Chapter 51, A Brief Respite

M30.884

Tanya Russ

After nearly a 20-year campaign that had ground my forces down to three-quarters of their original strength, it made sense to pull out of the operation, go straight back to Fenris, relax, rebuild, and prepare for the next campaign.

That was my plan, even though I had to leave about 20% of my forces behind to finish operations in clearing the Rangdan worlds. I thought I could go back and enjoy a good year of rest.

Unfortunately, upon arriving in orbit of Fenris, I was informed that my forces would be needed within the year in something called the Ark Reach Cluster. Apparently, the Primarch who was attempting to conquer it was facing some sort of issues. However, I hadn't met this Primarch, so I didn't have the name supplied. I assumed that Father's orders on that matter would have finally been disabled, but I guess not. Or perhaps it's much harder to stop something once it's set in motion than it is to start it. Either way, I would have to find out which Primarch was running the show when I arrived there.

But for now, I needed to find out what had been happening on Fenris and deal with any situation that had spun out of control.

I probably should also reflect on that strange dream I had. I still had no idea what it was about, but it was probably for the best that I didn't know. Sometimes, it's better not to poke the bear. For all I knew, that dream could have been some sort of call for help from a Warp being or an elaborate trick to make me embark on a quest to free them without knowing what I was actually freeing.

Was I being paranoid? Maybe, but I wasn't about to rush off and investigate just because of a dream. Although, to be fair, if the being wanted me to rescue them, it seemed odd that they would have kicked me out of the dream.

Letting out a deep sigh, I looked out of the windows of Russ Castle. It had been modernized at some point while I was away. The lighting was no longer strictly gas or candle; now we had actual power running through the facility. As I looked out across the night over the city of Russ, I imagined that quite a few people could see my silhouette. I wondered if that was reassuring, seeing a giant who had helped found their nation watching over them, or if it was terrifying.

But that was not something to consider right now. I turned my gaze across the desk that had been placed in this office specifically for meetings with commanders, and I found the current troublemakers who had been sent to me: Bjorn and Kori. They had recently returned from the Wheel of Fire along with the other troops sent there, having completed their guard duty and training for jungle fighting.

For all intents and purposes, they had done a good job. The only major issue was the recent colonization of that system by Fenris colonists and the near-war that broke out between said colonists and the nearby system who was supposed to be in charge of the Wheel of Fire.

Taking a seat, I looked at the two, "So, explain to me exactly how this war almost started and why you thought it was a good idea to push the current governor of that region over the edge."

The two looked at each other before Bjorn sighed and shook his head, "We were just trying to help. The current sector governor was causing problems, so we tried to fix them. Unfortunately, that led to him deploying his PDF to the sector."

I nodded, as this was as far as I understood from the report, but then I asked, "Then the fighting started. Care to explain why?"

Kori shook his head before saying, "Taxes. They tried to enforce some sort of tax for keeping their troops there. People didn't exactly like that. They didn't like the idea of the troops being there to squeeze them. Someone took a shot, more shots went off, and a few people died. We were called in, and we put it all down."

"And by 'put it down' you mean killed several members of the local PDF belonging to this governor," I clarified.

The two shrugged before saying, "They shot at us. What were we supposed to do?"

I nodded. As much as I would like to reprimand them for that, it was a matter of self-defense. They fired first, and it was the only reason we probably weren't getting more trouble from the Administratum. It was obvious that the governor they had in place was not worthy of his position.

But what concerned me was whether this was intentional or accidental. If it was intentional, it was somewhat forgivable. If it was accidental, then these idiots needed to be reprimanded.

Taking a deep breath, I decided to confront them directly with the question, "Was this on purpose? Did you organize this operation to expose the failings of this governor?"

My tone was implicitly a warning. I wanted the truth from them, and if they lied, it would be a bad situation for them.

Thankfully, the two looked a bit uncomfortable before Kori said, "Yes."

I looked at him, and he let out a sigh before explaining, "The governor had been causing problems even before that. We just wanted to expose the issues and hopefully gain independence for the sector from his control. By bringing in colonists, I think we pulled that off. Last time we checked, the Administratum was considering making the Wheel of Fire its own sector and looking into replacing the governor of the nearby sector."

I nodded my head. Honestly, it was a good plan, and these two had been honest with me. Reaching into my desk, I pulled out three glasses and placed them on the table. Then I grabbed a bottle of alcohol, opened it, and filled the glasses.

"Well then, as long as it was intentional and not accidental, it was a good operation. Someone needs to keep an eye on the Administratum. When we can, we should put someone else in place. At the very least, make it very clear that they're idiots so that the Administratum takes action," I stated.

The two let out a deep breath, which told me they had been on the edge of their seats with worry. They took their glasses and sipped, but they ended up coughing because the drink was brewed for my level of tolerance. They looked almost drunk after just a few drops.

"Officially, I'm supposed to issue some sort of warning to you, so let me put it this way: don't be caught doing this for the next hundred years, and don't expect any promotions for the next fifty. You're both on probation, but I agree with what you did."

It was understood that there needed to be some sort of official punishment for the Administratum, to ensure they wouldn't interfere with us. Once I felt the issue was settled, I dismissed them. The two got up, holding onto each other a bit because the alcohol had done its job in getting them drunk, and they staggered out of my office, leaving me alone to think.

