"Is that all?" Swain's reply caused the powerful aura emanating from Corax to falter.
"Your gaze should not be confined to the small spaces of Kiavahr and Lycaeus. Aren't you curious why I know so much about you?" Swain slowly drew an Imperium Aquila symbol on the table with a stone. The stone scraped against the hard tabletop, making a grating sound. With just a few strokes, a lifelike Imperial double-headed Aquila pattern appeared on the table.
"This double-headed eagle mark was on the amniotic pod when you landed on Lycaeus, so I presume you are very familiar with this mark. This faction is known as the Imperium. Its master is a powerful being called the Emperor, who is also your father. Now, the mighty Imperium has unified Sacred Terra, the homeworld of humanity, and under the leadership of the Emperor, it has begun to reclaim all lost territories of the human race, centered on Sacred Terra. Perhaps tomorrow, perhaps decades from now, your father's invincible fleet will descend upon Lycaeus, liberate this world, and bring you, His 19th Highness, back to take charge of the Space Marine Legions forged from your genetic template."
"As for why you, of all people, fell directly from Sacred Terra onto this mining planet, that is not a reason I can know. Perhaps, it might be due to great maternal love." Swain smiled suggestively.
"Corax, the problems you see on Lycaeus now, the internal strife among humans, are insignificant compared to those planets suffering from xenos invasion and colonization. After all, those xenos are aiming for complete annihilation. So your gaze should never be confined to this small pond. The future of the galaxy is your true journey." Swain omitted a lot of information, only giving a general introduction to the Imperium and the Emperor. Many complex issues simply didn't have the time or means to be explained.
"So, Swain, what are your expectations for me, or what are your demands?" Corax asked.
"Ah, demands? In the future, let the worlds conquered by your forces accept your leadership. Nothing else." Swain only said this one sentence. He couldn't very well say that this Imperium would later fall into a great rebellion due to the interference of four daemons in the Warp, leading to its fragmentation, and that his old father would be gravely wounded and lie on the Golden Throne, could he?
"Ah, don't the worlds I conquer belong to me?" Corax asked, very puzzled. This was also Swain subconsciously falling into the confusion of past experiences. In the original background, besides Lycaeus, this mining world being designated as the Legion homeworld, Kiavahr was directly handed over to the Mechanicus to be transformed into a Forge World.
To put it bluntly, the Emperor was very much a cheat in this regard. Giving Corax a ceremonial power whip as a gift was one thing, but Kiavahr was also given to the Mechanicus, with the reason being that for the Great Crusade, the Imperium needed Kiavahr's production capacity.
Swain's evaluation of this was: What the hell man...
Kiavahr, merely an industrial world, could the Imperium of Man really be short of this much production capacity? The later circulated legend of the Crow King's homeworld rebellion was actually incorrect. The rebellion was by the people of Kiavahr who could not accept the constant exploitation of the Forge World, not a rebellion on Lycaeus.
"Then, speed up the unification of Lycaeus." Swain didn't dwell on this issue, but instead urged him on. It was also very strange. The Emperor's retrieval of the Primarchs lost throughout the galaxy generally followed a pattern, except for Alpharius who fell directly at the palace gates, and Horus who directly contacted the Mechanicus.
When other Primarchs were unifying their planets, the Emperor would appear by their side in various forms: as a wanderer, a challenger, or directly with his golden invincible fleet. It was as if when a Primarch unified their planet or effectively became its ruler, they could summon the Emperor.
Of course, not every Primarch's unification was smooth, but most Primarchs unified their landing planets in a very short time. However, there was a significant time difference issue: when did the Primarchs arrive on their homeworlds? There is no concept of time in the Warp. The time it took to travel from Sacred Terra to different planets was affected by various factors. Under these multiple factors, Corax ended up being the last Gene-Primarch to return to the Imperium.
"I will organize the other camps I've already contacted to carry out a collective strike, protesting the increasingly reduced supply of resources from the Tower. In about a year, I plan to launch an uprising to completely overthrow the Tower's rule." Corax made his decision upon hearing this.
"Go for it, Corax. The Saviors Camp will fully support you." Swain's gaze seemed to penetrate the midday sun and see the silent star that had illuminated Lycaeus for an unknown number of years.
The star silently rotated, as if fate was turning imperceptibly. For thousands of years, the tragic gears of fate for the miners, which had been completely stagnant and endlessly repetitive, began to turn at this very moment. The rust-covered machinery began to operate, and as the gears turned, they began to crush the accumulated decaying matter upon them.
The already fated trajectory began to turn at this moment. The protagonist was the guest known as the Outworld Wanderer, and the supporting characters were the intelligent beings who had endlessly repeated their fates for countless eons.
When Swain came back to his senses, Corax had already quietly left the camp that had first taken him in.
"Swain, isn't that a bit too fast?" Nekser was a little worried. Although Corax had already contacted most of the camps, whether they could be trusted was another matter. Even if they could participate, could the miners withstand the Tower's retaliation? And had the Tower planted spies among them?
"Nekser, revolution requires bloodshed. In this great upheaval, no one can remain aloof. The slaves on Lycaeus have struggled for centuries, but each time they were suppressed. But this time, I believe the wise ones in those camps will make a wise decision. As for the rest, just trust Corax. His sources of information are far richer than ours." Swain rose from the stone stool. Since Corax had made his decision, he should also take a good inventory of The Savior Camp's assets.
Ephrenia was just an ordinary woman, no more, no less, on Lycaeus. Her life was a microcosm of countless ordinary girls on Lycaeus. Ephrenia remembered from the time she could remember that her world was composed of this gray sky and endless labor.
Every day, she worked as much as she could in the camp's mine, hungry, waiting for her parents and other family members to return. Her father's rough, cracked hands gently stroked her forehead. Her mother painstakingly cut the pungent, black corpse starch, soaking it in water to soothe the family's hungry palates.
Life passed by uneventfully until her parents had an accident during mining and were buried deep within an unknown mine shaft.