Warhammer 40k : Starting as a Primarch

Dukel ignored the thugs and looked at the little girl. The girl was about eleven or twelve years old, with beautiful blonde hair and a very thin body due to malnutrition.

At this moment, she was curled up on the ground, not even reaching Dukel's knees. From the Primarch's perspective, she resembled a dirty, fragile little creature.

There was a nameplate hanging around the girl's neck and a photo in her hand. The photo depicted a happy family of three, all smiling brightly—a stark contrast to the fear and gloom in the girl's eyes as she looked at Dukel.

"Excuse me, what's going on?" Dukel smiled—a rare occurrence—and asked the little girl softly. In addition to her powerful psychic talent, he was curious about what had brought her to this state.

The girl didn't answer, merely sitting on the ground and staring at him blankly.

"Sir, this girl is a heretic. Don't believe anything she says! She brings misfortune to everyone around her!" a thug with a knife exclaimed.

Before he could say more, Efilar arrived and kicked him to the ground. The thug lay wailing, clutching his chest. It was unclear how many ribs had been broken.

"You dare to make noise in front of the Holy Primarch? You're courting death," Efilar said coldly. Her voice was so intimidating that the thug didn't even dare to wail further, covering his mouth tightly.

Dukel crouched down, gently touched the girl's hair, and asked again, "Can you tell me what happened?"

This time, he used mental energy to guide her. Under his influence, the girl finally spoke.

After hearing her story, Dukel's expression remained calm, but Efilar, who had a fiery temper, was visibly angered.

"This is what you've been ignoring," the Primarch said to the elder sister.

Efilar's position was so elevated that she found it difficult to see the struggles of ordinary people. To her, civilians not facing the horrors of the battlefield were unimaginably fortunate. She had overlooked that ordinary people faced their own sufferings.

The girl's father had been a logistics soldier in the planetary defense force but had died in the recent Chaos invasion. Tragically, her mother was paralyzed during the war and later succumbed to her injuries due to lack of treatment. When the girl sought her father's pension, she was beaten and sent away empty-handed. With no money for survival, she resorted to scavenging, only to be targeted by black-market slavers after inadvertently revealing her psychic abilities during a scuffle.

After hearing this, Efilar took several deep breaths to calm herself.

Dukel, however, thought beyond the immediate issue. Ophelia VII, as the Second Holy Place, was one of the most prosperous worlds in the Imperium. Yet, even here, corruption and chaos had taken root. How much worse must it be elsewhere in the galaxy?

"Take this girl back and investigate the matter. No matter who is involved, arrest them. If anyone resists, execute them immediately," Dukel ordered.

Several men in black uniforms, members of the intelligence agency, appeared to carry out his command. Though not as formidable as the Inquisition or Assassins, they were highly skilled. The thugs were dragged away; the agency had its own methods of extracting confessions.

A logistics soldier's death had left his family destitute, their pension stolen. Dukel saw this as an opportunity to root out corruption and bring justice to the oppressed.

Durkel and Efilar continued their tour of the city, investigating the blind spots often overlooked by the elite. The intelligence agency worked swiftly, compiling a list of over 5,000 individuals implicated in corruption and black-market dealings.

When Dukel returned to his quarters, the list was already on his desk.

In the Heart Network, the Primarch's personal involvement in comforting the wounded had a profound effect. Membership in the network surged as more people joined. However, with so many eager warriors, the number of available tasks couldn't keep up.

The elite warriors of the Imperium quickly completed every task posted, leading to frustrations.

"Damn it, are you guys staring at the task board? My eating bowl isn't this clean!"

"Be quick, and you'll get what you want. I recently completed three tasks and earned 100 points. I'm so happy."

"Please, let me take a mission too."

Seeing this, Dukel uploaded the list of corrupt individuals to the network, turning each name into a mission. Thousands of assignments were claimed within minutes.

As members reviewed the missions, the chat exploded:

"Tsk, tsk. The targets of this mission are all big shots."

"These mission targets are the top dignitaries of Ophelia VII!"

"These names are familiar. My home world was controlled by them too."

"The initiator is His Highness Dukel. Are we starting a major purge?"

"Doesn't matter, as long as I earn points. It's a chance for revenge—these people did plenty of 'good deeds' in my hometown."

"Your Highness Dukel is wise. These pests should've been dealt with long ago."

Even though many targets weren't based on Ophelia VII, the Heart Network members knew their importance. Each controlled vast economic or industrial systems. Removing them would disrupt society's upper strata, but Dukel had the confidence to act decisively where others would falter.

This was a war without gunpowder, and the corruption posed no less a threat than the Warp's demons.

Exiting the Heart Network, Dukel received a message from Great Sage Gris, who was overseeing construction efforts.

"Gris used the knowledge I provided to develop a new type of power armor?"

Dukel's interest was piqued. In the Warhammer universe, few advancements were as directly impactful as innovations in power armor.