Chapter 13 - 101-108

In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only War.

But war, war is my profession.

Unlike these naive Astartes, who view war as a challenge for honor and glory, I am different.

Always looking for efficient solutions and conservation of health. Humanity may have numbers, but those numbers are horrifically mismanaged. Most of the times, the numbers work against the Imperium, which is so spread out over immense, mind-boggling distances that it cannot even protect its citizens.

And so, I need to use Primarch Khan to protect humanity, while myself figure out a way to save it. Blank genes against the Chaos, the genes of the Catachans spread as much as possible for physical endurance, then weapons, armor and strategy to convert this future strength into striking power.

Primarch Khan now wears a Catachan-style flak suit, with blackstone armor plates inserted to protect vital body parts. Also, a Refractor field on his belt, and a Catachan-style adamantium knife at his hip. He did get to live among my troops for a time, and it shows. The white penitence robe has been converted into a cape, with the cowl lowered right now.

I open my palms, and a dataslate filled with real and fake STC patterns appears in my right hand, and a Null Rod in the other. "Wear this Null baton at all times, Astartes. Half of your brothers have already fallen to Warp insinuations and lies. Don't make me have to find you again."

The artifact has been sheathed in a centimeter of blackstone as well, by my Lamenter Master of the Forge, giving it increased resistance against brute force. Primarch are very similar to Ogryns after all, prone to rip off doors or heads in fits of rage, or just by being careless. Plus he might need to smack some demon with it.

Khan picks the rod with suspicion, as he knows it would restrict some of his psyker based powers. "I won't be able to fight or duel with this." the Primarch complains like a big child.

"Yes, but you do have your White Scars sons to slice things up for you. Now go and talk with the crazy Inquisitor on the Space Fortress. And then, do what you can for the Imperium. Armed Sentinels and missile boats I'd say, but then I don't have a say in the ruling of the Imperium. The High Lords might kill you anyway, for usurping their powers with your simple existence." I explain in a gentle voice, and deposit him right next to Captain Thrasius, of the Scythes of the Emperor Space Marine Chapter.

My Inquisitor raises an eyebrow at my unceremonious conduct. "You would actually punch Sanguinius, like you said. Nothing seems to scare you, not even a Primarch."

"I actually would, but not in public. Right Canis? You hamstring the vainglorious father, while I punch his teeth out. With my left hand of course." I mutter in a cheerful tone, and scratch my wolf on his smart head.

"Wooof?" the wolf wonders and shows his deadly teeth, somehow doubting he could bite anyone without grievous damage.

"Nah, not for real, clever wolf! I just don't enjoy the burden he left on my shoulders. Sanguinius should have sent the invincible sword master to fight, or even better, teleported a Nova shell inside that traitor's battleship and stopped the whole tragedy in a single blow. But no, why not die in a pointless duel..." I commented in a disgusted voice.

Rose sighs and waves Ludvaius outside, before his blood tears flood the room and make a mess on the carpet. The Astartes stomps loudly as he leaves, and crashes the armored door with an angry and violent gesture. Maybe I was too open and honest, for this universe.

"Perhaps it is better if you do not return to the Imperium, at all. Your own bodyguard was ready to bite your head off." my girlfriend demands in a cold voice. Exactly my thought, dear Rose. Except for small incursions that would save trillions of lives.

"Maybe. I still need to visit Sotha, once in a while. There are like 900 trillion trillions of Tyranids heading this way and hoping to eat everyone." I grumble in a meeker voice.

Also, that fact is very true, and kinda worrying, if not that urgent, not yet.

Plus that World Engine of the Necrons...when it did come out, I'll really have to come back to Sotha and mess it up.

"Not for a decade you will not, Pef Lancefire! You're on thin ice, and these exploits do not expunge your unruly conduct, only forgive it, due to extenuating circumstances." the Inquisitor proclaims with an accusing voice.

I shrug and hold a finger up. "Right! Do order these Scythes to seal up and tow that Tau battleship they have miraculously captured, to Forge Metalica. And then, start preparing a large infiltration force of fake defectors from your Stormtrooper regiment. We'll need as many humans inserted into the Tau ranks and pinpoint valuable technology to steal. All of these infiltrators should receive the strongest mental hardening procedure that your Inquisition has. Those Ethereals use a type of mind control similar to the Enslavers, but I do have a potential material for a mental shield."

With those words, I produce a couple Enslaver bones and leave them floating in mid-air.

"Is this a mineral? No, it's organic but somehow resisting my soul readings. A type of Eldar wraithbone?" Rose wonders as she attempts to scan the floating bones and her psyker probing fails.

Thus, I take out my Bone Staff and leave it floating as well. "I believe is indeed a type of rare creature's bone. I had my own staff made by a powerful artificier, but those services are paid in precious commodities like Greater Demons or Eldar Avatars. Maybe a C'tan shard, if you're willing to sell the one in the Pharos." I ask in a teasing voice.

She scowls at my words, and shakes her head. "Again with that kind of outrageous trades. Also, did you have anything to do with those out of time Astartes showing up on some Forge Worlds, millennia after they were thought dead or lost in the Warp?"

I nod slowly. "Just like your Inquisitor buddy on the Aegida Fortress, the ungrateful bastard. I traded some captured Eldar and their artifacts, and this person happened to have a collection of Astartes. I also saw an Adeptus Custodes among the shelves, but didn't have anything of equal value to trade. But, that was then, I do have some Dark Eldar now...all their Archons in fact, so I might get a new deal."

Her Ordo Xenos teachings come forward abruptly, as she grabs my chin. "What else did you steal from Commorragh?"

I sob in Rogue Trader pain, and start disclosing some of it. Okay, most of it. I'm just too weak in the hands of an Inquisitor, I'm sure everyone can understand that.

Much later, she rests on my chest, all her energy spent in deep but vigorous interrogation.

"Damn lucky, Rogue Trader. Too bad most of your collection cannot be put to use. You'd burn on the first pyre the Imperium could throw. And we're very good at setting up pyres." Rose complains as her hand measures my increased musculature.

Not yet at Astartes level, but getting there. Maybe a decade or five.

"Mind shields, Tau enslavers, and Null Rods. I don't even have access to such a rare relic!" my beloved murmurs in a completely fake pity. She just wants one too.

"I shall trade for this guy's best work then. A staff that's both a mind shield and a Warp shield, and can also fly or crush tanks with one blow. Maybe a mind shielding Rosarius too. And the same for Janice and Victor. Who knew that having a big family will be so expensive..." I complain in fake pity as well.

Just at that second, the other Inquisitor encounters the lost Primarch and tries to have him arrested. Damn cretin!

He vanishes in my labyrinth, as a sign of Emperor's displeasure.

What? Don't believe me? It says right here on my Warrant! My words are the Emperor's words and I speak with his Voice.

"Come my dear. You return to Aegida and support the Primarch, while I try to close the Hadex Anomaly with my trader skills. And they say Rogue Traders are good for nothing!" I mutter in fake annoyance as I open the door to call Ludvaius back.

Dressing in Astartes power armor isn't that easy.

Might need to have the tech-priests design some kind of automated dressing room. And then use a thousand convicts to test the kinks out. Maiming and mutilations from faulty wiring is not a pleasant prospect.

Especially not for my own limbs...so make that 2000 convicts. Much safer that way.

Rose dresses by herself, because leather isn't that hard to dress into. Not all that protective either, so I should consider giving her the Silent Sisters kind of armor, just painted in gold and black.

"You were working hard, I see. New baby on the way?" my Brother asks in a curious voice.

I just smile sheepishly and give him a thumb up. Very likely, considering how much gene-seed I spent today.

"Send me to my room, deck 11. Just next to Janice." Rose commands in a stern voice once she is ready.

I obey, and she vanishes from my blackstone vault of a room, without the familiar purple flash of a teleporter. My tesseract is quite the cheat, I know.

Sadly, I have to walk towards the Teleportarium, escorted by my Blood Angels and silent companions. Well, they have seen the Pharos anyway, during the expedition for chronoblades.

We will need to repeat that exploit, and try to find more lifedraining blades or hexagramic necklaces that can block out Warp intrusions.

In near Company strength, they depart to the desert Artifact World on another looting expedition, after I scan the orbit for more Tau vessels. This time, there is only the Scythes' Strike Cruiser and their captured prize, getting patched up for Warp towing.

"Mighty Zarhulash, someone has been cruel to you." I observe as the C'tan is three times more dissected now than before.

"The young Inquisitor tries his best, and I can fake pain and screaming very well. Doesn't really bother me, as you can imagine, Pef Lancefire." the C'tan replies in a proud voice.

I nod absently, as I doubt even an Exterminatus would bother him. In the other timeline, they did blow up the planet with a cyclonic torpedo, and that only released the C'tan from his shackles.

Maybe a Vortex warhead would work. Multidimensional weapons did tend to ignore any type of defense or durability, just like that Soulspear I sold to Trazyn.

And speaking of the devil. "Necron Lord, you have been really busy." I comment while scanning his new collection. More Army regiments, some Navy ships, even a few Titans and an Ordinatus_Ulator on huge tracks.

"Ah, my favorite stranger. Yes...some scoundrels tried to attack Solemnace. Friends of yours perhaps?" Trazyn the Infinite asks in a suspicious voice.

I snort in amusement. "I take it you peeked into Forge Venatoria and stole something of value. And perhaps also blasted Hell Forge Xana into small bits of screaming rocks and burning souls."

"This better be worth it, puppy stranger. I lost three subordinates on this quest, all valiantly fighting to the last scrap of necrodermis while posing as myself." the Necron mutters in a proud voice.

I sigh and push a Drukhari Archon, without weapons or armor which all sold separately, right into his robotic hands. "I cought the thief who tried to steal your Nightbringer. Now that Commorragh is gone, Dark Eldar items will become a rarity, as with all extinct species."

