Warhammer: Starting as a Planetary Governor-Chapter 274 - 275: Return to Urth

Suddenly, Eden's heart pounded.

His psychic senses sharply picked up changes within the Warp.

Like roiling, surging volcanic ash, horrifying visions of nightmares were seeping into reality.

Across the galaxy, the Great Rift spread like wildfire, drawing yet more regions into its dark domain.

An immensely wicked gaze was fixed upon humanity.

Guilliman's alarm had proven true.

Suffering was growing worse!

Eden jerked into action, immediately having his main body back in the domain send out warnings, instructing all departments to brace for defense.

But it was already too late.

The onslaught from the expanding Great Rift was so violent that thousands of distress signals instantly flooded the royal courts' channels.

At the same time, more news arrived:

Within his domain, many psykers had been affected to various degrees. Dozens—even hundreds—succumbed to the Warp and were immediately executed on the spot.

Detectors stationed in neighboring sectors reported xenos activity.

More troublesome still, incidents of Chaos infiltration sprang up across different parts of Eden's domain!

Fortunately, he had previously carried out a "Great Purge" that almost entirely eradicated Chaos corruption.

Thus, while this round of Chaos assaults caused casualties and damage, it wasn't unmanageable.

Soon, the Department of War sent its report:

Several Chapters, elite Storm Regiments, and the Inquisition had mobilized their forces and would use webway routes to quell chaos wherever it arose.

Projections indicated they had enough manpower to calm the disturbances in short order.

Eden let out a sigh of relief, though his sense of crisis did not subside.

From his domain's observations, the Great Rift's expansion was lightning-fast.

True, his own territory was largely secure, and any upheavals were comparatively minor—yet he could well imagine the tragedy that now befell the wider Imperium.

On Holy Terra, people would be drowning in despair-laden astropathic signals once again.

The renewed expansion of the Great Rift reached every corner of the Imperium's map, plunging entire sectors into darkness.

Seizing the chaos, countless xenos predators pressed their invasions, while unnumbered cultists and foul psykers raised the banner of rebellion.

No one knew how many Imperial worlds would perish in this calamity.

The broadcast continued.

Eden sensed Guilliman was doing his best to remain composed, but his deepening breaths and somber tone betrayed him. Clearly, he had received the cataclysmic news and perceived the galaxy's dire state.

As his speech went on, Guilliman's voice grew resolute: in the face of evil, the Emperor stood with His people—and so did the Lord Commander of the Imperium!

The Primarch vowed never to cower behind Terra's palace walls and let humanity's enemies run rampant.

Just as before, he would lead from the front across the stars, confronting the foe in the Emperor's name.

Against the threat of extinction, the Imperium must stand united. Their blades would fall upon every heretic, xenos, traitor, and mutant!

He named his do-or-die strike against the enemies of mankind the "Indomitus Crusade."

Wherever its banners pointed, the light of the Astronomican would pierce the darkness, illuminating the path for a grand host unseen since the days of the Great Crusade!

"In the face of war-torn roads ahead, the Imperium shall rise to meet it,"

Guilliman softly intoned at the end of the broadcast.

Beep—

The transmission ended.

Silence descended on the cabin.

After a time, Eden let out a long sigh:

"Big G (Guilliman) is going all out. I can't afford to lag behind…"

He had originally planned to remain safely behind Guilliman, building up his strength step by step and providing help when it counted.

But given the current crisis, even his domain was no longer as safe as he'd hoped. He had to accelerate his development and raise larger fleets and top-tier forces.

In concert with Guilliman's oath, the Indomitus Crusade would soon officially begin, with all who dared stand in its way utterly swept aside!

No doubt Holy Terra was already undergoing a purge at this very moment.

Eden could guess the Imperium's next moves:

New armies would be raised; never-before-seen weaponry would flow from the forges on Mars; colossal battlefleets would be assembled, as mighty engines of war proclaimed the Emperor's majesty.

A tidal wave of mass production would rise; every servant of the Emperor would do their part and give their all.

There was no doubt:

A full-scale galactic war had begun.

As the Warp storms raged ever fiercer, no world could stand aloof.

Eden pondered on it, settling his domain's next development goal: a fervent wave of mass production!

In addition to building mighty armed forces, he intended to provide support beyond his borders.

Eventually, he wanted to see the Savior's insignia stamped onto countless war machines across every major warzone in the galaxy!

