Above a shadowed world a gargantuan warp rift opened much to the horror of the populace below as they witnessed the sky glow purple, for the first time in living memory their surroundings illuminated by bright lights of any sort. Their horror turned to terror as the warp rift spat out a monumentally massive red ship big enough to be seen with the naked eye like a low hanging moon. The world cracked and rumbled as the gravity of such a massive object appearing right next to it disturbed its tectonic plates causing a cascading series of earthquakes around the planet.
The populace began seeking shelter wherever they could find it, in their homes, in alleyways, deep in the mines, some survived, some did not. The ruling class of the dark world barked out orders for their forces to protect them and to find out what was going on even as their palaces cracked around them.
Once the shaking stopped some brave souls dared to look up at the sky to see the mysterious ship that heralded all the recent destruction only for their pale faces to further whiten.
The sky was falling.
Hundreds, thousands of red trails falling from the sky were seen as they barreled towards the surface as they left the massive ship.
They impacted with a loud cracks leaving craters in their wakes and from them poured forth swarms of metal men and massive machines even as the skies became filled with flying machines that proceeded to fire bolts of blue energies that destroyed every defensive emplacements the uncaring rulers of the planet had installed.
The personal forces of the planet's ruling class poured out into the street along side the seedier criminal elements against the invading threat to their home in a unprecedented show of unity. To no avail.
Their formations were instantly melted away as a tidal wave of plasma shots washed over them while grenades dropped among their back ranks from mobile launchers shredded their reinforcements.
The few shots they did manage to get off impacted harmlessly upon the enemy armor as they continued their inexorable march. All of which was being broadcasted among their own communication networks despite the operators best attempts at shutting them off.
Within hours the planet surrendered as all those that tried to resist were immediately killed with no quarters given. The rulers publicly being executed as their crimes were emotionlessly read out by the red robed metal men. Then, across every screen, the image of a masked metal man spoke. The planet was his now, and order would be enforced, laws would be followed, peace and prosperity would be theirs, the innocents.
Soon the scene of executions was replicated all across the planet in the streets as swarms of mechanical animals shaped like canines prowled the streets in packs, breaking into buildings with their tough metallic bodies, and dragging out screaming victims who were quickly proven to be guilty of horrendous crimes.
The purges went on for a year, and the people rejoiced. They realized that for the first time in their life, there was justice, they were safe. The killers, kidnappers, rapists, thieves, thugs, blackmailers, drug dealers, slavers, and more were gone. Lights were installed all across the city leaving no place in shadows. The cities were repaired and the skies cleaned, many looking up at a smog free sky and breathing deep the cleanest air they have ever breathed before. Any crimes committed or reported were actually addressed. Their bodies cared for by newly set up medical facilities, the infrastructures renewed, and food becoming plentiful.
The world and its people were healing, and it was thanks to the metal men, or as they called themselves, the Mechanicum. A majority of the population were executed for their crimes, but all those who remained praised the Mechanicum for saving them and joined their faith en mass. Millions flocked to the newly erected forge-temples to learn the ways of the Machine God.
*Nine years later*
In a mere nine years the planet was unrecognizable as the surface of the planet now glowed with a interconnected web of lights from pole to pole, a stark contrast to the shadowed orb it once was.
It was at that point another event occurred. High above the planet, a tiny rift opened in space and out spat a small metallic pod.
Immediately the hovering ship that the people below got used to let out a beam of green energies that impacted the pod, slowing it down before it began reversing towards the ship and disappearing into one of the many hangar bays.
At that point for the second time every man, woman, and child saw the mask of the Fabricator General projected in their minds through the planet wide noosphere network as he made another announcement as life changing as the first.
"It is time, prepare for planetary dimensional spatial warping, activate all shields and pray."
All across the world the lights went dark as every spec of energy generated from the various geothermal, plasma reactors, and dark matter reactors diverted all of their vast energies into the arrays of gellar field generators spread all across the planet and to a special machine buried deep within the main forge temple.
For over an hour the planet the planet hummed with the thrums of transferring energies and the hymns of the hundreds of millions of new faithfuls as they prayed to the Machine God for protection for what was to come.
At a point, the energies reached the critical point and a second seemed to have stretched into an eternity as the planet blinked out of existence, leaving no trace of its presence in the system. Only a single massive ship where the planet once was.
For the first time in almost a decade the ship's engines blazed to life as another massive warp rift opened in front of the ship before swallowing the ship, leaving only a lifeless system in its wake.
