Chapter 96: Sakaar

The inauguration of Nimbus One marked another high point in Terra’s steady ascension. The immense orbital platform, hovering over the equatorial belt, symbolized more than just technological might, it was a bridge between Earth and its neighboring planets. A declaration that Terra was no longer rebuilding. It was expanding.

(Ps. Even though perturabo and other Primarchs brought other wild worlds to control, humans don't have enough population to colonized other worlds, and population expansion are not as fast the world being brought to control by the Primarchs)

As dignitaries, scientists, and strategists returned to their roles after the Emperor’s inspection, a silent moment passed within the deep vaults of Rome’s Sanctum Citadel, where one of the most sacred and secret mechanisms of the new era pulsed in anticipation.

The Tesseract Gate.

Unlike any ordinary warp or void gate, it did not use uncontrolled chaos or demonic sorcery. It was based on principles the Emperor had constructed with painstaking precision, a fusion of the space stone and absolute spatial redirection technology . It could take a person, a legion, or an army anywhere across the universe.

And it could do so at random, by design.

This was no recklessness. The Emperor had built this function for a purpose: to test humanity’s endurance, flexibility, and potential to adapt to beyond its own. Each expedition that went through the Gate carried with it not only faith and arms, but the capacity to return.

Within the subterranean core of the Citadel, the Gate was being readied.

The World Eaters, 5,000 strong, stood in disciplined silence before it. There were no frenzied chants, no drooling madness or screams of bloodlust. These were not berserkers. They were professional warriors, trained, capable, focused. And their Primarch, Angron, stood at their head, calm and alert.

Angron had never been subjected to the Butcher’s Nails. In this universe, he had been shaped early by the Emperor, educated, cultivated. Even though he still hates slavery. His fury had been shaped, not ignited. His mind remained his own, brilliant, sharp, and efficient. His strength unmatched.

He wore battleplate of red and black, etched with sigils of his legion, and his eyes burned with drive, not rage.

“Five thousand,” he said, speaking softly to his lead officers. “Enough to strike. Enough to survive. We are not going for war. But war may come to us.”

The officers nodded.

At the periphery, a team of Tesseract Core Engineers, young human specialists trained directly under Imperial protocol, made the final preparations. These were not tech-priests, nor mystics. They were scholars of physics, interface coders, and logistical architects. The mechanicum or tech priest don't exist in this universe. So humans where trained and taught.

“Coordinates randomized,” one of them said. “Sequence ready. Generator Core loaded aboard your expedition.”

Each of these expeditions was equipped with a Tesseract Return Core, a crystalline-reactor the size of a small tank, capable of being used to construct a new Gate from the other end. Return was not only possible, it was expected.

Angron looked one last time to the Gate.

Then he stepped forward, and 5,000 World Eaters followed him.


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Somewhere Else in the Multiverse
Sakaar

The skies of Sakaar cracked open with fire and thunder.

Not warp. Not magic. But something just as incomprehensible.

The World Eaters arrived not with ships, but with fire-trails of compressed matter, a blink-strike mass insertion, spread across a wide region. Their landing formed impact craters, shockwaves rippling through ruined temples, deserts, and canyons.

Sakaar, a world torn between tyrants, gladiatorial fiefdoms, and aliens, barely understood what had come.

Within a canyon filled with jagged stone and broken towers, Angron stood on a crumbling altar, wind whipping across his cape. His warriors landed one after another, forming defensive positions, scanning for signs of life or threat.

“Assess conditions,” Angron commanded. “Establish a fallback perimeter. Begin long-range survey sweeps. Engage locals only in self-defense.”

There were no blood rituals. No roars of unrestrained rage. The World Eaters functioned like a spearpoint, disciplined, methodical, and utterly alien to Sakaar.

Within hours, they had taken control of a former fortress-stronghold ruled by a petty warlord, whose forces tried to repel the unknown giants.

They were crushed quickly. Minimal casualties. The World Eaters did not revel in slaughter. They gave mercy where it was asked. Those who resisted were killed cleanly. The rest displaced outside the military zone.

Angron inspected the fortress, an old, rusting construct of alien steel and stone.

“It will do,” he said.

In the lower halls, the Tesseract Return Core was activated. Engineers and logistics personnel began construction of a secondary Gate, its foundations already being laid with local resources and tools brought from Terra.

In time, they would return. But not before learning.

Scouting reports began arriving:

Gladiator pits holding humans and xenos alike

High-radiation zones to the north

Fragmented governments and proxy wars

Traces of old technology beneath the planetary crust

The planet was brutal. Primitive. But also full of potential.

By the third day, Angron had sent out survey patrols, to the nearby places to check the surroundings and sent some to the cities of this unknown planet

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Back on Terra

The Emperor stood in his private observatory, looking up at the stars through the massive, transparent dome above the Garden of Rome. A soft chime came from his internal communications node.

“Angron’s expedition has succeeded,” a Custodian reported. “Tesseract jump complete. Contact signal established. Return Core under construction. No major resistance encountered.”

The Emperor closed his eyes and nodded.

And now, in a distant realm where life was ruled by spectacle and pain, a new force had landed.

The Emperor whispered quietly, “Bring light where others live in the darkness.”


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