A few days later, Raelos stood on the bridge of his ship as he addressed the million soldiers across the fleet. The soldiers gathered in their quarters and watched the holo screens as Raelos, the Lord Marshall, informed them of their mission.
"In the outer colonies," began Raelos. "There has been an incident involving the princess and a group of pirates during her visit to the outer colonies. The pirates attacked her alongside her companions, resulting in one of her companions being injured during this attack." He paused for a moment before he continued.
"The pirates have long been a rising problem in the outer colonies, but due to how massive and underdeveloped the outer colonies are, we have yet to deploy a large force. But with the recent events, we will be leading a campaign to eliminate rising gang activity." A cheer could be heard throughout the fleet as the 1 million soldiers were ready to be deployed and get to battle.
Raelos continued, "Once we enter the Outer colonies, we disperse into various battle groups and wipe out every last criminal until they understand the cost of attacking the emperor's daughter." Raelos then turned off the broadcast as he had said all he needed.
The soldiers were split into various battlegroups who would start conducted anti-criminal activity once they arrived within the outer colonies. Each battlegroup would consist of 50,000 soldiers and 5 ships, making the total number of battlegroups 20.
2 days later, the fleet had arrived within the outer colonies via a Dimensional Gate which made travel between the inner worlds and outer colonies almost instantaneous. The fleet immediately split into its respective battlegroups with Raelos taking his battlegroup to Yalara to investigate the pirates who caused this deployment to happen in the first place.
The Garrison commander was alerted days prior and had prepared the garrison for the Progenitors' arrival.
The skies above Yalara dimmed as five massive starships cut through the clouds in tight formation. Civilians stopped and stared as the largest of them, descended toward the reinforced landing platforms outside the planetary garrison. Flanked by Imperial fighters and a well-known symbol marking it as a flagship of a Progenitor.
The landing ramps hissed open, and down came Raelos Vyn, clad in his battle regalia. Behind him marched his Force Scions, the elite soldiers genetically enhanced and created by the emperor and trained since birth. Unlike normal soldiers who didn't have Force abilities, Raelos's entourage was all powerful Force Users and warriors in their own way. Just one of them could make a difference on the battlefield.
Waiting on the landing pad was Commander Arkan Thress, the garrison commander of Yalara. A rugged man with grey-streaked hair, he stood at attention flanked by his second-in-command and several Balance Keepers. As Raelos approached, Arkan saluted, arm to chest and kneeling down on one knee.
"Progenitor Vyn. The garrison is at your command."
Raelos motioned for him to stand up before replying. "Commander Thress. Your men were nowhere to be found, despite the threat to the princess. That will be noted."
"We were spread thin, my Lord," Thress admitted. "Had we known they'd come in force..."
"They underestimated her," Raelos stated, not caring what Thress had to say. "And they were wrong. But now we'll show the entire sector what a real response looks like."
He motioned toward her adjutant. "Deploy the detachment here. I want the entire surrounding province locked down by nightfall. And bring me the interrogation transcripts from the captured pirates."
Within hours, drones, droids, and thousands of soldiers fanned out across the capital and its outskirts. Checkpoints were erected at major roads, landing ports were seized, and orbital patrols coordinated with the planetary shield grid to prevent any unauthorized departures. Raelos was not here to administer justice. He was here to send a message.
While Raelos took charge of Yalara, the other 19 battlegroups scattered across different systems in the outer colonies. Each faced unique terrain, cultures, and pirate threats, adapting accordingly.
By the third day of deployment, the operation was fully underway.
On Yalara, the provincial lockdown had achieved near-total compliance. Surveillance nodes were set up across the capital, feeding constant streams of data back to Raelos's command center located on his ship. From orbit, the ship coordinated orbital scans with ground intelligence, marking every possible pirate holdout and suspected sympathizer.
Raelos reviewed the interrogation files. The pirates captured after the attack on the princess were low-level enforcers, frightened and poorly equipped. But they spoke of something larger, an emerging coalition of criminal factions calling themselves The Shroud. Fragmented, decentralized, but disturbingly well-informed. They knew patrol schedules and they avoided sensor zones.
In his quarters, Raelos spoke privately with Major Selix, commander of the Force Scions assigned to him.
"They're coordinated," Raelos said. "This isn't just some scavenger gang with delusions. Someone's giving them data from inside."
