Chapter V: Seeds of Hope
Foreword: The following store takes place in an alternate universe based on my limited yet growing knowledge of the 40k Universe. Whilst I try to source information from the Warhammer 40k Wiki, it may not entirely be accurate, therefore consider any deviation from canon to be either creative liberties to explain things not well known or the product of this AU. Or just Gaster doing Gaster stuff, whatever suits your headcanon best.
Also big thanks to
nintendoplayer96v8 for giving me all kinds of lore information. That'll really improve the quality of the story.
It's been a while since I updated anything here, but my knowledge of this era of Warhammer has increased significantly and I've finally found the free time to once again begin working on some of my stories.
Location: Deep Space, Ray's Ship l Date: Year 49.M30
Several years journeying across the stars via Hyperspace routes to find suitable settlements for their refugees had turned up little. The further towards their ultimate destination, he more dangerous the worlds appeared to be. Nothing to the degree that Terra and Tau Ceti Prime were like, but not safe enough that they could disembark the refugees in good conscience. The Warp Storms had completely calmed down now, save for a few pockets, travel was easier than before, less egress drift to calculate.
Ray had modified the ship considerably with what he learned from the STC, adding a Gellar Field in the event they were unexpectedly pulled into the Warp by an environmental anomaly or some ancient alien technology.
Ray had also modified and armored the exterior of the ship, Durantium deposits were nowhere to be found, all he could do was use his shadowsmithing to convert the needed alloys into proper Durantium, though the factory module on his ship can now do this for him.
As the Refugees rested in their respective quarters, Ray and Asriel were having a conversation on the bridge, discussing their next destination, the years they've traveled together thus far have kindled a friendship between them, aided by Ray having no xenophobic tendencies or mindsets that Asriel could discern.
"I've searched hundreds of systems these last few years, many of them are similar but none of the cultures from my reality have been found yet. From what I've learned however, the Kylandari system may contain my Empire in stasis, or perhaps at an earlier date in it's development, either way we must get there, but even with the capabilities of this ship, with the Warp Storms calmed, we may run into other threats if we take a direct route." Ray said, looking over the starmap showing two routes, a proposed route, and a direct route, with a direct route they could reach Kylandari in mere weeks, however the prolonged route they are on now is both to acquire resources and to gather intel on this galaxy. He considered the options as Asriel replied "With all the threats we've seen thus far, those marauding elves, those Orks along with many other threats, if our destination is in some kind of stasis, perhaps we should delay our arrival until we have the means to defend that system should we need to. How long did you say it took to build your nation's control?"
Ray sighed and leaned back in his seat, saying "Only 500 years, but my galaxy was full of reasonable diplomatic civilizations, few exist due to either Ork incursions, Warp influence or Drukhari raids. There are isolated pockets but they would just be targets later on. We need a way to sanitize Ork infestations, the Drukhari are technologically advanced but do not hold much territory outside of wherever their homeworld is hidden, they're a raider faction mostly, operating out of their hidden bases. There may be some exceptions witnessed here and there but they are what I classify as a fallen empire."
Asriel nodded and said "They shouldn't be underestimated due to their limited territory at present, from what we've encountered, their ships and weapons are more than a match for ours."
Ray nodded and replied "That is why I am heading to the refugee quarters after this upcoming operation. Some of our refugees have come of age, I will present them an offer I've made many times before in my home reality. When two forces have technological parity, tactics and wonder weapons tip the scales, in this case, talented individuals with abilities either unique, inherited or taught. Abilities most might call magic."
Asriel nodded and replied "You do realize magic is natural for Monsterkind right?".
"For Monsterkind yes, but we are anomalous in this reality, however from my research our abilities can still be applied to others. I had little research into SOUL Magic in my last reality, but our conversations have enlightened me to some interesting possibilities, we need to cultivate this, as SOUL Magic appears innate for all entities with a SOUL and even some without souls." said Ray, whose gaze was again focused on the starmap.
Asriel pondered this as he then said "I know this better than most, though I had assumed humans couldn't tap into SOUL Magic without drawing it from the environment." Ray shook his head and said "You're partially correct, when Monsters walk about an environment, some magic seeps off them and into the environment, you enchant areas with your very presence, even this ship has been slowly enhanced by your presence and it's allowed me with my unique abilities to sense and figure out the basics."
