This is the bonus chapter for reaching 600 Powerstones.
--
Crimson Drake Gate, Commercial Sector C-7.
This open-air plaza sat in the mid-levels of the starport, acting as a massive layover lounge for passing crews and off-duty grunts.
Right now, the place was completely packed.
Imperial Auxilia, Solar Auxilia, and regular ship crews who got a temporary shore leave pass were rubbing elbows.
People were bouncing between storefronts, buying cheap souvenirs, crushing local Aurelian street food, or just leaning against the massive observation windows, staring out at the beautiful blue-green marble hanging in the void.
But scattered throughout this bustling crowd, a small handful of people were acting weird.
They were spread out across the sector—some pretending to browse the shops, others faking a nap on the benches.
Yet, every single one of them kept their eyes glued to the main concourse leading toward the orbital elevators.
Hovering above their heads, glowing golden gamer tags flickered under the neon lights.
One of the players with a golden ID broke the silence, his voice trembling with mind-blowing shock:
"Holy shit! Holy shit!"
"They aren't kidding about the alpha testers!"
"I can't believe they actually managed to build a starport this massive in orbit!!"
He wildly gestured at the towering architecture around them, completely starstruck:
"I mean, sure, it's a step down from the Leviathan Complex, but that's on Macragge! The absolute crown jewel of the Five Hundred Worlds!"
"Where the hell is Aurelian anyway? It's some random backwater rock on the edge of nowhere!"
"I've literally never even heard of it!"
A player next to him chimed in, sounding equally awestruck:
"No kidding, bro!"
"Crimson Dawn is stupidly rich!"
"Not only are half their players drowning in Imperial Coins, Reputation, and Merit points, but they literally own their own independent planet and starport..."
Another player frowned, looking out the window at the blue-green planet.
"I just wonder how they actually run the place down there."
"Are you blind?"
The first player rolled his eyes at him.
"Look out the damn window."
He pointed at the planet outside, his tone full of absolute certainty.
"Look at the local NPCs here. Every single one of them looks peaceful and grounded."
"Plus, just look at the planet—Aurelian is covered in blue and green!"
"Anyone can tell they're doing a hell of a job running things!"
[The Stars of Baal are Twinkling] leaned in and lowered his voice.
"You guys see the locals over there?"
He pointed at a store clerk ringing up a customer a short distance away.
She was a woman in her thirties, wearing a crisp, clean uniform and a genuine smile.
"I talked to her. She said she's been working here for five years. Eight-hour shifts, two days off a week, and her salary is actually enough to live a decent life here on Aurelian."
"She has two kids, both attending the school affiliated with Aurelian Central University, completely tuition-free."
"She told me..."
[The Stars of Baal are Twinkling]'s voice took on a complicated tone.
"She told me she's genuinely happy."
The channel went dead silent for a second.
[We Blood Magpies Never Steal] finally spoke up slowly.
"Fuck."
"Are we sure this is the Warhammer universe?"
"What kind of alternate-timeline civilized world is this?"
"No way!!"
[Nurgle's Cookhouse Squad Leader]'s eyes went wide.
"Did they seriously establish a progressive social system in the grimdark Warhammer universe??"
"Hard to say."
[Who in the Hall is Suing This Official] spoke slowly, his gaze deep.
"But I'm afraid they actually pulled it off."
"That is fucking insane!!"
--
Over on the other side of the lounge, another small cluster of players wore completely different expressions.
They were similarly scattered, pretending to shop or take a break.
But their eyes held zero awe. Only heavy, grim focus.
Above their heads, black IDs flickered in and out of the shadows.
[Regional Channel (Wings of Freedom)]
[Kingslayer Luna Wolf Horus] stood in the corner of a food court, holding a cup of some local Aurelian drink, but his eyes were glued to the planet out the window.
He fired off a message in the channel, his tone dripping with disbelief.
"Are these guys mental??"
"Did they actually try to pull off the whole 'everyone is equal' gimmick in the Warhammer universe??"
[Inherit Sevatar's Will to Slay the False Emperor] stood across from him, frowning hard.
"Looks like it."
"I just talked to one of the restaurant staff. He proudly told me he was living a happy life and loved his job."
"He said before Crimson Dawn showed up, his dad was working in a mine at the bottom of the underhive. Sixteen-hour shifts, eating synthetic nutrient paste, his body absolutely wrecked."
"Now he's a clerk on a starport, and his kid is studying at Aurelian First University."
"He told me..."
[Inherit Sevatar's Will to Slay the False Emperor]'s voice grew even heavier.
"He said Crimson Dawn gave him back his human dignity."
The channel fell silent.
[Did the Emperor Lift His Ass Today?] was the first to break it.
"So what do we do?"
"From where I'm standing, Aurelian doesn't look much different from Macragge."
"Guilliman is gonna be absolutely thrilled with this place, right?"
"How are we supposed to sabotage this and make them fail the audit??"
[Kingslayer Luna Wolf Horus] sighed.
"The guys doing the audit are Guilliman and Sanguinius."
"Neither of those two are huge fans of mindless destruction."
"Guilliman goes without saying—he's the poster boy for rationality, and a system like this is right up his alley."
"Sanguinius might preach about purging the unclean, but his desire for salvation is way stronger than his urge to purge."
[Octogenarian Sneaking into the Matriarch's Boudoir] chimed in from the side with a ghostly sigh.
"Damn it, if only Leman Russ, that massive meathead, was doing the inspection."
"Or Curze from the Night Lords."
"It'd be so much easier for us to pull some strings and screw things up."
"Fuck."
