Chapter 17 - 121-129

While doing all this, the Pharos opened in my mind to show me the true state of the Segmentum, and even beyond that in the Eastern Fringe.

Hive Fleet Scarabus was approaching human worlds, after devouring a couple xenos and Ork planets. I could cut them off from those supplies of biomass with a dozen Exterminatus torpedoes, and the same for the two smaller Tyranid fleets approaching my own domain.

The bio-cruisers will need to be met in the void, and destroyed in detail before they could land.

Otherwise, Rose was busy inside a Deathwatch Fortress called Eye_of_Damocles, coordinating a large scale intelligence operation against the Tau, plus naturally assassinations of Ethereal leaders, and torturing captured prisoners. Janice was working hard beside her, using her psyker powers with lots of skill.

"Father, is this you?" she mused softly, while a hundred scalpels were dancing around in mid-air and flaying some Ethereal guy, alive.

"Yes, sweetie. So you're an Inquisitor's Acolyte now?" I asked in faint amusement.

"Have to. Damn 'Greater Good' blueberries are very resistant to normal Inquisition practices. So I help mommy sometimes. I also Navigate that Black Inquisition Battlecruiser docked outside."Janice explained while poking the damn brainwashing Tau and reading his mind while his attention was diverted by the possibly debilitating pain of losing bits of skin.

Well, that was a good career choice, at least. Very few if any people would dare question a Navigator working for the Inquisition's own Black ships.

"Any boy you like?" I continued in a teasing tone, more amused.

"Dad! I'm working here!" my daughter protested in my mind, so left her get on with her helping.

She will probably need to find a nice Navigator boy without too many mutations, by accident or by kidnapping.

So I turned to my dear Rose, who was overseeing a large command center filled with a Company of black-armored Astartes, plus hundreds of autosavants, sages and lexmechanics. Streams of data engrams and machine liturgies covered the holofields, some of them compiling a stack-archive on the human worlds in the Farsight Enclave.

A pict-capture of the Talisman_of_Arthas_Moloch while worn by Primarch Guilliman was posted on the main screen, with sigils and runes shifting constantly. Well, they would want to know how the Primarch has recovered from his Warp-poison injury.

And while the hexagrammatic talisman was well-disguised as an Imperial relic, the Inquisition had real experts too. And they were suspicious.

The vectors for a dozen small Ork Waaghs were shifting slowly on other side screens, while the top three screens were keeping watch over three Tyranids tendril fleets, all heading towards the Necron World of Sarlok.

Well, they had things covered quite well, from what I saw. No real time data, of course, but then humanity did not have another Pharos, unless that Shariax artifact on Occludus was something of the same nature.

Not that the Death_Spectres Chapter were sharing what they knew with anyone else, anyway. Keeping watch in secret, and probably intercepting any moves from those mysterious xenos in the Pale Stars. And also killing their Brothers a few times, as a graduation ceremony, for some obscure reason.

"Hey Rose. I see you noticed my gift to our beloved Primarch. Keeps the poison at bay, right?" I asked in a level tone.

"My strange lover is back! I expect you have already met with Calixa?" the Inquisitor asked in my mind, without showing any outward sign of emotion. Perhaps she was upset to learn it was me who woke up Guilliman?

"Met the cute infocyte, yes. Should I do more with her?" I wondered in a teasing voice. I would anyway, but better to have permission...

"You do what you want, horny lover. Just...remember Calixa is not yours nor mine. Grand Master Fadix holds her leash, including her kill-switch. So I heard about the Moloch Crusade. Doesn't seem so bad at it first appeared, less than 50 worlds were lost. And nothing important anyway." my Rose commented in a wry tone.

Those devoured worlds still held billions of people, but indeed, I saved the Hive Worlds and the Forges, making the losses seem irrelevant in the grand scheme.

"Hive Fleet Scarabus will hit Coronis in a few years. I'll burn their landed elements, and Vortex the Norn Queen. Nothing else I can do from Sotha. Anyway, I'm nearly ready compiling the cruiser size warp-less engines, so I'll need something to trade for another batch of old ships to appear all over with partial STC templates. We might see a strong opposition from the Navigators, this time." I said in slight worry.

The crazy Navigators were willing and able to sabotage the Dark_Glass device, almost dooming the Imperium of Man back in the days of the Horus Heresy. They would dare again, no doubt.

"The Navigator Houses already make overtures to proclaim the warp-less engines as heretic inventions, and have them all destroyed. Of course, both Primarchs disagree violently, and a couple of Paternova family heads were removed already. Master Fadix doesn't tolerate dissenters." the Inquisitor explained in a somber tone.

Well, the internal conflicts in the Imperium have begun then, and they'll only get worse. However, that was why I gave both Primarchs Null Rods. Even Paternova-level Navigators won't be able to scry them now. Nor would Chaos Sorcerers and Psyker Inquisitors, nor even Eldar Farseers or Avatars. They'll have to tread carefully, not knowing where or when a Primarch might appear and ruin someone's day, or remove a few heads.

I changed focus on the Trazyn the Infinite, finding him fiddling with Jokaero weapons and artifacts, and even a dozen of live Jokaero orangutans kept in a green-field cage.

"New toys, Lord Trazyn?" I asked in faint amusement.

"Ah! The puppy stranger! Your Null-bone staff is ready, but I still need a bloodflaw genome if you want it to work for a psyker. As for those Titans...I changed my mind. Not giving them back! You can take the captured Knights, and that's it!" the crazy Necron Overlord proclaimed in an irate voice.

I sighed inward. Even Necrons kept the amazing Titans from my grasp...for now.

But 34 Knights would be useful too. I even had pilots for them, Justine's and Lord Whitelance's children. Only a couple were Blanks, but I'll use what I had. As for Titans I had another plan.

"Show me the cruiser engine and reactor first. We'll discuss the Titans later, Lord Trazyn." I demanded more sternly, and grabbed the dataslate in midair.

A quick check showed me exactly what I wanted. And then there were the other human technologies recovered and upgraded by Trazyn. There was even an upgraded Lance battery in there, with better fire rate and range, and an even longer range Nova Cannon. A host of other schematics, from Hellguns to Vortex missiles and Stasis_Bombs and grenades, neutron and graviton guns, conversion beamers and Volkite weapons of a dozen sizes.

And then, there were some kind of walking turrets, slightly taller than a modern dreadnought, and a bit rounded. Like my Armed Sentinels, but way more advanced.

Checking the schematic rapidly, I discovered they were in fact also dreadnoughts, meant to preserve wounded Astartes and keep them fighting. This Deredeo_Pattern_Dreadnought would make an excellent platform for mobile Tarantula turrets. Of course, nothing as complicated as the original design, but I was getting good at simplifying machines.

Another walker template was a Leviathan_Dreadnought armed with a gigantic Cyclonic_Melta_Lance and a Grav_Flux_Bombard. These were very large machines, the size of the largest Imperial Knights and even more powerful. I shall see to it that Blank Astartes got to pilot these Leviathans, and stand strong in the face of Greater Demons or Ork Bosses of same size. Plus the arms could be made to end in Power Fists, and thus able to hold gigantic melee weapons like Reason had his Power Glaive.

Then tanks and troop transports in a hundred configurations, and lastly a simple, rugged and better lasgun for the infantry. Pretty much a Hotshot gun, but firing fast and without overheating. I wasn't able to create something this simple and potent even after decades of constant attempts, and yet this Necron took only a few years to overhaul hundreds of Mechanicus designs and make them all better. Damn cheater!

"I trust my efforts are appreciated, stranger. I had to coerce a billion of my slaves to work on the pathetic weapons of humanity and repair what flaws they could. Luckily I had a thousand tech-priests to extract memories from. They seem a bit...drained now, but I can give them back if you wish." Trazyn explained in a proud tone.

He didn't even work personally for this? Well, slave and serf labour was the norm in the galaxy, from the Imperium to the Orks and the myriad of slavers and Enslavers.

"It's decent work, I admit. Here, a database of Tau technology now. Perhaps we can obtain even smaller ship engines and better forcefields." I replied while keeping calm and depositing the valuable data-stack on his work coffin. Then I retrieved a lock of hair from Amberley's son Aeneas and sent it over as well. "Gene samples for the bloodline flaw in the staff. Perhaps those Jokaeros can craft more Null Rods?"

Trazyn waved a hand at the air, and produced a small wand as proof. "Their Null Wands are even better than those contraptions of the Mechanicus. Wider range, and no disruptions from Warp Storms. They even upgraded my own Empathic staff!"

I sighed in defeat. Of course, the orange orangutans were idiot-savants, and also made the fabled digital weapons prized anywhere in the galaxy, by everyone. I took out another dataslate with my own STC templates, most importantly those which didn't work yet, and sent it over as well. "Another batch of less advanced machines, most of them created at Forge World Retribution, to be used to develop the Fringe. They need to remain at micron-level of quality, because there are no better Forges out there."