Ray held out his hand and manifested a crimson sphere of light before it faded, saying "I may not have the innate talent to quickly develop these abilities, but I am advancing, slower than average I will admit. The others however may advance more quickly, however this is a decision they must make when they are of age, utilizing this power will make us targets, I very much doubt warp affiliated influences and powers will be happy that there are ways to gain power outside of their ability to control."
Asriel nodded and then accessed the starmap, showing a world along their route and he then said "Bypassing this system via Hyperspace will be fuel consuming, there are few systems nearby with deposits and it will take too long to synthesize new fuel given the dangers in this sector. But there are plenty of fuel reserves on this planet, only downside is..."
Ray sighed and finished Asriel's statement, saying "The Orks. The planet is locked in constant warfare between two major Ork factions in the sector, whoever wins is likely to begin spreading out to other nearby systems. A resourcing operation is needed to replenish our fuel reserves but we should also do something about the Ork presence here. I suppose it's fitting to test the new weapon, even in my timeline it was in it's experimental stages, but information from the STC has allowed me to perfect it so that it doesn't need secondary and tertiary modules to charge it for direct fire. We can exit Hyperspace close to the system's star and collect the necessary ammunition, then we'll begin the resourcing operation and get what we need fuel wise via the Drona. Once we have what we need, I'll align and fire the weapon at the planet on full power."
Asriel nodded and said "The planet has only Ork life forms on it at this point, so I have no objections. What is the name of this weapon if I may ask?".
Ray chuckled and said "Falling Star, a fitting name given it deploys a stellar fragment, or in more simple terms, it is a literal Solar Flare Cannon. I can starlift enough solar plasma from a star to essentially destroy the planet. A more precise weapon against the Orks will take time to develop, for now this is the only long term solution to an ork infested planet at this degree of contamination. Also, no organics will deploy to the planet, only the Drona, All shipments up will be screened heavily to prevent spore contamination, I'm classifying Orks as a Tier 6 Biohazard."
Asriel shrugged and asked "How bad is that?"
Ray looked to Asriel and said "Pretty bad. My empire had a system of Tiers to rate the dangers and power of something, as well as to classify the capabilities of technology and a civilization. What matters isn't complexity but rather capability, so things like miniaturization are not the main factor, nor is it massively escalating such as Kardashev scale. It-."
Asriel stared at Ray with a dumbfounded expression and Ray chuckled and stopped as he noticed before saying "It's a literal one to 10 scale, though technically there can be higher tiers, Tier 10 is usually universal. But with recent events to my timeline, I may need to add additional scales to account for multiversal power."
Asriel nodded and said "That's easier to follow."
Hasta System, 2,112 Lightyears from Sol.
Ray's ship egressed through the hyperspace window within 500,000 Kilometers from the system's star, a trail of matter from it began to be pulled into the ship's external vents, the process took only 15 minutes, the Star dimmed slightly, but not significantly enough to cause any destabilization.
The ship then charged it's hyperspace core once more and jumped into an asteroid belt in the outer system.
While the Orks were primarily located on the planet, they had a fleet of their own in the system, Ray's ship was harder to detect than others, but it was not designed for brawling engagements. A small collection of Ork ships it could handle, a fleet was it's equal, but this fleet was larger than others, thousands of ships, they could wear down the shields and armor through attrition, there was also the Ork's collective psychic reality warping ability which rendered their scrapcobble technology which shouldn't function in any capacity to work on par with advanced weapons and technologies.
Lacking the time to modular construct a proper fleet, instead Ray's ship, which he has named the IKV Exodus, shall act as a carrier, constructing a vast fleet of strike craft with a few escorts and conducting hit and run operations across the system to take out Ork patrols and whittle down their fleet, the first order of business was to lure them into the Asteroid field.
A mass produced design reminiscent of another reality's Earth was chosen as the main craft to use. The F-302, employed by the US Air Force in one reality Ray had observed, his ship began modular construction of another vessel, it would be finished by the time the strike craft, piloted by Drona, would return from their sortie. Only 40 could be built in time, they were sent out outfitted with a multi-stage anti-capital ship missile payload and rapid fire fixed railguns, while their railguns were focused on rate of fire over impact, they would be enough to deal with any Ork small craft, the larger ships however needed to be dealt with via the missiles, which contained a high energy plasma warhead capable of taking out their ships, though exactly how effective it would be isn't tested yet.
