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Chapter 26: Conquering the World Even in Another Universe
Creak!
Creak!
Valdo stirred from unconsciousness, his gene-forged senses gradually returning to full awareness. The steady rhythm of bumping and grinding metal rang through his skull like the cadence of a battle-cant. His augmented physiology purged the lingering torpor from his system as he pressed a gauntleted hand to his brow.
When clarity returned, he looked upon a sight that filled his warrior's heart with existential dread.
The Master of Mankind Himself pedaled the crude tricycle, His golden form hunched over the primitive conveyance, carrying His guardian like some common burden-bearer.
The sight struck Valdo's soul like a bolt-round to the chest.
Loyalty to the Emperor was not mere dutyâit was encoded into the very genetic structure of every Imperial Guard, burned into their souls like a brand of the Throne.
Yet here he sat, allowing the God-Emperor of Mankind to serve as his beast of burden upon this rusted contraption.
By the Golden Throne...
As leader of the Adeptus Custodes, how could he have failed so catastrophically in his sacred charge?
The Raven turned in his perch, observing Valdo's awakening with obvious amusement dancing in his dark eyes. The creature's expression suggested it knew precisely what tormented thoughts plagued the Custodian's mind.
"Easy there, Big Corn Cob," the Raven said with characteristic irreverence. "Big Guy already mentioned that once this little field trip wraps up, He'll ship you back to Terra to watch the pond."
Valdo said nothing. The words only deepened the chill in his transhuman heart.
"Ignore the carrion-bird's jest," the Emperor spoke without turning, His voice carrying that familiar tone of absolute authority even in this diminished circumstance. "This marks your first passage through the dimensional barriers. Your physiology struggles to adapt to this reality's fundamental laws. The unconsciousness was merely temporary."
"My Lord," Valdo's voice carried the weight of ten thousand years of shame, "I beseech Youâhalt this conveyance. Allow me to bear this burden."
"Unnecessary. We have arrived."
The Emperor applied pressure to the brake mechanism. The corroded tricycle ground to a halt with a screech of protesting metal.
Before them stretched a settlement of some kindâthough 'town' seemed too generous a term. Everything lay shrouded in yellow sand and heat-haze, a vision of desolation that reminded Valdo of the death-worlds beyond the Imperium's borders.
"Come. Let us investigate."
The Emperor and His Custodian advanced toward the settlement's perimeter.
The streets lay largely abandoned, storefronts sealed behind rusted shutters and barricades. The few inhabitants they glimpsed moved like wraithsâgaunt figures with the hollow-eyed stare of the chronically malnourished.
"Someone died!"
The shout echoed across the empty thoroughfare. Within moments, more than a dozen figures emerged from concealment, converging on the sound's source with the desperate hunger of pack predators.
The Emperor followed the commotion and witnessed a scene that would have seemed familiar on any feral world: humans fighting over a corpse with animalistic desperation. Some had progressed beyond desperation into madness, tearing at raw flesh with their teeth.
"I am Curious," the Emperor mused. "This civilization has clearly achieved industrial-level technology. Yet they resort to cannibalism. Explain."
The Raven preened one wing thoughtfully. "Humanity here reached the industrial age, sure enough. Problem is, they're facing an existential threat from an alien civilization."
"To counter the xenos menace, they converted their entire economy to military-industrial production. Environmental concerns got branded as collaboration with the enemy, so they unleashed every form of toxic heavy industry imaginable. Result? Global desertification."
"Greenhouse effects, climate collapse, agricultural failureâthe whole ecosystem cratered. When there's not even grass left to eat, cannibalism becomes survival."
The Emperor surveyed the wasteland with the analytical gaze of one who had witnessed the rise and fall of countless civilizations. "Their governance proves remarkably incompetent. The alien threat remains merely potential, yet their social order has already disintegrated."
The Raven shrugged with one wing. "They never achieved planetary unification. Each nation-state guards its resources while eyeing the others with suspicion. This town's actually doing wellâat least they're not actively murdering each other yet. The major population centers make this look like paradise."
"What would you counsel as our next course of action?"
"What do you want to do?" the Raven deflected.
The Emperor examined their surroundings with the eye of a conqueror who had unified Terra through blood and fire. "First, we gather intelligence. I must understand the full scope of this world's degradation."