Last edited: Nov 16, 2020
311Within one of the many hallways of the Speranza, one of the 12 Disciples of Fabricator General Tri2 walked alone, patrolling the massive ship for any signs of enemies no matter how unlikely. Clad in one of their iconic red armored suits with yellow scarf was the Disciple known as Joe. The hallway was decorated with many wax purity seals, scrolls, and incense holders as done by the locally stationed tech priests that maintained this part of the ship. The priesthood being even more prolific and devoted with their religion after his master had proved that their faith and prayers did have a tangible effect on reality around them even if he did also espouse the need for the Scientific Method of learning and development to properly venerate the Machine God with more knowledge.
Even as his various augmented senses and integrated sensor suites swept the area around him; his mind was whirring with thoughts of his master's recent actions within the recent decades. After the take over and teleportation of the planet of Nostramo the Speranza had made two further trips where unlike Nostromo, master did not proceed to conquer the planet and instead left behind some automated cloaked stations with robotic forces in high orbit. He did not understand, why? The planet's were obviously human planets suffering under the rule of oppressive rulers, why did they not descend upon them like they did for the planet of Nostramo and proceed to save and enlighten the people? They had more than enough forces and power to do it easily so why?
Even after half a century spent learning and serving under his master he still did not really understand him. Other than teaching and commanding Master Tri2 did not interact with them in any other way. Not that it was not enough, his skills in combat and as a magos was a match even for more senior magi despite the decades they had on him. Still....his master was basically unknown to him and his fellow disciples. The only ones he can think of to know of his master as a individual were Disciple Mettaton and Hygieia. He was grateful for master taking him as a disciple and would gladly give his life for him, but he had to wonder...was what his master doing right? There was no doubt that master was the chosen of the Machine God, maybe even the Omnissiah as some of other tech priests have been whispering, based solely on how the fact that every machine around or worked on at some point by his master vastly outperformed their counterparts. However, his master never did share his goal with anyone as far as he knew. He never bothered to ask as it just did not feel proper for him to ask his master as he would most likely reveal it in his own time, but the actions in the recent decades have shaken that decision.
What was master's goal? Shouldn't he tell his Disciples at least so they could assist him? Wasn't that their duty? Did he not trust them? No, he should not doubt master so easily, he should be rational, logical, there is probably a good reason. He could try to ask if the other Disciples know first. That was something he could do.
He accessed the shipboard noosphere through his implant and proceeded to set up a private noosphere chat room and sent a request to Disciple Hygieia for a conversation. In a few dozen milliseconds Hygieia accepted and appeared in her mental avatar within the room. He felt his plasma conduit flows quicken as he beheld his senior whose physical and mental forms were widely acknowledge by many in the priesthood as very aesthetically pleasing along with her personality.
"Joe? Is everything alright?" Hygieia asked with concern in her voice, which was only fair as he did not typically do social calls.
"Yes, everything is fine, no problems detected on my patrol senior Hygieia. I called you here because I had some questions and doubts on my mind and was hoping you could enlighten me on them."
"Oh? Please ask your questions and I will try to answer them if I can Joe." Hygieia said warmly as she constructed a digital chair to sit on. She was always like that, always so willing to help out with a smile, even though he did notice she did tend to have an odd expression whenever she went past areas that were heavily blessed by her fellow priests. No doubt she found them of a lesser quality compared to her or master's own level of work and was trying to prevent herself from improving it and getting delayed from her original business.
"Well first, what is master like?" He asked quickly before his nerves failed him, life or death battle against the enemies of the Machine God? No problem, but merely asking his senior questions had his data flows stutter with hesitation.
"What?"
"I mean, despite being under master's service and tutelage for over half a century. I find myself realizing that I and my fellow Disciples do not actually know all that much about him. We do not actually converse outside of lessons and operations and all that we really learn about master is through what is recorded in the data archives. Which does not truly record anything besides the results of master's actions. What does he like, or dislike, what is his goal? His dream? We are suppose to be his Disciples, to assist him in his endeavors, but we have no idea on what it is he even wants. I am asking you because I have noticed that master seems to speak to you and senior disciple Mettaton."
Hygieia remained silent for silent for a brief moment before seemingly deciding to come to a decision.
"Ok, I will tell you some of what I know about Tri2, though I do have to warn you, even I do not know everything about him as he is quite paranoid about his own personal information, for good reason, besides that, he does not particularly socialize with anyone despite my efforts. There are some things about him I cannot tell you as they are sensitive information you understand, so I will only reveal to you some basic information."
"That is more than I had before, thank you senior." Joe said with gratitude in his cybernetic heart.
