Starting from the Planetary Governor - Chapter 818

Chapter 813, I have 45 war groups

Ten chapters on the Western and Southern Fronts have surrendered, and three on the Northern Front, for a total of thirteen. This will provide Gu Hang with 26,000 Space Marine seed exchange quotas.

The Alliance itself already has 17 chapters.

Of these, nine—Phoenix, Blood Shark, Spear of the Dragon King, Torch of the New World, Bastion of Domination, Herald of the Sky, Knights of the Law, Corona of Light, and Gnawers—are non-Alliance-founded chapters, meaning they were pre-existing chapters that could provide quotas for Gu Hang. The

first four are self-explanatory; the middle three—Bastion of Domination, Herald of the Sky, and Knights of the Law—were all obtained when the Alliance renewed its tax treaty with the Empire over thirty years ago. Bastion of Domination and Herald of the Sky both use the gene-seed of the Infinite Warriors, while Knights of the Law use the gene-seed of the Golden Knights.

Although they were inferior seeds, the proportion of Space Marines produced, aside from Company Champions and Exemplar Warriors, was slightly lower than that of superior seeds. However, with a high proportion of veterans trained, the overall combat strength of these Chapters was undoubtedly superior to that of ordinary, unsystematized Chapters.

The Light Corona and the Gnawers were derived from two Chapters with home planets that had previously retreated from the Eastern Universe.

In addition, there were seven Chapters—Yellow Springs Gull, Ghost Shark, Dragon Queen’s Shield, Fury Flame, Star Ring Blade, Eagle Vanguard, and Aegis Guard—all expanded from the gene-seed of the original Chapters. Imperial regulations capped a Space Marine Chapter at 1,000, but the Chapter interface gave Gu Hang 2,000 redemption slots. If Gu Hang didn’t want to overtly expand his Chapter’s size, he could instead increase it in numbers.

Previously, he’d been secretive. For example, the Yellow Springs Gull borrowed the skin of a missing Chapter; the Fury Flame was a new Chapter created from the seeds of the New World Torch after the Fury Flame Chapter was annihilated.

But after the Scarlet Scar appeared and the Empire was torn apart, Gu Hang didn’t even bother to act.

Using his status as High Lord and under the guise of a Dark Side Crusade, he launched a “Dark Side Army Building.” Not only were the three Chapters granted by the Empire established, but new Chapters were also created using the seeds of the Blood Sharks and the Dragon King’s Spear.

The Blood Sharks established the Ghost Sharks; the Dragon King’s Spear established the Dragon Queen’s Shield; the Dominion Bulwark, Sky Herald, and Law Knights established the Astral Blades, Eagle Vanguard, and Holy Shield Guard, respectively

. Gu Hang had yet to use the extra gene-seed from the two Chapters recovered from the Eastern Realm, the Light Corona and the Gnawers. After these two Chapters surrendered, Gu Hang first made them surrender their entire stockpile of gene-seed, then gradually replenished them with new blood over the course of several years.

Initially, they were extremely reluctant to surrender their entire gene-seed. After all, it was the lifeblood of a Chapter’s development.

The Empire’s gene-seed tax takes 10% of newly produced seeds, yet many Chapters try to evade this. Some claim they’re fighting outside the war, or they use captured seeds from traitorous Chapters to fill the gap—a practice that carries risks. After all, the Empire’s two main goals for collecting the gene-seed tax are to use it to establish new Chapters, and another, more righteous, goal is to verify the Chapter’s genetic purity through gene-seed. Using seeds from traitorous Chapters can easily lead to mutated seeds, potentially causing trouble.

Some Chapters are willing to take the risk, while others are more cautious, thoroughly inspecting their spoils

. As long as the seeds are uncontaminated and share the same lineage as their own, they can ensure the gene-seed tax remains undetected. Of course, many Chapters simply choose to hand over their seeds, even if the 10% tax is unpleasant.

Now, the Alliance wants all the seeds.

Even if the Alliance promised that these seeds would be returned to them, improving the Chapter’s future development through more efficient methods, higher success rates, and better recruits… who knew they weren’t lying?

Gene-seeds were definitely best left in our own hands.

But what could be done?

They’d already surrendered, and under the Alliance’s tyranny, what room for resistance was there?

Ultimately, no matter how reluctant they were, they had to surrender their goods.

Gu Hang knew the Chapter’s dissatisfaction,

but he didn’t care.

If they would just accept everything, that would be best. However, their dissatisfaction didn’t matter. After all, they had already joined the Dark Side Crusade, and the Alliance Command wouldn’t deliberately try to undermine them. However, war inevitably involves losses. The new recruits were all Alliance members, fresh blood trained in loyalty by the Alliance, and would gradually replace the Chapter’s veterans.

For a while, there wouldn’t be any significant changes. After all, these new bloods will face ostracism, cold stares, and lack of trust upon joining the Chapter. However, their exceptional strength will inevitably rise over time. These new bloods, aside from their loyalty to the Alliance, will not be significantly different from the veterans.

Over time, once all the bloodlines have been replaced, or even without that, as soon as the leadership of the Chapter begins to have a preponderance of Alliance members, the entire Chapter’s character will change.

Gu Hang would call this a “gentle purge,” or perhaps a blood transfusion.

