AN: To quote an old trailer…Hell, it's about time.

Speech

Thoughts

Radio/machine speech/scene change

Prologue: The state of the Imperium

Tera: Ten Years after the foundation of the Empire

An imposing figure stared out from the window of the Imperial Palace over New Rome, the capital city of the Imperium. The city was a beacon of progress to the rest of the Empire, towering spires of wraith bone and gold rose dozens of kilometers from the ground like grasping fingers, almost as if they were trying to reclaim the destiny that had almost been stolen from the species that formed this great nation. Beyond those great towers, which served as memorials to all those who died ten years ago, the city was a homogenous mix of architectural styles.

The majority of the structures in the city were "neo-Imperial," a combination of Eldar styling and human materials in a breathtaking expression of the unity that had been achieved. There were also several purely Eldar and old Imperial Gothic structures doted around the cityscape, the opera house was made in the fashion of the Eldar; and all who went to that place would readily agree that the Eldar architecture allowed a quality of sound unsurpassed to be achieved.

Meanwhile the finest example of old Imperial Gothic was the Cathedral in the center of the city, right next to the Palace. It was a truly colossal structure. Ten kilometers high, five kilometers at its widest point, and fifteen kilometers long; it was a masterpiece of engineering. Beyond providing a center of worship for the Imperial Cult, it's massive size allowed multiple denominations to also house their worship there (such as Christianity and Judaism, as well as several Eldar shrines to their gods…The largest being to Ishta, the goddess of healing, and the most powerful Eldar god left in existence).

The massive figure turned and walked back into the room he had been looking out of. As this being walked through the room, he went through a door which led to a massive and opulent throne room; walking along its length the figure passed by the most striking part of the throne room, besides the thrones and who sat upon them, statues of the fallen sons of the Emperor, the Primarchs. Those who had been loyal in life stood proud and were chiseled in a heroic fashion; while their brothers who had strayed by choice or manipulation were in various different states. Those who had been manipulated, like Magnus the Red, were positioned in such a way as to show a redeemed, if ashamed, being; while those who had willingly plunged into the arms of Chaos seemed to beg for forgiveness that would never come, as their souls had ceased to exist with the destruction of the original dimension.

As he reached the end of the room, passing all the functionaries and officials gathered today without so much as a glance, and stood before two occupied thrones raised on a dais, he knelt in the light emitted by one of the gigantic windows of the Imperial Palace; revealing the form of one of the Adeptus Custodes, a Companion in fact. A booming masculine voice spoke: "Rise old friend, what news do you have?"

The golden armored figure rose, and raised his head to look upon the two figures as he spoke. Upon the taller of the two thrones sat the Immortal Emperor, clad in reforged armor that harkened back to the days of the Great Crusade, and on his right sat his wife, Ishta. The union of these two figures had cause some strife back in the infant days of the newly born Empire; puritans and fanatics from both the Imperium of Man and the Eldar opposed it, seeing it as an insult to one or the other…but eventually the doom sayers and the resistance to the union died away as the necessity of this move was made clear.

Clearing his throat, the gene forged warrior spoke: "My lord and lady, the Tau are open to negotiating a trade agreement as are the Necrons…" A wry grin was audible as he continued: "Parking a massive sphere of space fortresses around their systems might have had something to do with it of course. Though I do advise making sure Kit-, the Captain General, is calm and cannot steal any orbital craft when he is informed of this."

A small amused smile played around the lips of the Eldar Goddess as the Emperor laughed out loud, before urging the Custodian to continue. "The western front is holding strong against the latest wave of 'mega-nids,' the Imperial Science Division's new 'trooper' designs have proven quite useful in throwing bodies and firepower that the bugs cannot turn into more of them by devouring their biomass."

"The XXth Legion has just started recruiting to fill their initial numbers, and the XIXth Legion has reached minimal combat effectiveness and is awaiting deployment orders." The Emperor nodded to show he was contemplating where to send the newest legion to earn their first battlefield glories as the his companion continued: "Also the Science Division reports that the first combat trials of the new Leopard tank has been a complete success, and mass production is starting…they predict that within six months the Legions will all have Leopards as their primary combat tank, provided that they do not receive a massive boost in numbers…however they are confident if such a windfall happens they will be able to provide sufficient Leopards to the Legions in two years. Unfortunately they still have not managed to figure out what is affecting our cloning technology, the last batch of clones died in their tubes, Marshal Hallbrecht is understandably upset about that." Marshal Hallbrecht was a leading officer in the Death Korps of Krieg before the Empire was founded, as such the Emperor understood why the old veteran was upset over the latest failed batch of clones.

"Beyond that my Lord the latest colonization efforts are starting to bear fruit. The Shanxi sub sector in particular has proven to have several worlds perfect for research, combat training, manufacturing, and resorts in addition to normal colony worlds. Shanxi Prime however has added that they found another one of those 'gravity guns' that those primitive Xenos used in the ancient past."

Both of the rulers of the Empire gained concerned looks at the mention of those colossal structures. While the archive one Mars had shown that they were used as transportation by the Xenos, some other race might have sprung up since then who used them as super weapons…even if no one did those massive tuning forks were more than capable of transporting ships great distances nearly instantaneously…As had been shown when an obsolete Emperor Class battleship (loaded with scientific instruments and monitoring gear) was hurled from the Western edge of the Empire all the way to Cadia (which is three hundred light years from Tera, and at the time the farthest east their expansion had gone).

