章節 113: Chapter 29

Terra, The Imperial Palace of the Emperor...

The inner walls of the palace are silent. Nothing can be heard, not even the sound of the walking servants or the metallic boots of the guards.

It's as if, it was deserted. The flag of the Imperium flies high above the tallest point of this palace. The flag that shall never fall no matter what may or may not happen.

The black background of the flag, and the golden Aquila in the middle fluttered silently amidst the countless other flags of the most notable noble houses, planets, Astartes chapter, battlefleet, and many more notable factions.

On a window somewhere on a tall tower, there can be seen an eight foot tall man wearing black robe sneakily opening a large window and entering it undetected.

Inside, he landed on the soft red carept gently and quickly glided his vision to his surroundings. Once he made sure that no one is on this floor, he proceeded to the predetermined location of the target.

He swiftly traversed the quiet halls without much difficulty and finally after a couple of hours, he managed to see the door leading to another building which the target is currently residing.

He slowly walked and scanned the gigantic door for any possible traps. Once he made sure there aren't any, he pushed it slowly and entered.

Inside, it's a long hall filled with decorations. It has chandeliers hanging above silently, giving illumination. On the opposite side of the hall is another gargantuan door with the knobs shaped like an eagle head. On the right sideis a long row of windows with painted glass depicting some sort of story in them.

The story is about a man sitting on a throne, on his feet are countless men of varying heights and stature dressed in bulky armors. Some with flamer tanks on the back, some with jetpacks, there's even a woman with angel wings on her back.

All of them are kneeling with their heads down. Their posture is almost prostration despite the clear weight and size of their armors.

The robed man started to walk slowly, being more wary of his environment. But just then, a weird sound of heavy metal boots on a soft carpet was heard which forced the man to think quickly how to evade them.

The creaking sounds was heard and the robed man searched for a suitable place to hide and finally decided to use superior cloaking device embedded on his robe to blend in.

This tactic is only effective once, next time it wouldn't be effective again as the equipment of the guards of this place be it top notch are still pretty bad compared to the capabilities of this cloaking device.

The gigantic door swung open, revealing two men in golden armor with spears at hand. They looked like they're searching for something as their eyes are constantly glowing.

The robed man is standing completely still near the glass windows, he let the two guards pass by before he rushed to catch the now closing gargantuan door.

His footsteps are completely silent and he seemed like a lightning as he performed a slide to catch the door and enter the next building.

Inside, he the familiar scene of the throne room's gates. It has 10 guards standing there, protecting the gate from any intruder.

The robed man decided to use his ace. He'll call in an airdrop to distract these men.

He opened an interface which can onoy be seen by him and picked the airdrop location for the package.

The robed man slowly made his way near a pillar and rested his back on it. He's waiting for the airdrop, and it looks like he won't be waiting much long.

The sound fantasy, and magic was heard as a portal suddenly opened right in front fo the gate.

Inside the portal, a monster of large proportions suddenly sprung out and attacked the 10 guards who looked calm, as if they expected this.

The monster is a monster around 45 meters tall and 25 meters thick. It looked like a hydra in figure but its body is almost completely augmented with technology. It has laser eyes, a powerful beam from its mouth, self repairing nanotechnology for its skin, and many more.

The robed man observed the landscape to try and find a path to the throne room. But he failed to find one, so he decided to take along route and use the windows to enter the throne undetected.

He then climbed up the pillar and towards the roof silently. After that, he used his holographic map to try and find a suitable window to use.

He then decided to use the window right above the throne as a path to the target.

He made his way there, he saw a man sitting at top the throne room motionless. The man is encased on a golden armor with tens of almost similar looking guards scattered inside on all possible doors.

The robed man unsheathed his dagger and readied himself to jump. Everything he did was all for this moment.

He then jumped, destroying the windows in the process, intending to stab the man sitting inside the throne.

But as he was millimeters away, his whole body got hit by an explosive amount of force whoch sent him crashing the wall and almost passing out. The wall literally collapse, revealing a huge hole which gave a clear view of the next room.

A man around 9 foot tall just landed in front of the man on the throne with his unique spear at hand.

He looked at the direction of the robed man and gently nodded as the sound of a long horn was heard all over the Imperial Palace and the whole planet.

"Bravo, bravo, this game revealed another flaw on our defense cordon. You sure played the long game by extending our front thinly. Good job for that." the Captain General slowly clapped as he walked out of the makeshift monitoring center just next room.

"If it weren't for Constantin, the feared day of everyone might've come to reality." the Captain General walked to the throne and gently took the real life 1 is to 1 figure of the Emperor out of the throne.

