this was made by Ashynarr
forum/threads/everqueen-warhammer-30k.475460/page-7#post-19570349
s/13442383/2/Everqueen
The tech priest played the next video, while Rogal tried to comprehend what he missed.
Malcador liked to consider himself fairly unflappable. He had, after all, managed to reach the lofty and respectable age of 6500 without losing much of his more youthful vigor, especially considering everything he'd had to deal with in keeping up with the man known as Revelation, who had recently refashioned himself as the Emperor of the nascent Imperium of Mankind. He'd seen a lot of both the best and the worst of humanity, as well as the other species of the galaxy, and through that developed an accepting tolerance for the inherent frustration that was dealing with the universe and everything in it.
Horus noted, "I gotta say, Malcador looks good for his age." The tech priest murmed, "Lucky bastard." The Emperor didn't react to that remark, knowing the tech priest didn't mean anything by it. Because of this hard-earned talent, he had been trusted to handle organizing what would eventually become the various bureaucratic branches to a galaxy-spanning empire and would eventually allow the slow but needed process of weaning the reunited people off of needing Revelation and Malcador to hold everything together with the metaphorical equivalent of duck tape, bungee cords, a few rubber bands, and a great deal of hope. Despite still being in the early, hiccuping stages, he thought he had been doing fairly well, smoothing over various issues and slips that might have put them behind the projected schedule for that trouble that was set to crop up in a few hundred years that remained frustratingly vague yet ever looming no matter what sort of prodding went into it.
The Primarch's respect for Malcador increased by this revelation. Then of course, everything had to go wrong, all because of one warp flare followed by a minor earthquake. And, of course, the psychic shockwave that dampened down into a low, constant thrum that he was damned sure the entire planet could feel. Well, no, technically nothing had gone wrong yet, but Revelation had been gone longer than expected in what should have been an easy enough cleanup of such an obvious Warp event, and there hadn't been any of the usual signs of a drawn out battle that might have indicated something resembling a difficult opponent, which meant Malcador had been left running through the increasingly unlikely possibilities of what the event could have been when he finally got a message.
Magnus noted, "Considering nothing nice resides in the Warp anymore, I would be worried as well." Not that 'send a transport with a stretcher over, oh and get some guest rooms prepared' along with some coordinates actually narrowed things down significantly, despite the fact that he could at least glean that whoever - or whatever - Revelation had found during his investigation was someone that required a close eye. Malcador shoved the thoughts to the side temporarily in order to send out the orders, getting to his feet in order to look out the windows of the Imperial base of operations while Earth was brought together.
The sight of the hive city being restored was rather awe-inspiring. It was a rather expensive place near the highest point of the Bai-heng hive, on the eastern edge of the Himalazians, as only benefited the Master of Mankind. Of course, all of Revelation's most important works were within the long-established labs and labyrinths burrowed into and throughout the highest peak and its surrounding companions, but for the public front that needed to be presented to both the leery nobles and the overlooked masses, this complex would bear the brunt of the administration and diplomatic efforts until unification was achieved and the official administrative seats were built within the range loftily called 'the crown of the world' since well before he'd been born. Bai-heng also benefited from the arrangement, of course. Being the center of the Imperium meant a large amount of the raw resources being processed were filtered into and through the place, generating more jobs as more people were called on to turn the wealth of resources into everything needed for the burgeoning war machine. Much of the damaged or missing sections of the hive were refurbished or replaced as people worked to restore a glory that had been lost millennia before, piecing together their scattered history while also embracing the Imperial aesthetics that had started gripping the minds and designs of many of the local artisans. There was even the beginnings of the terraforming efforts to be seen along the edge of the hive, a thin band of green that stood out against the desert past it. This burst of wealth, luxury, and uptick in the standard of living, when shown off to other nobles on the edge of throwing in their support, would capture their pockets and their imagination, believing rightly that with time such an improvement in their own state of affairs would come to their seats of power if they threw in their lot with the Emperor. A number of settlements, from the small villages clinging to the barely habitable edges of the nuclear wastelands all the way up to several major hive-cities, had been integrated with minimal effort just by showing them around.
The Emperor murmured, "IF ONLY MORE PEOPLE WERE REASONABLE LIKE THAT." Unfortunately, many others saw it, and perhaps fairly, as an arrogant show of wealth, fearful at some hidden price to what seemed like a deal too good to be true or else just determined to take all the hard-earned efforts for themselves. In either case, the Imperial army and the Thunder Warriors served as anvil and hammer to soften up such factions until they bent the knee or, in several unfortunate but necessary cases, were shattered and razed as a warning to the rest. Still, after several decades of dedicated effort, Earth was on its way to unification, with another few decades at most needed to complete the task, get Mars on their side, and get started on bringing the rest of Sol into compliance. It wasn't a bad pace, but still not fast enough to head off the looming threats to humanity out among the distant stars, which was what forced Revelation to look for a better solution to the speed issue. As such, Revelation would often go away for anything from days to months, buried in his labs with the best minds the world had to offer, working on a number of projects to accelerate the pace of things. He felt the warp signatures approach well before he saw the shuttle. Malcador turned away from the window as the shuttle coming in to land on the platform outside. Though in no particular rush, he still managed to wind his way through the halls to the side door opening up to the landing pad just in time for the Emperor to reach the bottom of the shuttle's ramp. The ancient nodded in greeting, not breaking stride as he made his way towards the apartments while the helpers behind him hurried to follow with the stretcher, their positions keeping him from quite seeing who was on it at this angle. "Everything is prepared?" Revelation asked when Malcador fell into step, heading back inside and ignoring the hasty bows of passing workers. "I had them clear out the guest room just a floor down from here, the one towards the west side of the building." "Good. Once we have her settled in, we'll need to discuss potential changes to the plans we had for once we start reaching out to the rest of the galaxy." Any calculations he had on the identity of their mystery guest were promptly thrown out the window. "Who in the world could be so important that you're already considering changing your plans around for them?" "If I'm right," Revelation said in a tone that implied he knew he was while offering over a pict-recorder. "Then the better question to ask might be 'what'." Malcador took the pict-recorder, capturing every detail of the video as it played back. It was obviously being held by one of the first responders to the impact, the recording starting at the edge of the new crater before the woman (based on her voice) peered over the edge with it, into a dusty crater that contrasted greatly with the small oasis of life that had sprung up in the center. Fast counting noted at least half a dozen different blooming plants, several different grasses, at least three creeping vines, and what seemed like the beginnings of two shrubs, all within a small, perfect circle centering on what could only be an eldar woman, bedecked in nothing but the plants growing over her limbs and up her sides, along with the thin coating of debris that had fallen back on her after her landing. No armor, no technology, but still somehow alive in an impact that should have turned her insides into a bloody slurry, and unconsciously growing plants that would have more suited the climate of the area five thousand years ago.
The Emperor had to admit he was impressed. He started making plans to free Isha at some point in the future. Malcador stopped the recording. "I wasn't aware of any eldar with such a talent in biomancy." "There wasn't one." Well, that only made everything more ominous. He had a feeling that his nascent headache was only going to get worse once Revelation outright confirmed her identity.
Rogal noted, "you are right Malcador." Perturabo hit him. (There was one possibility... an impossible one, but when all other options were exhausted, then whatever was left...)
The tech priests own respect of Malcador increased by this reference. Why did the eldar have to make everything more difficult? On the stretcher behind them, the eldar woman whimpered in her sleep.