On the bridge of the Custodian-class Aircraft Carrier, Shadowsun raised her head.
She experienced a momentary daze—like waking from a brief nap, her consciousness clearing instantly while a lingering trace of fatigue slowly dissipated.
Blinking, her grey-blue eyes reflected the familiar lighting and holographic displays of the bridge. Yet everything around her felt as though it had undergone a earth-shattering shift.
Still, the feeling was fleeting. Shadowsun naturally accepted the reality before her.
After all, this was history as it had truly unfolded. Her memory clearly confirmed that everything was logical and completely ordinary.
She quickly stowed the fusion blasters attached to her suit. With a low mechanical hum, the weapons folded back into their standby configuration.
Her mind began working at high speed.
Who was that mysterious individual who had appeared on the bridge?
Drawing upon her knowledge—the brilliant legacies passed down from the Golden Age of Technology—Shadowsun still could not arrive at a reasonable explanation.
Warp manifestation? Or some advanced teleportation technology?
No, something felt wrong. As an inheritor of Golden Age tech, Shadowsun knew precisely how many overlapping defense systems were integrated into this aircraft carrier. Their preventive measures were sufficient to handle nearly all known intrusion vectors, having repeatedly proven their reliability against Necrons and Orks.
How could a single individual bypass them so effortlessly?
She raised her eyes, casting a sharp glare toward her side.
Elder Aun'Va was slowly rising to his feet. He turned, met her gaze, and gave a gentle nod—a subtle gesture of apology, as if expressing regret for something he was forbidden to speak aloud.
Shadowsun fell silent.
What should we do now?
As the ruling class of T'au Humanity, the Ethereals had guided this human offshoot forward for six thousand years, steering them with the core purpose of reviving humanity under the Greater Good.
Ancient tradition dictated that the finest individuals across the four castes were selected to become Ethereals. They had to prove themselves more farsighted, wise, and capable of leadership than any other member of the castes. Every Ethereal was an absolute paragon.
Once confirmed as Ethereals, they boarded the Black Ship of Enlightenment to undergo ascension. Stored within that ancient vessel was the wisdom of Golden Age humanity, allowing the Ethereals to synchronize their consciousness with ancestral legacies and inherit knowledge far ahead of their era.
Truth be told, Shadowsun had possessed the qualifications to become an Ethereal herself. Her tactical genius, leadership, and the honors she had earned on the battlefield made her fully worthy of stepping onto the Black Ship of Enlightenment.
Yet she had chosen to remain in the Fire Caste. It was not out of modesty or fear; Shadowsun simply felt her place was on the battlefield, not in the council chamber.
Incidentally, her master Puretide, as well as her troublesome brothers Farsight and Kais, had all made the exact same choice.
"So, what do we do now?" Shadowsun asked.
Her voice remained calm, but Elder Aun'Va could hear the underlying confusion in her tone.
"What else can we do?" Elder Aun'Va sighed, spreading his hands.
Their eyes met in the cold air of the bridge, both sinking into silence.
At this moment, a detail warrants emphasis: the physical appearances of Shadowsun and Elder Aun'Va had undergone a striking transformation.
Their limbs were fully proportioned, forming a human structure. Any citizen of the Imperium of Man would identify them as human at first glance, rather than xenos. Their skin retained a faint blue-grey sheen, but beyond that, their facial features, body proportions, finger count, and posture were identical to Terran humans.
Compared to heavily mutated hive dwellers in the Imperium who were disfigured by extreme genetic pollution, the distinction was night and day.
This was T'au Humanity.
As such, they viewed themselves as genuine humans—even considering themselves the true orthodoxy. They regarded themselves as the rightful heirs to human heritage, taking the knowledge of the Golden Age as their foundational root. In their understanding, their human-equivalent features were proof of their divine mandate to revive human civilization: the Greater Good.
Yet clearly, a change had occurred that they had yet to fully grasp.
Shadowsun slowly turned her head, looking out through the bridge's massive viewport into the void.
Though she had seen it many times, her pupils still contracted sharply.