The situation was not great, and it would require me to keep a firm grasp on it in the future. What they had done was commendable. I had punished them responsibly for their mistakes, and their efforts had been worthwhile. Ensuring the Imperium worked efficiently was vital for maintaining safe and secure back lines for our future battles. However, what they had also done could create ripple effects that I could see and worry about.

There was always the potential that my Marines might take after that particular behavior and try to spread it around. While the idea of getting rid of problematic governors sounded great on the surface, the problem came from the fact that sooner or later, one of them might develop a grudge against a governor due to some old animosity that had built up over the years. Such incidents are bound to happen, and taking things to the extreme might cause problems beyond what we had encountered this time. I didn't like the idea of a hundred of my Marines possibly getting slaughtered in their sleep because a governor decided that if they were going to cause so much trouble for him, he might as well go rogue and kill them before they woke up.

I probably had to come up with some way of ensuring that these troops don't go too far in their efforts to improve the situations in sectors. Perhaps creating a book on governance to guide them, ensuring they didn't cause issues like this in the future. This idea has crossed my mind from time to time. After all, my efforts had led to a very stable civilization on Fenris. It might be a good idea to create something for others to follow and ensure that civilization thrived, rather than falling back into the barbarity of a pre-Emperor era.

Beyond that, there were other concerns as well. Their actions also could legitimize, in their minds, that they knew better than a regular human. This wasn't a good thing for my Space Marines to acquire. As the Emperor had said to me at least once, Space Marines were not a replacement for humanity. That's why he did not grant them the ability to reproduce. They were meant to be guardians, and guardians should not control the population. Such a move would be detrimental in the long run. Space Marines worked for humanity, not the other way around. If they got it into their minds that they knew better and started acting as if Space Marines were superior to humanity, it would be a disaster. At best, humanity would resist, leading to civil unrest, and at worst, Space Marines might make decisions that wouldn't bode well for either party.

That would probably end with humanity serving as a host species for the parasitical Space Marine species, which was not a good outcome. Decisions made by the parasitical species would likely go against the interests of humanity. It's possible that a symbiotic relationship could develop in the future, but it's also possible that other dreadful things might happen. Creating breeding planets specifically to produce Space Marines was one nightmare scenario, and who knows what other nightmare situations there were, because I was not willing to explore those possibilities.

Thankfully, probation should do most of the work in preventing Space Marines from pursuing this path too often, at least within my legion. After all, the most significant punishment for the Wolves of Fenris is to take away their ability to take part in combat, which might seem rather ironic considering it meant they got to live longer. However, they chose to roll the dice and see what outcome they get. That's fine by me. I needed them at the front most of the time, so maybe they'd have a chance to take this time and better understand their place.

I had other concerns, though. If my Space Marines could fall for this, it could risk causing problems with the Adeptus Administratum. It was likely that others would do the same thing. There would be other Marines across the legions who'd see this as a light punishment in their own legion, especially if their own Primarchs agreed on it.

Shaking my head, I could only come to one conclusion on that matter. I needed to organize a conference on governance between the Primarchs and the Emperor so that we could discuss the proper way to handle situations like what my Marines had uncovered. Making sure our Marines understand how to deal with such situations was the best way to ensure it never spiraled out of control, as it had in the Wheel of Fire.

Still, there were concerns elsewhere in my mind. What would the other Marines think about my handling of the situation? If they were not in favor of challenging the Adeptus Administratum, they would likely see me as the most problematic commander of the Crusade. After all, causing problems for the Administratum was likely to affect my supplies. Granted, I wasn't exactly pleased with some of the Administratum's decisions regarding the last campaign or how they had been treating my image, especially recently. So, I wasn't anticipating a positive outcome, no matter what.

Not to mention, if I don't make it quite clear that what happened in the Wheel of Fire was under my control to some extent, it could alienate my own siblings. There's nothing that portrays a fellow officer as incompetent more than finding out they had units under their command engage in rogue operations. I'd have to lay some groundwork to ensure that at least my siblings believe that I had agreed to this to some extent, that I had not found out about this afterward. That means I had to accept responsibility for the fallout of the Administratum finding the situation rather unfriendly to them.

How was I going to handle that? Well, not hard at all. I was already working on my own supply lines to deal with the Administratum's bottlenecking of supplies, every now and then due to earlier issues we've had over the Volkite production. My alliance with the Squats helped with that, and having a direct connection to a burgeoning Forge World in my own system also helped there.

If the Administratum decided to make a problem about what my Space Marines had done in getting rid of the troublemaker, I could weather their storm. Just keep my mouth shut, continue to fight, and put in a report now and then about how we were having equipment issues to the Emperor, and he could sort it out, I'm sure.

There was another concern now, though, the Wheel of Fire. If it was on the way to being sort of a subsidiary of Fenris, I would probably have to station more troops there to maintain its independence as a sector. This would ensure that the failed Governor doesn't try to mess with the political system there. I would need allies to pull that off.

Leaning over, I pulled open a drawer and took out a map. It was just a basic map of the galaxy with some of the more important systems marked on it. The most up-to-date one currently available. If the Administratum had problems with my unit's independent governance of that sector, then what I should do is make it not just mine.

Looking at the map, I saw three possibilities for potential allies. One of them I could definitely guarantee, the other possibly, and the third I had no idea about, but I might as well give it a shot.

