Chapter 147: The Prophecy of Omega
As soon as Navigator Christie stopped talking, Skol seemed surprised that Omega had asked this question. Dr. Hermo asked curiously, "What's the connection between the core of Imperial power and the increased instability of the warp? Why make this connection?"
Omega looked at the company commanders and Rex around him and said quietly, "You are all the people I trust most. Can you keep this a secret? Because it concerns your future lives, I don't want you to be unaware of it. It would be best if you were prepared to survive."
"Primarch, what kind of danger could threaten our lives? Is it an evil god from the warp?" Skol asked in shock.
Norton and the others were also shocked, but unanimously declared that they would live and die with the Primarch and would not flinch in fear.
Omega gently raised his hand to quell the uproar and said softly, "A civil war will break out in the human Imperium, most likely a war between Primarchs, and countless live will fall in this tragedy. The civil war originated within the Imperium, and the warp gods may have merely accelerated its progression."
Upon hearing this, everyone was utterly shocked, their expressions filled with disbelief. In particular, Skol and Norton, along with Captains Orsh and Bright, were stunned into silence by the Primarch's words, while Rex, Hermo, and other members of the Cult Mechanicum were even more incredulous.
Skol was stunned, then shook his head and asked again, "Why would war break out between Primarchs? What would cause an Imperial civil war?"
Seeing that the company commanders were hoping for an answer, Omega gently analyzed the situation. "Skol, the Primarchs are not powerful enough to harm someone like me. Alpharius and I are both human. The cause of the civil war lies in the collapse and helplessness of countless mortals during the Great Crusade."
"Countless mortals need help, need to be saved, but neither the Emperor nor we can save them, nor can the wisdom of Malcador the Grey. This Great Crusade was rushed, lacking corresponding supporting systems. No one was willing to stop and govern each planet. It was being carried out through war to sustain war. When this method reaches its limit, that will be the moment of internal strife within the Imperium."
"The Astartes Legions stand at the forefront of the Imperium's conquests and are inevitably caught in the vortex of civil war chaos."
Omega's words hung in the air.
A silence fell over the group. Skol, his expression resolute, said, "If the Primarch's prophecy truly comes to pass, I am willing to sacrifice myself to give the Primarch a chance to survive."
"I shall too" the other company commanders said firmly.
Omega was somewhat touched and chuckled softly. "Your words fills my heart to brim, but I hope you all survive and don't lose faith in mankind. Perhaps we will experience many disappointments and betrayals in the future, but with the passage of time, these sorrows and pains will fade. Then, we can stand hand in hand with mortals again. Humanity is such a wondrous race."
"Hahahaha!" Everyone burst into laughter upon hearing the Primarch's words. Rex and Hermo were filled with admiration for Omega.
Although Omega's prophecy shocked these company commanders, they still chose to stand firmly by the Primarch's side. They understood Omega's great wisdom and knew that civil war was inevitable, but they were not afraid.
After resting in the Forge World, Omega's fleet once again sailed away, and soon after, the entire fleet made a warp jump.
The entire Alpha Legion was now divided into four fleets, each with thousands of space warships and a total of over forty million soldiers. Their officers were rigorously trained, their soldiers were equipped with state-of-the-art light armor and weapons, and the entire Legion possessed powerful heavy siege weapons and vehicles, along with millions of bombers and gunships.
The human Imperium's most formidable enemy was the Ork empire of Ullanor, and the Alpha Legion's objective in this operation was the outer star sector of the Ullanor Orks.
However, this time the Emperor had given him a mission to eliminate aliens in coordination with the First Legion's Dark Angels operations.
The light of the Imperium of Man's starlight in the warp seemed visible everywhere, but it did have a range. Navigators could clearly see the starlight from nearly ten thousand light-years away, centered on Holy Terra. The closer you got to the edge of the Milky Way, the fainter the light became, eventually becoming so faint that you couldn't see the starlight at all.
Without the guidance of the Astronomican's light, spaceships would simply drift aimlessly through the warp, easily getting lost in the unpredictable space. This was precisely why Terra's Astronomican was so important.
This was also why most other alien races had conquered very little star territory. The human Imperium's warp travel relied on the guidance of the Astronomican.
During the Golden Age, humanity had relied on subspace beacons to spread throughout the Milky Way.
After losing contact during the Dark Age of Technology, thousands of years had passed, and each civilization had developed its own unique characteristics, with their star systems limited to the size of their local galaxy or a single star region.
This mission involved discovering a lost human civilization from the Golden Age in a starfield near the edge of the Astronomican's light, where they had been enslaved by aliens.
The direction was the northeastern region of the Milky Way, near the location of the Ghoul Stars.
A massive fleet leaped out into the cold, dim expanse of a star system. Omega felt uneasy looking out at the dark, frigid void. The galaxy model quickly gathered data but found no enemy ships.
The fleet moved swiftly and arrived in outer space above the planet Katya within a few days.
Omega stood before the observation window, studying the distant world.
The journey had been too smooth. Even the data reviewed by Company Commander Bright didn't reveal anything amiss. He asked, puzzled, "Primarch, no enemies are intercepting us. Is this abnormal?"
Seeing that Company Commander Skol was also looking at him, Omega slowly analyzed, "It's likely that Lion has given us a planet to test our strength first. The fact that both Dark Angels and Raven Guard are in this sector indicates that these Khrave xenos pose a significant threat."
"There are no typical alien-tech warships or defensive fortresses, and the anticipated space battle is absent. They're most likely a psychic race."
"A psychic race, like the Eldar?" Company Commander Skol asked in surprise.
Omega nodded but felt that the other party was not as strong as the Eldar.
After analysis by the Primarch, the Legion immediately dispatched a large number of hypersonic reconnaissance aircraft into the atmosphere of Katya. Countless spacecraft continuously circled the planet at high altitude, collecting a wealth of data.
The planet model inside the bridge was completed, revealing a planet that was eighty percent ocean and twenty percent land.
This planet had three continents connected together. Ancient human cities were built on the land, but according to aerial data, the population was sparse. Outside the cities, the transportation facilities had been reduced to ruins and forests.
Omega looked at the streets and buildings of a human city spanning thousands of square kilometers and found a lot of garbage and signs of rust.
Bright estimated that the planet's population would not exceed one hundred million, but he found no trace of the enemy, nor did he see any enemy fortresses or spaceships. In particular, the living humans seemed like zombies, and everything felt very strange.
Omega analyzed, "The Khrave's have taken control of the governments of these cities and enslaved the planet. This psychic race is interesting. They're not killing them, they're enslaving them. What exactly do they want to achieve by enslaving humans?"
Omega felt that this strange psychic race was a good match for the Alpha Legion to deal with.
The first step was to gather information. He dispatched a thousand Alpha warriors to infiltrate a small city and kill a Kraf alien to learn about the alien race's purpose in enslaving humans and gain combat experience.
Dozens of gunships sped into the vicinity of a small city on the surface of the planet Katya, and Skol personally led a team to secretly infiltrate the city.
The entire city was desolate, and the humans on the streets were dressed in tattered clothes with blank stares. Skol and his group secretly passed by and were somewhat surprised by what they saw.
They initially thought that these humans were parasitized by aliens, but after conducting research, they found that this was not the case.
The people here were severely malnourished, skin and bones, with very fragile bones, and their brains seemed to have shrunk.
Skol uploaded the research data to the data repository and infiltrated the city again. This time, they took the Primarch's tactics to the extreme, infiltrating the city like ghosts.
[End of Chapter]