"You are welcome Joe, well to start off, despite his seemingly no nonsense attitude and lack of emotions he likes to show to you and the rest of the galaxy; Tri2 is actually really into entertainment in all forms, videos, music, novels, games, anything and everything really. He also likes to work, most of his time is spent training or working usually while consuming his entertainment slates at the same time. He does not really do anything else." Hygieia said with a tired sigh, a indication of this being a recurring nagging issue that was constantly brought up.
"As for his dislikes he hates...the Warp. The main reason being it caused the downfall of Humanity after the Men of Iron were defeated and the general lack of reliability despite its uses. His goal is restore the Golden Age of Humanity and to end all hostile alien lifeforms like the Orks and Eldar that exist in this galaxy." Hygieia began explaining, saying something that was both obvious and confusing to him.
"Wait if master's goal is to restore Humanity, then I have to ask, why did master not free the two worlds that had tyrants ruling over the people? Why did he only leave two stealth stations behind when we could have easily liberated the planets like we did Nostramo and the dozen other planets? We " He asked the question that was plaguing his mind and started his train of self doubt.
"That...that is a bit difficult to explain." Hygieia said as she turned her head away from him with guilt on her face.
"While Tri2 does hate the Warp for being unreliable, it does still have its uses, and one of those uses is precognition. Tri2 has some information in regards to very powerful assets that require certain conditions to appear. For Nostramo he took a gamble with the information and made changes to the planet based on its extreme mineral wealth which was necessary for the expansion, even if it did risk losing the asset. However, there are entities that have access to the same precognitive information that most likely noticed the disturbances caused by his actions and would likely try to interfere if he did something on that scale again to alter things based on the precognitive data. So despite him wishing to liberate the two worlds immediately, he instead decided to merely station hidden forces to acquire the assets, with intent to return later in the future, if possible. The assets are not something I can reveal to you exactly what they are, yet, but know that they have the potential to affect galaxy changing events in regards to Humanity. So despite my feelings regarding Tri2's decision, I myself believed that it....was for the best for those worlds to be left in their current state." Hygieia explained with guilt and shame on her face at her admittance.
Joe felt his physical body's fist clench as his mental body stood stock still while processing the recent revelation. In order to acquire some important assets his master was going to leave two world's population to suffer. Despite himself, despite how the logic gnawed at him, he could see it. He could see where his master was coming from, if whatever he wanted were powerful enough to affect the galaxy for the better, was two world's suffering really that important in the long run? According to the cold hard math of his logis implant, it was not, but according to his Humanity, it....only kind of was. He could only partly muster up the will to feel anger on behalf of the people on those planets, it was just really hard to, because besides being Human what other ties did he have with those people? Nothing.
He had no real obligation or investment to those population and there was no real reason why they could not wait, there were plenty of other worlds that needed to be liberated and had been without the need to hold back. His mind whirred as his processor fans activated to mitigate the heat generated from his intense thinking.
"Thank you senior Hygieia, I know the master much better now, and understand the reasoning behind his actions. I am glad to know that it was the curse of pragmatism that forced him to hold his hand and not some other less palatable reason in regards to those worlds. I will need some more time to process this however and will be in the forge chapel should you need me after my patrol senior Hygieia. Perhaps we can speak again at some later date about you and the other 2 senior Disciples?" He asked politely to his senior who looked at him with slight concern.
"You are welcome Joe, if you ever need someone to talk to, know that I am always available to lend a ear and I look forward to our next conversation." She said warmly before everything dissolved into data strings and scattered back into the noosphere network.
Joe was now once again left focusing solely in his physical body with a thread of attention on the noosphere for any messages or warnings. His body not having gotten far from when he started the conversation with Hygieia. The benefits of mental communication via the noosphere. He double checked his patrol route and added a destination marker for the closest forge temple and booked a private shrine for his use.
He had answers now to some of his questions, but it did not bring him the satisfaction he thought it would. His mind was still in turmoil if only for different reasons.
Perhaps praying the Machine God could grant him the knowledge he seek and bring him solace.
And maybe the self reflection could ease the guilt he felt throughout his very being.
He could only hope.
Last edited: Nov 23, 2020
292Are you ready?' I mentally asked
'I don't know, but we are about to find out.' Shard Emperor responded to me.
So with a kind smile still on my face my arm blurred.
