Warhammer, I'm a nanny, not your father!

Although he knew the result would not be what he wanted, Locke was still very disappointed.

His voice seemed to be squeezed out from between his teeth, and each word was coated with the bitterness of bile. "This is already the fourth Primarch. It seems that the Lord is still unwilling to show us favor."

Jill had an equally bitter smile under his helmet, who knows?

At the outset of the Great Crusade, it became known throughout the Imperium that a friend of the Emperor had taken upon himself the burden of restoring the Imperium, as had the Imperial Regent Malcador.

In the eyes of the legionnaires, that lord's duties were far more arduous and more worthy of respect than those of the Imperial Regent Malcador.

Yes, they acknowledged the hard work of the Imperial Regent and that the Empire's expedition was inseparable from Malcador's contributions.

But that lord's sacred duty is to retrieve the Primarch for the Legion!

And that lord had accomplished his mission brilliantly. Shortly after the Great Crusade began, he successfully retrieved the first Primarch for the Empire, and not long after that he retrieved the second Primarch.

And this is indeed the case. The interval between the return of the second and third Primarchs was only three years, and the interval between the return of the third and fourth Primarchs was also only three years.

According to that lord's efficiency, he can find an original body in three years. It seems that everything is moving in a good direction!

It’s a pity that the round moon shines on Terra, some are happy and some are worried.

Locke: "Have you figured out the new logical sequence?"

Jill: "The Legion Librarians are still calculating, but they have no clue."

After the return of the Primarchs of the Sixteenth and Eighth Legions, the happiest legion was the Fourth Legion.

Since eight is one-half of sixteen, and four is one-half of eight, doesn't this imply that the next one to return will be the Primarch of the Fourth Legion?

Don’t worry about how the logic is derived, I just want to ask you if it makes sense!

In addition to the Fourth Legion, the Twelfth and Twentieth Legions were also very happy.

Because sixteen and eight are multiples of four, twelve and twenty are also multiples of four.

Although this logic is not as strict as that of the Fourth Legion, it is still better than other legions that have nothing to do with it, right?

What if the next one to return is their Primarch?

However, after the return of the Primarch of the Seventeenth Legion, this logic was broken, and the order of return was not a multiple of four.

The happiest group at that time was the Ninth Legion. Although the Ninth Legion had a bad reputation, the logic was there!

Sixteen, eight, seventeen, so isn’t the next number necessarily nine?

You say my logic is illogical?

Then let me ask you, is the logic of others logical? Who can be more logical than my Ninth Legion?

Now that the Primarch of the Sixth Legion has returned, the most disappointed is the Ninth Legion, and the other legions that failed to find their Primarchs are also equally dejected.

"Jill," Locke's voice suddenly dropped, "did we do something wrong?"

Jill didn't know how to answer. Now all the legions speculated that the order of the Primarchs' return might be based on the preferences of that lord. Otherwise, why was the order of these Primarchs' return illogical, and even their home planets were located in different places?

Especially the Primarch of the Eighth Legion, his home planet was on the northwest edge of the Eastend Star Region. Even if the Empire spent another two hundred years, it would be difficult to advance the expedition to such a far frontier of the galaxy. But their Primarch became the second Primarch to return!

Rumor has it that the Lord even used his powerful psychic abilities to open up a Warp route directly to Terra for the Primarch of the Eighth Legion. If this is not favoritism, then what is?

However, many legions were unwilling to admit that the order of the Primarchs' return was based on the Lord's preferences, as that would leave them with no advantage.

Many legions had to begin to examine themselves, to see if they had done something wrong that displeased the Lord, and that was why they had not yet found their Primarch.

If they could perform better in the Great Crusade, would that lord take notice?

"Locke." Jill reached out and pressed Locke's shoulder armor, forcing out a stiff comfort, "At least we are not the worst off. Think about the First Legion."

Locke thought about it and it was right.

Yes, and the First Legion!

The First Legion is the oldest and largest of all the legions, bar none.

During the War of Unification, the first three legions of the empire with a size of over 10,000 were the First Legion, the Eighteenth Legion and the Sixth Legion.

When the Great Crusade began, many legions had less than 10,000 men, while the First Legion already had tens of thousands.

The First Legion was undoubtedly the Emperor's most beloved, and many speculated whether it would be the first Primarch to return. While some envied him, most legions were not jealous.