That wasn't entirely true, but better appear weaker and harmless.

"Savages! How can they even entangle quant...nevermind. These are simple designs indeed! Electric trains! Only these personal shields have a small value. Flawed and inefficient, but at least some of those silly tech-priests tried. There might be a small hope for humans, after all." the Necron tech-wizard uttered in slight disgust.

And those conversion shields were my best work

🔊

When I returned to my room, I remembered to unfreeze the Deathwatch guys protecting the teleportarium on the Aegida Fortress, and even gave them several archeoweapons from my personal inventory. Vortex grenades and inferno pistols might serve them well when sent on a Kill-team to hunt down a powerful Ork Boss or something.

Meanwhile, dreadnought Chyron remained in stasis, till he was needed. No need to stress him too much, after he saw me burn a Tyranid hive fleet and kill a Queen without lifting a finger. He would be my second-in-command thus he had the need to know. Plus a Null Wand would cover other problems of a more chaotic nature. Same for Brother Semnai, most likely. If they couldn't be Blanks, they could at least have the same protection via artificial means.

Then, I brought Calixa in the room while I entered my shower to refresh, at the same time with Canis.

"We got teleported...wait! I'm missing six hours on my datalog. Your master is so tricky, right, space wolf?" the blonde woman asked Canis in a curious voice.

"Grrr. Wooof!" the space wolf replied in outrage, and went to pour himself meat pellets and water.

He was still growing, and had to squeeze a little, to fit through the door frame meant for Terminator armors. I was ambivalent on this. A bigger wolf would be stronger, but he might reach van size soon. And then he will eat even more!

A minute later, the blonde woman joined me in the shower, to help me wash my back. With her chest, but I didn't mind.

"I thought Astartes were more...transhuman." she sent with a data transmission, while examining my body all over.

"But I'm not a real Astartes. All my organs are natural." I explained with a mind transmission, which would not be logged on her mind implant.

The Sounding Board was very useful for tricks like this, and invisible inside the tesseract.

I just had to wear one tesseract around my neck, like a relic talisman depicting a skull with angel wings. Made sense to have one tesseract always nearby, even when outside my armor with the magic glove. For example when naked or inside the Knight.

"Natural organs, you say, my lord. I guess I shall test this claim, very profoundly." the infocyte continued with a data entry, getting busy with testing my claim.

Much later, she rested on my chest and sighed in content. "All natural!"

I wasn't tired at all, so I called Jenit and Reila to my room, and help me relieve all my stress. "Ludvaius, see that Lady Calixa gets a room with a cogitator bank and a pair of tech-priests to watch over her. Biologis and Cogitatrice clades."

My bodyguard just nodded and opened the armored door to let Calixa walk out, with a simple bath robe covering her. Well, I wasn't so tight on uniform regulation, especially for women.

Robes made for easy access and good thermal protection, and that was sufficient.

A minute later, Jenit arrived with Regina, while Reila came hand in hand with Henna, as they were probably discussing complicated topics like raising children or blowing up xenos from orbit.

I checked inward to see if my energy stores would suffice, and my body promptly signaled that yes, four women will be just enough.

"General, you have the rank so you may go first", Regina joked as she leaned over to kiss me and measure my body with hungry eyes.

"We will soon start teaching you combined arms warfare, especially with airpower and orbital drops." I explained in a gentle voice as Reila dropped herself on top of me, and began enjoying the benefits of a young body once again.

Hopefully Amberley will remember to requisition those Catachan regiments and bring them to Illevar once the Moloch Crusade was over.

I planned to obtain as many of those jungle expert regiments as possible, and the Catachans had raised over a thousand of them, mainly infantry. And since infantry regiments had the largest numbers, that was excellent too.

Armed and trained colonists for the Fringe, while women will be provided by saving Hive Worlds and exacting a toll. All normal and natural in this galaxy.

For the next generations, Blank men from my Blanktown will start being sent as minor nobles in the colonies, and do their best to spread their genes to the Catachan descendants.

As for my daughters and granddaughters, well...I could marry them off into Rogue Trader families, or something of that nature. They will still command their spaceships, and spread Blank genes among other Houses, which will become important later.

Alliances among nobles houses were common enough, but my House will have a palace on Terra itself. I might have to beat off eager men with a stick.

They already knifed each other among the Catachans, but the Catachans were not rich and important and well-connected like Rogue Traders were.

That could wait though, until Decima and Serena advised me on it. Perhaps even those Sisters from Orders Famulous. I had a dozen of them among my concubines, without even asking them for it. They just somehow appeared in my bed, escorted by Helena and Catherine.

Several hours later, Henna took the last spot with a calm and patient demeanor, eager for another child. I was so lucky with this cousin, as she was everything other women were not, at least not here. Loving, accepting, soft and warm, a dutiful wife and mother.

However, while I did love her for it, those were not good survival traits, not in this hellish galaxy. Maybe in ten thousand years, if my efforts bore fruit.

"Tomorrow morning at 8.00 shiptime. All of you report on the cadet deck, for strategic courses. Henna, you befriend Calixa and see about medical tests." I commanded after we concluded the marital duty.

"Yes sir." Reila answered in a military tone, and leaned over to steal a kiss before she ran off.

"Teenager hormones. She'll get over it." Regina mused to herself, glancing after Reila as she departed the room.

Regina did not receive the chrono treatment as she wasn't in need for a young body yet, nor was Jenit. I caught her chin and kissed her abruptly. "Go and rest, my dear. I have other work now." I growled in a harsher tone.

She smiled and walked away swaying her hips, confident in her charms and position. I almost called her back for another round, but that was what Regina wanted, and we couldn't have that.

"See you tomorrow, my lord." Jenit whispered in a shy voice, and ran after her boss.

You bet your perky ass we will see you tomorrow! And for the rest of your life.

These three women will form my command staff in the future, and follow me on campaigns. We will see a lot of each other, and enjoy it too.

But perhaps not Calixa, if she was not loyal to me, like Rose had warned me. A double-agent if I ever saw one. Triple-agent, considering the Inquisition too.

I will have to handle her with caution then.

At my order, Felicia arrived in a minute and sat in my lap, while I powered up the cogitator to start working on the new machines.

The blonde enginseer almost forgot to pump her hips, while watching the trove of treasures on the screen.

"This is amazing, my lord. So many discoveries!" Felicia exclaimed and squeezed me in excitement.

"There is even more, from what I could recover from the STC caches Prelia and Jollov and these teleporting Orks right here. Some templates even seem intact. But first, we work on the walking turrets. I want one multilaser and one lascannon, powered by this small plasma reactor, and we'll cover them in blackstone. Maybe even a Flare shield, if you're good enough." I teased her and squeezed her breasts in my palms.

"Keep pumping, my lord! These babies will burn through xenos like the Omnissiah's Will!" Felicia demanded loudly as her Mind impulse unit delved deeper into the cogitator array, mixing and matching parts, balancing targeting codes and draining me of gene-seed in a strange but pleasantly competent display of multitasking.

I was very happy for her assistance, and offered Felicia a sip from the expensive Apple-peach juice from planet Iax. She sipped greedily through the straw and kept working hard. I knew she loved it, as her flesh was weak for pleasure.

But I would provide all the pleasure she wanted, in exchange for valuable service. My body, good food and drinks, gifts and treats and even children, one day.

My work was progressing a few times faster with her aid, and I got prime service too. What was not to like?

By the next week, most of my goals for this trip were achieved, including the obliteration of the largest Ork worlds in the Jagga Tyrant empire, a dozen more xeno worlds burned to the bedrock to eliminate potential new traits for the Tyranids, and a couple Hrud worlds that would surely be huge problems once they began migrating towards the Imperium.

While this might seem a pity, burning livable planets, truth was there were at least ten times more planets out there than those known on the official Imperial maps, and a thousand times more not livable yet, but those could be made useful with effort and time.

The galaxy was teeming with potential, but using Warp drives and exploring blindly wasn't really working. The Tau had the right idea, simply expanding their volume geometrically, slowly exploring and conquering every star system in their reach. Or at least they were, until their alien allies started getting burned, and their own cities invaded by demons.

What the Pharos showed me was entrenchment, orbital forts and starbases being built to defend the inner lines, exploring ships recalled for defense, and Ork Waaghs getting brutally massacred with ranged fire like in the War_of_Dakka.

Of course, this time the Kroot Warspheres did not survive, with plasma torpedoes teleported inside their engine rooms and bridges, while hundreds of Orks found themselves teleported on board the ancient vessels and doing what they did best, grabbing anything shiny and shooting with it. And given that the shiny weapons they found were Necron and Dark Eldar in origin, they had a substantial advantage over the Kroot.

Eventually the Tau would win, as they too had cheat codes in technology and organization, plus a star faring civilization still unbroken by the horrors of the 41st Millennium.

