95: Chapter 95 The legal definition of a swarm remains a blank.

After the Adeptus Arbites' black shuttle departed from the Griffin IV anchorage, the coffee machine in the briefing room barely stopped running. Marcus Aurelian projected the sentence left by the Arbiter of the Adeptus Arbites onto the main screen—"The Swarm's legal definition in the imperial codex remains a blank, and I hope to write it myself in my lifetime"—and then sat back in his chair, staring at it for a long time. Bern connected remotely from the Void Gate position, his Holy Hammer resting on his knees, and the Psychic Talisman nestled securely against the inside of his breastplate. He said Hasseldorf had thrown the problem to the coalition, and if the legal definition of The Swarm was not resolved, the chapter reserved in the imperial codex amendment would remain blank forever.

Marcus pulled up every legal document related to The Swarm in the coalition's shared database one by one—the full text of the Old Ones Evaluation Protocol, the Coalition Charter, the terms of interpretation of the new agreement, the execution records of the forced arbitration mechanism, the United Industrial Complex asset division annex, and the local mode firmware licensing terms for the Universal Void Shield Coordinator. In each document, The Swarm's identity was different: activator, observer, contracting party, technology provider, and military operation executor. There was no unified definition.

"The Swarm are not Imperial citizens, not humans, and not a civilization with complete individual legal personality like the Eldar. It has no individual citizens, no civil law, and no commercial law. But it has a vote in the Coalition War Council." Marcus placed his coffee cup on the corner of the table, tapping his right fingertips against the headers of those documents one by one. "It is a predator, but also a contracting party; it is the executor of tactical audits, but also the recipient of forced arbitration; its Hive Mind network has no corresponding concept in the imperial codex. Hasseldorf wants to write a legal definition, but he must first understand what The Swarm is."

The Brood Queen's quantum-state translator lit up on the main screen. Her tone was calm: "The Overmind has approved The Swarm's cooperation with the legal definition work. The coalition can access all previous agreement execution records as technical annexes to the legal definition. Additional reminder—The Swarm's Gene-phage sequence, the core coding of the Living Psionic Network, and the primary authority of the Void Throat activator sequence belong to core genetic assets and are not included in the public scope of the legal definition."

Sebastian and Bern exchanged a look. He said that in defining the legal status of The Swarm, the key was to solve the question of "what exactly is The Swarm in the eyes of Imperial law." Marcus projected two existing legal definitions onto the screen as reference templates—the legal definition of the Eldar in the imperial codex was provided by the Iyanden Farseer, covering Craftworld legal personality, Spirit Network intellectual property rights, and the privacy boundaries of the Web of Prophecy; the legal definition of the Necrons was provided by Nephilak's quantum-state communication summary, containing treaty compatibility clauses between the Dynasty Code and the imperial codex.

"The draft legal definition of The Swarm needs to be reviewed within the War Council, negotiated clause by clause." Marcus stood up and walked to the center of the holographic projection. "Brood Queen, technical negotiations on the legal definition of The Swarm will begin tomorrow. The scope of negotiations includes the determination of the Hive Mind's legal personality, the contracting authority of the Hive Queen nodes, the legal boundaries of the Gene-phage sequence, the ownership of intellectual property rights of the Living Psionic Network, the joint custody terms of the Void Throat, and the scope of intelligence sharing of The Swarm in the coalition's shared database. This negotiation will be the most complex legal negotiation since the establishment of the coalition—involving not just thousands of clauses, but potentially tens of thousands."

Bern placed his Holy Hammer on the table and said he would have the Grey Knights' Librarian compile a record of all The Swarm's behaviors in actual combat as auxiliary evidence for the legal definition. Sebastian added that the joint combat records of the Terminator Assault Platoon and The Swarm could also provide a large number of technical cooperation cases. Heinrich connected from the fleet channel, stating that all collaborative combat logs of the Joint Fleet Command had been archived according to the Coalition Charter, and all tactical cooperation details between The Swarm and the Imperial Navy at the Star of Judgment, the Lead-Gray Abyss, and the Origin Facility could serve as technical annexes to the legal definition.

Marcus saved the draft outline into the War Council's shared database, and the Brood Queen simultaneously uploaded The Swarm's legal and technical document package. He pressed the fleet channel again: "The first legal project after the new coalition agreement comes into effect is officially launched. The legal definition of The Swarm will serve as a necessary requirement for the amendment to the imperial codex, to be drafted, reviewed, and signed within the framework of the Coalition War Council. Terra will receive the official proposal from the Coalition War Council regarding the legal definition of The Swarm." He took one last look at the sentence left by Hasseldorf on the main screen, saying that this old jurist wanted to personally write the legal definition of The Swarm before his retirement; the coalition would draft it for him first, so he could sign it the next time he came.