Chapter 15 - 111-118

However pleasant and rather unexpected, my honeymoon with the gorgeous Elixa was cut short by a desperate astropathic message.

From a hidden corner in the Vidar sector, where Forge World Antax was located as well, an immense Necron starship, larger than a planet and even better armed has awoken from its long sleep, and has began attacking Imperial shipping, blowing up anything crossing its path. Wasn't moving very fast though, so a quarantine area was declared for 20 light years around it.

Even worse, Primarch Guilliman has called all available Astartes and any available Navy or Rogue Traders to lend their gun to destroy this menace, now called the World_Engine.

Well, I was both an Astartes Chapter Master and a Rogue Trader. Surely I could raise a finger and help, right?

"What do you say Canis? Big fire or normal fire?" I asked my best advisor.

"Woof woof!" the space wolf replied eagerly and nudged my left glove as a hint.

Hmmm, I was thinking to use the Pharos...but perhaps Canis was right. Guilliman would surely figure out why the Tyranids fleets were attacking a Necron world in a frenzy, when there was nothing to eat there.

And I wasn't ready to face down another Primarch. Not unless I wanted to get beat up again.

The Icarus carrier was out on patrol, but I did have two light cruisers ready for duty, plus the Serenity battlebarge.

I could take the Dominator cruiser as well, the one with a Nova Cannon.

Yep, should be enough. Shouldn't show my entire deck yet, after all.

Sadly, the first 1000 techmarines were still in training, and the next 1000 were undergoing gene-implantation right now.

As for my Lamenters...well. They had a decade more to go til I considered even the first Company ready for action.

I should take a Sanguinary Priest, probably Yollus, and one Apothecary with me, and leave Priest Helios in command of the Starfort and the Chapter.

Only problem, my nice capital Illevar would be exposed until Victor returned from his ship finding expedition. This sucked!

I mean, we did have more defenses than a real Imperial Hive World, merely 300 asteroid forts, a real Ramillies-class Starfort and 3 Astartes battlebarges and 12 cruisers, plus 3 Lancefire battlecruisers, 100 destroyers and nearly 300 corvettes left in defense, so it wouldn't be completely exposed.

I just didn't feel safe without someone using a tesseract to keep an eye on things. Hopefully Elixa would manage the spying network while I was gone.

Soon enough, I took Fidelia and Hestia aside and had them assigned as protectors of the House and Chapter, grabbed Lord Whitelance and his Knight, plus my wolf and my wife Henna for my comfort during this long trip.

Then we began to embark a Catachan regiment and four PDF regiments on the ships, just to have some inner ablative armor in case of boarders, the Necron kind. Or any kind, for that matter.

Also, 8 Pariah women from Blanktown got the prestigious role as mobile Gellar fields for the bridge and Gellar generators, also in case of unwanted intruders of the more insidious type.

Ludvaius and Rafen came along as well, as well as 20 more Blood Angels for a tactical strike, if needed.

"How worried should I be?" Decima asked me after she kissed me for a long minute.

"Oh, you mean the Necron thing? Not very worried. Might lose a light cruiser, depending on some factors." I answered after computing my own odds in my mind.

"They are gathering a thousand capital ships. Doesn't sound so easy to me." my wife whispered in a scared voice.

"Just place a call for Victor to return, and stay on yellow alert until he does." I said confidently then triggered the teleport beacon.

"Welcome aboard Captain!" Signus said in a joyous voice, seeming happy to see me. Also looking a bit older...like all normal people when they aged.

"Do you know how to wield a sword, Signus?" I asked instead.

"...Errr. Slice and thrust. Are we expecting boarders soon?" the enginseer asked in a slightly worried voice.

"We always do, my friend. Still travelling through the Warp, on the small ships." I explained patiently, although I had other reason for asking.

I held out my chronoblade and had him show me a few sword moves. They sucked, even worse than me. Well, I was getting training now.

Then I pointed at a tech servitor to the side. "Three cuts, fast but minimal strength. The blade has atomic edge."

Blinking at me then at the ornate sword with a dozen purity seals hanging from its guard, Signus executed the servitor and drained his life.

"Good enough. Make yourself a sword, Signus. I'm not giving you mine." I demanded after grabbing the precious xeno artifact and returning it to its blackstone and plasteel sheath.

Two weeks later, my small fleet arrived at the meeting point and I quickly considered their strategies flowing on the vox box among the gathered Captains. Utter disaster, or at least until Roboute Guilliman got here.

"Navigator, do you have a hint how to reach this World Engine from here, but far enough from its weapons? Say a billion kilometers away, but in front of it." I sent via the vox channel.

"That far wouldn't be a problem, Captain. Our weapons will be out of range too."

"But that ship would be moving fast towards us. And we have Nova Cannons and Vortex warheads." I explained in a patient voice.

A single Vortex torpedo wouldn't be enough, of course. But it would breach that Necron shield. After that, I could lift a finger for humanity.

"As you will, Captain. Your plan at least has a chance of success." the Navigator muttered in some displeasure. Sure, he got kidnapped along with this former Mantis Warriors barge during the attack on Forge Angstrom, so he wasn't really a volunteer.

Then again, he was still Navigating a ship, so it wasn't all bad.

In a minute, we opened a Warp rift and departed, ignoring the increasingly annoying vox messages from all the other ships gathered here.

It didn't take long to overtake the Necron Engine and drop in front of it. Then I just closed my eyes and saw the void in the tesseract, the dimensional shield of that planet-sized spaceship blocking teleports just as expected.

But it couldn't block teleports right in front of it.

A purple flash small like a pinhole opened in the Necron shield and a Cyclonic torpedo sneaked inside, incinerating the surface and burrowing a dozen kilometers through the thick armor plate, before detonating.

"Commence Nova Cannon bombardment!" I ordered as more of my Exterminatus-grade ordnance struck the same place, over and over.

As soon as the Nova shells left the cannon, I flicked them into the breach, while I urged the Serenity to fire our melta torpedoes at the same spot.

Flares of bright light obscured the incoming ship.

"High energy maneuver. Turn the ships and dive!" I commanded after our torpedoes departed.

The Serenity barge had a 100 torpedo cell-block on the top side, which soon reached optimal release angle and I fired them all, one per second.

Meanwhile, Nova mines and Cyclonic torpedoes kept detonating deep and deeper into the monstrous warship, breaking apart small bits, the size of mountains. Thus, I was able to start stealing everything not nailed down, gigattones of blackstone and millions of Necron weapons and machines of every kind.

I strained my mind to abscond with as many broken bits of the Necron planet-ship, while targeting any exposed generators and conduits with high-yield explosives. No matter how redundant the Necron technology was, at one point the damage would be too much and systems will begin failing. It pained me that I had no idea what devices were powerful or rare, but I grabbed anything glowing green in the hope of figuring it later, somehow.

An hour later, our visible string of torpedoes started impacting the Necron ship, just as Battle barge Tempestus arrived next to us. The plasma warheads had little actual effect, but made for a great smokescreen.

"Chapter Master Lancefire, you managed to breach the xenos doomsday machine?" an incredulous voice asked on the vox channel.

"Nah, it was open when I found it. And those demons burning on the surface are not the result of a Vortex torpedo. Merely a flicker of imagination." I commented wryly as my fleet sped away.

A series of explosions marked my words, and the shield protecting the World Engine failed completely.

Well, perhaps I did hit something vital after all. Time to leave this battle, as more ships were approaching.

I was fresh out of munitions again, which wasn't fun at all. So I set course for Forge Antax to reload, while the brave ships of the Ultima segmentum all began arriving at the scene of the crime and began firing all their weapons at the defenseless Necron ship.

In a violet flash, we vanished into the Warp, just as a Glorianna-class battleship named Macragge's_Honour arrived to win the day, with Primarch Guilliman on board.

Good for him

On Forge Antax, I got to meet a company of my future Lamenter techmarines at their school, and a company of future Blood Angels also training and learning the ways of advanced technology and ritual repairs, plus seeding their large harems with the next generations of possible Blank children.

The Fabricator intended to keep the resulting Blank girls as future tech-priests and Ark Mechanicus ship Captains, which made quite a lot of sense. Plus harvesting their eggs for Blank Machine Spirits, no doubt.

These days, a thousand new craters dotted a moon orbiting around the planet Antax, all results of failed cloning experiments of Blank tissue.

I heard rumours that the Cullexus Temple had figured out the process, but sadly I wasn't in any relation with their temple, nor was I too interested into being conscripted and mind-wiped as a future assassin.

What I was interested in, was modifying the pirate light cruisers into Lamenter Strike Cruisers filled with drop pods, and the drop pods filled with Tarantula turrets of my own design.

And if I had to pay for this with my hard work on heretical STC-patterns, and bits of advanced technology from the Eldar, Dark Eldar and Necrons...well, I did have plenty of that.

"You do have the strangest luck, Captain Pef. Finding so many ships and discovering caches of STC templates, even as damaged as these..." the Archmagos of Forge Antax mused in a soft voice, after taking a peek at my gifts.

He also did not mention anything about the STC on Forge World Palomar, so I didn't ask.

I just smiled and nodded. "The Dark Eldar did have a large cache of such templates, and even bits of assembly constructors. I'm sure your people on Forge Retribution already informed you." I answered in an easy going voice, while I scanned the star system for the next Ark Mechanicus, finding it hidden by a scaffold of iron asteroids, almost like a small artificial moon.

