The Emperor’s Angel of Death

After a moment of silence, the warden hesitantly said:

“Reporting, Warband Leader, on Naysen VI, the environment is harsh. It's cold year-round, and the underground rock strata are extremely solid. In reality, the minerals the prisoners can mine are very limited. It's more about making them repent through labor and expend their energy to prevent further violence.”

“Just answer my question.”

Seeing his last struggle cut short, the warden pursed his lips. He knew that lying at this point would be suicide. The other party would definitely have a way to find out, and he probably wouldn't get any benefits from the Lord Marshal by taking the risk.

Anyway, he was about to retire, and his little treasury had quite a bit saved up. There was no need to risk it for the department.

“Last year, the total output of various raw ores was 7.1 billion tons.”

In fact, this number did align with the warden's description of "limited," not even reaching a fraction of Naysen V's raw ore production.

But similarly, it was also a considerable income, especially for a department.

Soshjan didn't ask about the final destination of these raw ores. Asking would be meaningless. He only wanted to know one thing now.

“If all the prisoners on the planet were to be relocated, how much time would it take?”

“This”

The warden thought for a long while before cautiously replying:

“If it's all of them, it would take at least 3 years, Warband Leader. Many prisoners currently reside in the underground mines. We can only guarantee that they cannot leave the planet, but we cannot guarantee that we can drag them out of their rat holes. It's a very complex and massive undertaking.”

“I can't wait that long, Warden. Two months. I'm only giving you two months. I can increase the number of ships. You notify all the prisoners that in two months, the Adeptus Mechanicus will pump poison gas into all the underground mine tunnels on the planet for a great cleansing. Oh, right, what's the situation with the female prisoners on the planet?”

“Reporting, Warband Leader, the number of female prisoners is 811,902, with an average age of 26.”

“Except for the most heinous criminals, the remaining female prisoners should be temporarily housed in the space station separately. Those with children or who are pregnant should be given clean clothes, sufficient food, and medicine.”

Soshjan was planning to recolonize Naysen VI. The temperature here was a bit low, but not to the point of being uninhabitable. The city's heating could ensure that there would be no problems. The original prisons could be converted into cities. He planned to gradually transfer the mining industry from Naysen V to Naysen VI, partly to reduce the population pressure on Naysen V and partly to alleviate the planet's pollution.

And colonization requires population. Although a group of people could be "grabbed" here through forced administrative power, if the planet is to develop for a long time, it must have a real attraction to allow people to flow here spontaneously.

A large number of unmarried women of suitable age is an attraction in itself. It's not that Soshjan wants to engage in forced marriages. These female prisoners themselves must first work to earn their freedom. It's just that, generally speaking, women's crimes are usually relatively minor, the most serious being usually murder, rarely involving serial killings, riots, and heretical heinous crimes. Even a considerable portion of women are implicated in the entire family under the Imperium's law of guilt by association. (Old Mo isn't punching down; the proportion of serious crimes committed by women is indeed relatively small. This is a fact.)

Instead of continuing to be tortured in a living hell, these female prisoners might as well make some residual contributions and let them become part of the colonization plan. For single men in the underhive, a world with many women and little labor or tax pressure, and also arranges housing and work, should be quite attractive, right?

“Then let's decide on that. Two months, Warden. You have to empty this world within two months, whether by killing or transferring, you decide. This is an internal matter for the Department of Justice, so I won't interfere too much. The new prison is being built very quickly. The barracks there are much more intelligent and the facilities are very complete. I believe you and the prison guards will like it.”

In fact, it wasn't that Soshjan hadn't considered using these male prisoners, but on the one hand, there were indeed quite a few dregs among them, such as perverted murderers, serial rapists, etc. Selecting them itself would take a considerable amount of time, and the colonization work on Naysen VI didn't have time to wait here. Therefore, the Department of Justice could only transfer the prisoners first, and then slowly select the usable people as needed, whether as penal legions or for other purposes, they would be a human resource.

The key was that Soshjan didn't intend to excessively interfere with the Department of Justice's law enforcement. In any case, high-pressure law enforcement was still an important means of maintaining planetary stability. Soshjan could see the tenacious and struggling side of the people, and he could also see the people's blind obedience and susceptibility to incitement. To maintain stability under the Imperium's current cultural atmosphere, strict laws were ultimately necessary—all his current decisions were ultimately based on long-term goals and practical considerations.

After Soshjan made the decision, the warden knew there was no turning back and could only quickly return to his command post to begin the busy work of transferring prisoners.

However, as soon as the warden left, Magos Nassu Mastenbrook found Soshjan. This Magos, brought back from the Maelstrom, had demonstrated amazing talent during his time serving in the Warband, especially in the study of the Annihilator Engine and the Soulreaper, discovering that the core circuits of these two mysterious machines were a structure similar to a thinking logic tree. This meant that these machines possessed "consciousness," but this consciousness was cut off by something—it manifested as an extremely fine nano-level liquid metal flow, and this liquid metal flow could produce a unique quantum signal reaction with the Red Talisman on the Skyfire. This was also why the Skyfire could control them.

Nassu Mastenbrook's research gave Soshjan very important information, which proved that the Gray Matter could not only act on the human body, those nano-level liquid metal flows were likely a variant of the Gray Matter, or even the original form of the Gray Matter. If this inference was followed, and a different approach was taken, then Xerxes's plan was likely not originally applied to the human body!

In addition, although Soshjan did not allow Nassu Mastenbrook to study those mysterious Saint Eagles, he suspected that these things might also have Gray Matter inside. He still remembered Elena saying that these things could fight Primarchs, and were even specially prepared for fighting Primarchs. He had once doubted this, but Nassu Mastenbrook's discovery gave him a guess that Xerxes might have originally wanted to use the Gray Matter to create a very powerful weapon of war, and the target of these weapons of war was his brothers!

Would Xerxes have such strong malice towards his brothers? At least from the memories Soshjan saw, it shouldn't be. Then it was likely that someone arranged or asked him to do so—

Who could arrange for a Primarch?

There were only one or two.

But suddenly, Xerxes abandoned this plan and turned to studying the plan of transplanting the Gray Matter into Astartes.

Then, judging from the timeline, this was probably related to Xerxes's sudden change of attitude after going to Terra!