The First Legion has indeed made great achievements in battle, and that is the honor they deserve.

However, one-fifth of the Primarchs have already returned, but the return of the Primarch of the First Legion is still a long way off.

With the return of the Primarch of the Sixteenth Legion, they could still comfort themselves by saying, "The Sixteenth Legion made great contributions to the pacification of the Moon, and it is normal that their Primarch is the son of the First Returner." However, the return of the Primarchs of the next three legions was enough to make the expectant First Legion silent.

Locke admitted that he felt a certain amount of schadenfreude, but the brief relief brought by the black humor was short-lived.

The First Legion was in a terrible state, but the Twelfth Legion wasn’t any better either!

Although the Emperor once called the XII Legion his War Dogs, the XII Legion was proud of this title.

But in terms of honor, they are not as good as the First Legion and the Sixteenth Legion. In terms of obscurity, they are not as good as the Eighth Legion. Only the Seventeenth Legion Iconoclasts are in a similar situation as them.

However, the Primarch of the Seventeenth Legion has returned. How dare the Twelfth Legion dare to challenge the Golden Words Messenger?

Locke murmured to himself, "Gil, do you think I'll be able to see the Primarch return in my lifetime?"

The intensity of the Great Crusade's wars was far beyond mortal imagination. In every war, many comrades fell forever, and Locke was not sure whether he could survive the next war.

"Come on, Locke!"

Jill pulled Locke's shoulder armor hard, and the sound of metal collision echoed crisply in the cabin.

He deliberately placed his visor close to the man's forehead and turned up the volume on the loudspeaker. "There are still sixteen Primarchs in the galaxy who have not returned. Who dares to say that our Legion won't be the next? Perhaps this trek into the Warp is the guidance of that lord?"

Locke was amused by him, but neither of them took him seriously.

The Warp itself is not very peaceful, the tides are changing every moment, and getting lost in the Warp is quite common. They just accidentally ran too far, so how could they be so lucky as to meet the Primarch?

Besides, the previous Primarchs were all retrieved by the Emperor himself. What does that have to do with these legionnaires?

Most people who have this kind of dream are probably still asleep, right?

"Warhounds!" Locke gently pushed Jill aside and shouted to the warriors in the Triumph Hall, "The fourth Primarch has returned! As long as we conquer enough worlds, the Twelfth Legion can be the sixth or seventh, if not the fifth!"

"Whether the Primarch returns or not, we should all fight bravely for the Emperor and not bring shame to our Primarch!"

"boom!"

In the brief silence, the sound of ceramsite gloves hitting breastplates echoed in the Triumphal Hall.

"For the Emperor! For the Imperium!"

……

"Report the situation, Captain." Locke and Jill stepped onto the bridge, their power armor making heavy echoes on the floor.

"Captain, we have contacted the rulers of Nuceria. Their world is very fortunate, and the High Gothic language is well preserved."

Before the Age of Strife, High Gothic was the lingua franca of human civilization, spoken and written as a native tongue by all civilizations.

Unfortunately, thousands of years of conflict have caused many civilizations to forget what High Gothic is. This forced the empire to learn their language before contacting the locals, because the level of the locals' learning of High Gothic is really hard to describe.

Locke: "Nukeria, is that the name of this world?"

"Yes." The captain brought up the holographic image of the planet. "Nuceria is very similar to a world we conquered before. The Age of Strife caused them to lose contact with human civilization, and civilization has degenerated into a system of city-states."

"The Imperial diplomats had a pleasant chat with them. After learning that we were from Terra, they expressed their happiness in joining the Empire and hoped that we could provide them with some privileges."

"What kind of privilege?" asked Jill.

"They hope to intermarry with the nobles of Terra to ensure the purity of their bloodline."

"That's it?" Locke was surprised. "I thought they would request autonomy."

Requests for autonomy are common on worlds conquered by the Empire, and if a world surrenders peacefully, the Empire will usually grant autonomy generously.

Because the Empire's administrative system is not sufficient to manage the vast territory of the entire galaxy, delegating autonomy is a last resort.

As long as they paid tithes on time and supported the Empire's great expeditions, the Empire usually didn't care how they ruled the local area.

The Empire was too busy, with millions of worlds to recover, to have time for a civil war.