Directly west on the map from the Wheel of Fire was Nocturne. Obviously, I could contact Vulkan and see if he'd be interested in helping with maintaining the independence of that sector. Two Primarchs taking an interest in it would make it a lot easier to deal with the Administratum. I could also look northwest, to Chogoris, the homeworld of the Khan, which was not too far away. Of course, if I was to look that far away, I could also look further north to Olympia and see if Perturabo was interested in helping as well. Three Primarchs are better than one.

As for other options, well, to the southeast was Macragge, the supposed home of the Ultramarines Legion and their Primarch. I would get to finally meet my Brother Guilliman and perhaps we could put together some sort of conference or meeting on a planet inside the Wheel of Fire. It might work as a strategic stronghold, especially since there still was an Ork presence along the routes going from the Wheel of Fire to Macragge.

There was, however, another option worth considering. Accatran, a Forge World just near the Wheel of Fire, was under a different sect of the Mars Priesthood. They weren't related to the Governor who had messed things up, so maybe they'd be interested in providing support in the protection of the system in exchange for materials from the Wheel of Fire. You have to pay for protection one way or another. Bringing in the Mechanicum and four Primarchs into this system would definitely even out any annoyance from the Administratum.

It would also secure the system's independence if I ever had to withdraw my Marines for other reasons. Not to mention, it did work as a nice place for cross-training my Marines in other combat environments that had been created during the campaign in the Wheel of Fire. It could also serve as a good way to do that with the other Marines as well.

Sighing, a plan started to form in my head. What if the Wheel of Fire was made into a war games area? An area where the Marines could practice against each other, allowing them to train against different styles of enemies.

It was a random and rogue idea, but there was something to it. After all, the Administratum might have fewer problems with me taking that over if it was being used specifically for creating better soldiers. Turning it into a military hardpoint would also be good in the long term because the Wheel of Fire, though a hell to get into, gave you a formidable fortress the enemy could not breach. With Orks nearby, it provided a stable hardpoint.

This might be the way to sell it to the Administratum, to the point that they don't cause too much trouble for my legion in the future. We would only take part in controlling it because it was a strategically important hardpoint used for training Marines. I was already doing that with my own Marines; I would just be expanding it to other legions. Yes, this might be the perfect plan. It might be an untested plan, but it's worth a shot. It would be easier to sell the whole idea that I've been in charge of removing the bad governor if I was saying that his interference in that sector was preventing the training I had already initiated in that sector.

I would have to have a meeting with the other Primarchs, though; that's just the fact of the matter. Perhaps I can schedule some sort of conference there, as well as an opening of war games for parts of our legions so that they can train and combat against enemies with similar combat styles. It's an important thing to have considering that the Rangdan did have a few heavy hitters. It's not impossible that we wouldn't run into similar heavy hitters in the future. It's possible that some crazed lunatic might have made their version of Space Marines out there. Anything is possible in a universe as mad as this one.

Nodding my head and adjusting the sheet I had found, I thought I'd come up with the perfect plan to prevent the Administratum from meddling with me too much. I sat back down in my chair, took a deep breath, and then examined the map once more. There was one issue, however, that would always be a nagging concern in this whole situation. The Wheel of Fire was essentially half the galaxy away, closer to Macragge than my own systems. So, no matter what I did, I wouldn't have full control or protection over that system.

Splitting one's attention between two planetary sectors wasn't ideal. Perhaps I could establish some form of local governance and further militarize it to compensate for the lack of my direct involvement. This might be a solution, especially with my plans to have an upcoming conference with the other legions to create the protective core of that new war games zone.

For now, I needed to focus on other matters that had landed on my desk. Stretching my neck, I rubbed my eyes, then looked down, grabbed a cup of coffee, and took a sip.

As I reviewed the paperwork on my desk, I estimated that it would take about three years to bring my legion back into fighting shape. The campaign against the Rangdan had left us weaker, which I didn't like. My efforts to potentially expand the legion further would be temporarily stalled. But there was some good news.

The planet's economy was thriving, and the standard of living was through the roof compared to what it had been when I first took over the planet. Production of Space Marines was at an all-time high. It had been so successful here on Fenris that I had ordered attempts to increase the numbers by expanding to the other two habitable planets in the system.

Oddly enough, there were issues with the planet Midgardia, a toxic death world converted for agriculture. Compared to Fenris, it wasn't having much luck in producing Space Marines. Granted, the efforts were only getting enough funding for testing at the moment. Perhaps there was some other issue that could be solved through mass testing instead of selecting only about 20 individuals every other year. There seemed to be some sort of genetic trigger that was not allowing the Gene-Seeds to work on them.

That was concerning. Testing on the other planets, particularly on Frostheim, which was more similar to Fenris, showed some promise. There was a smaller population on that planet, and the people were generally similar, though there were no wolves recorded. Well, that was jumping to conclusions. I simply had a suspicion that perhaps my Gene-Seed had interacted oddly with the genetic mutations of Fenris. Maybe it had been adapted into my own genome when I first joined that pack of wolves all those years ago. Perhaps gaining those sharp fangs was related. Either way, it could mean that I was limited to only one population of people that could actually be selected to become Space Marines.

If I hadn't been prepared for oddities, thanks to the Emperor's words of wisdom, I might have been caught off guard.

Deep inside the Fang, there was a storehouse specifically designed for one set of Gene-Seeds—the Gene-Seeds of the Terraborn Space Marines, those who had not been exposed to the mutations of Fenris. They were not being used simply because I wanted to keep track of them and have them available for emergencies like this.