My hand reaching into the prearranged inventory window and pulling out the most advanced weapon I had made to date. A weapon that was composed with pure Noctilth and adamantium, its edge honed to a monomolecular line backed by a core of adamantium, energized in such a way that it can slice straight through any psychic phenomenon, and embedded with the most advanced anti-phasing technology know to Humanity to prevent any and all forms of spatial effects. All of that when wielded by me to be enhanced by my various skills made it one of the most powerful weapons in the galaxy, possibly splitting entire daemon worlds in half if it had sufficient reach.
To those watching it all happened in a instant. Perhaps only the Gods could observe what transpired, but if the audience could they would have seen a matte black survival shovel downsized to that of a regular dagger be pulled out of thin air by the red robed fabricator general with one fluid motion beyond even Transhuman speed and reaction capability.
And there, in front of 300 Companions, two primarchs, and millions of unsuspecting people.
I slit wide open the Emperor's throat.
___________________________________________________________________________
I have to admit that despite having this story here on SB/SV/Stitch and a quest on fiction.live
I find myself wanting to start a new quest here on SB/SV and I want your opinion on what should be the next quest.
Evil Quest (Evil Person with a Evil Power doing Evil Things)
Loyal Mook Quest (Be a loyal quality mook to a villain/master/boss and do your best to help them succeed)
Evil Merchant Quest (All those villains gotta get their goods from somewhere)
Headway Quest (A system created by jcw3 where your main power is the ability to learn and grow quickly and travel worlds)
Gamer Quest (A character gains the power of the Gamer nuff said)
Gantz quest (Who said Gantz was only occurring on Earth or even just that universe?)
83
filed the latest gain in the back of my mind and decided to end the trap for today.
With a sweep of my weapon an entire wave of enemies screamed in fear and pain as their bodies disintegrated as they failed to escape from my telekinetic pull.
The purple glow of the stable warp rift glowing at the far end of the room pulsed as it slammed shut with a crack as I imposed my will upon it.
The howling winds and screams that pervaded the room instantly cut off as if someone had hit a mute button and reality began to stabilize.
I let out a slow breath, the cool recycled air circulating through my lungs giving me the mental satisfaction from the action despite no longer needing to breath at all for years.
I stashed away my weapons and proceeded to do some stretches, getting used to the latest effects on my body from the stat gains from last 24 hours.
'I think I have enough.' The Emperor shard broadcasted in my mind bringing me up short mid stretch.
'Really?' I sent back mentally for confirmation. I had been having my experience reduced by 70% for the past 50 years with no real sign that it would ever end. As more and more of my experience was absorbed the shard of the Emperor was spiritually glowing brighter and brighter within me and was becoming more active, and chatty. I obviously made sure to get some psyker training in and new skills from him in return for being a damn experience mosquito.
I didn't learn too many psyker skills due to one reason. I fully intended to not depend on them in combat when I needed them most. There were far too many ways to specifically harm or shut down psykers. Blanks being the most obvious example.
Decades ago I had asked why the shard was still absorbing my experience despite the fact that it was now fully awake and there was no throne bound Emperor to send power back to given that we were in the past.
His answer made me think he was mad.
*Flashback*
'Come again? Did I just suffer a mental attack or did you just say, you, a mere fragment of the main psyche and psychic power of the original Emperor, want to fight for control of his body?'
'Partially, what I truly want to do is merge with my past self so I can pass on my knowledge and experiences. However, my attempts at subtly contacting myself has resulted in every attempt being blocked and misinterpreted as attempts by the Four to influence him. I cannot send him a message to explain without revealing my presence to the Four and alerting them of my plan. I also lack the power to breach our mental defenses and have enough power to force a mental merge.'
'As for why I do not just simply ask you to personally meet with my past self and explain the situation. I....remember what I was like back then. At that time I was completely burnt out by the loss of the Federation, almost all my friends, all of our civilization, progress...everything. So much loss, so much...At that point in time I had given up hope that Humanity could ever do anything right. That only I had the answers to everything and the power and will to achieve it. I will refuse to work with you and instead try to force you to work for me instead of with me. In addition, I will refuse to accept the merge being rightfully suspicious of anything that would affect my mind and soul no matter how innocuous it might look. So the only path left is force. I can store the experience gained to create a immense psychic attack but I will need your help in breaching his defenses.' Emperor explained with a sense of tiredness in his voice.
I heard the familiar Ding of a notification popping up.
QUEST CREATED!
LEARN FROM THE FUTURE! TO SAVE THE PAST!
GOAL: HELP THE EMPEROR SHARD REUNITE WITH HIS PAST SELF!
