Chapter 364: Tzeentch Profits
"Komus... I know a little about this thing," the Emperor's voice echoed in their minds. "It was created by a group of Men of Gold who could be considered extremists, even among their own kind. Their construction process was very secretive. Later, it disappeared completely. Everyone thought they had failed and that these Men of Gold had been destroyed along with it. I never expected that after so many years... Komus would appear again.
"Lucan, Guilliman, they may have been seduced by the Chaos Gods, or they may have even formed an alliance with them. Either way, it is not something we want to see right now. Their psychic powers may not be a major concern, but the technology they might bring to Chaos will greatly enhance the strength of those who worship the Ruinous Powers."
For the Emperor, the psychic power of Fletcher and his group was manageable. It was their technology that worried him the most. The death of Vashtorr had already deprived the Chaos renegades of their largest source of wargear. Lucan also did not want to see these traitors acquire another massive arsenal. The protection provided by the powersuits had shown clear deficiencies against their weapons.
"The Men of Gold? Those guys are actually still alive? And Komus is their creation? So it really is the Chaos Gods pulling the strings from behind..."
Lucan and Guilliman looked at each other. The events happening in the other regions of the Imperium were clearly not so simple. The former masters of the Imperium had returned, and they even had ties to the Chaos Gods. If they could deploy so many Annihilation Engines, could they deploy even more? They could handle the battle here, but that did not mean that the other worlds of the Imperium could withstand an attack from these extermination machines.
Imagine Chaos renegades, armed with Annihilation Engines, raiding different worlds. The current Imperium would not necessarily be able to handle it. Lucan needed to accelerate the production of his gene-warriors.
And if Tzeentch could infiltrate one Navigator house, then he could certainly infiltrate others. Even a major house like Ortelius had been completely corrupted. Who knew if other major houses in other Segmentums had also been corrupted? Both of them could almost guess that the eruption of the Navigator problem was now unavoidable.
"Guilliman, protect these controlled patriarchs. They can't die now," Lucan said. "If the Navigator houses in other Segmentums are incited by Tzeentch to continue serving the Imperium, we might even need the family members of these patriarchs as an emergency measure! You and I will take them and leave this planet! Get to the warships. I will mobilize the troops and attempt to destroy Komus!"
The threat from these Men of Gold was not just the Annihilation Engines. The chaos spreading throughout Scintilla and Komus, which was now approaching the planet, were equally troublesome. A report on the situation of the fleet in orbit was also received. Komus was still getting closer. The current Imperium could also use Exterminatus at will. Lucan had to prepare for the worst: that the enemy might, by some unknown means, launch an Exterminatus-level attack on Scintilla. The riots currently spreading through the planet had already paralyzed a large number of its ground defense facilities.
Lucan immediately contacted Artanis and Kerrigan, telling them to immediately bring sufficient forces to Scintilla to stop Komus's advance. Compared to human soldiers, the Protoss and the Zerg could completely ignore the debuffs brought by the warp.
At that moment, in orbit, Scintilla's planetary defense fleet had almost completely collapsed. Bizarre phenomena that transcended the laws of physics were spreading through their warships. The Imperial ships could not even get close to Komus. The area around it was no different from being in the warp itself. The situation the Imperial fleet was facing now was like flying through the warp without a Gellar Field.
The torpedoes, lances, and macro-cannon shells they fired were all blocked by a layer of energy shields. But the energy beams released by Komus could easily tear through the Imperial warships' void shields and armor.
Tzeentch's invasion of Komus had been from the inside. This had, conversely, left Komus's external armor and various weapon systems well-preserved. And the divine power of the Four Gods, as well as the endless energy of the warp, provided these weapons and shields with a continuous power supply.
At the same time, the Four Gods were also watching everything that was happening on Scintilla. With the Chaos corruption already spreading, they were continuously sending their daemon forces to the planet. The battles within the various hive cities of Scintilla had already shifted from suppressing the insane to fighting against daemons.
And in the warp, apart from Tzeentch, the other three gods were once again furious at Fletcher's failure. Tzeentch had promised that he could use these people to kill Lucan and Guilliman, which was why they had set aside their mutual hatred and had temporarily lent their precious divine power to him, allowing him to better use the power of the Well of Eternity to control Komus.
One had to know that the daemons residing within Komus were all of Tzeentch's. There were no daemons from the other three gods. This meant that although the other three had lent their power, the true control of Komus was still in Tzeentch's hands. With their divine power having failed to kill Lucan and Guilliman, it was no different from being played for a fool by Tzeentch.
At this moment, the only one who had profited was Tzeentch.
For him, even if he couldn't kill Lucan, he now had a powerful tool that could freely traverse the material universe and spread the corruption of Chaos. If he wished, he could control Komus to appear on any world within the Imperium and corrupt it at an extremely high speed, without the need for long, complicated rituals and sacrifices.
In Tzeentch's eyes, Fletcher and the others' decapitation strike with the Annihilation Engines was just an attempt. If it failed, it failed. It was no great loss to him. It had even allowed him to probe whether Lucan had any more trump cards. And the powerful posture of Damon and the others had also been witnessed by him.
And besides gaining complete control of Komus, Tzeentch had also obtained something very valuable: the rescued Pacini.
Tzeentch would now use him to spread the word of what Guilliman and Lucan planned to do to the Navigators! As Lucan had thought, Tzeentch had corrupted Navigator houses in every Segmentum, and these houses would now become an important bargaining chip to once again split the human Imperium!
No matter how realistic a fabrication is, it is still fake. But everything Pacini had experienced was real. No matter what methods were used to test him, the other Navigators would know that Lucan and Guilliman were trying to make a move against the Navigator Houses.
Of course, not all Navigator houses would rebel against the Imperium and throw themselves into the embrace of Chaos. Tzeentch did not need all of them to believe him. Even a tenth would be enough to bring disaster to the current human Imperium. Without the help of a large number of Navigators, many important sectors of the Imperium would even collapse. The survival of many sectors relied on one or two important planets within them. Without the ability to transport the resources produced by these planets via warp travel, many worlds would lose their supply of weapons and food.
And he could also use the technology of these Men of Gold to provide wargear to the followers of Chaos, allowing them to occupy the worlds that had lost their long-range travel capabilities!