His Glorious Aspirations. In Orbit of Planetos.
My office was a testament to the wealth and power of my station as well as an example of how the Imperium as a whole worked. I had a data slate, which was the Warhammer version of Star Trek datapad on my desk along with a pile of important documents that looked as if they belonged on a teacher's desk at Hogwarts rather than on a spaceship. I had to unroll and sign scrolls each scroll to make my orders official and then apply my thumbprint to the electronic version of the same document.
I drank recaff, basically space coffee, out of a fine china mug while doing my work and as I did I looked up at the walls. The former captain of this vessel must have had a big ego as he'd put up portraits of himself looking very heroic hanging about all over what was now my personal quarters. I would have them all removed and painting of me put up because this was my warship and I also had a big ego. It was my turn to conquer worlds, to destroy the heretic, the aliens and the demonic. It helped that we would be invading the setting of Game of Thrones for my first conquest as that world could so with some rigid Imperial authority so I didn't feel bad about having it conquered in the name of the Imperium.
Also up on the walls were a collection of laser rifles and pistols that I imagined the governments of my world would pay fortunes just to let their scientists examine, and yet they were put up along with more primitive tools of killing such as flintlock pistols and what I assumed to be crude orcs weapons. These two would have to go as I would soon have trophies of my own to put up.
I allowed myself to be distracted by some of the reports that crossed my desk. While the navigators and astropaths didn't seem to understand that we're in another universe (assuming that Game of Thrones didn't take place in Warhammer 40k, something which would not shock me) they were reporting that the Emperor's light could be faintly senses, although I wondered if that was me, and that the warp was calm here. So need to worry about demonic possessions.
Making an effort I remained focused on the paperwork, the Imperial buracary could not be escaped no matter how far you flew from Holy Terra it turned out, and since I was the highest Imperial authority around, at least in some sense, I had to authorise the deployment of the Imperial Guard as well as the Ad-Mech before they could do anything other than prepare to land on the planet that had been named after me.
Technically I should not be able to order them to anything since they were separate organisations with their own chains of commands, but someone had to be in charge overall and this meant that should things go wrong I'd end up being the one to blame. The IOM wasn't going to fund me if I asked for help taking over some backwards world that they would assume was a lost colony of no importance so I had to carefully manage our limited resources. Hence why I was giving the Ad-Mech all of Ulthos as then they would support the conquest of the rest of the planet.
The Imperial Guard would invade Westeros one day if they didn't all bend the knee, but that could take years, so I should have plenty of time to exploit the locals and it might be possible to bring the natives into the fold. The leadership of the IOM wouldn't give a damn who ruled Westeros as long as they got some tribute and the Lord-General knew this so he might be satisfied with direct control over Essos and to allow Westeros to rule itself for the most part. We'd see how things went.
At least I didn't have to authorise the Inquisition to do anything and they could handle the spooky stuff for me. The Inquisitor had spoken about rewarding me for our friendship down the line as had the Ad-Mech who would be getting a lot of free labour and minerals from this world. The Lord-General had plans to turn the Dothraki city into a fortress-capital for this world and to rule from it, and to do that he'd need my support as well as that of the Ad-Mech who would actually build it for him, or at least the servitors would. My job was mostly to help the different groups get along and to keep working together for a greater good, not that I'd ever call it that out loud, even thinking those words made me feel a bit dirty. Bloody Tau.
There was a polite tapping on the door of my study, and when I bid whoever it was who wanted my attention to enter, I saw one of my battle harem (I didn't know which as I couldn't see her number and she was covered from head to toe in a protective body suit) and she informed me that Bishop Brennen was here to see me.
I knew the bishop to be the highest-ranking member of the clergy on board and he served the Cult of The Emperor Saviour. The Temple of the Saviour Emperor was one of the many Human religious cults which grew up around the worship of the Emperor of Mankind as a god after the Horus Heresy back in the 31st and 32nd Millennia. It went on to become the dominant state church of the Imperium, the Adeptus Ministorum or Ecclesiarchy as the organisation was more formally known.
The more extreme theological doctrines of the Temple of the Saviour Emperor, which called for the Ecclesiarchy to dominate every aspect of Imperial politics, fell out of favour during the Age of Apostasy and were reformed by the Ecclesiarch Sebastian Thor and the reborn rival sect of the Temple known as the Confederation of Light in the 36th thousands of years later there are those within the Ecclesiarchy who exhibit a desire to use the institutions of the Imperial Church to gain wealth and political power for their own sake. This has been referred to within the church as having a "tendency towards the Temple" as a warning against returning to the old ways.
Those who are actually found to adhere to the beliefs and practices of the pre-reformation Temple of the Saviour Emperor are regarded as Heretics who have turned their backs upon the current incarnation of the Imperial Creed. However, there do exist secret cults that actively work against the current Ecclesiarchy in the Emperor's name, in an attempt to return to the old ways as they regard the current religious theology of the Adeptus Ministorum as the true heresy.