"Really? Well, it is easy to check...oh. Someone burned it all to the ground. And there's Tyranids feasting on dead corpses everywhere. Such a mess." Trazyn replies after a minute.

The Necron probably has a saved point there, after I sold him that expensive ticket to my first attempt.

"I do have a pict-video of an Eldar Avatar and a Keeper of Secrets dueling in the middle of High Commorragh, right as an Astartes Battle Barge detonates an Exterminatus torpedo on top of them both. After some 30 seconds of the last time-stamp, the area will be clear of witnesses, except those two protagonists which just wouldn't die. If only someone had the skill and patience to send an observer, and collect those engines of destruction for a complete set. What use is a Craftword council, without an Avatar, right?" I whisper in his mind, while Trazyn plays dress-up doll with the insane Dark Eldar Archon I have just gifted him.

"I see, you have been there already, collecting all the Archons and who knows how many relics and rare people. Now the timeline is looped by your tesseract and I can only arrive later." Trazyn complains in a Time Doctor manner.

It wasn't my intention to protect the timeline...but it does work out perfectly.

"So, the Reality Cage and the reality bombs?" I demand in a wry voice.

"You will need ten battleship-strength reactors to power up a planetary size Reality Cage, even after I repaired a thousand flaws in this device, and made it a thousand times simpler to construct, just like that warp-less drive. Or, you can bury the device deep under the planetary crust, and use a single reactor for magnetic conversion. This deep core cage is a distinct invention of my own creation, and is sold separately." the genius Necron offers as a starting point, and holds the dataslate with my device.

Reality Cage, and a working one!

I was pretty sure he also copied the magnetic power mechanism from a Forge World, maybe even Venatoria but whatever. It would actually make the STC template more belivable, and reduce the risk of sabotage too. It would be more difficult to infiltrate a saboteur under a hundred kilometer of boiling magma.

With another flick of the Pharos, I handed him a Drukhari Void Mine and an Eldar Pulse_Laser. Both weapons would make amazing weapons for humanity, if only we had the science to build them. We don't, but a certain Necron surely does.

"I'm quite certain even a Necron Overlord would be annihilated inside the barrier, once that fragment of darklight detonates. You may use it on a hated enemy, once I get a simplified STC schematic. The pulse laser is actually too advanced for my friends, and it needs to be dumbed down, such that even a human can use it, or a tech-priest repair it from an STC pattern." I explain in a cheerful voice.

"... An enemy of mine. Killed by a Dark Eldar weapon. Now this would be a master stroke. " he ponders for a long time.

Already figuring out how the Void Mine works. That's great for him, but Trazyn might have too many enemies, and not all domestic.

I just wait, as my people exploring the desert world for more artifacts will take time. "Not attacking Human, Eldar or Tau targets. I kinda need them for my plans, just like I do for your own dynasty. As for payment, I will offer a Null Rod. Everyone should have one of these, with the galaxy infested by psykers and Warp entities." I demand as he begins writing on a STC dataslate.

And thus, I get the geomagnetic reactor as well. One worry will soon be reduced, with planet-sized Gellar fields enforcing reality and preventing Warp incursions.

"Oh, that would be a decent trade. However, I reserve the right to defend my world even from those three races. Perhaps without lethal force, if I'm in a good mood." the Overlord allows in a perky voice.

Well, Null Rods are very rare indeed. I only have four of them, and already two are given away, to Khan and Trazyn.

"I accept your claim, Lord Trazyn. But, I need an STC template for a simpler to build Null Rod. And then, a few quality items for some special people. A couple of Enslaver Bone staffs, and a dual use Null and Bone staff, that will still allow minimal psyker powers for the user. From Beta-level to Delta." I ask as my trading goods appear in his room.

He stops to consider my words, and fails at first. "Blocking everything is doable, with some effort. But blocking the Warp and still attacking with it, even at lower strength? Is that even possible?" Trazyn mutters in real confusion.

"Generally no, these qualities are antithetical. Unless, there's a bloodline flaw to exploit. I will provide gene samples for the user, because the staff needs to be gene-coded, and from a relative of hers, with both the Pariah gene and the Psyker gene. Also, that Null staff...should have Inquisitorial decorations. I'm sure you know perfectly well how Inquisitors like to present themselves." I explain in a patient voice.

I send a few locks of hair, from Rose and Janice, and hope for the best. With a gene-coded staff, Trazyn would be capable of tracing my Rose anywhere in the galaxy.

Oh well. I was probably too paranoid

Under Rose's commands, the Aegida becomes all of a sudden friendly and welcoming, and thus I fill their prison dungeon with those 300 Mantis Warriors I have 'rescued' from the siege at Forge Angstrom.

Their own Primarch is here to chastise them after all, since the Mantis were a successor Chapter of the White Scars. The crew of a Mantis cruiser also appears in the adjacent cells, while their Mantis Strike Cruiser simply appears on a tangent course with the Inquisitorial Fortress, with a single tech-priest on the bridge. Should be enough to allow an honor guard and an independent vessel for the Primarch, at least til Ultramar.

"When you reach the Segmentum Solar, do investigate Hive World Necromunda and that rich House with an STC in their basement. That should buy you some standing with the Cult Mechanicus on Mars. You also have a gift in the Aegida's dungeon." I mentally tell Primarch Khan, while I observe the local Deathwatch Astartes move around him, with proud but wary faces. Primarchs were all considered lost, but here he was, walking among them, looking rather beat up and sad.

"Is that you, Pef Lancefire? I thought this Null Rod stops all psyker powers." the giant replies in my mind, seeming surprised.

"I'm a Blank, Astartes. So obviously, I'm not transmitting via a psyker method. Something to study in the future, no doubt. Military orders sent mind-to-mind, without chance of interference or distortion by the Warp...might prove valuable for humanity. Then again, what do I know?" I answer in a self-deprecating tone.

Khan doesn't quite believe my meek demeanor anymore, although I wonder why. I was kinda harsh with him, at first, I admit. But he was also unruly and not in control of himself.

"What House, on that Hive World?" the Primarch asks in an annoyed voice.

"Someone very rich with advanced weapons they make themselves. Nothing like a poor Rogue Trader like myself can even approach. And look, there's even a cruiser heading your way! Almost like someone wants to leave at great speed, before this system is attacked again." I explain in a cheerful voice and turn off the connection.

Then I resume my family overwatch, directing my fleet of missile destroyers and frigates to rescue that Forge in the Siege_of_Hypnoth, and try to obtain an STC pattern for the advanced augury scanner called the Eye_of_Hypnoth.

With 25 escorts and 2 Nova Cannon cruisers we should provide sufficient surprise to gain a major Favor from that Forge World, plus another for the STC dataslate carried by Wentian.

Meanwhile, my bodyguard Company and the Silent Sisters keep exploring the artifact planet, and close a couple more demon portals, for a single hexagrammic necklace and two more chronoblades.

Oh well, perhaps this was it.

They keep searching though, while I pinpoint the rest of the planets around Illevar for the next expansion phase, noting down a thousand star-systems possibly rich in minerals and a hundred habitable planets.

The Vitrix's Captain, my dear daughter Teresa, receives those mental imprints with rough astronomic distances for each trip, so she can already plan the route and create a circle of outposts and small mining sites, depositing tech-priests and servitors at each stop.

Of course, only a Blank Captain gets a battleship, and even most of her bridge crew are Blanks from my officer academy, plus thousands of Retribution tech-priests and a hundred thousand servitors with piratical origins.

Victor receives his inheritance, the fourth tesseract with a hundred ships inside, including the other Overlord-class battlecruiser I captured at Badab. Plus a Chronoblade and my old power armor. He was already ruling the Hive World but now he would have the means to rule it absolutely.

"Dad...it is really okay to give me all this power? I can see everything on the planet, and everything in the system, til the most distant comets. Don't you need it?" Victor asks after downloading the manual on with his savant implant.

"Bring comets and asteroids closer in a high orbit, and begin building more forts and corvette shipyards, plus a repair dock for those destroyers. There are a trillion trillions Tyranids heading your way." I answer in a softer voice.

"Oh! I better get started then. And I think you have another labyrinth like this, right?" my son wonders after powering up the savant functions.

Smart boy.

Anyway, teleporting a tesseract filled with goodies from Sotha to Illevar is a great way to transport an entire fleet from one end to the other of an entire segmentum.

I can't send a fleet to Baal and help my sons that way, but I can gift them Terminator-pattern Astartes armors covered in blackstone plates and personal forcefields and archeotech weapons like melee Power Weapons and grav-guns or conversion beamers. And I do.

They may all be Blank and immune to Warp, but they are flesh and bones. And knowing what Blood Angels get into all the time, I want my sons to emerge victorious and alive, all 200 of them.

Am I cheating? Sure I am. But the galaxy is merciless, and those detractors to the Blank program, even among the Blood Angels, will have to swallow their words.

"They shall be my finest warriors...in great armor shall I clad them and with the mightiest guns they shall be armed...such that no foes can best them in battle." The Emperor said about his Astartes.

The Emperor had the right idea, just didn't see it through.

You said no foes, dear Adam, but what about Chaos and the Warp? Did you make them Blank, or at least give them Null Rods? What about Silent Sisters as escorts and informants for the Primarchs?

No you did not, and thus half of them fell or rebelled and nailed you to your throne.

Not to mention tactics and strategies. Sure, Big E possibly envisioned a billion of Astartes, cleansing the galaxy of xenos or rogue psykers, while erasing all religions they found.

Didn't work quite like that.

Even himself went to duel his wayward son in a sword fight, instead of tele-fragging that Horus moron with a plasma warhead.

I turn back to searching the Ultima segmentum for targets of opportunity, just as Rose beams inside the Pharos.