When the battle ended locally, his forces could remain behind to handle infrastructure and establish cooperative development deals with those liberated worlds.

Currently, the expansion charter for Eden's territory involved gradually reclaiming adjacent systems.

Claiming distant worlds far from his core region made little sense with the galaxy under siege—that would only hike up administrative costs and hamper progress.

Temporary stationing of troops or forging alliances to reap resources and faith from afar would be more pragmatic.

Of course, that was only for now. Once his power grew, larger conquests could follow.

Stretching his limbs, Eden rose from the sofa and walked out:

"Yep, I still prefer building up infrastructure, producing more firepower… Must be in my blood."

Beep—beep—beep.

A comms message from Shahim came through:

"Savior, our radar has picked up a Rogue Trader fleet following us from behind…"

He sounded eager. "I'm guessing it's that woman's fleet. Want me to deal with them?"

It looked like Kania Danda, the Rogue Trader spokeswoman, was causing trouble.

Rogue Traders lived on a gray edge, so conflict was nothing unusual.

No doubt she was furious that the Godwin-De family of Imperial Blood dared 'betray' the alliance by siding with the Primarch.

Ambushing the Govini

at this point was clearly a sign she had no fear of Guilliman at all—what sheer arrogance.

Eden thought it over and shook his head:

"She won't be jumping around for much longer. We don't have time to waste on her. Step up our warp translation and slip away.

We have to get back to Urth as soon as possible."

"Yes, sir!"

Without delay, Shahim followed orders, and the Govini, escorted by its guard ships, entered the Warp.

However, before long, that hostile Rogue Trader fleet was back on their tail.

Eden scowled:

"Looks like their vessels are quite advanced, and they're using relay stations to pinpoint our location."

Operating in the Imperium's 'light zone' made tracking easier for the enemy.

He was tempted to summon the Dreamweave and obliterate that fleet once and for all.

But after some thought, he gave it up.

Kania Danda would soon be purged by Guilliman anyway, and by then the Imperium might simply take over her fleet, repurposing it for Indomitus Crusade transport.

Blowing up perfectly good ships wouldn't be cost-effective.

Instead, Eden had Shahim avoid the relay stations and continue jumping.

After a few transitions, the Govini

reached a relay-free region, finally losing their pursuers.

…

The moment the Govini dropped out of Warp—

Boom—

An unexpected attack rocked the vessel.

On the bridge—

Eden steadied himself, instantly grasping the situation: it was an assault from an enemy ship!

He quickly gathered the broad strokes.

When they translated out of the Warp, with the Geller Field just deactivated and the void shields not yet fully raised, the foe seized the chance to strike.

"Our Geller Field is overloaded—we can't jump back into the Warp!"

All around, sparks danced across cables. The Tech-adept officer manipulated the panels and made her report.

The radar specialist chimed in:

"Identifying the hostiles… two cruisers bearing the insignia of Abaddon the Despoiler!"

The moment the words left his mouth, silence consumed the bridge.

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These young crew members had studied such threats at the Sons Academy.

They knew all too well how terrifying an opponent Abaddon was.

With the Geller Field down, they had no means of escaping via Warp.

"Charge the void shields, prep for counterattack… Find the nearest webway entrance!"

As captain, Shahim stayed calm, issuing orders one by one.

Eden said nothing.

He wasn't any better at ship command than these top Academy graduates.

At the moment, he was more concerned with Abaddon's intentions.

Crossing paths with so powerful an enemy in realspace was no small matter.

What grudge could possibly be so intense?

Was the Despoiler so fixated that he'd chase him across the galaxy?

He wondered if it was a mere coincidence or a deliberate ambush.

Either was possible. Abaddon had plenty of Chaos Sorcerers under his command—enough to predict even Belisarius's timing in saving Guilliman.

Tracking Eden's repeated Warp translations would be easy.

Regardless, the priority was to escape.

He mentally noted yet another debt to repay Abaddon one day.

He would find a chance to seize the sentinel world that Abaddon had long coveted—and enrage him to no end!

Boom—boom—boom—

Lance beams and torpedoes raged back and forth.

The two Chaos warships battled the Godwin-De, and though it was one ship versus two, the Govini

held its own.

Eden frowned.

These Chaos cruisers under Abaddon were quite formidable, obviously superior to the Red King's ships he had dealt with before.

In the short term, there would be no swift victory.

