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Instead of launching a full-scale military invasion of Mars, Neos employed a strategy of divine intervention, offering substantial concessions, and negotiating political compromises to forge a peace treaty with Mars. The two sides signed the Treaty of Olympus, also known as the Treaty of Mars. Mars was incorporated into the newly formed human empire as an autonomous vassal state. The day this treaty was signed marked the formal birth of the complete human empire.

When the long, dark night of warp storms completely sealed off the solar system, Terran civilization collapsed, and various technological barbarians clashed endlessly, turning it into a desolate wasteland. Meanwhile, Mars, far away on the Red Planet, developed in isolation, slowly giving rise to the Mechanicus. All the mechanics worshipped Omnesia, the god of machines, and monopolized humanity's remaining advanced industrial system, Titan creations, and ancient dark technology. They commanded a complete Titan army, a massive cult, and giant interstellar docks. With their own military strength, they were confident they could fight a unified Terran to the death, to a draw. Neos completely wiped out all the warlords within Terra, and the Great Expedition was on the agenda. However, Terra's domestic industry was currently in ruins, lacking complete production lines to manufacture interstellar ships, heavy artillery, power armor, and Titan war machines. Mars' industrial capacity became a necessity.

If a forced attack on Mars were launched, the enemy's layered orbital defenses, massive Titan swarms, and multi-layered fortified fortresses buried deep underground would inflict heavy casualties on the Thunder Warriors and the first generation of Space Marines, which had been painstakingly trained. The long-planned Great Expedition would simply be shelved and paralyzed. After careful consideration, Neos abandoned military conquest and chose the path of diplomatic negotiations.

The timing for the alliance was perfect: after the successful birth of the Slaanesh, the intensity of the subspace storms across the entire galaxy decreased significantly, and interstellar travel across star systems resumed; Neos firmly controlled the Navigator family, which was precisely the most scarce and completely uncultivable core resource of the Martian Mechanicus, and the biggest bargaining chip for gaining the initiative in negotiations.

Neos landed alone on Mount Olympus on Mars aboard a gilded, gold-plated spaceship, without any main force or escort, only a small number of royal guards. He then publicly displayed miracles that were enough to overturn the understanding of all mechanics and confirm the existence of Omnesia.

The first miracle was the restoration of a wrecked ancient knight mech by hand. The knight's gears were severely damaged, and its internal circuitry was completely melted. Even Martian Chief High-Ranking Officer Maggie, after days of research, was at a loss. Neos merely touched the mech's outer shell, and without any tools or replacement parts, the broken metal twisted and realigned itself, the melted wiring was reconnected, and the engine, dormant for millennia, roared back to life.

The second event was the fulfillment of an ancient environmental prophecy. Mars had been parched and dry for millennia, with no rain all year round. On the day Neos set foot on Mount Olympus, a rare rain fell from the sky, perfectly matching the ancient prophecy passed down through generations of the Mechanicus—that when Omnesia descended upon the red star, the red earth would receive rain that nourished all things.

The third point is that he demonstrates his omniscient level of technological prowess. Neos casually points out a number of engineering problems lost in the Dark Ages, reveals ancient technological secrets that the Mechanicus has kept sealed away for generations and dared not delve into, and even frankly speaks out about the knowledge of autonomous AI that they keep to themselves and regard as taboo.

Countless low-ranking technical priests immediately knelt down, proclaiming Neos to be the incarnation of Omnesia, the god of machines, descended to earth. The Martian council instantly split into two factions: one believed they should submit to Neos, share technology, and work together for development; the other was staunchly xenophobic, vowing to reject Terra's interference in Mars.

The Mars Foundry Director led a group of high-ranking Magi into a closed-door negotiation room with Neos. After several rounds of back-and-forth negotiations, the two sides finalized the mutually binding "Olympus Treaty".

Neos's core promise to the Martian Mechanicus

Complete immunity for faith

Imperial Truth is promoted throughout the Empire, requiring its people to abandon the worship of all kinds of evil gods and deities, but the Mechanicus is not bound by this rule. The Empire will never interfere with the worship of the God of Machines, has no right to abolish mechanical sacrificial rituals, flesh-and-blood modification surgeries, or gear-based prayers; freedom of religion is permanently protected by the treaty. High degree of complete autonomy.

