In the Terra Aeterna palace, Kenthelion was still pondering the recent events.
The rebels? With Arcturus Mengsk's nature, I'm confident he can handle them.
Kenthelion thought about them with a mix of confusion and frustration. Wouldn't it be better if they contributed honestly to the Imperium Caelestis? Even though I never let them live like nobles—the capitalist bosses who deceive the people—I still provided them with food, holidays, good salaries, and even chances to vacation in other universes.
So why are they still rebelling?
Is my mind going crazy? This isn't the 21st century with a peaceful government. If this were still Earth in the 21st century, maybe I could understand their rebellion. But imagine if the Imperium Caelestis was like the United States, and all the surrounding countries were aliens, not humans—would it be reasonable for a majority-alien nation to see humans as friends? Impossible. They would do anything to suppress us, weaken the country, even send military forces to turn it into a vassal state—in blunt terms, a slave nation under the aliens.
In the Imperium Caelestis, there was no bribery, no corruption. Every citizen had equal rights to purchase whatever they needed—or even desired—as long as they worked diligently and obeyed the law. The government provided stability. A powerful military ensured their safety. Most importantly, jobs in the Imperium were not like the cruel work systems of the old worlds, such as the notorious "working from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week," or even worse: "working 24 hours a day, seven days a week without rest—like machine-bound slaves."
Kenthelion sat quietly on the balcony of his palace, gazing out at the sea of stars blanketing the sky of Terra Aeterna.
More recently, he had begun inviting scientists from the Halo universe to collaborate with the minds of Warhammer. If he could also bring in researchers from StarCraft, Star Wars, Stellaris, the Gundam Series, and Mass Effect… wouldn't the future of the Imperium become even more prosperous?
That was the optimistic thought.
But on the flip side… he sighed. What if those genius minds lost their grip on sanity and built technologies capable of obliterating the universe?
He let out a dry chuckle and silently prayed none of them would suddenly become obsessed with crafting weapons that could tear apart reality or split galaxies with a single pull of a trigger.
Especially now, with the Fase Eater device already available in the system-wide shopping centers—a machine priced at an absurd level, with the number nine repeating a thousand times in its cost. Maybe that price could be lowered if the Imperial scientists could even slightly grasp its inner workings. But Kenthelion dared not attempt that now. If the fanatical Adeptus Mechanicus caught wind of it… they'd lose themselves in studying it for centuries, possibly never returning with results.
Instead, Kenthelion smirked faintly.
He was still thinking of a rather amusing solution for the rebels: sending them to the savage jungles of Catachan so they could "communicate with the local plants with love"… or better yet, enjoy some quality time with the orcs of Armageddon.
Well then, the pig-like, pale-skinned aliens have nearly been defeated. What other civilizations are still unaccounted for?
Now, the fleet of those pale-skinned swine has been completely crushed—at least, they won't recover anytime soon. After defeating them, the Imperium Caelestis found itself bordering new civilizations. But none of them were human. Some had the heads of horses, bulls, ants, kobolds, taurens, and all sorts of chaotic, disorganized species. Kenthelion even recognized some alien designs that had frequently appeared in media back in the 21st century.
Naturally, he made a decision.
"These things should be put into a zoo," he muttered, sipping his tea. "The ones with tasty meat? Breed them. The ones that taste bad? Slaughter a few and preserve the rest for biological record-keeping."
In Kenthelion's eyes, they were no different from animals—some delicious, some not, but all worthy of cataloguing in his ever-growing imperial zoo.