REWARD
+3 LEVELS
HONORED RELATION WITH THE EMPEROR
FRIENDLY RELATIONS WITH THE PRIMARCHS
HONORED RELATION WITH THE IMPERIUM
GAIN TITLE: HERO OF THE IMPERIUM
FAILURE
HOSTILE RELATION OF THE EMPEROR
HOSTILE RELATION WITH HIS PRIMARCHS
ETERNAL HATRED OF THE IMPERIUM OF MAN
POTENTIAL DEATH/SOUL DESTRUCTION
ACCEPT/REJECT?
Well, at least the reward was worth it at least, to get 3 levels it would be around 25.6 quadrillion points of experience, and a lot of relationship points would be gained.....Sure why not, not like I have a better idea for befriending the Emperor at the primarchs at this point. At least I had some good bait in the works.
*Flashback End*
'Yes, I have enough power stored to say with confidence I would be able to force the merging without getting repulsed.' He said with confidence radiating from his being.
'Alright, then prepare your attack, you have until I manage to get a face to face with the Emperor to get it ready.' I thought to him as I made some quick repairs to the warded room that I was in.
The room was a football sized area near the outer hull of the Speranza as it floated in the void between systems. The walls were covered in various runes that glowed with a bright golden light that prevented as warp presences from corrupting or passing through them and kept all presences within them hidden from the rest of the Warp.
I spent all of my free time in this room after its creation when I remembered something important. Daemons could not really tell what was on the other side of a warp rift except for indicators of things that relate to their god. They generally just rush any openings into realspace that they could take due to their own belief in their immortality.
So I devised a trap. A heavily warded room that would prevent them from leaving or affecting anything beyond it, upgrading my Disguise skill to the point that I could use it in conjunction with my Psyker skill to disguise my psychic power to resemble that of a normal if exceptionally powerful untrained psyker.
Then, I had the shard within me teach me how to make my own warp rifts and how to shut them. I had killing field, I had a entrance, and I had bait. The daemons would be the lambs to the slaughter. As long as none of them made it back through the portal then no one except the gods will be a wiser at the missing daemons, and I would just have to move the Speranza to a different location to open another warp rift in another location in the Warp and start it all over again.
They basically replaced the NPC enemies provided by Instant Dungeons. They came in constant vast numbers, the only downside being that they all gave the same amount of experience for their class no matter their level so my rate of growth slowed tremendously as I leveled higher and higher.
Once I was done I took a quick look at my list of skills and judge that they were sufficient as well. I could probably pull it off once I made the proper equipment.
I left the room and proceeded to walk down several restricted corridors towards a hidden laboratory within the ship, also warded to the Warp and back as my thoughts whirred.
Level 97, when I completed the quest for shard Emps then I would be at level 100, would I prestige at level 100? What would that even grant me? I was just gonna have to find out for myself.
As the security of the lab activated I began the process to remove my training armor.
I loosen my muscles from their tensed positions as I deactivated the various restraints that I had installed in this particular set of power armor.
One of the earliest mechanics I figured out about my Gamer power was the growth of stat points. Debuffs that reduced stats temporarily, also reduced the amount of stat experience needed to gain the relevant stat point. While I was absolutely adamant in refusing to artificially reduce my Intelligence, and had no idea on how to reduce my Wisdom or Luck, I easily had a way to reduce my Strength, Constitution, and Dexterity via poisons and physical restraints.
For the past 50 years, I spent every waking moment under the constant debuffs of a hundreds of precisely applied poisons and constantly monitored gravity induced restriction bands that reduced my physical stats to a constant state of 50. Just strong enough to keep killing daemons with skill assistance, but still low enough to make tremendous gains from constant titanic exertions on my part as long as my Willpower did not break as my body certainly would not break first.
The result was a body that was 7.5x stronger, 2x tougher, and 100x faster than a fully armored space marine.....without power armored assistance helping me.
I walked towards 4 large green fluid filled tubes placed within the center of the room, surrounded by a hoard of advanced technological apparatus and workstations with not a single soul within the room beside me. Everything within the room controlled by my will, Hygieia, and Mettaton.
As the last piece of armor fell off my body and floated off to join the rest of the armor in one of the many alcoves lining the walls, I quick swapped a clean lab outfit which felt quite nice to feel on my skin.
I looked at the 4 giant tubes which each contained a giant of a man within.
Each one of them were far larger than a regular human and had the body musculature that made even roided up bodybuilders blush in envy. Despite the vast amounts of muscle they were not unattractive either as they were still perfectly proportioned without any mutations.
These were the four primarchs I had collected before their pods had crashed on their once homeworlds.