I did give Antax a Grand Cruiser hull, like they always wanted, to remake into a true Ark Mechanicus. And since the internal volume was so large, they were also attempting to install a Macharius-pattern warp-less engine on it. Of course, the battleship-sized engine would not fit, so they were actually enlarging the Grand Cruiser to make the engine fit. Ingeniuous, if very expensive.

That unholy fusion of Necron, Tau and human technology was the hope of humanity, and the extra energy from the better plasma reactor didn't hurt one bit.

"I also have to thank you for damaging that Necron battlemoon, and letting me know of where to find it and salvage what we can. So we can certainly try refitting these light cruisers to your Chapter's needs. But I also need you to test them in combat when ready, with a group of Magi specialists overseeing the deployment. Such a strategy might be effective for Cult Mechanicus as well, especially where we need to deploy a Legio Titanica and secure the landing zones in advance." the Fabricator demanded and poured more wine to weaken my will.

Sadly, the flesh is weak and the wine was too good. I shall have to oblige and test the new Steel_Rain strategy, only with fewer Astartes and more guns.

The two years I spent at Antax while overseeing the production of the new drop turrets, and testing different variants for different missions and enemies was not wasted.

I did have a thousand female Catachans in my armor regiment, all of them Sentinel pilots, and enough time and energy to impregnate them all, as well as training my body with Captain Khan and my bodyguards, and learning more Mechanicus lessons about controlling Machine Spirits with my mind, and piloting my brand-new Knight suit with advice from my step-father, Lord Whitelance.

My own Knight suit had a Volcano Lance for long-range engagements and a Knight-sized Power Glaive, kinda a sword at the end of staff, if anything big got too close. Or just for butchering infantry by the hundred with each strike.

There were of course secondary weapons, like a pod of anti-air missiles and a couple of assault chainguns, but hopefully they won't be needed. This Knight suit, which I called Reason for Peace, also had a nice Ion Shield and a Flare_Shield converted into a Knight-sized Rosarius, and an atomantic reactor adapted from a Fellblade heavy tank.

The reactors made by Forge Tigrus were indeed the smallest and the most powerful of any small reactors, and I was ready to demote a few old Fellblades into Doomhammers just to provide extra energy for my Knights.

So, when news arrived of the impending First_Siege_of_Perlia by an Ork Waagh led by Gargash Korbul I was ready for a showdown.

The PDF regiments I had brought were also armed with new Forge Antax gear, and had nearly finished training with them, everything from Chimera troop transports, Basilisks artillery guns, Armed Sentinels and Weasel-pattern recon light tanks. They will need to be forged on the field of battle, and experience was the best teacher anyway.

Torpedoes were re-stocked, Nova Shells and Nova Mines as well, and of course the drop pods filled with Tarantula sentry guns. 40 thousand drop-pods per cruiser for now, mostly because I wanted to retain enough lance batteries to engage escorts with impunity, much like the old Litany.

Those were a mix of classic twin-heavy bolters and twin-lascannons variants already in storage, and the new Salvation-pattern STCs with quad-multilasers and single lascannons, but with better armor and larger power cells.

I had hoped to use the drop pods' retro-thrusters to provide extra energy for the turrets, but that project would take a few decades to be tested and developed into a working solution.

My 'fragmented' STC template did not provide the knowledge of how to create such a mechanism, because I hadn't the faintest idea. So I let an entire Forge World work on it, and let them claim an Antax-pattern when they did succeed.

Already Forge Antax had climbed the ladder from third level to the second, in Mechanicus rankings, and that meant they were given leave to produce cruisers and Knights, along other more exotic and restricted Mechanicus-only robots and battle-automata.

Plus, the Defendarius Crusade called by Primarch Guilliman against the incoming Tyranids and awakening Necrons obliged the Forges to work harder to produce naval assets of any kind, from orbital defense platforms to torpedo corvettes and destroyers in large numbers, plus cruisers armed with Nova Cannons.

Well, someone was paying attention to successful fleet actions, and the less-successful ones.

And due to a much smaller number of Dark Eldar and Chaos raids in the Ultima Segmentum, the Primarch had an easier task of mobilizing troops and resources. Even the Eldar attacks had largely diminished, only some Corsair bands still being annoying dicks like always.

The Tau were not expanding anymore, probably too busy rebuilding and reeling in their ships after their two capital cities were invaded by demons, and two allies having been wiped out.

The Tau would have news of the revived Primarch if they were paying attention, mostly because the human worlds under their control were being reconquered one after the other, by large numbers of brutal Astartes, Imperial Knights and Titan Legions.

++++++++++++++

Down on Perlia, Commissar Cain cursed his luck again as his rag-tag band of PDFs and Imperial Guard troops stumbled upon the Ork Boss Korbul's camp.

Reluctantly, he called the boss out for a duel, to encourage his troops and provide example. Plus killing the boss would allow a higher chance of survival, both for him and his men.

The immense Ork was armored to the teeth, and had size and strength on his side, but Cain wouldn't let that scare him. He sneakily allowed the Ork to push on his chainsword, drawing the brute close enough he could poke his red, furious eye with his laspistol, then fire the entire power cell, the harmless beams deflecting from the inside of the skull and metal helmet over and over until the boss fell down, dead.

"For the Emperor!" Cain shouted raising his eyes towards the sky.

And the Emperor answered, raining down with fire balls and pillars of light, a sure sign of drop pods and orbital lances striking at the invaders.

"Astartes! The Angels of Death are here!" the vox sergeant yelled in triumph and pointed at the sky.

Well, it was about the damn time. Maybe he could rest in some secluded corner now.

All around his small army, drop pods landed on pillars of flame but instead of disgorging Space Marines they unfolded to reveal thousands upon thousands of Tarantula turrets, which quickly scanned the ground forces and began attacking the disorganized Orks with brutal precision.

Lascannons targeted vehicles, heavy bolters fired at Nobs and Mek boys, while multilasers massacred the normal Boys and Shootas with unlimited ammunition.

"This isn't just here, Commissar. The army lines to the west also report tens of thousands of drop pods falling from the skies and unleashing death on unprecedented scale." The vox sergeant yelled much too loud.

Well, it was good news this time, so no need to admonish the man. Plus his eardrums might be ruptured, due to the Leman Russ tank's cannon firing from close range.

"What Chapter is this? Where are their Astartes?" Sergeant Alaric Tayber asked in confusion at the lack of actual Angels of Death emerging from those drop pods.

"... They are the Lamenters, brother. Only three of them on that battlebarge, and some Rogue Trader vessels that are engaging the Ork space hulk." Enginseer Felicia Tayber explained after doing some voodoo spells on the vox receiver.

Cain nodded to himself. The Lamenters were kinda greatly diminished after the Badab War, with rumours of losses of over 90 percent of their Battle-Brothers. No wonder they resorted to supply drop pods to secure a landing zone.

If only three of them could come, they must be in really bad shape.

Then, after most of the Orks were scattered, assault dropships did begin their landings, bringing down Auxiliary regiments, and even a Catachan armored regiment.

Doomhammer heavy tanks, flanked by Chimeras, Hydras and some sort of Sentinels with mechanical arms began emerging and engaging the Ork warbands, and even a pair of real Knights from a house named Lancefire.

A flash of a Volcano Lance vaporized a Big_Mek while the other Knight opened up with a multimelta gun of gigantic size and tremendous damage, while also advancing to slash with a Power Sword into the Ork hordes.

In a single hour, the back of the Ork Waagh was broken, while the troops could only stare in awe at the amazing display, just like Cain himself was. Not even a Commissar could tell the soldiers to stop gawking, since their few tanks and vehicles were protected by a fortress of auto-targeting turrets.

"This display of Omnissiah's might makes me feel a bit excited." Felicia admitted while starring with wide eyes at the nearest Knight with the Volcano Lance.

At the same second, the Knight turned to stare at the young enginseer, as if it has heard her. It probably did, Cain realized, considering how sensitive a Knight's auspex sensors must be.

Then the Knight turned as started walking towards his position beside the Ork Boss corpse, flanked by a dozen Armed Sentinels, a pair of them also holding a Volcano Lance in their mechanical hands, like a long rifle.

"Commissar Cain, you did the Imperium proud this day. I shall see your heroic actions are rewarded as you deserve." the huge Knight proclaimed with a booming voice amplified by a powerful vox caster.

Cain nodded cautiously and cursed his luck. He only wanted a peaceful life!

"Enginseer Tayber, I suppose you like my Knight? Perhaps you want to touch it, all over?" I asked in a wry voice, and a smaller volume.

The blonde woman nodded unconsciously. Probably saw it as her life's dream.

Well then, touch it you shall, pretty lady!

The brave Commissar coughed in surprise at being ruthlessly cockblocked, then slumped in defeat. He wouldn't have anything better than my huge Imperial Knight.

And his Blank aide Jurgen would be much more useful pumping thousands of babies for the greater good of humanity, than being wasted as an Imperial Guard soldier.

"Well then Felicia Tayber, you and the survivors from your PDF regiment are being transferred under my command, to recover my losses in this campaign. I don't need the Valhallan regiment, except your aide, Commissar Cain. Go and make haste toward the landers." I commanded while my Power Glaive struck the dead Ork Boss and chopped him into a hundred smaller bits.

Damn Orks could be resurrected after all, and I wouldn't take a chance.

"My Lord, the Boss was certainly very dead." the Commissar grumbled at my actions.

"Yes, until some Pain Boy found the corpse and revived it. Stand aside and let the Sentinels torch the corpse now." I ordered as I urged Reason back towards the battlelines. Behind me, the Armed Sentinels of the Catachans were unleashing promethium over the minced corpse, while the Volcano Sentinels ran ahead to secure a safe path for my Knight.