The F-302s left the asteroid field at high speed, barreling towards the Ork fleet at 40% lightspeed, time dilation countered by their method of propulsion, a form of Impulse Drive which acted as a more conventional warp drive, warping space around the ship and with it's own acceleration adding to it's relative velocity due to complex physics interactions, Ray and Asriel looked over the tactical holographic map, studying the operation, Ray pondered at the fact that the technologies he could employ were functional in this universe, as well as some minor improvements based on the STC data he was able to study. While a day wasn't much time to research the STC in vivid detail, he was able to find what he was looking for and the knowledge he gained would have been equivalent to hundreds of STC Fragments.
As expected, the Orks broke off a detachment of their forces to intercept, the F-302s engaged smaller Ork craft Ray had no identifying names for yet, the result was a bloodbath, while the F-302s had advantage in maneuverability, the Ork craft were able to hold together despite their craft's appearances, the collective psionic influence was something to marvel at. However several wings were able to unleash their missiles onto one of the Ork Capital ships, destroying it, proving their weapons were effective.
The F-302s turned around to retreat but were intercepted, the Orks somehow were able to calculate their arrival and retreat vectors and now the bulk of their fleet was heading directly towards them, exactly as planned.
The Exodus had deployed a vast minefield across the asteroid field, construction on the other ship proceeded, the Orks would be upon them in an hour, but the matter-fabricators would outpace their approach.
Asriel stared at the schematics for the starship being built and said "Given your choice for the fighters, I thought you were going for a, different aesthetic..."
Ray chuckled and replied "I do intend to employ a variation of strike craft based on my preferences, the advantage of modern technology is that the advantages conferred by specific shapes and designs, outside of firing arcs, is typically minimal to the effectiveness in battle. This ship may be smaller in comparison, but between the Phased Nadion Particle Beams, Matter-Antimatter power and torpedoes, as well as the use of a more conventional Warp Drive will enable it to outperform those Ork vessels despite their size. Research I did on Terra suggests Nadion particles have an unexpected reaction with Warp energies, disrupting them not as effectively as they do physical matter, but it is nonetheless more effective than Laser or Plasma based weapons. Given the Ork's psychic manipulation abilities, Phasers should be more effective against their armor and shields than proper technology, though that is not to say they are ineffective against conventional starships, even Aeldari ships would have much to fear, the issue is the difficulty of manufacturing. An issue I've solved to make them considerably more cost effective to produce than plasma with the STC data."
Asriel nodded and said "And the F-302s? Why not add these technologies to them?" Ray looked towards Asriel then said "A ruse, Orks aren't particularly intelligent, but they understand tactics and threats just like you and me, albeit from a different perspective. By sending the F-302s out with less capable loadouts, I've made them overconfident, they won't expect this ship to be threatening until it's too late."
Asriel chuckled and then replied "Or perhaps you're just a Nerd."
Ray laughed and said "Perhaps that's a fair part of the reason I chose this aesthetic, yes. But also there's another reason. I've come to the conclusion that this galaxy's grimdark atmosphere needs to be pushed away by Hope and Dreams. What better symbol than the Constitution class and it's aesthetic. The Original Series had a way of invoking the inspiration of a better future, so perhaps it's a good idea to make this the architecture of the fleet I intend to build.
The ship built had been named IKV Honorable and had a cylindrical main section with connecting bridges to two cylindrical nacelles on port and starboard angled out diagonal from the main section, a forward saucer section was connected to the fore of the main hull, a navigational deflector built in the form of a dish directly in front of the main hull.
Crewed entirely by Drona, the ship was considerably smaller than the Ork vessels, a little over 288 Meters in length.
Speeding out towards the edge of the Asteroid belt, it outpaced the Ork ships which opened fire, if not for the Ork's power, their weapons would have been ineffective, but this was not a conventional enemy.
Unleashing a volley of blue phaser beams from the banked turrets along the saucer section, the IKV Honorable caused searing damage across the hull of an Ork ship, sensor readings were relayed back towards the IKV Exodus as Ray went over the data, his theory was correct, the Phasers were effective, though not enough to brawl close to a thousand ships. The Honorable's Defense Screens, a multi-layer arrangement of different types of shields, such as EM Deflectors, Particle Shields and Plasma Shields allowed it to take the oncoming fire from the Ork ships long enough to dip back into the asteroid belt, sending a volley of two Photon Torpedoes, a Matter-Antimatter Missile Weapon, from the aft launcher into the damaged Ork ship, the resulting explosions shattered the ship into three seperate sections as the Ork fleet pursued the Honorable into the Asteroid field.
