| Remembrancer Gildas POV |
In the command center of the Bucephelus, standing in the corner was Remembrancer Gildas. Seven months ago, Gildas was in his office making another painting depicting the glory of the Unification Wars.
Many years ago, he had the honor of witnessing battles fought during the Unification Wars, personally witnessing the heroism of the Early Astartes, Thunder Warriors, Custodians, Sisters of Silence, and most of all, the Emperor.
He felt no need for anything else in his life. He could happily die content, being able to witness such a scene and know that humanity's future was bright under the leadership of the Emperor.
Yet, to his utter surprise, as he was using his brush to add some final touches to the painting he was working on, without any warning, he felt a presence next to him and immediately dropped to his knees. From his life's experience, he knew when he was in the presence of one of the Ten Thousand, the Emperor's guard, the Custodians.
Keeping his bowed, he spoke aloud, "Greetings, my lord. I am honored to be in your presence! How may this humble one be of service?"
What followed was words he never expected to ever hear: "Gildas, you have been chosen to be the Emperor's Remembrancer. It will be your sole duty to record all that he permits. You have 7 months to learn all the duties of all branches of the Imperial Remembrancer Order. Ensure your skill properly depicts the Emperor and all the grand deeds he will accomplish. Failure will not be tolerated."
Once the last words were spoken, the Custodian held out a scroll that officialized his new position. Gildas received it from the Custodian, trembling and crying in joy at this immense honor. After Gildas received the scroll, the Custodian disappeared as suddenly as he appeared.
'To think that in my old age of 233 years old,' Gildas mused in happiness, 'I would be allowed to once again witness the glory of the Emperor, to see and depict his actions during the upcoming Great Crusade. Truly, I am fortunate.'
Moments later, Gildas wiped his tears and got up immediately. He had 7 months to master all crafts of a Remembrancer. He had to learn music, improve his literacy, learn flattering angles of a pict-recorder, and so much more.
In 7 months, he stuck to a strict schedule, allowing no more than 6 hours of sleep. He would've cut his sleep more; however, he couldn't risk the mistakes he might commit due to lack of sleep and overreliance on stimulants.
Gildas needed a clear mind to do what he must, and with a clear mind he managed to master it all, barely satisfying the Custodian who came to collect him after the 7 months deadline. Soon, Gildas found himself aboard the Bucephelus, the Emperor's flagship.
He was given his own quarters, granted access to certain areas of the flagship, and, under the watch of a Custodian, allowed to enter the command center. Which is exactly where Gildas soon found himself, after a Custodian arrived at his quarters, ordering him to bring his basic equipment and follow him to the command center.
On the way to the command center, Gildas learned that moments ago, the Emperor took 300 Custodians to conquer a fortress belonging to the ruling class of this world. When the pair finally reached the command center, Gildas looked up at the display on the command hub, which showed realtime footage of what was occurring.
In a chamber full of dead bodies, evil constructs, and humans soon to be sacrificed, the Emperor stood with his Custodians. They encircled the humans present, protecting them as the Emperor used his insurmountable power to heal and teleport these surviving humans directly to the Bucephelus.
Once all the humans were gone, what followed was a one sided slaughter of the enemy. The Custodians moved out and demolished the evil constructs and the female psykers. What stood out most to Gildas was the fact that when the weapons of the evil constructs unleashed beams that engulfed entire hallways, or when what seemed like a self destruct sequence.
The Custodians present in the area vanished and reappeared either at safer areas or to the next enemy they needed to fell. This battle is a masterpiece, one that showed the Emperor's precise control, perfect calculations, and his awe inspiring power.
A few moments later, a message from Terra was patched through to the command center, the Emperor's first found son, Alpharius, was making preparations for his campaign on Jupiter. This message was then passed down to the Custodians down on the world.
Soon, the battle Gildas was witnessing turned into a war of myth, Custodians and Sisters of Silence moved as one hastening the conquering of this world. To his utter astonishment, from since the Emperor departed to now, Gildas witnessed a world be completely conquered in 40 minutes.
Everyone who was once deployed was now back on the flagship, which was now on a course for Terra. From the returning two Custodians retaking their places in the command center, Gildas bravely went up to them and asked.
"My lords, as the Remembrancer charged with recording the greatness of our Emperor, along with you all his Custodians and the Sisters of Silence. I humbly ask if I may know, what someone of my standing is allowed to know, about all the events that occurred moments ago, from your perspective? I request this because I must ensure I create worthy pieces depicting the glory of the conquest of Venus, without any mistakes due to lack of knowledge."