[Inherit Sevatar's Will to Slay the False Emperor]:
"So what's the play??"
"I'm practically drooling over the Imperial Coins on that group that just showed up."
He pulled up his system interface and read off the data.
"Crimson Dawn Imperial Coin Leaderboard..."
"Rank 2, [Fugitive Cogboy of the Mechanicus], 320 million."
"Rank 3, [Blood Angels' Second Emperor], 290 million."
"Rank 4, [I'm Not the Regent I'm Just Passing By Guilliman], 240 million."
"Rank 5, [Tax Bro], 210 million."
"Rank 6, [Schrödinger's Loyalist], 210 million."
"Rank 11, [Paradox Player Not a War Criminal], 130 million."
"Rank 19, [God-Tier Mechanic], 120 million."
"Rank 33, [The Last Mechanical Scourge], 100 million..."
He swallowed hard.
"Combined, these guys are sitting on over ten billion Imperial Coins."
"God, I want it so bad!!"
[Kingslayer Luna Wolf Horus] took a deep breath, trying to force himself to stay calm.
"Don't panic. Take it easy."
"This audit is probably going to take a while. We have time to observe."
He paused, then issued a command in the channel.
"In a bit, we'll find a way for a few of us to slip away quietly and see if we can sneak onto the orbital elevator."
"We need to get boots on the ground and see what's actually happening on the planet."
"We'll coordinate offline once we know what we're dealing with."
A chorus of acknowledgments lit up the channel.
"Understood!"
"Copy that!"
"Roger!"
–
While they were scheming, Cogboy and the others reached the entrance to the orbital elevator.
A massive pair of doors, standing thirty meters tall, ground open slowly.
Beyond them lay an orbital elevator car large enough to hold over a hundred people at once.
The interior of the carriage was spacious and brightly lit. The domed ceiling and all four walls were made of transparent, reinforced armaglass, offering a crystal-clear view of the void and the planet below.
Cogboy stepped into the carriage first, shifting to the side and gesturing for them to enter.
Guilliman and Sanguinius strode inside.
Following close behind were Marius Gage, Promus, Azkaellon, Raldoron, and the rest of the Legion high command.
[Blood Angel], [Schrödinger Bro], and the rest of the veteran players filed in after them.
As the last person stepped aboard, the colossal doors slowly rumbled shut with a deep, resonating boom.
The carriage shuddered slightly before it began its steady descent down the rail.
The view outside the window began to shift.
The sprawling steel architecture of the Crimson Drake Gate was left behind as they descended, replaced by a massive, widening expanse of sky.
Then came the cloud layer.
And then...
The surface of Aurelian IV.
As the full panorama of the planet slowly unfolded beyond the glass, Guilliman's pupils contracted slightly.
Emerald green pastures.
Lush, dense forests.
Crystal-clear rivers and lakes.
Spotless surface cities laid out in perfectly organized grids, like pristine chessboards.
Between these cities, mag-lev trains glided silently along their tracks, shuttling people and resources to every corner of the world.
Further out lay endless stretches of farmland, where golden waves of wheat rolled gently in the wind.
And overarching this vibrant, thriving world was a brilliant azure sky, dotted with pure white clouds and bathed in the warm, radiant light of its local star.
Guilliman parted his lips slightly, but no words came out.
He instinctively glanced sideways at Sanguinius.
The Ninth Primarch was equally stunned.
His flawless face was etched with a profound, indescribable... shock.
Behind him, Azkaellon spoke right out loud, his voice cracking with disbelief.
"This... this is Aurelian??"
The Commander of the Sanguinary Guard had followed his gene-sire to this world twenty-four years ago.
He had seen the sickly yellow, decaying hives with his own eyes. The filth-stained walls, the choking industrial smog that blotted out the sun.
But now...
He was looking at a vibrant, fully realized civilized world.
"The same planet that was ravaged by Mechanicus-backed factions for nearly a century??"
Tobias Fane stood next to Azkaellon, his eyes equally wide.
"This is supposed to be a fucking mining world??"
Nassir Amit, the notoriously short-tempered Captain of the Fifth Company, was frozen in place.
Complete disbelief was written all over his rugged face.
He opened his mouth, but only managed to force out a single word:
"Fuck."
Seranaphy Nori, the Blood Angels Legion Champion and newly promoted Captain, was standing in total silence.
As the commander who had defended the Aru Industrial Zone and faced down a Warp invasion, he was one of the few who could truly grasp the sheer magnitude of the transformation this planet had undergone.
Standing behind Guilliman, Marius Gage, the ever-stoic First Captain of the Ultramarines, found himself deeply moved.
His gaze swept across the pristine cities, the emerald fields, and the clear rivers outside the glass...
He remembered what he had seen twenty-three years ago when he first set foot on this world.
The sickly yellow sky, the acrid air burning his lungs, the miners fighting just to survive in the dregs of the underhive...
And now...
He suddenly recalled the words his gene-sire had spoken before their departure.
I have a feeling that those officials in the Korianis Sector don't understand the true Aurelian.
Now, he finally understood exactly what his Primarch meant.
Because the paradise unfolding before them was entirely beyond the comprehension of some bureaucrats sitting in offices pushing paper.
Promus...
The Chief Librarian of the Ultramarines...
He was also completely silent.
But a complex, flickering light danced in his eyes, which were burning with psychic fire.
He was reaching out.
Sensing the psychic resonance of the planet.
Sensing the densely packed life signatures pulsing within those cities.
Sensing the raw emotions woven into those life signatures...
Peace.
Resolve.
Hope.
--
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