Not yet, not while they were useful. But later, the sky will open and rain fire on the heretics.

Now there was a God, and it hated them

Perhaps it was me, but I felt the urge to just crush most Inquisitors I found, even those with exemplar conduct. Sadly, they were actually needed, acting like white cells inside a sick organism.

Sure, most of them used axes and hot irons to cut away and burn the infections, often without much care of burning innocents in their zeal.

A few of those that I caught in the act, just ordering Exterminatus on planets on mere suspicion of hiding a cult, those I introduced to a krak grenade on their necks, leaving their Acolytes to carry on a proper investigation.

Their power armor will just need doused with a stream of water to wash off the brains and blood, and it would still be good as new.

The cults leaders were also blown up, leaving a trail of smoke and fire for a smart Acolyte to raise above and become an Inquisitor himself.

As for Trazyn, we arranged for another space hulk to be broken up into useful bits, this time the famous Olethros.

The ships themselves would be emptied of cultists and genestealers, and their engine cogitators would be filled with the new STC patterns, including the cruiser-sized warp-less engine.

A hundred Navy and Mechanicus ships were casually dropped in Forge World systems, from Antax to Gryphonne IV, or from Canto II to Khania.

As a gift for my Rose, the Norn's Ghost Inquisitorial battlecruiser arrived near her Eye of Damocles fortress, while the Dark Angels battlebarge called Caliban's Will arrived in front of their wandering asteroid-fortress, the Rock.

Sure the voidships were beaten up and would need lots of work to be recommissioned, but that wasn't the point. The stores of STC templates were, a wealth of knowledge that should push the strength of humanity a few thousands years ahead.

Forge Retribution received another damaged Apocalypse-class battleship, because I was playing favorites. And if there were 34 Knight suits on board that ship, plus enough Mechanicus weapons to arm a Skitarii legion, it must have been Emperor's Will. Maybe the Omnissiah? It sure seemed that way.

As for Forge World Lentrel_Prime, which wasn't blown up by the Necron World Engine this time, they received an entire Ark Mechanicus, just to spit in fate's face. I made my own fate, damn hellish universe!

Of course, I couldn't stop every tragedy and massacre, either being in the wrong place, or lacking the means.

But I could prepare for example for Armageddon, simply by having Lord Trazyn drop the asteroid core of the Olethros on a collision course with planet Urk. A mere cosmic accident, as it happened so often to human worlds. Why not to Orks, right?

While the range of the Pharos was small, and I couldn't burn the place with Exterminatus, an asteroid crashing onto a planet would still burn most life away, just like the dinosaurs of Terra found out.

The Ork Boss Ghazghkull might survive this, because he also had gods on his side, but the crazy mushroom wouldn't have that Ork army to start with anymore.

The sad truth was that Warp godlings were able to direct space hulks as transport ships and infection vectors for Tyranid genestealers or various Ork and Chaos forces, or create Warp Storms to abduct entire star systems or Astartes Chapters.

I was simply returning the favor, using advanced technology in place of mighty psyker powers. Sadly, the currency of this great game were lives, and often human lives.

I had no doubt the Emperor was playing the game as well, possibly in a loose alliance with the Eldar gods.

As for the Tau, it was increasingly clear that their leading caste, the Ethereals were a strange breed of Navigators, using their empathic powers instead of psyker powers. Not being Warp-based, or possibly only tangentially like the normal Blanks were.

But because they were rather close in galactic terms, I needed the Tau contained, before they began the 3rd, 4th and 5th Expansion Spheres which would make them a match for the Ultima Segmentum.

Their allies were instead free game, and Trazyn was glad for a challenge. "My Warriors would enjoy the challenge indeed, if what you say it's true. Can't have someone else join our party and collect species and individuals with mind-control. I shall direct a dozen of my Lords to raid and harass those allies, while using incremental weaponry like you wish. But I will need more of those Dark Eldar Void mines, to...conduct political maneuvers. Yes, that's the correct term. Only my own Dynasty is worthy to lead the Necrons."

Easily accomplished, as the Void mines were smaller than a torpedo. I provided three dozen of those darklight weapons, which will soon be transformed into three dozen Necron Dynasties left without a leader. We did have plenty of common enemies, Trazyn and I.

"All right, Lord Trazyn, now I shall tell you another story. In the final days of the Horus Heresy, the Battle_of_Drooth_II took place on a massive scale, among Titan Legions from both sides. And here on Drooth II is where the famous Psi-Titans of the Ordo Sinister were deployed. One of these rare Titans, the Occedentalis-Chirion was tragically lost on this Ultramar world, and as a final revenge, a loyal Titan Princeps targeted the space elevator and brought it down, killing almost everyone and pulverizing the great machines of Humanity. But, someone with great skill and patience might be able to pinpoint the exact place and time to interfere. A damaged Psi-Titan, and a mostly intact Warlord Titan vanishing right as the orbital structure falls onto the battling armies below. Just imagine the value of those treasures! Plus, nobody would even know they were not destroyed." I whispered in his robotic mind, while leaning heavily on my Bone Staff.

"...And for this lesson, you want what in trade? All those Titans I so painfully worked to capture from Forge Venatoria?" the Necron Overlord asked in a suspicious voice.

"You have made clear you want a collection of Titans. Fine! So you can keep those you already have. But that Psi-Titan is armed with a powerful Pariah weapon the dread Sinistramanus Tenebrae. The pilot is also a Blank of tremendous power, and only that Pariah Princeps can fire the weapon. Now imagine that weapon, repaired and magnified, combined with the Blackstone Fortress. It might even work on the Hadex Anomaly!" I suggested in a teasing voice.

"...Perhaps. It would take me years to pinpoint the exact timeline, and extract the weapon undetected. The Human Emperor is still active at that time, and he scares me. It would be very risky for me even if working through a disposable remote, and the gains... The gains would be worth it, as I do have these orange monkeys to repair and upgrade that Tenebrae device. And in return?" Trazyn asked in an aggravated voice.

"I want that other Titan, including the crew. And a mind-control device based on the Enslaver bones. Something very subtle and undetectable by psykers. Plus the STC schematic for a better Titan, although I assume you already have those." I demanded in a eager tone. I wasn't asking much, and the Necron knew it.

"It is a small claim indeed, if the extraction is successful. Surely you need something else?" Trazyn the Infinite wondered sensing something was amiss.

I pretended to think it over. "I could use a dozen small-scale tesseracts, for my agents. A thousand cubic kilometers of inner volume would be enough, perhaps also allowing short range teleports, don't wanna give these agents too many powers, you surely understand."

I think the Necron chuckled in amusement, while checking his stores for something on that low scale. "I do have a couple of these trinkets, we call them a Nexus_Arrangement. However, a dozen of them would be too much. Two of them, one paid in advance for your helpful information, the other when I recover that Psi-Titan. And your Null-Bone staff is ready too, although the flaw is very small. Perhaps the infant human needs to grow stronger and widen the flaw, before more psyker powers can be used."

Well, that made sense, I guess. Aeneas would only have the Blank traits manifested, like all the Blanks. But as he reached puberty the psyker genes will activate just like they did for Janice.

I could wait a decade no problem.

As for other trades, I would need more valuable information or artifacts. Back to lore digging, when I returned to my Chapter.

Checking with the Pharos one last time, I located a fleet of Ravagers Chaos vessels in orbit above the Tau world Salomine. With some carefully placed melta bombs inside the engine rooms, their ships were immobilized and prevented from retreat, giving the Tau a worthy enemy to fight. Why not let the Tau enjoy the wonders of the galaxy, and test their tactics on Chaos Space Marines?

After this, it was time to leave Sotha, before another less-friendly Inquisitor showed up. I couldn't count on my luck to meet another Ordo Xenos beauty. Were they hired as ambassadors for the human race?

Not that I would mind another pretty Inquisitor, even with the host of problems and demands they brought along.

And lastly, it was time to finish the deal with the pretty blonde infocyte, setting her on a long quest of my own. Well, after thoroughly pumping Calixa full of endorphins and gene-seed, naturally.

She stretched on my bed like a cat, and licked a finger teasingly, which made me almost keep her in my retinue, just for fun. But her talents would be wasted like that.

"Dear Calixa, focus on your mission!" I chided her sharply with a mind transmission, which broke her reverie.

"Of course, my lord. Another mission beside birthing you a child, you mean?" the blonde minx asked while patting her belly. It wasn't visible, but my Navigator confirmed a Blank fetus was growing inside.