Lorgar, Angron, Konrad, and Perturabo.
Each one immediately were transferred from their gestation pods and into specially made iron wombs which would promote and further enhance their growth in all aspects both physically and mentally. Vast amounts of nutrients and minerals were constantly cycled through the tanks while their minds were scanned and connected into a digital world simulated and controlled by a dedicated supercomputer.
Numerous attachments of electrodes were connected all across their body, their various muscles twitching from time to time as their muscles were stimulated corresponding to their mental experiences.
Within the digital world they were undergoing accelerated training in all fields, allowing them to live out various lives from peace to war, giving them a vast field of experiences.
Even without any of this they still would have been complete monsters based on what my sensors and Observation skill were telling me.
'No offense.' I apologized to the shard within me.
'None taken.' He replied with a feeling of smugness and pride emanating across the link. Said feelings being entirely justified based on the data I collected.
I brought up the stat charts and made comparisons.
Average Primarch
STRENGTH 20250
CONSTITUTION: 13,500
DEXTERITY: 25,000
INTELLIGENCE: 4000
WISDOM: 400
LUCK: 1000
Primarch Angron
STRENGTH 120000
CONSTITUTION: 81000
DEXTERITY: 29,000
INTELLIGENCE: 7000
WISDOM: 1500
LUCK: 1000
Me
STRENGTH: 1701 (6804)
CONSTITUTION: 1818 (1818)
DEXTERITY: 1878 (99984)
INTELLIGENCE: 1027 (24545.3)
WISDOM: 843 (7957.92)
LUCK: 355 (355)
"They are so damn broken, and this is coming from me of all people." I said aloud.
Primarchs truly deserved to be called godlings, honestly the fact that I was still 3-4 times faster than the primarchs was a cold comfort to me considering that these bullshit stats would most likely be just as bullshit in regards to the more psychic primarchs like Magnus. He probably could melt a titan with a look.
It made my feat of fighting endless hordes of daemon seem like nothing considering that some of those daemons could fight primarchs one on one and not immediately die. The things I was fighting were severely weakened indeed. Honestly, without the Emperor shard in me I would have died decades ago when I was thrown in the Warp by the Orks on Armageddon.
The main thing this data meant was that the Emperor was just as bullshit at least and that meeting him was really going to be a dangerous event.
Accessing the machines I prepared to activate the primarchs, preparing their release from the pods and their armor and weapon loadouts to be equipped. Hopefully I would not need their help, but...well prepare for the worst.
Accessing the ship comms I send out the order "Attention all personnel, the Speranza will be performing a grav shift in t-minus 60 minutes. We are returning to planet Colchis."
All across the Speranza's outer hull a change occurred. Over the past 50 years changes were made to its various systems as the fruits of the onboard STC were applied to all of its systems. Most importantly its FTL system. Long ago during the DAOT Humanity had many encounters with Orks in more advanced stages of technological progress and had constant encounters with weaponized planetoids and moons capable of non Warp FTL. During the ending years of the DAOT before the Age of Strife, Humanity had managed to partially crack the secrets behind the method. Gravitic tunneling, allowing for as the name implies tunnels of hypergravity to compress two points of distant spaces together and drag through the passenger to the other side without going through the Warp and all its dangers.
Of course there were a few downsides to this method of travel or else the technology would have been a lot more well known and wide spread despite its newness. The first was obviously the immense power requirements needed to make the tunnels with the energy costs growing exponentially the bigger the intended passenger was. The second equally difficult problem was targeting. The FTL method could not allow for jumps into spaces without collected gravimetric data. Data could be collected from great distances but it would take years due to the distances. Practically however it meant that we could not tunnel to places we have not been to before or are too far away. This did however make this a great way to safely travel vast distances back to claimed territories. The last benefit is that it did not need me or the Emperor shard to guide the ship as it would not have to travel through the Warp.
All across the outer hull of the Speranza vast fields of spikes began deploying from hidden armored compartments giving the whole ship a bit of a spikey look like a sea urchin. Bolts of lightning flashed in between the spikes in ever increasing numbers as the power built up in the various subsystems and gravitic drive deep within the ship. The power emanating around the hull and visibly began distorting the light around the ship like a bubble.
Then just like a bubble, a inaudible pop occurred and the ship vanished from existence from the void and instantly appeared within easy cruising speed of the planet Colchis.
The previously Exterminatus'd world was fully recovered after the past 50 years, where once it was a burnt out husk of a world, now it was a fully functioning forge world with hundreds of shipyards and thousands of ships both military and civilian types flying by in high orbit.