"Inquisitor Barzano better appear again, perhaps after the Primarch leaves. And what's with those prisoners in my dungeons?" My Rose asks while eyeing the crucified C'tan on the cave's wall with distrust.

"The Mantis guys? Well, they are Khan's sons, aren't they? I hear the High Lords imposed a penance of their Chapter, for being fooled into that rebellion. The Primarch is on penance too, so they fit rather well, right?" I ask in a careless voice.

"So you're imposing penance even on Primarchs now?" the Inquisitor growls in a colder voice.

"Those guilty of dereliction of duty, sure. Vulkan, Russ and Dorn among them. Lion and Roboute lie wounded and in stasis, so I reserve judgement for now. As for my own Primarch, dear Sanguinius does as much as he can from beyond the grave. I might need a God of the Dead to bring him back, and for that I have worked hard." I explain as an Atmospheric Incendiary appears beside me.

"Killing people...to revive an Eldar God?" the Ordo Xenos asks in a deathly voice.

"No sacrifice is too great. No treachery too small." I quote while I begin priming the Exterminatus torpedo.

"Where is this munition going?" my Rose asks curious.

"Hadex Anomaly, again. There's a Chaos fleet gathering in the Blood_Trinity, more specifically at Mataras III. They are also conscripting a billion of the local cultists, so I shall consign their souls to..." I mutter as the weapon vanishes from the Pharos and detonates right under the infamous Carnage-class Cruiser Black Grail and its attendant fleet.

In a minute, the planet burns and none of the traitors escape the flames, incinerated along with all the weapon factories and demon engines they were preparing.

Two more torpedoes appear beside me, but I'm no hurry to exhaust myself. The other two planets in the Mataras system don't have fleets, and their heretical inhabitants can only wail in despair, knowing what fiery inferno awaits.

"...Oblivion. You would make a great Inquisitor, my dear Pef." Rose whispers while her tarot cards spin in the air, and yet refuse to fall.

"I think I have sufficient power for now. So, you heard of Inquisitor Kryptman's plan to burn all the worlds in the path of the Tyranids? Without evacuation, of course." I muse to myself, while keeping watch for my Astartes battling another demon incursion.

"...That's...how many worlds are we talking about?" the Inquisitor asks in a calculating voice.

Well, burning worlds is a sad but realistic choice in this grim future. But sometimes common sense should prevail. At least burn them after the Tyranids land.

"Thousands of human planets at least, probably ten times as many, if nobody reports him, and nobody will dare, because the Inquisition acts with godly impunity. And I'm not talking of our Sotha solution, burning the Hive fleet in orbit. No, that would require he exposes himself to danger, instead of killing trillions of people preemptively. Plus all the valuable industry or a million Guard regiments getting sacrificed. So what do you think I should do, dear Inquisitor? Slap his hand or pat his back?" I ask rhetorically.

My Rose frowns in deep thought. "He will be excommunicated once those actions become public. And he has to know this. Keep burning those cultist worlds, while I make a call back to Terra."

I nod and deposit my Rose in the Aegida teleportarium, while a thin chronoblade appears on Janice's desk, now decorated with a dozen golden Aquilas on the hilt, and a sheath of Blackstone with a simple logo painted on it: Ave Deus Imperator.

"Take care of this weapon, and don't cut yourself. It was made to kill Great Demons, sweetie." I whisper to my daughter.

"Thanks dad! It feels old and powerful and kinda scary. It has seen so much death." my daughter murmurs in my mind.

I know it did, I have killed a hundred Orks with it myself. I should arm my bodyguards with these weapons, as they can slice any material without effort.

The hexagrammic pendant in my hand, once again covered with a brass cover painted with golden Aquilas, I teleport it on Roboute Guilliman's chest, ignoring the stasis field he is kept inside on Maccrage. The Pharos is much too advanced for a mere stasis field to hold, just like I found out with the Sounding Board.

As expected, the Warp poison inside his veins doesn't like it and draws away, slowly pouring out of his wound, almost like it tries to run. I wonder if this would also work on the Emperor...

An STC dataslate falls from nowhere right on the stasis console, and interrupts the field while alarms start blaring inside the Ultramarine's fortress-monastery. It does even contain the warp-less drive STC and many of my inventions including more effective ships, fighters and vehicles.

In a minute after the stasis field vanished, the poisoned neck wound heals and the Primarch opens his eyes in confusion. Damn bullshit regeneration, but then I have seen Khan heal from many wounds worse than that. Just without the Warp poison.

"Why am I still alive?" he murmurs to himself.

"Your duty has not ended, Astartes. You have rested enough." I comment in a wry voice, straight in his mind.

"Father?" he asks in suspicion and worry.

"Hah! I'm not as old your Father. Wait, I had something else..." I says cheerfully and drop another Null Rod in his lap. "I mean really, the Emperor says no foes can best you, and then doesn't even give you a Null Rod? Pretty sure the Warp was among those foes." I explain curtly and then shut off the connection.

This guy is smart enough, and might even remember about the Pharos soon enough.

Time to finish my business here and get going

Because I have to leave Sotha with some haste, I decide the Kroot and the Nicassar homeworlds need to go.

One is home to a species of ever-evolving cannibals, eating their victims to absorb their traits, much like the Tyranids. Not a danger yet, due to being rather savage, but that could change rapidly once they eat an Eldar Exodite world, for example.

The Nicassar are species of psykers, which will not end well for them. Either producing another Warp godling or something worse. Plus the Tau will be forced to adapt for their absence with melee suits and better navigation equipment.

The Tau homeworld loses their next capital city to a Vortex torpedo and the subsequent Chaos invasion, which should either delay their expansion for a century, or force them into a furious arms race to create anti-demon weaponry and sensors.

Welcome to the 40k, blue aliens! Yes, there are bad things in the galaxy, and you're not prepared. Also, kinda hard to hide that truth when your entire planetary force has to muster to defeat the invasion.

"Your brother Guilliman has just awakened on Macragge, Primarch Khan. Your brother the Lion, he still sleeps in stasis aboard the Dark Angels' Rock fortress-monastery, forgotten even by his own sons. Couldn't find your other absent brothers, so I suspect they vacation inside the Maelstrom or the Eye of Terror, killing demons one at the time." I advise the one-man-sword-army as I send him another STC dataslate with the Planetary Gellar Field STC, and another gift in the form of the White_Tiger_Dao saber, one I have recovered from High Commorragh.

I didn't give him back the Wildfire_Panoply power armor, because I wanted it and everything inside it copied and made available for my own sons. Khan had only to ask Mars for another power armor, and they would cry in joy to give him one.

But his sword was almost part of his identity, and he was known to have killed Greater Demons with it, which might be needed again.

"The Dao...you have found it for me, Lord Lancefire? I have thought it long-lost. You have my thanks." Khan sent back in a dignified tone, his hands caressing the weapon like a baby.

"It is your symbol of office, Primarch. So you can defend humanity, not duel like a boy in the schola yard with other snotty boys." I answered in a dismissive tone and shut off the link.

The next day, the astropaths were all on fervor about the miraculous recovery of Primarch Guilliman, who was better known and rather famous in the Imperium, his frozen face on many paintings and pict-captures.

I considered using that hexagram necklace a worthy price for waking the Ultramarines's Primarch, because I wanted to use Ynnead's help to resurrect Sanguinius, who was actually dead.

My gambit worked, and I was kinda glad it did. Two Primarchs for us, and two less Primarchs for Chaos. Unless Lorgar had already been revived, which I doubted. The Dark Gods did not reward failure, nor shameful defeats.

Sure, they might bring him back for a Black Crusade, but that wouldn't be so soon, with as many loses Chaos forces have suffered at my Exterminatus campaign, and whatever consequences the elimination of the Dark Eldar from the galaxy has caused.

Slaanesh would be rising in power, which would cause lots of turmoil and inner friction among the Chaos godlings. The loss of Hell Forge Xana would deny them a nearby launch platform at Cadia, which will possibly mean a push from the Maelstrom.

And that was my intention. The Maelstrom was in range of the Pharos, and wasn't that just peachy?

Still, I did have Trazyn on call. "Hello again, my robotic friend. Still interested in that Ordo Sinister Titan?" I asked in curious voice.

"...Errr. Of course. But I was tricked! All I gained for my effort was a piece of Eldar armor, and that Keeper of Secrets. No Avatar!" the Necron Lord complained in a childish voice.

I almost laughed in his face. "Who tricked you, Lord Trazyn? Did I not supply you a time and place? Was my gift not there? Are you blaming an innocent stranger for your inability to capture a mere Avatar?"

He grumbled for a minute, but logic was on my side. It was his failure, not mine. Plus the Avatar wasn't really a physical being like the C'tan, nor a sentient Warp construct like a Greater Demon.

"You knew I would fail..." He muttered in suspicion.

"You did not fail, Lord Trazyn. You have the armor, it just needs an Eldar Exalt to put it on, and the Avatar will appear. But you will not attack the Eldar, so you might have to wait for them to attack you." I explained in a patient voice.

This put a stop to his grumblings, and our good relations resumed. "Good enough then. Eldar are always attacking Necron worlds. I just hope they attack me soon!" Trazyn said in anticipation. Who wants the Eldar to attack them?

I mean, sure they had nice ships and powerful weapons to capture easily in a tesseract, so it...dear Emperor! I was becoming a tiny Trazyn, hoping something advanced attacked me.

So I checked the Bone Kingdom to find their crownworld overrun with Tyranids. Oh well, that quest was finally over.

"Well, it seems the Bone Kingdom has fallen. What other enemy shall we send the hungry Tyranids to, perhaps Sarlok?" I offered in a pleasant voice.

Trazyn immediately became cheerful. "Oh, that would weaken Imotekh even more, especially as his troops are deployed at Hypnoth right now. And not doing so great even against a single Forge World...after losing Mandragora and many ships."

