94: Chapter 94 The Guardian of the Ministry of Justice Brings the Amendment to the Imperial Code

On the fourth day after the new agreement took effect, a black Adeptus Arbites shuttle requested permission to dock at the outer anchorage of Griffin IV. Only one person disembarked—the Arbiter of the Adeptus Arbites himself. Not a deputy, not an envoy, and not a remote holographic projection. Karl von Harseldorf wore an unadorned charcoal-grey robe, carrying an adamantium-reinforced briefcase in his right hand and leaning on a wooden codex staff older than himself with his left. His cybernetic augmentation was less than ten percent, almost a miracle among high-ranking Imperial bureaucrats. An even greater miracle was that he had traveled all the way from the archives of the Imperial Palace on Terra to the forward anchorage of the Ultima Segmentum, solely to hand-deliver a newly revised imperial codex amendment to the Coalition War Council and The Swarm.

When the briefing room door slid open, Marcus Aurelian was already waiting for him at the conference table. He stood up and shook the hand of the Arbiter of the Adeptus Arbites. He had known this old jurist for decades—in every jurisdictional dispute of the Ordo Xenos, Harseldorf had never been his ally, yet every single time he ruled strictly according to the letter of the codex, not a fraction more, not a fraction less. Harseldorf sat down across from him, placed the briefcase on the table, opened it, and pulled out a parchment scroll still carrying the climate-controlled scent of the Imperial Palace archives on Terra.

"The draft amendment to the imperial codex," Harseldorf's voice was raspy but his pronunciation was extremely clear, each word sounding as if it had been typeset and printed by the codex itself, "officially titled the Amendment to the imperial codex on the Legal Status and Joint Military Operations of the Coalition of the Imperium and Xenos Civilizations. The draft consists of seven chapters and forty-two articles. Core clauses: abolishing the applicability of the 'crime of xenos alliance' between the contracting parties of the Coalition; recognizing the Coalition War Council as an official military ally of the Imperium, with its resolutions being binding within the Imperial legal framework; formally integrating the Joint Fleet Command with the Imperial Navy's chain of command; and incorporating the Coalition's Universal Void Shield Coordinator and Universal Armor Plate into the standard procurement catalog of the Departmento Munitorum. The Council of High Lords has unanimously passed the first reading, and we are now seeking formal legal opinions from the other contracting parties of the Coalition."

The Brood Queen's quantum-state translator lit up on one side of the main screen, projecting cool green text line by line into the air—"The Overmind has received the full text of the draft. The Swarm does not object to incorporating the Coalition agreement into the imperial codex. A follow-up question: Does the amendment retain the Imperium's unilateral right of adjudication over xenos civilizations."

Harseldorf leaned his codex staff against the table and folded his hands over the amendment. He said slowly that the unilateral adjudication clauses of the imperial codex do not apply to contracting civilizations that have signed the Coalition agreement. Any modification, termination, or interpretation of the Coalition agreement's terms must go through the full voting procedure of the Coalition War Council—this has already been explicitly stipulated in the interpretation clauses of the new Coalition agreement, and the imperial codex amendment will not conflict with it. Starting today, the legal status of The Swarm in the imperial codex is no longer a 'pending-adjudication xenos threat,' but rather a 'Coalition contracting party.'

Marcus projected the full text of the draft onto the War Council's holographic table. Bern, connected remotely from the Void Gate position, said his primary concern was the specific wording regarding the abolition of the crime of xenos alliance—the trial of the Severus treason case was still ongoing, and once the amendment officially took effect, the legal basis for the treason charge would be completely overturned. Harseldorf pulled another document from his briefcase: the draft retrial ruling for the Severus case, which already bore the joint preliminary stamps of the Adeptus Arbites, the Inquisition, and the Ecclesiarch of the Ecclesiarchy. He stated that since Imperial law is not retroactive, the treason case would be converted into a case of violating the internal discipline of the Coalition agreement, to be tried independently by the military tribunal of the Coalition War Council.

Sebastian walked into the briefing room from the Griffin IV hangar, his power armor still bearing scratches from Zergling bone blades. He picked up the draft amendment from the table, flipped through it, and asked if the integration of the Universal Armor Plate into the Departmento Munitorum's procurement catalog meant that the breastplate he would receive from the Munitorum in the future would be the exact same as the one he took directly from the United Industrial Complex's assembly line. Harseldorf replied that they would indeed be the same, as the Munitorum's procurement number and the batch code of the Coalition's Universal Armor Plate would be completely unified. Sebastian put the draft back on the table and remarked that this was the most useful legal document he had seen since joining the military.

Heinrich connected via the fleet channel. The old naval officer stood on the bridge of the Shield of the Emperor, where the Coalition emblem on the bow had resumed its cool green glow following the activation of the new agreement. He did not look at the draft, but simply asked Harseldorf if the amendment would allow Imperial Navy officers to be promoted normally within the Joint Fleet Command's chain of command, without having their files frozen by Naval Personnel for 'accepting xenos tactical commands.' Harseldorf opened the amendment's appendix and pointed out that the files of all officers in the Third Assault Fleet and Heinrich's main fleet had been marked as 'serving within the Joint Fleet chain of command.' Their promotion criteria would be completely identical to regular service in the Imperial Navy, and any promotion applications previously frozen due to Coalition command authority issues would be automatically unfrozen with retroactive promotions issued. Heinrich remained silent for a moment, then saluted with a standard Imperial Navy salute, stating that the officers and crew of the Imperial Navy's main fleet would continue to serve the Coalition.

The Iyanden Farseer's Wraithbone Staff traced a faint blue arc in the air. Craftworld Iyanden had no direct legal demands regarding the imperial codex amendment, but suggested that the Eldar translation of the Coalition agreement be included as an appendix to the amendment, serving as a precedent for the imperial codex's first official inclusion of a non-human civilization's legal document. Harseldorf pulled a thin booklet bound in wraithbone from the very bottom of his briefcase—the draft of the official appendix for the Eldar translation of the Coalition agreement, its cover page already stamped with the approval of the Ecclesiarch. The Farseer bowed slightly, and the Wraithbone Staff left a faint blue Eldar blessing mark on the booklet's surface.

Marcus stood up and imported the draft amendment and all its attachments one by one into the War Council's shared database for the representatives of each contracting party to sign and confirm. He told Harseldorf that the Coalition War Council accepted all terms and attachments of the imperial codex draft amendment and would formally incorporate it into the Coalition's charter and legal system at the next plenary session. Harseldorf gripped his codex staff once more, mentioning that the Coalition's section in the imperial codex had already been reserved, right between the Ordo Xenos Jurisdiction section and the Imperial Navy Chain of Command section. On his way, he had personally reviewed every single clause of the Coalition agreement and confirmed there were no fundamental conflicts with existing Imperial law. However, there was one point the Coalition needed to note—the legal definition of The Swarm in the imperial codex remained completely blank. Human law had never before defined a xenos civilization that was both a predator and a contracting party, possessing both independent adjudication rights and accepting compulsory arbitration. He said this was not a legal loophole but a jurisprudential challenge, and he hoped to personally draft the legal definition for The Swarm in the imperial codex within his lifetime.