Come morning, I would issue an order to allow the Wolf Priests to use them on both Midgardia and the Frostheim.

If that worked, then I would have to keep track of it and start growing them as a sort of secondary legion, separated from the normal Space Wolves, simply to ensure that we were not limited to Fenris only.

As much as Fenris had treated me right, I did not want to overtake its population or the population of Frostheim in this system for recruits. At some point, I would like to use auxiliary Space Marines from other systems.

After all, the area around Fenris was now technically under my protection after the Rangdan War.

There was still a threat that whatever was in the north could come again, or there could be something further beyond, and I needed to make sure that I had plenty of ways of producing troops.

The Fenris Guard was a good example of that. They weren't simply the Fenris' Guard anymore; they weren't just soldiers from the planet Fenris. They made up troops from all three of the inhabited worlds in the system, and they would soon probably make up troops from the other planets that were under our protection as well. We were putting up recruitment positions on the planets we were protecting.

Having my own army at my beck and call was, in my opinion, preferable to relying on the Administratum or the Imperial Army. Not that I didn't trust the organizations; it's just that they have been proving to be more inefficient by my standards lately.

Not to mention, as the war kept going on, I noticed an increase in the number of Imperial Army units that were nothing but levies of troops who deserved to be nothing more than prisoners in a maximum-security prison.

Penal legions and drafted soldiers who hadn't received the training they needed, in my opinion, were inefficient units to be thrown into the enemy lines. Thankfully, they were meant for area protection duties mostly. Unfortunately, though, when it came to the penal legions, that was like asking the wolf to watch the chickens while you hunt down the foxes and acting surprised when you come back to find that two out of the three chickens were gone and a feather hanging from the wolf's snout.

Sighing, I shook my head and started to review other things. A couple of space fortresses were under construction in the system, a mad dash to protect us from any more assaults from the galactic north. Thankfully, the security of Fenris was going to be a top priority. If I didn't find a way to solve the currently growing issue of reliance on the Fenris population, it could become problematic.

The moon Svellgard that I had given over to the Mechanicum was now in full production of basically everything we needed, which was good. And a small fleet of ships was now under my control. All in all, I was soon to be in a position where I could execute the Crusade as I pleased, but even then, I still needed to go where I was sent.

Sighing, I reached over to the paperwork that had arrived and quickly read it over to get an understanding of exactly what the situation was.

The 17th Legion had apparently found a solar system dominated by two stars, with six populated planets and individual empires that had been fighting each other for as long as the Long Night had been going on. Apparently, they had only one thing they agreed on, and that is if you're outside this system they lived in, you're a threat, and they will work together against you.

Idiots, they were in essence, their constant fighting and belligerence, had progressed their technology to be somewhat comparable to the Imperium's. This meant that efforts to try and bring them in peacefully should be attempted. From what I understood, the 17th Legion on the ground had tried but had been rebuffed. Not only that, they had fired on them and openly declared themselves enemies of the Imperium.

Apparently, these guys were not very ingenious, or they had something we didn't know about. Either was possible, but the fate was the same. My legion would be called up to fight alongside the 17th, and we would take care of these six worlds. How long that would take, I didn't know, but hopefully, it would be a lot easier than when we were fighting the Rangdan.

Looking over troop deployments, I quickly determined that I could take the First Great Company as well as the Second and Third on this expedition. The rest either needed time to recover or needed to be used in other operations closer to home. That was not a lot of troops. With each company comprising 5,000 men, that would be a bare minimum of 15,000 Space Marines. Theoretically, that should be enough for this operation. The 17th Legion had their full force there. And I could always supplement my Marines with the Valkyrie and the Fenris Guard. No doubt elements of the Mechanicum and Imperial Army would be there as well. As I did the math, I found that in most operations, bringing in the whole legion was a bit of overkill.

Sometimes, a company was all you needed. Sometimes, you need even less. A thousand Space Marines could do a damn good job of any operation. 5,000 was just there to squash any thoughts of pulling off victory with minimal forces.

I had half a mind to break up the Great Companies into smaller companies or at least establish a good chain of command so that they could be broken up in the field. In fact, I might actually do that when I have the time. But mostly, the ad hoc operations that the Great Companies could pull off worked fine enough, and the leadership was turning out to be more than adequate.

Sixty years at war had given me good commanders—ones who knew how to fight and not die in stupid charges.

They understood how to set up a mobilization for the charge. At least now.

With a bit more work, I'm sure I won't even be needed in the field. So commanding them from afar was a relaxing thought.

I will admit, I had grown to enjoy some aspects of war, but I still longed for the days when I could retire. The idea that soon enough, my own men would be able to handle the situations on the field was comforting towards that dream. Of course, I would probably go crazy if I were only retired. After all, training wolves and hunting monsters for sport was only going to keep me occupied for so long.

Probably, I would be more interested in the building up of civilizations after a while. After all, I had managed to turn Fenris from a collection of clans into a good planetary empire, and from there, I had managed to expand to a system empire, with a little help from the Emperor. Maybe it's time to take a more hands-on approach to the other planets of the system.

But those are thoughts for another time. Looking through my paperwork, I wanted to see if there was anything else of interest going on in Fenris. It took me a bit, but I found a few things that I probably should look into.

