"Oh, my Sun. The Savior's radiance shines upon us..."
Kent's wife gazed at the Imperial Navy fleets filling the night sky and could not help but pray.
The lights radiating from those ships were so brilliant that they illuminated the darkness.
She had never seen so many warships before. The sight left her deeply awestruck.
Even the child in her arms did not cry after waking. Instead, the little one stared intently at the glittering "stars" overhead.
The sight brought an indescribable sense of security.
In truth, this was only one of the advance fleets that had reached the Korosan System. Its primary mission was to scout the route and escort the recruitment ships. The Imperium's true military host was still assembling.
Pfft! Pfft!
Several tiny flashes appeared in space, like a few flaming farts released into the blackness of the night.
The advance fleet was engaging scattered xenos pirates.
Those xenos had occasionally raided the system, causing no small amount of trouble for the local fleet.
Before the Imperial advance fleet, however, they were little more than minor obstacles. The fleet simply blasted straight through them without slowing down.
The fleets following behind did not even notice that a battle had occurred. The logistical vessels had already recovered every piece of wreckage and every xenos corpse.
Nothing remained.
This was the Imperium's latest cleansing strategy:
Show no mercy to hostile xenos who harmed humanity, and recover whatever useful resources they left behind.
After all, the Imperium's demand for resources was about to become enormous.
By the time the Department of Military Affairs' recruitment ships reached Korosan, dawn had arrived, and the entire planet had erupted into even more fervent celebration.
The people were preparing for the welcoming festivities and the enlistment ceremony, both of which were regarded as important occasions.
Wave after wave of airships and assault craft were dispatched to collect the planet's new recruits.
They would board the transports together.
On the day of the celebration, the planetary governor issued a proclamation granting the entire world a day off so every Imperial citizen could share in the joy.
Wearing the badge of the Storm Army Group, Kent marched into formation in the capital's grand plaza, which had become a vast ocean of fluttering banners.
He gazed at the Imperial Aquila suspended overhead, then touched the badge on his chest. A surge of pride welled within him.
When the thunderous wave of voices washed over Kent, the feeling became almost indescribable. Heat gathered in his chest, and his entire body began trembling.
This whole planet was cheering for him.
The new recruit looked up and saw dense crowds of people waving flags in farewell. Their enthusiasm struck him like a wave of heat.
His wife and child were somewhere among them. They were cheering for him too, proud of what he was about to become.
Afterward, amid the crowd's farewell cheers, Kent and the other recruits boarded landing craft one group at a time and flew toward the enormous troopships waiting in orbit.
They were bound for Training World No. 13 of the Storm Army Group, where they would undergo systematic military training.
Standing beside a viewport, Kent watched Korosan gradually recede into the distance, and a hint of reluctance filled his heart.
This was the first time he had ever left his homeworld. Now he was traveling to a distant training world thousands of light-years away.
Before long, however, his reluctance was replaced by anticipation and excitement.
He would resist the xenos invasion, achieve victory, and then move to the sacred and prosperous Dawn City with his family.
It was not some distant, unattainable dream. Once he completed his training and participated in the war, he would become eligible for the honor and military merit system.
If his unit won at least two battles, his future would practically be assured.
Even if Kent ultimately failed to earn much military merit, joining the army would still greatly improve his family's life.
If he was unfortunate enough to die, the compensation would support his family for many years. They would also receive the special privileges granted to honored military families.
"I'll return covered in honor and take part in Korosan's victory celebration," Kent thought.
Never before had he desired so strongly to set foot upon a battlefield and destroy the xenos.
Kent was far from alone. The other recruited soldiers felt the same way. They wanted to defend humanity's homeland with their own hands while earning better lives for themselves.
More enormous troopships traveled among the stars, each one filled with new recruits eager for battle.
They were humanity's hope.
The Storm Army Groups, Imperial Navy fleets, and every other branch of the armed forces were recruiting additional personnel.
Their numbers were climbing rapidly. Fortunately, the Imperium possessed ample logistical reserves and a comprehensive training system, allowing it to sustain this expansion.
Meanwhile, the Primarch Legions were also expanding at a tremendous pace. Hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions, of preserved and untainted gene-seed samples were removed from the gene-vaults.
And this was only the first batch.
"O Savior, are there finally new quotas for genetic augmentation?"
When the Astartes aspirants heard the news, tears immediately filled their eyes.
As reserve aspirants for the Legions, they had already spent years waiting in training facilities without receiving an implantation slot.
If no new genetic augmentation quotas were released, they might become too old for the procedure and be transferred to another military branch.
Alternatively, they might end up working in the logistics system or serving as security personnel for one of the major conglomerates.
But who would give up the chance to become an Astartes just to work in logistics or as a corporate security guard?
One path offered the finest genetic augmentation procedures, using sacred and untainted gene-seed. The other involved ordinary augmentation procedures performed with inferior, weakened versions of gene-seed.