A warship as vast as a continent had materialized in space. Its hull was jet-black, streamlined armor gleaming darkly under the cold starlight. Layers of weapons were stacked along its structure, giving it an aura of absolute invincibility. Its size was so immense that it imparted a natural illusion—making the surrounding T'au frigate escort fleet look like tiny specks in a boundless ocean.
Shadowsun had no doubt that a single salvo from that ship could instantly reduce her task force to nothingness.
"The Speranza," Shadowsun murmured softly.
Indeed. As a human offshoot that inherited much of the Golden Age's legacy, T'au Humanity knew the name of that ship well.
Who could have imagined that their brethren across the void could command a legendary vessel that even Golden Age humanity held in awe?
As for how this warship came to be here, that was a long story. Following the Battle of Cadia, the shattered remains of the Speranza were swiftly retrieved by the panicked Tech-Priests of Mars. Combined with the full effort of a certain reality warper, it had been restored as good as new—completely purged of Chaos corruption and returned to the service of humanity.
"The Supreme Ethereal Council has reached a decision," Elder Aun'Va's voice sounded beside her. "We are willing to submit to the rule of the Imperium of Man."
"...Must we truly do this?" Shadowsun asked softly.
Her question did not stem from defiance toward the Ethereals; she was not a renegade commander like Farsight. Yet as a legendary commander of T'au Humanity, she felt obligated to voice the query.
Regardless, those humans from Terra remained obsessed with an outdated religious faith—something Shadowsun found difficult to fully accept.
Of course, through studying Golden Age records and Earth Caste analyses, she understood that this faith was an inevitable mental shield developed by humans to protect themselves from Warp corruption during the Long Night.
T'au Humanity, however, was fundamentally different. Through genetic engineering, their souls' projection in the Warp had been dampened to an extreme degree. This allowed them to largely evade the corruption and influence of Warp entities.
To learn from the tragic fall of the Golden Age, they had deliberately avoided touching the Abominable Intelligence technology recorded in their archives, relying instead on their own intellect to develop an entirely new AI-assisted system. They took immense pride in their achievements, having neither repeated past mistakes nor opened the Pandora's box left behind by the Dark Age.
Yet now, the thought of being forced by military pressure to integrate into an xenophobic Imperium—potentially abandoning the Greater Good to embrace some feudal superstition written by an unknown figure—left Shadowsun with a lingering sense of aversion.
Elder Aun'Va spoke again.
"However, the terms offered by our brethren across the void are exceptionally generous." His tone returned to its usual serenity, carrying a faint touch of relief.
"They are willing to return the captured Commander Farsight and other Fire Caste expeditionaries. They recognize the political status of our T'au territories and our alien allies, granting us autonomous region status with special tax-exempt privileges so we do not have to pay tithes to Terra."
"Furthermore, they do not require us to abandon the Greater Good—only that we do not hinder the spread of the Imperial Creed. Everything else remains as is."
"Next, we will engage in a series of technological exchanges and mutual support programs with them, similar to the Adeptus Mechanicus of Mars."
"We will unite and fight together for the revival of humanity."
With every point Elder Aun'Va listed, the conviction in his voice grew stronger.
Hearing this, Shadowsun nodded gently. The tight lines of her face softened.
"It seems I was mistaken," Shadowsun said softly, the subtle reluctance deep within her heart completely dissipating.
After all, T'au Humanity had always identified as human. And those brethren who had crawled out from the darkness of the Long Night were naturally their kin. Though Warp storms and the vast galaxy had led them down vastly different paths over the past ten thousand years, they were all human at their core.
Now, they would fight together for the fate of humanity in this galaxy, spreading an ideology capable of uniting all intelligent life: the Greater Good.
How wonderful is that?
Everything felt entirely logical.
---
"The Supreme Ethereal from T'au arrived on Terra today, initiating a historic friendly visit. Imperial Chancellor Tieron met with the Ethereal delegation in the High Lords' Council Chamber at the Imperial Palace."
"The two sides engaged in talks within a warm and friendly atmosphere, exchanging in-depth views and reaching numerous beneficial consensus points."
"Both parties jointly pledged to initiate deep cooperation across various sectors to achieve mutual benefits and win-win outcomes."