"Right. I'll even arrange some aid to arrive at Hypnoth and destroy a few Tomb Ships. But, I will need heavy cruiser sized reactor and warp-less engines for this. In STC template, even if a tiny bit more complicated. With variants for battle-barges and battlecruisers." I demand in a shameless voice.

Trazyn was in a good mood, might as well profit.

Meanwhile, I prime a Cyclonic torpedo for the Necron World of Seidon, which has begun sending colony ships all over the sector from some kind of subterranean shipyard, and an Incendiary Exterminatus at Drazak, to catch a dozen trillion Tyranids on the ground and in orbit around the former Necron World.

My special gifts are also ready, two more Enslaver Bone Staffs and the hybrid Null Rod/Bone Staff for my Rose.

And then, since I notice the Scythe Barges are all gearing up to depart for Macragge in a hurry, I steal all their Exterminatus and Vortex torpedoes. They can request new ones from their Primarch, or maybe Forge Metalica, since they did tow that Tau battleship there, at my insinuations and at the Lady Inquisitor's demand.

Just after my bodyguards begin to return with their loot from the artifact planet, I call Rose to explain the new developments, and the necessity to redirect the Pharos beacon again.

There is no absolute rush, as the Imperium doesn't move fast even when it wants to, but I have a nasty feeling in my gut that things have gone too well for too long.

The Tranquility leaves first, escorted by the Serenity till the Warp limit.

Rose plays with her impossible staff in wonder, and gets to massacre a hundred Orks with the blade of her daughter, just to sense how it works. It works great, and she becomes even younger and prettier, maybe because Orks are ageless, since their makers didn't bother to consider what immortal mushrooms might get up to. Or perhaps they did, and intended the C'tan to be hunted by their creations for eternity.

Just before I leave, I call Fidelia to arrange the transfer of her family of Blanks. She and Letitia step directly onto their homeworld, and thus I can begin to abduct everyone they point out. Almost 13 thousand Blanks, and 11 thousand of them are women.

Perhaps they do get born in a preferential female ratio, that's why there are more female Blanks than men. Or perhaps the Astra Telephatica cull the men at every centennial visit, to prevent too many births of Untouchables.

Anyway, it is a great boost to my Blank program, and my Rose agrees. I can even accelerate rebuilding the Lamenters, after a decade of compulsory harem management for all the younger men, and tons of schooling and training in the meantime.

To have a good soldier, you need to send him to school first, or all you have is a beast in human leathers.

History, politics, medicine and science.

How can they make wise decisions for strategy, without the knowledge of past failures?

How can they use weapons effectively, if they do not know the principles of their work, the limitations and the ways to exploit those limits in their enemies?

How can they provide first aid, or target vital organs without medicine?

And most importantly, how will they know who to shoot? Too many times Astartes shoot innocents, without ever thinking for themselves.

To fight and die for the Emperor, is too easy. Anyone can do that, from attack wolves to the PDF and the Imperial Guard. You don't need Astartes just so they can die. You need Astartes to win. And to win without dying, well...that takes knowledge.

Knowledge of battles, of science and of your enemy. Know yourself, and know your enemy, and you shall be undefeated in a thousand battles

While Immaterium currents may prevent most ships from travelling around Sotha, after yet another beacon shift, my Icarus carrier doesn't use the Warp.

Takes us 3 days to arrive at Forge Retribution, and immediately begin a hundred new research programs on some Tau artifacts, even using Tau prisoners to speed up the translation problems.

Same thing for Dark Eldar artifacts and prisoners, of which I do have way too many. Practically their entire war fleet and command structure is in my pocket, and we are not restricted by any Geneva Convention on interrogation procedures.

Eldar Corsairs and some of their artifacts get then same treatment, to the extreme joy of the imported tech-priests with a love to study xeno artifacts and biology.

Well, for deep analysis we are building research outposts far in asteroid belt, with my minimal security protocols, designed to prevent a plague or rogue experiment ruin my new and pretty Forge.

The various Orkish adaptations of Necron and Eldar weaponry get a different moon for large scale experiments, as these improvised weapons tend to explode in the hand of the user as much as blowing up an enemy.

By the next year, the poor moon has a hundred new craters, and gets named the Mythbuster Moon.

Everyone seems to agree to my suggestion, especially the pirates converted into servitors doing the testing. They might wish to die sooner, and escape the torment of their new existence, so I don't really trust them being completely sincere.

There are also a thousand Lamenter tech-marines with Red Scorpion gene-seeds, getting schooling and training from the Forge Angstrom specialists, although I don't intend to stop at one thousand. Tech-marines do not count as Battle-Brothers and do not receive full organ implantation, especially not the acid spit glands. Sure, two hearts or Black Carapace along the spine and arms will make them use even light power armor with excellent control, but mind impulse units are even more important.

They will pilot spaceships, dropships, fighters, bombers and gunships, as well as tanks and APCs or walkers.

And speaking of ships, 10 destroyers arrive in the system empty of crew during this year, and are all rapidly converted into the Los Angeles-pattern, as my Blank daughters have finished officer school and are begging me for a command.

Sure we do have plenty fast cutters or transport ships, already busy transporting minerals or wood or promethium and coal to our Forge, or to Forge Antax.

But as it happens, there is another Forge World somewhat close, called Henscuetl B, in the Pandraxx_Subsector, and we have struck a good deal with them for Armed Sentinels and plasma torpedoes, which we cannot make yet.

Those torpedo destroyers now escort slow transport ships filled with our valuable exports, and return with various consumable goods like clothes, or pict or vox casters, and also lasguns, chainsaws and krak missiles as well, plus immigrants and servitors from the Hive World Fulcrum, in that same system.

A few trading routes went great, until a Chaos Space Marine Chapter called Angels_of_Pain attacks that system in force, despite resistance from the local Astartes.

Sure, my daughters immediately rushed to help. Destroying a Chaos battlecruiser and 2 strike cruisers before running out of torpedoes, and retreating, but I was also on the way with the Icarus and the Tranquility, as soon as I heard.

Five days later, we arrived in the system to find the Red_Scimitars struggling to defend a big space station called Trantation. Almost instantly, the Chaos ships began drifting, as their entire crew was quickly vanished into my labyrinth, then ejected into the sun.

Cultists and corrupted Marines were not my favorite, and I wouldn't risk my precious collection to some Warp infection.

Then we launch the corvettes and blow all their ships up, erasing all evidence of cheating. The Blood Angels teleport on the station to help clean up the remaining opposition, while my corvettes are already pushing the Chaos infested hulls toward the sun. The poor locals are rather terrified and many of them mutated or infected by Chaos sorcerers, while human limbs and heads are hanged on spikes and nails, in a macabre presentation.

So I make sure to return the favor with krak grenades detonated at those bastards armor joints, leaving many traitors crawling on mangled stumps, until the Blood Angels arrive the end their misery.

It doesn't take long to get invited at a pleasant meeting with the Fabricator Dominus of this Forge and with the Chapter Master of the Red Scimitars.

It seems I did get a bit famous around the Eastern Fringe, and even my wolf is famous. Well, he is a wolf that can understand words spoken or written, so maybe that's why.

His descendants with normal she-wolves did not inherit the best traits, especially his size, although they are smart and have acute senses. But then all wolves are like that, I think.

Maybe I should test the chronophage blade if it works on wolves? The Immortal wolf, huh?

"Lord Lancefire, you are smiling creepily." the Fabricator says as I just stare at the cogitator screen, lost in thought.

"Ah, that. Brain implant, sometimes I get lost in thought. So, you like the corvettes, I would say?" I wonder out loud.

"Not overly much, but we could invest some resources to produce a thousand such ships for better system coverage. If only we could have salvaged that adamantium from the traitor ships..." the Fabricator complains in a familiar manner.

"Demons in the walls, Fabricator. Not worth it, trust me! What about the Planetary Gellar Field, for the Hive World Fulcrum? It should reduce chances of Warp incursions, maybe even stop psykers acting up." I advise him, gently.

"It is an amazing STC discovery, I admit. Not overly complicated either, especially the one buried in the planet mantle for geomagnetic energy. However, I believe it will interfere with Warp capable ships. We will need to test it on a distant moon, and a whole range of spaceships and Warp engines."

the Magos says in a rational voice, and he is perhaps right. Haven't considered this, til now.

"I do prefer travelling with the warp-less engines. It is a bit more expensive to obtain a large hull like a galleon or conveyor, but after that...it only takes water or even ice to travel among stars. Our Navigator is the most relaxed member of the crew." I explain in tiny snort.

"I would think it so. Perhaps one day, my Forge will have a behemoth ship like that too." he allows in a pitiful voice. As it happens, I do have a big ship in my pocket.

"Well...I do know the location of an abandoned Ork Terror ship. Large enough to fit a battleship scale warp-less engine. I mean, my clan conquered that Ork planet, and that ship was just left derelict in the void. Stupid Orks, right?" I offer in a wide smile. Nobody doubts Ork stupidity, so the gambit works.

More wine gets poured without asking. "A xeno ship?" he asks in worried voice.

"Well, I suppose it has been a human commercial galleon once, millennia ago. The engine placement is the only thing left to identify it after." I muse out loud.

"Really, then it not a problem at all! And I expect is plated with a megatonne of adamantium and plasteel, right?" the Fabricator asks rubbing a few tentacles.

I just nod kindly. "And a thousand Orkish weapons of any kind imaginable, plus some really outside any imagination. My tech-priests were horrified, but then I am a son of the Emperor, so what do I care?" I reply in a careless voice.

"We should really tow that derelict here, for safekeeping. My Forge will compensate you on delivery." the tech-priest promises in a solemn voice.