There was talk among some of the leadership about launching expeditions down into the under cities. I was not exactly a fan of that, considering, well, we don't know what's down there. And if we knew what monsters were down there, there was a reason that we don't go down there. Even if there was possibly useful technology, the spirit of this world had warned me against it.

The other operation was something a little bit more interesting. A collection of Squats had arrived over the last few years, numbering in the thousands by this point. They had taken up various jobs on Fenris. They were from allied Squat leagues who had been helped by some of the expeditions of my Wolf Lords into the core region. They were also interested in investigating under the mountains but were also interested in setting up an official Squat forge.

Apparently, the local government was giving them a bit of a runaround simply because, well, they were worried about causing some sort of insult to the Mechanicum. After all, allowing the Squats to build their own workshops here would technically be competition to the Mechanicum's own Forge World in the system.

Looking through this, I had to admit this was a problem that could be solved by the first issue. If I were to lead an expedition under the mountains and try to claim one of the fallen Dark cities, I could hand it over to the Squats. Of course, they would need to have taken part in the expedition so it seemed more like a reward for the joint effort.

Nodding my head, I decided that this operation was worth looking into, and I would contact the leaders of the Squats and the Lords who wanted to do this expedition. See if we could set something up.

Smiling, I got up from my seat, stretching my back as I looked out the window. A little bit of an adventure in Fenris's underground sounded like fun, and it wasn't like I needed to be at the Ark Reach Cluster right away. It would take a month or two to get everything put together for the expedition. For now, I could put together the Fourth and Fifth Great Companies and take them down into the mountains, clear out the area, and see what we can find out about what lies beneath the surface. After all, it's better to know what was down there than not know at all.

Finally, I turned and stepped around my desk, walking towards the large door, leaning forward since it had originally been designed for a 9-ft tall person, and I've since outgrown it standing at 10 ft tall.

As I stepped out into the hallway, I was surprised to see someone coming my way, a familiar figure in a black robe and power armor. Short, I could say with some certainty. "Lord Wolfen," I said to my quote unquote 'daughter' that had been created by my Gene-Seed.

"Mother," Lord Wolfen said, leaning heavily on their staff as they came to a stop.

"What brings you around to my office, this late at night?"

Lord Wolfen nodded her head before saying, "It is late but not too late, Mother, and I wish to inquire about a situation."

"Walk with me. I have no problem talking to you," I said, taking a slow and measured pace. If I had my normal walk, I'd probably outwalk her based on the length of my legs alone.

We walked in silence for a bit before she finally got up the nerve to apparently broach whatever subject was bugging her. As we came to a corner, she said, "What are your thoughts on the separation of our old identities from our new ones?"

I looked at her, confused, before saying, "Separation of identities? What are you talking about?"

She looked at the walls before saying, "I had a family before the failure, the Gene-Seed. Sons, daughters, a wife. All those things that a good Fenrisian Lord would have, even a few concubines. All that was lost to me nearly 60 years ago when I first joined your operations to create Space Marines. I turned into a beast that you defeated and tossed into the woods in hopes that I would find myself."

"Although I did eventually find something, I'm not sure if it's really myself or just another identity, another thing that's separate from what I was, especially considering I don't feel exactly the same way about things."

I raised an eyebrow, wondering what she meant, for there. My theorized belief was holding true, that parts of my identity may have emerged within her own personality. After all, she seemed to be able to think very much like me in most cases, though slightly different in other cases.

I thought I'd better take a stab at it, then, to see if my thoughts on the matter were a little bit more clear. "Do you perhaps not think of yourself as the original Lord Wolfen, but some sort of merging of Lord Wolfen and myself?"

"I thought that was made clear by the amount of times I've called you mother but yes."

I nodded my head before saying "Well, one has to be careful. I thought that was a joke at my expense."

"A bit of that too." she said, which put a smile on my lips.

Sighing, as we came to a door that would lead to my private apartments, I leaned against the doorway wall and said, "Well, if you are worried about keeping your old self, Lord Wolfen, separate from your new self, which you still bear that name, you really have only two choices. Well, three, but something tells me you'd be more confused by doing the third."

"And those choices are?" she asked, looking up at me.

"Create a new identity, abandon your name Lord Wolfen, and find a new one. If you feel tied to an identity that doesn't feel like it was you, then you have no reason to continue being that identity. No one knows what happened to the Lord Wolfen of 60 years ago. Hell, I even did a check a few months after we found you. Your grandson is the current Lord Wolfen, so theoretically, you're using a name that does not belong to you in the first place."

I let out a deep breath before continuing, "Your other option is to embrace that you are Lord Wolfen. Go see your family, talk to them, let them know that you did survive, that you will fight to regain the honor they may feel they've lost when you failed. Settle accounts with your wife if she's still alive, say some words of wisdom to your kids, spend the night with your concubines if you want. Just because you are now a warrior for the Imperium does not mean you need to abandon your family. Just because you're different doesn't mean you're not the same being."

Lord Wolfen nodded her head, seeming to think on this before asking a final question, "What is the third option you proposed?"

I shrugged before saying, "The third option is to have that final day with your family, and when you come back, change your name and think of yourself less as the man who was Lord Wolfen, and now as whatever you think of yourself now. You're a Rune Mage in the Valkyrie, a different career than the warrior Lord that you once were. It's within your right to take on a new name."

