Chapter 27
"The Emperor is here! Terra is at peace!
The Emperor is here! Heaven is radiant!"
The unification of Terra advanced relentlessly.
As Imperial territory expanded and populations were brought into compliance, new Astartes were created in ever greater numbers. Legions beyond the First were now forming, each with its own developing character and battlefield doctrine.
The balance of power had shifted irrevocably.
The remaining warlords of Terra were no longer rivals.
They were obstacles.
And obstacles would be ground into the dust of history.
The Imperial Truth was formally promulgated across compliant territories.
Yuki did not alter its core doctrines, but after consulting with the Emperor she appended clarifying statutes:
Human identity would not be determined by superficial biological divergence.
If one stood with the Imperium, one stood as human.
Even if one possessed three heads and six arms.
Reality and the Warp are not equivalent.
Phenomena explainable through science belong to science.
Phenomena beyond explanation arise from the distortions of the Warp.
This distinction was deliberate — a warning without superstition.
Human supremacy remained policy.
Organized religion remained forbidden.
The Imperial Army would purge all enemies of unity and reason.
The Achaemenid successor state in ancient Iran swore loyalty quickly. They had allied early, anticipating future conflict, and now sought favor under the Emperor's growing power.
The Emperor had intended to use the region as a recruitment base for the Fifteenth Legion.
After a private discussion with Yuki, that plan was quietly revised.
Only a handful of candidates were selected.
Rumors spread that the Princess had personally spoken with two of them.
No one knew what was said.
The Black Khitan strongholds lay near the Himalayan core.
Skin drums. Ritual sacrifice. Mountain fortresses.
Yuki stared at the intelligence reports for a long time.
"…This feels like malicious game design."
She led the campaign personally.
Five years later, the Black Khitan existed only in archaeological strata.
The war in the Caucasus Wasteland proved the most brutal since Ursh.
Genetically warped beasts roamed freely.
Mechanical sentinels towered like mountains.
Autonomous war constructs patrolled irradiated valleys.
Yuki reportedly stared at the battlefield in silence for a full minute.
"…Is this even fair?"
The campaign dragged on.
Under her coordination:
six Astartes Legions deployed
tens of thousands of Thunder Warriors committed
Custodian Guard elements entered combat
Yuki fought continuously at the front
Imperial losses were severe.
The XVIII Legion's drake riders suffered catastrophic attrition before Yuki arrived with reinforcements, preventing annihilation.
The wasteland was eventually subdued.
At great cost.
Antarctica: The Auric Compliance
The Auric enclave in Antarctica possessed minimal military strength, but maintained orbital surveillance satellites and a persistent proto-religious cult.
The Emperor dispatched the XVII Legion — the Imperial Heralds — whose duty was ideological compliance.
The exchange reportedly proceeded as follows:
XVII Legion: Loyalty or resistance?
Auric: Loyal — but we wish to keep our faith.
XVII Legion: Faith is prohibited. Read the Imperial Truth.
Auric: Then we resist.
The city was leveled.
XVII Legion: Loyalty or resistance?
Auric: Loyal! Loyal! No more religion!
Compliance was achieved.
The Hybasians of the former Brazilian region possessed formidable technology, including advanced plasma reactor systems.
Their ruler, King Dalmos, refused compliance repeatedly.
Negotiations ended.
War began.
With the Emperor and Yuki leading the offensive, resistance collapsed rapidly.
Dalmos's headless corpse marked the end of the conflict.
The Emperor deliberately restrained the pace of conquest.
First: Unchecked power risked catastrophic planetary devastation. Terra must be unified — not ruined.
Second: The Great Crusade could not begin until the Fall of the Eldar birthed Slaanesh and calmed the Warp's turbulence. Premature expansion would doom the future.
Yuki, however, had no patience.
She was drowning in responsibilities:
Thunder Warrior genetic stabilization
Astartes gene-seed refinement
Legion integration
Warp-resilience research
"When exactly," she demanded once, "am I supposed to fight wars?"
Where Terra's unification had once taken three centuries, Yuki's presence reduced the process to one.
In that century:
hostile regimes were eliminated
hidden xenos enclaves destroyed
Warp cults eradicated
religious institutions dismantled
The Last Church
In the final church on Terra, the Emperor and Yuki met its last priest: Uriah, an elderly man with silvered temples.
He showed no fear.
He spoke beside the Emperor as if with an old friend, recounting his youth, his resistance, and the radiant figure who once guided him from despair.
He argued religion should endure.
The Emperor showed him the truth:
The radiant figure had been himself.
Uriah collapsed.
The church burned.
As the flames rose, he spoke one final sentence — whether curse or prophecy none could say:
"In the future… they will worship you as a god."
Yuki remained silent.
She knew he spoke truth.
Already, whispers spread.
You cannot forbid belief.
But she vowed:
She would guide it.
Not allow it to become tragedy.
Fifty years after Terra's unification, the Thunder Warriors' genetic instability was finally stabilized.
Yuki nearly cried from relief.
A century of relentless research had borne fruit.
All surviving Thunder Warriors underwent reconstruction and received compatible gene-seed integration. They retained superior physical resilience but were now biologically stable and psychologically coherent.
They were reassigned to Astartes Legions.
Thunder Warrior: Miss us, brats?
Astartes: Stay back.
Yet the Legions valued them.
Veteran Thunder Warriors became battlefield mentors, tactical instructors, and in some cases acting commanders.
An old warrior in the ranks was worth a vault of relics.
Now Yuki faced a different problem.
She stared at fifty warriors standing before her.
Orange-gold armor.
A sun encircled by three pairs of wings.
The emblem of the Rising Sun Angels.
She was deeply satisfied.
No genetic flaws.
Perfect physiological stability.
Only one problem:
Compatibility was catastrophically low.
If other Legions selected one candidate in ten thousand…
Legion Zero selected one in a billion.
From Terra's billions, only dozens qualified.
"…Are you serious?"
Her dreams of rapid expansion vanished instantly.
"Mother… is something wrong?"
Eusonis looked up timidly.
Once a minor noble, he had glimpsed the Princess during battle and nearly collapsed from awe. Joining the selection trials had been chance. Becoming her gene-son had never entered his imagination.
"What did you call me?" Yuki asked.
"Um… Mother… sir?"
She placed her hands on her hips and lifted her chin.
"Call me Mother."
Eusonis blinked.
This was… not the Princess he imagined.
"Oh, by the way," Yuki added casually, "are you ready for the upcoming interviews and selection assessments?"
The recruits froze.
There were only fifty of them.
Why did the process feel even more competitive now?