The two Custodians turned their attention to this mortal. After a brief silence, one of them replied, "Listen carefully, I will not repeat myself nor tolerate any of your work failing to catch even a glimpse of his glory."
The Custodian then gave a precisely detailed recount of events, starting from when the Emperor first established communications with the inhabitants of this world. Gildas learned more about the War Witches and their evil constructs, the Litho-Gholems. How the Emperor easily put the arrogant War Witch Queen Griselda in her place, then sent Knight-Commander Jenetia Krole to hunt down the witch.
But, the thing that stood out the most to him, was the fact that the Emperor first announced he would take the Bastion with 300 Custodians. Then switched up once he learned news of his son preparing for his first campaign, Gildas decided that this moment will be his focus.
What was originally supposed to be the Emperor's first campaign of the Great Crusade. A glorious moment that should have belonged only to the Emperor, a moment in time that should have been drawn out, recorded in detail and celebrated everywhere.
Instead, the Emperor cared not for this glorious moment, he hastened the conquering of this world through his insurmountable strength. Whether using so much power came at a cost, only the Emperor himself would know?
The significance of this was the fact that the Emperor had briefly shed his mask as an absolute ruler, allowing something much more human to show. It was joy, a father's joy, the excitement at learning your son was about to take a new step in their journey in life and the need to witness it with your own eyes.
When Gildas was appointed as the Emperor's Remembrancer, the scroll he was given explicitly said that his work must depict the Emperor as a human, not a god. And here it was, a perfect moment that expresses just that.
After Gildas heard the rest of the events from the Custodian, he didn't return to his quarters, instead he immediately got to work on the small 12ft x 7ft canvas he brought along. If he did not act now, he would regret it greatly.
Looking over to the Custodians, he said, "I am sorry my lords for such rudeness, I'm afraid that if I do not start this painting now. I will lose the inspiration I have been given, I cannot allow such a failure."
Normally a Custodian would not heed such words nor allow such a thing like this occur before them. However, the Emperor had once said to them, "Allow the remembrancer to perform his duty, even if he decides to start his work in areas outside his assigned quarters and office. As long as his life isn't in danger, do not disturb his work."
So, the Custodians could only glare in silence at this Remembrancer who was granted unprecedented privileges and was currently completely focused on his work. His focus was so great, that he didn't even notice that the Emperor himself had arrived in the command center and had even glanced over at him.
___
After I had received a report informing me that the campaign was successful and that Venus was fully conquered. I teleported most of the personnel that were deployed on Venus back to the Bucephelus so that we can make haste back to Terra.
On Venus, I left behind a Shield Company of 40 Custodians and multiple cadre's of Sisters of Silence. These forces will be temporarily left behind to keep watch over the world until envoys from the Mechanicum and aristocracy assigned to this world arrive. Once those envoys arrive, they will then rejoin us at Jupiter.
As I made my way from the vault on the Bucephelus, after storing the Man of Stone Litho-Gholem there. I walked back into the command center and encountered quite a sight, Gildas who I assigned to be my Remembrancer, was painting in a corner of my command center.
Assigning Gildas as my Remembrancer and giving him those instructions was not only one of my many ways of giving out honors to all departments of the Imperium. But, also one of the many ways I intended to try and steer the Imperium's image of me as a god.
It had already been shown in the original timeline that constantly claiming that I wasn't a god, did absolutely nothing. Constantly suppressing humanities worship of me was not the way. Instead I needed to control the narrative, to let it be spread across the Imperium that I am still mortal.
That I can still die, that I can make mistakes, that I am not some perfect absolute god. Their faith in me needed to be controlled and diminished. Their faith must be aimed at what humanity can achieve united as one, not what it can achieve united under one's rule.
It was for these reasons that I did something that never happened in the original timeline. I allowed a Remembrancer to board my ship and freely create his craft. I didn't care whether it was through art, poems, performances, calligraphy, or any kind of documentation. As long as he depicted my human nature and not a god, I was satisfied.
Though not everyone was satisfied as I was, I could sense the irritation in the Custodians present. They were already annoyed at the breach of decorum of this mortal painting in the command center.
Now this same mortal has decided to completely tune out everything around him, failing to even notice the Emperor's presence.
Before they could act and reprimand Gildas for such insolence, I said to them, "It is fine. If anything, it is wonderful to see someone so in tune with their craft that their only focus becomes what is in front of them."
Their irritation immediately disappeared at my command, and soon the only sound in the command center was the markings of a pencil upon a canvas.