Such growth would have been impossible if not for both the complete STC templates and a unlocked function of my power. the territory management system. No matter how far I was from my territories, I could manage them as if it was a RTS game, giving out construction and research orders, and could utilize my abilities to accelerate the rate of construction. This allowed me to quickly construct all the core industries and facilities needed to allow for the local population to continue the rest of the expansion on their own time while I focused on other worlds.
As I looked upon the works of my people over the decades I found it satisfying. Now it was time to call the Emperor.
Taking a moment to psychically scan the primarchs before me to verify their psychic signature one more time, I let loose a powerful psychic burst message through the Warp in the direction of the expeditionary crusade fleet that the Emperor himself led. His presence a bright beacon in the Warp even without the golden throne.
Now I had to hide the ship, if things went wrong I really did not want the Emperor getting his hand ahold of the Speranza or the people onboard. The AI's would be massacred without mercy if he even got wind of their presence. So I had Mettaton and Hygieia under great protest take the Speranza back to Home and wait either for the all clear signal from me or the cessation of the quantum entanglement communicator linked to my heart beat.
With my greatest asset out of harms way, it was time to wait for the Emperor to arrive, I would have a few months to years with how vague the Warp is. So I would have plenty of time to prepare. I just needed to do 3 things.
Step 1 Disguise myself as a Primarch
Step 2 Create proper power armor fit for me.
Step 3 Design a weapon that would harm the Emperor
3 oh so simple goals, but all of them oh so difficult as well.
Well my skills were certainly going to be put to the test.
*4 months time skip*
Deep in the void just outside the system the peace was disturbed as numerous Warp portals ripped open the barrier of the material world and thousands of colossal moving mountains of plasteel, ceramite and adamantium armed to the teeth pushed their way into reality from Hell itself. Sensors all throughout the system blared at the sudden Warp signatures that suddenly appeared at the edge of the system before a even larger alarm began blaring as a second even larger wave began transitioning into real space. The thousands of ships were nothing more than the vanguard of the true fleet.
From behind the massive fleet even more purple holes in reality opened and disgorged tens of thousands of ships and in the middle of the armada a monumentally huge warp rift opened as a gargantuan ship exited.
A golden ship larger than any in the system has ever seen besides the Speranza took its place in the center of the fleet, utterly dwarfing the accompanying battleship escorts around it, it's name proudly shining in the void on its side, Imperator Somnium.
Tens of thousands of ships, tens of millions of soldiers, hundreds of thousands of transhuman super soldiers, and the Emperor of Man Himself has arrived in the system of Colchis in search of one of His lost sons.
Standing on board the bridge of his personal flagship the Emperor stood with his two sons Leman Russ and Horus Lupercal as the communications officer connected with the local leader of the system which looked to be under Mechanicus control.
That fact made the Emperor frown as if his son was part of the Mechanicus it would cause a bit of a problem with the Martians.
"I wonder what our brother is like? It looks like he landed on a forge world." Spoke Horus Lupercal the first found son of the Emperor, primarch of the Lunar Wolves Legion, as he observed the data being gathered by the ship's augur arrays.
"Eh, he's probably going to be like those tech crazed priest, hope he at least is any good in a fight." Leman Russ, the primarch of the Space Wolves Legion spat out as he placed a palm on the pommel of his sheathed blade.
"Milord, communications has been established. Bringing it up on screen now." An officer said as a digital screen appeared showing the face of a large handsome bald headed man laced with copious cybernetics but of obvious primarch like physique with intense eyes and presence even through a pict screen. Horus knew that this had to be his brother, who else but a primarch could create such a feeling.
The Emperor smiled and said "Greetings I am the Emperor of Mankind, leader of the Imperium of Man, who am I speaking to."
The man on the screen said nothing visibly scanning the bridge with his eyes before giving a kind smile and speaking with a synthetic sounding voice "Greetings Father, I am Fabricator General Tri2, leader of the Colchis system forge world. What are your orders?"
"I am here to return you home child, so that you may know your true purpose and help Mankind achieve its rightful place in the galaxy. Grant us access to your world and allow us to land, we have much to speak about, your brothers are eager to meet you." The Emperor responded with satisfaction in his voice at the thought of recovering another one of his primarchs, one seemingly adept towards technology, though he would have to rid him of any religious indoctrination the damn Martians had introduced to his mind, though hopefully he was intelligent enough to see it as the superstitious ramblings that they are.