"We will meet again, and you'll have many more children, my dear. I will keep the Blanks, and you will train the rest of our children. As for your mission, you will have to travel and compile a list of allies for our House. Rogue Traders and rich Governor Houses, on Imperial worlds that have shipyards and weapons factories. This data-stack contains a thousand STC patterns, which would be tremendously valuable to any of our allies. As for your escort, you will have this space wolf puppy called Trajan, Silent Sister Hestia and five Deathwatch Astartes from Rose's retinue, and battalion of Catachans for...aggressive negotiations. For more diplomatic matters, you will have Sister Helena and a couple of Order Famulous Sisters to conduct genetic testing." I explained in a gentler voice, while Canis licked his puppy with a sad face.

Sorry buddy, we all make sacrifices. I will have to temporarily detach one of my cute nurses and her too friendly family advisers, and Hestia was rather a formidable warrior in her own right. Just in case some Chaos cult tried to impede my plans.

I even detached Sly Marbo to aid Calixa in her difficult mission, along with three thousands Catachans, a thousand of them women. Couldn't let the big bad monster rest over the next decade, when he could pump babies during travel, and then strangle or vanish impolite reluctant allies who didn't know yet who their boss was. And that pocket tesseract would be very useful for his task. Perfect place to store dead bodies too.

Calixa skimmed the data-stack with wide eyes, no doubt realizing exactly how valuable the information inside was. "So, I'm to wait here until your daughter Andrea arrives with a Mars battlecruiser, and then proceed to Kar_Duniash to install Macharius-pattern warp-less drives on the ship. After that, I have free rein on my travels, though not too far from the Ultima Segmentum." she mused while reading the mission's parameters.

"It's why it is called an independent command, Calixa. Andrea also has 50 billion thrones in her vault, and some other gifts. Our Lancefire house is not poor, as you well know. The Vigil for the Vanquished was gifted to us by a Primarch, right?" I reminded her in a wry tone.

"... And if I misbehave, those Astartes have orders to hunt me down. I see." the infocyte deduced with perfect logic.

"You will not misbehave, my dear. We have the same goals, and the same enemies. We just use different means, and Grand Master Fadix and I will be colleagues on Terra, soon enough. As secondary goals, you will locate cultists and corrupt officials, and keep watch for Inquisitors that are themselves corrupt or helping cultists. Those you will report to Captain Andrea, and she will decide their fate. You will not act yourself, is that clear?" I demanded while twisting her nipples in warning.

"I understand, my lord. Your daughter is a Blank herself and thus not suspect of corruption." Calixa muttered in a weird voice, as if enjoying the pain. Very possible, considering what they must have put her through to become a member of the Vanus Temple.

"Exactly. And the very reason Blanks were hunted out from Terra, including the Silent Sisters. Can't have people immune to Chaos, right?" I asked in a rhetoric question.

The blonde infocyte nodded while meditating on my words. "It does seem stupid in hindsight. So that's why..."

Soon after, my Battleship and the carriers departed for home, while Calixa and her new small army awaited for Andrea to arrive.

A week later I received a hero's welcome on Illevar, while our troops and crew on the Crusade fleet were regarded as invincible heroes against the xenos terror.

Our losses were indeed minuscule, and mostly only machines and equipment.

And so I continued my long task, staying on Illevar this time, to oversee the progress of the Lamenters, and returning the lost Brothers to our Chapter. Veteran Semnai still wasn't too happy with me, but there was nothing he could do but lament to himself and keep his duty, training the new generation.

Chyron took over most of the tactical training, because millennia of practical experience counted a lot.

After two years of hard work and constant exploration and expansion, we had to halt, because the volume was becoming too large and difficult to patrol. Five hundred habitable worlds and ten times as many star systems used as naval bases and mining outposts will suffice, until we had a large enough population.

A couple of arid Ork-infested worlds were kept as training ground for our regiments, as well as live testing area for the new weapons and machines being produced by Forge Retribution.

Meanwhile, Elixa kept expanding the Obsidian Auguries like I had hoped, and taught the future techmarines the tricks of an infocyte. Their implantation with gene-seeds was not as easy as with the Blank recruits of the Lamenters, but we did have high quality stock from the Red Scorpions and Primarch Khan himself, plus gene-seeds extracted from Mantis Warriors, Executioners and Blood Angels. Plenty of Aspirants still died, even with all my efforts to prepare them.

Company after company, the techmarine candidates were either sent to friendly Forge Worlds to be trained, or trained at home by the tech-priests of our own.

And as it happened, those candidates sailed on 'discovered' ships, cruisers and destroyers captured during the Badab War, but their hangars and troop decks filled with blackstone and other valuable ore. The ships will return upgraded and filled with more Catachan regiments, to serve as colonists for my new kingdom in the Fringe.

On Forge Retribution, my half-brothers and sisters were learning how to pilot their Knights, under Lord Whitelance's supervision.

Everything seemed to work fine, and I was getting worried it was something too good for this hell.

And only a month after, a huge Ork Waagh arrived at my doorstep, with crazy Orks throwing asteroids at my defenses and capital, while to the side, a gathering of ten Chaos Chapters waited for the way to be cleared.

It would have worked no doubt, despite my efforts to provide as many orbital forts and defense ships as humanly possible.

There were other gods, and they hated me.

"You should gather your family and retreat, evacuating as many civilians as possible." Dreadnought Chyron advised me in a calm voice.

"Things look so bad, huh?" I mused out loud, while scratching Canis on his head.

The space wolf snorted in dismissal and went to look for another imported she-wolf to subdue. He wasn't that interested in my games it seemed.

Sadly, those bitches were all one-time partners for Canis, as they rarely survived being mounted by a van-sized wolf. Even if they did, and carried a few puppies to term, they were rather...let's say, too broken for further use.

Right, the big Ork Waagh.

I almost forgot...and they're gone. A minute later, the Chaos ships also vanished, but only to reappear into the sun, with plasma warheads detonating inside their engine rooms, to keep them from escaping.

The void was almost clear, and I was not even paying much attention as the last Chaos battleship started melting deep inside the sun, when the Starfort shuddered and trembled like something huge hit us.

"Gellar generatoriums overloading! Breach on wing 8!" the console lexmachanic announced in almost panic.

"Containment protocol! And let's go and receive the visitors! I proclaimed while priming Reason for combat.

In a minute, I climbed inside the cockpit and urged the Knight at full speed, rushing towards the breach. In the tesseract I could faintly see the invader, some kind of big demon slashing about our garden and the precious hydroponics. Damn it!

Those had costed me a billion thrones to import from all over, since combat drugs and rare medication were hard to find and had to be produced by Astartes Apothecaries. Who knew?

Brother Semnai ran even faster than my Knight and managed to slash off a wing from this demon, with the Chronoglaive I gave him, before getting slapped aside, his Terminator armor tumbling like a 2-ton leaf.

Semnai vanished in my labyrinth before he could dent my deck, and probably get a concussion. Or give the deck a concussion, for that matter.

"I am M'kar, the..." the big demon began shouting as his head vanished under a blast from my Volcano Lance.

The demon didn't die, instead starting to regrow it's lost head and wing, when the Silent Sisters arrived in force and began chopping at his body with ease, while my Power Glaive held the demon's own sword locked.

I kinda wished to give the thing a True_Death, but I didn't have a Force Weapon, nor the psyker powers to use one. And the only other such weapon, usable by a Blank, was the True Name of a demon.

Well luckily for me, I did know of this M'kar. And the Silent Sisters were quite a force-multiplier too.

"You are Maloq Kartho ! Merely a Word Bearer traitor, unable to keep your oath. I sentence you to die a True Death, your soul erased forever!" I boomed from my cockpit, just as Sister Letitia jumped and slashed the arm holding the black demon sword.

With my Power Glaive free, I could cut and slash the corrupted marine transformed into a winged demon into tiny bits, and portion each cut to my Silent Sisters, to be exorcised.

A flint dagger was all that remained from the banished demon, which I collected for myself. This must be one of those rare Athame, an Interex relic able to cut through space itself.

It will take me some time to learn its use, but from what I knew, they could turn an enemy to your side.

Then I remembered to bring back Brother Semnai, and proceed at directing the tech-priests and servitors to seal the fort's breach and burn the poor plants. It wasn't like we would use frozen and corrupted plants for anything.

We will need even more Blackstone armor and Gellar fields. Damn demons!

"Is M'kar truly dead, Master Lancefire?" the Veteran Brother asked as the last vestiges of the demon's body were burning under the Pariah boots of my Sisters.

"Probably so. Using a human vessel makes it very easy to kill the stupid demons. Shout their name, and cut them down. And having Silent Sisters around helps too." I explained patiently while driving Reason back to its hangar.

"...It seems too easy." The man muttered in distrust.

"Knowledge is a great power, Brother. Guard it well." I said wryly as the cockpit opened and I patted Reason on its armored head.

A minute later, Enginseer Felicia arrived running at full tilt, passing me without a word and going over the scrathes of the Knight with cooing sounds like calming a baby.

Incense and oil as well as prayers and machine canticles covered the poor Knight suit, and its mechanical head stared at me in a pleading gaze. 'Make her leave!'