Captain: "They did tentatively request autonomy and hinted at whether the Empire could help them unify Nuceria."

Jill asked, "What is the name of this city-state?"

"Dervash."

Jill: "What a lucky guy."

Locke smiled, he was indeed a lucky guy.

Although the empire will give autonomy to the conquered world, the prerequisite is that the world must have a unified regime, because unity means stability, and only a unified regime can provide the empire with a steady stream of tithes.

Empires usually don't have the energy to distinguish between good and evil. In order to improve efficiency, they usually only cooperate with the first regime they come into contact with.

If they haven't yet achieved unification, the Empire will help them.

But unification does not necessarily require killing. Empires usually first demonstrate their strength through an efficient war, forcing other regimes in the world to cooperate with them.

If they agree, everyone will be happy.

If they ignored the Empire's warnings, the Empire would retaliate with war.

Locke: "What's their technological level?"

Captain: "We're still exploring the exact level. The advance fleet has discovered some defensive platforms in orbit around the planet, capable of threatening our largest battleships. There's also equipment that looks like a shipyard, but we haven't found any trace of the fleet."

Jill: "Orbital defense platform? Looks like they have quite a legacy."

Locke: "Could their fleet be hiding?"

Captain: "Unlikely. Based on our past experience, worlds isolated by the Age of Strife typically don't allocate resources to the extremely risky task of interstellar travel. Exploring worlds outside the galaxy will not aid their rule; instead, the waste of resources will lead to civil war."

"Austria scans didn't reveal any targets suspected to be from the fleet, and cosmic background radiation detection revealed no traces of the fleet's remains."

"But judging by the fact that Nukeria is able to communicate with us through deep space, the civilization on the surface is probably quite advanced. A landing operation would likely be quite risky."

"That's something we should consider," Locke asked. "How long will it take us to reach Nuceria?"

"About two Terra hours."

Locke: “Did they make any other requests?”

"Dervash said their city-state was being attacked by a group of mutants, and they described these mutants as beastmen. Considering that they also used High Gothic, these should be the beastmen we are familiar with."

"They asked us to help them defeat these brutal mutants, preferably by directly destroying their nest. To this end, they also sent us a map and coordinates of the planet's surface."

"They also mentioned that a city-state called Desia had been captured by the Beastmen and all its residents had been brutally murdered. They hoped we could conduct an orbital bombardment of Desia."

Locke was puzzled. "They have orbital defense platforms, why don't they do it themselves?"

Captain: "Based on the intelligence we have so far, control of the orbital defense platform appears to be in the hands of another city-state. Furthermore, they haven't used these ancient facilities in a long time, and they've never maintained them. No one knows if they can still fire."

"A typical lost civilization." Locke shook his head. "Jill, have your company assemble on the deck and prepare for an orbital drop."

If it were any other legion, they might also consider whether there were any traps.

But they are war dogs, and war dogs are relentless.

Jill nodded silently, the servos of her power armor humming softly as she turned.

The captain asked, "Should we conduct an orbital bombardment?"

"No," Locke said, "Don't trust the words of these barbarians. They are just backward, not stupid."

"You mean they'll try to deceive us?"

"Why not? We can help them solve their big problem with just a flick of our fingers. Once Desia is wiped off the map, will we still be able to verify who the city-state belongs to?"

"But even if their enemies are indeed the Beastmen, our Lord has never explicitly rejected them. As long as the Beastmen are willing to surrender, the Empire allows them to continue to survive, and even to fight for the Empire."

Locke paused slightly, "As long as they are still human."

Not all Beastmen are legal Beastmen, as many Beastmen have completely lost their minds and are unable to communicate. They are not even qualified to serve the Empire.

……

The 13th Expeditionary Fleet is the main force of the Warhounds, comprising three thousand Space Marines, as well as specialized support forces and naval units.

Jill's 8th Assault Company has always been the main force of the legion, and it always engages in the most brutal landing battles.

This is the trust the legion commander has in them, and they are proud of it. The more brutal the battle, the more it proves their courage and honor.

Including the company commander, Gil, the 8th Assault Company has exactly 880 soldiers.

The Dreadclaw assault pod tore through the planet's thin atmosphere, and the friction between the outer armor and the air burst into a dazzling orange-red flame.