Ana and I walk through the massive corridor in the palace. I must say that the Emperor knows how to make something impressive. This is a gem in the middle of a junk pile that is Earth. Even from space, I can see that this planet is a death world.
As we walk deeper into the Emperor's private office, I can see that the Emperor keeps looking at Ana. So far, he has done nothing and only looks at her as if she were the greatest treasure he has ever seen in his life.
I wonder why.
When we enter his office, the emperor immediately tells the Custodes to leave them be. As we sit on the chair he prepared for us, I look at him and say.
"You know of her nature."
He looked at me for a second before nodding his head.
"Yes. She is a True AI. AI born from nurture instead of forced growth."
"Will you kill her? Just like how the Men of Iron."
"Kill her? Why would I? She is a treasure. She is the greatest invention humanity has ever created. She is a living being, instead of an incomplete being, that is the Men of Iron. Reassure, I will not order her death. Of course, she needs to make sure no scan is able to detect her true nature."
I release a sigh of relief and give him a smile.
"Don't worry. Ana over here is a masterpiece. Her chassis not only allows her to blend in with humanity, but also contains all kinds of technology that lets her hide from scans or fool them. Everyone will only see her as human, nothing else."
"However, she cannot fool me. A powerful psyker capable of looking behind a veil. Be cautious about another powerful psyker, Theodore."
"I understand."
I look at him for a few seconds and say.
"You know… This is not what I thought it would be, you know?"
"Oh? What do you think will happen?"
"You want to kill Ana, and we will become enemies."
"If she is one of the Men of Iron, that will be the case, but she is a masterpiece in the bygone era. It is better to protect her from the grabby hand of the Tech Priest of Mars."
"Yeah… them. I don't know why you decided to allow them to enter your command, Father. They are the opposite of what you preach. They worship machines while preaching about technology, logic, and innovation. Those three concepts do not exist in their brains. Just hearing them from my sons makes me hate them."
"Necessity, my son. I am but one man. I cannot produce thousands of spaceships on my own. I cannot produce billions of weapons, ammo, and vehicles on my own. I need someone, and they are the best at production."
"That is fair. I don't like how they don't innovate and forbid anything that attempts to do so."
"Leave them to me. For now, we need to talk about you and your empire."
I nod and say.
"What do you want to talk about?"
"How do you want to do this, son? Will you give the entirety of your empire and join the Imperium? Or do you want something else?"
"We will join the Imperium, but I want autonomy in how I govern my people. I also want the right to keep expanding. We will accept the limitation, but I want something that is not too restrictive. Lastly, I don't want any Adeptus Mechanicus entering my domain or demanding anything from the people of Eternitus."
"All of them are reasonable. I can accept them. As for limitations, there will be no more than 1000 habitable planets under your belt."
"Natural habitable planet? Or does that include the planet that we terraform?"
"Include terraforming."
I calculate how many planets per system and how many systems can fall under us. I want to demand 1000 star systems, but that is too much. My empire will be the size that can rival the Imperium itself.
1000 habitable planets are a good number. It allows me to add more star systems for Eternitus and allows me to create a better defensive formation for my territory by capturing a strategic location.
"What about other types of planets? Forge World, Agri World, or Repository World?"
"As long as the population does not exceed 120 million souls, they can be considered not included in the 1000 planets."
"You know that, unlike the Mechanicus, we don't need a lot of humans in our Forge World, right?"
"Oh? That is good then! That means you can replace them when they decide to step out of the line."
"You already know they will step out of the line."
"Yes. I already created a plan to handle them, and the Second Legion will be the spearhead in this plan. However, that will be a long way down the line. For now, let's talk about the details of the agreement."
With that, the three of us start to talk. With Ana on my side, I will make sure we get the best thing for us.
== Line Break ==
"I think that man is leading us to the outcome he wants, Theo."
"Oh, I know, Ana. He is a monster. He is old and has more experience than the two of us combined. Even when he does not use his power, his diplomatic skill is unmatched. There is a reason why Aurelia takes his diplomatic skill."
"I don't like it. I was supposed to be the one leading the conversation, but somehow he managed to steer through all my words and make it feel like I was the one leading it. I know you tell me to limit my computing power, but that still stings."
"I know, Ana. At least we receive a good deal out of this. With this, we will still maintain autonomy over our territory and be allowed to expand it."
"That is true. However, we still need to watch out for the Mechanicus who will sooner or later become a thorn in our side."
"That is true. We also need to make sure we pay the tithe to the Imperium."
The tithe is surprisingly rather lax for us. It strikes a balance between asking too much and asking too little. The Emperor gave me two things to give to the Imperium. The first one is food, and the second one is metal.
I tell him what kind of thing we produce, and he immediately asks me to send the Imperium food and metal so the Imperium can expand.
That will be the tithe that the Eternitus sends to the Imperium. The Emperor will not demand soldiers from us, but he expects us to carry the Crusade forward and make sure to have at least the minimum number of troops from Eternitus to support the Second Legion and any legion that asks for reinforcement.
Normally, it is a rather heavy tithe because the metal the Emperor asks us to produce is one of the rarer metals, such as Adamantium and Auramite. The last part will be guarded closely. When I ask him about that, he says something about a massive project.
Lastly, the Emperor's greatest request is a method to increase Astartes production. What he wants is the technique from the Space King series that allows Astartes to be created in a matter of days instead of years of surgery, training, and hypnotherapy.
I gave him the method, but after showing it to him, he decided not to use it. According to him, while this method will greatly increase the crusade's productivity, it will also cause problems if it falls into enemy hands.
He doesn't know that each of the machines my sons and I created will be Blackboxxed. What does that mean? That means it cannot be reverse-engineered. At least he understands there is something that he cannot use for the public.
Sadly, the Emperor also needs us to slow down in Astartes production so the others can keep up. He asks us not to exceed 300,000 Astartes. I understand his worry. If we get too much, the other legions will become envious of us, and it will create a problem in the future.
The other Primarchs will attempt to increase their number no matter the consequences.
At the moment, Void Stalker has already reached 120,000 Astartes. While the Holy Globules method is great, it is flawed. It can create Astartes with a bit of modification, but the result is not as good as that of a trueborn Astartes using the old method.
Because of this, my sons and I created a hybrid method. It will skip the lengthy hypnotherapy session and directly download everything the Astartes need through the Holy Globules. This is the new implant added to the Astartes, among other things, that made them into Primaris Marine, unlike the other Astartes.
Sadly, because of this hybrid method, the new Astartes still need to undergo very grueling training and spend time becoming proper Astartes. It is still faster, only a few months instead of years.
The initial training required to become an Astartes is long and hard. You need to be the best of the best to be chosen. Because of our medical expertise, casualties from the training camp are low, but they still occur every once in a while.
This training camp takes two years to complete, and only the top 5% are chosen into Astartes. Unlike the others, we have now 100% success in the implantation process. Those 5% become Astartes, and that is usually around 500 people.
That is how gruesome the process is.
The Emperor is also rather lax in our deployment. However, I need to be the one leading my legion from where Terra was and let the others expand Eternitus. With that in mind, I need to divide my legion into two. The first one is the one I command personally to join the Crusade, while the second one leads the expansion of Eternitus.
"Ana, call Anthonio. We need to divide our force into two. The first one for the crusade and the other for the expansion."
"Yes, Captain."
We will be busy in the next few years.
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