Sorry, dead brother. Just endure, like we all did. Plus you did fight a Daemon Prince, so holy oils and techno-lingua prayers should help. Or at least, do no harm

As I returned to the command center, I was already exploring what these Orks have brought me, besides the Space Hulk still far beyond the gas giant.

Nearly 80 Kroozers, 6 Ork Battleships and 250 escorts, of which 50 ships were Chaos Destroyers still bearing the marks of a couple Chaos warbands. This was possibly the payment the traitors used to attract the Orks, not that it actually took much to convince them into attacking anyone. Done it myself a few times.

But this indeed gave me a great idea, if only I could find an Ordo Xenos Inquisitor to get on board with my plan.

And while my ships formed into a strike group to dismember that Space Hulk, I concluded my work and ejected those infested Chaos destroyers into the Sun. Good riddance.

I now had even more precious metal to construct my army and armor up my ships.

The battlecruisers and battlebarges first, because they had the huge reactors meant for battleships, and thus more than enough energy to move, even after tripling their armor.

And once all these Ork Kroozers were cleaned up and repaired, I would have a hundred capital ships to form the core of my personal fleet, backed up by ten battleships and several carriers. And everything would be able to travel outside the Warp too.

The logistics would get a bit complicated, but while I had the Kroozers towed to friendly Forge Worlds, then upgraded, the next generation of granddaughters will be almost ready to become Captains.

The decision thus made, I nodded to myself while Chiron just mumbled something.

"You said something Chyron?" I asked to make sure.

"I said you're breaking all the rules, Lord Lancefire. Not that the Chaos worshipers didn't break them first. A hundred Ork capital ships, and a hundred traitor vessels, just gone. There must have been billions of Orks and ten thousand traitor Space Marines, with Emperor knows how many Demon Engines and fighters and bombers and tanks." the dreadnought grumbled in a deep voice from his coffin.

I nodded in agreement. His estimations of enemy numbers and equipment were spot on.

Going by any rational measure, the traitors should have won, in less than a year. Probably before any help could be sent from Ultramar.

Then again, I did kinda burn down nearly any remaining Demon World in the Pharos range, plus a hundred Ork worlds and just as many Tyranid crawling nests.

Must have ruined lots of carefully laid plans and reduced the Chaos influence in the segmentum by half or more.

I should have captured some cultists and interrogate...wait. There were some remaining on the Space Hulk. And a billion Orks too, plus the other assortment of creatures generally found on a Space Hulk, like mutants and genestealers and a dozen types of xenos I never seen before.

These guys must have come from the Eye of Terror or somewhere.

But in a few hours, it was kinda over, as the monstrous hulk began breaking up under a barrage of torpedoes and Nova shells, and I could start stealing away battleship-sized fragments, widening gaps for more weapons to strike at fractures and split off mangled hulls and twisted weapons and engines.

Even so, the hulk began moving away while losing megatonnes from its mass with every salvo from our strike group. Seeing this, I directed a thousand corvettes to dive and unload everything in the middle of the remaining hulk.

A fragment 100 kilometers long sheared off under the thousands of torpedoes striking along a mid-line, and less than half of this hulk reached Warp limit and jumped away.

Damn cheating bastards! In time the Space Hulk will collect more victims and grow again, as in the Warp dimensions were malleable, and ships could intersect each other, then remained fused once the hulk emerged into realspace.

Anyway, I did manage to collect a couple of sorcerers and even a Navigator. Well, it kinda made sense to use a Navigator to guide this beast, and the captured ships would each have a Navigator. One of them would eventually crack and do the bidding of his new masters.

I began organizing an interrogation center, with security protocols in place. Pain wouldn't be really useful, but techpriests and drugs would, as well as memory reading devices and Silent Sisters to keep things fair.

And then, the interrogations began, recorded on pict-cams and send to the command center and the Lamenter barracks. The new Lamenters should know what to expect in their career, and fucking use their melta backpack before they lay limbless and dissected on a torture table.

Brother Semnai arrived escorted by a Sanguinary Priest and huffed at the display. "This will hurt morale, and give the recruits bad dreams."

I snorted and waved a hand at the big holoscreen. "No Astartes has ever died of old age, Brother. The lucky ones will get a bolter round in their face, or maybe a claw. As for the unlucky ones, this is very mild. The worst would happen to those Lamenters who are stupid enough fall the Chaos. Because then, I will be the one making them suffer. Not merely having the memories torn away by a Mechanicus brain probe. A millennium of real suffering and then True Death, obliterating their souls completely." I continued in a pleasant voice, as if we were talking about wines.

The Sanguinary Priest shuddered and walked off in a hurry, while his eyes turned black. He could run, but I knew all of them now. I had every single one memorized, just in case I needed to extract them, or hunt them down.

Semnai was made of sterner stuff, or he has seen too much in the Deathwatch. Inquisitors could be inventive and brutal too, I suppose. The man just sighed and sat down to watch.

"We'll need to salvage that Ark Mechanicus. It will make good training for the recruits. We'll incinerate and melt the rest of the metal to buy new ships and weapons." I continued while highlighting a nearly intact Mechanicus cruiser that was only lacking engines.

"Expected opposition, Chapter Master?" Chyron perked up at the idea of killing xenos.

"There are 68 thousand hostiles on board. Half of them genestealers. There's even a Broodlord, on deck 15." I explained in an amused voice.

The dreadnought grumbled something like insanity and impossible. Then spoke more clearly. "And who will go?"

"Those 5000 Aspirants, the techmarines, and all the Sanguinary Priests in the first wave, under your command. Bolt pistols and melee weapons only. The Blank recruits and Semnai will teleport on deck 15 to engage the Broodlord and its retinue using only melee weapons." I demanded, giving the easy job to Chyron.

So many people, will only need to fire 10 shots each, and not miss.

Semnai grunted at his task, hand patting the bolt pistol on his hip. "We cannot take our weapons?"

"You can take whatever weapons you want. Those who use anything else than what I ordered get disqualified. Now this, this will become our Lamenters training schedule. What other chapter can train in boarding operations, with live enemies, in their home system? Just imagine how big that Space Hulk is! We can train a million Aspirants with ease." I exclaimed in a joyous voice.

"As you say, Chapter Master. Here we can train in safety. But you won't always be there to watch over us." Chyron proclaimed in a wise voice, and walked away to prepare the operation.

Brother Semnai had a much smaller task, and fewer troops to command. In ten minutes my Blank sons were ready, half wearing Terminator armor, the other Devastator models.

Once they confirmed readiness, I just moved them on board the Ark Mechanicus cruiser on deck 15, and then started sending over small groups of techmarines and Sanguinary Priests, as soon as they held a palm out for transport.

Initially it went well for both groups, but as soon as I started to move Aspirants over, it became hectic. Men were panicking, genestealers were jumping about from pipes and behind corners, their claws able to slice through metal with ease.

Pistols served little purpose if you were not able to see and target your enemy.

I allowed most injuries, except losing limb and life, extracting the 'dead' ones and sending them again on deck 1. The injured men found themselves in the Apothecary for emergency medical care, and then sent once more to deck 1, to start the mission again.

It was kinda fun, playing dungeon master.

Once in a while, a group of Orks Boyz would spawn at their backs, forcing the Aspirants to advance more carefully.

New bolter crates and bottles of water and nutrigruel would await at every new deck, as a reward for reaching a new level. It was kinda fun.

Sadly, the boss raid wiped, as a Broodlord was a bio-titan and not easily defeated by noob players.

They had to start all over, passing through corridors infested with Orks and Tyranids to reach the boss room again and again.

About six hours later, the men seemed exhausted, and they still didn't manage to complete the mission.

Don't worry guys! We will start again, tomorrow.

I had enough Orks and Tyranids in my tesseract to train an Astartes Legion of old. And...that's what I did try to obtain

By the end of the decade, Forge Retribution had finally completed the long shaft towards the planet mantle and installed the Reality Cage, which did in fact prevent Warp-engines from working next to it, and also gave hundreds of techpriests and acolytes terminal seizures. Nobody was certain why that happened, but many humans did have latent psyker genes, including the Cult Mechanicus members.

However, it wasn't all bad. Those psyker techpriests were also the most likely to fall to Chaos, like the Dark Mechanicum had.

As for FTL communication, we had the Forge's astropaths secluded on a distant moon, near the edge of the system, and they weren't blown up by the island of reality. They just couldn't see the planet or commnicate directly, instead having to use Manifold transmissions via encrypted gravity waves, or even laser or vox communiques for pict or voice messages.

It wasn't perfect, but it worked well enough that I gave the go ahead to install such devices on every large world in the Lancefire Dynasty. From Natale to Radium, then Illevar and Liberation, then lastly Salvation.

We should work out the kinks and potential problems before using the Reality Cage on the Cardinal World. Well, it was more of an agri-world and Fortress World now, the first Hive City being slowly dug downwards instead of raised.