Lord Wolfen nodded her head, seeming to be deep in thought, before saying, "That sounds like a good way to start a new life. I'll think on this, Mother."

"Good, good," I said, patting her shoulder. I wasn't sure if that was the best option, but that was the best I could come up with. I wasn't exactly a clinical therapist here. I just had to take care of a bunch of battle-hungry Fenrisians, and the best options were either getting them drunk or trying to talk to them.

Taking my hand off her shoulder, I said, "Well, before I head back into my room for a nice, good rest, anything you want to talk to me about that you need an answer from me on?"

The black-haired girl shook her head before stopping and saying, "I am curious about the condition I went under all those years ago, the wolf transformation. Have we ever figured out what causes that?"

I looked at her, trying to decide what would be the best answer. After all, I knew what caused it—the integration of Fenrisian DNA with the Primarch DNA sped up the process that had probably been on this planet for generations, if not centuries. Nodding my head, I finally decided to go with a half-truth, saying, "We have some theories, nothing concrete yet. Why do you ask?"

She nodded her head before saying, "I wonder if it would be possible to harness that ability. I remember some of my time as that creature, not much of it, but a bit. I remember being able to heal from previous wounds that most people, not even Space Marines, would be hard-pressed to survive. Some of the injuries I took while in the wilds, if we could harness that ability for our own uses... Well, I believe we could do quite a bit of damage by taking fewer losses in combat."

I was feeling déjà vu, quite a lot of déjà vu, in fact. Outwardly, I was saying, "No, we have not looked into harnessing that ability, and I don't have any plans to." Inside, I was saying, "Isn't this the exact same argument I had made for the whole creation of the Valkyries?"

Was this the slippery slope that bioengineering had put the Rangdan on? After all, supposedly Space Marines were supposed to be all male. The failures ended up even part of my Valkyrie because I was willing to accept those failures for the combat potential of even a half Space Marine.

And now my quote, unquote 'daughter', was suggesting that we could go even further, using the wolf genetics to our favor, either in the Valkyrie or in the Space Marines. Hell, could you even use these abilities on humans?

The idea of screwing with that and accidentally turning the entire planet of Fenris into Wolfen monsters quickly rose in my brain, and I crushed that as quickly as possible. I did not want to see my planet turn into something the Emperor would look at and probably order Exterminatus on. He had been willing to accept an Exterminatus of the Rangdan for their genetic manipulations. He'd probably do the same to one of his legions if he thought they were a threat.

Lord Wolfen nodded her head before saying, "Of course, Mother. Though I do ask if I could continue some research into it. Perhaps I can find some way to prevent it from happening while looking into what causes it to begin with, or maybe quickly causing a reversal of it. As one of the few survivors of a full transformation, I think I have the potential to do this."

I put my hand on her head and nodded. "You may have permission to investigate the wolf mutation situation, work with the Wolf Priests of the legion, and show them your work. I will instruct them to do the same and keep an eye on your work in case something useful comes about."

The smile on her face made me feel somewhat happy. Obviously, I'd given her something she wanted, and though I did worry about what outcome it would have, hopefully, it would be for the better of the legion. Taking my hand off her head, I said, "All right then. By the way, I'll probably be putting together an expedition to go down into the undergrounds within the next months or so. Would you be interested in joining us on that? There's some part of me that believes that valuable information might actually be down there."

The black-haired girl nodded her head in agreement as she said, "Of course, I will come, Mother. How many Valkyries will be coming?"

"Just those who have the highest skills and most potential to survive. We don't know what's down there, and I would rather not risk the regular Valkyries on this," I thought, referring to the failures.

She nodded and said, "I will ask around and gather the best for this operation. You know mother while I still have this opportunity to ask, the Valkyrie at the moment have a loose and informal military organization. So I've been thinking that perhaps if the Valkyrie were more formalized and organized it would be a more optimal usage of resources."

I felt a shiver run down my back. She said something that felt like something I would say if I were in her position. Shaking my head I said "Good thinking, I'll think on this matter more in the morning", opening the door finally and stepping through into my penthouse in the castle. "See you later, Wolfen."

She nodded as I closed the door, and I turned to find three of my Valkyries, the ones who saw to take my armor off, asleep around the central fireplace. Apparently, they had been waiting for me. Going by the copious amounts of alcohol lying around, they were probably planning to have a little fun with me. I shook my head and went to a dresser drawer, pulling out some blankets to tuck them in before I headed to bed.

Tanya

Midgardia

I figured it was about time to conduct a full evaluation of the worlds within my domain. Some would say I should start with Fenris, but I've been working with that planet for nearly 80 years on and off. I understand its eccentricities to a tee. Its culture had essentially been molded by me, or you could say I had been molded by it. Either way, I knew Fenris like the back of my hand. I didn't need to give it much thought since I had built it from the ground up. However, there were other planets I needed to work with, planets within the Fenris system that I had had very little contact with and needed to fully understand.

Which planet should I start with? Very simple, the one that was the food producer for the system. Midgardia was another death world, slightly better than a frozen hellhole because its climate was somewhat warmer. The problem with Midgardia, though, was that its atmosphere was poisonous. Wearing my Wolf Helm, I looked around at the jungle, if you could call it that, with the overabundance of giant fungi. People walked back and forth wearing masks designed to allow them to breathe while operating out here.