They absolutely couldn't afford a protracted fight—if the enemy had reinforcements nearby, they'd be in dire straits.

That same thought flashed through Shahim's mind.

Once the tech-adept identified the nearest webway entrance, the Govini

swiftly turned and headed there at full speed.

But the two Chaos ships closed in faster, pressing their attack.

Despite sustaining multiple hits, they sped up even further.

They streaked directly toward the Govini

as if to ram it.

Eden watched this, brows rising.

The Chaos warriors clearly intended to board them—an old favorite tactic of Chaos warbands.

If those Chaos Space Marines got into the Godwin-De, the ship's normal security detail wouldn't stand a chance.

Meanwhile, the Govini

was drawing closer and closer to the webway gate, with the two Chaos cruisers also reducing the distance from behind.

On the bridge, Shahim and the crew were tense and sweating profusely.

"We'll make it into the gate before they ram us."

Eden quickly did the math on distances.

He patted Shahim's shoulder, telling him not to worry.

After countless major battles, such a scenario was middle-of-the-road for Eden.

Whoosh—

A twisted passage emerged in the void ahead of the Govini —that was the entrance to the webway.

Having received Eden's astropathic coordinates, the Urth Beacon relayed them to the Blackstone Throne.

Fortunately, this gateway had been previously registered, making it viable to use.

The request to traverse the gate was promptly approved, and the Blackstone Throne opened that segment of the webway.

Whoosh!

Moments before the Chaos ships could crash into them, the Govini

surged into the distortion of space and vanished.

Yet those two enemy warships didn't hesitate—they barreled in right after it.

The webway closed behind them, leaving empty vacuum.

Not long after—

Boom—

With a violent spatial disruption, an unimaginably massive warship burst onto the scene.

Its hull was painted a nightmarish black, bearing a colossal Doomsday Cannon upon it.

It was the Planet Killer—the flagship of Abaddon the Despoiler!

A monstrous vessel that brought terror wherever it went.

Its presence alone could subdue entire sectors.

The Doomsday Cannon could bombard from planetary orbit, easily piercing a world's crust to strike the planetary core—tearing a civilized world asunder with catastrophic geological upheaval.

At least dozens of planets had died beneath its guns.

The Planet Killer came to a halt, scanning the surrounding void.

But all that remained were the scattered wrecks of missiles and fragments of ships—there was nothing else to find.

On the bridge—

A tall, bestial shadow stood, like a walking fortress.

"Daemon-Eater!"

An embittered, rasping voice reverberated through the gloom. Crimson eyes glowed fiercely, staring into the empty void.

With the Great Rift's ongoing turmoil, Abaddon the Despoiler's operations were only intensifying.

…

Inside the webway—

Whoosh—

The Govini

emerged, racing forward at full throttle.

Behind it, the two Chaos ships gave chase, each prow sporting a fearsome ram nearly three hundred meters long.

They were seconds from ramming.

On board the Chaos ships, ragged, filth-ridden crew operated the vessels at reckless speeds. They seemed utterly unconcerned about the consequences of the collision.

Roar—

In the spiked ram compartments, hundreds of Chaos Space Marines bellowed in bloodlust.

Killing intent radiated from their entire being—they couldn't wait to board and dismember everything in sight.

Nothing could halt a Chaos Marine's onslaught!

...

On the Govini's bridge—

Eden watched calmly on the radar as the enemy cruisers closed at a pace visible to the naked eye.

In about thirty seconds, they'd impact the Godwin-De, and there was no outrunning them at this speed.

Yet he showed no apprehension.

If these Chaos Marines were so keen on boarding melee combat, then so be it!

He quite enjoyed hosting these thick-skulled brutes.

Eden silently counted down.

With each passing second—

Even within the bridge, one could sense the Chaos presence creeping closer, about to slam into them.

They were here!

Eden's eyes lit up.

Boom—

Just as the Chaos Marines' frenzy peaked, their ships unexpectedly suffered a ferocious blow.

The vessels lurched so violently they nearly flipped sideways.

In the blink of an eye, two hideous, oddly shaped ships had burst from the side of the webway.

With zero defensive maneuvers, they rammed the Chaos ships head-on.

The collision created massive breaches in both hulls.

Caught totally off guard, the corrupt crews inside the Chaos ships were thrown around like rag dolls. Some unlucky souls slammed their skulls against walls, bursting them like melons.

Fear took hold of them.