The Hive City would be much less exposed to air and orbital attacks that way, plus the earth itself will provide structural resistance, instead of relying on expensive materials and complex technologies to keep those spires up.

I had a much better use for adamantium than holding up a thousand skyscrapers dozens of kilometers tall.

For example, building a thousand starships.

Imports of immigrants continued at increased rate, both criminals and indentured serfs from the nearest Hive Worlds.

And when Amberley finally arrived, she did not come alone. Beside the Catachans and the Drop-cruisers, she had brought her daughter Cyrene, and another Inquisitor of her Order called Ashuria_Indris.

Cyrene had the psyker gift, which wasn't actually good, but I kinda expected that. All of my kids with Rose have been psykers after all. Must be my damned luck.

And Ashuria...well she wanted something from me, as expected. Turns out it wasn't a wonderful romance or gifted children, but instead Ashuria wanted xeno technology and weapons she could use.

Well, I did have plenty of that, as it happens. Inquisitors did have a seventh sense for smelling a rich bounty and that sense led her right towards me.

But the woman should be used in other ways too, not just as a weapon against the terror.

Although Ashuria had a plain face, with brunette hair reaching her shoulders and brown eyes watching me calm and restrained, I wasn't easily convinced.

Especially not when Ashuria glanced at Amberley as she played with the Null bone staff, something like envy and greed flashing in those eyes before resuming a homely demeanor.

"Xenos technology, huh? I suppose I can help, dear Ashuria. Are you a psyker?" I asked to make sure. Not all Inquisitors were, but those with psyker powers were the most likely to survive.

"A very minor talent, Lord Lancefire. Lambda-level." the brunette woman complained in a soft voice.

I nodded thoughtfully and considered a few options. I could help her, quite a lot. Perhaps even make her a Beta-level psyker with the Shadowlight artifact from Prelia.

"And you, Amberley? How much power do you have with the relic staff in your hand?" I asked the other Inquisitor.

Amberley grimaced and struggled to lift a few tarot cards. "About Lambda-level as well. Your Rose is much stronger, even with this staff."

"You'll get stronger, my love. As for Lady Indris, we will need to work very hard together. Perhaps a dozen children, before we obtain one child bridging the Emperor's gift and my own. Only after that feat, would an artifact like Amberley's work for you." I proposed with a shameless smile, and sipped some expensive Dammassine.

Good stuff, and also very expensive to import. A barrel of it was as expensive as a Fury starfighter.

The new Inquisitor lady measured me with suspicious eyes, before turning to her colleague. "Are you okay with this, Inquisitor Vail?"

Amberley just shrugged and began taking off her leather suit in response. "Just sit back and observe, esteemed colleague. I kinda missed my lover, and he's grown even taller. Should be a lot of fun, my Pef darling."

A couple of hours later, Ashuria had emptied my bottle of Dammassine and her face seemed rather red and hot. I waved her closer, and stole a gentle kiss. She tasted like almonds, which was very sexy.

Much later, I had both women resting beside me, while I caressed their sweaty skin.

"I could get used to this, even if it would delay my task." Ashuria murmured and kissed my shoulder.

"Then we shall do our best, for a month or so. Afterwards, I have to visit Forge Retribution and check the progress of the anti-Ork virus."

Both Ordo Xenos Inquisitors raised themselves and started interrogating me in various ways, until I spilled the beans.

"I'm quite certain experimenting with xenos weapons is forbidden and considered heresy." Amberley muttered while playing with my progenoid glands.

I shrugged and drew Ashuria into a long kiss. "Out here in the Fringe, I speak for the Emperor. Everything I say or do is divinely inspired. To disobey me is heresy." I explained in a patient voice, while playing with Ashuria's body as a counter-point.

"One more time, Pef?" she pleaded in my ear in a throaty voice.

I smiled inward. Angelic genes were quite useful today.

By the third week, I decided to test the Ancient device on Amberley, and see what it could do. Should I have been surprised, to see her psyker powers jump from Gamma to Alpha-level in ten minutes of exposure?

Well, I wasn't. The device was working exactly as promised. Amberley now had her own powers back at Gamma-level even with the Null-bone staff, and the Inquisitor was very grateful for my gift.

"This is amazing, lover! Oh, you're getting so fucked this week, til you won't be able to walk!" the blonde woman claimed in a determined voice, making Ludvaius chuckle to himself.

I signaled 'Silence!' with two fingers before grabbing the horny woman and making her look in my eyes. "This one time, for fun. You're pregnant already and our friend Ashuria is not. Plus I have many other concubines."

Amberley pouted and jumped on the bed, her bountiful body enticing me to just keep her in bed for a few decades. "I'll be back in two years anyway. And perhaps I may find you a nice gift in return."

Sadly, my duty demanded more than just pleasure.

I still had a hundred Catachans, a hundred nobles, a hundred Valhallans and a thousand Blank women to impregnate, and then a thousand Ogryn females waiting for me at Forge Retribution.

Yes, I did not forget about that project, although I might spread that difficult duty to some of my sons as well. Even their prettiest exemplars, and not yet fully mature, and they were taller than me and twice as muscular. And not that pretty, as you can imagine.

Perhaps do it from behind and lights turned off? And then close my eyes and think of Terra.

And on Terra, things were going quite bad from what I could glean. Of course, most reports were Redacted, or expunged or mere propaganda but a Cardinal dying couldn't be hidden. Nor could the Master of Astra Telepathica, despite claims of a long illness.

Their place in the Senatoris Imperialis had been taken by the Lord Commanders of the Astra Militarum and the Imperial Navy, which pointed to a more militaristic conduct for the Imperium in the next decades.

Primarch Khan was merrily butchering his way somewhere in the Segmentum Tempestus, reinforcing Forges and moving dozens of Astartes Chapters over Hive Worlds instead of their preferred Feral Worlds, which had nearly no value.

In the east, Primarch Guilliman was still gathering troops and ships for the Defendarius Crusade, which simply meant more and more Sentinel Worlds being set up, and his characteristically brutal cleansing of corrupt officials.

If the Imperium had three more Primarchs they might make it through the future crisis, but they did not.

It seemed I had to 'accidentally' wake up Lion El'Johnson, the Primarch of the Dark Angels.

And also, chat up my insane Necron friend, and obtain extra technology based on the Tau database.

The next week however, I did depart for Retribution with Ashuria and her retinue on board the Canticle. She even had a Genetor Magos willing to follow her, which would be quite a boon for the Fungal Research Division, those making the glass-virus against the Orks.

My battlecruiser finally had warp-less engines now, plus megatonnes of extra armor and a Nova Cannon, and so did all the battlebarges and battlecruisers under my command. The Lamenter Starfort was being plated over with even more armor and Blackstone, and configured to serve as a mobile base for future operations.

However, the battleships will still take decades to be ready for combat, even those sent for repair at Forge Triplex Phall.

They were just too big and complex machines, and some of the upgrades I demanded wouldn't be easy to install anyway

I had brought 20 of my Blank sons with me on this trip, each with their own harem and retinue of bodyguards and tech-priests, and a couple of Blank Lamenters to begin trials for the Leviathan Dreadknights.

Yes, exactly those obtained from Trazyn, but made much simpler to construct, even by a small Forge World. The Leviathans were still as expensive as a Baneblade heavy tank, but more powerful and much more agile.

The choke in production was manufacturing the complex atomantic reactors and shields, as those were the key attribute, not the size or the weapons.

One such Leviathan could be made every two years, even with all our efforts.

They also needed the Black Carapace bionic implants to be wielded at full performance, which kinda sucked. I didn't have that organ, nor did my Silent Sisters.

Of course, a weaker Dreadknight variant had been made, using the mind impulse unit implant instead, and a simpler plasma reactor. Those could be made two per year as well, and thus we had ten of them ready for trials, piloted by Blank women assigned as Auxilia Force to the Lamenters.

There was nothing the Codex Astartes preventing me from recruiting and arming women to fight beside the Battle-Brothers, and so I used that. Small numbers for now, but in time I would have a powerful army, even larger than the limit imposed for most Astartes Chapters. And that without resorting to stupid tricks like sending 1000 men on a constant Crusade and then implanting 1000 more, like the Black Templars did.

Ashuria seemed a bit bothered by the Reality Cage, but there wasn't much I could do.

"Try not to use psyker powers here. There's a Planetary Gellar Field covering the surface." I explained while watching over the trials with interest.

My Blank sons were able to run and do flips with their Leviathans, while the poor Sisters had to lumber slowly and fire the plasma gatling guns in support. Not that great, but these women weren't princeps, with specially selected genes for piloting mechs.

On the nearby field, the Knight squad were drilling in melee formations, using huge Power Swords against servitors and dummy targets.

I took pity on them and released a few thousand Orks to make things more fun.

