal collection.
Yet as time passed, he began to notice something was off.
This fleet… didn't seem to belong to the Imperium.
He observed clearly: all these ships were pouring out from a mysterious stargate, a method of travel neither warp-based nor akin to the Eldar webway.
As for this unfamiliar FTL technology, Trazyn was completely in the dark.
But more striking was the sheer scale of the fleet.
Given what he knew about the Imperium's military capacity, not even if the Emperor dug up every last relic from the Golden Age would it explain this level of firepower.
Trazyn—Overlord of the Necron, master of the tomb world Solemnace, famed tomb raider and obsessive collector of all things rare and unusual.
Nicknamed across the stars: "The Shiny Stealer."
His Museum of Solemnace, founded and curated by his own hands, contained priceless relics from every corner of the galaxy—some of immense historical value, others laughably trivial, kept purely to indulge his eccentric tastes.
Among his collection: the wraitbone choir of Altansar, the severed head of Saint Sebastian Thor, the Ossified husk of an enslaver, C'tan shards, cloned Primarchs, and more.
Everyone knew—collectors tend to be crafty.
And as a Necron overlord, Trazyn's true trump card was his ability to use proxies and body-swaps, hijacking other Necron nobles to achieve his ends—making him a maddeningly elusive foe.
In short, a man who came with his own stand.
Despite his peculiar tastes, Trazyn wasn't particularly cruel or hostile. On the contrary, his worldview was strangely similar to that of humans.
As a one-man powerhouse with cutting-edge tech and countless priceless artifacts, someone like Li Ang would surely take an interest in him.
But as fate would have it, the ever-elusive Trazyn happened to show up in the Prospero system just as the Megacorp fleet was entering the Warhammer universe.
"How interesting... Looks like the Emperor really has found some treasure. This Great Crusade must be quite the haul."
Trazyn stared at the fleet for a long time, but couldn't recognize a single model or design class.
From his memory, Imperial warships were never this clean, minimalistic, or elegant.
Cathedral spires, clunky ecclesiastical structures, winding nonsensical corridors—all jammed together.
At first glance, they looked like flying churches.
But the Megacorp fleet? Entirely different.
Though there were variations—some resembling Protoss or Zerg-style bio-vessels—most shared a cohesive aesthetic:
sleek minimalism, clean hulls, and orderly gun placements.
"If I could add a few of these ships to my museum... that would be lovely." Trazyn began scheming.
Getting his hands on warships under the Emperor's nose would be like stealing from a dragon's hoard, but he was tempted nonetheless.
Still, with the warp, the Imperium, and other forces all in flux, now wasn't the best time to take risks. He didn't want to become someone else's target.
Wait a second... Why are these ships still coming out? There must be over fifty thousand already!
Trazyn's eyes widened. The stargate was still disgorging vessels—no signs of slowing down. Even if the Emperor had somehow exhumed half the galaxy, he couldn't field this many ships.
And even if he had them—who would crew them all?
Moreover, Trazyn knew the Emperor was secretly running a major operation. Under Malcador's adjustments, the Imperium had officially ended its two-hundred-year crusade.
Resources were being cut across the board, even the Primarchs' logistics had been slashed to minimal levels.
To push them toward self-reliance, the Emperor had handed out battered colonies to his sons as a test.
Under such dire conditions, maintaining such a massive fleet was simply impossible.
Even if the Emperor emptied his own coffers—it wouldn't be enough.
Now, Prospero's orbit was crowded with warships like a starry sky.
On the ground, the Thousand Sons and human populations were gripped with anxiety.
As soon as the warship formations were observed, Governor Luthor of Prospero contacted the Thousand Sons' second-in-command: Ahzek Ahriman.
But he didn't need to be told. Ahriman had long since noticed the fleet's arrival.
In his capacity as Chief Librarian, he opened communications with the Megacorp fleet.
Jack Wells responded by presenting credentials from the Imperium and explained that their presence was tied to a classified mission.
As for the details? No comment.
The Thousand Sons were instantly thrown into unease.
They weren't fools. They knew perfectly well that if the Emperor had sent a fleet, it had something to do with Magnus.
"Is the Emperor helping us search for our Primarch?"
"Doubt it! There are way too many ships. And I don't even recognize the fleet—what legion are they from?"
"Something's not right... we need to prepare for battle!"
…
According to the original plan, once the Megacorp fleet arrived, it was to immediately blockade Prospero and prevent the Thousand Sons from fleeing.
Then launch a series of operations to investigate the mutation levels within the legion.
However, this kind of inspection—especially involving gene deviations—wasn't something an outsider like the Megacorp could handle directly. It would require the Primarchs themselves to intervene.
As of now, Guilliman, Mortarion, and the other Primarchs were still en route.
So, the Megacorp fleet could only hover in orbit, organizing their formations and dispatching units to blockade the system in the meantime.
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