"Three things." Ferrus slowly raised three fingers on his mechanical left hand.
"First, provide all civilizational technological data you currently possess. Specifically, anything regarding radiation purification, soil amelioration, and high-yield crop cultivation."
"Second, assist the Legion in thoroughly reorganizing local order."
"The destroyed PDF needs to be rebuilt from the ground up. The Hive City's infrastructure and civilian livelihood must be restored immediately. Your administrative experience will be incredibly useful here."
"Third..." The Primarch's piercing gray pupils contracted slightly.
"When necessary, you will act as the Legion's eyes and ears on the ground."
"Monitor the movements of all remnant local factions. Report any and all anomalies directly to us."
Cogboy remained completely silent for several tense seconds.
Then he dropped to one knee. This was the etiquette the players had agreed upon beforehand—it showed respect without completely surrendering their dignity.
"The Crimson Dawn Sanctuary is willing to serve the Imperium."
"Good."
Ferrus turned back around, his gaze returning to the main console.
"Tomorrow, I will dispatch a technical team to your location to evaluate the reality of your situation."
"If everything proves true... you will get what you desire."
He paused, then added a warning.
"But remember this well. You only get one chance."
"If I discover that you are deceiving me, or that you harbor ties to the Warp..."
The Primarch left the threat hanging.
But Cogboy understood perfectly.
He stood up, bowed deeply, and followed Sergius off the bridge.
The exact second he stepped through the airlock blast doors, he realized his heavy work overalls were completely drenched in cold sweat.
He hadn't expected things to go this smoothly. The Iron Hands Primarch, Ferrus Manus, was surprisingly reasonable to talk to.
He hadn't even brought up the topic of vassalage before the Primarch had straight-up offered them an opportunity. The whole encounter felt slightly surreal.
–
Crimson Dawn Base, sixth-floor conference room.
Paul remained silent for a long time after listening to Cogboy's debriefing.
"He's giving us a legal identity, but he also wants us to be his informants." He analyzed the situation. "It's both an opportunity and a shackle. From here on out, every single move we make will be under the watchful eyes of the Iron Hands."
"But at least we can finally move from the underground to the surface." Blood Angels' Second Emperor chimed in. "With a legal identity, we can openly recruit personnel, expand our production lines, and even... gradually infiltrate the power vacuum left by the four major factions."
"The main problem is the technical data Ferrus demanded." Cogboy frowned deeply. "Where the hell are we supposed to find relics of a past civilization? All our tech was either bought directly from the System Shop or cobbled together based on our own real-world knowledge."
"We make it up." Paul said calmly. "We rebrand the basic technical manuals we bought from the shop. We delete the sensitive content, inject a bunch of corrupted data, and package them as fragmented ancient technological texts."
"For the radiation purification tech, we'll claim it's a filtration module schematic we salvaged from some abandoned laboratory."
"For soil amelioration, we'll say we learned it from an old agricultural digest."
"High-yield crop cultivation... that one's even easier to fake. We'll just say it's the result of years of grueling trial and error."
He looked around at the group.
"The key point here is to give the Iron Hands the distinct impression that our technology is useful, but highly uncodified and desperately in need of further research. That way, they'll see our inherent value without feeling like we're a threat to their absolute technological monopoly."
Tax Bro flashed a wide grin. "So, in plain English: we need to flex our competence while simultaneously playing the village idiot?"
"Exactly." Paul nodded. "Starting today, Crimson Dawn officially enters its second phase: developing legally and accumulating strength strictly within the framework of the Imperium."
He turned his gaze toward the window.
"Brothers,"
Paul said softly.
"Starting today, we are going to dance the most dangerous waltz imaginable, right in the shadow of a giant."
"If we dance well, Aurelian IV will become our undisputed stage."
"If we miss a step..."
He didn't need to finish the sentence.
But everyone in the room understood perfectly.
In the dim light of the conference room, over twenty pairs of eyes gleamed with fierce determination.
–
At the exact same time, on the bridge of the Fist of Iron.
Ferrus Manus stared at the holographic projection of the Crimson Dawn base. Deep within his gray pupils, tactical data streams scrolled silently.
