The fires of war are burning, and the shadow of consumption has already covered all of Ultramar.
When the shadow of the swarm obscured all of Ultramar, even the radiance of the Astronomican could not shine upon this dark place.
"For Ultramar, for the gene-mother!"
When those warriors who saw the Primarch shouted such battle cries,
Guilliman, stationed at Hera Fortress, had a somewhat frozen expression.
These brats now, ever since seeing his true form, they haven't stopped calling him 'Mama'!
Although he did indeed follow his mother's example and gave these children enough care, every time he heard the children call him 'Mama', Guilliman still nearly lost his composure.
"Don't call the current me 'Mama'. I'm just a loli right now, why are you calling me 'Mama'?"
"Don't call a loli 'Mama', dame dame!"
Although the Emperor's light cannot currently shine upon Ultramar,
Because of the telephone booth, the Emperor can still see what his child is doing through it.
The golden Corpse-God looked at the still-busy Guilliman and couldn't help but want to drag him to the Terra Imperial Palace to work overtime.
After all, those useless people in the Imperium are far too trashy; they really aren't worth a single hair of Guilliman's.
[Emperor: If only this brat could stand up a bit sooner!]
[When the time comes, I'll get her to Terra, keep an eye on her, and make her work some overtime for me!]
[Right, having a good daughter work overtime for me in the future will be quite easy on the eyes!]
[At the very least, I won't have to have those Custodes wandering around here in loincloths oiling themselves up and playing goddamn JOJO music!]
Of course, Guilliman currently has a mountain of battle reports and supplies in hand, but—the bugs are indeed putting enough pressure on the Endless Agri-World defense line.
The Claws of the Stars units have also suffered heavy losses during this period. Originally, this Chapter, the Claws of the Stars, was over-strength by a full 3,000 men.
The result? After just one small-scale campaign, they have already lost a full Chapter's worth of troops!
Sicarius originally suggested that Guilliman make the Claws of the Stars follow the Codex, meaning they shouldn't receive reinforcements until they were reduced to a single Chapter.
However, Huron, the Chapter Master of the Claws of the Stars—Guilliman had actually met him.
Guilliman also discovered Huron's talent, and so, as the 'Mama' of the Ultramarines, she wouldn't be so harsh toward the successor Chapters under her command.
"Sicarius, just give the Claws of the Stars units enough reinforcements. They are currently guarding the most important defense line!"
"The minor matter of them being over-strength should not be a reason for us to target them!"
"Besides, I am currently taking the time to slowly abolish the codex astartes!"
"I know it's difficult, but perhaps this is a necessary first step!"
Sicarius walked to the Primarch's side carrying tea; he naturally took the Primarch's words to heart.
Watching the Primarch drink the tea, Sicarius couldn't help but ask in a deep voice,
"Lord Primarch, if you want to completely abolish the codex astartes, I'm afraid it will cause a conflict with the High Lords!"
"Although your divine word can indeed make all the Ultramarines agree with your ideas, the High Lords might not agree with such a thought!"
"It's fine!" Guilliman shook his head slightly. Recently, he had heard many voices, for example, criticizing him, this Primarch, for being a bit too idealistic.
Sometimes people would say the policies he formulated were too idealized and had no possibility of being executed.
But Guilliman knew that if humanity lost its ideals, there would have been no Great Crusade, nor would there have been the Emperor's achievements.
Humanity pursues the galaxy and steps into the stars—is it not for an ideal?
If one stops doing something because the goal is too idealistic, then what is the difference between them and those who turned to Chaos?
Guilliman did not say these words aloud; he only buried them in his heart.
He had suffered much questioning from his brothers, and indeed, many felt he was too idealistic.
"Sigh!"
Loli Guilliman put down the pen and paper, propped up her chin with her hands, and couldn't help but lament: "I wonder how my remaining brothers are doing now!"
Looking at the current state of the war, Guilliman couldn't help but make such a comment.
Then, the words brought by the comms officer greatly shocked Guilliman.
"Lord Primarch, this is bad!"
"The space defense line of the Endless Agri-World has been breached. A massive number of swarm warships have begun to pour into the gaps in the line!"
"Chapter Master Calgar said they encountered a Hive Mothership!"
"It is a super giant ship a full 300 kilometers long. This mothership can even continuously produce Narvhal ships and the like to serve as disposable firepower!"
*Clack!*
Hearing this, Guilliman's pupils shrank.
Guilliman wanted to stand up from the chair, but because his legs were too short, he actually couldn't reach the floor!
"Waaaah!"
"Is it actually like this!"
"It seems these hungry bugs have really gone all out to swallow our Ultramar!"
"A 300-kilometer-long Hive Mothership, that's much bigger than my Macragge's Glory!"
"This won't do!"
"Sicarius, board the ship with me!"
"We must intercept this behemoth. Otherwise, once the Agri-World falls, our entire Macragge won't be saved either!"