He moved toward the scattered belongings of the deceased, retrieving a communication device the scavengers had ignored in their feeding frenzy. His vast intellect quickly adapted to the primitive technology's operation.
The information networks revealed a catastrophe far exceeding even the Raven's bleak assessment.
Footage streamed endlessly of massive population movementsâmillions of refugees trudging across dust-choked wastelands under scorching suns.
When hunger claimed the weak, their corpses were immediately dismembered by their former companions. Riot, murder, and cannibalism had become the new normal as social contracts dissolved entirely.
After absorbing sufficient data, the Emperor lowered the device and fixed the Raven with a stare that had once cowed the warlords of Terra.
"Unless you object, I intend to unify this world and guide its people toward salvation."
The Raven bobbed his head approvingly. "Knock yourself out, Boss."
So long as the Emperor avoided actions violent enough to trigger expulsion by the universe's governing forces, the Raven had no concerns.
"This reality's physical laws prove remarkably rigid," the Emperor noted. "The Warp and other psychic dimensions suffer heavy suppression here. My abilities remain limited to this immortal shell."
"I discovered that limitation upon awakening," the Emperor confirmed.
The Raven shook dust from his feathers. "Without psychic powers or established infrastructure, how exactly do you plan to conquer an entire world? This is the industrial ageâyou can't topple governments that control weapons and food supplies with simple peasant revolts."
The Emperor's expression shifted into something that would have been familiar to any who had witnessed His conquest of Terraâthe look of a being who had mastered the art of civilization-building through necessity and ruthless pragmatism.
"Irrelevant. I possess extensive experience in such endeavors. As for initial resource acquisition..." The Emperor paused, surveying the chaos around them. "Social order has collapsed sufficiently that certain direct methods will attract no attention."
The Emperor's capacity for swift, decisive action remained as formidable as ever.
Once He established an objective, implementation followed with terrifying efficiency.
Step one: acquire weapons.
In a world where social contracts had dissolved and starvation stalked the land, even military personnel would trade armaments for sustenance. Black markets and criminal organizations provided the necessary contacts.
The Emperor possessed no currency, but He commanded something far more valuable: overwhelming force.
Though this universe's laws suppressed His psychic might, His immortal physiology alone granted Him combat capabilities that could crush ordinary humans like insects.
Combined with Valdo's gene-forged prowess as a Custodian, they represented a two-man army capable of dismantling most criminal enterprises.
The Emperor and His guardian carved through the underworld like a blade through parchment, seizing food stores, weapons caches, and monetary resources. Surviving criminals found themselves conscripted into service or eliminated as examples.
With armaments secured and a core of hardened followers established, the Emperor moved against industrial targets.
Factory owners faced a simple choice: sell their facilities at the Emperor's offered price, or discover what resistance meant in practical terms.
The Emperor restructured production lines with ruthless efficiency, implementing gene-modification techniques to enhance crop yields.
This world had developed fusion technology. He spent considerable effort acquiring the necessary materials and components to construct power generation systems.
Fusion reactors powered the factories day and night, producing massive quantities of nutrient blocks and purified water.
Months passed in a blur of conquest and consolidation.
The Emperor's influence spread like wildfire across the wasteland. He now commanded tens of thousands of armed followers, all fed and equipped by His industrial infrastructure. Starving refugees streamed toward His territories, drawn by rumors of food and order.
Then came the inevitable response from the established powers.
"We hope you'll consider transferring control of your military forces and nutrient production technology to federal oversight," the envoy explained with the practiced diplomacy of a career politician. "In exchange, you would receive a congressional seat and full recognition within our governmental structure."
"We have no desire for conflict, nor do we wish to see innocent lives lost. Accepting our proposal would benefit everyone involved."
The Federal States of Americaâthis region's nominal governmentâmaintained their grip on power through careful resource management and armed force.
While social order crumbled around them, the federal elite preserved their comfortable existence by controlling what remained of civilization's infrastructure.
The Emperor's sudden rise as a rival power center had attracted their attention and concern. Their offer represented the standard approach: co-optation over confrontation, absorption rather than destruction.
They hoped to bring the Emperor into their existing hierarchy, gaining access to His revolutionary production methods while maintaining their privileged position atop the social pyramid.
The Emperor listened to their proposal with the patience of one who had heard similar offers from countless would-be partners throughout the millennia.
"Your concern for innocent lives proves... touching," He replied, His voice carrying undertones that made the envoys unconsciously step backward. "However, I believe you fundamentally misunderstand the nature of our relationship."
