Warhammer: Lord of the Endless Monster Horde [299]

On the surface of the planet, aboard Rhodes' ship, a high-definition hologram activated, projecting a map of the entire planet.

"Master! This planet is perfect for growing orks. The nearest planet is hundreds of astronomical units away. There's only one Chaos Space Marine warband here, and they have maybe a few hundred people," said Zett.

"Our goal is to create an ork warboss and then leave immediately. So unless necessary, don't engage enemies from outside this planet," Rhodes replied.

Blackheart Huron is a talented guy!

After succeeding as the Chapter Master of the Astral Claws, he went all-in on a farming strategy, developing his chapter into a massive force of 3,500 Astartes.

He also recruited the Mantis Warriors, Lamenters, and several other warbands around the Maelstrom. During the Badab War, people say Blackheart Huron rebelled against the Imperium, but in Rhodes' view, it was the High Lords of Terra who forced his hand.

While in command of the Astral Claws, Huron greatly strengthened the Imperium's grip on the Maelstrom.

Except for paying less tax to the Imperium, overall, Maelstrom's military power was increased, and Chaos forces everywhere were severely suppressed.

What Blackheart Huron did is what every transmigrator into the Warhammer world would do: develop their power base. In fact, up to now, Rhodes' actions are almost identical to Huron's.

But Rhodes has the Emperor's endorsement and is a Primarch. Otherwise, the High Lords would also be targeting him.

After the Badab War, Huron fled with a ragtag remnant force—at best, 200 Astartes left under his command.

Normally, with such a broken force, you'd join Abaddon and end up as a minor warband in the Black Legion, then die anonymously on some battlefield.

But Blackheart Huron did the opposite: he recruited a ton of Astartes who were oppressed by the Imperium, banded together with some xenos, oppressed mortals, and even pirate forces.

And in less than a hundred years, he built a Chaos power not inferior to Abaddon's, with over 100,000 Chaos Space Marines under his command, as well as countless mortal Chaos cultists, space pirates, and various Xenos. (The exact number of Chaos Marines under Huron is unclear, but it shouldn't be less than 100,000. Otherwise, Abaddon wouldn't send him a Blackstone Fortress and try to treat him as an equal.)

These mortals, now faithful to Chaos, still live much like they did before on the planets in the Maelstrom.

The only difference is that their taxes now go to Blackheart Huron, and under the influence of Chaos, these mortals have become more twisted, bloodthirsty, and violent.

In the Warhammer universe, betrayal of the Imperium might be out of desperation, but once you turn to Chaos, no matter who you were before, the warp will amplify your negative emotions until you become a total villain.

From then on, Space Marines who defect from the Imperium have another option besides joining Abaddon: they can join Blackheart Huron.

In fact, after the Ultima Founding, many Primaris Marines were even forced to join Huron!

Abaddon's forces are mostly made up of the gene-sons of traitor Primarchs, while Huron's forces are mostly those from the loyalist Primarchs.

For various reasons, after rebelling against the Imperium, many of them joined Huron—descendants of Guilliman, Sanguinius, and other loyalist gene-lines.

When Roboute Guilliman was captured during the Terran Crusade, Huron didn't want to fight Guilliman.

He even found an excuse to leave his territory in the Maelstrom and go to the White Scars' turf, capturing Jaghatai Khan instead.

But, once you join Chaos, even if you claim to serve Chaos Undivided, your warbands will still pick one of the four Chaos gods as their patron.

Among Huron's mortals, there are also many cultists of the four gods.

Some Chaos Lords even planned to overthrow Huron, such as Verngar, the traitor from the Angels Encarmine chapter—a successor of the Blood Angels and the real culprit behind capturing Guilliman in collusion with Tzeentch's Fateweaver, Kairos.

After that war, Huron used his means to have the Imperials retrieve Guilliman's flagship, the Macragge's Honour.

Even in later battles, when he helped Abaddon, he barely made any real effort.

Huron has a classic line: "Guilliman's awakening only delays the inevitable fall of this rotten Imperium. The Imperium is doomed."

"If the lives of Imperial citizens are worse than hell, of course, they'll willingly embrace hell itself!"

He's a textbook example of being forced to rebel, though now the story has taken a slight turn.

Guilliman wasn't captured, and Fateweaver didn't seek Huron's help or borrow the Blackstone Fortress to imprison him.

So Huron has no need to mess with Jaghatai Khan and is still in the Maelstrom.

"Master, in four or five days, these orks will have grown up and this Chaos-controlled planet will become a catalyst for war. There's a lot of scrap metal and junk here the orks will use," Zett said.