As expected, their Waagh field didn't work, and the Orks had to contend with muscles and melee weapons against Knights. Too easy, but this was merely practice after all.

I did the same for the Leviathans, and just watched the mechs stomp their targets with impunity.

"Can we get some Tyranids, dad?" my son Valis asked bravely.

"They want some Tyranids to test their mettle. What do you say, my dear Inquisitor?" I asked Ashuria with a raised eyebrow.

"I want to see that! Give them something big, like that Broodlord from the captured Ark Mechanicus." the brunette woman demanded with a grin.

All right then. A Tyranid army it is.

I guess I shouldn't have sent a million Tyranids, but I did make quite a show, and tested the machines to the limit and beyond. Once again, the Tyranid Silence didn't quite work, nor did their command synapse link, so I compensated that with larger numbers.

In the end, the Knights had to march over and help out, while the local techmarines moved in with remote controlled Guardian turrets to even the numbers somewhat.

Still, it took a whole day to eliminate this small Tyranid army, despite 50 Knight-class mecha and a thousand turrets firing constantly.

As soon as combat was over, the Retribution techpriests rushed to patch up the damaged walkers and also retrieve the combat logs, and police the battlefield for precious gene samples from a couple Tyranid Hives.

Meanwhile, I was testing myself with the Ogryns, who didn't seem too satisfied with my pretty boy body and performance. My sons did even worse though, because they were still normal men, if rather athletic men from all the training.

Luckily this duty took only two weeks, and then I could return to my regular concubines, and especially my wife Decima, who was feeling rather horny and eager for more kids.

Or possibly simply needed a vacation from her boring job of administering a stellar kingdom, setting up patrol routes and supply points and sending equipment and immigrants where needed.

I would have been overwhelmed doing all that for a decade too.

Sometime later, Felicia sneaked into my room and dove for her prize, while Decima held my head in her lap and massaged my scalp.

"We've grown so big and powerful, husband. We have a Knight House and so many planets and ships. I fear the Imperium will soon come asking for everything, like they always do. Install their Administrators and Bishops everywhere, and suck us dry." Decima whispered in a soft voice.

Felicia glanced at my eyes a bit curious, then continued her task, sucking me dry as well.

I nodded inward, as Decima was quite correct in her predictions. We were not far enough, to escape the reach of the Imperium completely. Quite evident by my three Inquisitor lovers and the third fleet carrier being finished upgrading.

Rose would be returning soon, as the Tau threat was being contained and their expansion halted. Not their technological advances though, due to constant attacks by Orks, Chaos and Necron, plus a couple of small Tyranid fleets passing through Tau space while heading for Sarlok.

The Tau were forced to rely more and more on their human allies from the colonies, which also gave the Inquisition an infiltration path to obtain even more advanced Tau technology.

And if some of these human researchers managed to 'discover' Imperial STC patterns for starfighters, or slow Leviathans walkers or clunky plasma and melta guns...well then. They would be promoted, while the Tau researchers began repairing and upgrading these poor weapons to something of Tau quality.

As for Decima's predictions...they came true in less than a month, just as I was preparing to depart from Retribution.

An Ultramarines Strike Cruiser arrived, bearing the commander of the Guilliman's Vitrix Guard, named Cato_Sicarius. At his side there was an Inquisitor Lady, but one I did not know, named Velayne_Ramaeus.

"Chapter Master Lancefire, it has come to the Primarch's attention that your Chapter is in possession of a large fleet, including 5 Battlebarges, 25 cruisers and 30 destroyers. You are hereby requested and required to provide your ships to the Balur Crusade, with the aim of cleansing xenos and heretics all along the Eastern Fringe. Especially those Drop-cruisers, and any armored regiments you have available in your Auxilia." the Ultramarine Captain demanded, and held out a long parchment signed by Roboute himself.

I pretended to think about it while I read the document and had it memorized.

Dotting every line, and did not mention the Rogue Trader ships, which were not subject to his authority. Clever and pretty much irrefutable, more so with the strange Inquisitor to his side.

My armored forces were already famous from the Badab War, and the Drop-cruisers made a big impact in the Moloch Crusade.

Nothing about the Silent Sisters...which was good and bad. Possibly still nominally proscribed in the Imperium, for now.

"It is very compelling, I admit. But if I'm not in command of this Crusade, I'm not interested. The Imperium can afford to waste thousands of ships and regiments with incompetent commanders, but not me." I answered after a tense minute.

A bit confused, Cato Sicarius glanced at the Inquisitor for support. The woman lowered her cowl, to reveal a scarred face with bionic eyes. Inquisitor Ramaeus also had a bionic hand, so she must have been through a lot, but she survived.

"It is acceptable, Lord Lancefire. I shall observe you during the Crusade, and quell the fears of some of my colleagues. See, they worry you're corrupting their female Inquisitors and turning them into your personal sluts." the strange woman spoke in an amused voice, bionic eyes glancing at the pregnant Ashuria at my side, with a knowing look.

I just smiled widely in response. "Preposterous! If anything, I should be praised for propagating the human race among the stars. Have those names written down for me, I'll make sure to castigate these insolent Inquisitors of yours."

I think Cato Sicarius blinked in surprise, but perhaps it was just a gust of wind.

"Is that so? How many Inquisitors did you...castigate until now?" the woman asked with a faint smile.

"Eh, numbers! I forget the exact decimal. Obviously not enough, if they dare cast such allegations at my distinguished person." I replied dismissively, then turned to kiss Ashuria for a long minute.

With a flushed face and heavy breath, Ashuria walked away at a fast pace. She did have another project in mind, testing the glass-virus on a couple of Ork worlds nearby.

"Well then, I shall find accommodation on your ship as well. This certainly looks like a promising start for a Crusade." Captain Sicarius muttered a bit awkawardly and walked off, leaving me alone with the new Inquisitor.

I offered her my elbow and started walking towards the bridge. "See? Nothing but false allegations, my dear. Do let me know if you have a candidate in mind, to become a personal slut. Perhaps someone from a different faction, I hear rival Inquisitors murder each other every day."

The woman patted my arm and covered her face with the cowl once more. "You're a very interesting young man, Pef Lancefire. And you even have a tesseract of your own, right?" the Inquisitor asked in a soft voice.

I tried not to flinch, sensing my own tesseract counter hers and blocking its effect. With so many Necrons awakening, and constant attacks by Astartes Chapters on Necron Worlds, it was inevitable someone else would find one.

But Velayne wouldn't have the real operation manual, like I had. Nothing to worry about yet. Plus, she was still a woman, and flesh was weak

The Crusade was scheduled to depart from Forge World Anuaris, sadly not one in my close contact list.

But it was never too late to make new friends.

Just like this good Inquisitor Ramaeus and her silver cube with Necron sigils. It wasn't a solar system range tesseract like my own, and more like the one I gave to Sly Marbo, but still encrypted and holding a million Necrons in stasis inside.

We got a bit closer during the trip, but not really close. The woman was damaged and skewed by her task, something to do with an Eldar Cabal and their Dark Pattern.

I wasn't all that worried. Generally the Eldar were simply trying to help, in strange and unwelcome ways. Of course, there were many Cabals, and one of them aimed to exterminate all life in the galaxy to deny Chaos victory by ending the source of nightmares and dreams. Pretty much what the Men of Iron had tried as well, and nearly succeeded.

Other Cabals were trying to bring forth new gods, or kill some gods or both. Other Cabals were searching for Divine Vessels to host the Emperor's soul or even summoning the Omnissiah, like the Omnissiads. And I kinda suspected some of my 'friends' of adhering to this cabal, specially the Fabricators of Antax and Triplex Phall.

And the Fabricator of Anuaris wasn't too friendly, which was both good and bad.

Good, because friendly techpriests were likely to dissect you to find out what made you tick. And bad because I wasn't given all the weapons and modifications to the weapons I wanted.

I had hoped to obtain more Tarantula drop-pods and Sentinels, but I only got a few thousands, which wasn't nearly enough.

Same for Hydra Flak Tanks or enough torpedoes to massacre a Hive Fleet if we encountered one.

But for this reluctance to help, I took revenge and emptied his stores of more classic Chimeras and Baneblades, had one Ork Terror ship transformed into a Marauder-bomber carrier, with 5000 bombers, and demanded that all Astartes Battlebarges from the dozen Chapters selected for the Crusade be retro-fitted with Nova Cannons and warp-less engines.

This took even a large Forge World like Anuaris an entire year, so I could visit Forge World Amontep_II nearby and requisition the lascannon turrets I wanted, plus more torpedoes and Sentinels.

The Fabricator of Amontep even provided 20 Knights from House Terryn of Voltoris, and thus he was rewarded with an Ork Terror ship filled with blackstone and adamantium, plus a hundred valuable STC templates.