The Honorable would make attack runs around the asteroids, using them as cover to both gain distance and to avoid oncoming fire and limit the strain on its shields. Photon Torpedoes were more effective after the target had been weakened by phasers, as the Ork's powers were disrupted somewhat by the Nadion Particle Streams, followed by a matter-antimatter detonation, this two-stage attack pattern was highly effective against ships ten times the size of the humble but deadly Constitution class.
As the Orks pursued further, suddenly a large array of spheres decloaked around them and accelerated towards the Ork ships, a large array of mines designed with a Nadion Particle Detonator, wide enough to weaken more than half the Ork ships pursuing the Honorable, followed by several volleys of Photon Torpedoes vectoring around the asteroids to hit them, taking out more than 80 Ork Ships, another wing of F-302s came out from their flank, this time also fitted with Photon Torpedoes and pulsed phaser cannons instead of the previous armament of Railguns and Plasma Missiles. The Orks were forced into a two front brawl as the Honorable came out from an asteroid and unleashing a sweeping volley of its phasers, weakining more Ork ships before concentrating on one of them, burning through its armor and defenses before finally overcoming the Ork's psychic field entirely, another volley of Phaser beams and it was carved into pieces as the Honorable dodged return fire by ducking across another asteroid. Just as the Orks took out the F-302s, another wave came from a different vector, the IKV Exodus hiding near one of the Asteroids, focused on manufacturing and servicing the F-302s, this time with the weapons arrangement that was most effective against the Orks, Phasers and Photon Torpedoes.
Ray observed the tactical map intensely, issuing orders to the Drona as Asriel also observed, Asriel could tell there was a dual purpose to this operation, he was also being taught how to conduct warfare in space, the importance of three dimensional thinking, Torpedo volleys and fighter sorties came from different vectors, not just along a two dimensional plane but a three dimensional one, from above, below, right and left, all directions in a sphere were valid approach vectors for both craft and ordinance.
The more the Orks pursued towards the Honorable, the more mines they came across. These Orks were stubborn, despite losing well over two thirds of their entire fleet they continued to pursue.
Towards the final stage of his plan, Orks were not to be underestimated, but they were predictable. The Honorable's shields were down to 40% after numerous skirmishes, finally, several Phaser Turrets emplaced on asteroids around the IKV Exodus were present and the Exodus had opened all the plasma missile bays, what was left of his plasma missiles would be thrown at the Orks, with plans to replace them with Photon Torpedo Bays later. Hundreds of Plasma Missiles fired outward as the Orks ran head first into intense phaser fire from the asteroids, the last wing of F-302s engaged them as the IKV Honorable continued her dance around the asteroids, albeit more conservatively as her shields were being whittle down by the constant engagement with the Orks which had been going on for the better part of an hour now.
The Plasma Missiles ripped into the Ork Ships, made far more effective as the Phasers disrupted their effectiveness, they were no longer able to maneuver or even return fire, the Orks must have been confused, their technology broke down, the Hard Vacuum started to affect them as they were rendered incapable of waging war in space as they used to be able to.
The Honorable proceeded to position itself across from the destroyed Ork ships, extending out it's phasers to cover a wide area, it began to completely disintegrate any surviving orks in the area, even burning out the spores. Sensors indicated the area was sanitized, this presented a theory, though he lacked the means to employ it presently, if he gains resources and time, he could use a fleet of Starships to sanitize planets with Phaser sweeps, it seemed Nadion Particles were not just effective against the Ork's psychic powers, but their physical forms as well. Based on the sensor readings, even spores at the distant end seemed to be sterilized. He had the IKV Honorable collect sterilized spores for future research, as well as to determine if they were indeed fully sterilized, if necessary, the Honorable could self destruct, it was crewed entirely by non-sapient Drona afterall, so it was perfect as a research vessel as well as a warship.
A few hundred Ork ships remained in orbit of the planet, preparing their defenses, however now that their numbers had been shaved down, Ray had time, harvesting more asteroids, he prepared a large number of F-302s and two more Constitution class Starships, however this depleted the usable resources in that part of the asteroid field. He could spend more time building a proper fleet, but the Orks on the planet were on long range sensor scans, apparently building a new fleet already, much larger than the last one. While Ray could individually produce ships faster, the Orks had far, far larger industry and when their fleet was done, it could overwhelm whatever Ray was able to manufacture by sheer numbers.
He had to act now, the Asteroid fields lacked usable materials to refuel the FTL Drives, he needed the planet, and so the IKV Exodus projected hyperspace windows for itself and the three constitution class starships, with 80 F-302s stored in the Exodus' hangars.