I decided that in the meantime of the upcoming 3 days of travel back to Terra, I would take a look at the most recent reports from all the Legions. I made my way up to my throne in the command center and, once seated, I used the personal data slate built into the throne to read the reports.
Starting with the report from the 16th Legion, the report read that they had reached Mercury half a day ago and had begun its pacification. Mercury was a rather dead world with few cities left on it. Many other cities were destroyed due to the force field generators failing and the rays of the sun burning everything and everyone exposed.
Within the still-existing cities, some clans vehemently resisted joining the Imperium; however, their voices were drowned out by the majority. Many people wanted to leave the planet for a better one or wished for aid from the Imperium to repair their force field generators.
Besides these details, they also informed me that they had already sent back the company meant to follow Alpharius ahead of time. The report ended with the Legion Master of the 16th Legion praising me for my masterful campaign and promising to complete the pacification of this world in 2 more days.
I gave a short reply back informing them to keep up the good work, and after I sent that reply, I opened up the next report from the 2nd, 17th, and 18th Legions, who were tasked to enter negotiations with Saturn.
They reached Saturn about 2 hours ago and had begun early negotiations with the Saturnyne Ordo that ruled Saturn and a few of its moons that were still under their control. The Saturnyne Ordo was a miniature empire just like my fledgling Imperium, and they even had connections to a Mechanicum Tech-Enclave that was banished from Mars, who made their new home on Saturn's ninth moon, Phoebe.
This Tech-Enclave was very important because in the future they provided the Imperium Saturnine-Pattern Terminator and Dreadnought Armour. Which was later improved upon by the 18th Primarch Vulkan. He reduced the neural strain and made it easier to maintain during campaigns. His improvements made it deadlier and allowed it to be streamlined by all Legions, so that the Legions didn't have to constantly rely only on Tech-Priests from Phoebe.
One of Saturn's moons, Titan, also became an important location, as in the original timeline's future it became home to the Grey Knights. A secretive, elite order of Space Marines created by Malcador whose purpose was to hunt and banish daemons. They were made using genetic material straight from the Emperor, making them powerful psykers and utterly incorruptible.
However, in this timeline, I've already begun and completed some of my plans to make orders similar to the Grey Knights amongst the Space Marines and the Custodians. Nevertheless, Saturn was very important, and the 2nd, 17th, and 18th Legions understood that and were taking every step possible to make the negotiations as smooth as possible.
Looking at the report, I read it carefully, and honestly I couldn't help but praise them internally: 'To think they are capable of actually being able to draft negotiations that aren't bad. It seems I wasn't wrong in assigning them this task.'
The draft for their first round of negotiations that they sent me first stated the intentions of the Imperium, how we seek to reunite humanity across the stars, a proof of how we can achieve it, and a rough documentation of our current strength. Then it stated what we can offer, besides basic resources and technology.
The short-term offer was that we would aid them in driving out the rebels of the Saturn region known as the Ringers. The meantime stated that we can help them reclaim many of their moons lost to xenos overlords. The long-term offer was our promise that we would offer the aristocracy of Saturn control as governors over future worlds reclaimed by the Imperium from hostile xenos or unclaimed worlds.
What was requested was that the Saturnyne Ordo enter a gradual merge with the Imperium. It was explicitly stated that in no way are we trying to deprive them of all of their authority. Only that the Imperium wished to become united under one name, in order to rebuild humanity into what it once was.
I sent the 2nd, 17th, and 18th Legions my approval of the draft they made, and I let them know I was fine with putting my own signature should the negotiations become successful. I also said that the aristocracy of Saturn was more than welcome to visit Terra or later on meet up with me at Jupiter, so that we may have a toast over our new alliance or the signing of our new alliance as we watch my first-found son, Alpharius, complete his first campaign.
For a moment I couldn't help but pause and laugh, musing to myself: 'In months I've somehow become quite a doting father. Here I am trying everything I can to make other people witness him. And to think I have 20 more sons to celebrate like this. I see an exhausting future ahead of me, but for them, it'll be more than worth it.'
With that, I closed the report and checked up with the remaining Legions I had assigned. The 3rd, 4th, 8th, and 9th Legions had not yet reached Neptune. They still required two more days due to where the planet was currently located in its orbit.
The same went for the 6th, 10th, 12th, 13th, and 14th Legions, and the Basilikon Astra fleet sent by the Mechanicum of Mars, who were tasked with taking control of the sector that included the planets Uranus, Pluto, and the dwarf planets Eris and Makemake.
However, in their reports they stated that once they reached their targets, they would complete their tasks within a day's time. The companies meant to serve by Alpharius's side had already been decided and were left behind at Luna.