The delegates exchanged nervous glances.
"You see," the Emperor continued, rising from His improvised throne to tower over the federal representatives, "I have not come here seeking accommodation within your failing system. I have come to replace it entirely."
The golden light in His eyes promised that this conversation would be their only warning.
The federal envoy's composure cracked slightly. "Sir, with respect, the situation offers opportunities for mutual benefit. The resources required for global reconstructionâ"
"Ah," the Emperor interrupted, His voice carrying the cold amusement of one who had witnessed every variation of human avarice across ten millennia. "Now we approach the truth. You speak of saving lives while calculating the wealth to be seized from this catastrophe."
He stepped closer, and the diplomats instinctively retreated before His presence.
"These displaced masses starve in the wasteland while you deliberate in climate-controlled chambers. Now, faced with the erosion of your authority, you threaten war to preserve your comfortable fiction."
The lead diplomat straightened, attempting to salvage his mission with practiced rhetoric. "The Federal States of America represents freedom itself, sir. Our citizens possess the fundamental right to choose their own destiny."
"Do they?" The Emperor's gaze bored into the man until sweat beaded on his brow. "You construct a maze with a single exit, then proclaim magnanimously: 'Behold, freedomâyou may choose your path.'"
"They have never possessed true choice. They exist within the elaborate deceptions you have woven, perishing in despair while you profit from their suffering."
The Emperor's voice dropped to a whisper that somehow carried more menace than any shout. "Return to your masters. Inform them they shall receive nothing from Me save what they have earned through their negligence. If they desire war, I shall accommodate themâby dragging them from their gilded towers and drowning them in the sewers they have made of this world."
The federal delegation departed in haste, their diplomatic mission revealed as the failure it had always been destined to become.
When the Emperor emerged from the improvised command center, He found thousands gathered in the settlement's central plaza.
Young men and women, their faces bearing the gaunt marks of prolonged hunger, yet their eyes blazing with something the federal elites had never understood: righteous fury born of injustice witnessed.
Too many had perished in this manufactured famineâparents, siblings, children. The survivors had endured enough. They yearned for someone to give voice to their rage, to transform their desperation into purpose.
The Emperor surveyed the assembled multitude with the calculating gaze of one who had once stood before the techno-barbarian tribes of Terra and forged them into the instrument of galactic conquest.
When He spoke, His voice carried across the plaza like thunder, reaching every ear with perfect clarity.
"They demanded our submissionâthat we accept their dominion as our ancestors did before us. I refused."
"Countless souls have perished, victims of their incompetence and boundless greed. They covet authority while spurning responsibility. They promised prosperity yet delivered only elegant lies that led you into the abyss."
"You committed no sin, yet lost everythingâfamily, friends, hope itself. To survive their manufactured hell, you were forced to abandon dignity, morality, every virtue that once defined your humanity."
"War approaches with grim certainty. Many of you will not survive what comes. Therefore, I grant you something your previous masters never offered: genuine choice."
"Remain and stand with Me in the crucible ahead, or flee to whatever lingering existence awaits beyond these borders."
The Emperor's voice hardened, carrying the weight of absolute truth. "I promise you neither freedom nor happinessâsuch words are the currency of liars and fools. The only oath I swear is this: you shall live and die as human beings, with dignity intact."
"I have spoken. The choice remains yours alone: Will you abandon this place?"
A woman pressed forward through the crowdâyoung, hollow-cheeked, but with fire burning in her eyes.
"No." Her voice cracked with emotion. "I'm finished with this existence. I refuse to die like some scavenging animal. Damn the aliens, damn the Federal States of America."
"I stand with you," another declared, stepping beside her.
"And I."
"I as well."
One by one, they advancedâdozens, then hundreds, their voices joining in a thunderous chorus of defiance that echoed across the wasteland.
The Emperor smiledânot the cold expression of a conqueror, but something approaching warmth. Humanity in all its contradictory glory never failed to kindle something within His ancient heart.
They were cowards and heroes. Base and noble. Selfish and selfless.
With proper guidance, they would burn with the brilliance of stars.
The Raven spread his wings, cawing with unrestrained enthusiasm. "Two hundred separate nations on one tiny planet? That's practically treason against basic efficiency! Time to raise an army, Bossâlet's conquer this whole damn world!"
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