Based on previous ork-planting experience, if an entire planet is seeded with a huge number of orks and then stimulated with extreme war, in at most seven days, or even less, you can create an ork warboss.

At most ten days, and they can leave the planet, catching up with their fortress-ship in a day or two.

"Zett, I want to meet this Blackheart Huron in person. If possible, I want to bring him into my camp," Rhodes said.

Though the official lore later made things ambiguous, anyone who's read the Badab War novels knows Huron was Guilliman's pawn.

A true rebel star, he handled his gene father perfectly.

Even traitor Primarch Magnus was persuaded to return to the Imperium; why shouldn't Huron be? As for the other deputy chapter masters Rhodes has won over—Titus, Marshal Avalrich, Tyberos of the Space Sharks, or Governor Creed—none can compare to Huron in ability.

He's the model of a mere mortal rising to greatness! Huron might not return to the Imperium, but maybe he'd be willing to follow me.

"Master, whatever you want to do, we'll support you. But are you sure the human Imperium could accept a traitor's return?" asked Balt.

They'd been with Rhodes long enough to know his relationship with the Imperium. Outwardly, Rhodes is a Primarch, but he hasn't made it to Terra or gone public yet.

Even Rhodes' Primarch status isn't fully confirmed, so how could he persuade Huron—a terrifying figure with over 100,000 Chaos Marines—to surrender?

And if he did, what about those 100,000+ Chaos Marines? Would the Imperium accept them?

"I don't plan to tell the Imperium. Even if I subdue Huron, I want him in my power, not the Imperium's," Rhodes said.

Huron would never want to return to the Imperium—Rhodes knew that well. But joining Rhodes was a different matter.

"In that case, it's very likely. I have a few Zettons who can lock down the planet and wipe out all the Chaos Marines here. If you want, you could meet Huron, or lure him over somehow," Zett said.

Frankly, Zett didn't like the human Imperium. If the Imperium existed in their old universe, it would've been crushed by a coalition of civilizations.

Most of Rhodes' chief scientists weren't even human, and one of his partners wasn't human either.

Rhodes nodded. If Huron was desperate, there'd be hope, but now he was at his peak.

Even Abaddon, the Chaos Warmaster, could only offer a Blackstone Fortress to win him over—Huron's influence was immense.

"All right, let's clear out the Chaos forces on this planet first. My Zettons and other kaiju should be enough to stimulate all the orks. Give them all the steel and tech here to make weapons," Rhodes ordered.

Rhodes' original Zetton, plus several more made by Balt, were all sent into battle.

Red King, Gomora, Melba, Bemstar, two giant King Joe robots, the space robot Iron, and the peerless Inpelaizer—over a dozen kaiju were released.

They joined the battle. The planet only had a few hundred Chaos Marines, some Chaos sorcerers, and a handful of Chaos mortal cultists running a factory.

They didn't even have time to react before Rhodes' army wiped them out—no resistance at all.

After eliminating the Chaos forces, Rhodes' monsters began their war with the orks.

This time, to stimulate the orks, Rhodes drew a few more kaiju from his system.

200,000 system coins could buy two basic kaiju, but two 100-draws from the basic shop would get you at least four or five.

Even if random, Rhodes didn't care unless he drew a monster so weak not even a human could beat it. But for orks, any kaiju would do.

This time he got five monsters: Space Monster Bemular, Space Monster Eleking, Giant Fish Monster Muruchi, Underground Monster Telesdon, and Gan-Q.

The strongest were Eleking, Bemular, and Gan-Q.

Their enhancements varied; apart from height and weight, only special abilities needed upgrading, costing just over 10,000 coins total.

Bemular, as a space monster, could turn into a blue energy sphere and travel fast in space and could be upgraded twice to move as fast as an Ultra Warrior.

Eleking had an EX form, costing 100,000 coins like Red King and Gomora—hugely boosting its combat power.

Gan-Q had unique psychic powers, confusing opponents, and a special skill—sucking enemies into its body, absorbing beams, firing destructive orbs, and spawning mini-eyes to attack.

These kaiju began suppressing the orks.

The newborn ork boys were ecstatic, immediately making weapons from local materials. The remains of Chaos tech structures became ork scrap.

Even broken Chaos ships were repurposed and turned into vehicles of war.

On day one, orks leaped straight into the tech age; by day two, they were riding all sorts of Grot tanks and Stompas into battle.

Days three to five, three days of nonstop war between kaiju and orks.

On day six, a 3.5-meter-tall ork warboss finally emerged.

By then, the fighting on the planet couldn't be hidden anymore.

The Lord of the Maelstrom, Blackheart Huron, discovered one of his Chaos planets was under attack.