"Can you repair my Tranquility battleship? Also mount a Nova Cannon and 200 lance batteries on the broadsides? We can provide more adamantium hulls and even some Dark Eldar captured machines." I ask in a curious voice.

The Fabricator nods with confidence. "It would be an honor to restore that Apocalypse-class to full strength. Even if the Tranquility was modified with torpedo cells, like those system corvettes."

"Projected timeline?" I ask with some worry.

"Depends on mineral supplies. Maybe 20 years, maybe 50. It will never be new, but without traveling into the Warp, I suppose it will have an excellent service from now on. But 200 lance batteries, is that even feasible?" he asks in worry.

"The Macharius-pattern reactor is three times stronger, so it can supply enough energy for more lances. I was also thinking a couple of thrusters on the side, for faster turning. Like two horns, or an ancient bicycle steering handle. I saw something like this on various fortress-monasteries." I propose with an ignorant shrug, and produce a childish model on a commercial dataslate.

It does have everything I want, just made in crayon, so to speak.

Three teleportarium, three Gellar field generators, ten landing hangars for assault dropships. Three vertical torpedo cells of 100 warheads each, probably sufficient to blow up a Necron Tomb Ship in one salvo. Or at least cripple it badly.

Then five Void Shields, an Ion Shield and a Flare shield of battleship strength, which should slow down railgun or macrocannon shells, plus block fighter or bomber ordnance like missiles and bombs.

I could take on a Gloriana-class battleship in fair fight with such a beast, and I will probably need to.

Those extra maneuver engines will provide extra acceleration, or you turn one engine off, to change direction 20 percent faster.

"It's doable, I suppose. But we will name it Apocalypse B-pattern for my Forge's prestige. I have no doubt you will lead it in many glorious battles once it is finished." The Fabricator replied after a long minute.

I smiled genially and held out my hand. "You can be certain of this, Magos. I have never lost a battle."

The tech-priest laughed in a mechanical tone, probably a recording from his biologic years. "It only takes once, Pef Lancefire. But maybe you're lucky, or the Omnissiah has plans for you."

He was right though. With battles, you only needed to lose once

Every year, a lucky ship Captain from my clan gets the honor of discovering another flotilla of abandoned destroyers, mostly intact if in bad repair.

It seems the systems around our core worlds are littered with pirate ships, the crew vanished and ship logs showing no clue.

Then again, there are strange Warp things like the Maelstrom and the Hadex Anomaly which often cause the same results to unwary explorers.

Soon enough, the eager Navigators and my officers get to fly their new ship to a Forge World like Metalica or Tigrus, to get it upgraded for Fringe operations, in exchange for xeno artifacts or even a rare STC pattern of lesser value.

Then a heavy cruiser gets found, and sent to Triplex Phall to receive a Nova Cannon, right as Primarch Guilliman begins his own enormous Crusade, creating a hundred new Fortress Worlds in the path of the Tyranid Fleets, and mustering a million Guard regiments all over the Ultima Segmentum.

That's the real power of a Primarch, and there are few who dare say no to the Son of the Emperor.

Primarch Khan is doing something else around the Solar Segmentum, cleaning up corruption on the larger Hive Worlds, with an ever-increasing horde of Astartes and a few Mechanicus Legions. Hive World Necromunda gets mentioned a few times by the astropaths, which doesn't surprise me at all. Khan really is a pointed sword, and I did point him at Necromunda.

A dozen Astartes Chapters get founded at his demand, to safeguard those Hive Worlds, after the tech-priests have scoured the under-hives for extra servitors and hidden STCs. Cults get investigated and butchered, corrupt Governors burned alive, just business as usual in the Imperium. No mention of Reality Cages being installed anywhere, which is troubling.

The Siege of Forge Hypnoth ends in a Pyrrhic victory for Cult Mechanicus, as the Necrons unleashed a few advanced infocyte viruses on that Forge, destroying many of the defenses and the robotic defenders.

But it is still a victory, as Hypnoth is not conquered, while the attacking Necrons lose two Tomb Ships and a dozen Harvest Ships to the combined might of the defenders. Massed torpedo volleys and archeotech weapons from the Ark Mechanicus cruiser are the principal methods that worked, plus Nova Cannon cruisers supporting the fleet from afar. Knights and Baneblades with Ion Shields prove devastating on the ground, just like Fury Interceptors in void combat.

Soon after, a certain Warp Rift in the vicinity, called the Van_Grothe's_Rapidity closes unexpectedly. I suspect this was Lord Trazyn, playing with his Blackstone Fortress and testing its capabilities. A Chaos strike force that departs from the Hadex Anomaly towards Solemnace disappears mysteriously, which only hints at more anti-Warp weaponry being experimented by the insane Necron wizard.

Sadly, I am banned from Sotha for several more years, so I don't get a clear confirmation, except reading astropathic telegrams and my own logical deductions.

Larissa does get a special mission afterwards, and sneakily blows up a Necron World called Cthelmax, which seemed to be a dead world but really wasn't. The star system is now littered with fragments of Necron tech and entire asteroids made of blackstone, so we have another salvage and mining spot only known to my clan and Forge Retribution.

My daughter Andrea travels to Forge Megyre, and sells them the tip about the melted Space Hulk on Gorkamorka, and gets promised another fleet carrier filled with torpedo corvettes, and a dozen more Catachan regiments, provisioned to our own specifications. The STC dataslates and warning about Necron and Tyranid invasions spur the Fabricator into a massive defensive buildup, which will be constructed from the recovered adamantium and blackstone from the burned world.

It will take a few decades for a solid result of this trip, but Andrea did tow a large Dark Eldar cruiser after her, which is filled with advanced xeno tech. Our Favor is guaranteed now.

Forge Antax gets the same and more, as I donate to them the old Grand Cruiser I confiscated in the Magog Crusade, and they immediately begin repairs and refit to create a true Ark Mechanicus from the casino ship.

My mentor Gyron is away though, and it wouldn't surprise me if Forge World Palomar simply gets expunged from all records.

Finding an intact STC is the Holy Grail of Cult Mechanicus, and the culmination of any Magos Explorer's life. Sadly, I can't really help my mentor directly, but I did point him at the right path.

I also whisper a rumour to Forge Ryza, via my daughter Ginea. She went there with another Dark Eldar cruiser in tow, and more blackstone and adamantium, to propose the Macharius-Omega tank pattern, based around an atomantic reactor and a simplified Plasma blastgun, covered by an Ion and a Flare shield.

There was also a Sentinel variant with an Ion Shield and a Melta gun, for anti-necron work, but we didn't have miniaturized plasma reactors and plasma weaponry. Only Ryza or Mars could make these, and we only wanted a thousand Macharius tanks and ten thousand Sentinels.

She came back with our second fleet carrier called Daedalus and ten Catachan infantry regiments, plus a small Explorer expedition to be based at Forge Retribution. And by small expedition, I mean five cruisers and 20 destroyers, plus a few million tech-priests and enginseers on a Mobile Forge ship containing most of their advanced technology.

The Ork Invasion on Ryza was still going on, although a single continent remained infested with greenskins, and the Ironclad battleship on the moon had been breached and raised, to be converted in a powerful Ark Mechanicus, armed with the best technology of the Cult. That would take perhaps a century, so it was a long project. Still much faster than building an adamantium hull from zero.

The colonization into the second wave of expansion continues with this influx of hardy pioneers, and also immigrants from nearby Hive Worlds.

It will take a decade to produce the first Reality Cage at Forge Retribution, because we do have too many projects going on. Like repairing and upgrading the Vitrix battleship, which takes megatonnes of plasteel, adamantium and blackstone for example.

But the Fabricator Dominus is also training millions of new acolytes which will take over the job of servicing tanks and fighters and Sentinels, as well as mining machinery and colonial infrastructure.

Slowly, the more experienced tech-priests will return to the Forge and be replaced, increasing the manufacture output a dozen times.

And they do manufacture, by hand and tentacle.

The only concession I could receive was for wood processing and furniture factories, which are being organized on every jungle or forest planet with fewer restrictions and religious protocol. I think the Mechanicus just doesn't see organic processing to have the same value as metal and forging, which kinda makes sense.

Exporting furniture and paper is a good business though, as the huge masses of humanity in the Imperium need as many megatonnes of it as they can find.

Of course, we never sell directly to a Hive World, which would be stupid and costly. We donate our wares to a nearby Forge World, and they sell it, using the cash to recover the cost for the machinery they gift to us. It's a simple but effective tax evasion method, as no money changes hands, thus no value can be asserted to our trade.

The Imperium might catch on in a few hundred years, but by then the infrastructure would be built, and dozens of generations would have used these machines and electronics to create new towns, railways, roads, power grids and many other projects of planetary importance. Even then, there is little the Imperium can do, to a Trader dynasty based beyond the borders.

Well there is, the Administratum can expand the Imperial borders to include my holdings or withdraw my Warrant of Trade, but I also have friends in high places.

And while the first Company of Lamenters slowly gets trained and implanted with their special organs, the next company of Blank recruits is reaching the cutoff age for safe implantation. So they spread their gene-seed into as many women as humanly possible, about 600 every year. It is hard work, as I can attest personally.

I had to stop accepting new daughters and their sisters from the local nobility into my bed, just because my body was still flesh and thus weak. Plus Blank concubines were a lot more effective at producing Blank babies.

One new planet usable mostly for agriculture was consecrated as a Cardinal world though, at the request of my saintly nurses, and then a miracle occurred, as thousands of Sisters of Battle kidnapped by the savage Dark Eldar appeared on the surface, followed by millions of former slaves and captured people.

There were even Order Familious sister among them, and let me tell you those women were not saintly at all. They rapidly took charge of my eugenics project, mixing and matching genetic attributes for extra reliability and durability, first among the new immigrants, then my Catachan regiments, and lastly my own clan.