However, I didn't have much time to waste, if I wanted to recover that Shadowlight artifact in time. The Mechanicus temple was already under attack, by a rogue tech-priest and an insane Inquisitor named Ernst_Stavros_Killian with his merry band of brainwashed Sisters of Battle.

His goals were the complete opposite of mine, while I was trying to empower humanity with Blank genes, he aimed to create massive armies of psykers, as if that wouldn't backfire in a spectacular way, probably by increasing the size of the large Warp Storms and Vortexes, like the Maelstrom and the Eye of Terror.

Meanwhile, I spread my awareness towards the nearby Mechanicus Shrine and kidnapped the guilty party of murderers, and the precious relics and measuring instruments as well.

When I met with Rose again, I will let her carry out the sentence for treason and heresy.

I kept the Ancient artifact surrounded by megatonnes of blackstone, and then Tyranid bioships, even inside the tesseract dimension. No point letting the thing leak out Warp energies.

Surely my Rose and Janice could benefit from becoming Alpha-level psykers. And then, there was the sacrificial psykers for the Astronomican and the Golden Throne sleepyhead who might need a tiny power boost.

Not yet, but the time will come, when I was chosen a High Lord of Terra and had some actual powers in the Imperium of Man.

Soon enough, the Perlia PDF were integrated as a company into the rearguard PDF regiment, and given drinks and food, and bunks to sleep in the STC containers serving as field barracks.

They did a great work breaking through the Ork lines, and their experiences will spread to my own new regiment, which wasn't lacking for vehicles and weapons now.

A dozen of Weasel logistic carriers were also sent to the good Commissar, providing them with supplies and transport to the Imperial Guard's positions to the west, where three more of my PDFs regiments were also debarking for a combined assault against the Orks.

Cleaning out planet Perlia would take some time, even with orbital support and thousands of tanks and walkers, but it was also an excellent target practice environment for my troops, and me.

The western continent contained most of the industry and cities as well as the Capital Hive City named Havensdown, so it made sense to concentrate most defenses there.

But that also allowed the rest of the planet to be infested with Orks, which would need to be eradicated with fire.

However, by the time the cleansing was over, I had a new blonde concubine called Felicia, who was very much attached to the pleasures of flesh, and also loved tinkering with machinery, much like me.

Her talents were more of a practical nature, possibly something imparted to her during her captivity to the Orks, as she had an intuitive understanding of any machinery no matter how advanced, even xenos ones.

Aided by a new Mind Impulse Unit brain implant, Felicia could now transfer her understanding directly into my mind, via neural cables.

This sped up my STC creation and repair a few times, and also allowed me to fix a hundred tiny problems that I didn't have a solution for. Plus the sex was excellent, even with a spinal mechadendrite in the way.

Also, the decade of imposed exile from Sotha has passed, and Victor sent news of our second carrier the Daedalus, returning filled with Tigrus-pattern corvettes and more Catachan regiments. Excellent news, for my new kingdom in exile.

So I departed from Perlia after gifting Commissar Cain a chronoblade disguised as a relic sword, an inferno pistol, and a light power armor with a Rosarius shield mounted in the chest Aquila. The armor had an Enslaver bone mind-shield fitted into the armored neck collar, in a rough replica of my Bone Staff. I also left him a bodyguard of my Catachans, which pleased him even more, especially the young blonde women piloting the ten Armed Sentinels. Perhaps the snipers too, I'm not too sure.

However, Ciaphas_Cain now looked like a proper Hero of the Imperium, and was even promoted to Lord Commissar, then given leave to roam as he pleased and sniff out corruption.

And that Departmento Munitorum standing regulation to list Cain as alive and active at all times, regardless of evidence to the contrary? Well, now it would be true forever, as the man will likely never die. His life-draining sword was inscribed with a single word: Pacem, which meant peace in High Gothic.

I doubted Cain would ever find peace in the 40k universe, but at least he carried it with him. And that glowing Aquila on the pommel? Wasn't any real relic supposed to glow, after all? And so I passed the Warp Tracking Aquila onto Cain. Surely the man's dazzling adventures will keep any Lord Inquisitor occupied for a few decades, or centuries.

I didn't take the Drop Cruisers with me towards Sotha, because they returned to Forge Antax for post-battle analysis of their pods and turrets, and I had to admit that some heavy bolter Tarantulas could remain as standard deployment loadout, due to their sheer destructiveness. Only better armored and with a larger magazine. At least 1000 rounds, not 600.

However, I should have remembered that Sotha was now an Inquisitorial Fortress, mainly for the Ordo Xenos.

I didn't find my Rose here either, instead being met by a pretty blonde woman named Amberley_Vail who was sent to investigate the C'tan prisoner and the strange happenings around the Pharos installation, including temporal shifts and vanishing starships.

Nothing to do with me, but I should be careful.

"Chapter Master Lancefire, I heard so many things about you that I don't even know where to begin." the cheerful woman began as she sat down in front of me, and we shared some good wine I had prepared for Rose.

She even wore a custom-made power armor, the light-weight variant and a Power Fist, which made my jaw ache in phantom pain.

"Lady Amberley, I assure you, everything you might have heard about me is true, depending on what you heard." I quipped and sipped my wine as her cheeks blushed deeply.

I didn't mean that, but those stories were probably true anyway.

"... Well, I meant about Commorragh! Yes, destroying the Dark Eldar, nothing else!" the Inquisitor dissembled while grinning cutely in her wine cup.

"That's certainly true, even the truce with the Eldar Avatar. I also have a thousand concubines and hundreds of Blank sons being inducted as Astartes in the Blood Angels and the Lamenters." I admitted in a level voice, while Rafen chuckled to himself for no reason.

"You better wait outside, Veteran. There are more delicate matters to discuss from here onwards." Inquisitor Veil demanded with a glare towards my bodyguard.

Rafen glanced at me for confirmation and I sent him the okay password via the mind implant. It wasn't like I would be exposed to psyker powers by anything, not even this pretty Inquisitor. Perhaps a different form of torture, if my guess was right and Rose praised me in too much detail.

As soon as Rafen left, the woman simply sat elegantly in my lap, and caressed my chin in a seductive gesture.

Emperor of Man, having so much luck with ladies was great!

"Delicate matters?" I inquired with a gentler voice.

"I want a Null staff too, because I really need it. And I will be extremely grateful if you can make it happen, Lord Pef. Nothing is beyond the reach of the Inquisition, after all." Amberley proposed in a throaty voice, both enticing and menacing.

So I grabbed her own chin, and stared into her eyes. "I don't have the prime ingredient for a such a device, my dear. Rumours say the Inquisition itself is suppressing the manufacture of such rare artifacts like a Null Rod, such that only they have the means to defeat demons. Quite contrary to the Emperor's own wishes, that his finest warriors have the mightiest weapons, able to best any foes. Any foes!" I growled in an angrier voice.

The blonde woman patted my hand, so I let her go. "Not my personal fault, Lord Lancefire. Probably the Ordo Malleus would do something like that. Maybe even the Ordo Hereticus. We, in the Ordo Xenos know better, but are not as important nor have a say in the higher conclaves."

I sighed and leaned back, holding the sad Inquisitor in my arms. "Blank genes will help in time, as they spread more among humanity. Probably best if you start with the System Governors and Hive leaders, then Generals and Admirals. As you can sense, psyker powers or genestealer cults cannot affect a Blank, thus making them less likely to turn traitor. Mind implants help as well, imposing reasoning over superstition and anger, thus reducing the occurrence of stupid decisions in the ranks of the Imperium's leaders."

"You mean like yourself. Or your family?" Lady Amberley asked in a teasing tone.

"Exactly, my lady. Like myself and my family. If you're interested." I proposed in a slightly shy voice.

"I'm not drunk enough for that." the pretty blonde quipped and held the wine bottle in a trembling hand, before gulping the contents in a long drag, which made her throat move in very seductive waves.

What can I say? The flesh is weak, so I could only stare in wonder.

"You're very pretty" I managed to say, before she hungrily shut me up. I had plans with the Pharos...but those could wait. Amberley tasted like grapes and strawberries

🔊

Much, much later the amazing blonde finally gave up trying to exhaust my enhanced body and crashed on top of me, sweaty and content.

"And to think I thought your Rose was exaggerating... I bet you can still go on for hours, right?" Amberley murmured in my neck in a soft voice.

I let my hands wander and grope her amazing body, without using words. I got much better at bed games during the past decades, and the Angel genes surely kept me going. Which was why I wouldn't accept Astartes organs, not even the Black Carapace, worried they might make me impotent or sterile. And who would save the universe then?

"You will need a Deathwatch escort, my love. And Silent Sisters against psyker xenos or Chaos Sorcerers. And as it happens, I have 200 Executioners held captive, only needing a black coat of paint over their armors." I said instead, as she melted in my embrace.

"... Of course you do, Pef. Those that were not accounted for from the Badab War. Maybe even some Astral Claws?" the Inquisitor inquired and pinched my delicate progenoid glands. Damn their torture training!

It was very hard to keep secrets from an inquisitive Inquisitor. Especially one with a digital weapon on her finger.

"Maybe. But those Claws are really not trustworthy now, and might have been neurally and hypnotically modified by their fallen Master. I don't yet have a permanent solution to re-use their deaths for the Imperium." I muttered in displeasure.

That's why I needed access to the Pharos, and contact with a certain Necron wizard.

And many other trades of mutual benefit, of course.

