Warhammer: Starting as a Planetary Governor

Biogenic Vault Sector.

On his way to the vault, Eden encountered almost no resistance—any who dared stand in his way were swiftly dealt with.

But that didn't mean it was safe.

The Black Legion seemed to realize they couldn't stop the Chaos Reaver.

So, they changed their tactics—retreating from the space fortress, shutting down its defense array, and then ordering their Chaos warships to bombard it.

Their plan was to destroy the fortress outright, taking both the Chaos Reaver and Imperial Astartes down with it.

This would also ensure that certain Black Legion secrets would be destroyed, preventing them from falling into the Reaver's hands.

After all, compared to resisting a massive allied fleet, blowing up a defenseless fortress was much easier—and much more destructive.

Even the body of a Primarch couldn't withstand concentrated shipborne firepower, let alone mere Astartes.

In fact, the Primarch Horus had once used such orbital bombardment tactics to obliterate huge numbers of Loyalist warriors lured to planetary surfaces.

BOOM—

A macro-cannon strike slammed into the fortress, causing it to tremble.

"Tch… this is way too dangerous. We need to wrap this up quickly!"

Eden looked toward the bombardment zone. Towering fireballs had erupted, completely destroying part of the fortress.

Fortunately, the Redeemer Fleet reacted swiftly and destroyed the Chaos ship that had launched the attack. They then formed a defensive perimeter around the fortress to intercept incoming bombardments.

Still, more Chaos warships were desperately trying to break through and head this way.

If the Chaos fleet breached the lines and concentrated their fire on the fortress, no amount of flak nets would stop them!

He had to transfer Fabius Bile's legacy back to the Dreamweaver before that happened.

At the Vault Entrance—

Tech-sergeants were already busy blasting open the sealed vault door to create a breach.

"Savior, sir! We've finished drafting a transfer plan for the biological systems!"

At that moment, the Biologis Sages also arrived, carrying all manner of advanced scanning and research gear.

Time was short.

To ensure the secure and complete removal of the biological labs, Eden had sent the entire team from the Dreamweaver's underbelly bio-lab.

Any delays, and the incoming bombardment would destroy everything.

He ordered the Mechanicus team:

"Transfer anything of value. Especially anything related to genetic engineering."

"By the Omnissiah, we swear on our lives—no biotech will be left behind!"

The leading Biologis Sage made the vow. For years, they'd been working on cloning tech to serve the Savior's own cloning facility.

They were always eager to study more advanced biological sciences.

Now, as they stared at the sealed vault, there was a glint of both excitement and scientific hunger in their eyes.

Behind that door could lie the most advanced biotech in the galaxy.

Fabius Bile's achievements in this field were unmatched. All Biologis Sages knew of him.

He was the only one—apart from the Emperor—who had succeeded in recreating Primarch-level lifeforms. Even if they were clones, that was a staggering feat.

He was a towering figure in the world of bioengineering.

Of course, most Biologis Sages merely knew about him, but didn't dare touch such forbidden knowledge.

If they tried, the Inquisition would come knocking before they even got their test tubes warm.

But under the Savior's banner, things were different.

These Sages had long been researching and cloning the Savior's Primarch body—dabbling in these forbidden sciences was a daily occurrence.

And all completely legal.

They had formal registration with the Urth Tribunal, plus the appropriate licenses.

Such privileges filled the rest of the Imperium's Biologis circles with envy. Some Mechanicus adepts even tried to "immigrate" via high-tech channels, just to get citizenship and join the Savior's Mechanicus.

Eden knew even more about Fabius Bile.

The self-proclaimed "Primogenitor" had tried to clone the Emperor himself, and had fully cloned Primarchs like Ferrus Manus, Lorgar, and Horus—complete with near-perfect consciousness.

Yet tragically, even these Chaos-tech-created Primarch clones still maintained their loyalty to the Emperor, and were barely touched by corruption.

As a result, Fabius had to repeatedly destroy them.

