When it came to the Dreadnoughts, Zhou Ye felt a certain helplessness he could not quite shake. The others were manageable. But the Space Wolves Dreadnought was one he genuinely did not dare send back. And if it kept following him around, he could see the future clearly enough: wherever he went, a pack of huskies would trail behind him, driving him slowly out of his mind.
He could not exactly arrange a delivery either. There was no telling whether something might slip. And if any of his secrets were exposed in the process, that would only make things considerably worse.
"Play it by ear for now. No way of knowing how strong the enemy is this time. If he cannot be offloaded this round, there will be a next one. This Space Wolves pack has probably decided to stick with me permanently."
Everything depended on the specifics. If the enemy turned out to be genuinely weak, he could find a way to push things forward. Though it would most likely mean leaving the Dreadnought in a state where he could barely regain consciousness, and even then with significant memory gaps once he did.
"First step, go see what is actually happening out there."
He glanced at the Lamenters, who were still in the middle of integrating the new implants into their bodies, then stepped back into the Gullest chassis to relieve Ai-chan.
As for the Lamenters, he had also added a few personal modifications to their Gene-seed while he was at it. A set of interference mechanisms, designed to give them a fighting chance against the Red Thirst and the Black Rage.
Whether it would actually work was something even Zhou Ye could not be certain of. Everything else was one thing. This reached into the Warp.
Warp-adjacent problems were in a different category entirely. Fabius Bile's own daughter had been corrupted by Slaanesh. Things went sideways in that domain in ways you simply could not predict. So the outcome was genuinely uncertain.
"Take your time with the recovery."
He gave the Lamenters group one last glance. Good. They would heal at their own pace. No point disturbing them for now. Time to go see how the briefing was going.
Then....
"Captain, you are now the recognized Supreme Commander."
Zhou Ye was not particularly surprised by that. The moment he had produced four Dreadnought Ancients, he had known no one would question his authority. The Space Wolves had accepted it without argument either. So he set aside his other thoughts and brought his attention back to the immediate matter.
"Old tradition, putting the Ultramarines lineage in command. What is the actual situation? How deep has the Nurgle contamination gotten?"
"I am afraid it is not looking good. I asked the Space Wolves about their situation. They were swept here by a Warp storm. Their Navigator was even possessed by a daemon."
"Which daemon?"
"Tzeentch."
"Did it say anything?"
Hearing that, Zhou Ye's brow gave an involuntary twitch. Because the picture forming in his mind was something he had been trying not to think about. Nurgle on one front. Then Tzeentch sends people his way.
This felt like a situation he recognized from the future. The Plague Wars. Guilliman.
"Let me go and ask......"
"They said the daemon spoke nine words."
"Which nine?"
"Plague. Five Hundred Worlds. War. Beginning. Conspiracy. Reality. Future. Chaos. Calamity."
"Oh, you absolute--!!"
Zhou Ye blinked. Then let out a curse before he could stop himself.
He had simply wanted to secure one planet for recruitment. And now somehow this was becoming the opening movement of the Grand Free-for-All.
This was the Plague Wars in early gestation. Nurgle going after the Five Hundred Worlds. If that was genuinely what was happening here, Zhou Ye could say one thing with certainty: this was going to be an extraordinarily dangerous campaign. A truly spectacular Grand Free-for-All.
"Ai-chan."
"Yes?"
"Mobilize resources. Take everything except the Emperor's Children Gene-seed, and get me five hundred Astartes out of it. Then draw from my material reserves, and if that is not enough go straight to energy conversion. Build me an Emperor Titan."
"Captain, what are you planning?"
"I just hope the worst-case scenario does not materialize. If this planet goes wrong, the entire sector gets contaminated. More importantly, we might have to risk a Warp transit... and even the Warp might not be usable. If contamination is everywhere, even a jump becomes difficult."
"So..."
"This could become an Apocalypse-level conflict. At the end of it I might have to go all-in personally. Also, Aestia. Forget it. Pulling one Astra Militarum Legion out of there is probably the absolute limit."
He muttered that last part under his breath and shook his head. He could only hope his fears were overblown. This time it looked like everything was going in.
"This is Warhammer all right. Everything converts into the Grand Free-for-All eventually."
"What is the plan?"
"Deal with the Aeldari Pirates first. They are making a mess of the rear. Especially the Drukhari among them. Any we find go down on sight."
"Understood."
Zhou Ye nodded, then....
"I am going to handle them personally. I have always found the Aeldari genuinely interesting."
Being used like a company drone and buried under an endless pile of administrative work was not something he was prepared to accept. Imperial reinforcements were not coming. Getting any kind of response out of the Imperium would take ten years at a minimum.
But resources were not his problem. The three STC templates had been traded for enormous quantities of materiel. Combined with his prior aggressive and frankly destructive mining operations, his material reserves were substantial.
In truth, Zhou Ye had not particularly wanted to hand-build certain things from nothing. But this time there was a genuine chance he was about to run into serious trouble.
Daemon Primarchs: not afraid.
Ku'gath Plaguefather: also not afraid.
Typhus the Traveller: meme material, but Zhou Ye cared about him even less than the others.
What he was concerned about was Nurgle himself potentially intervening directly. There was no way of knowing whether the God-Emperor would manifest again this time. And if left unchecked, this entire region could be contaminated in moments. At that point blocking his Star Rail tracks would become a real possibility.
He had already laid one track, but if he needed to run...
"Can we jump? I wanted to go scout other worlds for additional resources."
"I am sorry, Captain. The contamination index here has already risen to a point where departure requires physical atmospheric exit...but we cannot achieve faster-than-light travel."
"Nothing for it but to go at it. Wretched planet."
Zhou Ye's eyes flickered at that. This time was not going to be easy.
"I will go deal with those Aeldari first. Oh, and take my Warhound to the Orks. Help them get their technology up to scratch. Best case, get them to produce a Gargant. We might genuinely need the Orks holding the line this time. And the Aeldari probably know something."
With those brief instructions given, he walked out. Then he jumped directly onto his motorcycle, hit the throttle, and rode off.
The others would not be waking up for a few days. Best to go deal with the nuisances first. If his read on the situation was correct, Nurgle was going to invest everything it had in this place.
There was no way he was fighting this alone anyway. If it came to it, keep running the Grand Free-for-All. It would not be the first or second time. And if conditions allowed, he might even have cause to summon a few of Tzeentch's pieces onto the board.
---o---
Author's PS: Do not worry everyone. I am not going to pull cheap tricks. And have you really not noticed all the foreshadowing I have been laying out this whole time?