"And what? You just produce 200 Executioners and expect them to become Deathwatch Marines, from their own initiative? Nobody asking questions?" Amberley asked in a curious voice.

Well, I didn't think that far ahead. "You can take a Company and my Rose the other. As for how to motivate them...it should be easy enough for an Inquisitor. Their Chapter is under a Penitent Crusade for the next century, and the Deathwatch always needs more bodies. The borders of the Imperium are quite extensive." I argued as glanced at the door, as Ludvaius leaned inside to check on me, then held his thumb up for another impossible and improbable conquest.

"And the Blood Angels are still watching over you...ever since you killed that traitor Stele. I shall need to know why." the pretty blonde demanded in a steely voice.

"It's complicated, my dear. Only part that matters is me revealing the Inquisitor's corruption and returning to them the Spear of Sanguinius. Those are the facts, the rest is highly interpretable, and thus considered the Chapter's dark secret, to be added to the long list of such secrets for every Astartes Chapter. Still nothing as dubious as the Exorcists being implanted with demonhosts, or the Death_Spectres killing their Aspirants with poisons then bringing back a percent of them as Neophytes." I commented wryly just to see Ludvaius become rather upset and Amberley rather tense.

"I see there's very few secrets you don't know, Chapter Master. Doesn't surprise me you're able to defeat any enemy with such ease." Inquisitor Veil concluded with a good enough reasoning.

"Well, on my ship I speak with the Voice of the Emperor, my dear. Everything I say and do is thus approved by the Emperor himself. Absolute and unlimited legal authority, given by my Rosette, my Warrant of Trade and my Lamenters Chapter." I explained in a softer voice, and ordered Ludvaius out before he started crying again.

As the blackstone armored door closed, Amberley sat up, already awake and combative. "You should know better than that, Lord Pef! The High Lords of Terra are the rulers of the Imperium, and all those trinkets can also be revoked." Amberley claimed in a stern voice and poked my chest in warning.

"The Imperium eterna. Of course the High Lords would want that, and keep their privileges. But it's not quite true, Agent of the Throne. The Emperor might be slightly indisposed right now, but two of his sons are back. And while Khan might be vanished somehow, Guilliman is too popular to remove. I'd expect at least six of these High Lords to rebel soon enough, exactly when Guilliman reaches Terra and proclaims himself Lord Commander and Imperial Regent. And won't that be a fun struggle for the High Lords of Terra?" I asked rhetorically, and instead of poking her back, I drew her into a deep kiss and groped her bountiful body again.

Soon enough, the enemy was laid low and conquered again, with love. Wasn't that hard, as her reserves were dwindling.

"Oh God! Please let me rest..." she asked in a pleading tone.

I could be merciful sometimes. "Return to your Fortress, my dear. I shall arrange a prisoner transport for your new Deathwatch." I whispered in her ear and went for a cold shower.

Inquisitors could be amazingly fun, but always so dangerous. I would need more of them on my side, and my charm seemed to work. Although I shall need some other method for most of them. Women were few in the higher ranks of the Imperium, no doubt exactly because the flesh was weak, and women more liable to be 'deviated' from their Masters' agenda.

It wasn't a perfect solution, but once kids began showing up, maternal instincts took over and that was something much harder to erase, compared to other reasons.

A dozen minutes later, I arrived inside the Pharos and began lining up Exterminatus torpedoes for today's punishments and a Vortex warhead for the nice blue Tau.

The Demon World of Bastonbeil burned, and with it the last remains of the Company of the Shadow traitor Chapter.

Then soon after, the planet Ahi_Tipua followed, incinerating their Chaos Titans and disgusting sacrificial temples to the Dark Gods.

The C'tan on the wall watched me in silence as I began arming the next Exterminatus-grade warhead.

"Where is that going, my Lord?" Rafen asked as the torpedo's logis-engine began humming for fire and death.

"This one, to Razlivanova. The Knight House there fell to Chaos, and I don't feel like giving them an honorable death in a duel. Nor would it be that easy as my adventure on Prelia." I explained in a wry voice, and consigned that world to Oblivion.

I did get tired after this, so I took out my bone staff to lean on it for strength. Maybe one more warhead today.

But not yet. First, I used the tesseract and retrieved a dozen Necron artifacts to be identified by the captive C'tan.

"Mighty Zarhulash, I expect you know what these are?" I asked in a friendly voice.

"Pef Lancefire, still at this useless and foolish game? Removing unimportant pieces from the game? The Immaterium's emanations will just corrupt other human worlds. And those Tyranids swarms entering the galaxy...they hunger. They will come again, here and to your Weapon on the Golden Pedestal. You cannot win!" the C'tan argued, and most likely correctly.

There wasn't a real solution to the Chaos or the Tyranids. I could already sense bigger Hive tendrils pushing back on the Pharos perception with their combined Silence.

"I have never lost a battle, Mighty C'tan. The hard things we do now, the impossible a bit later. You should learn to trust me already. Now, these captured Necron items? Name and use and approximate value, for a Necron Dynasty." I demanded in a gentle tone, like talking to a baby. Sure, the C'tan might be a god, and strong and wise, but he wasn't whole.

"...Perhaps. Perhaps you can indeed find a way like you always do, Pef Lancefire. I shall aid you with this, and we will be even." Zarhulash announced in a definitive tone.

I just smiled kindly at his pathetic attempts for negotiation. Then I began noting down the uses and value of these rare items, of which only one was actually good, and two more of medium value. I might have picked up the vacuum cleaner just because it was glowing with green lights.

The Phase_Shifter was enabling an ability that I saw the Crimson God C'tan use, letting Titan-grade weapons pass through him without doing damage or sinking himself into the ground.

The other two were called a Cloak_of_the_Ctan, which was certainly needed to use the powers of an enslaved C'tan, while the other was a Nebuloscope, basically a multi-dimensional tracker which would serve me well one day.

Trazyn was certain to posses these last two, but a Phase Shifter was rare even among Necron Lords.

"Lord Trazyn, congratulation's on the Warp Rift test." I began with a teasing voice, and letting him know I saw his new Blackstone Fortress close a small Warp Rift near his homeworld.

"Ah, the wandering stranger has returned. I have deduced you must be a human. Or perhaps an Astartes." the Necron Overlord warned me, after no doubt he tried to observe where the tesseracts have been present and blocked certain timelines.

"I'm not too sure myself, my robotic friend. So what progress did you make on those projects we have together?" I asked, this time really curious.

"The cruiser sized reactor with a Mechanicus STC template is ready. Wasn't even hard, if I may be so honest. The warp-less engine miniaturization...well. It's a bit harder without some more advanced materials and production capabilities, I only have one version smaller by 20 percent, and already needs angstrom scale engineering. Only those human Grand Cruisers and the larger Battlecruisers will be able to use them. As for the Eldar weapons...they work backwards to any scientific principle!" Trazyn complained and seemed exasperated.

I feel your pain, my friend. Technology should not grow when you sing at it. Damn Eldar Bonesingers!

"It was only a suggestion, Lord Trazyn. Perhaps psycho-plastics and soul-fused crystals are more magitech than real science. But you do have plenty Mechanicus ships and weapons in your tesseracts. After you copy all of them, you might attempt to reverse-engineer those for my mentally handicapped tech-priests friends of lesser education to mass-produce. Mostly gravity and direct energy weapons that would work on Tyranids. My recent long-range scans point to a dozen large tendrils followed by a gravity bending mass of hungry mouths and sharp claws." I explained in a gentler tone, drawing his ire towards the invading bugs.

"...That sounds exciting, to be honest. It will be the greatest struggle in the recent history of the galaxy! And this Guilliman Primarch is certainly trying to defeat the Tyranids with those rather flimsy ships and weapons. Hmmm. I could help a little, even if it's cheating. After all, the humans do have somewhat better weapons, they just forgot about them." Trazyn the Infinite allowed after long minute, no doubt checking on my own observations.

And so, I sent him the Phase Shifter, in advance. I was so trustful, right?

"Very well, Necron Lord. A trade was made. I hope you don't need instructions on how to use a Phase Shifter. The Crimson God already has this ability, so it's useless to me now." I explained in a faint tease.

"...Errr. I thought the Canoptek link was encrypted with my best...anyway, yes! This would be very useful to keep my person safe, especially if anyone figures out who actually killed a certain Pharaon, hehe!" Trazyn exclaimed in a joyful tone.

I sighed inward, as it seemed the insane Necron had indeed trapped the C'tan controls, and did not expect me to survive.

"You broke your word, Lord Trazyn. You owe me two free trades for that. One is a another Null Bone staff, using your own resources. The other...those Venatoria Titans and their pilots, with Enslaver-based mind control implants. They shall be sent to Forge Retribution, along with the dataslates for their manufacture STCs." I demanded in a harsh tone, almost ready to transport a Vortex torpedo on his location.

Since Trazyn couldn't find the Reality Cage in the Eye of Terror, he did what any Necron always did. And attacked Forge World Venatoria to steal it.

The Mechanicus tried to chase him back to his homeworld, only to get trapped into a labyrinth, like all the others who tried.

It would be a pity to kill him, but I was getting tired of his bullshit.

Say whatever about Trazyn, he did have top-notch survival instincts. "You are correct, stranger. I went over the bounds of our agreement. Perhaps I wanted to test you? I am not certain why I did that."

I grumbled inward then sent over a lock of Amberley's hair, and closed the mental link. We would need a dual Blank/Psyker child to make the weapon work properly, but I was already hard at work on that issue.