"Simultaneously, an inspection team led by Archmagos Belisarius Cawl of the Adeptus Mechanicus has arrived in T'au territory. Under the warm reception and guidance of the Earth Caste, Archmagos Cawl led a group of red-robed Magi to visit several T'au homeworlds and industrial bases."
"The inspection team affirmed that the integration of the T'au will significantly bolster the Imperium's technological and industrial output."
"The Ke'shan, Sa'cea, and N'dras sept worlds have jointly announced their official transformation into Imperial Recruiting Worlds. The T'au Humans' advanced network-centric warfare capabilities and unique tactical systems were highlighted in Astra Militarum reports as a potent addition to the Imperium's military strength."
---
In front of a holographic star map, Lord Regent Roboute Guilliman sat on a sofa with a darkened expression, reaching out to dismiss several floating message notifications. He leaned deep into the cushions, pressing a hand against his forehead, letting out an uncharacteristically heavy sigh.
Even a Primarch was struggling to hold it together.
Truth be told, Guilliman had been buried in administrative duties for so long that he had yet to fully awaken his Warp essence like some of his brothers. Even so, as a demigod in his own right, he retained a degree of perception and resistance against large-scale timeline manipulations.
Two wildly conflicting perceptions of reality were waging war inside his mind.
He was the master of the Five Hundred Worlds of Ultramar, and the T'au territories were geographically immediate neighbors to Ultramar. For that reason, the Ultramarines Chapter had frequently clashed with the T'au throughout history, and upon his initial resurrection, Guilliman had browsed numerous archives regarding the T'au in his Ptolemaic Library.
In those records, the T'au were described as arrogant blue-skinned xenos expanding at an alarming rate along the Imperial frontier, posing a distinct threat to the sector's security.
And now—
He couldn't help grabbing a communication device to contact the one person undoubtedly responsible for this.
"So, do you have any explanation for this?" Guilliman's voice was laced with resentment. "Do you have any idea how much paperwork this is going to generate for me?"
"Hahaha, isn't this outcome fantastic?" Adam's voice came through the comms, his tone light and cheerful as if he had just returned from a casual stroll. "Look, nobody got hurt. A peaceful submission—everybody wins."
"If you don't count an entire alien race disappearing from the historical record as a loss, then yes, everybody wins," Guilliman sighed.
He leaned back, gazing up at the holographic star map spinning lazily on the ceiling, falling silent for a moment.
Truth be told, even the Lord Regent found himself at a loss for words. Adam was right; no matter how absurd the method was, the final outcome was so undeniably positive that even a pragmatist like Guilliman couldn't find fault with it.
The T'au threat—which would have required massive Imperial resources to manage—had vanished without a trace. In its place stood T'au Humanity: a faction that identified as a human offshoot, possessed Golden Age technology, and was eager to integrate into the Imperium.
The anticipated technological exchanges, AI-assisted network integration, plasma weapon hybridization, and industrial force multiplication were all clear, tangible benefits on the horizon. Furthermore, fleets previously tied down along the frontier could now be reassigned to sectors in dire need.
It was a perfect alignment of interests.
"So, where are you right now?" Guilliman set his grievances aside, refocusing on immediate business. "Things are moving too fast. We need to meet in person to discuss our next steps."
"I'm on Terra right now," Adam answered.
Guilliman blinked. "Why are you on Terra?" He sat up straight, his brow furrowing slightly. "Do you have urgent business here?"
"Don't worry. If all goes well, it'll be settled shortly."
As he spoke, Adam raised his head.
Before him, the massive doors of the Imperial Throne Room were slowly grinding open.
Everything was in place.
Whether it was the Great Devourer currently stalled outside the galactic rim by the Black Hole Wall, T'au Humanity seamlessly integrated into the fold, or the vast technological legacies left within the Imperial military framework through reality-warping—
All of it had finally freed his hands to pursue his ultimate trump card.
Compared to that ultimate artifact capable of resetting the universe and rolling back all timelines to the very beginning—the Round Peg in a Square Hole—everything he had done up until now was mere child's play.
He had to obtain it.
Adam's gaze hardened as he stepped forward, walking directly into the Throne Room.