Whether this counted as success or failure was unclear.

Perhaps the original Primarchs were inherently linked to the Warp, which made this outcome inevitable.

Bile's greatest cloning success was probably the clone of the Fallen Phoenix, Fulgrim.

At one point, Fulgrim had been possessed by a daemon.

To save their gene-father, his loyal sons managed to capture him and brought him to Fabius, hoping he could exorcise the daemon.

Fabius and the sons used a variety of "unorthodox" methods, including sorcery, biological therapy—and a series of rather...medieval punishments.

One of which involved forcibly inserting a spiked pear of anguish into their gene-father's rear.

Truly, followers of Slaanesh always share the same disturbing imagination.

According to Fulgrim himself, he'd actually regained control of his body early on, but chose not to resist in order to "prove his innocence."

Eden was quite sure that deviant just wanted to indulge in some group prisoner play under the pretense of purification.

Thanks to this incident, Fabius obtained Fulgrim's genetic material and secretly cloned a baby Primarch—"Little Fulgrim."

Amazingly, this clone was not only loyal to the Emperor, but also pure and virtuous like his brother Primarchs.

In order to preserve this success, Fabius quickly fled Slaanesh's territory, planning to raise and study the child further—perhaps even corrupt him over time.

But things didn't go as planned.

Little Fulgrim matured at a rapid pace. Thanks to the Emperor's implanted genetic memory, he inherited all knowledge of the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy.

He was overwhelmed with guilt over what his original self had done, and grew to hate his fallen self and the traitor brothers.

He even began rallying forces to launch a crusade against them.

Unfortunately, before he could act, Fabius betrayed him—selling him out to the "Miniature King" Trazyn the Infinite and the Necron Overlord.

The clone was captured and now likely slumbers in Trazyn's top-tier collection.

"One day… I will recover Loyal Fulgrim and beat the ever-living Warp out of the Fallen Phoenix…"

Eden mused.

He'd been coveting Trazyn's vault for a long time, but could never locate it.

If he ever got the chance to loot that place, he'd hit the jackpot. Not just with ancient tech relics, pristine gene-seed from the Great Crusade, and bizarre treasures...

But also a living specimen—an ancient greenskin beast from the time of the Old Ones.

If he could get his hands on that and breed a new greenskin subspecies, their combat strength would skyrocket, and they might even regain ancient Ork tech.

That would be huge.

BOOM—

Just as Eden was deep in thought, the tech-sergeants successfully blasted open the vault doors. Shards flew in every direction.

Hum!

Eden instinctively raised a psychic barrier to shield the team from flying debris.

As the smoke cleared, the vault was finally revealed.

Without wasting time, Eden led his team inside.

The vault was devoid of life—only some Chaos servitors and servo-skulls were maintaining basic systems.

It seemed the Black Legion had tried to utilize this lab but either lacked the technical expertise, or the contents were too hazardous.

In the end, they just sealed it.

Eden looked toward the corrupted lab.

There were all sorts of experimental devices, rows of incubation pods, and wandering Chaos servitors. Some areas had even turned into corrupted breeding pits.

He approached the incubation pods and saw all kinds of twisted abominations, mangled Astartes corpses, and gene-seed-like samples floating in jars.

This was the hallmark of Chaos biogenesis tech.

And it was exactly why Fabius Bile had such prestige in the Eye of Terror.

He could mass-produce and enhance Chaos clones, extract gene-seed from Chaos Astartes, and had even acquired pure gene-seed from the Great Crusade via Trazyn.

No wonder he was the most beloved Biologis in all of Chaos.

The fact that the Chaos forces in the Eye of Terror have managed to survive endless wars and even expand is largely due to Fabius Bile's genetic black market.

Thanks to these gene-seed trafficking operations, he's been able to gain vast resources to fuel his twisted experiments.

The Imperium has hunted him down countless times, but never made significant progress. The man is simply too cunning—with numerous clone bodies scattered across the galaxy, each maintaining independent laboratories.