Even their own Sisters of Battle were kinda harshly ordered to start pumping babies to increase the next generations of female warrior by ten times.

Sadly, no Imperial Cult priests or Administrators were found among the saved, and thus they had to improvise and select leaders from their own ranks. Female Bishops worked side by side with a self-elected Cannoness and her retinue, while my clan and tech-priests provided housing and infrastructure.

And of course, every visit by me or Victor and any of my sons was seen as some sort of day of celebration which ended with a dozen Sisters getting impregnated while singing glory hymns to the God Emperor.

It is a crazy galaxy, but I have learned not to examine the underlying substrates too deeply. Take whatever joy from life you can, because the Tyranids were coming, and the horrors were endless.

The only problem is my slightly overpraised legend, and over-analyzed life, which leads to Lady Justine being declared a Saint for fighting beside the Angel of the Emperor to defeat Fulgrim the Serpent, and myself for killing Lorgar the Traitor.

Well, they surely don't know everything I did, because I would get burned alive as well.

Anyway, this effervescence of religion sentiment spreads among all the worlds and colonies, which increases productivity and reduces dissent, especially in the Hive Cities.

There is even a proposal to begin construction of new Hive City on Salvation, the new Cardinal world. I delay that for a few decades, because manpower and resources are not sufficient. Plus I want that world to produce food, both cereals and meat.

Fisheries are being set up, and millions of grox and local poultry get imported from other agri-worlds in preparation for large food processing plants getting built here, as well as buying tractors and cereal seed.

If this project works, I might duplicate it on a dozen more worlds with slightly better climate. My Hive Cities sure need to receive other food than processed algae, nutrigruel, carboloafs, vitamead and recycled proteins. Already their populations are slightly healthier and vigurous, from vaccines and food imports, but the Imperium is too far and expensive to trade with in large quantities.

At least water and methane are not an issue, due to having system-corvettes deployed in every system, able to drag comets into orbit for processing.

Asteroids are plentiful as well, both for minerals and silicates, so the industry gets a cheap influx of resources.

Defenses get built over every single world, also outposts and listening posts for a hundred light-years all around, which is normal and common sense in my opinion.

Then one day, a Mars-class Battlecruiser and an Universe-class conveyor arrive at Illevar, with a couple of White Scars on board

The battlecruiser is possibly the replacement sent by Primarch Khan, for my lost corvette. A thousand times more valuable, but then that sacrifice brought with it the destruction of Commorragh, most of it anyway.

I couldn't be certain I found all the hidden Webway dimensions and sub-pockets, and probably did not. However, raids and mass blood and pain sacrifices would certainly cease, and the proof was my astropath choir that hasn't reported more Dark Eldar raids, anywhere in 10 thousand light years radius. The galaxy is much larger, but attempting long range calls always killed an astropath or more.

They did report an attack by a Chaos warband calling themselves the Company_of_the_Shadow on the world of Mortain, before the desperate plea was suddenly interrupted.

I made note of it, but I wasn't close nor had any Lamenters ready for a large scale action.

Two more Companies were training as Aspirants, the training grounds only 50 kilometers away from their homes in the Blanktown, where they still had more tech-priest lessons and family matters to attend.

Overall the Codex Astartes wasn't bad at all, especially for training regimes and weapon practice. It was actually quite the work of a genius.

Most of the tactics and strategies thought out by Primarch Guilliman were also good, and in some cases exceptionally brilliant.

The tactics were also limited, and would not account for moral or out of context problems, and nearly nothing to counter Chaos and its insidious infiltration. Mental mantras and regular check-ups by the Librarians and Chaplains...well. Those were exactly the psykers most likely to fall to chaos.

As for Two-tonne Astartes in power armor piloting fighters and gunships, that was rather stupid. Not to mention piloting ground vehicles with more armor than their own. What was even the point to train brutally effective warriors, designed to break through enemies lines and engage in close-range combat, and then waste them as glorified gunnery servitors or tank drivers?

You could take for example a 4-wheel-drive Tauros car, and emplace a Tarantula automated turret on it. Then build millions of them, to be used by the Auxiliary troops to support deep-strikes with heavy bolters, lascannons or even missile launchers.

That 'lost' STC template did find itself on the dataslate I gave to Primarch Khan, who was known to prefer rapid assaults or harassment on bikes, land speeders and other mobile vehicles.

Astartes were never meant to serve as front line troops, battling hordes of xeno or Chaos invaders while outnumbered a million to one. Boarding ships, breaching bunkers and command centers, fast raids on munition depots or fuel supplies, and target killing of enemy leaders and their officer staff. Those were the best way to use Astartes, not as mobile turrets. If you wanted mobile turrets, build damn mobile turrets!

And this guy in front of me was the perfect example of that close-in combat doctrine, and possibly sent to impress me or something. I wasn't that easily impressed though, though of course I admired the man for his centuries of honing the sword.

Maybe I can get him to teach me?

And my people too. I can only ask.

"Chapter Master Lancefire, we owe you a great debt for finding our Primarch, and destroying the filthy Dark Eldar xenos inside the Webway." Joghaten Khan, Master of Blades and Captain of the 4th Company declared in a harsh voice.

His face was scarred by a hundred battles, and he wore a Power Sword relic which has likely killed millions of traitors, heretics and cultists, not mention xenos and demons.

He was a one man army, just like his Primarch.

I waved his debt away with a slow gesture. "Very well, anything else?"

"... Myself and these other four Battle Brothers are to assist you in any task, even onto death. So has the Primarch commanded." The grizzly Veteran Astartes said in a calm tone.

So, he really meant it, considering his life spent already.

"Brothers, you are also Sword Masters?" I asked to make sure, although they did have artificier-grade chainswords on their backs.

"Yes, my Lord. Nothing like the Captain, but we can hold our own." One of them replied in a fake meek voice.

Meek, but also sent to keep watch on my operations here in the Fringe. Well then, let's give them something to do.

"Excellent! I have a few thousands Blanks, men and women who could use some melee training. You don't mind Blanks, do you?" I wondered in a jovial voice. A cadre of expert sword trainers would be wonderful indeed.

The men glanced behind me, where a dozen Silent Sisters were all wearing Power Swords and power armor. "You have thousands of Silent Sisters?" Captain Joghaten Khan asked in a curious voice, eyes measuring the women for some sort of reason.

Possibly for how many seconds it would take him to dismember them all. No more than three seconds, if you must know.

"Nah, only about 30 Sisters. As for the rest, some are my descendants, plus I found a place filled with more Blanks and had them transported here. I am lucky like that." I commented in a wry voice.

The White Scars Captain nodded cautiously. "It will be done, Lord Lancefire. As for the Mars-class and the conveyor, they contain what you were owed by our Primarch. Torpedoes, Nova Shells, and some other gifts you may need, if you intend to hold the Tyranids here, outside the border of the Imperium."

I smiled gently while examining those spaceships in my tesseract vision. A hundred more Exterminatus torpedoes, a dozen Vortex torpedoes, macrocannon shells, many heavy bolter crates and autocannon rounds by the billion. That silly Primarch!

Those small munitions would not be sufficient to defend a single world if the Tyranids managed to land, even with a small Hive fleet.

I snapped my fingers to empty the precious contents of those ships in my pocket. "Andrea, my dear. Take command of the Mars cruiser, and some escorts, and visit Retribution to load our exports, then travel to Forge Tigrus and covert the conveyor into a fleet carrier. Filled with corvettes too." I said in a gentle voice, while mentally sending orders for two Blood Angels and two Sisters to provide enforcement and anti-warp cover.

I would have to find a name for those ships...nah. Andrea could handle it, going by how her eyes were glowing with excitement. She ran off, followed by her retinue.

I think the blade master blinked, observing how those two Sisters were the only ones not pregnant.

I may be charming and all, but 28 of 30 Sisters was the best I could manage, even after years of constant interaction and showering the poor muted women with kindness and gifts.

Then again, those two Sisters Dalia and Sophie, were in their sixties when we met, bitter and worn out with age and battling horrors. They looked like 20 years old now, and will likely never die of old age anymore.

Those chronoblades were quite a cheat, as were the xeno hexagram necklaces. I had a hundred xeno specialists Magi attempting to decipher the secrets of a blade and the last necklace, but so far nothing.

I may need a certain Necron Overlord, or perhaps a helpful C'tan to aid with it. I was certain Trazyn could duplicate the Null Rod technology, because it was only an artifact of the Mechanicus.

However, whoever these xenos with their ancient statues were, they did posses advanced knowledge of the Warp and the dangers of Chaos, and likely were exterminated for it, or by it.

Just as I was waiting for my daughter to reach her new cruiser, a sleek black shuttle departed from the Mars cruiser, possibly covered in a dozen anti-augury paints and scrambling engrams, because it wasn't visible on the Starforts sensors, nor my fleet in orbit.

An infiltrator of some kind, no doubt. I could use a black ops shuttle myself, so it vanished inside my large pocket, while its pilot was frozen then dropped in front of the White Scar Captain.

It was a woman, lithe and supple, and highly trained. In a second, she recovered and swirled her hi-tech helmet around, to find a Power Sword a centimeter from her neck. Mister Khan was just as fast as I predicted.

"Purpose of your visit, my dear?" I murmured in a thoughtful tone.

"Classified, Lord Lancefire! ... Well, that plan failed, obviously." the woman grumbled and removed her helmet to reveal a pretty face, deep-red hair and the familiar ports of a mind impulse unit implant.

However, the sigils guarding the datasphere access to her implant were a hundred times too complex and complicated for a private operator. And that needle rifle split in three and worn on her back was inscribed with other complex gene-codes.

I have seen one such rifle a few years ago, in the hands of that blonde assassin from my Rose's retinue. Same outfit, same rifle...same job perhaps?