The disparity in equipment was even greater. The two were not remotely comparable.
In the old Imperium, those augmented security troopers might have been regarded as the Emperor's Angels. In the new Imperium, they did not even qualify to be called Astartes. They stood at the very bottom of the augmented-warrior hierarchy.
By comparison, such security troopers occupied roughly the same position in the present genetic warrior system as someone with a mid-tier vocational qualification did within the Imperial education system.
There was nothing that could be done about it.
Unlike the old Imperium's miserable, haphazard methods for selecting aspirants, the new Imperium possessed an extremely efficient and systematic screening process.
The Department of Reproduction had established a genetic archive containing the genetic data of nearly every newborn infant.
According to that data, the number of infants who met the various requirements for genetic augmentation could be counted in the hundreds of millions.
Many outstanding potential aspirants were monitored from infancy, while the great warrior academies accepted vast numbers of students.
After layer upon layer of screening, immense numbers of exceptional aspirants were ultimately selected as reserves for the Legions.
In other words, none of the great Legions lacked Astartes aspirants, nor did they lack gene-seed.
The untainted gene-vaults contained an astonishing quantity of it.
The only question was whether the Imperial economy could afford to support so many Astartes.
Under the Imperium's previous standards, every Astartes required at least three suits of armor in different patterns, along with weapons of every type. All of this equipment also needed to be periodically replaced.
Every Astartes demanded an immense military expenditure.
Therefore, the Imperial Court had previously imposed strict and extremely conservative limits on the number of Astartes serving within each Legion.
They could not be allowed to interfere with the critical stages of the Imperium's economic development.
Fortunately, once total war began, the Imperium relaxed the equipment requirements for its Astartes and accelerated production of their weapons and armor.
In short, they were churning out troops, and elite troops at that.
The more Astartes the Imperium possessed, the better!
As the military expanded, its armies began assembling one after another.
The atmosphere of war burned throughout the Imperium. More and more people discussed the conflict, participated in the mobilization, and hungered for victory.
Yet even amid this fervor, a discordant voice could still be heard.
"O Savior!
"Humanity must exercise restraint in war. Even if we achieve victory, at what cost?"
On the streets of a civilized world, a group of people had gathered to urge the population to remain restrained.
They belonged to an extremely obscure offshoot of the conservative faction. Calling themselves advocates of peace, they claimed that humanity needed to remain clearheaded.
"I have studied the history of the Necrons. They were excessively warlike, and that is precisely why they fell into their present state.
"We humans should reflect upon their example!"
A middle-aged man waved a banner while speaking without pause. He acted as though he were proclaiming some newly awakened truth and enlightening the ignorant masses.
"Not all xenos are evil. Some are peaceful. The T'au Empire, for instance, is a civilization devoted to peace.
"Their social system..."
"By the Savior, where the hell am I? What year is this? How are there still humans simping for the T'au?!"
The Imperial citizens watching from the sidelines were stunned numb by his declaration.
Historically, this planet had once been a dependency of the T'au Empire.
However, after the great Savior conquered the T'au Empire, the planet returned to the embrace of the Imperium of Man.
No one had imagined that diehard T'au sympathizers would still exist in this era.
"Where are the enforcers? Someone call the enforcers! These people have lost their minds!" shouted several passersby.
"Enforcers?
"These T'au-loving fanatics have gone far beyond disrupting public order. We need the Inquisition!"
"They're probably xenos spies!" several furious onlookers shouted.
They remembered the planet's painful experiences under T'au rule. Life had not been nearly as wonderful as these people claimed.
Furthermore, the new Imperium's current policies concerning xenos were no worse than those of the T'au Empire.
These T'au sympathizers either failed to see that fact or instinctively ignored it.
In short, the same system was good when implemented by the T'au Empire, but when the Imperium of Man did it, humanity needed to "reflect."
"Everything we're doing is for humanity! We aren't afraid!"
The middle-aged man and the group behind him grew increasingly agitated.
They looked ready to sacrifice everything for their supposed ideals and justice.
"Humanity shouldn't casually start wars, much less send Imperial citizens onto the battlefield.
"Forget the possibility of defeat. Even if we ultimately defeat the Necrons, what benefit will it bring us?"
The middle-aged man's voice grew more impassioned, carrying the exasperation of someone disappointed that everyone else refused to see reason.
"The Savior should listen to us! Peaceful coexistence with the Necrons would be the best possible outcome. Why must humanity conquer the entire galaxy?
"We should reflect upon all of this. We need to remain calm..."
"Go f*** yourself!"
Before he could finish, a conglomerate employee kicked him off his feet with one powerful, decisive blow.
The employee, a man named Myron, was so furious that his lungs nearly burst. He followed up with a punch.