Then I checked on the Tau, only to find a large Demiurg ship in their homeworld's orbit.

Well then. I have found a target for that Vortex torpedo after all. Stay away from Tau, next time.

With the Aegida's dungeon now filled with the captured Executioners, Amberley was quite busy explained to the silly Space Marines the errors of their ways, and what happened to their Chapter.

And since they were presumed dead in the hundred of vaporized ships at Forge Angstrom, nobody would miss these 200 dead Astartes while the Deathwatch got new recruits for their brutal work, often involving sending suicidal Kill-teams straight at the heart of some xeno empire, and expecting them to kill everything or die. Or both.

Now I only had the Astral Claws in reserve, if quite a lot of them. If nothing worked, I could just extract their gene-seeds and make more tech-marines. Like 16 thousands more.

It would simply be another dark secret in a Chapter's dark basement of such secrets.

The Emperor would approve, I had no doubt. But if he didn't, he could simply speak up!

Nobody spoke, so it must be alright.

However, a month later I did have my Apothecary confirm that Amberley was with child, which was great. I worked hard for that result everyday, for long, sweaty and tiring hours.

Henna has already delivered another Blank daughter, and was now recuperating and mostly reading things in bed. I didn't mind at all. Reading was very important, even more here.

My dear blonde engineseer Felicia was also in the same pregnant state, and seemed quite happy with her new life, often sneaking into the Knight's deck to paw all over the machines, before eagerly running back to the Mechanicus Shrine to learn more from the tech-priests on board the Serenity.

I wouldn't let her modify my Imperial Knight walker until I was absolutely certain she understood the basic technology front and back.

And for that, I had Felicia work on the Tarantula and Sentinel mating, something that would indeed give legs and create a mobile turret of equivalent firepower to most Astartes and often even more for the lascannon turrets.

I would have to plate the new Guardian robots with Blackstone armor to give them enough durability to last on the against stronger enemies, but I had more than enough blackstone now, so could even cover a planet in this stuff.

Then give a battalion of 100 of such walkers for a tech-marine to command, and then deploy 1000 techmarines with their autonomous robots on any battlefield. It would be something like the Legions of Old, which had 100 thousand Astartes each.

And we would need such levels of firepower to clean up Tyranid infested worlds, or liberate planets from the Orks, without burning them.

Burning some world with Exterminatus was easy, but those planets would not bear life again.

However, I did loot like 1 percent of an entire Necron planetoid made of Blackstone, which gave me enough to cover all the Imperium's ships with several meters of it. I also looted much of the Ork Space hulk at Perlia, possibly enough adamantium to construct a couple of battleships. Or tens of thousands of cheaper corvettes.

I was getting low on Exterminatus torpedoes again, which was a sure sign that something bad will head towards Sotha, like it always did. The Pharos was too potent of a weapon in the hands of humanity.

But even so, I did burn all the Fallen Knights worlds I could reach, from Gerontius and Derovire in the North to Credence in the South and even a dozen smaller Hell Forges, a dozen more Chaos Chapter worlds and some Xenos Empires like the Phoroki, which seemed a bit too beastly to cohabit peacefully with humanity.

Actually, beside the Eldar and the Tau, there were very few races that I would allow to exist, mostly because they all seemed eager to fight, enslave or eat humans. Not a good survival trait to have, in the same galaxy as me, if I had my way.

And if you were in the range of the Pharos, I would have my way. Sooner or later, their time will come.

Beside massive explosions that would incinerate entire planets, I did dispense smaller bombs when I located cults and genestealers, or roving pirates and corsairs, even Traitor ships if I could easily discern their allegiance. Normally those Chaos ships would be filled with mangled bodies, skulls and other tell-tales like 8-pointed spikes, so a plasma warhead inside their reactor room would ruin their days and lives.

Sadly I didn't find more corrupt Inquisitors, although I did check about 20 for corruption signs or enslaved cults. Then again, you could never be certain what was really in a heart of someone, anyone.

Just like Naya turned traitor, so could anyone else.

Pretty much why all the older Lamenters were followed everywhere by my Silent Sisters, both Veterans or Novices. Kinda hard to fall to Chaos with a Pariah standing by your shoulder, all the time.

The Starfort did have three Gellar generatoriums of Mechanicus best grade, plus a dozen mechanical Gellar generators in every wing of the fort, but those weaker fields tended to failed at least once per week, even with the fort just sitting in orbit.

Someone or something was certainly trying to use Warp fuckery to mess with my Chapter, and give them nightmares and unlucky accidents. Sadly, we would need to endure for a few decades, until I had my own Apothecaries trained and ready to carry the job, while also being Blank. And If I could produce more dual Blank/Psykers, they could become my Librarians and smack demons with Alpha-level spells while laughing at their ineffective curses.

But until then, I was preparing to deal with more Tyranid Fleets, like Hive Fleet Moloch that was busy right now devouring the Pale Stars region.

I just needed warp-less drives for my ships, or else I would be forced to always run from advancing wavefronts of Silence, and being denied intelligence and maneuver for my fleet.

Deploy the Warp-engine ships in orbit over important planets, while hunting with my battleships and carriers only? It might work, if I had sufficient provisions.

And as it happened, a real Inquisitor was around to requisition those supplies, specifically torpedoes and Nova shells.

That goal set, I proceeded to consult with Amberley about this, while asking gently about my Rose.

"My colleague is on some infiltration task towards the Tau, that's all I know. Mind control might be involved, but we don't have hard evidence about these Ethereals." Inquisitor Vail said in a still stern, but more normal voice, now that we were friends and lovers and building a family. No more wine though, so the blonde bomb-shell wasn't as pliable as before.

I nodded thoughtfully, as I did suggest this task to my Rose.

"That's too bad. I have a crazy and traitor Inquisitor in detention, the one that massacred the Mechanicus Shrine on Perlia, and also brainwashed a squad of Sisters of Battle to aid him. When I apprehended him, he was trying to mass-produce an army of psykers, and empower them with some xenos artifact being examined by the Mechanicus. Now, if this Killian tried for example to boost the Emperor, or the Astronomican fuel, it would have been different. He wanted instead to attack the Eye of Terror with a horde of millions of Chaos cultists with Beta and Alpha-level psyker powers." I explained in a careless voice.

The pretty Inquisitor changed a dozen faces, before settling on just one. Death.

"I will need to interrogate him and his accomplices, Lord Lancefire. I expect you also have that xenos artifact somewhere?" she demanded in a harsh voice.

"Very tightly contained, of course. Nothing that the Inquisition can provide, unless you can open pocket dimensions with your psyker powers?" I asked in a mild voice.

Technically, the Inquisition did have such means, just like that Demon Cache on Pythos, but that was made 10 thousand years ago, and they even forgotten about that prison.

Amberley glared at me then sighed, as her powers weren't even close to my Rose, probably only a Gamma-level psyker. "This ability of yours drives me crazy. It's almost like you're a Paternova Navigator, not a mere Blank!"

I smiled and nodded. "I am something like that, my dear. A Paternova for Blanks, if you will. And you carry one of my descendants right now. One day...I will be a High Lord of Terra, probably as the Speaker for Rogue Traders." I whispered to her in confidence.

She frowned as she meditated on my words, and measured me with something approaching caution.

"That's why you gather so many allies. It's a power play?" she asked in suspicion.

"Restoring the Emperor is my final goal, my dear. Still need to figure out how to revive Primarch Lion, and perhaps Sanguinius. I have maybe half the puzzle pieces ready. But until then, there's still the Tyranids to deal with, especially the big tendril coming from the north right now, and then the big claws from the east and from the south. Might need to establish listening posts equipped with lasers and radio emitters, and screens of carriers patrolling the borders, with warp-less engines. Perhaps geomagnetic Gellar field around entire planets to counteract the Silence." I mused to myself, and sipped more expensive wine by myself.

Amberley sighed and sipped her expensive fruit juice, with too many vitamins. "We can visit Triplex Phall and requisition what you need. More Nova Cannons I expect?"

I just smiled and sent an engram call to Felicia to join us. We could end the sad story here and have some fun. Then I called Henna as well, because she was surely lonely and bored in the nursery.

Amberley will just have to get used to the new reality, and this way was the most pleasant.

She figured it out in a second when Henna and Felicia arrived wearing only bulky robes, escorted inside by Ludvaius. "You want all of us? At once?"

I just grinned and jumped on the bed. "Only the women." I quipped in a teasing tone, making Ludvaius chuckle and check his combi-bolter.

"You're the best, Lord Pef!" Felicia exclaimed with glee, and rushed to join me in bed.

"Pef has a thousand more concubines, back home. Better get used to it, Amberley." Henna said in a gentler voice and then winked suggestively.

The blonde Inquisitor starred at me for a second, before shrugging and starting to take off her leather clothes.

'Just as planned', I thought to myself while drawing Henna into a long kiss.

After two weeks of travelling through the Warp, we reached the Forge Triplex Phall to find it in great upheaval, a thousand of asteroids dragged in concentric circles around the shipyards and the Forge World itself, perhaps a dozen conveyors being re-fitted as fleet carriers, and a second battleship nearly completed.

It was even being plated over with Blackstone, just like I was doing for nearly every vehicle and ship, even the Astartes armor.

The stuff was incredibly resilient to be fair, more so than ceramite and even adamantium, although not as easy to work with, since we could only mine it, not manufacture this material.

Anyway, I was glad to see at least the Ultima Segmentum Forges adapting to produce better products, after stagnating and even decaying for 10 thousand years.