The Emperor spoke in a grave manner when he heard this: "Dispatch the Ravens to Shanxi Prime, there they will assist in protecting the system until a fortress network can be completed."

As the golden armored warrior turned to leave after receiving his liege's order, a golden jet bike sped into the throne room. It was smaller and more agile that the ones employed during the Great Crusade and afterwards by the Custodes, but due to the use of UNSC and Eldar tech it was much better armed and armored despite its comparatively small size. While the bike hovered around a hundred feet away from the throne, an Imperial Marine, clad in "Enforcer Mk V" power armor (look up Mantic Games' Enforcers), jumped off.

His shoulder pad's markings designated him as a communications officer assigned to the palace, which explained why a custodian would deign to give him a ride to the throne room. The Marine sprinted from the jet bike and bowed low before the Emperor, "My Lord, I have a report."

A sense of unease filled the throne room as the communications officer spoke, the Companion and his report had been on the schedule; but this Marine had not, and unscheduled news usually meant bad news. The Emperor nodded his head to give the officer permission to speak.

"My Lord, Shanxi Prime has gone dark. Their last communication was sighting unknown Xenos forces."

Prologue complete:

Codex: Trooper Family of Wardroids

Despite the former Mechanicus members resistance to having AI, even basic ones, developed and deployed, the strategic reality facing the Imperium forced them to work with the other members of the Imperial Science Division (I.S.D.) to create such a thing.

The Trooper family is a group of three separate types of wardroids.

Firstly there is the "Grunt" or "Groundpounder" type. These machines are a "dumb" A.I. built into a human sized, and shaped, chassis. Their intended role is as mass produced infantry, deployed under the command of organic or closely monitored "smart" A.I. As such they can carry all the same weapons a regular Marine can…Although to appease the former Mechanicus members and speed up production the Grunt pattern is less well protected than a regular Marine.

Then there is the "Assault" type, a much heavier armed and armored, as well as taller, model. These war droids are propelled by "smart A.I.", to ensure that these models are able to respond faster and more flexibly than the basic model; and are to grunts what Legionaries are to Marines…Albeit still weaker than true Legionaries…However to further placate the mutterings about "abominable intelligences" the old "Three Laws of Robotics" by Asminov were implanted in each A.I in these Assault models.

Lastly there is the so called "Mobile Doll," A.I. controlled Mobile Suits. They are designed to be deployed en-masse and led by an organic pilot in another MS…Or controlled from the mother ship by a designated officer. If deployed on the ground command is instead usually handled by the front's command center or as in space an organic in a MS.

Codex: Leopard Tank

The Leopard tank is an attempt by the I.S.D. to create a powerful main battle tank to replace all the old models previously in service.

It is well defended with a potent energy shield able to withstand sustained fire from a squadron of last generation tanks and mobile suits for a minute before collapsing, and more than able to withstand the bioplasma of over a dozen "King Carnifexes." This is supplemented by armor of 150 mm thickness all around, this armor is made of a new composite which makes the armor equivalent to 10 times that thickness, and even higher on the slopped surfaces; as well as 2 x 12 smoke dischargers, a pair of point defense lasers, and dozens of small improvements to safety over the last generation of MBTs.

It is armed with a single 105 mm Mars Pattern Jaeger Cannon; a potent design able to switch between hyper velocity railgun, high intensity laser, and high powered plasma cannon with minimal effort. A coaxial HMG, able to switch between firing caseless bolter rounds with a plasma coating and being a pure energy weapon; and a hull mounted gatling laser round out the weaponry on this machine.

It is powered by a forth generation cold plasma reactor producing more than enough energy to power three tanks, this power output was mandated so that if necessary one rank could get two more tanks back up and running by jury rigging a link between them…Albeit they would still need replacement part to be self-sufficient again, but in a battle that could swing the odds in the tank group's favor.

To round out this impressive machine it has a top speed of 250 KMPh, although in practice if the engine is red zoned this speed can be easily surpassed…some crews have even reported hitting speeds of 500 KMPh before the reactor started to dangerously over heat.

Codex: The Cloning Issue

After setting up on Terra and other planets, the cloning masters of the fledging Empire were shocked to discover that none of their old cloning methods worked anymore for producing additional humans and Eldar; although animal and seed production was still possible. Many theories were proposed as to why this was. The primary theories though are as follows.

The first theory is that: Slaanesh fucked it up. This theory can be summed up as the former Daemon Goddess somehow screwed the tech up when she vanished. This theory has a small but vocal following, especially among the Eldar. Though if true then only the former Princess of Excess could restore the Empire's cloning to what it once was.

The second, and most popular, is essentially that this new reality's version of the warp somehow interfered with the process, and until it can be filtered out the vast clone armies of the past will always be a memory.

The last theory is also the one most people look at as though the proposer is crazy. That all the deaths created a "will of humanity" and that this being does not wish for the Empire to create any more clones until the genetic pool of the Imperium has expanded enough for the citizens not to get lazy in producing more offspring.