"This is a war of retaliation! The Necron xenos invaded us and inflicted unimaginable suffering.
"They fired first! If anyone needs to reflect, those damned xenos can do it!"
Myron was one of the frontier citizens who had previously been evacuated to this system. He knew exactly what those monstrous Necrons had done to humanity.
The xenos leader who called himself the Silent King had used a veil to cover an entire star system, causing irreversible damage to human souls. Countless humans had fallen into mindless stupors or died as a result.
Millions of people had been dragged into xenos laboratories. The Necron Crypteks dissected them one by one, conducting experiments in their attempts to study the human soul.
And that was only the beginning.
If the xenos veil continued to spread, or if humanity failed to halt the Silent King's offensive, the resulting suffering would never end.
Every territory within the Imperium would eventually be enveloped by the xenos veil.
Humanity would be reduced to slaves and experimental specimens, or simply driven to extinction!
"Stop him!"
The middle-aged man continued shouting, stubbornly clinging to his position.
"You're only looking at this from humanity's narrow perspective. You refuse to consider the problem from the perspective of the entire galaxy.
"If humanity hadn't expanded into Necron territory, we naturally wouldn't have been attacked.
"If humanity did nothing wrong, why would the xenos attack us?!"
"O Savior, where did this xenos spy come from?"
"Traitor to humanity!"
His words only enraged Myron and the surrounding citizens even further. They charged forward, intending to beat the hell out of the man spouting xenos propaganda.
Unfortunately, there were still too few of them to contend with the large crowd of "peace advocates."
They were quickly surrounded and beaten, leaving all of them bruised and bloodied.
Myron received the worst of it. Most of the attackers focused on him, leaving his face swollen and covered in bruises.
"Ah, we must make the Savior understand that humanity rejects war!"
"We fear nothing!"
"Humanity should learn from the advanced ideals of the T'au!"
The middle-aged man and the crowd behind him grew even more brazen. They began chanting slogans so loudly that their voices shook the streets.
Carrying their banners in orderly ranks, they marched toward the planetary governor's residence with the solemn determination of people prepared to die for their cause.
They had barely taken a few steps when they suddenly stopped.
A mass of black-armored figures was charging toward them, accompanied by the thunder of heavy footsteps.
"Move, move, move!"
"We must stop those heretics!"
Fully armed, the enforcer captain led his squad forward at a rapid pace. His blood was boiling.
He was furious, but also tremendously excited.
Ever since he had been assigned to this planet, he had not encountered a single xenos infiltrator or heretic.
His days had been utterly uneventful. All he did was patrol his assigned district, maintain public order, and occasionally manage street sanitation.
The streets of the Imperium's hive cities and ordinary urban centers were no longer like they had once been, when gunfights and rebellions might erupt at any moment.
Gang members had become a rare sight. Finding a few xenos infiltrators or heretics was harder than reaching the heavens.
Yet heretics had finally appeared in the streets.
How could the enforcer captain possibly contain his excitement?
After spending so long watching empty streets, he finally had a chance to put his skills to use!
The other enforcers were just as thrilled. Their morale and adrenaline had reached their absolute limits.
They could hardly wait to demonstrate their abilities.
They had trained for years. Today was the day they would earn distinction, win promotions, and secure pay raises!
When the enforcer captain saw the procession of heretics and the citizens they had knocked to the ground, his burly frame trembled.
"Heretics! Do not harm Imperial citizens!"
He leaped high into the air and sent the middle-aged ringleader flying with a single sweep of his baton.
"For the Savior!"
Like a warrior charging fearlessly toward death, the enforcer captain roared and plunged into the crowd of heretics, swinging his baton from side to side.
His courage was incomparable!
More enforcers surged forward behind him in a dark mass, swinging their batons at a rate of three strikes per second. The heretics howled beneath the barrage.
"Waaah! Stop hitting me!"
"Help!"
"I was wrong!"
The enforcers' charge instantly shattered the demonstration. The formerly arrogant heretics scattered in every direction, screaming as they fled with their hands over their heads.
Several regained their senses after being beaten and even dropped to their knees to beg for mercy.
"Excellent!"
"Those xenos spies and heretics have had it too easy for too long!"
The watching citizens applauded enthusiastically. Some even joined the battle directly, contributing their own strength to the defense of Imperial order.
The citizens' support inspired the enforcers to swing their batons with even greater force, every blow cutting fiercely through the air.
The enforcers and the people were truly united as one!
Not far away, a grav-car bearing the Imperial Aquila approached along the street. Its design was both dignified and imposing.
It was the standard vehicle issued by the Imperium to planetary governors.
"Those damned heretics. They're finished now..." the planetary governor murmured hoarsely.
He stared at his communications terminal. Its screen had turned crimson, and the emblem of the Inquisition glowed at its center.
His face went deathly pale, and cold sweat poured down his body.
(End of Chapter)
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