Chapter - 21
"This is all that remains of the UNSC, our next step in evolution" Halsey said as Merlin expelled the inhabitant of one particular pod.
The armored figure that emerged from it, slowly walked towards Halsey "Catherine..."
"John..." Halsey replied with a bittersweet smile "It is time to finish this fight"
The Spartan nodded before looking at Anastasia
Anastasia's face turned stoic "I'm Anastasia Apocalypse, Primarch of the Crimson Slayers Legion, Empress of Imperium of Man"
At those words, John quickly performed the military salute "Petty Officer John-117, waiting for orders"
"Also known as THE Master Chief" Merlin added with a chuckle
Anastasia returned the salute out of respect for the warrior "Your orders are simple, help me protect all that is beautiful"
"Yes ma'am" Master Chief replied
"BB" Anastasia called
"Yes?" BB replied sounding amused
"Get everyone out of their sleep...ships included" Anastasia ordered
BB chuckled "Aye Commander!" she replied as all the pods opened and the last UNSC fleet returned alive...
back on the Eternal Protector
Anastasia was on the bridge of the Emperor-Class battleship, her eyes were looking at the imperial fleet as a thought was stuck on her head.
Alatan seemed to notice his Primarch expression "My Primarch, may I ask you what are you thinking?"
"250.000 space marines, a less than two thousand Spartans and the Mechanicus" Anastasia said with a serious tone "We are not enough"
"Well, of course, we are not" Merlin said as he stepped inside the bridge causing several imperials to look at him bothered by his presence "There is a reason you were tasked to create your sisters and you have the gene-seed of their future legions" he said before and a mischievous smile appeared on his face "but I would pump up those numbers to the millions, my Empress"
Anastasia raised an eyebrow "speak"
"We have visited several planets inhabited from humans and due to serval circumstances involving an honkai apocalypse, turned into Death Worlds" the caster replied "And there are several Primarch candidates on them along with armies of Honkai hating soldiers...all of them driven by the fact that one day they will be called to fight and get their revenge "
"Is this true?" Anastasia asked Alatan
"Yes, my Empress" the legion master replied nodding "with each reset, humanity kept popping up in the planets which used to rule over, and every time we would make contact with them in order to spread the teaching of the Emperor, several of these planets had many conflicts on them and every time the Honkai monsters appear the planets turn into Death Worlds, many of those saw humanity that was destroyed but the people who survived on the other planets became natural warriors, there are no Space Marines with them of course, but they are the finest guardsmen you'll find in this galaxy, the Mechanicus produced them several small fleets in order to for them to occupy other planets to use for soldiers' training ground
Merlin nodded to show his agreement "They are worlds that focus on the sole objective of creating soldiers and I have no doubt that there will be many volunteers with the requirements to become Space Marines"
Anastasia nodded solemnly "we shall go there then"
Krieg
Anastasia could barely believe her eyes, if she had to describe hell, she would describe the planet she was on. Merlin told her that Krieg in his original universe was a quite wealthy hive world and she knew that Death Worlds weren't exactly pretty, but what she was seeing was literally a massive endless battlefield.
"Looks like that some things are the same even in other universes" The captain-general of the Adeptus Custodes Kitten said as he appeared on Anastasia's HUD
"You mean that your Krieg is also like this?" The Empress asked
"yes, the planet once-wealthy fell into an apocalyptic civil war between those loyal to the imperium and the traitors, The loyalist launched a surprise attack that ended with the almost complete destruction of the surface due to way too many nuclear warheads detonating on its surface" Kitten explained
"their victory cost them the planet..." the woman replied with a sigh
"absolutely fucking not" Magnus intervened as he also appeared "those bastards kept fighting even after that apocalypse, their war turned into one of attrition that lasted for centuries that ended with the death of fifteen generations worth of humans lives"
"I wonder how this Krieg turned out to be like this" The Emperor said as his figure appeared while scrutinizing the horizon.
"This place has one of the possible candidates to become a Primarch" Merlin said with a smirk
"Oh no, get the fuck out of our psychic conversation you half-human incubus" The Emperor said
"Oh come on! I'm here to help!" Merlin said with a chuckle
"Fuck off" The Emperor replied
"Who is this you are talking about?" Anastasia asked as she heard the sounds of someone marching towards them.
The Legio Custodes and Adeptus Astartes put their guard up
"She's here" Merlin as said as a battalion of gas-masked individuals reached their position
She was a tall, beautiful, and slender woman with long, light blue hair and blue eyes. She was wearing a heavy white coat with black fur, on her side rested a sort of sword.
"General Esdeath" Merlin said as he waved his hand at the woman
"Merlin" Esdeath replied with her eyes fixed on Anastasia "And you're..."
"The Empress of Mankind" Alatan said as the gas-masked soldiers quickly knelt
The woman named Esdeath did the same as a smirk appeared on her lips "Finally, this long wait was starting to tiring me out"
Anastasia felt a stinging sensation coming from her stigmata
"HOLY SHIT!" Magnus said as he looked at Esdeath "WHAT IS THE BLOOD INSIDE OF HER! HOW IS SHE STILL HUMAN?!"
"Calm down, Magnus" The Emperor said
"Father, what is this sensation?" Anastasia asked
"Since you can't take the time of developing the Primarch Project as I did, I put you some sort of radar capable of picking up people who can be turned into Primarchs" The Master of Mankind said calmly as Anastasia slowly nodded in understanding
"Let's walk" Anastasia said, her eyes glued on Esdeath. She made a gesture to her Space Marines and Legio Custodes to wait for her and Esdeath did the same as she rose up from her kneeling position.
The two women started walking through the wasteland alone "Tell me of this planet" The Empress requested as Esdeath slowly nodded
"Where should I start?" the General said with a small chuckle "Several Millenia ago, on this planet, there was an Empire which I used to serve, an extremely corrupted one at that, I didn't care much of all the stuff they did, I was there just for fighting and doing some tortures, a revolution started and war broke out, long story short, the Honkai started popping out everywhere in infinite numbers and the war never ended, what you see today is the war still raging on" she said casually almost with a hint of amusement
"You couldn't beat the Honkai?" Anastasia asked
"Of course we could" Esdeath said "...but the planet was already too far gone to be prosperous again and we didn't...then that Merlin guy arrived bringing those sweet ships and guns and explained us the whole deal of the Honkai, me and the others decided to split up and to go on several worlds in order to prepare ourselves for the battle to come" she explained as she pointed at the sky "My soldiers are waiting for the Primarch to call them to action"
Anastasia narrowed her eyes "You have all those men and yet you didn't stop the war nor conquered Terra, why?"
"Conquering means ruling and I'm not interested into ruling" The General replied shrugging
"So what is that you desire?" The Empress asked as her mind was suddenly flooded by an intense bloodthirsty aura
"I wish to fight in the bloodiest war that this galaxy ever saw" Esdeath said, a wicked smile printed itself on her expression "Merlin told me what is to come and during this time I have prepared what he asked me to, I have pushed myself to my limits in order to be stronger but it''s still not enough"
Anastasia would have paled if she still was a normal person but instead remained calm "War can't last forever" she stated probably expecting to see Esdeath's grin disappear but instead her features softened, she was cute but in a creepy way.