"Obviously it failed, this classified mission of yours, but we're all friends here. And seeing how you arrived on the Primarch's gift battlecruiser...what could an assassin from the Vanus Temple possibly want, with a not-too-important Rogue Trader, merely trading paper and furniture to a few Forge Worlds?" I asked in a wry tone.

That was my cover story, and I kept with it. Maybe a few STCs here and there, if I got lucky on my travels.

Ludvaius snorted and stepped back and to the side, his bolter still aimed at the pretty assassin. "Why even ask, Captain? It obviously was a poisoned gift, just like these other Brothers." my bodyguard grumbled, and all my escorts all raised weapons to target the White Scars, and the assassin.

I sighed inward, at the over-reaction, while the Scars simply closed their eyes waiting to die. Damn brainwashed idiots!

"Oh no! Nothing like that!" the woman argued with a pleading voice, looking around for someplace to escape.

"I consider the good Primarch is not the type to send an assassin after me, even an infocyte like yourself. What do you say, Captain Khan?" I asked in a soft voice.

"It is as you say, Lord Lancefire. Primarch Jaghatai Khan is an honorable man, beyond any hint of reproach or taint. We were also warned to regard you with caution, at the same levels of ability as an Alpha psyker. Or the reverse of that, however it works for Nulls." the Astartes Captain announced in a cold voice, mostly towards the disgraced assassin.

"Alright! My name is Elixa_de_Mornay and I was ordered to protect you from the shadows, Captain Lancefire. And...also obtain a clear picture of your assets and abilities. How did you even find me?" the woman demanded in an outraged voice.

Ludvaius and Rafen both chuckled amused, and holstered their weapons, while my other guards lowered theirs but were still wary.

"Alena, what do you say?" I asked gently, holding my hand out for the most vocal Silent Sister. Alena rushed to take my hand and examined the assassin named Elixa with curious eyes.

"She isn't even a Pariah! Plus she would spy on you!" Alena claimed in a vocal tone.

"Not like that, silly! I have plenty women. I meant Elixa's infocyte skills." I answered seriously.

Bedding a pretty assassin might be fun, but too risky indeed. But hacking and subverting Machine Spirits for my tech-marines and Blank sisters? That would be even more useful than another concubine.

"Are you serious, my Lord? You expect me to divulge the temple's secrets, just like that?" the red-headed prisoner muttered in naive confusion.

Well, Elixa was right, and she would need a very deep motivation to change her allegiance.

Perhaps I did need to bed her.

I smiled at Lady Elixa and she vanished in my labyrinth. We will resume the conversation in a different setting.

"Any more surprises I need to know about, Brothers? Maybe a dozen Inquisitors, like that idiot who tried to arrest your Primarch, back on Sotha?" I asked to make sure, and also checked the ships for hidden compartments filled with bombs or assassins.

Didn't find any, but the ugly face of the Imperium was already showing its true face.

Unlike the trades with local Forges, which were based on mutual interest and lots of gifts made in good faith...this new shipment arrived from the Solar Segmentum, the largest hive of scum and villainy in the galaxy, possibly even worse than the Eye of Terror.

These entitled Nobles would smile and invite you to dinner, just to dismember you and drain your brain of useful information. Or have their defense batteries fire in a targeting error and blow you up.

Or any other scenario that ended with you dead, and they gaining some advantage.

At least in the Eye of Terror, you could shoot back.

However, my experience in that shadow realm of the Mandrakes had taught me that even the tesseract labyrinths had limits, especially when dealing with the Warp. Things might not be solid enough to be stored in stasis, or the stasis not strong enough to hold them. Or more probably, you needed a C'tan to power up the abilities of that labyrinth.

The Crimson God was still impaled by a sort of Canoptek_Sentinel, chains of living rock or such binding the immortal shard and preventing his escape. Only problem, I wasn't a Necron, and thus had minimal access to those controls.

Plus I was nearly certain that Trazyn had sabotaged my controls in some way. The Necron Lord wouldn't give anyone the same access to the kind of power that he had, seeing how two Tyranid tendrils from Hive Fleet Behemoth avoided his homeworld of Solemnace and then got lost in the void, drifting into hibernation.

I could only replicate that feat on a much smaller scale, and not for long, by blowing up the Queen and her Hive Ship with Vortex torpedoes.

"When shall we begin training those recruits, Lord Lancefire?" The White Scar Captain asked after waiting a minute in awkward silence.

"In three seconds. You the four Veterans, on the surface." I replied curtly, storing the four chainsword-wearing Scars and depositing them beside the training ground's gate. We had a proximity sensors and automated turrets protecting the recruits and the training cadres, so intruders would take fire otherwise. The Lamenters Apothecaries would know what to do, I hoped.

The blademaster just glanced around before shrugging. "So you want me to train you, my Lord?" he deduced instantly. Well Astartes are smart, and Captains do start learning how think for themselves eventually. In a few centuries.

"Yes, one hour per day, every day. Mostly the reasoning behind each strike and how the Scars position themselves for melee. I'm more of a strategist than a brawler, and the few times I fought Astartes in melee, I kinda got pounded." I admitted in a cheerful voice, only to get patted on my shoulder by a compassionate bodyguard.

"He doesn't have the Astartes organs, Captain Khan. Might be better to consider Lord Pef a simple tech-marine." Ludvaius explained in a pleasant tone.

The old Veteran just nodded knowingly. I did not look like all the other Astartes, that was certain. "Tech-marines can also be quite deadly. Especially in a good armor, like Master Lancefire has. That shoulder-mounted stormbolter...you can aim it with your mind implant, right? Target the eyes or the joints?"

I nodded, with my head and the mobile arm as well, then swirled the shoulder stormbolter around, to envelop the large meeting hall in the Lamenters Starfort, the targeting reticles and the Auto-Sense Machine Spirit locking on everyone's eyes in less than a second. Perhaps a good tech-marine was indeed deadly, if he could gain access to top-level gear like I had.

"I guess I could drop everyone in this hall in a single second, if they're not shielded. Doubtful if any sword master can do it that fast." I mused to myself.

"Quite deadly already, like I said. And if they are shielded?" The White Scars Captain asked curious.

I turned towards my escorts. "Then...it would depend on many things. I would certainly not rush them with my blade."

"And yet, that is the best course of action, Lord Lancefire. Rush towards an exit, cut your way out with your Power Sword, and escape to fight another day. Sadly, you'd be too slow and unskilled for that. Even after a century of daily training." the man said in a convinced voice, and Rafen just chuckled.

"I'd bet a throne on Lord Pef every time. He did burn down Commorragh without lifting a finger." my loyal bodyguard commented wryly.

Hey, I did lift a finger! Damn myths blowing out of proportions! I lifted a finger every time I teleported an Exterminatus torpedo, about 30 times!

"I'd find another way. It would take something on the level of an Eldar Avatar or a C'tan to cause me worry. Maybe a Daemon Prince too, without my brave retinue." I said in a thoughtful voice.

"So I have heard, and a dozen top tier seers have confirmed it. The traitor Lorgar is still dead, after you found another way. Your raid on Commorragh however, is mostly attributed to our Primarch, in the public communiques delivered from Terra. No mention of Eldar allies either. Your participation is noted, of course, and last I heard Lord Khan has proposed you for some medals of valor and a Nobility title." the Captain explained in curious voice, as if testing me to argue.

But, I was rather content with that development. Primarch Khan would gain credibility and support from many parties injured by the Dark Eldar, while the little known Astartes Chapter like the Lamenters with a single Battlebarge, and a fleet of Rogue Trader corvettes wouldn't seem that impressive. I would gain some notoriety for that title, more than for my raid. There would be a real House Lancefire, with all the benefits of that rank.

Noble Houses would receive a bit of land and a small palace on Terra itself, which would be worth trillions of thrones or maybe more.

With a local base, I could start slowly gathering support for a High Lord of Terra rank for the Rogue Trader Houses, much like the Speaker_for_the_Chartist_Captains.

All Rogue Traders risked their ships, life and sanity exploring beyond the borders, fighting xenos of a hundred kinds, or aided in Crusades, much like I did. It was time we got our own voice, in this case my own voice.

Though I would most likely send a representative, just like the Navigators or the Inquisition did.

Still, this would mean making contact with some other famous Rogue Trader Dynasties, and convince them to work together. That would be fun, even if they will see the immense benefit of having someone defend their wealth and Warrants of Trade in the highest Imperial court. And more importantly, it would allow certain regulations to be imposed on the scummy Traders. Too often they sold out the Imperium or restricted technologies for a quick sale.

"Sounds great, Captain Khan! I might even accept that Noble rank. I'll have to ask my clan if anyone dares to approach that planet though, I hear it's infested with corrupt officials. About as bad as landing alone in a middle of a Tyranid invasion, I expect."

I replied in a less amused voice, then turned towards my next scheduled destination.

My brave children, getting tortured in implantation sarcophagi by the Sanguinary Priests. Not fun at all, and in fact terminally dangerous for any single one of them.

Sure, I updated the procedure as much as I could, even bringing a hundred Biologis tech-priests to oversee the machines and repair them, but the gene-seed technology was really advanced and pretty much nobody knew enough to make it safe.

Luckily, there was a newly arrived Forge Antax tech-priest available, who did work on the Blank genes projects for a few decades.

My hopes were on him, as he struggled to adjust the coffins to produce live subjects and not biologic sludge or malformed creatures.

"How does it seem, Magos Eleven?" I asked via an implant message.

Voice didn't quite translate well with Mechanicus specialists, as the Cult's techno-lingua had too many attributes of esoteric meanings.

And specialists had too little patience with moron humans too. Explaining delicate genetic and soul transfiguration to a normal person was pretty much impossible, just as 5-dimensional Warp manifold mathematics were beyond most tech-priests ability to comprehend.