It's impossible to truly kill him off.

What's worse, he seems to have used biotech to make himself effectively immortal, ensuring his madness will never end.

There's no telling when he might create a new catastrophic threat.

"One day, when Fabius logs into the Mechanicus Forum… we'll have him," Eden muttered.

He had already instructed the Urth Mechanicus and the Inquisition to lay traps for that very scenario.

And when they catch him, he's going to make that freak spill everything—all of his biotechnology, ripped straight from his twisted mind.

The lab evacuation began swiftly.

Biologis Sages disassembled equipment and incubation pods while analyzing them, carefully securing each item into quarantine containers to be transferred to the Dreamweaver's underbelly bio-lab.

Eden followed them deeper into the vault. While Chaos biotech could be useful in building his future Chaos-aligned forces, it wasn't what he was truly after.

This lab really did live up to its name as Fabius' largest legacy site—every step deeper revealed even more astonishing horrors.

At one point, Eden spotted what appeared to be a Primaris-like Astartes in an incubation chamber.

It was possible that Fabius had already begun studying Primaris technology, and even after their public debut, had kidnapped a few and begun attempts to upgrade them.

But eventually, he seemed to have given up.

The man even publicly declared, "That hack Belisarius Cawl is a mediocrity. Only a mediocrity could produce something as uninspired as Primaris Marines—they pale compared to my creations!"

Suddenly, there was commotion ahead.

"By the Savior—what abomination is this?!"

Several Void Angels, tasked with protecting the Biologis Sages, gasped as they gazed upon something just unveiled.

"…What the hell?"

Eden walked up and was stunned by what he saw.

Inside the incubation pod floated a female figure—arms crossed over her chest, slightly curled, with a near-perfect physique and small demonic horns protruding from her forehead.

Yet it was clear at a glance—this was a genetically modified warrior. More precisely, a female Space Marine.

No wonder the Void Angels had such a reaction.

In their worldview, Space Marines had always been exclusively male. This shattered that belief entirely.

Eden frowned slightly and waved the Void Angels away, ordering them to leave. Some secrets were simply too forbidden—knowing them could compromise even his elite warriors.

Thankfully, only his direct gene-progeny were allowed into this vault, and all had received strict instructions to maintain secrecy.

If the existence of this lab were ever revealed… the fallout would be explosive. Even Guilliman might not survive the political storm.

These secrets would have to remain under wraps—researched discreetly, if at all.

Fabius Bile creating a female Astartes and other strange beings wasn't surprising.

He abided by no rules and worshiped nothing. He was, perhaps, the only known Chaos-aligned individual still loyal to the Imperial Truth.

He was more "pure" in that belief than even Guilliman or Eden themselves.

The Imperial Truth preached reverence for science, the rejection of superstition and blind faith—it was staunchly materialist.

Of course, that philosophy was barely practiced. Not long after it was declared, Lorgar, that deluded priest, began the Emperor-worship cults.

Massive temples sprang up across the stars.

Now, the Imperium is fully entrenched in theology and mysticism.

Even Eden can't reverse that—he must continue leveraging faith while trying to promote scientific advancement where possible.

But Fabius? He was the purest materialist imaginable. He rejected the existence of gods, refused blessings from the Chaos Gods, and used Warp power solely as a tool.

He believed the Chaos Gods were nothing more than natural forces given sentient form by the beliefs of lesser minds.

Daemons, in his view, were incomplete lifeforms with no true free will.

He even tried to convince daemons that the Chaos Gods weren't real—and apparently made some progress.

Incredible.

Yet sadly, Fabius had created too many lifeforms with biotech. Their subconscious worship left too many traces in the Warp.

He now showed signs of ascending into a Warp god himself.

To him, perhaps even godhood was just another biological phase. Nothing worth worshiping.

Eden largely agreed with his materialist outlook. He didn't revere gods either.

But he couldn't discard faith-based power just yet—not until Chaos and alien threats were eliminated, and humanity was safe.

