Macragge.
The jewel of the Five Hundred Worlds of Ultramar, the heart of the eastern fringes of human civilization, the eternal home of the Ultramarines Legion.
As the transport ship's hatch slowly groaned open.
The moment [Worthy of Sanguinius's Blood] stepped out of the hatch, he froze completely.
He thought he had mentally prepared himself.
He thought that having seen the twenty-kilometer-long Pride of the Emperor in the Emperor's Children fleet, he had seen the world.
But right now, he realized he was wrong.
Above him was a transparent dome hundreds of meters high. Beyond the dome, the blue-green planet of Macragge rotated slowly, dominating more than half of his field of view.
The planet's outline was terrifyingly clear; even the ridges of the mountain ranges on the continental shelves were faintly visible.
The floor beneath his feet was made of some translucent synthetic material, revealing layer upon layer of overlapping structures below...
Berths, warehouses, repair docks, transit hubs.
On every level, starships moved sluggishly, like schools of fish navigating through a coral reef in the deep sea.
And further away...
[Worthy of Sanguinius's Blood]'s gaze followed the dome, stretching out on both sides, stretching...
Until the edge of his vision, and he still couldn't see the end of this megastructure.
At this very moment, there were at least a hundred starships of various classes docked within.
Some were unloading cargo, others undergoing maintenance.
Gigantic mechanical arms moved slowly through the air, precisely delivering containers and supplies into their designated positions.
"Holy... shit..."
[I Eat Tomatoes]'s voice drifted from behind him.
This wasn't the port they had imagined.
This was... a city.
A gargantuan city constructed of steel, suspended in the vacuum of space.
"This is a port?"
[For the Regent Yellow Guilliman]'s voice also wavered, tinged with a sense of disbelief:
"This is a fucking... city, right?"
[Sanguinius is My Husband] slowly raised his head, staring at the slowly rotating planet outside the dome.
Then he lowered his head, staring at the bottomless structure beneath his feet, and finally looked towards the endless array of berths stretching into the distance.
His mouth opened, then closed.
Opening it again, he finally choked out a sentence:
"I used to think that a twenty-kilometer flagship like the Pride of the Emperor was the absolute pinnacle of human engineering."
"Now I realize..."
"No matter how big a flagship is, it's still just a ship."
"This is a fucking... city."
"A city suspended in a vacuum."
The regional channel had already blown up.
[Region Channel (Light of the Imperium)]
[I Eat Tomatoes]: "Is anyone there? Is anyone still alive?"
"Someone say something so I can confirm I'm not dreaming."
[For the Regent Yellow Guilliman]: "Alive, but my brain has crashed."
"My head is just full of 'holy shit' right now."
[Sanguinius is My Husband]: "Can someone tell me exactly how big this port is?"
"I'm going blind looking at it, and` I still haven't seen the edge."
[Tzeentch Stop Looking Outside is All the Emperor]: "Is this what a port looks like in the interstellar age?!"
"I thought our modern maritime ports were massive enough—hundreds of berths, cargo ships weighing hundreds of thousands of tons..."
"Now I realize those were just little dinghies in a pond!"
[The Emperor's Loyal Pedicurist]: "Epoch 40K: Mecha, I fucking love this game!"
"Even though I'm just a lowly transport ship grunt moving bricks right now, seeing this kind of scene makes it all worth it!"
[Worthy of Sanguinius's Blood] stood at the front of the group, listening to the voices in the channel—some amazed, some completely bewildered—and took a slow, deep breath.
He had read descriptions of the Macragge port in Warhammer novels before.
Those texts said there were hundreds of civilian berths, dozens of military docks exclusive to the Ultramarines, capable of constructing, repairing, and modifying cruisers, battleships, and even flagships.
Those texts said Guilliman's flagship, the Macragge's Honour.
That twenty-six-kilometer-long super battleship... docked right here.
But words were just words.
Reality was reality.
When you truly stand inside this megastructure.
Watching those mechanical arms—larger than any battleship you've ever seen—slowly dance through the air.
Watching the starships docked in those berths, packed tightly together like cans on a supermarket shelf...
Only then do you truly understand what the interstellar age means.
What the zenith of the Imperium of Man truly looks like.
"Hey, don't just stand there daydreaming!"
A gruff voice boomed from behind. It was the transport ship's loading supervisor, a Macragge local with a face full of aggressive flesh:
"Are you here to move cargo or here on vacation?"
"Hurry it up! This batch needs to be unloaded within the hour!"
The five hundred or so players snapped back to reality and hurriedly rushed towards the cargo hold.
No matter how much shock they felt, right now they were cargo loaders on a transport ship.
Moving bricks was the priority.
Inside the cargo hold, mountains of shipping containers waited to be unloaded.
Each of these containers was three stories high, packed to the brim with various goods collected along the route from the Five Hundred Worlds of Ultramar...
Grain, minerals, manufactured goods, luxury items...
Everything converged here before being shipped to every corner of the galaxy.
The players operated the hauling rigs, moving these behemoths out of the hold one by one and feeding them into the port's automated transit system.
Sweat quickly soaked through their work clothes, but no one complained.
As he moved cargo, [Worthy of Sanguinius's Blood] silently calculated his next move.
Find an opportunity to contact Guilliman, secure Astartes augmentation, prove his worth...
That's what the Inquisitor had said before leaving.
He had to do it, and he had to get stronger.
Just then, an unfamiliar name popped up in the regional channel.
[Want to Stroll Among the Sea of Stars]: "Huh! I haven't seen you guys around before!"
"Are you new here?"
[Loyal Battle Sister of the Imperium] immediately replied:
"Hello there! We just arrived at Macragge!"
"Is this your spawn point?"
[Want to Stroll Among the Sea of Stars]: "Yep!"
"I woke up right here on the Leviathan Port, spawned as a berth dispatcher in the Docking Control Center."
"I'm in charge of real-time berth allocation, docking commands, monitoring starship mooring safety..."
"Basically, telling these big guys how to park, where to park, and how to tie down."
--
Bonus chapter at only 200 Powerstones!
OR
You wanna read ahead right now?! Join Patreon.com/AHumanMadeMOFO to read 20+ chapters ahead for the price of a single happy meal and support me if you wish.