Sure, perhaps the sudden decrease in Chaos, Eldar and Dark Eldar incursions and raids helped as well, and the looming threat of the Tyranids and the sudden awakening of more Necron Tomb Worlds also contributed to the frenetic activity.

"Pef Lancefire, we owe you much but everything you seen in orbit is being requisitioned by the Defendarius Crusade. I can give you no ships." The Fabricator declared loudly after glancing at Inquisitor Vail for a second. "A cruiser in the next decade, if you come alone." another message followed on my implant.

I didn't even come to ask for ships! But sure, another cruiser will be nice.

So I just smiled patiently, and held out my own gift, a dataslate with the Tarantula drop-pods, the modified light-cruiser for inserting them, and a dozen templates for Sentinels, both piloted and autonomous.

"You might have heard I have taken charge of the Lamenters Chapter, Fabricator. The Chapter might lack Battle Brothers right now, but we did our duty anyway, with sentry turrets and auxiliary regiments. I hope our combat testing at Perlia will prove sufficient, as these war machines have bested an Ork Waagh with little difficulty." I explained while the Archmagos perused the templates and the combat records attached.

He powered up his cogitator and measured the silent Inquisitor again, as if looking for my confirmation.

"A massive orbital drop, followed by landing of mechanized and armored troops. Even a hundred Doomblades and some Fellblades! Your Auxiliary forces seem strong enough, perhaps too strong, Chapter Master." the Fabricator commented with some surprise.

He was right, of course. I would always prefer some armor between enemy fire and my soldiers, because even light tanks and Sentinels had 10 times more armor than a grenadier in carapace armor.

"Sadly, Forge World Antax could not figure out how to connect the pod retro-thrusters to the turrets' power cells, and thus the energy for laser guns is limited, compensated with larger numbers. Heavy bolter turrets or autocannons would run out of ammunition even faster. As for other options like plasma guns and flamers, the technology is fragile anyway, and would not survive the high-g forces of an orbital drop." I said calmly and examined the trading goods with a raised eyebrow.

It seemed they had already began producing my own designs of Macharius-pattern tanks, mostly the Volcano Lance and the Plasma Blastgun variants. The Plasma Blastgun variant even had atomantic reactors instead of the classic plasma reactor! That allowed supporting Flare shields and increased rate of fire, plus nigh-unlimited mobility.

"You may select anything your Chapter needs, Lord Lancefire. For the sons of Omnissiah, everything we can do, we will do." the Fabricator announced in a proud tone, and he spewed some scented incense and a barrage of tetragrammic prayers in binharic.

"Yes, you will tech-priest. But right now, we are in need of munitions to halt Hive Fleet Moloch in the galactic north. Torpedoes, missiles and Nova Shells. Show me everything you have in storage!" Amberley demanded in a harsh tone, her left hand revealing her Rosette for a millisecond.

Without commenting, the Fabricator began lighting up more holofields screens, with inventories of capital class munitions. I could only gawk at the immense stores available to a big Forge World. Where could they even keep all this?

"For starters, I shall requisition torpedoes: 200 Atmospheric Incendiaries, and 20 Vortex Warheads. Then 1000 Melta Warheads, and 400.000 Plasma Warheads. As for Nova shells, I think most of them. 4600 Nova shells, and you'll have 97 remaining to resupply the Victory battleships holding station in orbit. I will need 4000 of these Nova shells modified for my MIU implant's trigger and detonation. And lastly, 8 million krak missiles and 2000 vortex missiles. Hopefully it will be enough." I demanded in a shameless voice.

Then again, it was a damn Hive fleet. It will probably won't be enough.

My two carriers could unload 2000 corvettes, and those will only have 10 shots with their cells of torpedoes and missiles. That's why I needed more Nova Shells to thin the ranks of the incoming bugs, to more manageable levels.

"This will delay fully arming the Segmentum's Battlefleet carriers for a decade or maybe two. Primarch Guilliman will not be pleased." the Fabricator warned me as his stores of torpedoes dropped in the red.

"The carriers can move, tech priest. Have them sent to Metalica or Anvilus to load with torpedoes. Anything else you need from this Forge, Lord Lancefire?" my dear Inquisitor asked while dismissing the Fabricator's complaints.

"One of these Navy carriers, loaded only with Fury Interceptors, with their flight crew and enginseers support. I think we could fit about 8000 of these starfighters easily. And then, a dozen Navy cruisers armed with Nova Cannons and a dozen light cruisers refitted for orbital pod drops. The defense fleet should have at least 200 escorts, for orbital support and interceptions of flying creatures and lander spore pods. Mostly armed with energy based weapons, if possible. The new Drop cruisers shall be remitted to my Lamenters Chapter, if and when this Hive fleet is defeated. There are more planets out there in the Fringe that will need to be reconquered." I concluded in a thoughtful voice.

Well, the Lamenters were in theory a Fleet based Chapter, and once we had a full complement we could start attacking and conquering anything we found in the Eastern Fringe, while the Rogue Trader Dynasty would benefit by absorbing those conquered planets and star systems into our domain.

The Fabricator General measured me for a long minute, then nodded slowly. "We will need a year to prepare everything to your needs, Lord Lancefire. And the Lady Inquisitor better have an ear to her superiors, or this plan of your might fall apart, just like Inquisitor's Kryptman plan did. You will not need Astra Militarum guardsmen for this? I would expect at least 100 regiments for an operation on this scale."

I sighed inward while considering the offer. Generally, most Imperial Guard regiments would be poorly supplied and poorly trained, and would not help much when the horizon was filled with moving fields of Tyranids biological war engines.

However, a dozen armor regiments, and a fifty artillery regiments, those could make a big difference. If anything, the Imperial Guard could hold ground quite well. Moving and maneuvering was a different issue of course.

I went to change the holofield screen myself, checking the stores for Hydras and Basilisks. Hey, they even had Lascannon Sentinels in stock! I will take all of them.

"We will take 50 regiments of Valhallan artillery, 10 of Cadian armor, and 40 of Catachan infantry. Of course they don't have air interceptors, so we will need extra 10000 Hydra anti-air and 5000 Basilisk mobile artillery platforms. Plus all of these 8700 Sentinels. It only comes out about 200 Sentinels per frontline regiments, but it must be enough. It's better than they had anyway. Oh, and STCs containers with supplies for all of them, triple ammunition loadout. Enough tech-priests and acolytes for all the extra holy machines and a million Servitors to help around." I allowed after reviewing the better Imperial regiments in my mind.

Amberley glanced at me as if trying to object to something, then sighed softly. "You better not fail, Lord Lancefire. It might ruin my career."

I grinned with confidence. "Have no fear, Lady Vail. We are what they fear!" I quipped in a cheerful voice, then held my hand out to the Fabricator. "Always a pleasure and an honor to meet the brightest of the Cult Mechanicus, Fabricator. When your next battleship dock gets free, let me know and I'll bring an old Ironclad for refit here."

The Magos just nodded as it was only natural and shook my glove with a mechanical one. "You're not too bad yourself, Pef Lancefire. Try not to die too soon. The Mechanicus has great plans for you."

Well, wasn't that ominous at all? Then again, I did kinda lift an entire segmentum with my own shoulders. Those Fabricator geniuses might have begun to notice, perhaps.

"Perhaps, when the time is right there will be a new High Lord seat, for the Rogue Traders. Not until His son takes the sword though." I proposed in a level voice, then turned around and left, with the pretty blonde Inquisitor at my side.

The same day, I used the astropathic choir to request the Tranquility battleship and the Daedalus carrier to be sent here, while Amberley began sending her own messages to various Astra Militarum regiments to summon them here for a small Crusade.

And then, I could only hurry up and wait, and copy Jurgen's example by impregnating a few concubines every day.

Also train my body with Captain Khan and study and work beside Felicia on a dozen STC templates, with slightly better results.

As time passed, more and more ships began gathering, first an Iron Hands Strike Cruiser, then a White Scars battlebarge with some escorts, then the regiments on their troop transports, and lastly my daughter Andrea with her Mars Battlecruiser and the Daedalus, plus all the frigates of my Lancefire Dynasty. All 6 of them.

"Dad! I named my battlecruiser Prayer for the Vanquished. And the Machine Spirit loves it!" Andrea explained in a jubilant voice, while holding a baby in her arms. I glanced at her chosen husband, a Catachan named Sly_Marbo, who was rather famous and infamous at the same time.

"Excellent news, sweetie. Ugly husband you have found for yourself." I commented wryly, and kissed her and the Blank grandchild in greeting, and saw with my helmet pict-cam the Catachan glare at me for a second. Well, he was rather ugly, but not everyone had angel genes. Plus Mister Marbo would make a decent commander for my Special Ops group.

"Eh, Sly has good parts too! Look what a nice boy he gave me!" Andrea replied with an apreciating look at her husband who smiled proudly. He probably beat up a hundred other Catachans to win Andrea's hand and favor, just like I've taught my girls to demand. Ony the best survival genes, as all my descendants were rather angelic in their looks anyway.

"Come with me, Sly. I guess I can give you a Major rank and leave you in charge of the Special Ops Command. Your job will be to cause disruption and misery behind enemy lines, and you'll have whatever means my House can provide. I just want results." I explained in a teasing voice. He would love a free hand to cause destruction, no doubt.

The grizzly veteran blinked in surprise at my offer. "That sounds like excellent news to me. I won't let you down, father-in-law." the man spoke in a gruff tone, like he wasn't used talking at all.

