Chapter - 53

A few hours later, the real Otto, along with his escort, arrived at the base only to witness the slaughter which had taken place in the base, every single Valkyrie, knight, and mech was killed or destroyed, the corridors were stuffed with their corpses. The Overseer made his way to his office only to find an empty-eyed Ambver who was staring at the monitor in front of her

Otto placed his hands on her shoulders but the woman was unresponsive, he could see her breathe so she wasn't dead. He traced Amber's gaze and saw the camera recordings of the base, he skimmed through them and saw the Execution Force hunting down and brutally killing the Valkyries of the base, he was in shock, none of the defenses was able to prevent the slaughter.

He then watched as the Culexus Assassin wrote on one base's walls the words 'Betrayal Comes with a price, none is sheltered by the fury of the Imperium' with the blood of his victims

Suddenly, one of his bodyguard valkyries walked in "Milord, we have found the girl, she was hiding in her home and is safe...milord...what happened here?"

Otto paused for a few seconds before looking at the woman "An Honkai force sent by the Herrscher attacked us while we were in Siberia...the lack of the best Valkyries of ours made any resistance futile..."

Admitting that Anastasia was the sender of the attack would make him look weak and would plant the seed of terror within Schicksal's ranks and he can't allow that. He saw what happened and that's what he needed, he will improve the defenses and rebuild his army...

Another Valkyrie came in "Milord! Theresa-sama is back!" she said surprising Otto

The Overseer looked at the woman surprised as he got up and went back to his ship where the captured valkyries and Theresa were located. Anastasia had released those who have surrendered seemingly out of goodwill, but he knew that was yet another mockery. He then saw Theresa standing in front of him with a grim expression, he collected himself

"What is it Theresa? Disappointed to be back here?" Otto asked earning a few glares from the Valkyries behind the small one much to his confusion

Theresa remained silent and approached him, she stood a few inches away from him before slowly hugging him "She killed Cecilia..."

Otto widened his eyes, that was the last thing he was expecting to hear

"After the Herrscher was defeated, Cecilia tried to attack her thinking that Anastasia needed to recover...but...but..." Theresa's voice broke as tears started falling out of her eyes

The Overseer returned the hug and smirked "Don't worry, my little Theresa...your grandpa is here" he whispered

Several weeks later

Theresa was in her room, in front of her there was the blueprint for a massive complex called Saint Freya Academy, she was smiling as she looked at it. Otto had partially funded the project but due to Schicksal's current state he needed to rebuild his own forces but this didn't worry Theresa in the slightest.

Someone knocked on the door and when Theresa opened it, she wound herself looking at a blonde mature woman "Sir Integra I presume?" she asked calmly

"Yes" Integra replied with a smirk as Theresa let her in and walked her to the project. The woman looked at it while smoking her cigar "Gothic Structures huh?" she said getting a nod "Very well, the funding is already transferred, can't wait to see the final result"

Theresa was about to reply but Integra simply walked back to the entrance "I have to go, there are a lot of things to take care of, this was not the only task I was given" she said before leaving

3 years later, Imperial Capital, Russia

Anastasia was in the research facilities inside her still in construction Imperial Palace, looking at the bodies of the sisters that were recovered upon the arrival of the Imperial Forces on Terra, today the health support system of their power armors will be removed, due to their condition after being turned into Primarchs they needed one but finally their bodies recovered from their wounds and the surgery. After the Honkai eruption, she spent her time focusing on making her new sisters and fulfilling her promises, especially the one made with BB while the other Primarchs secured all of the Imperium's land.

Since then, great innovations struck all the land occupied by the Imperium and this was thanks to the latest discovery...the STC database inside the Ark Mechanicus, BB had used the full power of the Moon Cell to recover it as part of the deal with Anastasia but even she had problems dealing with the immense amounts of data and since then she had been processing all of that info in order to put it to use.

New methods of construction, new weapons, new vehicles and so on were discovered and thanks to them the urbanization of the cities, the improvement of the army and of many other fields was proceeding as fast as it could even the location Anastasia was in is the result of this. She had asked Rogal to make the project for the city and the palace, he was really happy to help her, the Adeptus Mechanicus had worked non-stop since the discovery of the STC, they were eager to construct what it showed them, they no longer doubted Anastasia and every word of her was considered holy.

The former citizens of Russia welcomed Anastasia mostly thanks to the propaganda of the Brotherhood had done during the period of the Soviet Union, the people from South America were grateful to her for protecting them from Sirin's attack but were still somewhat fearful of the Imperial Forces. The same could not be said for the Turkish people, there were several riots for quite a while but stopped once Anastasia's public life improvement took action. The cities became safe, clean, advanced and problems like little resources, hunger and so on disappeared thanks to the presence of terraformed worlds which were literally giants farms and cultivation all managed by the Imperium.

Another very important improvement was on the general knowledge of the people, thanks to the Moon Cell which had recorded several millennia worth of human culture, Anastasia literally bombed her population with books, movies, videogames and many other forms of entertainment, she didn't want her citizens to feel sad or isolated from the rest of the world and so she struck deals with several countries to give them Honkai Energy extracted from the moon.

The Imperium based all of its technology on Aldnoah Energy, so giving the honkai energy to the other countries didn't impact them in the slightest, thanks to this action no country was willing to attack the imperium and no embargo was placed as suggested by Schicksal.

A happy population was the key for her plan of world conquest. In order to keep society pure from moral corruption, the Inquisition became public and was given the task to watch over the imperial officials in order to keep them from abusing their powers.

Anastasia knew that hers, was an extremely authoritarian regime, but it could be way worse and it was necessary for the war to come...

[END]

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