"Understood, please land at these coordinates, an appropriate greeting party shall be assembled. I look forward to seeing you all." The primarch Tri2 spoke in his artificial voice before closing communications, the coordinates designating a large open landing zone for what seemed to be the planet's main planetary starport.
"It seems our brother is not one for much conversation brother at least he's polite." Horus said to Leman who gripped his sword tighter.
"Aye, and it seems he has taken control of the local tech priests obviously given his rank, but something seems off about him. I can't explain it but somethings wrong."
"Perhaps it is a side effect of his augmetics, his voice is quite obviously has been replaced by some form of cybernetic replacement."
"Maybe, but I can't help feel like it is something more. Hmph."
"I trust your instincts Leman, but I certainly hope that you are wrong."
"Leman, Horus, prepare your honor guards and meet me at hanger bay A-3 where we shall depart."
""Yes Father.""
*Half Hour Later*
The Emperor stood at the head of his group, his two sons right behind them, his personal Companions behind them, and within the transport crafts besides theirs, a few thousand space marine legionnaires.
The boarding ramp of the Emperor's personal transport slowly descended and the welcoming party was revealed with a wall of sound.
Standing before the descending Imperials was a sea of red as millions of tech priests, skiitaris, thousands of space marine sized automatons, dozens of various walker types, and even a few titans stood at parade rest broadcasting large foghorns and grinding gears.
"Well, you never could accuse the Martians of being musically inclined I guess, at least they provided an appropriately sized welcoming party?" Horus said as he could feel his sons tense up at the sight of so much fire power assembled before them.
"Horus, stop being polite, the music sucks, and that is a lot of guns for a welcoming committee and where is our brother?" Leman said through gritted teeth at sheer number of heavy weapons arrayed before him, all wielded by people who on paper was their allies, but are really more of a reluctant vassal state. He knew that not every tech priest welcomed his father's arrival on Mars and the signing of the Treaty of Mars to make it tied to the Imperium.
As if to answer the Wolf Lord's question the mass of red all simultaneously and in perfect synchronicity moved to open up a path in the middle leading straight to them.
Walking towards them was the form of the Tri2 followed by 10 seemingly normal humans in the same red uniform with yellow scarves, with one of them being a mere baby being held in the arm of a woman.
'Was that his child? His wife? Is this his family?' Horus thought his eyebrows creased, he knew that primarchs could perform sexual acts given how often Leman boasted about his conquest, but he had never seen any fruits of such actions. Could primarchs have children with normal humans? He never thought about it before.
A quick glance at his father showed him frowning heavily in thought.
They proceeded to walk towards the incoming party and stopped with a mere 10 meters between each other.
Tri2 walked ahead alone towards them and the Emperor just stood there looking at him with scrutiny in his eyes.
As Tri2 reached within a meter the Emperor he proceeded to kneel before him.
"Greetings Father, welcome to Colchis."
"Rise my son, it is good to see that you have succeeded well in the world and have prospered. The world is a fine example of industriousness and efficiency. Please will you not show us around for a bit before we discuss more private matters?" The Emperor asked playing up his statesmanship for the crowd to impress upon them a positive impression of him.
His primarch rose from his position and looked at him in the eyes with a kind smile on his face and joy in his eyes. As expected of his creation, his genetic loyalty conditioning still held strong like with his other primarchs.
*POV Shift*
'Are you ready?' I mentally asked.
'I don't know, but we are about to find out.' Shard Emperor responded to me.
So with a kind smile still on my face my arm blurred.
My hand reaching into the prearranged inventory window and pulling out the most advanced weapon I had made to date. A weapon that was composed with pure Noctilth and adamantium, its edge honed to a monomolecular line backed by a core of adamantium, energized in such a way that it can slice straight through any psychic phenomenon, and embedded with the most advanced anti-phasing technology know to Humanity to prevent any and all forms of spatial effects. All of that when wielded by me to be enhanced by my various skills made it one of the most powerful weapons in the galaxy, possibly splitting entire daemon worlds in half if it had sufficient reach.
To those watching it all happened in a instant. Perhaps only the Gods could observe what transpired, but if the audience could they would have seen a matte black survival shovel downsized to that of a regular dagger be pulled out of thin air by the red robed fabricator general with one fluid motion beyond even Transhuman speed and reaction capability.
And there, in front of 300 Companions, two primarchs, and millions of unsuspecting people.
I slit wide open the Emperor's throat.
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AN: THAT'S RIGHT! THAT SNEAK PEAK WAS A SNEAK PEAK AT THE CLIFFHANGER!

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