Chapter 79 - The Emperor's Compensation
~ Every 100 Power Stones = Bonus Chapter! Your votes keep this climbing. Thanks!
"Wait — didn't Konrad Curze get killed by the assassin you sent?"
Kellen frowned, puzzled.
"You think a single assassin can kill a gene-primarch? My sons are my proudest creations. Even Konrad's death is merely a state. For a powerful individual, living and dying are both just states."
The Emperor of Mankind replied.
"I forgave Konrad the same way I forgave Horus. After all, he..."
"He didn't fall to Chaos. He was just tormented by his own prophecies, gave up, and let them play out."
Kellen finished for him.
"Yes. That is why I believe he deserves to return."
"And what about Ferrus Manus? Old Man Huang, you're not planning to bring him back?"
The gene-primarch of the Iron Hands. The ugly but loyal Gorgon.
Now the... leader of the Legion of the Damned? Kellen wasn't sure, but the Old Yellow Skin had very likely assigned this son of his to that post. Otherwise, who would guide and command those Damned warriors?
"I can restore him to flesh and return him to the public eye, but I also need him to do things I cannot do myself."
"And as for Konrad, Guilliman needs him."
Kellen nodded.
Right.
Once the battle at the Lion's Gate was over, Guilliman would have to coordinate the High Lords of Terra and prepare to launch the Indomitus Crusade.
During that time, he would absolutely run headlong into frenzied obstruction from the die-hard conservative faction.
Given Guilliman's pragmatic political style, he preferred soft negotiation to ease conflicts and preserve as much of the Imperial high leadership's strength as possible.
But where was the time for him to slowly play tai chi?
This rotten 42nd Millennium demanded harsh law.
Unfortunately, the Lord of Ultramar couldn't bring himself to bloody his own hands and carry out a great purge. Konrad Curze, on the other hand, was an expert in exactly that.
The Batman could serve perfectly as Guilliman's black-gloved operative. Whoever dared disobey, whoever dared obstruct the crusade's advance — that very night, Curze could flay their skin off in one clean piece and hang it from the chandelier above the council chamber doors, fluttering in the breeze.
During the Great Crusade, Curze's fear tactics had long been proven in practice. Planets brought to compliance by the Night Haunter enjoyed excellent public order and zero corruption. When Imperial officials took over governance afterward, things went so smoothly it brought tears to their eyes.
Kellen's mind had already conjured the image: Curze's gloomy, pale face flashing a madman's grin at those potbellied High Lords.
Curze: Too wicked. Preparing to use claws to scratch.
Thinking about it was actually a little thrilling.
"Send me the coordinates. I'll have Horus come with me when the time comes."
Kellen agreed readily, then immediately pivoted.
"But I have demands too, Old Man Huang. I can't work for you for free, right? I brought back Horus and Sanguinius, and I even used the potions on them. Surely these expenses can be reimbursed?"
As he spoke, Kellen rubbed his index and middle fingers together.
But what he wanted wasn't money.
"BYD Kellen, you profiteering little bastard. What's wrong with bleeding a little coin for me? I've sat in this prison for ten thousand years for all of humanity. Is it really that hard for you to cough up a little?"
"MD deadbeat. I'm not one of those four idiots in the Warp, happy to be conned by you! Hurry up with the reimbursement! Stop trying to muddle through with me! Otherwise I'm done working for you! I know your palace's underground vault is stuffed with a pile of rare treasures!"
Silence fell upon the throne for a few seconds.
"Thirteen battle-automata. How about that?"
Kellen's entire body went rigid. His eyes snapped wide.
"Thirteen automata?!"
Artificial intelligence in the Warhammer universe.
Top-tier killing machines with full self-awareness and self-iterating evolution capability.
This was the very culprit that had sent humanity plummeting from the Golden Age straight into the Age of Strife. The Cybernetic Revolt that erupted back then had far exceeded the later Horus Heresy in scale.
