Chapter 227: Something's Wrong, Very Wrong
Human Federation Mobile City, Jincheng - Federation Conference Hall.
"How has Terra become like this?"
While Arthur was organizing the combined forces for the annihilation of the Orks, the delegation led by Karna had arrived at the conference hall. The two sides were now exchanging information. And Executor Russell, having received the specifics of the Throneworld from the Dawnbreakers' Terran official database, looked on in disbelief.
Where is the green? Where is the blue? Why is there only yellow left?
His gaze fell on Terra's population, measured in the trillions. Hmm, with a population that large, the destruction of the environment is understandable. And to be able to support so many people must mean that humanity today has made great strides in population planning and social welfare. The sociological knowledge in his mind tried to find a reasonable explanation for Terra's changes.
"It's just that..."
Russell looked at the brief report on the Terran system that Karna had given him, and his mind flashed with information about Earth's pre-Common Era ancient history. Strictly speaking, this isn't even feudalism, is it? A tributary system? And there's still slavery? And what is this Ecclesiarchy? Why is religion allowed to interfere in local governance?
"The Ecclesiarchy is relatively advanced," Karna added, noticing Russell's gaze lingering on the information about the Imperial Cult. His companions' banter had helped to restore his mood. The pressing matter was to get down to business. Aside from the Ecclesiarchy, no other Imperial faction could mobilize the vast grassroots power of the Imperium. "And the faith of the Imperial Cult plays a huge role in maintaining the stability of the Imperium of Man."
Russell's expression became indescribable. He looked at Karna's troubled face, then at the expressionless mortal representatives in the distance. He finally understood why Karna had invited him for a private conversation first.
"What is the reason, Leader Karna?"
"Because faith is real," Karna said, raising a hand. A wisp of black and red flame ignited. Russell instantly felt his emotions calm, and the anger that had been building in his mind began to dissipate. "I have absorbed your anger," Karna said, shaking the flame. "This is the result of the transformation."
Having been worshipped a lot recently, Ramesses had picked out some convenient combat abilities for him from the various elements of faith. You could think of the vast body of believers as a "trait pool." Karna could find useful traits and equip them, and convert the rest into pure psychic energy. Converting anger was one of them, and it was currently the most useful. It had its strengths, especially when dealing with Khorne; it could even make a daemon unable to feel anger.
"Would it be possible for us to analyze it with our technology?" Russell asked, pointing to a camera. "Our scanning devices should be able to do the job."
"You may," Karna nodded. He was also curious what Necron technology would make of him.
Russell pressed a button on his comms and whispered something. A few seconds later, he looked back at Karna with the same indescribable expression. According to the report, the flame's burning was a distortion of reality. Some unknown energy was forcibly creating a rule in the material universe that allowed Karna to absorb anger and ignite a flame.
"This..." To be honest, Russell felt it was a bit like the predecessor regime recorded in the Preserver Array. They too had been able to bend the laws of physics. The current Pioneer system had been created in the likeness of Sol back then. It was just a pity that it had collapsed for unknown reasons, leading to the current state of frequent disasters.
"So that's how it is," Karna said, understanding after receiving Russell's reply. "But the power I wield and the power your ancestors wielded are likely not from the same source."
Karna keenly sensed that there was probably something on this planet. At first, they had all guessed it was a Necron who had woken up, shared some technology with the humans, and then gone back to sleep. This ancient race had tomb worlds scattered across the galaxy, waiting to awaken from their long slumber. Living metal, gauss weapons—all were trademarks of this race. Don't think it couldn't happen. After being converted into mechanical life forms, the Necrons were ruled by their Phaeron, and the lower nodes would unconditionally obey their superiors. So if something went wrong with the Phaeron, all sorts of abstract possibilities could occur. And as it happened, the proportion of Necron phaerons who had problems after sleeping for tens of millions of years was not low at all. It was said there was even one who was acting as an Imperial planetary governor, but Karna had never seen him, so he wouldn't comment.
"A C'tan?"
"Yes, a Star God," Karna explained. "Strictly speaking, they are the creators of the Necron race. Of course, most of them have been shattered by the Necrons and are now used as their weapons and power sources. These ancient beings are the personification of the laws of physics, and can, to varying degrees, influence and amend reality, manipulating physical phenomena."
You could think of them as the Four Gods walking in the material universe. Their level of monstrousness was basically on the same level. The Necron race didn't do many right things, but shattering the C'tan was a good deed that would benefit the galaxy for ages.
"Is that so?" Russell was still a little confused.
"One thing is certain: your ancestors were human, right?" Karna confirmed again.
"That is certain. We still preserve the bodies of the original pioneers," Russell replied seriously. He swiped a few times on the transparent panel in front of Karna, then stressed, "We can provide tissue for gene-sequencing. The Imperium should still have molecular biology, right?" The Executor's voice was tinged with a slight apprehension. Please don't be like those religions in human history that judged people based on physical characteristics.
"The age of M2, huh," Karna said, looking at the data. He didn't answer immediately, but instead sent a message to Ramesses. 'To be honest, seeing people from the M2 era who could cross such a vast distance... I find it a little unreal.' It felt like someone was deliberately playing a joke.
