Warhammer: Lord of the Endless Monster Horde [180]
After completing its final upgrade, the Pedan Mothership had indeed become massive, a true crystallization of the entire Pedan civilization—with a terrifying diameter of 200 kilometers. Its overall volume was even larger than the Imperial Fist's Mountain Array, and now it was a real space fortress, capable of deploying a conventional force of several million.
Besides the regular Pedan ships of various sizes, the mothership was also equipped with four smaller carriers, each the same size as the previous 100,000-point upgrade versions. These were docked in four right-angled sections of the ship, ready to take off at any time. On the upper left, there was also a mid-sized carrier, the same size as the one Rhodes had used previously.
This upgrade had utterly transformed the Pedan Mothership. Now it truly looked like a flagship—wherever it went, it was essentially a fleet. No longer was it just a lone ship; now, it was a full-blown space fortress.
"So, Archmagos, do you still think 460,000 Astartes won't fit? I believe even several times that number could fit on my ship," Rhodes said, very amiably giving Belisarius Cawl a proper tour of the ship's main control center, allowing him to fully appreciate the fortress's capabilities.
He learned that this space fortress could easily destroy a small planet with a single strike.
Still, compared to the largest ships in the O-system, this fortress was a bit lacking. For example, the flagship of the old Black in the Galactic Empire was truly planet-sized—a true top-tier ship.
"You have truly surprised me, Lord Rhodes," said Belisarius Cawl, whose mind was momentarily stunned.
His flagship, the Ark Mechanicus, was 25 km long, considered a giant battleship in the Empire, with a tonnage and size second only to the Gloriana-class Battleship and the Emperor's Dream. But this mothership dwarfed even the Phalanx, the largest ship in the Empire, and it came with several smaller carriers to boot.
If you called it a relic from the Golden Age, he could accept that. But this thing had appeared out of thin air!
"As I told you, this is a genuine miracle of the Omnissiah," Rhodes explained.
"My lord, I know what the Omnissiah actually is, so you don't need to fob me off with that. I'll just treat it as Golden Age technology. If you don't want to discuss its origin, I won't pry. You're right—it definitely can hold 460,000 Primaris Astartes, even several times that number would be fine," Cawl said.
As an old monster who'd lived for ten thousand years, he knew very well: Some things, you're told when you're meant to be told. If not, don't dig. Knowing too many secrets does no good; the less you know, the better.
"As expected of you, Archmagos. Just consider it a Golden Age miracle! For the foreseeable future, this warship will be my flagship," Rhodes said.
"For the foreseeable future? My lord—do you mean you have something even larger?" Cawl felt his head was about to explode.
A space fortress the size of the Phalanx was built during the Dark Age of Technology, not by the current Empire, which simply can't build ships that huge. The Phalanx had been used by the Imperial Fists for ten millennia, and in the days of the Great Crusade, its arrival meant the Emperor himself had arrived. A ship larger than the Phalanx, in his mind, would take thousands of years to build.
"Heh! Let's talk about that another time. For now, it's time to wake up those slumbering Primaris recruits," Rhodes said.
"As you wish, my lord."
Cawl then got busy, first piloting Rhodes' fortress to the edge of the solar system, to the Kuiper Belt, then locating his ten secret bases and transferring all the Primaris Astartes stored there into Rhodes' space fortress, the Great Sword.
Rhodes also contributed his blood multiple times, allowing Cawl to cultivate new gene-seeds, even putting off his chats with the Emperor on the Golden Throne to focus on upgrading his Space Marine army.
...
In the blink of an eye, a month and a half passed, during which Cawl worked nonstop. With his help, Rhodes supplied plenty of incubation tanks, even adding more of the giant tanks used to clone Zetton. The ship began mass-producing the Astartes' superhuman organs, and Rhodes' gene-seeds were churned out endlessly.