As the servants and all those on the Sisters of Battle started to flood in the palace to return to their position and jobs, the Captain General helped the "assassin" to stand up. The countless servants came inside the room and started to reboot the whole system of the whole Imperial palace to reset it back to default settings.

The settings in place currently are a simulation of what will happen after billions of attack on a weak castle when the Emperor is trapped including a handful of custodians who forgot to equip their best armaments. Meaning it's one of the worst possible circumstances that can happen will be toppled by the fact that the Imperium can't send any reinforcements soon. So it's only the Emperor, and a handful of men numbering around 120 with outdated equipment, guarding a palace the size of the whole Himalayan mountains from both monsters, and an assassin.

The walls and everything damaged in this exercise are repaired instantaneously. The broken glass shards earlier suddenly disappeared in a small light glow and everything finally came back to normal including the big hole.

Even though they are all custodians, Constantin is a cut above the rest. He's literally a monster in his own, and with the technology of the current Imperium, you can send him to conquer a whole universe and he'll surely be able to do it with enough support.

"We need to improve more on this field, we must ensure that we can fight even with sticks and stones if necessary and easily win it." said the Captain General as they made their way to the office of the Emperor.

"I think we must prepare some sort of a mobile war fortress that can be dismantled and built in a second." suggested Constantin with a flat tone.

Time passed by and they finally reached the office of the Emperor. The Captain General and Constantin entered it, and they saw someone sitting on a comfortable chair reading reports.

"My lord, the war games has finally ended. We've managed to see flaws in our defenses. The detailed report will be given later." the Captain General saluted, so is Constantin.

"That's expected, the simulated environment this time is completely out of your comfort zone. Anyway, now that's out of the way. It looks like a hostile first contact will happen on the other side." said the Emperor who stood up and conveniently places the paper he's reading to the part of the table where the two can read it too easily.

"Isn't this a bit out of the blue? They've decided to give them the string engine for what?" asked the Captain General confused. The plan isn't supposed to like this, the plan is let them grow on their own while setting them back the true path.

They're supposed to let them grow and not literally spoon feed them everything. Humans have this sort of tendency that if someone can do it, then let them do everything and just leach the benefits.

"They're rushing everything I can infer as much. The first contact with the Citadel will be catastrophic to the humans. They're trespassing military controlled territory and an intense backlash will surely happen." said the Emperor with a rather low voice. With just his facial expression you can infer that he's weighing the pros and cons of possible moves.

"The humans will lose my lord. They're nothing against the combined might of the Citadel. If ever the push comes to shove, we must aid our brothers and sisters." said the Captain General with a concerned tone. He may not be someone who really like to meddle with the administrative affairs but this thing is something of a treasure trove for the Imperium.

"With the hectic affairs on the administrative side of the Imperium together with the intense economic reshuffle, truly two thousand years really isn't enough. Plus, what could they do once we joined the fray? Throwing our full weight will destroy the whole galactic supercluster. It's not supposedly our first option. War should only come if harm has been done." reasoned the Emperor, showing his full maturity to the Captain General who admired him more.

The Imperium has become a better place, it is constantly improving by implementing all sorts of reforms on a universal scale. Strengthening the economy of each planet, opening a bubble market, creating more Matrioshka brains, Nicoll-Dyson beam, their own version of planetary engines, rimworlds, and many more.

Although everything is doing great, two thousand years isn't that long by the standards of the Imperium. It can even be said as short considering the size of the Imperium. Out of the planned megastructures, economic strengthening, etc. only about 35% has been completed and put into action so far and this is on the universal scale.

"Your maturity is something admirable my lord. You chose to try and resolve this issue with diplomacy first." said the Captain General but something rang which caught their attention.

The Emperor just sighed and waved his hand as the AI started reading the message.

"My lord, the Citadel has shot down the ship and is currently salvaging the wreckage The human government freaked out and a potential diplomatic talks will surely happen. The predicted demands will be the blueprint of the hyperdrive and the forceful assimilation of the humans to the Citadel, the accuracy of the prediction based on the data gathered is 100%." the voice of the AI was heard as the Emperor once again sighed and sat down on his seat.

The Emperor first nodded on the the part of the demands regarding the hyper drive engine. The design of that engine is primitive and completely outdated. But he started to look serious when the words of forceful assimilation was brought up.

"The blueprint of the hyperdrive engine isn't a problem, it's a piece of antique equipment after all. But a forceful assimilation? That's not acceptable ten thousand out of one time." said the Emperor with a determined voice.

If something so bad could not make them bow down, what more could some stinking people using primitive technologies.

"Such disrespect warrants for a thousand deaths. Organize an Imperial battlefleet to meddle with the war. Make them understand the phrase "you've kicked an iron bucket"."

"Perhaps, an exterminatus would be a great way to slap them in the face?"