Arriving just outside effective firing range of the Ork fleet, the Constitution class starships, IKV Honorable, IKV Imperious and IKV Justice positioned around the Exodus as it launched fighters, the F-302s began to focus on long range sorties instead of swarm tactics like earlier, closing to distance and launching a massive volley of photon torpedoes before turning back to the Exodus to rearm. While not as effective without being weakened by phaser fire, the longer effective range of the Torpedoes allowed the F-302s to engage in Standoff tactics, volley after volley, while not as effective individually without nadion fire to weaken them, the number of photon torpedoes launched overwhelmed the Orks, they returned fire as the fighters got into range, but were inaccurate at that range against such small craft, which were able to evade easily, though that was their only defense, even a single hit would be enough to render them destroyed as they lacked shields of any kind and their armor was of limited quality on purpose, as Durantium could not be wasted on strike craft, even the Constitution class starships were made of more traditional alloys due to Durantium's scarcity.
As the Ork Fleet was brought down to half numbers, they pushed forward towards the Exodus, the Constitution class ships moved outward, unleashing phaser fire and evading return fire, the Orks started to focus fire entirely on one ship, the IKV Imperious, while it was able to evade and tank most of the fire, eventually her shields were worn down and collapsed, the next volley shattered her hull into several sections, followed by a massive explosion covering hundreds of kilometers in a perfect sphere due to the Antimatter Pods having containment breach from being hit, though the other ships were far enough away in their formation that this wasn't an issue.
Despite their victory against the IKV Imperious, the IKV Honorable and IKV Justice, combined with the F-302s, were able to take down the rest of the Ork fleet. Stationing over the planet, the IKV Honorable unleashed a salvo of Photon Torpedoes onto the surface of the planet, hitting with the force of 200 megatons each. When the dust settled, the IKV Exodus deployed various smaller craft and drop pods filled with Drona to the blast sites. The two Constitution classes began to systematically sweep the perimeter of the drop sites with Phaser fire, buying time for the Drona to setup matter fabricators to begin building additional forces and assets. The battle in space had concluded, now Ray adjusted the tactical map's visuals, the battle to refill the Hyperspace Drive's fuel pods had begun...
Hasta IV. I 6 Hours Later...
"Skrap dem clankaas!" shouted out one of the Orks as a war cry as a massive army of tens of thousands of them charged forward with their various weapons and desire to crush, destroy and fight. The Drona Lines were arrayed with a variety of weapons both kinetic and directed energy. Employing Phaser Emplacements and Mortars, the barrage of Nadion Particle Pulse Mortars literally caused the Ork weapons to fragment or simply stop working, shave for simple weapons such as hammers and other melee weapons.
A barrage of high rate of fire kinetic attack from leftover designs from his days on Terra finished off the Orks, M2 Browning .50 Cals, Modernized Abrams Tanks and Emplaced M61 Phalanx CIWS unleashed a hailstorm of EMBC Munitions downrange towards the Orks, had they been just Autoguns, it would have been ineffective against these living bioweapons, however the Electromagnetic Blasting Caps conferred enough velocity to make up for the relatively small projectiles.
The Drona coordinated with the ships in orbit and a Phaser sweep of the dead Orks was unleashed from orbit, sterilizing the spores, turning the green and red fields of gore and dead orks into grey, a side effect of the sterilization process rendered their green pigmentation greyish, sometimes even snow white, whilst their blood was also changed, shifting from red to green to grey as they were exposed to longer durations and intensity.
The Drona then proceeded to collect research materials as the encampments were continuing to extract Promethium, Petroleum and Heavy Metals, necessary components that need to be hypercompressed and superheated in order to produce a variation of Hyperfuel for the Exodus' hyperspace core.
Due to the limits of the Hyperspace Core on the Exodus, Ray can only accommodate up to 80 F-302s and 3 Constitution class Heavy Cruisers, anything else would need another Hyperspace Core, but given how deep they are in an Ork controlled System, the time needed is not feasible to risk.
The Orks continued to fight eachother across the planet as well as both sides rushing towards the extraction site, but after a week, the mission was a success. Additional samples were sent to the IKV Honorable as it was now functioning as the main research vessel into Ork biology. Having confirmed the sterilization effects of Nadion particles, research into their genetic templates was now the main concern, a suitable containment chamber had been prepared, fitted with plasma and nadion pulse systems as a failsafe. As the IKV Honorable was entirely Drona operated as well as the other ships, it served as an effective platform to begin experimentation with Ork spores, namely to develop a biochemical weapon designed at sterilizing or destroying only Ork lifeforms, however this line of research was proving more challenging than simply using Nadion sweeps, unfortunately however, phaser bombardment of a planet is just as dangerous to humans and other races as it is to Orks.
