Warhammer 40: Starting as a Rogue Trader

Chapter 157 The Astartes Development Project
Abaddon may not be the brightest, but he's not stupid enough to believe a lesser god. Cooperation is fine, but he'd never sign a pact with an ambitious lesser god.

Even among the Four Gods, he did not reach the level of faith; everything he did was solely to destroy the corrupt human empire.

Even though he held an unparalleled position in the Chaos Realm, he refused to ascend to demonhood to gain greater power.

Abaddon tore the parchment that Vashtor had handed him to shreds.

Seeing Abaddon's actions, Vashtor was also extremely angry.

While Gao Yi's existence may not be able to shake the foundations of the Four Gods for the time being, since Gao Yi cannot plunder their faith, Vashtor is different. The faith of the Holy Machine is dividing the divine authority of machinery and technology.

The God Emperor was even pleased to see this happen, as it would reduce the amount of faith power he received and further reduce his stress.

For Vashtor, the decrease in faith directly affected his power, and most importantly, it would take him further and further away from the path to godhood.

He wanted Gao Yi dead more than anyone else, and he also greatly desired the technology possessed by the Montgomery Dynasty.

The blasphemous body rose to its feet, its divine power spreading throughout the entire Vengeance Soul, while electronic junk code attempted to infiltrate this powerful warship.

Upon seeing Vashtor make his move, Abaddon also rose from his throne.

He raised the demonic sword in his hand. With the blessing of the divine artifacts, Abaddon's strength was by no means weak, not to mention that there were a large number of Chaos Space Marines loyal to him on this flagship.

Four of Abaddon's personal guards also gathered around.

Abaddon showed no weakness in the face of this pure warp creature. No one could challenge him as the leader of the Black Legion and the chosen one of the Four Gods!
Seeing his predicament, Vashtor withdrew his divine power.

He is very strong, but there is still an insurmountable gap between him and a true god.

He is far from being able to dominate amidst a vast army.

“Abaddon, I hope you will continue to consider my proposal.”

After saying that, Vashtor disappeared from the Soul of Vengeance.

Upon receiving news of Vashtor, Abaddon did not order his troops to pursue.

Vashtor and his followers are still very important to his Black Legion. They provide countless equipment warships, and the demonic engines that can determine the course of the battlefield are forged in Vashtor's Soul Forge.

The title of the largest arms dealer in Chaos is not without reason.

Abaddon kept repeating Gao Yi's name.

The ripples in the warp were also noticed by the Chaos Wizards around him. Not only Vashtor, but as the chosen one of the Four Gods, he also received a decree from the Four Gods.

Like Vashtor, they urged Abaddon to destroy Gao Yi and warned him to be wary of the existence of the Monget Dynasty, who might come to the vicinity of Kadia.

The Four Gods also described Gao Yi as another weapon created by the God Emperor, just like the original.

Abaddon also kept in mind the existence that could attract the attention of the four gods, but he could not change his goal because of Gao Yi, as nothing was more important than destroying Cadia at this moment.

If the enemy really comes here, he will crush him completely with his massive fleet!
Abaddon has returned to his throne, and soon his fleet will begin its real invasion.

He was waiting, waiting for the black obelisks in the galaxy near Cardia to be destroyed one by one.

The Typhon Plague Fleet, which worships Nurgle, has begun spreading a terrifying plague toward the star sector near Cadian. The Plague of the Unbelievers has once again spread throughout the Imperium, tying up a significant portion of the Imperium's resources.

Meanwhile, Lucius, the immortal who worships Slaanesh, has begun to launch attacks on various worlds of the Empire.

The most mysterious Alpha Legion is also carrying out its own plans on various planets.
-
Meanwhile, on Malfurion, a new industrial zone consisting of soldiers, heavy factories, and starports was being built, and Gao Yi invested most of the psionic crystals he obtained in Malfurion into it.

Malfi had by this time become the new forward base of the Montgomery dynasty. The government was beginning reforms, and supplies for expanding the territory were continuously flowing into Malfi via the port of Wandering. After Gao Yi's miraculous display, the state religion of Malfi also began to cooperate with Holt's work.

Malfi initiated reforms from the bottom up.

Meanwhile, inside the biological laboratory aboard the Star Pioneer.

Gao Yi watched as an embryo was developing in the petri dish in front of him. Every day, the embryo would grow significantly. With sufficient nutrition, it would complete its development into an adult in two to three months.

The priests are observing all the data from the embryo.

Once the technology was truly his own, Gao Yi began collecting the best genes.

In addition to what Leon already possessed, Gao Yi also collected genes from interstellar humans and the Night Guardians.

Under the analysis and examination of the priests.

While the genes of interstellar humans, who are not part of the Warhammer universe, also have projections in the warp, they are less sensitive to the warp and more inert for it compared to humans in this world who have undergone natural evolution and genetic modification.

This means they are less susceptible to corruption.

The Night Watchers, enhanced by the divine machinery, have genetically separated themselves from the Warhammer humans.

Unfortunately, it's impossible to completely replicate this powerful gene.

Even if it is injected into an embryo, its powerful genetic characteristics are beyond the tolerance of ordinary embryos.

The embryo may die completely before it even develops.

This caused Gao Yi's attempt to save psionic crystals and directly mass-produce Night Guards to fail due to the bug.

Priests can only try to extract small segments of gene sequences and combine them with other advantageous gene sequences to maintain the stability of the embryo.

"My lord, this embryo is very stable. It is predicted that once it is formed, the physical qualities of the test subjects will reach the level of ordinary gene enhancement. The genes of the Night Guardians are too perfect. In addition, with the genes provided by Judge Lyon, they will be excellent in both intelligence and physical quality."

Once the training is complete, after brainwashing and indoctrination, they will quickly become qualified soldiers!

The priest shared his experimental results with Gao Yi, who was very satisfied.

"If we use the Night Watcher's genes as a blueprint, combined with Guilliman's stable genes, or even just the Night Watcher's genes, could we cultivate our own Astartes? Since the embryo cannot directly bear these genes."

Could the genetically engineered seeds created then be injected directly into pre-selected and qualified candidates to create a new type of Space Marine?!

Unfortunately, Gao Yi did not possess the manufacturing technology for Astartes, let alone the method for cultivating interstellar seeds.

However, based on this timeline, Doraemon should have already completed the technology for the Primitive Space Marines, but he is waiting for an opportunity to resurrect Guilliman and help him promote it as the Primarch.

Dora Coul's Primitive Forging technology and the Space Marine who was the Primitive Forger beside him also indicate that the method of fusing the genes of multiple Primitives to cultivate gene seeds is feasible.

Perhaps we can let him try it out if we make contact with him later! As long as he dares to tamper with the gene seed, normal warbands will not try to change the gene seed. Even if this gift from the Father of Genetics has negative effects, it is still a sacred gift to them.

The cost of cultivating Night Guardians solely through Divine Machines is still too high, not even counting the investment in Archon Armor.

Most importantly, the Night Guardians, who have just undergone the enhancement of the Divine Machine, still need a lot of time to fight and further enhance their strength.

The Space Marines' various superhuman organs, combined with the Night Guard's genes or artifacts, allow them to have an all-around role throughout the early, mid, and late game.

(End of this chapter)