'It seems the ease of my conquest of Venus is indirectly pressuring them,' I pondered while recalling the previous two reports. 'It's understandable considering our positions, and there is also the fact that the Emperor in the original timeline never assigned this many Legions to conquer these worlds in the Sol System. However, there is no need for them to develop the view that everything must be done in such a manner.'
The Emperor in the original timeline heavily implied that the Great Crusade must never stop and instead must be sped up. Which was understandable due to the veil between realspace and the Warp that was weakening significantly due to bloodshed from the massive wars, increased human emotion, and humanity's psychic evolution.
I will not do the same rushed expansion, nor utterly ruthless conquering of other human empires out there if I can. I'll face everything steadily using whatever I can, and I needed to make sure that all the Legions knew that.
After all, there were plenty of cases of them going to the extreme to conquer worlds in a short amount of time, such as using mortal soldiers as cannon fodder to waste enemy ammo or as shields.
With all this in mind, I sent out another reply to all the Legions informing them that, if there are ways to retake any worlds without needless mass death, whether it's among the Legions, Imperial Army, Mechanicum, or the residents of the world, they should do so, because all of you serve me better alive than dead.
After I sent that out, I opened up the last report left, which came from Legion Master Hector of the 1st Legion. The report told me that the second stage has begun. Arch Magos Nvidia came across the fabricated history after she killed her rival, Arch Magos Ottlite.
Arch Magos Nvidia is a loyal supporter of the supreme leader of Mars, Fabricator-General Kelbor-Hal. So immediately after she discovered this information about the Heretic Prime Vashtorr, it was directly brought up to Fabricator-General Kelbor-Hal's attention.
The first action Fabricator-General Kelbor-Hal took was to conduct a ruthless investigation of Arch Magos Nvidia and all things belonging to Arch Magos Ottlite. He had to ensure that this wasn't Nvidia making up things to justify why she killed her rival. If it was made up by her, then she would suffer for all eternity because creating such a narrative was utter blasphemy.
Other Arch Magos have noticed Fabricator-General Kelbor-Hal's strange actions of digging up everything about Arch Magos Ottlite, including his past, his allies, anything related to him. They also noticed that he seems to have become partially distrustful toward his own faction and supporters due to his extensive investigation into Arch Magos Nvidia and many others.
The report concludes that suspicion is growing heavily in the Mechanicum, and it is only a matter of time before it explodes. Very soon, the Mechanicum will become divided between those who see this as an opportunity to frame and kill their rivals and potentially become a new Vashtorr.
Since they now see it is possible to become similar to their god, or surpass their god, if they can get their hands on whatever methods Vashtorr used, while others will stop at nothing to put an end to Vashtorr's life, ending this unprecedented heresy and restoring the motive force.
In the upcoming conflict, I will see who I should let die, and who I should save to become the new leaders of the Mechanicum. Leaders who will not jealously hoard all their technology, people who still possess reason and one of humanity's greatest strengths: its ingenuity.
After finishing the report, I left them a simple reply informing them to keep me updated. Depending on the Mechanicum's next actions, I will assign them their new directive on the Paradigm Shift.
With no more reports to read, I turned my gaze back toward Gildas to see his progress. Drawn on the canvas was a rough silhouette of myself, displayed in the middle. Judging from the angles, I am walking away from something on the left, heading toward the right.
I looked forward to seeing what the final piece would be. I have always found it fascinating to watch masters at their craft. Seeing Gildas working right now, I couldn't help but wonder if his soul was the reincarnation of Bob Ross.
I let a slight smile form on my face as I turned my gaze away, and I closed my eyes to focus my gaze into the future. I wanted to glimpse how I've changed fate so far and see what butterfly effects may have taken place since I've existed in this timeline as the Emperor.
For 3 days straight, I peered into the future, looking at the countless possibilities, and each one bothered me greatly. In such little time, far too much has changed, and the most concerning change wasn't even the fact that I could no longer glimpse into the future of the Primarchs.
The most concerning change came from the Orks. Gork and Mork were stirring, and their malice, their love for war, was aimed at everyone. Even worse, in the futures I glimpsed, I witnessed a unit of Krorks. Those ancient ancestors of the Orks, made by the Old Ones to fight gods themselves, are once again returning to the galaxy, hungry for war.
I'll have to prepare accordingly with Malcador for this rising threat. As for now, I'll focus on the present. I've arrived at Terra, and right now, other things require my attention.
-To Be Continued...
(A/N: Well things are starting to ramp up in the background, I wonder what else can go wrong.)