A Monster in Hell: A 40K Story

Interlude : The Situation of the Crusade

My victory at Voss Prime and the helping of the installation of a new Tech-Priest government under the Progressive Magi was received with a lot of enthusiasm.

Firstly, the simple demonstration of both psionic and political power had silenced all remaining dissidents in admiration or fear. The Tech-Priest Cult was an autonomous, separate cult from the rest of the Imperium, and therefore after the initial crisis, enacting reforms had been slightly difficult. The Progressive, or the Empiricist Cult was in a lot of power. Belisarius Cawl gained a lot of political backing to carry out his reforms. Not to mention that he had two Ark Mechanicus ships, more than anyone except me. 

The Empiricist Cult created an Empirical Council, with Cawl as one of the members. The Empirical Council was a seat of unofficial political power within the Adeptus Mechanicus, wielding the power to approve or veto the use of certain technology within the Mechanicus and even the Imperium overall. The Empirical Council held sway over nine-tenth of the Tech-Priests, the few others creating the shadowy Conservative Arch-Priest Cults. These were a collection of Cults that talked too much, and disagreed with each other as much as they did with the Progressives. Nobody took them seriously.

As for Ultramarines, the Tetrarchy was revived, with each portion of the Chapter choosing their own Tetrarch to jointly rule as Chapter Master of the Chapter. The Codex-worshipping Conservatives choose Severus Agemann, the radical mavericks chose Uriel Ventris, the peaceful moderates chose Decimus Felix, and the outliers chose Cato Sicarius.

While the revival of the Tetrarchy was a useful compromise, I saw the cracks in the chapter as clear as day. Sooner or later, unless some binding factor was provided, the Chapter would split into two or more halves. And considering that it had unlimited recruitment because of my and Tyrell's reforms... the Chapter was recruiting heavily and moving towards Legion numbers again. As for the other Chapters, they too had become Legions, save for the ones wiped out.

The Exodus Month, it had been named. This was because thousands of capital ships in their ending stages had been pushed out, their time of production decreased from centuries to less than a decade. Battlefleet Hyperion and Seraphim were created, with the sudden surge of production enough to roll out two huge, loose, unassigned Battlefleets to the galaxy.

The Titan production had also surged. With the help of UR-025 and Annihilator Prime, we had made upgrades to the Noosphere of the Titan manufacturing database, increasing production times to months. Warhounds, Warlords, Warmasters, Reavers, Imperators, Castigators... all were being produced in months. The first surge of Titans increased the total Titans in the Imperium from 102000 (give or take) Titans to more than 130000 Titans, of various classes. The Red Crusade's losses were being replenished fast as the new Imperium rolled out materials it never had. After all, Abyss-Class Battleships, Castigator-Class Titans, and the various Star Wars STCs were new technology for the Imperium.

Most importantly, the kills racked up in the Great Crusade had upgraded my System to Level Six, leading to me obtaining the technology of Star Wars land vehicles. Now we had Star Wars Hover Tanks, Walkers and other AT-Class Land Vehicles being rolled out in mass, as in thousands a day. While many of these vehicles were barely equal to/above low-medium tier Imperium vehicles, they were cheaper and could be rolled out in the hundreds of thousands daily. 

In the months following my rise the Revenant Crusade was gaining momentum. The Crusade was yet to be launched considering the interruption of the Red Crusade, but there were millions of Tanks, tens of thousands of Titans, millions of Space Marines, thousands of Battlefleets, millions of Space Marines pledged to the cause. They were just waiting in reserve, hundreds of thousands of them, ready to begin a war of reclamation and conquest as soon as they got a green light from my side.

I was being venerated as a powerful figure. A second coming, so to say. My word was law at this point. Little else could persuade the others now. 

The vast war machine I had devoted to the cause was admirable, though meant for a short war. After this, I wished to deal with Hive Fleet Leviathan and other Hive Fleets across the galaxy. Another problem was the WAAAAGGGGGHHHH!!! of Ghazghkull and the Green Kroosade. The invasion of Commorragh was another. As for the Necrons, I wished no war with them except the claiming of the other two Blackstone Fortresses.

I spoke to Tyrell, ordering him to send the Ordo Hereticus against all noble families on all planets who opposed us. The High and Grand Moffs controlled the Hierarchy, which meant that Governors of the Planets, and the Moffs, were beholden to the will of the Imperium. And with tremendous power restored, they could deploy local Inquisitorial Units against the rich families who disagreed. Their wealth provided colossal additional war chests, most of which were used up for war and technological research and exploration, the rest of it was used for the welfare of the people.

The High Lords reformed the legal system completely, easing the pressure against the stupidity of the Imperium at several points. This, along with the welfare reforms and my cult of personality, and the recent victories, and the subjugation of the T'au, quickly drew away any people who thought of turning renegade/rogue/towards a different faction.

One of our most recent triumphs was the use of Hive Fleet Salazar to devastate more T'au worlds, in particular the main Empire. Just like they had diverted WAAAGGGGHHHs! and Hive Fleets to our worlds, we repaid the favor, blasting away at their already finished Empire, and more or less ending Ethereal Rule. Now that the Empire had fallen, the Enclaves were our targets, and any potential Damocles Gulf Crusades would signal their doom. Hive Fleet Salazar was destroyed, by the way.

Another triumph was the Battle of Biel-Tan, where the hostile Eldar Craftworld of Biel-Tan was hunted down by the Ark Mechanicus ship, the Speranza, and one-shotted. This removed one more minor threat to the equation of the Imperium's vision.

The Red Crusade had achieved a tangible form across the next three weeks. It was realized soon that the genetic material of the Space Marines and the work of Warsmith Honsou was being used to create something extremely powerful... something dangerous. Lord-Inquisitor Huron Sif himself sought the knowledge, and collected intelligence that Huron planned something big, having set up headquarters in Molech.

Molech was another potential thorn in my side. After the Diamat trap was finished, my plan was to travel to Molech and end Huron. Many major Chaos Warlords such as Eidolon and Typhus were assembled at Diamat, which meant that was my destination. Azhek Arhiman himself had for some reason journeyed to Molech, for what reason was unknown. 

So destination Diamat. There they would spring the trap. And I would end them.

(A/N:

1. This is another filler, situation-explaining chapter. This is meant to explain the rapid rise in technology and the scale of the galaxy-destroying Crusades. Literally the only war on a similar scale since the Iron War/Cybernetic Revolt was the Hera Heresy, because the Red Crusade has definitely passed even War of the Beast territory/Rangdan Xenocides/Black Crusades.)