After all, Space Marines—this fully mature specialty product of the Warhammer universe—were just too damn useful. For one, their potential ceiling was incredibly high, not falling short of an average Custodian, and they could be produced in much greater numbers. That was why Zhou Ye almost exclusively cooked up Astartes. He was starting to understand the Emperor's logic. If you removed the limitations and just brute-forced the success rate with his own Authorities, the output was even higher than during the Great Crusade.
"Captain, the fortress has been constructed according to your specifications."
Just then, Klee walked over holding a data-slate. A moment later, Zhou Ye received the confirmation. He had constructed a fully-equipped palace on this planet, outfitted with extensive defensive systems.
This wasn't Zhou Ye trying to emulate the Emperor, nor was it for his own enjoyment. A glance at what he was protecting made the reason clear. First and foremost was the mainframe of his supercomputer. This was the absolute top priority, a machine capable of handling the massive computational load of his thirty worlds. Without it, Zhou Ye's administrative costs would skyrocket by several hundred times, and he likely wouldn't achieve even half the current efficiency.
Then there were the schemes of the various Chaos Gods. Zhou Ye had, after all, thoroughly offended three of the four major powers. He had no idea what Khorne was up to, but he was certain the other three were constantly making small moves against him. This was a threat that could not be ignored. Just look at the Blood God, who had quietly instigated the War of the Beast right on Terra's doorstep.
Zhou Ye was certain they had already confirmed his general location but were still unsure of the full extent of his power. This was precisely why he had been madly expanding his military. In this era, you had to be prepared to fight a galaxy-spanning war at a moment's notice.
Honestly, the two major battles he had fought so far were of high quality but low intensity. This was mainly because the Great Rift hadn't opened yet, and the Chaos powers couldn't project their full strength into realspace. But they were slowly accumulating power, and inside this very fortress, he was storing several Chaos artifacts. He had already consumed some of them directly, but a few were too peculiar to be absorbed immediately and had to be sealed away for now. He had to let Imaginary energy break them down to a certain point before he could devour them, which meant he needed a secure containment facility.
All these factors, combined with the need for planetary defense, had compelled Zhou Ye to construct this massive palace. It now served as the central hub for the entire planet's defense network. Even with the Star Rails, he couldn't afford to be lax with security.
"Captain, your minister is here to protest again."
Ai-chan's voice chimed in. She had been upgraded by Zhou Ye once again and now, from the outside, appeared as a genuine Gloriana-class battleship, on par with the Vengeful Spirit and the Macragge's Honour. One had to have face, after all. If he hadn't been short on materials, Zhou Ye would have been tempted to cook up his own Phalanx. Unfortunately, the resource cost for that was astronomical, and he simply couldn't afford it.
"They're protesting? Because of the Lamenters? Didn't I tell them before? The people the Lamenters save are their own responsibility to settle. Only after they're settled can they go out again."
Zhou Ye sipped his tea nonchalantly, then fed some useless documents to his desk. When it looked like the desk had eaten its fill, he casually squeezed its mouth-like opening shut. The desk began to twitch violently, as if in protest, before another heavy blow from Zhou Ye silenced it. This was one of his small office pleasures—a way to de-stress his desk.
The Ministry of the Interior was, understandably, not fond of the Lamenters. Their stress levels over the past few years could be credited entirely to that chapter. After Zhou Ye had upgraded them with pocket-dimension storage, they had started hauling back people by the tens of millions. Half the population of his thirty worlds had been brought in by them.
Other companies had certainly encountered planets in peril, but the Lamenters seemed to run into them on every single mission. Every outing inevitably turned into a bloody battle, making Zhou Ye wonder if they would have been on the brink of annihilation again if he hadn't given them so much support.
The Lamenters now numbered over 1,500 warriors. They had initially protested that this exceeded the limits of the Codex, but Zhou Ye had simply stated it was nothing more than Guilliman's toilet paper. When Guilliman finally woke up, he'd wish he could travel back in time and give his ten-thousand-years-younger self a massive slap across the face. Hearing that, Malakim had shrunk back and dared not argue the point.
Zhou Ye had recently supplied them with another hundred suits of Indomitus Terminator armor and ten suits of Centurion armor. They now possessed a total of one hundred and thirty Indomitus suits and thirteen Centurion suits. Honestly, these guys were terrifyingly effective fighters, especially after he had decked them out in top-of-the-line gear. The intensity of their battles was several times that of any other company. In the end, Zhou Ye had simply assigned them their own fleet and thrown in an additional two hundred thousand Solar Auxilia for support. After all, if they encountered serious Chaos corruption, it had to be dealt with, lest it affect the Star Rails.
However, now that over a hundred Star Rails had been laid, he wasn't particularly afraid of that kind of sectional corruption. For one, any corruption would be detected immediately. If Section A became corrupted, the route from B to C, which originally passed through A, would simply be rerouted to B-D-E-F-C. In short, they'd just take a detour. A message would be sent back, and he would dispatch forces to handle it. If that wasn't enough, he would go himself.
He now had an honor guard of nearly three thousand warriors, hand-picked from his various companies, who also served as his central reserve. Of course, these warriors spent most of their time training fanatically in his time-dilated chamber. Zhou Ye had also developed another function for his Imaginary Computer: an ability similar to Schicksal's database and the Memory Battlefield, which could project enemies from his past encounters. The blueprints for these projected enemies were the very foes Zhou Ye had faced. To avoid any risk of corruption, the materialized monsters were composed entirely of Imaginary energy—in other words, his own daemons that just happened to look like those of the other powers. For the sake of energy conservation, they could only fight within the training chamber and could not leave.