"Father, do you truly believe them?"
Karon asked.
"Whether I believe them or not is entirely irrelevant." The Primarch replied coolly. "What matters is that they are useful."
"Under the scrutiny of my will, I sensed absolutely zero chaotic taint within their base. Even their unsanctioned psykers remain uncorrupted by the Warp."
"They are certainly hiding things from the Legion. Their arsenal, for instance. They possess artillery, rocket launchers, and even a few light tanks."
"However, none of that matters. No matter how much conventional weaponry they hoard, we would only need to deploy a single combat squad to slaughter them down to the last man."
"The galaxy is vast. I do not care why they exist or what their ultimate ambitions entail. As long as they do not fall to heresy and are willing to submit to Imperial command, they are an asset to the Imperium."
"Aurelian IV desperately needs to be rebuilt. I have already crippled the local Mechanicus presence. Those four so-called major factions exist in name only, and Harrington is rotting in an Arbitrator cell."
"The planetary surface requires a fresh force to fill this sudden power vacuum and maintain basic order."
He pulled up Cogboy's biometric scanning data.
"That Cage Lawrence—his cybernetic modifications are highly advanced, his managerial competence has been thoroughly proven, and... he possesses ideals."
"Ideals?"
"Yes. The kind of idealism that actually believes the world can be changed through sheer effort."
"My will touched the collective minds of the populace surviving within that Crimson Dawn base. Compared to the hive-dwellers of Aurelian IV, they harbor significantly more positive, fundamentally different emotions."
"I have only ever witnessed such emotions on highly prosperous worlds. Yet now, I see them blooming among a ragged group in a radioactive wasteland. This alone proves that their administrators are anything but ordinary."
"This is precisely why I am giving him a chance, even knowing he is hiding things from me. The Imperium is infested with far too many parasites. How can we possibly revitalize the Imperium, revitalize the human race, if we are constantly forced to work alongside leeches and worms?"
"To rebuild the great Imperium and the human species, talents like these are well worth the effort to cultivate."
A faint, rare smile tugged at the corners of Ferrus's mouth.
"People like him are exceptionally rare in this universe. They are either well-disguised fools, or... they are genuine prodigies."
"We will find out exactly which category he—or rather, they—belong to tomorrow."
"Besides, they are weak enough that this is merely a low-risk experiment."
The Primarch terminated the holographic projection and turned, walking deeper into the vast bridge.
"If they are truly talented, I will give them the ultimate opportunity to burn themselves out for the revitalization of the Imperium."
"And if they turn out to be fools..."
His voice echoed down the long metal corridors, gradually fading away.
"...Then they will be burned to ash and scattered into the void."
–
Within the chaotic depths of the Warp, Lucian watched the Primarch aboard the Fist of Iron and chuckled softly.
Long before Ferrus Manus had even made planetary landfall.
He had already utilized substantial energy to completely scrub and shield any anomalous traces that could jeopardize Crimson Dawn—including Helovia, Paul, and all their extra-universal items.
Perhaps if the Emperor Himself or the four Chaos Gods directly descended, they might have noticed something amiss.
But throwing up a veil and gently guiding the Iron Hands Primarch—one notoriously unversed in psychic sorcery—into passively accepting the abnormalities of Crimson Dawn was more than easy enough. He shifted his gaze back to the base below!
The settlement was practically radiating waves of positivity, hope, camaraderie, joy, and a myriad of other benevolent emotions. As Lucian absorbed these pure feelings, a wave of profound comfort washed over him.
Indeed, Lucian was now fully capable of absorbing the raw emotional resonance of the Warhammer universe's native inhabitants.
Because the Ruinous Powers despised such positive emotions, combined with the fact that Lucian's own personal strength had grown recently, his emotional siphoning went completely unnoticed by the Dark Gods.
Of course, he still didn't dare touch the extreme emotions of pure rage, utter stagnation, raw lust, or obsessive greed. That directly infringed upon their domains and authorities.
The Four Gods were simply far too sensitive to those specific extremes. Even though they currently remained in a state of relative slumber, their cosmic maneuvering had already long since begun.
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Next Goal = 500 Powerstones.
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