Chapter 58

Icy planet of Hoth,2 ABY...

The icy planet of Hoth, a planet covered in almost eternal snow as its crystal white crust hid a secret. A giant secret. The planet of Hoth is the new headquarters of the Rebel Alliance after their former headquarters on Yavin 4 was nearly wiped out because of the Death Star which they luckily survived thanks to the Imperium.

Their hidden base here was under the icy mountains with bunkers scattered all over the base, surrounding it and making a defensive perimeter.

They necessarily have men, thousands if not millions of men scattered all throughout the perimeter always defending it day in and day out as the cold never bothered them as they stood there like a good soldier with blaster rifles at hand.

Inside the Rebel base was an absolutely sophisticated military bass as it has all the equipment you'll see from military bases. It has housing, ammunition storage, canteen or cafeteria depends on which English you use, and many more.

The results of the diplomatic talks was rather great for the Rebel Alliance as Leia Organa apparently has almost supernatural ability to convince the people from the Imperium.

However, this base was rather uninteresting. The rebels here was all merely organics, they have no Luke Skywalker. But an attack was well underway.

The Empire needn't information as they organized a large scale operation. The likes that can match the sheer size and number the Imperium poured into the war thus far.

They plan to counterattack on the largest and only theater of the war. The galaxy spanning theater and the icy planet of Hoth is well on the way of this offensive.

This single counterattack will either break or make the war for the Empire as every resources they can get was poured into this very counterattack. They left planets to starve, conscripted even boys the age of 10 to fight for the war. They did every desperate thing imaginable to the point they bit their pride and conscripted alien just to have little of morale increase and at least recover some resources.

They plan on doing large encircle movements to trap and eliminate large portions of the enemy in one fell swoop. This tactic resembles the opening events of the Operation Barbarossa. And just like Operation Barbarossa...

A battle of which the galaxy literally has never seen and most likely will never see once more. Rows upon rows upon rows upon rows of soldiers are being transported on transportation vehicles as varying heights can be seen. Different species of aliens can be seen as they mingled upon one another.

They're desperate and the Imperium knows of it. However, they don't care as an interesting matter was happening on the Imperium.

You can call what's happening as "Enlightenment" or the "Third Founding".

The civics of the Imperium was being overturned as the usual Fanatic xenophobia, Fanatic Militarism, Fanatic Authoritarian and many more are being somehow changed on the more rather interesting aspects.

The brand new Emperor swoop in at their meeting enacting Imperial laws and creating a new constitution for everyone to follow. Strike after strike of the hammer sounded as the High Lords did their job of nodding on everything the Emperor wants.

He knows he can't eliminate xenophobia just by telling everyone to not be xenophobic, he knows this as he read some books on related matter. 10 thousand years of hate on everything that moves that isn't human was not going to go just by him ordering it to go away as people will question his sudden change of attitude. Well he's not xenophobic at the very least before, he knows that but he also knows he let his people be xenophobic and didn't do anything. Out of morality and feeling of guilt, he needs and he wants to at least lessen xenophobia from a race xenophobic even to their same type of species.

So to reduce xenophobia he had to instill his very own Imperial truth as the Imperial truth of the man before him wasn't going to help him in his current situation. He can't eliminate worship, it's a practice that has infiltrated society so deep it's impossible to be weeded out.

This Imperial truth was courtesy of his memories, the Imperial truth he devised that aims to amend and repair the Imperium. And what better way to do this than reeducation.

Because of his memories, he's starting to become more of a human as this set of memories blended perfectly with his current memories unlike before which has thus influenced his personality by being more compassionate and giving him his most needed factor, EQ.

This constitution prioritized innovation as he enacted socialists reforms such as free healthcare that each planetary government must enforce. Free education, though this education was controlled by the government, he has blended them being critical thinkers and having them work hard to change what they see as something broken. Something like a combination of authoritarianism and materialism.

These, and together with more reforms made the Imperium a better place to live and not just some shithole no one, not even its fans wants to live into.

The tens of millions of newly controlled planets was getting ready to be injected with stimulus packages for their rebuilding and betterment as the war will end in a couple of months, that's what the state media at least wants people to believe.

The original million planets will be booming, planets stucked in medieval age will directly jump into the future quite figuratively. They have all the cool toys as they trade with planets near them, making the Imperium prosper through legal extortion aka tax.

The hive worlds will be the most affected by these reforms. It will make them better, more prosperous, and everything. They're going to be the first one to get the new technologies being developed by the numerous technopriest on Mars and forge worlds.

The matter with the ecclesiarchy and inquisition was left to be as upsetting this already perfect harmony will do nothing other than bad. The reforms only focused on the betterment of humanity as a whole.

Quite the great plan isn't? All in all, the Imperium, when lead and has a powerful driving force can do anything and everything no matter how hard the wall, how dangerous the obstacles, they can be conquered through sheer human will. That's why humanity is a force to be reckoned with when united under one banner.

A species of harmless looking sheeps that develops technologies not for prosperity but to harm their fellow sheeps is the last thing you want as your enemy. But them being united under one banner, ideology, and desire, then you might as well surrender as humans tests their weapons on their fellow humans to see how effective they'll be and have a good estimste how effective they will be.

The reforms and the consecutive speeches of explanation by the Emperor regarding this reforms sparked a new warcry, a new desire, a new quote, who's said by the Emperor himself.

...

2 ABY, Holy Terra, Imperial Senate hall...

The reforms was well underway just like the attack and this day was the day the Emperor is going to tell the whole Imperium everything. This day will mark the day the Imperium will change for the better.

The Emperor was walking on the hallway towards the center of the senate hall as the environment was filled with a suffocating aura of regal and majesty.

Custodians and Silent Sisters stood guard near the podium like a rock solid pillar. Their armor shining by the light as everyone felt them to be immovable.

The Emperor has his usual aura of a ruler. Majestic and royal. He's going to give a speech, a simple speech that will inform every human of the new path the Imperium will take from this day forth. Though this speech is only for formalities as no one will even go against his will.

He's walking to the podium prepared on the senate hall as on the background was the Imperial Aquila giving forth pride on anyone looking at it.

The Emperor slowly stood on the Imperium as he smiled at the countless camera prepared for this speech. The countless nobles, delegates and many more was each wearing grandiose clothes with the color scheme of gold and red. They all stood they silently.

Roboute Guilliman with his space marines was standing there as each of them as special capes attached on their power armors. Roboute Guilliman has a particularly tired look.

He hated everything, he hated all the reforms even if he knows it's good. He hated the work as the 16 times going around the Sol system was increased to more than 100 times and this is only the initial work as the reforms still wasn't completely done. That's the length of the paperwork if printed. However, he's happy for humanity as at long last they're back on track. His father will finally implement actual reforms on the system rather than just mend and treat them as nonexistent.

Then there's Vulkan and his salamanders. They're also wearing special capes that's attached to their power armor as they looked at the Emperor with veneration and respect.

Vulkan wasn't stressed by the war at all as he threw all those administrative affairs to his brother Roboute as he focused on doing nothing but just barking others on where to strike next. Life's been good to him now that he has Darth Vader enslaved just so because he thought it's better than to kill him.

As the Emperor rested his hands on the edges of the podium he closed his eyes and relieved the past year.

He's at the dark, but then the Emperor of Mankind returned his memory showing him the light quite literally. After regaining his memory he weighed and meditated on everything he must reform and change within the Imperium with the goal of innovation in mind.

After a whole year, here he is, telling the masses of the reforms as humanity will be right back on track once more.

The Emperor opened his eyes and exhaled slightly as he opened his mouth and started speaking...