This was done for the Radiant Corona and the Gnawers Chapters, and this “blood transfusion plan” could be reused for the thirteen newly recovered Space Marine Chapters, as a form of overt strategy.

Gu Hang intends to use up all fifteen of the newly recovered Chapters’ seed quotas in the near future.

This will be called the Second Dark Side Founding, and it will be far more massive than the first.

After this founding, the Alliance will have a total of forty-five Chapters under its command.

That’s a total of 45,000 Space Marines at full strength!

In the Imperium’s ten thousand-year history, since the Emperor ascended and left, has the Imperium ever had so many Space Marines and Chapters fighting under one banner?

Gu Hang had never seen it in written records. Perhaps, something similar had happened in some lost, unrecorded historical events.

Even if we push the timeline forward, to the beginning of the Imperium’s founding. At that time, during the so-called Founding Crusade, the Space Marines were still operating as Legions and had not been split into Chapters. At that time, the entire Empire had a total of eighteen Chapters, and their numbers varied, but each Chapter had a minimum of tens of thousands and a maximum of hundreds of thousands.

Judging from the power currently controlled by the Alliance based on the scale of that time, it might be said that the Alliance now possesses a force at the level of a Space Marine Legion.

Of course, there are significant practical differences.

Back then, each Legion was under unified command and had a unified Chapter culture. Each Chapter had a Son of God who commanded the entire Chapter. As a whole, they often led vast numbers of Imperial mortal legions—mostly auxiliary forces belonging to each Chapter at the time.

They led fleets and land forces, and were responsible for entire expeditions. Only when encountering a powerful enemy would they unite and fight.

Now, while the 45,000 Space Marines of the Alliance all serve under the Alliance banner, not to mention the many disaffected and forced dissidents among them, their inherent nature, coupled with their lack of prior collaboration and vastly different cultures and combat habits, makes forcing them to unite and coordinate operations a difficult task.

Furthermore, each Chapter has its own independent command system and succession system. Forcing them to cooperate is inherently unreasonable.

This situation must be addressed.

Gu Hang planned to establish a dedicated Space Marine management agency under the Imperial Dark Side Control Committee after the Second Dark Side Founding.

Each Chapter would be able to send personnel to this agency to oversee all Chapters. Their responsibilities would be to maintain full communication with the Alliance and ensure that, under unified regulations, Chapter logistics, recruitment, operational trends, Chapter Masters, and other key Chapter leadership changes were fully guaranteed.

However, it’s particularly noteworthy that while this would consolidate a Legion-level Space Marine group under unified management and operations, Gu Hang emphasized to each Chapter that their independence would be guaranteed.

He had no intention of re-establishing a Space Marine Legion.

This point couldn’t be emphasized enough.

The Space Marine Codex, a code of law governing the management of Space Marines that had been in place for ten thousand years within the Imperium, was designed to prevent the large-scale gatherings of such a powerful force. The recurrence of such a Legion was a priority. The Legion was split because of the civil war that nearly destroyed the Empire, a painful lesson learned by the Empire.

The loyalist Space Marine leadership fully recognized this rule.

For Gu Hang to challenge the Codex would be a foolish act, consuming his own prestige.

Not only would his current Space Marines have a huge negative reaction, but it would also make it much more difficult to persuade other Chapters to join the Dark Side Crusade in the future.

Furthermore, this statement was not a lie. Gu Hang had no intention of rebuilding the Legion.

If 45,000 Space Marines could truly achieve internal unity and form a legitimate Legion, their strength and influence would be immense.

Even Gu Hang would worry about rebellion.

However, every new Space Marine would be trained at the Zhongsi Academy, consuming grace points within Gu Hang’s system and undergoing commissar training.

However, training by the Political Commissars only significantly boosts loyalty—a shortcut, not a true lock. Over time, there’s a small chance that mindsets will change. Furthermore, if they encounter particularly strong Chaos corruption, even true brainwashing could lead to distorted changes.

While the probability is extremely low, even a one in ten thousand chance is something we must do everything we can to prevent.

If it were to happen, the damage to the Alliance would be immense. Even if Gu Hang personally intervened to quell the situation, it would be severely devastating.

Even disregarding the possibility of rebellion, the excessive political and military influence of a single Legion would significantly unbalance the Alliance’s political landscape.

This was not what Gu Hang wanted.

The current Chapter structure of a thousand-man force was fine. Most Dark Side Crusade battles didn’t require that many Space Marines. A single company was often considered a generous contribution. Battles requiring the full commitment of an entire Chapter were rare, let alone a full mobilization.

Their independent fighting habits, styles and command systems usually do not become a big problem.

And if they really encounter a battle that requires a large assembly, then Gu Hang will probably have to go down in person and calm the situation in person.

In this case, there is no need to worry about any particularly big problems.

…

And speaking of the second dark side army building, there is a small episode.

Among the regiments in the Eastern Universe that chose to surrender to the Alliance, there is a most special case, that is, the “Unforgotten Oath” regiment. They are the same as the other two regiments in the Eastern Universe on the surface. When the Sword of Li Guang was destroyed, they seemed to be shocked and surrendered like the other two regiments, and handed over their gene seeds. The Alliance issued them instructions to let them participate in the expedition, and they went.

No hesitation.

However, in Gu Hang’s system interface, the name of “Unforgotten Oath” cannot be seen.

(End of this chapter)