Even so, this was invaluable experience for his warriors. A long queue had already formed in the square of his palace, filled with Space Marines and their Auxilia waiting for their team's turn. Half of the Thousand-Person Theater was now used to rapidly produce qualified new recruits, while the other half was dedicated to combat training. From the very beginning, Zhou Ye had been aiming for the standards of the Great Crusade, and the individual units he was producing were nothing to scoff at.
"My Lord, these Space Marines have gone too far!!!"
The doors swung open, and two figures, one tall and one short, entered and knelt before Zhou Ye. The mortal among them was glaring furiously at the Astartes beside him.
It was the Chapter Master of the Lamenters, Malakim Phoros.
The other man, now Zhou Ye's Minister of the Interior, looked on as Malakim lowered his head in shame. Even with the computer's calculations, it wasn't omnipotent. The annual budget could only be calculated and allocated after the tithes from all thirty worlds and the Rogue Traders were collected. Every department's spending was carefully audited. Suddenly dropping tens of millions of new citizens on them was causing the Ministry of the Interior to nearly explode.
His planetary governor had since been promoted to Minister of the Interior. With the help of the supercomputer and the new, specially enhanced Astartes Zhou Ye had cooked up using the Ultramarines' template, his mental state had finally improved. He now had the time and energy to furiously berate an Astartes, something that would have been unimaginable for him just a few years ago. It was clear the man was under immense pressure. One of his own grandsons had also completed the transformation and was now a glorious Astartes, working alongside him to manage the affairs of thirty worlds and dozens of Rogue Traders.
"My Lord, my deepest apologies."
Malakim lowered his head in shame. In the past, they could only watch helplessly as the people they saved perished. Even those they managed to rescue were often thrown into a new hell. Now, with real support behind them, they could finally save people completely. Those they rescued could come to the thirty worlds of the Trailblaze Sector and enjoy the 996 Work-Blessing, a rarity in the grim darkness of the 41st Millennium. Moreover, the tax rate was only fifty percent, an incredibly benevolent figure. This was why Malakim was so eager to bring more people over to enjoy the blessings of the 996 and the fifty-percent tax rate.
As a result, the Ministry of the Interior was just short of turning Zhou Ye's planetary defense cannons on them. While they were infinitely more efficient than the vermin on Terra, the situation was still causing their blood pressure to skyrocket. The Lamenters' fleet had even been impounded once. An entire battle chapter had been turned into scribe-drudges, working for ages to sort out the mess before they could go on crusade again. And now, it had happened again...
"No matter. I just happen to have another planet. We'll just settle them there."
Zhou Ye was rather unconcerned. If worst came to worst, he could just create what they needed himself. Now that the Star Rails were established, they provided him with even more energy, so he no longer had to be so restrained.
Zhou Ye had now roughly pinpointed his location. His planets were mostly situated between two Imperial Segmentums. Because of the nature of the Warp and Mandeville Points, the Imperium's territory was a series of disconnected clusters, not a single contiguous entity. While the Warp brought countless disasters, the Imperium was also powerless to reach areas truly far from it. These regions had now become Zhou Ye's for the taking. He could claim land as he pleased. As for the Imperial worlds, he would only do business with them and never touch their sovereignty.
"I just wonder when the Imperium, or rather, the Emperor, will notice. My activities have become more and more frequent these past few years. This large-scale population snatching is bound to be discovered sooner or later. And the people of this universe are really fertile. The people here pop out kids like they're laying eggs."
Zhou Ye rolled his eyes as he looked at the data-slate in his hand. In the horrid environment of the underhives, people rarely lived past thirty. Even so, each person would have three or four children in their short lifetime. Now, living here, their quality of life was comparable to that of the upper-hive nobility. As a result, they were even more eager to forge goods for the Emperor—no, to mint subjects for him.
This universe still had daemons and corruption, so Zhou Ye couldn't mass-produce entertainment. The lives of his common citizens were thus quite divided. Compared to the Earth he had transmigrated from, their productivity was beyond imagination, but their spiritual and cultural life was still in the Middle Ages. But perhaps that was for the best. The top students graduating from his schools each year would provide him with a steady stream of soldiers and high-quality beasts of burden.
---o---
One hundred light-years from Zhou Ye's planet.
On a feudal world, the Planetary Governor stared in agony at the screen before him, his eyes shot with blood.
"What's the status of our call for aid?"
"Governor, the Astropath has sent the message. Unfortunately, we have received no reply. Given the response time of the Segmentum Command, we do not have enough time. The walking corpses are already converging on the hive. We can resist for a few months at most." The Planetary General reported with a helpless tone. Their situation was dire. As a simple feudal world, they had few effective means to combat Nurgle's plague zombies and cultists. They could only rely on their walls and limited weaponry. Sending troops out to meet them in open battle was impossible. Any man who charged into that horde would be corrupted almost instantly.
"Well, my dear Governor. You don't look so good. As per our previous agreement, we have brought the goods. Now, if you would please render payment."
Just then, a flyer slowly descended, and a young man emerged with a smile. "My dear Mr. Dobitek, my planet is now shrouded in plague. They are laying siege to my fortress. The mining districts have already fallen. I cannot provide any ore at this time. As for weapons..." A look of despair crossed the governor's face. The man before him was a young Rogue Trader, but his supplies were stable, and he was a man of his word. Despite his youth, he was someone the governor had to treat with the utmost care.
"Mr. Alba, we have prepared the goods you requested. Your little cultist problem is not a major issue. And I also brought..." The young man smiled, glancing at the governor before pointing to the sky.
A drop pod plummeted from the heavens, slamming violently into the center of the cultist host. A squad of Astartes in black and gold armor burst out, immediately going on a rampage in the heart of the enemy formation.
"The Emperor's Angels?"
---o---