The unique aspect of this race lies in their ability to fast-forward or rewind a target's time. For example, a Krud can accelerate a Servitor's time, causing him to die of old age and his parts to deteriorate, or he can rewind the Servitor's time, restoring him to his four-limbed, healthy state before being converted into a Servitor.
Every time Swain thought of this race, he wondered if they would have had more room for manipulation if they hadn't been exterminated in the future. For instance, imagine the cry of a child in a Space Marine squad—a baby suddenly appearing among a group of burly men; the scene would certainly be humorous. Or, for example, could this time weapon prevent Dorn from earning the nickname 'the one who held back'? Or, for example, could it help Angron grow a brain instead of just Butcher's Nails? The operational possibilities were simply too vast.
There were also the K'Raff, Xenos with the appearance of vampire bats and octopus faces, capable of remotely controlling other intelligent beings across the Warp; the golden age of humanity, at its peak, was but a mere footnote in their long existence.
K'Raff can remotely control (in the Warp) the bodies of other creatures and use them as hosts. By simply having the host make eye contact or physical contact with a human (or other intelligent being), a new host is created, their consciousness harvested, and their spirit devoured. Everything known to the host is then known to the K'Raff, who absorbs life essence to repeatedly enhance its own energy. The K'Raff itself does not need to enter the host's body; psionic remote control is sufficient. When destroying a host, if special psionic weapons are not used, the K'Raff will not be harmed.
Host types are divided into Root Hosts and Mind Slaves. Mind Slaves gain more powerful combat abilities, while Root Hosts possess terrifying psionic power. Each K'Raff can use one Root Host to infect a large group of Mind Slaves and make them serve at the cost of their lives. Three or more Root Host K'Raff working together can force a Primarch into a tough battle. The most famous battle involving this species was when a K'Raff leader attempted to control Lion El'Jonson, the Gene-Primarch of the Dark Angels, only for Lion to instead locate their homeworld, ultimately leading to the extinction of this race.
Such races, capable of making even Primarchs stumble, are countless throughout the galaxy. Not to mention that before humanity becomes the galactic overlord, it still has to face the Xenos known as Slaugth, a terrifying entity capable of completely removing two Gene-Primarchs from the Imperium.
"It seems I need to quicken my pace. Lycaeus is still too small of a pond. I must quickly take Corax to take over the Dark Raven Guard." Swain pondered for a moment before making his decision.
In the original background, Corax returned to the Imperium towards the tail end of the Great Crusade. After expelling the Terra-born members of the Dark Raven Guard, who were composed of slave owners, Corax restored the legion to a strength of 80,000. Then the Great Betrayal happened, and everyone knows what happened after that.
Time flew by, and two years passed in an instant!
The Saviour Camp successfully weathered the punishment of the Spire demanding double all mineral submissions for the next quarter, thanks to the newly discovered adamantium. Not only that, but under Swain's command, the Saviors also began to expand again, forcefully annexing other small camps in the surrounding area. Well, calling it annexation, in truth, the people in those small camps were eager to join Swain's camp, as it meant not constantly facing starvation. If people often starved before the Saviors came, and still often starved after they arrived, wouldn't their coming have been in vain?
The midday sun shone through the pristine dome onto Lycaeus. Through the dappled light and shadow, one could still see some dust on the mining planet. Although this was a mining planet, at least the air outside the mine tunnels was acceptable due to the fortress-grade air purification system.
"Swain, recently, news of the Saviors appearing has spread in many places on Lycaeus, and even those vampires in the west have quieted down a lot."
"All of this commotion was caused by Corax. There have also been several incidents of medicine theft at the Spire, so I'm afraid the Spire has already noticed his existence," Nekser reported to Swain.
"It doesn't matter. Even if the Spire notices, they can't catch him. But tell Saro Jin and those following Corax to be careful not to hold him back," Swain said with a smile.
Over the past two years, Swain had directly placed Saro Jin into the Shadow Assassin and entrusted him to Corax's leadership. Correspondingly, the Shadow Assassin's intelligence gathering, assassination, and other capabilities had undergone a qualitative leap. With the Lord of Shadows teaching them personally, it was naturally extraordinary. Swain could already foresee that the number of Shadow Masters in the Dark Raven Guard in the future would far exceed the Raven Guard in the background.
Similarly, in two years, Corax had already extracted all the knowledge from the political elites, war heroes, and liberation movement leaders in those camps. Never doubt the learning ability of Gene-Primarchs; each of the 21 prodigies can, in the shortest time, drain all the knowledge from a learned scholar, and then, building on that foundation, innovate and elevate the original ideological system to another height that they cannot reach. Politics, economics, military, culture, philosophy—in any field they were interested in, they could easily surpass the pioneers who had immersed themselves for countless years.
This was also why Swain eventually let Corax investigate and experience the lives of other miners on Lycaeus himself. He realized there was nothing he could teach the other party, and there were plenty of big shots on this mining planet, so Corax's education would simply keep them busy. Anyway, all these people would eventually gather under Corax's command. What he had to do now was to prepare as much as possible for the miners' upcoming actions.
Over the two years, Corax would occasionally return to the camp to exchange ideas with Swain. However, each time he left, he would conveniently take a batch of supplies to support miners in other camps, which also allowed many other camps on Lycaeus to gain a precious moment of respite from the day-to-day exploitation. To find enough medicine, Corax even infiltrated the Spire multiple times, stealing a lot of medicine, finely crafted weapons, and various other valuable items. To reduce suspicion, Corax spread his efforts evenly. Besides Lycaeus, he also went to Kiavahr via transport ship for several on-site inspections.
Although Corax's psychic abilities could heal the injured to a certain extent, he couldn't stay in a fixed camp all the time, so medicines were indispensable.