To Guilliman, his home world was indeed important, but if the most vital Agri-World fell, it would be no different from losing.
Seeing that Guilliman was about to act impulsively,
Caleb, observing the gameboard, immediately realized things were going a bit wrong.
If Guilliman continued to command from the rear and didn't go to the battlefield, there wouldn't be much of a problem even if the Endless Agri-World fell, once Lion's army arrived.
At worst, they could just use a heavy dose of Cyclonic Torpedoes to blow that Endless Agri-World up.
Anyway, Lion had a backup of the 'corn', so they could just pick another barren planet and transform it into an infinite Agri-World.
But if something happened to Guilliman, causing the entire Ultramarines to fall into trouble, that would be a huge problem.
Guilliman, as a chess piece, really wasn't suited for the front lines. Without the Armor of Fate and the bonus of the emperors sword, Guilliman's combat ability as a piece was truly inferior to Lion's.
"No!"
"It looks like I still have to use a special ability!"
"Although I don't know how long it will last, directly twisting some of the opponent's thoughts should work, right?"
Caleb muttered repeatedly at the gameboard, crossing his legs as he watched the frantic Guilliman on the board.
At this moment, Guilliman had already been picked up and set down by Sicarius, who was even thinking that he must put two ammo crates next to this seat in the future.
[gameboard Skill: Mind Twist!]
[Select allied unit: Guilliman.]
[Can slightly twist Guilliman's inner heart, but the degree cannot be too large, otherwise it will be noticed by Guilliman.]
Caleb didn't understand—was it the mission, or was it just Guilliman's trait?
If one wanted to permanently twist certain thoughts of Guilliman's, it couldn't be too extreme.
Caleb really felt he was becoming more and more like the Chaos Gods, or even more twisted than a Chaos God.
Not only could he twist enemy units' thoughts at will, he could even completely Warp certain personality traits of allied units bit by bit.
Caleb suddenly turned his gaze toward that twin-tailed beautiful woman, Angron.
Although the Angron piece in his hand also leaned toward a certain 'loli-ish' style, in some respects, she was closer to a beautiful woman, a bit more mature.
Those extremely characteristic little tiger teeth indeed added a touch of childishness to the original style.
But the height of this Angron piece in his hand was indeed slightly taller than the current loli Guilliman.
"Maybe in the future, I can also use this method to slowly correct Angron. After all, if Angron didn't have the Butcher's Nails, he would actually be relatively normal!"
Caleb was actually very aware that the original Angron was relatively normal, at least much better than 'Boss P' and the like.
If this twisting method proved effective on Angron in the future,
Perhaps he could stage a complete 'NTR' performance right in front of Khorne.
"Right, Alice!"
Caleb suddenly remembered that there might be one fellow who could break through the shadow of the swarm.
Currently, many machine spirits on the ship hulls have already recognized Alice as their mother.
This was something he had been working on long ago; now was the time to make a move.
[Caleb: Guilliman will believe Alice, and Alice will tell him everything!]
[On a whim, he brought Doraemon along.]
[Skill Success—]
Just as Caleb finished using the skill, Guilliman, who had originally intended to set out with the army, paused.
He first glanced back at that dark and terrifying dungeon.
Then, he commanded Sicarius.
"Sicarius, bring that blue Iron Men and the telephone booth along. I don't know why, but I feel uneasy leaving them on Macragge. Perhaps it's better to have them with us!"
"Yes, Primarch~"
Sicarius had no objections upon hearing the Primarch's words; he only felt this must be some thoughtful idea of the Primarch's, which he simply hadn't grasped yet.
Guilliman looked at his former flagship; the machine spirit on it had actually been trying to establish some kind of resonance with him!
Initially, Guilliman didn't want to pay attention to this reaction from the machine spirit.
However, a Magus from the Adeptus Mechanicus blocked Guilliman's path.
"Praise the Omnissiah, praise the machine spirit."
"Great Lord of Ultramar, I can feel that the machine spirit on the ship has a strong desire to communicate!"
"Perhaps only you can soothe the currently restless machine spirit—it seems to have something it wants to say to you!"
"Is that so?"
Guilliman had seen machine spirits that had developed some level of consciousness.
But he had truly never seen one with this level of intelligence.
At this moment, Guilliman even suspected that this so-called machine spirit was some kind of Abominable Intelligence in disguise.
Guilliman had also participated in the former Great Crusade and knew just how insidious and cunning those terrifying Abominable Intelligences could be.
Upon arriving at the bridge, the machine spirit on the hull quickly took control of the ship's speakers.
This wasn't a direct venting of emotion, or some kind of emotional expression.
This was direct control like a Chaos scrap-code, which meant this machine spirit was already very dangerous.
"Lord of Ultramar!" The machine spirit successfully established contact with Guilliman through the speakers.
However, this reaction made Guilliman frown.