The roars of the Chaos Marines abruptly died.

But the mayhem had only begun.

Under countless horrified gazes, the ugly xenos vessels reversed in place—then like unstoppable dump trucks, rammed forward again with wild abandon.

Boom!

The two Chaos cruisers were slammed against the edges of the webway's confines, pinned in place.

Once the violent shaking ceased, the Chaos Marines staggered upright—only to see a green tide flooding in.

"WAAAGH—!"

Leading the charge was Ironjaw Skullcrusha, the Ork Warboss.

His power klaw clamped down on a Chaos Marine's helmet, pounding until it was nothing but a gory pulp of mixed armor shards and flesh.

More Orks howled as they surged forward, drowning the Chaos Marines in a green wave…

On the bridge—

Eden calmly withdrew his gaze. All had gone as anticipated.

Indeed, it was best to leave professional tasks to the professionals.

Orks simply outclassed Chaos Marines when it came to ramming and melee.

Once Eden lured the Chaos ships into the webway, their fate was sealed.

Nobody in the webway bested the Orks who roamed there in such overwhelming numbers—no one could stand against "Rogg's" orks inside these passages!

The Govini

continued on its way.

Behind them, more and more Ork ships converged, surrounding the Chaos vessels. Orks soared through the air, leaping eagerly onto the Chaos cruisers.

Meanwhile, Ork construction rigs approached to tear the ships apart—none of them wanted to miss out on claiming the scrap metal and parts.

Before long, the Chaos cruisers were completely dismantled.

The Orks hauled off the components and the corpses of Chaos Marines, then raced away in their looted prize ships.

——

Two months later.

On the balcony of the spire estate—

Eden leaned on the railing, gazing down at the serene, harmonious domain below with contentment.

Recalling Holy Terra's turmoil alongside the calm scene before him felt almost like a dream.

Nothing beat being back on his own turf…

It was full of security and peace of mind.

The unrest caused by the Great Rift's expansion had subsided.

Having retrieved missionary rights from Terra and secured his Imperial Blood Rogue Trader license, both the Ecclesiarchy and the trading departments were working busily.

The Ecclesiarchy joined forces with the Astral Beacon Court, bringing countless pilgrim ships over to the holy site for worship.

They provided them with the Redemptive Scriptures and ways to contact the shrine world, so the pilgrims could spread the Savior's light far and wide.

Any pilgrims seeking a link to the Beacon had to pass several layers of screening before receiving navigation guidance.

Then, under the Beacon's lead, they would arrive at a heavily fortified clear zone. Only after confirming all was safe could they dock at the spaceport and journey on to the sacred site.

Meanwhile, the trading department was organizing more convoys, attempting to open new routes for future commerce—selling the weapons and goods of Ers.

With hostilities in the galaxy deepening, Eden had hastened the build-up of his armed forces.

The Department of War had launched another wave of expansion, boosting the number of regiments and recruiting new blood for the Astartes.

On the Lunar Forge World, automated weapons factories had already been constructed and were now operational, churning out armaments in large quantities.

The tricky part was forming new fleets:

Shipbuilding was a massive undertaking and couldn't be scaled rapidly. Still, Eden had a plan to mitigate that.

In the Warp drifted countless lost vessels, and he intended to salvage some hulls and armaments from there for refit.

But the bigger headache was technological advancement.

The research and retrofitting of Dreadnoughts, Imperial Knights, and Titans had reached a bottleneck.

Current tech couldn't support a partial automation upgrade, despite his hopes of making these war engines a hallmark product line. It remained out of reach.

At this point, accelerating technology seemed to require gleaning knowledge from the Adeptus Mechanicus.

After all, they had hoarded tens of thousands of years' worth of data. A great deal of it lay sealed away as forbidden lore, never used.

But persuading those oily-fingered priests to share their knowledge was probably harder than killing them outright.

So frustrating…

Eden massaged his temples.

Finally, he said to himself, "Well, when in doubt—head into the Warp!"

Better to stop worrying and go salvage some ships and lost tech in the Warp.

He might just stumble upon an intact STC or a fully operational Golden Age AI—

Then it would all pay off in an instant!

With that, Eden turned and went back into his bedroom, flopping onto the soft bed.

He closed his eyes. His consciousness sank into the Warp, slipping into the body of his "little sun" avatar.

Time for a Warp Card Draw—activate!!!

(End of Chapter)

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