That was why Vortex warheads were so rare and precious. Maybe a thousand people in the Imperium understood the procedure well enough to create those weapons.

The Astartes genetic code was probably just as complex, due to bloodline reverberations and stigmatic imprints caused by the death of Sanguinius. Adding the problem of Blank genes into the mix solved some problems and created others, with less logical solutions.

Everyday, I would come to the Sanguinary ward and commune with my sons, via my MIU implant, entering their mental landscapes and reinforcing their will and mental resistance.

Speeches, mantras, canticles and simply being here beside them helped. The Black Rage did not manifest at all, and that was great. Mutations were also stopped at the source. Flesh might be weak against the Warp, but Blanks were immune.

However, that psychic stigmata caused by our Primarch's wound, and the Red Thirst...that was bad.

I also had to suffer that pain beside them, and it wasn't fun at all. Maybe I should punch Sanguinius in the face after I got him resurrected.

Fucking vampire thirsty for blood!

"Continue your duty, Astartes. Your daily efforts are working, and we might not lose a single Lamenter recruit. Which is not normal at all!" Magos BD/ANT/J8NN11 explained in a techno-lingua transmission of his own.

Who cares about normal, damn cultist! How is it normal to lose a hundred children for every Astartes?

Sure, because my boys are rather older than normal Astartes, they have a stronger soul and will, which helps them withstand the horrible process better than some 10 year old farm boy, thrown into a dark coffin and told to pray.

They will lose a tiny bit in strength and speed, because the body is grown and less malleable, but they will survive. As for strength and speed, they will have the best power armor and mind implants.

In my view, that mattered more than a few kilograms of extra strength. Ogryns were even stronger, after all.

And about that, in a sealed wing of the Starfort, we had Ogryns being implanted with Red Scorpions gene-seeds.

I didn't want more muscles on their already gigantic muscles. I wanted to give them able minds, like all Astartes had.

However, this plan didn't work as I hoped, not at all. Should have remembered the Dark Eldar

All those flesh mutations that Astartes had to endure? Wings, claws, fangs and snake eyes?

It was a dozen times worse with the Ogryns, because the poor things were already mutated and weak to the Warp.

Just like the Dark Eldar obtained creatures like the Wrack and the Grotesque from their genetic manipulations, so did my own experiments with Ogryn flesh. All I could do was take their lives with my chronoblade, and attempt to store their souls in a Prism-like Soul-Trap.

I failed to do that either, because I'm not a Dark Eldar Archon like Valossian_Sythrac, the former owner of this artifact.

Well, in time I would learn all their secrets, unless I died somehow. Even then, there would be methods to revive myself, from discarding the failed timeline to blood sacrifice or cloning my body and restoring a backup mind from storage.

If Fabius Bile could clone Horus or Ferrus Manus and even the other Fulgrim, then I could do it too. I just had to learn as much or more than the poor traitor without limbs.

Perhaps I could even use that same knowledge as a start, by downloading his memories?

Something to think about, and decide later. I still had time til the Ruinous Powers would manage to gather enough forces for another Black Crusade, and I could hamper their efforts even more, by burning Demon Worlds or Fallen Knight Planets or Hell Forges.

My xeno artifacts vanished in my dimensional pocket, as Magos Eleven entered the Ogryn Ward to examine the specimens.

A burst of data engrams flashed as his auto-senses measured the room and the dead Ogryn corpses. "Another failure, another day." he might have said, if the techno-lingua translation was correct. Probably not.

I held out my hand and a Drukhari Hexrifle appeared. This weapon fired some kind of vitrification virus called the Glass_Plague, turning anyone into glass, and giving them a True Death. In my other hand I had a canister containing the counter-virus, which would certainly be needed when these mad scientists experimented with the xeno virus. "I want this weapon examined and duplicated into a Mechanicus format, then tested on Orks. You will join Juggler and his team at their Fungal Research Outpost in the Oblivion system. Make sure to duplicate the counter-agent first, before you play with the doomsday weapon."

I had a young Sister named Ordela_Grendoth assigned to that remote and classified star system to protect the Biologis researchers against demons and Warp intrusions. Her powers as a Pariah were already the greatest among all my followers, such that even the Catachan concubines living in more distant villas of Blanktown were disturbed by her presence. Ordela could continue her studies and training under Juggler's guidance, and probably become a version of Pariah tech-priest, just like my dear Juggler wanted to try.

"It will be done, Revelator. A weapon that might extinguish the Ork threat would be truly valuable, and would spare humanity trillions of lives. Plus, it should secure this Lancefire domain against Ork Waaghs and help clear out infested planets of their fungal spores. So, the Ogryn project is ended?" the Biologis Magos asked in another data burst. I think I got everything right.

"We will return to it, but once I manage to produce Blank Ogryns. Have your Fabricator secure a thousand young females for that task. Prettiest and smartest Ogryn girls, and I shall close my eyes and do my duty, in bed." I uttered in a slight shudder.

It would be much worse than my trials with Catachans and even the pampered noble daughters, which were in some ways more difficult to deal with than an angry Ogryn. Pampered little minxes, with barbed words and constant plots for social ascendance.

Luckily, I only had about 100 of these cute darlings, so I only had to spend three weeks per year in their company, till they were sent back home with their bellies filled with another heir.

My wife Serena had dominion over the noble concubines, somehow keeping them from each other throats, at least until each House had a few Blanks to continue the leadership without fear of Chaos corruption.

In time the allied houses will all become part of my Dynasty, by blood. That would take a century or so, and perhaps some accidents happening to the more reluctant elders.

Anyway, it was time to return down on the surface, check up on Victor and his progress on tesseract temporal experiments, and then deal with the new problem: the pretty infocyte Elixa.

Perhaps she could continue her job, setting up a SIGINT center in the main Hive City and absorb all available data. From census and tax reports, to cult activity and detecting other infiltrators, an infocyte would be worth as much as a battlecruiser.

And if she agreed to train a company of agents to a similar skill, her value would grow to a whole fleet of cruisers.

Soon enough, I emerged from the teleport room at the top of the Governor's spire, and shook hands with the Blood Angel guarding my son. "How is he?" I asked in a paternal worry.

"Well enough, I say. Those 50 Blank women you have brought him are all with child, as you know already. Perhaps bring him more? He keeps staring at the cogitator screen, not unlike his weird father." the Veteran Astartes joked and patted my pauldron.

I did have Victor look over my STC templates for a second opinion, especially on the simplest machines, to find other uses or gain inspiration for a new weapon.

So I entered his personal quarters, to find it slightly eaten by his two wolves, pillows and bedding shredded by playful animals, while Victor was lost in reverie in front of the cogitator holoscreen.

"Romulus and Remus, bad dogs! Get out in the garden now." I grumbled at pointed at the balcony door, leading to a suspended garden with lawns and trees. Nobles did have nice perks, even in 40k.

Both wolves mewled, caught in the crime and acting like sheepish children. Then Romulus ran to press the green button for the door while Remus rushed outside howling for freedom.

The howl woke Victor up, and he turned to see me and his Astartes watch him in amusement.

"What! I never wanted a wolf, let alone two of them! Look what they did to my place..." my boy complained like a kid. He was obviously my kid, so I didn't comment. Plus Victor was right, wolves were not made for indoors.

"Wait on the balcony, Astartes. Play with the wolves if you want." I told the bodyguard while I sat on the plasteel block beside my son's armchair.

A minute later, Victor brought up the newest invention of his, an alteration of one of the many vehicles I had remembered and roughly drawn out for his perusal.

"This mine-clearing tank from Old Terra, we could use the concept for melee battles, instead of chainswords. Also, for important gates defenses, only the drums spinning to butcher armored attackers with Power Flails. Vehicles wouldn't have this kind of energy, except those powered by atomantic reactors, but for fixed positions with their own power generators it should work. Maybe even for defending starship corridors, right?" Victor proposed and brought up a few concept designs, based on Weasels, Chimeras and Macharius tank chassis.

I nodded at his great idea, and then tried to expand on it. Except in confined spaces like a gate barbican or a tight mountain pass, drum flails would naturally be avoided and attacked from the sides.

But any vehicle had an engine, and that engine could spin a drive shaft horizontally for traction or vertically for lift, like old helicopters did.

I linked my implant to the cogitator and rapidly brought out an old helicopter. "A ground vehicle with a spinning horizontal flail, would create a deadly area around it, in 360 degrees, preventing flankers from attacking from the side and rear. Might also be useful in jungles and other clearing duties. Try it on the Sentinels waist and Weasels' turret ring first, and see if striking height can be adjusted. I don't want dedicated machines, I want an upgrade to those we already have. Perhaps for emplaced Tarantula sentry guns as well."

Victor shook his sleepy head and loaded a lascannon Sentinel template and began to work. "Anything of note for the temporal chambers in the tesseract?" I asked softly.

"I can grow algae, if I provide light sources and air, plus basins of water and nutrients. Only tried at twice speed of normal timeflow, and it's already getting out of control. Couldn't even germinate plant seeds." Victor muttered while most of his focus was on the waist ring of the Sentinel, trying to create an outer ring rotating independently. Nothing high tech, but still a lot of hard work.

I copied his initial design, to offer to my Forge as a broken STC pattern found by one of my ships while exploring the outer Fringe.

We didn't find STCs there, only alien species and more Orks and Tyranids splinters. Soon enough Erwynn's_World would come under attack from such a splinter, and I planned to interfere. There was an Astartes Chapter based there, which would be a shame to let perish. The Dragon_Lords were here beyond the Imperium border on the same mission as my Lamenters, trying to defend humanity from the deadliest xenos prowling at the edge of the galaxy.

Just for that, I would save them and support them. There were billions of stars in the Fringe, and not enough ships and troops to patrol it. Not yet