And if he were honest… he wasn't sure he could give up the power of absolute reverence and authority, even then.

For now, he'd take it step by step.

"By the Omnissiah—what a miraculous creation…"

A Biologis Sage ran scans on the female Astartes, trembling with excitement.

"Savior, this clone is a perfect genetic specimen! Not only is she physically powerful—she also has full reproductive capabilities!"

Eden inhaled sharply.

This must be what Fabius called his "New Humanity"—a genetically enhanced lifeform capable of reproduction. If such beings began to multiply, they might entirely replace baseline humans.

When the Emperor created the Primarchs and Astartes, perhaps due to technical limits—or perhaps by intent—he made sure they could not reproduce.

Because allowing that would mean creating a whole new species to replace humanity.

Worse, such a species could enslave humans… or deem them obsolete.

This was one reason the Emperor restricted the Primarchs' power, preventing them from ruling the Imperium. He wanted to preserve human agency.

Even current Astartes still needed human recruits to be transformed.

But Fabius' female Astartes needed nothing. She could breed. She didn't need humanity.

That would terrify anyone.

When Fabius first created his "New Humanity," Fulgrim himself panicked—and even the Chaos Gods became alarmed.

They quickly reached out and captured the prototype—named Merusin—and tried to corrupt her.

Because if she reproduced at human rates…

The galaxy would be overrun by a race of billions of genetically engineered Astartes-level beings.

Even the Chaos Gods would be flattened by them.

The mere possibility was enough to terrify the Ruinous Powers.

They had to eliminate the threat.

Eden looked closely at the female Astartes in the tank. She showed no signs of life.

She was probably an early prototype of Merusin, not yet perfected, and not yet a threat.

"Seal it and transport it. This tech is now classified at the highest level," Eden ordered.

He felt conflicted—unsure whether to destroy the tech, or use it.

But if it scared the Chaos Gods, it might be worth keeping—maybe someday he'd find a perfect use for it.

Once the tank was secured, the Biologis Sages uncovered one last chamber—with shocking biological treasures.

It was what Eden had truly hoped to find—cloned Primarchs and their full genetic codes.

Inside the chamber were over a dozen incubation pods. Most were empty, but there were still finds to be made.

He saw several Primarch infants, and based on pod markings, he could identify them—Lorgar, Fulgrim, Ferrus Manus, and more.

"Tch… who's this one?"

He spotted a cute baby girl with angelic wings—clearly another Primarch clone. He gasped.

Fabius had gender-swapped the Primarchs?!

But then again, Moss had created a female version of the Savior too. Maybe this was just a tech-nerd quirk.

Sadly, most of the infants were mutated or in deep stasis. Many had already died—seemingly killed intentionally.

Eden suspected Abaddon. He wouldn't allow rival Primarchs to mature.

Even so, the loss wasn't devastating.

So long as he had their gene codes and cloning techniques, they could be revived.

Besides, Eden didn't want to resurrect them recklessly—it could lead to endless complications.

But if their souls could be found in the Warp, this tech might provide them with new bodies.

For Primarchs, the Warp is their true essence. Their bodies are just vessels.

Even this one chamber's genetic inheritance was invaluable beyond measure.

At the gene-bank deep in the vault, Eden finally found what he wanted most—twelve Primarchs' full genetic codes and some remains.

Combined with the genes salvaged from Guilliman's therapy sessions…

He now had thirteen Primarch gene sets.

Sadly, there was nothing from Horus. Most likely, Abaddon had taken his remains and buried them.

Maybe even on Savalgar… Eden was tempted to dig the place up and create a loyal clone of Horus to beat the crap out of Abaddon. (Better than Salvatore)

He didn't have all twenty gene sets—yet—but thirteen was enough for now. He'd find the rest later.

Who knows? Maybe if all twenty were combined, they could recreate a being as powerful as the Emperor himself…

Regardless, these thirteen gene-sets would form the core materials for Eden's next major plan…

(End of Chapter)

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