"An Abominable Intelligence?"
"Sicarius, during the years I was gone, what did you do to this flagship? Why did you let a strange Abominable Intelligence sneak into it?"
Sicarius quickly waved his hands and said, "I don't know!"
"Our maintenance over these ten thousand years has basically been carried out according to the strictest and highest specifications!"
"No intelligent devices were used in the middle; even the parts inside the ship that seem like intelligent systems are serviced using Cogitator arrays!"
Guilliman glanced at a Cogitator welded to the ship's hull.
That bloody scene truly made Guilliman feel a bit sick.
After the Imperium abandoned all automated intelligence, it became far too twisted.
They had already turned human heads into computer chips.
Guilliman was certain.
These were indeed living brains; they couldn't possibly be a so-called Abominable Intelligence.
He also felt this ship shouldn't have this kind of intelligent reaction.
Of course, it wasn't ruled out that the Adeptus Mechanicus's skills weren't exquisite enough, and they accidentally installed a Cogitator array that hadn't had its personality fully removed.
"What do you want with me?"
"As a machine spirit, logically speaking, you shouldn't have such complex logical capabilities!"
Guilliman stood with hands on hips, slightly closing his eyes, and began to ponder his current strategy.
Currently, the Maccrage's Glory is the flagship of the entire fleet.
If something went wrong with this ship, it would be a heavy blow to morale for the fleet that was about to set out.
"Lord Guilliman, it's not that I want to find you!"
"But our Mother of All Machines, Alice, wants to talk to you!"
"Our Mama wants to chat with you, that's why I came to find you!"
"Ah?"
Hearing this, Guilliman, who was already being called 'Mama' by some warriors, was immediately stunned.
It was one thing for his Ultramarines to call him 'Mama', but why? machine spirits have a 'Mama' too?
And also, what exactly is the machine spirit of this Maccrage's Glory? Although he heard that with this machine spirit, the Maccrage's Glory is indeed more powerful than before.
But this machine spirit couldn't be a 'mama's boy', could it? Why is every other word 'Mama'?
"Bang bang ka-bang!"
The phantom of a beautiful woman suddenly popped up, directly replacing the original holographic star map.
The other party, like Chaos scrap-code, directly invaded the entire ship's system.
At this moment, as long as it was an object with a mechanical structure, it was basically under Alice's control.
The machine spirits across the entire ship were also extremely restless at this time.
After sensing Alice's arrival, the machine spirits instantly turned into Vashtorrs.
"Mama! Mama! Mama!"
No matter what kind of equipment it was, the machine spirit transformed into a Vashtorr.
The catchphrase of these machine spirits looked like they had played too much Valorant, frantically calling Alice 'Mama'.
This sudden scene directly left all the Ultramarines bewildered.
Although they would also call their gene-mother 'Mama' in private, why did their machine spirit equipment have a 'Mama' now too?
Not only that, even the bolters in the hands of the Space Marines were calling out 'Mama, Mama' with a binary jamming sound.
Some Space Marines even wanted to pull the trigger to shatter this holographic image.
However, when they pulled the trigger, they found they couldn't pull it at all!
"Ah, this?"
Guilliman, who had become a loli, only felt this was a hallucination; he even felt he must not have woken up yet, that he must still be in a dream!
He woke up and it was as if everything around him had turned into a 'mama's boy' universe.
It was one thing for his children to become mama's boys, but how did the machine spirits of the weapons become mama's boys too?
[Emperor: I told you there are benefits to becoming a 'Mama'!]
[No, one day I'm going to become a 'Mama' too, and give these daughters a good pinch!]
Although the Emperor couldn't properly observe Guilliman's current situation through the Warp,
Fortunately, the telephone booth is right next to Guilliman!
The function of this telephone booth is actually somewhat similar to Little Lion's Centaur bracelet.
Just as the machine spirits of the entire Macragge, including the whole fleet, were about to turn into Vashtorrs,
This Alice, whom the machine spirits called the Mother of All Machines, smiled and suddenly said to Guilliman,
"Are you little sister Guilliman?"
"Wow, I've heard big sister Lion talk about you!"
"Recently, your big sister Lion and I have been playing Space Marine 2 together. While playing, she's complained about you many times!"
Ultramarines:???
Guilliman:???
Everyone even suspected they had misheard. Lion—isn't that the name of the Primarch of the First Legion?
Why did this strange fellow call Lion 'big sister'?
Could it be that the Primarch of the First Legion had also received the same kind of treatment as their own Primarch?
"Sicarius, take the rest of the people out first!"
"Don't worry about me. I think I need to have a private chat with this strange machine spirit!"
Looking at the machine spirit with the sweet smile, Guilliman for some reason felt—that there were going to be some earth-shattering secrets.
Although he and Lion were often at odds, it wouldn't be a good thing to let his children know too many of the First Legion's secrets.