The Martian homeworld, and all the forging worlds conquered during future expeditions, will be under the autonomous control of its internal administrative laws, private armies, and complete industrial production lines; the Martian Forging Director will hold a permanent independent seat in the Terra War Council, enabling direct participation in all strategic decisions at the Empire's top level. Priority possession of ancient technology.

All ancient ruins, lost STC templates, and ancient weapons and mechanical artifacts within the galaxy will be prioritized for excavation, preservation, and mass production by the Cult of Mechanics; mortal bureaucrats are forbidden from interfering. However, Huang Feng added an extra strict clause: all technical data and STC blueprints held by the Cult of Mechanics must be simultaneously backed up and archived by her to prevent the complete loss of technology. This will fill the gaps in interstellar travel capabilities.

Neos transferred six complete families of navigators to Mars, completely resolving the Mechanicus's fatal deficiency of lacking psionic navigators for its long voyages; he also shared ancient engineering blueprints and genetic modification technology of the first generation of Space Marines, exclusively preserved on Terra and long lost on Mars. A commitment to full-domain military protection was also made.

The entire Imperial fleet, Space Marine legions, and ground forces are obligated to protect every Forged World from alien invasions, homeland rebellions, and the threat of warp demons.

Treaty obligations that the Martian Mechanicus must fulfill

Fully supply all military equipment for the Great Expedition

All types of power armor, missile-launched weapons, main battle tanks, various interstellar warships, ammunition supplies, and battlefield medical agents are mass-produced on Mars and its affiliated forge worlds, ensuring sufficient supplies for the Imperial expeditionary force. Troops will be deployed to support the Galactic Expedition.

The Martian Titan Legion, the Guardians, and the Knight Families must cooperate with the Space Marines to fight across the galaxy, responsible for breaching massive fortresses, engaging in shipboard battles, and defending colony lines. They must acknowledge the supreme authority of Neos, the Lord of Humanity.

Mars will serve only as an autonomous vassal state of the Empire, and no independent trans-galactic regime may be established there. All members of the Cult of Mechanics are nominally loyal to Neos and are strictly prohibited from possessing world-destroying weapons capable of annihilating an entire galaxy. This will be coordinated with the Primarchs and Space Marines' research and development projects.

Deeply involved in the development and improvement of power armor iterations, Space Marine-specific equipment, and Legion special vehicles, and utilizing Mars-exclusive cutting-edge technologies as technical support.

Treaty signing and Martian interior cleansing

With the negotiations concluded, the hardline opposition within Mars refused to recognize Neos as an Omniasian and resolutely opposed an alliance with Terra, launching an internal armed conflict. However, the high-ranking Magi and Titan Legion leaders who supported the treaty, possessing core combat power, swiftly launched a large-scale purge, eliminating all extreme xenophobic factions, and the internal strife was quickly quelled.

The Treaty of Olympia was officially signed, and Mars was incorporated into the human empire, thus forming a truly unified human empire.

This timeline differs from the canonical 40K history in one key way: the Cult of Mechanics has added a second-in-command position, held by Huang Feng, who, together with the Mars Foundry Director, oversees all Cult of Mechanics forces worldwide.

Initially, the high-ranking Maggies were full of resistance, unwilling to accept an outsider from Terra interfering in the core affairs of Mars. But when Huang Feng projected the phantom images of several giant battleships from the Golden Age stored in the spatial storage dimension into the air, their densely packed cannons aimed at the Martian surface, everyone instantly fell silent. When she then took out a massive amount of complete STC templates urgently needed for the current expedition and shared them free of charge, the Maggies were completely convinced and knelt down on one knee without uttering a single objection.

Mars never lost the war and was a vassal state of equal allies. This is the fundamental reason why the Cult of Mechanics was able to remain outside the Imperial bureaucracy and wield immense power for so long during the M41 era.

Neos harbored a hidden agenda: he deliberately condoned, and even actively promoted, the spread of the Omnisian myth, using the deep-rooted beliefs of Mechanicus to firmly bind Martian industrial production capacity. However, he himself did not believe in the so-called god of machines; he merely used the doctrine to exchange for the technology and production capacity to support the Great Crusade. The fundamental contradiction between their underlying philosophies was irreconcilable, sowing the seeds for the later split and conflict within Mechanicus during the Horus Rebellion.

Without the continuous industrial production capacity of Mars, the Great Expedition across the galaxy would have been impossible to advance; all the Space Marine power armor, various interstellar warships, Titan war engines, and military psionic equipment all depend on the production lines of the Martian Mechanicus.