I'd made sure to have built a very fancy temple dedicated to the fella on the Golden Throne to ensure that I appeared to be a proper Emperor lover while in truth I only paid lip service in matters of faith since I knew that Big E didn't want to be worshipped as a god.
"Your holiness," I said while standing up "What may I do for you?".
The old man came and sat down without bothering for me to invite him to sit. Playing the role of infirm elder rather nicely. I got the sense that he was deeply troubled by something, or that he was acting that way. I knew enough about the faith to understand that it existed as a means of controlling the masses of humanity, the faith taught that people like me were in charge because this was how the big golden guy wanted it, as such, it suited me to support the faith.
"Given how busy you are Lord-Captain it might have escaped your notice just how many of the God-Emperor's faithful are in your care," he said "Their needs must be met".
I was aware that while I'd hired an experienced crew of navy veterans there would be many people on board who'd just ended up on board during the refit and stuck around afterwards as they had nowhere else to go. Even a light cruiser like my vessel were cities in space. Cites had their homeless and jobless, all of which still had needs even if they weren't being met at this time.
"Now I understand my duty during the coming conquest, and I will have my preachers prepare to spread the light of the Emperor to the infidels," the bishop told me "However something must be done with the faithful who have no role to play on this ship in the holy wars to come. Therefore I would like your permission to set up a place for the Emperor's loyal followers to flock to, a sanctuary-city and centre of faith for the world we are soon to claim in his most holy name".
An action that would place Bishop Brennen in a position to claim the title of Cardinal if my thinking proved to be correct. Central to the Ministorum's power within a sector of Imperial space is the dioceses, the demesnes of the faith, each of which is under the command of the cardinals of the Sector Synod. Some dioceses can encompass more than one world or even an entire sector in the case of the officials granted the extremely powerful rank of Cardinal-Astra. Although I was unclear on where the rank of bishop appeared in the ranking structure as no Imperial organisation was uniform across the board.
This division allows the Ministorum detailed control over the sub-regions within a sector as well as giving individual worlds or specific problems direct attention. Each cardinal of the Sector Synod is a powerful individual in his or her own right, having risen to his lofty position through years of sacrifice, devotion to the God-Emperor, and most importantly, cunning and relentless politicking. Each cardinal maintains their own diocese on the world on which they reside, more commonly referred to as his seat of power, the centre of the cardinal's authority and base of operations within their archdiocese, from which they rarely if ever leave. A sanctuary city on Thrax Primus could serve as a diocese.
"And for this, you'll need plenty of land and my support" I reasoned.
That was actually rather easy to sort out for the most part. There was plenty of unused space on the planet below. The tricky part would be getting the faithful planetside with the support they needed as the Ad-Mech had its own issues and the Guarded needed support. To make the bishop's plan work I'd need to offer a lot of support in terms of food and other supplies.
"It would be a rough start until you can start to grow your own crops, you'd be dependant on supplies from the ship" I explained as I showed the high ranking holy man a map of the Ameros landmass "and your needs would come behind that of the Imperial Guard and the Ad-Mech as they are required to tame the wild world that we now orbit".
The Bishop didn't seem too concerned by this.
"With the blessing of Him On Earth and hard work of the faithful we will survive" he assured me "It will be possible to hunt on these lands and fish in its waters while we sow the first crops. In time proper homes will be built as will temples".
Thinking on I realised that there would be many displaced people in the years to come. I mentioned this to the bishop and how we might be able to find him, labourers, with some skill. He was pleased to hear this.
"Thus those in need of conversion will come to us," he said.
The Lord-General and the Archmagos would need to be informed of this addition to our plans, but I figured that they'd be glad to have the Emperor-bothers on the far side of the planet where they would have no one to preach to than each other and anyone I wanted to dump somewhere. The guard had its own chaplains, who would do a fine job, and the Ad-Mech was its own cult.
"I am sure that with your support that by the time your work is done on this world we will be paying tribute to you Lord-Captain rather than be a burden upon your mighty vessel" I was promised "The faithful shall be rewarded for their good deeds".
In other words, if I went along with the holy man's plan he'd get to rule his own little kingdom and in return, he'd make sure that I got my share of the riches that could be obtained. There was a lot of metals waiting to be mined all over the world we orbited. Gold and rare gems would be found and there would be other rewards.
The Bishop promised to do what he could to prepare his flock to settle a new land while I called up my First Officer as this mass landing would take quite some effort to organise even with the guard lending some of their troops transports and survival gear. It might be best to try to get the Lord-General to send along some of his more pious troops with the Bishop just to help keep order. I didn't mention this for now as it was one of those minor details that could be worked out later.