I smiled inward and considered giving him a chronoblade. It might be too much even for this 40k universe. Sly was a walking storm of disaster anyway. Oh well. Andrea would be sad if Sly died, so he will never die

In a minute, I reached my Chapter Master quarters aboard the Serenity, and let Sly get familiar with the place, and inspect all the weapons and artifacts placed on the walls. I did have plenty of relics to show off, and a mountain of them in my tesseract.

Amberley was already waiting in her armchair, sipping tea and spinning tarot cards to read possible timelines.

"Offer the Inquisitor your hand, Major." I demanded after powering up my cogitator and selecting a hundred items on a list, all useful for infiltration, sabotage and outright murder.

Sly Marbo hesitated for a second, before nodding and offering a hand for inspection.

"Ouch! Not only I can't read him, his touch makes me feel sick!" the blonde Inquisitor exclaimed in a thin voice, obviously in pain.

"See, Major. That's why you had to work alone, and couldn't have friends or family til now. You're an Untouchable, or better said a psychic Blank. One in a trillion people are born with this gift, much rarer than psykers." I announced in a patient tone, while Amberley wiped her hand in disgust.

"I know." the big Catachan soldier muttered and then lit himself a thick cigar, dragging from it with satisfaction.

Amberley fled the room, after glaring at Sly Margo in outrage.

"Amberley is pregnant and doesn't like smoke. Even holy incense makes her sick. My own gift is milder, although I did send a psyker girl screaming to the floor at a ball. Inquisitors are made of sterner stuff, because they need to be." I continued as my bodyguard Rafen leaned back on his plasteel dais and started cleaning his Power Sword with scented oil and plying the Machine Spirit of the weapon with twirling swirls of blue smoke and low voice litanies.

Sly observed the ritual curios, and then dragged from his foul cigar with a careless shrug.

"Never cared for that Mechanicus crap. Never needed them either." the man commented in a superior tone, and walked around to stare at the proposed list of infernal devices.

"Some of these rituals are indeed useless, others are recharge and maintenance protocols, regular security password checkups and purity seals against Warp entities. The Lamenters know this very well, especially when their own weapons explode in their hands, or entire warships vanish in Warp Storms and freak accidents. Blanks are much less bothered by demons and Warp-based curses, up to being immune or even inimical to demons that they can banish them with mere proximity. That last category is called Pariah, a trait developed by the Emperor himself into the Silent Sisters genome." I explained softly, and turned my hand to reveal a Psych-out grenade obtained by grinding Pariah bones into dust, while the cogitator holoscreen selected the weapon and revealed the weapon's capabilities.

Sly examined and possibly memorized the parameters of his new toy. "We should make millions of these grenades." he demanded in a practical tone.

"They do make millions of them. On Luna and Terra, maybe Mars too. Catch Blanks and Pariahs men, and grind their bones into anti-demon dust. Or boil them alive in red-hot iron to make phase-iron when the death echoes imprint into the metal. Neurons and nerves extracted for Blank Machine Spirits, to make Titans immune to demons and corruption. And it's possible worse for the Sisters, and definitely worse for the brainwashed Cullexus assassins. I hear only one in a thousand passes the trials. Their corpses are still very useful after all." I mused while watching the man nearly crush the phase-iron grenade in his hand.

"I see. Perhaps we should not make millions of these grenades. Blank soldiers, and officers are immune to this Chaos bullshit, right?" the Catachan brute proposed in a more level tone.

I nodded gently. "Already working on that, as you saw with dear Andrea. I have a thousand concubines and so will you, and any other Blank man we find. And we'll keep our family secret in the Eastern Fringe, til we have enough numbers. Trillions of Blanks and armies of Pariahs. Thus, you're hereby forbidden to die, not until you have a thousand Blank children." I ordered with a thin smile.

Sly grunted as if hit with a Terminator fist in the stomach. "It shall be so, Lord Lancefire. But I'm not good with women..." he admitted in a shy voice.

"Doesn't matter. I might pass on to you my current Catachan concubines, at least those with a foul mouth and demanding a real man." I added with a wry grin.

"Just smack...I mean... I shall take them off your shoulders, Father-in-law. You're too pretty for a real man anyway." Sly Marbo quipped and grinned with an ugly smile.

I didn't mind smack talk about my angelic face, I did that everyday to my mirror. But not my kids...

A bolter pistol appeared in my hand and I tapped his progenitor glands with it. "You smack my dear daughter once, I shoot one ball off. You smack her twice, it's your head, clear?" I asked in a pleasant voice.

His smile vanished as he glanced at the weapon that just appeared in my hand. "Loud and clear, sir! Very useful ability, to carry extra munitions in the field." he observed in a professional voice. I carried more than munitions in there. A lot more.

"I shall try to obtain a small dimensional pocket for your use, Major. They are just extremely expensive, like all ancient relics. Until then, you have a month to organize a company of special ops troops, with anything you saw here, and perhaps more. Automated turrets and Sentinels, dropships, drop pods, a stealth dropship even. You will also all need mind implants, and perhaps power armor to carry larger loads. Deck 4 is reserved for you and this unit, so get started." I commanded, curious what he will do with a free hand.

I mean, this guy liberated entire worlds by himself, even took down scores of Chaos Marines and a Chaos Titan! Most of his military records were sealed, even for me, so I could only make educated guesses about his real abilities.

And, perhaps Trazyn did have a ship-sized labyrinth in his collection, to carry demolition ordnance and other supplies. They would be much easier to make, than a tesseract able to cover a solar system.

Rafen coughed as Sly Marbo left the room, and held his own psych-out grenade in a silent question.

"We will still use the weapons, Rafen. We won't let their deaths be in vain. But there will be a time for reckoning, one day. You can bet a throne on that." I muttered in a cold voice.

The Veteran nodded and stored the grenade back on his combat harness. "There is nothing to bet, my lord. In a few decades, there will thousands of Blank Astartes. And the Primarchs were contemporaries of the Silent Sisters on Terra. They fought beside them from Mars to Prospero. The debt will never be forgotten." he declared in a certain voice.

I wasn't so sure, Primarchs could be too pragmatic sometimes, even with the deaths of their sons, not mention other people unrelated to them.

Then again, those Astartes sons were merely imprinted with gene-seeds, not their birth children. Not like mine.

From this meeting I went to meet with the regiment commanders and organize the land armies for deployment, held in the largest meeting hall on the battle barge.

It was no surprise to see a hundred Colonels and a few Generals already at each other throats, while Commissars and Sanctioned Psykers stood watch just as their bodyguards and while aides and Lexmechanics and Autosavants were often called to explain certain logistic problems or solve a dispute who deserved what munitions.

The Catachans Colonels were way more reserved, probably surprised they were even invited to such an august meeting, even those of Noble origin. They had no Autosavants, and few Lexmechanics, but they had Ogryn bodyguards, which leveled the odds in their favor. I even recalled meeting one smart Ogryn bodyguard back on Forge Ryza, still guarding General Griess. The Catachan's 2nd regiment was now commanded by Colonel Straken, loaded on the carrier Daedalus at Forge Tigrus.

The Inquisitor stood on a high dais, flanked by her new Deathwatch guardians, all wearing ominous blank armor without any insignia at all, beside the Inquisitorial seal. They were already dead, and the Inquisitor will decide where to spend their deaths. Nothing more. No Chapter, no honor, not for them.

"Attention everyone! Be silent! Bodyguards wait outside, you're all safe in my presence." I boomed using the room's vox casters at maximum power, making everyone not protected stumble and sway from shock.

The awe will come later.

Ludvaius hefted his Power Maul on his shoulder, ready to enforce my order.

On the side, I saw Lord Commissar Cain slump in defeat at my presence, while a dozen priests from the Adeptum Ministorum all began vociferating and threatening me with sanctions.

"Oi, you heard the Emp'ror Son! Out!" Nork Deddog, the big Ogryn yelled and began waving his big automatic shotgun at the other bodyguards.

Most of the escorts started to trickle out, while I waited patiently. A Crusade wouldn't work easily, not from the start.

Then one higher-rank priest started raising his staff and praying loudly and asking me to repent, and he vanished somewhere.

"Ludvaius, start breaking the heads of any insubordinate traitors." I commanded as the entire room stared at me in awe.

As the Blood Angel Veteran hefted his weapon and made it glow and hum, by powering up the energy field, dissent turned into panic and the delegations started running towards the exit, while pleading to be let out faster.

I saw only three women among the regiment commanders, an older woman called Reila_Vann, then two prettier ones from Valhalla, named Jenit_Sulla and Regina_Kasteen.

General Vann was in command of three Cadian armor regiments, all dispatched from the Fortress World of Spite, guarding the Hadex Anomaly Rift.

Well, I did kinda burn pretty much everything of strategic importance for Chaos in the area, so they would be available now.

As for the other two, they were the Colonel Kasteen and her aide Major Sulla, commanding the 296th all-female Valhallan artillery regiment. Which was very promissing, for my own needs.

Sly and Ferik_Jurgen could have all the Catachan concubines they could find, I really liked the Norse features of these Valhallan women.

"We're going to fight Tyranids, more exactly Hive Fleet Moloch which is attacking the Imperium from the north. It's possible everyone here will die very soon for the Emperor, while eaten alive and crying in pain. Everyone, but not the good Commissar Cain over there, as the Emperor watches over him for some reason." I explained in a half-serious voice, while a thousand eyes locked on the cowardly Commissar with curious eyes.

I think I saw Cain swallow his tears for a second.