Selix nodded. "That would explain the evasion patterns. We've seen the same on Droskan and Caelix IV, pirates slipping away just before we arrive."
There was a serious expression on Raelos's face. "Someone in the colonial administration is feeding them intel."
Selix raised an eyebrow. "We're gonna do a purge within the colonial administration?"
"Yes," Raelos replied. "But I want these traitors rooted out quietly. Start with the garrison logs. Then expand outward. Anyone who accessed fleet movement data in the last two cycles is now under surveillance."
While internal investigations began, the battlefront expanded. On the jungle moon of Elaros Prime, Battlegroup Seven clashed with heavily fortified pirate bases hidden beneath dense canopies. Flame tanks and thermobaric mortars cleared kilometers of vegetation. Airborne troopers stormed compound after compound. Every captured pirate was interrogated on the spot. No delays. No appeal.
Across the system of Nal Thera, a harsh desert world filled with nomadic caravans and raider kings, Battlegroup Eleven started here. Local mercenaries had allied with Shroud elements, thinking their knowledge of the terrain gave them an edge. It didn't. The Progenitor forces brought orbital strikes and climate-adapted war machines. Within days, four major settlements had fallen, and captured warlords were crucified on pikes at city gates. The message was clear: cooperation with pirates would not be tolerated.
Back on Yalara, the crackdown began to strain the local populace.
Civilians were growing restless under curfews and inspections. Protest groups gathered in the lower quarters of the capital. Some carried signs pleading for peace; others shouted accusations of occupation. Raelos didn't care. To him, this wasn't a political campaign. This was a conflict.
Still, his intelligence officers began noting that unrest could open the door for Shroud agents to infiltrate again. Discontent bred sympathizers. And the Shroud had proven adept at using chaos to their advantage.
In response, Raelos summoned Commander Thress.
"We need cooperation," Raelos said, tapping his finger against the map of the province. "The people don't trust us. Fine. They don't need to trust us. But they need to fear what comes if they hide fugitives."
Thress hesitated. "With respect, my Lord, the people already fear us. But fear alone will not root out the Shroud. It will drive them deeper underground."
"You are correct in that sense. But if they don't cooperate then they will face something far worse than just fear. Many people out here may not believe that the God-emperor is actually a god, but if they keep this up, then they will find out the hard way just who exactly is in charge." Thress didn't know what to say to that. He himself never met the emperor even as a Garrison commander.
After a moment of silence, Thress then offered: "There's a group of resistance veterans from the Border Wars. They've kept to themselves, but they know this land, these people. Bring them in. Give them incentive. Let them be our eyes."
Raelos considered it. "Use them. But if they fail us, you'll answer for it."
Elsewhere in the outer colonies, on Caelix IV, a mining convoy under Progenitor protection was ambushed, timed perfectly with a planetary communications blackout. The pirates had inside knowledge of the convoy's path. The resulting engagement left 82 human garrison soldiers dead. But before the last pirate was gunned down, he activated a secure transmission spike, broadcasting coordinates not just to another pirate cell, but to a dead drop on an unregistered relay station.
The station was boarded three days later by a detachment of Force Scions who subdued any pirates who tried to fight back. What they got from the station was some important data on other pirate bases across the region.
They had allowed this pirate problem to continue rising for too long. Raelos planned to put an end to that and reinforce the Imperium's authority in the vulnerable parts of the outer colonies. The pirates would be first, while at the same time he would be working on the population. He noticed that there was a sever lack of faith among the population in regard to Daimon and he planned to rectify that.
He contacted Progenitor Malis Kaevor, the High Pontifex of the Department of Divine Imperial Doctrine which oversees the faith of the Imperium and told him about his plan. Malis created a task force that will start spreading the Imperial Doctrine and building places of worship for the people. Of course, just like any other places of worship, they would have Force-sensitive religious members present to create miracles such as healing the severely sick children childless parents getting a miracle child, or other similar cases.
This would be directly attributed to the God-Emperor, ensuring more people were converted to loyal and faithful citizens of the Imperium. With the sudden appearance of Malis and his task force, Raelos was confident that he could turn the situation around. It wouldn't be instant, nor would it be easy, but over time the outer colonies would fall in line like anything else that the Emperor set his sights on.