The atmosphere was contaminated by many things and was not habitable for all but the hardiest of lifeforms. However, it had been settled around the same time as Fenris. How and why, I don't know. What the ancestors of humanity were up to when they were building Fenris and this world could be anything. The fact that there were so many trees made me wonder if they were trying to recreate a northern landscape. Granted, the name Midgardia was a big hint on that one.

Either way, the foundations of this system were a bit more technologically advanced than Fenris when looked at from a certain point of view. People lived in underground cities or, in a few cases, in tree cities since some of the trees were large enough to house entire habitats. They had the ability to produce more of these atmosphere masks to tend to farms, which could be grown outside in the poisoned air. In fact, this poison, whatever it was (no one had ever made it very clear), apparently caused the planet's life to grow a little faster than it would anywhere else in the system, making it a veritable breadbasket for the entire system. That's why I started here first.

Learning more about this planet and finding ways to ensure its ability to produce food was vital, especially as the population of the central system was growing.

The problem, of course, was that Midgardia had issues that I wasn't sure how to fix. The toxins on the planet made the food grow, yes, but we would need a large population on the planet to create more growing areas. As the population in the system grew, it didn't look like that was going to happen because they couldn't carve out new holes fast enough, and new farmland was hard to come by since the planet was an ever-growing jungle.

The people, at least they were friendly, I noticed as a few of them waved while dragging along a cart full of foodstuffs behind them, heading towards one of the great gates into the nearby capital city of Midgardia, Midgard.

At least they hadn't been too creative with the names. It wouldn't be hard to forget the capital's name, which was just a shortening of Midgardia. Taking a knee, I pushed around some of the soil, noting just how dark it was with nutrients. This was probably the most nutrient-rich soil I'd ever seen, and I've been across the galaxy at this point, seen some rather strange places.

Looking up at the sky, I noticed the purple tints of the atmosphere through the heavy reinforced glass that allowed them to use this area of the surface. It filtered out the toxins that made the planet mostly uninhabitable.

Areas like this had been built over by, from what the reports I had read, convicts in the past. This area was still somewhat susceptible to the poisons above, but only just enough to help grow the plants faster. Generations ago, their ancestors had built systems to allow nutrients and a thick atmosphere in but keep out the poisons that would instantly kill people.

It was another marvel of engineering that probably had the ancestors of humanity patting themselves on the back. These areas were still standing, although they were rare, which was why they were hard to expand for more production.

There were attempts to build underground farms from what I could hear. They took soil from the surface area and built hydroponic farms beneath the rocks. Though that was problematic, too. I had been visiting the city for a day now and had seen the issues that were endemic to the planet. Mainly, if you dug too deep, you would break through the solid rock and find yourself looking down on a lava ocean that was still fairly active.

One of the reasons the planet was so warm compared to the rest of the system was that the planet's core was extremely active. It was possibly too big for the planet's size, or some other strange novelty that rendered the planet so hot that the sky tended to boil at certain parts of the year.

This same activity that made the sky boil also made other things dangerous on this planet. If settlement growth was not careful in their efforts, they could pierce the barrier between the settlements and, well, the boiling seas of air above, sending toxins into the tunnels and killing everyone inside. Not to mention, eruptions were not uncommon. There were stories of whole settlements being buried and wiped out by lava just randomly.

That's why it was a death world, after all, even though it had the largest population compared to the other planets in the system.

Surprisingly, even with everything going against them, this planet had a population of around 6 billion people, which was on the level of Earth from my time. Its technology was also near that level. Really, the only reason that Fenris was the capital of this system was because I was from it. At this point, if you wanted to find a planet that was probably more adept at being the capital before I came around, it would have been Midgardia. However, it was held back simply by the boiling air and the underground living.

Besides its major agricultural production, there was also another additional benefit. They found a substance here that worked well for healing inside the fungi, specifically the giant mushrooms that dominated the majority of the jungle world. It was a resource that could be used to heal almost any wound. This is how they had gained some relevance on the galactic stage for the last thousand years until the advent of the Long Night. I guess having a substance that was a cure-all had to be good for business, and it allowed them to acquire technology they may not have been able to produce themselves, thus enabling them to maintain their existence on a planet that was openly trying to kill them.

Shaking my head, I stood back up and headed towards the airlock separating the poisonous atmosphere from the more defended area against gas leaks.

The airlock cycled and cleared the room of any noxious gasses, allowing the civilian population of about 30 people in this room to remove their masks. The main door opened, and I stepped through, seeing some of my Space Marines and a few Mechanicum personnel from the conclave on Svellgard. Miss Adelheid was amongst them, she had changed since the last time I saw her, she appeared to have acquired more cybernetics, a more ornate outfit, and fancy staff I noted with mechanical wolf on it, all implied to be part of her promotion to Fabricator-General of Svellgard I assumed. They had come along when they heard I was doing an inspection of the Fenris system.

I was no fool; they didn't come along for a good conversation. They came because they needed a population for their Forge World. If they could build good relations with Midgardia by being here, perhaps they could gain resources from here, such as prisoners. I tried not to dwell too deeply on that matter as I nodded to them, saying, "Well, I assume you've all had your chance to inspect the planets. Any thoughts on how we could help them reach a better standard of living here?"

Norast Ray, one of the Wolf Priests, spoke up, "No, my Lord, not particularly, though I do know that we have been running some tests here, and there is good potential for this population to be used for Space Marine candidates."