"I've found the history," Ramesses's voice came back. "At that time, the United Nations launched six colony ships. Two of them were equipped with experimental warp engines. They disappeared immediately after activation. The humans of that time had no concept of the warp, so they classified it as a failure and abandoned research into warp engines. The other four colony ships were destroyed in transit, which made the humans of that time give up on interstellar colonization and focus on the exploitation of the planets within the Sol system. This also laid the foundation for humanity's highly developed terraforming technology. It wasn't until 18k, with the increasing influence of the warp and the official appearance of the first psyker, that humanity gained an understanding of the warp and picked up this technology again. That's the gist of it. The specific data would take forever to find."
Ramesses shrugged. He wasn't too concerned about such a coincidence. The Expeditionary Fleet, now the Dawnlight Fleet, had found a number of lost worlds. After all, if there was a call for help, everyone would choose to respond. "Finally, apologize to them for me. For security reasons, I... borrowed... some remains. Of course, I've already gone through the proper funerary rites on my end."
"Alright," Karna said. After replying to his companion, he said to Russell, "I must apologize to you. Our compatriots have already verified your history and have taken a portion of your ancestors' biological tissue."
"It is understandable," Russell replied. Caution was normal. Their own artificial intelligences were constantly scanning these visitors from the stars. As long as no one was killed, it was a good thing. As long as it wasn't like those pirates, who had slaughtered and dissected them without warning. Of course, the technology to trace history through bodily tissues was a little magical.
"Secondly, we still use rigorous biological analysis to determine who is human. And strictly speaking, humanity has not changed much on a genetic level in forty thousand years. You can rest assured on that point," Karna reassured him. The so-called pure-blooded human was an old rumor. Although the chaos of the Age of Strife had made some humans look a little strange, there had been no speciation. You have to remember, a 1.23% genetic difference is enough to prevent a species from interbreeding.
"I understand. Thank you for your tolerance," Russell said, letting out a heartfelt sigh of relief after reading the data. He was extremely grateful that the leader of this fleet was an open-minded and rational person. "By the way, Leader Karna, since the technology and artificial intelligence we possess are classified as forbidden, will we need to destroy them after we return to the Imperium?"
"I am only in charge of cultural exchange," Karna said, placing a projection module on the table and gesturing to it. "You will need to discuss political matters with Romulus."
"Understood." Just as the other's Warmaster had already liaised with the surface military committee. Professionals for professional matters. It would prevent any ambiguity of authority and be more efficient.
"When would be convenient?" Russell asked.
"Now is fine." The module flickered, and Romulus's projection appeared.
"If you join the Imperium, the artificial intelligence and xenos technology will have to be destroyed. In the future, when you understand the state of the galaxy, I think you will understand why the Imperium does not permit the existence of artificial intelligence," Romulus said.
Russell was a little nervous, but not panicked. To state the problem upfront meant the other party was willing to solve it.
"However—" Romulus's gaze fell on the data of this star system, and the summarized production and living standards of the Human Federation. "—if we can directly administer this planet, then the above problems are not problems."
In fact, the Emperor did not forbid all artificial intelligence. For example, if you were playing a 4X game like Stellaris, you could, at a minimum, control all the activities of an entire planet. If you went mad, changed all the policies, dismantled all the buildings, and attacked everyone indiscriminately, you could do all of that by your own will. The future of a planet was in your hands.
And now here was the problem. Chaos might not be able to corrupt an A.I., but corrupting a person was not difficult. If you corrupted one person, that meant an entire planet was under your control. The Emperor's solution was to give the buttons to control the stars to a few hundred people, and to require a long and coordinated effort to pass any decision. It might seem a bit like throwing the baby out with the bathwater, but it also ensured that if someone did go rogue, the damage would not be too great.
"Of course, we will not violently reform the local ruling structure. Our current top priority is to first deal with the local Ork threat, the 'pirate' problem, and any potential ancient threats," Romulus said, a warm smile on his face as he looked at the thoughtful Russell. "Everything will be based on ensuring the safety of human life and property. We can discuss the rest later."
"Yes..." Russell said sincerely. "Everything for humanity." He then felt his tone was not quite right and quickly added, "The Human Federation will actively cooperate with the Dawnbreakers' actions."
"For Humanity," Romulus said with a smile, looking at the data with increasing satisfaction.
"For Humanity!" Russell replied earnestly.
"Hiss... something's wrong. This isn't what I imagined," on the top of the forge-city, Trazyn, currently wearing the guise of Krik's apprentice, his metal face showing a human-like flash of confusion. He was symbolically setting up an antique telescope from Terra's 17th-century Age of Sail, symbolically peering at the distant scene.
The normal process should be: the natives offer a welcome, the Imperium attacks, the Imperium gets a bloody nose, and then sends in reinforcements. Then this civilization is exterminated, its heretical technology and culture are erased, and the survivors become laborers, working day and night to atone for their sins to the Emperor, eventually forgetting their past and falling into the abyss with the rest of the Imperium. And finally, his collection would become a one-of-a-kind in the galaxy.
That's how it should have gone, right?
"Strange. Where did another Primarch come from?" Trazyn muttered.
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