"For those of you who never fought against the Tyranids, you should expect the horizon to be filled with giant bugs, on the ground, in the air and in orbit. Trillions of them. Stubber weaponry will not bother them at all, and most of the Guard's infantry weapons will be minimally effective." I concluded in the ominous silence

I saw all the Generals and officers nod glumly at my description.

Then Major Sulla raised her eyes to look at me. "We will die for the Emperor, Lord Lancefire. But perhaps...we might be given more weapons?" she asked in a calm voice, as if expecting to be punished.

I smiled gently and turned on the central hologram projector.

"More weapons, yes. For now, I've managed to requisition 5000 Basilisks and 10000 Hydras with extra ammunition. Thus, every regiment will have 100 Hydras each, while the Artillery regiments will receive 100 guns more. The Infantry regiments will also receive 200 Sentinel walkers, and some automated Tarantula turrets. As for Armor, there are 200 Leman Russ tanks and 100 Macharius tanks available to be spread among the regiments. At need, the Lamenters will deploy our Auxiliary regiments and provide drop pods with turrets and supplies. But, most of my efforts will be focused on stopping the bugs in the void. Once they manage to land, the Tyranids will devour any biomass and reproduce rapidly, growing in numbers a hundred times." I explained in a level voice, waiting for someone to crack.

Reality was harsh in this 40k universe, and it will get much worse.

General Vann glanced at the hologram, showing the nice Macharius tanks in all their glory. "More tanks are great, my lord. But I already have 300 tanks in my regiments, and even double that...it won't be enough. Surely there will be more reinforcements?"

Well, a normal Cadian armor regiment had 30 Leman Russ tanks and 5 Hydras. Good enough for minor Ork raids and defending a city, but obviously not enough for a big campaign. The armor units were kept in reduced numbers by intent, to prevent them getting too strong in case they went traitor, as they often did.

I nodded at her question. "There are 700 more Sentinels and a few hundred Tauros and other light vehicles like the Centaurs. However, most of your job will be to simply destroy the bio-titans of the Tyranids, and prevent our static positions from being overrun or outflanked. There will be ships in low orbit to provide fire support and some spacefighters, plus ground attack craft from the Lamenter Auxiliaries. I cannot speak for other Astartes Chapters, but I expect a few Companies might arrive, just like these Iron Hands and White Scars did. There are some Blood Angels with me, and even some Silent Sisters, but they'll mostly target the psychic leaders of the Tyranids, with deep-strikes aimed to disrupt their synaptic links."

And if the Catachan infantry regiments 'accidentally' received some containers with artillery shells normally used by the Basilisks, well...they did like setting traps and mines.

After that, the long task of preparing a logistic chain and supply method began, with the Navy cruisers obliged to load up the extra vehicles and munitions and the tech-priests and their servitors, while most vehicles and turrets were being hastily covered with blackstone armor, mostly provided freely from my own reserves that just appeared in empty fighter hangars on the carrier or my barge.

In this month, I did manage to strike a friendly relation with Regina, firstly over a working dinner, then a visit to my quarters to show her my trophies and exchange war stories over a few bottles of wine.

I bet Regina didn't expect my glands to still work, but she wasn't disappointed at all. Sadly, she had to return on her transport to oversee her troops, but her aide Jenit stayed as a liaison with a squad of her own Valhallan guardswomen to feel safe. Well, it was very safe in my bed, that was certain.

With good relations thus established, I decided to conscript the entire Valhallan regiment as Lamenters Auxiliaries, both because we lacked a dedicated artillery group, and for the other more obvious advantages of an all-female unit under me.

A month later, we arrived at Periremunda and began setting up orbital defenses and ground defenses. However, only two regiments were needed here, one infantry and one artillery. The terrain was broken up into high plateaus, easily defendable.

I picked the most green and covered with vegetation plateau, where the city of Konnandoil was located. Then I let the Catachans prepare the ground with surprises, including a squad of Special Ops Catachans selected and slightly trained by Sly Marbo.

The 276th Valhallan regiment was moved on board my ship, the Tranquility, the Battleship with warp-less engines. These brave platinum-haired women wouldn't see much combat on my ship, and they could raise their children in relative safety now.

From here, the bulk of the fleet moved outward, reaching Isis_V and preparing stronger defenses here, even landing five regiments, including 12th Artillery with Commissar Cain overseeing the defenses.

A few smaller fleet departed for Coelia and Karak Prime to secure the Hive Cities there, but mostly to pin the Tyranids in place if they arrived. An armor regiment, two infantry and three artillery each, plus a cruiser with a Nova Cannon.

Then we moved onwards, with the roving fleet, reaching the Kiltor Sector and burning down a dozen worlds already overrun by Tyranids. Exterminatus torpedoes were very useful for that.

A hundred small-scale void battles ensured we saved most of the sector, with liberal use of teleporting Nova mines, plasma torpedoes and even a Vortex torpedo on top of a Hive Queen.

It wasn't really difficult, when controlling spatial powers with impunity.

As for the planets already under attack, it was triage.

We couldn't defend everything, but Hive Cities, Mechanicus Forges and Research Stations, important industrial centers, those we could.

And every time some priest demanded we defended some empty planet with religious significance, he vanished and wasn't heard again. I did not care at all for Shrine Worlds, or Cardinal Worlds or any other type of Imperial Cult bullshit.

Population and industry would allow the Imperium of Man to survive and fight back, while Sanctuary Worlds or Cemetery_Worlds were amazingly stupid in my opinion.

Given this was 40k, dead people should be burned as soon as possible, and their ashes used to grow plants, to feed the living. Having ossuaries and crypts filled with skeletons would only tempt Warp entities or biomass seeking monsters.

Also, precious relics or libraries should be kept on Fortress Worlds, because they also tempted cults and traitors or demons. Better have guns close to kill them.

Wherever possible, I organized such maneuvers, sending the priests away to escort those relics to a Fortress World, presumably to boost morale and piousness of the defenders, beside keeping them safe.

Guilliman has also began setting up Sentinel Worlds, somewhat akin to a factory, fortress and shipyard world, with a Reality Cage being constructed deep underground. Only a couple of them, probably testing the effects on nearby Warp Storms like Medusa_V.

That world was doomed anyway, so might as well try to save it, even if the means were somewhat...unorthodox. And then someone closed the Rapidity Warp Rift, and the installation stayed.

And then the astropaths received a message from an agri-world called Jollov, sent by a frantic Mechanicus tech-priest that was studying an STC fragment, but was interrupted by a Tyranid splinter fleet.

I rushed my warp-less fleet ahead, heedless of the encroaching Silence, and began setting up hasty orbital defences, and blowing up wave after wave of Tyranid bioships and landing spores.

But the Tyranids were hungry, and this was an agri-world, teeming with biomass. Soon enough, they began ignoring my corvettes and the Battleship, diving heedlessly towards the appetizing food source.

A single Lamenter Drop-cruiser managed to make orbit in time, and began dropping turret pods and providing orbital support, while local regiments retreated towards the spaceport. The Deathwatch company covered their retreat with relentless determination, despite being decimated for their actions.

Well, the Astartes were the defenders of humanity, clad in mighty armor and armed with the most powerful guns. Still, they shouldn't be wasted.

So I began to cheat, kidnapping bio-titans from their spore pods, placing Nova mines in the midst of landed hordes of Tyranids, while the Blood Angels began landing in the besieged perimeter beside my own Auxiliary PDF regiments, including Lord Whitelance in his Knight.

And then we kept shooting and shooting, corvettes unleashing thousands of torpedoes and missiles, firing their plasma cannons and lances, while the Tranquility did the same, but rarely and quite strongly. Blowing up a dozen bioships per salvo was very fulfilling though.

When the other naval forces managed to break through the Tyranid Silence on the realspace plasma engines, they found half the planet in flames, and a mountain of Tyranid corpses around the spaceport.

It only took a single week, and I already had to resupply my corvettes from my pocket a few times.

And I even lost a couple of corvettes, although not the crew.

Corvettes may be cheap and easy to replenish, but good crew was not, and especially not my family.

Soon enough, the perimeter was cleared and corpses burned, and then the armor regiments began attacking, with mobile infantry engaging stragglers and lurking organisms, hidden in swamps or rivers and lakes.

Three squads of Special Ops and the Blood Angels took over the task of locating and destroying the Lictors and lurkers, while spacefighters and low orbit frigates cleaned the skies.

Even Captain Khan went down to help, enjoying hunting Tyranids for sport. With his sword!

It seemed madness to me, but perhaps the best of humanity were that good. I still couldn't touch even Rafen in spars, not to mention Ludvaius or the good Master of Blades.

"Mind if we join the fun, Master Lancefire?" a familiar voice asked from the vox channel.

Heh, I was so focused on the surface I ignored the orbit for a bit. "Brother Cassiel, I see you brought an entire Company with you." I exclaimed in surprise, while checking the contents of that barge.

My own sons in the Blood Angels Chapter, all clad in Terminator armor and armed to the teeth. And lead by Captain Aphael, like he promised.

"You don't need my permission, Brother. I'm not even a real Astartes!" I quipped back in a joking voice.

"Forgive him Brother, for his idiocy is without bounds. Are you going to sit on that bridge, or fight beside your sons, Lord Pef?" Captain Aphael intervened in a sterner voice.

I sighed inward, feeling the pain of Commissar Cain for myself now. "Let's take that tundra region, above the last Cadian regiment. I'll bring my good armor suit for the occasion."

Reason, my Knight, was feeling a bit lonely, even with Felicia oiling his joints every day. And I could practice those fancy blade moves in real combat.

Damn it, I was becoming an idiot like everyone else in this crazy universe