"Is there?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. This planet had nearly 6 billion people on it, while Fenris only had about two million, if we were being generous. About half of them were very migratory and not interested in the systems of the government. We could bring in recruits from Midgardia, and I wouldn't turn that down. Resources are resources, and I needed as many as I could get.

The Marine nodded, saying, "We haven't really opened up any attempts to draw from this population yet, but we have had DNA checks, and it is close enough to Fenrisian that you should have no issue using your DNA for the production of Space Marines. However, the local government is apprehensive about letting us set up efforts here."

I inquired, "Why is that?" holding my arms, curious about the issue with the local government.

It's not that they don't want us to do it; it's more that they're not like Fenrisians. A younger Wolf Priest, who I was not familiar with, explained, "On Fenris, people want to be wolves, adults, kids, it doesn't matter, they want to be a part of it. And because of the DNA of the people on Fenris, well, it can be done easily enough. The problem here is that these people do not have a warrior culture; they have a survivor culture. They survive through the worst. When a settlement gets burned down, they move on to the next one and build back up. If poisonous gas leaks in, they escape and get to the next settlement, and build a new one. Later on, they survive. They don't fight other settlements; everyone sort of just agrees that we're all in the same boat. That, and the fact that their DNA is not exactly like Fenrisians when it comes to allowing us to take in people who are a bit older than children, means that they are not particularly interested in setting up a volunteer legion post here."

I pondered this and then said aloud, "Hmm, we're going to have to change that. We need to get these people on our side fully. Committing 6 billion people means there are probably a lot of orphans, especially if it's a common occurrence for whole cities to be burned away in a night or for towns to be poisoned by toxic outbreaks. There must be orphans here, and they could probably be useful in increasing the numbers of Wolves and the Valkyrie Corps."

"Are they at least contributing to the Fenrisian Guard?" I asked, trying to confirm that they were at least doing something for us.

The younger Marine replied, "That, they have no problem with. People want off this planet, and they'll gladly join up with the Fenrisian Guard to do it. Some of them have even offered to join the Imperial Army. We had a few Administratum officials around here a few years back trying to set up some sort of deal to have this planet produce regiments for the Great Crusade, but it sort of fell through because the governor of this planet is unhelpful to those who are not helpful to the people of the planet."

"Is he now?" I said, seeing my opening. If the man wanted things for his planet to get resources off of it, well, then there's obviously an easy way to work that out. Turning my head, I looked at Miss Adelheid and said, "Why exactly does Svellgard's conclave have interest in this planet?"

She tilted her head before saying, "Well, as many things, we would have interest in this planet for the healing solution, food, and mineral wealth, if possible. Though something tells me that it won't be very productive. More importantly, this planet has a larger tech base than some of its neighbors, which means its population is educated enough that they could be inducted easily enough into the Conclave, and our new Forge World could gain population here."

"By the sounds of it, the only way you're going to get any of that is if you're able to produce something for the planet. So what could the Mechanicum do for this planet, and what can I do to help you make sure that happens faster?"

Miss Adelheid tilted her head before I heard a familiar string of binary before she said, "Well, this is why I like working with you. You're always thinking of ways to make things better. The planet's atmosphere is absolutely corroded. It's impossible to fix it, but there's probably tech we could add to this population's efforts to defend itself from the toxins, and technologies we can add to allow them to build domes on the surface. This way, they don't have to worry about falling into lava and can protect themselves from the toxins. It'll take time, but it's technology we do have access to, and it can help build more areas for the population to live on and produce more resources with."

I nodded in approval as she continued, "No, we can't fix the atmosphere completely, but there are ways we could possibly lessen the boiling. We know that the planet produces toxic chemicals that can be used to grow plants. If we build refineries, we could at least lessen the amount in the atmosphere to some extent. It would take a long time to do anything major with that, but it would allow us to ship those chemicals off-world or be used in some of their underground farms. Not to mention, we might find ways to use those chemicals in other ways, refining them into both plant food and possibly poisons to use on the battlefield in case of running into Orks."

"Sounds like a good plan," I said with a nod of my head before turning to the other members of my entourage. "As for the local governor, we'll write up a full contract outlining what we plan to do to help the people of this planet reach new heights of civilization and safety, in exchange for assets that this planet can give us. With any luck, that should be enough to make them more interested in participating in the politics of the Fenris system."

There was an agreement as everyone seemed to just go along with what I was saying, which was good. One of the perks of being a Primarch is that people tend to agree with you. However, that would only be the first step in a good plan to ensure this system worked when I wasn't around. There was a possible worry of yes men taking over the legion. So I should look into ways to make sure individuals in the government did not become too subservient to me. I went out of my way to foster commanders in my legion who could make their own independent decisions., so the same should be done with the civilian government.

I needed to come up with some sort of government system for Fenris, Midgardia, Frostheim, and Svellgard in order to ensure that the populations of the four worlds would not come to blows over anything and would work together harmoniously. This was important to help each other in the future as well as any other planets we hadn't yet colonized. There was also the moon Valdrmani above Fenris that could technically be utilized, but that was a concern for another time, once I had this current line of thought dealt with.

Writers note: and there we have new chapter tanya home and over seeing her kingdome again for next few chapters, things will be interesting i think.

Please comment, review, and generally enjoy yourselves…

Edited by: L, drkshodow, Golden

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