With their resources supplied, the remaining Drona on the planet's surface assembled a simple targeting beacon and the IKV Exodus aligned towards the planet, it's bow opening up a gunport along the forward section, not exactly a spinal weapon, but it was an axial weapon. Unleashing a blinding flash of Solar Plasma forward, a lance of pure fusion fueled plasma burned and bored into and through the planet, immediately a massive shockwave and thermal flash burned across the planet, the continents began to crack and liquify, the target area was straight up sublimated, directly converted to gas from solid state as the intense energy was too much and the planet cracked and exploded, as the fragments sped towards the fleet, Hyperspace windows opened up and conveyed them into the void safely away from the destroyed planet. One less Ork infestation in the galaxy, not much, not even a dent, but it sent a message. That a grand war was coming, but little did the Orks know, this would be a two front conflict.
Terra, 50.M30 I POV: Frisk (Local)
Frisk looked over a report, reading the updates from the latest batch of recruits for the Imperial Army. The Emperor was present on Luna working on another project to serve as the Vanguard force that the Imperial Army will be supporting, the Astartes, however while the details Frisk is not privy to, there was a report the Emperor sent to them about shifting the recent training focus to produce better officers and focus on tactical training and command courses. While this was expected, it was curious that the Emperor requested this ahead of schedule, it would seem that something had gone wrong for the Astartes Project's leadership, but to what degree or nature, Frisk was not aware of. This was fine enough for Frisk however, even with just the Imperial Army, the Imperium of Man had become a massive force to be reckoned with, the Imperial Navy was also reaching a point of peak for what resources they could strip from the system. Though the Imperium had only a single star system, soon it would need to expand, the projects of the Emperor had been accelerated by the US' terraforming efforts in Merica and plans to evacuate and salvage the sub-continental regions were underway. Frisk estimated in at least 200 years, Earth would once again be the Blue and Green jewel it was before. While the US delayed Unification, they accelerated planetary restoration. But now that was no longer an issue. The Emperor had been steadily influencing US public opinion and politics, a war would setback the Emperor too much for his liking, so instead, he was subverting them, replicating the very systems and events that led to America's first downfall, manipulating economic interests in the US, pushing them towards civil war while also focusing covertly on spreading Imperial Truth. America was not blind to these efforts, but they were suffering from another flaw of the past, hesitation. Unwilling to start the inevitable conflict to come, they will be broken by the Emperor long before any shooting war begins. Already the US have been convinced to sign several treaties that reduced their reliance on automation, research projects by the Emperor had advanced to the point where US Drona are no longer the most advanced assets on Terra. Though they are loathe to admit it, they significantly depended on Ray to make massive leaps in scientific development, had Ray remained on Terra in his capacity as President, perhaps the dream of Unification would have been impossible. But this is not to say they have no development or progress made, only that the pacing of which has become more, natural. In the face of the Emperor's genius, they are being slowly but surely overtaken in scientific developments. Additionally, the Treaty of Mars has guaranteed access to resources and Manufactorums that the US does not have access to. The Emperor is likely to soon either break the US in two and seize what remains, or pressure them into an agreement similar to the Treaty of Mars.
The Warp Storms have fully calmed down, the Emperor can sense this much and has told as much to Frisk. This means the Great Crusade must begin no later than 100.M30, any later and they risk external forces noticing Terra's military buildup and organizing a campaign to cull the young Imperium of Man from the face of the Galaxy.
Raymond Zenji, Frisk thinks, has delayed the Great Crusade, had he not united the Americas and restored the natural beauty of those westernmost continents, perhaps the Imperium would already be out there among the stars, spreading Imperial Truth and uniting mankind. But a delay is just that, a delay. Not a halting, not a stop. When that day comes, Frisk will depart Terra with the Imperial Army, the Emperor himself also intends to depart Terra, leading his Astartes and Custodes into battle against those worlds that will resist him, but Frisk also serves another purpose for the Imperium. Diplomacy.
Yes, many worlds must be conquered and brought into the Imperium by force. But many may be convinced to do so without firing a single bolter, no blood shed over the question of who has the right to rule mankind.
Soon, one day, Frisk shall board the Voidships to carry the Imperium to it's destiny.
The thought brought a smile to his face.
To be continued...