Cawl and Rhodes' scientists even managed to fully automate the surgical process, programming it into the brains of mindless servitors, letting them perform the transformation operations. In just a month and a half, more than 100,000 Primaris Astartes had been created. With the process now fully automated, future batches would only take about a month—by then, the Golden Throne would be fully repaired.
Rhodes took time to chat with the Emperor, informing him about the 460,000 Primaris Astartes. The Emperor's response was exactly as Rhodes expected: The Emperor was thrilled—ecstatic, even! He let out a stream of expletives:
"Friend, you should've added a few more zeros! Humanity faces so many enemies now—Tyranids, Orks, Drukhari, Chaos. Forget those damned scriptures—wipe with them if you like! I never understood why Guilliman wanted to downsize the army. When I created the Astartes process, the goal was mass production—Astartes are meant to be mass-produced soldiers! I wish there were more and more of them. During the Great Crusade, I finally expanded the Legions to over two million. But after 10,000 years, their numbers have fallen to just a million. Those High Lords and the Senatorum are the worst parasites—they should all be shot or burned."
"Hmph! Didn't you think it was a good idea back then? Run things for a few centuries, then change once things settle down," said the Emperor's dark side.
"The Heresy had just ended then—who could have foreseen what would happen next?" the Emperor replied.
Who knew that in the 41st millennium, so many monstrous enemies would appear? Even if the number of Astartes was multiplied dozens of times, it would still not be enough.
"As long as we leave the Throne, any enemy is irrelevant. But look at what you're doing now—you're letting people weaken my power," said Dark Emperor. Rhodes had been here two whole months, absorbing loads of dark power, leaving him feeling drained.
"In another month, the Golden Throne will be fully repaired. Then, I'll go to Macragge and wake up Guilliman. When he returns to Holy Terra, you'll endorse him," Rhodes said.
Rhodes had already agreed with Cawl to bring the Fate Armor and go to Macragge together to awaken the sleeping Primarch.
"Good! When the Thirteenth wakes up, I'll send a living saint and one of your Emperor Avatars to help. Hurry up and change the Empire's status quo!" said the Emperor.
If this plan worked, another son could return soon. Rhodes nodded, left the Golden Throne, and returned to his mothership. Now, it was livelier than ever, with Primaris Astartes everywhere. Whenever they saw Rhodes, all of them saluted—some calling him Gene-Father, some Lord Primarch, some Lord Rhodes.
The newly awakened Primaris Astartes immediately joined Rhodes' army. Cawl even prepared them Mark X modular power armor and weapons, all hidden in the bases. Rhodes planned to have Salome help upgrade these armors, and he gave some Pedan ray weapons to Cawl for modification, so they could be used alongside bolters.
One day, Cawl approached Rhodes. "Lord Rhodes, I'm afraid we can't proceed to Macragge as planned. We must first visit an exploration planet called Eliade VI."
Rhodes turned to look at Cawl. So, they were headed for Eliade VI—that meant the Thirteenth Black Crusade was about to begin! After exploring this planet, Cawl would go to Cadia.
The Thirteenth Black Crusade led by Abaddon the Despoiler—it was a tough decision for Rhodes. Should he allow the Great Rift to appear, or intervene to foil the Despoiler's plan?
If he stopped the Black Crusade and saved Cadia, the Empire wouldn't have fallen into civil strife and the Imperium Nihilus wouldn't have appeared. Even if Guilliman woke up and tried to implement reforms, he'd face huge resistance—the Senatorum would still cause trouble over the Rift. After all, no one in the Empire would think it was the end of humanity.
But there would be no psychic awakening, and the Emperor's power would not increase. Only with the Great Rift and the psychic awakening would the Emperor's power rise enough to seriously wound Nurgle.
So, after much consideration, Rhodes decided to let the Thirteenth Black Crusade proceed as normal—no destruction, no creation! The Imperium needed a harsh blow—otherwise, even the Indomitus Crusade couldn't succeed.