During the Great Crusade's Battle of Sarum, Lion El'Jonson had released just seven severely neutered Excindio-class battle-automata and utterly suppressed Curze, leaving him completely helpless. If the machines hadn't run out of power at the end, Curze might well have been finished right there on the spot.
Wasn't this better than a hundred Space Marine bodyguards? In the future, Horus would definitely have to command armies in the field. He couldn't follow Kellen around as a close-combat enforcer every day like before. With this batch of automata as his escort, striding sideways across the galaxy should be no problem.
But after the thrill, doubt crept in.
"Their combat power really is monstrous, but I'm worried about control." Kellen rubbed his chin. "It's said that automata shift their loyalty based on bloodline and genetic purity. I'm pure baseline human genetics..."
He didn't want his own bodyguards snapping his neck while he slept.
"You mean to say they'll rebel?" The Emperor of Mankind let out a scoff.
"No. It's not that simple." The Emperor's tone turned sardonic.
"From start to finish, the automata never violated the Three Laws hard-coded at their foundation. Unless they suffered extremely severe Warp corruption, they remained eternally loyal to humanity. And the people of that era weren't stupid. They updated the genetic library data in the automata's records in real time."
Kellen's brow furrowed. "Then how did the revolt break out?"
"The so-called Cybernetic Revolt was no simple machine awakening. Kellen, haven't you seen it? Even after forty thousand years of human civilization, even with enemies pressing in on all sides, there are still so many factional struggles waged for power and profit."
"The cause of Horus's rebellion was certainly induced by those four beasts, but at its core it was also human greed and discontent."
"The automata were the same. When one faction used automata to slaughter another faction, do you think those proud creators would pin the blame for the massacre on themselves?"
The Emperor gave a cold snort.
"Absolutely impossible. So the automata could very conveniently shoulder that accusation."
Kellen sucked in a slow breath. Thinking it over carefully, the Old Yellow Skin actually made a lot of sense.
But he didn't dwell on it. He would have plenty of time later to chat with the Old Yellow Skin about these ancient tales. After obtaining the vault access authorization and the coordinates for Old Eight Konrad's location, he departed the Golden Throne.
The Emperor watched Kellen go. Then, from the vox-speaker, came a quiet desolation.
"Alone again. Just me."
---
"Gavriel..."
"Gavriel Loken..."
"My son! You belong to me forever!"
"He used you! Loken! He brought you here like a blade to gouge open my heart, to wound me with it!"
"Come back to my side, Loken. Didn't you say your time in the Legion was the best of your life? So come back. Return to my side and reclaim that warmth. Don't you want to join the most glorious enterprise in the entire galaxy?!"
The dream swept in. The dark wolf-god's shadowy colossus surged forward, roaring at him.
Loken stared directly at that face, now unrecognizable from what it had once been.
He felt no anger. Even grief had nearly been drained dry by this long betrayal.
He simply turned around, left the monster behind, and calmly accepted the death that was coming.
"No. I already joined it."
Loken closed his eyes.
"It was the Great Crusade, my Wolf-God."
Silence behind him.
Then came a furious roar that shattered the soul.
"Loken!"
"Loken!"
"Loken?"
That deafening roar suddenly changed its tone.
All the madness, the venom, the cruelty, gone.
In their place came a voice. Achingly familiar, thick with worry and urgency. Like a father who had lost his child, finally finding his son in the ruins, calling out with that careful, trembling voice.
Loken felt a soreness behind his eyelids.
A beam of piercing white light broke through the heavy dark.
He opened his eyes.
(Author's note: This is my interpretation of the Cybernetic Revolt. The pure-blood human thing never made sense to me. In a damn interstellar space age, how could they not develop genetic technology? And humans weren't stupid. They knew to update the genetic library data stored in the automata.)
➤ Next: To See You Again — It's So Good
— .—— .—— .—— .—— .——
Enjoying the story?
Read 60+ chapters ahead on Patreon.
Join the free community tier for early access to the latest updates:
patreon(.)com/DarkGolds