When the year had passed, Forge Konor arrived with a million of Skitarii on a XL Mechanicus carrier and three Ark Mechanicus cruisers, without even asking for their help. Sure I had helped them in the past, and they owed their Forge World status to me, but it was rare to see the Mechanicus act like this. Perhaps they could learn, or perhaps they were simply bribing me for extra materials and STC templates. Most likely both of that, but I didn't mind.

Make yourself useful, and you will be rewarded. It was a simple trade, although the Inquisitor was rather surprised and suspicious why Forge Konor would act like this now, and not during other Crusades.

"I know for certain you did not call Forge Konor to aid you, as I was right beside you for this entire year." The woman muttered a bit displeased, while her bodyguard Watch Captain Mathias nodded in agreement. They did live in my rooms, which made me lose precious work on the STCs, but I compensated by producing more babies.

"Quite correct, my dear. I'll have to find something to reward Forge Konor with during this Crusade. A blackstone Mining World perhaps, or some ancient STC pattern lying around in my inventory." I mused to myself, opening the galactic map for an easy target.

Some Necron base without a C'tan defending it, which would make things rather complicated.

I rarely used the cogitator in my apartment, mainly for supply and human resource work, arranging the troops and equipment plus their provisions and munitions.

Being in charge of a big Crusade was hard work too, not that I even tried doing everything by myself.

I had a command staff and I wasn't afraid to use it. Plus a couple of Knight pilots from House Terryn were women, which made integrating them under me much easier. By the time the year had passed, the pilots were even back for light duty, three children born and even a Blank boy among them. By our agreement, I would keep the boy for my Chapter, while they will have two new pilots and even new Knights for them, in a decade or two.

The former Imperial world of Icnarus was out, because they did have a C'tan and quite a strong one. Nothing urgent anyway.

I needed to head towards Jericho Reach now, and save Hive World Avalos, before Hive_Fleet_Dagon reached it.

Decision made, the troop transports housing 100 Astra Militarum regiments departed under escort from 200 frigates and destroyers, while a recon force of 100 Navy corvettes with Warp-engines sped ahead, to scout the terrain and map out the opposition.

The capital ships formed up in five task forces commanded by my Blank daughters on board Lamenter battlebarges, each grouped around a fleet carrier.

We would travel on parallel vectors spread a light-year apart, such that we didn't miss any enemies on the way.

Of course, Finona was quite lucky and found a Space Hulk drifting about not even a week into the Crusade, which consumed all her torpedoes to break up into manageable bits. Luckily there were a Company of Ultramarines and Novamarines and other Space Marines in her task force, to pacify and cleanse the derelicts and I also sent the Forge Konor troops there to help.

Surely, their Forge World could use gigatonnes of free metal, after the Hulk was conquered and towed away bit by bit to be melted and reforged.

Much better to sacrifice Skitarii and servitors for this long and perilous task, than poor guardsmen with lasguns and bayonets.

By the time we managed to reach Avalos, another task force lead by my daughter Teresa had deviated to help with an Ork Waagh, aided by the Knights of House Terryn.

A dozen regiments and 40 destroyers were sent there to help reconquer a dozen planets for the Imperium, and I detached two Drop-cruisers as well. They probably contained ten times as much firepower as the poorly armed guardsmen regiments, and I even had 2 Leviathans and 20 techmarines ready to assist. Doesn't sound as much, until they each begin to remote-control 100 Guardian turrets and unleash greater firepower than two entire Astartes Chapters, while the Leviathan Dreadknights are ready and able to beat up Ork Bosses with their own limbs.

We found the Hive World in turmoil, genestealer cults revolting while the Hive Fleet was already blocking Warp-travel with their Shadow in the Warp, even from light years away. Good thing we didn't use the Warp then, right?

It took me a minute to analyze the star system and formulate a plan, then I began sending orders to my fleets, grouping the heavier ships in the middle and the faster cruisers for harassment and flank attacks.

And then out lander began transporting troops to quell the rebellions, and I even managed to locate an Inquisitor Lady trying to shoot a Tyranid Broodlord with her plasma pistol.

Most of her retinue was already dead, except two Deathwatch marines with Storm Shields and Power Weapons, desperately trying to defend the brave Inquisitor from the xenos bio-titan. It worked about as well as you can imagine, as I did try that scenario with 200 Astartes with melee weapons, and didn't go well for 23 test runs.

However, everything changed when a couple of Silent Sisters wearing Leviathan Dreadknights materialized in front and back of the Broodlord. Chop, shoot, slash, shoot.

It was over in ten seconds, and then they continued onwards, butchering genestealers and cultists while a Lamenter techmarine in a heavily armored Armed Sentinel arrived with his retinue of Guardians to secure the perimeter.

"Are you alright, Brothers?" the new techmarine asked on the Vox caster.

"The Emperor protects! We were about to discharge our last duty." a Veteran Deathwatch answered in relief, and checked on his boss. "Lady Kalistradi, are you injured anywhere? These filthy beasts are poisonous."

The woman crashed to her knees and drew a deep breath. "I saw my death...but I was saved. The Lamenters?"

"Yes, Inquisitor. We only have three Battle-Brothers, including the Master...although he's not a real...well. He does a great job, and he sent me and the Sisters here. Don't worry you're safe now." the man declared in a proud voice, while his Guardians walking turrets fired volley after volley of lascannons and torrents of multilasers with incredible accuracy.

"... Then, I shall have to offer my thanks to your Chapter Master, Lamenter. So those black voids of nightmare were Silent Sisters?" the woman asked, holstering her useless pistol and glancing after the Leviathans with a shudder.

I smiled inward as I focused my attention back of the fleet deployment. Generals Reila and Regina had the ground warfare part covered, while Colonel Jenit was heading down with 3 Auxilia armor regiments and 60 more techmarines, to set up defenses for the main Hive City of Lordsholm.

Of course my Chapter's armor regiments were nothing like the normal Astra Militarum units, with 20 times more warmachines, and lots of drones and ground-attack craft in support.

A couple of different Chapters Astartes Companies were already on the surface and knee-deep in blood, brutally quelling the rebellions while my techpriests and servitors were also preparing to deploy and use the captured rebels and cultists for Omnissiah's work, converting them into more servitors and digging trenches, setting minefields or simply being marched out as forward artillery observers.

We still had a month til the main bulk of the Hive Fleet arrived, quite enough time to drag a hundred asteroids for a minimal array of orbital forts, and hit-and-run attacks by Nova Cannon cruisers.

In the grim future of the 41st Millennium there is only war, and I learned to love it

Having so many resources at my disposal meant I could enact strategies that might be considered wasteful by the Imperium, such as layered void minefields containing plasma and Nova warheads, asteroids with torpedo tubes and missile launchers placed far ahead to soften the attackers, and a couple of old defense lasers repaired and raised into orbit, and then set in geostationary orbit above the planet's poles.

On the ground, terrace walls of ferrocrete were being hastily poured, with plasma generators inside, to provide continuous and autonomous power to lascannons Tarantula turrets, and recharge slots for the infantry's lasgun powerpacks.

Poles with horizontally spinning flails dotted the dead ground around the Hive City, and drum flails above the gates, would provide some measure of protection against melee attackers, while underground the hive was being cleaned up and reinforced with extra walls of ferrocrete and plates of blackstone around important generators and conduits.

A couple of Drop-cruisers were making their way towards Avalos on sub-light engines, but they will still need a month to arrive, even going at a quarter of the light speed.

Perhaps using light cruisers wasn't so inspired after all, especially not against Tyranids. Might need to 'find' a heavy cruiser pattern for drop-pods, one with warp-less engines.

They were not bad, and worked great against Orks or other xenos or traitors, but when the space around a star system was blockaded by the Shadow in the Warp, a slower heavy cruiser would still reach the deployment zone faster. And they could carry 10 times as many drop-pods without having to remove the capital class weapon batteries.

On a side note, Avira Kalistradi was very grateful for being saved, and it only took a couple of days of light romance to express her gratitude in my bed. The other Inquisitor Lady was perhaps not too pleased, seeing her predictions coming true in front of her bionic eyes. Not that I would turn a friendly Inquisitor into a slut, that's insulting! Who would raise the children then?

Perhaps a really crazy Inquisitor, but with a great body? It would be like saving her life, and giving her a new purpose, in my opinion.

We shall see, once Trazyn provided me an enslavement method like he was testing right now on Astartes and many other of his slaves and subjects.

It would have to be very subtle and undetectable, as the Inquisition or the Librarians were quite adept at detecting xenos influence.

"Why is she here, Pef? Surely you can tell Lady Velayne_Ramaeus to wait outside while we enjoy a few hours together?" Avira muttered in my neck, and glared at her fellow Inquisitor for invading her privacy.

I wasn't that bothered, having gotten used with my bodyguards or wives keeping watch over me, even in bed.

"Doesn't bother me one bit, my dear. My body is pretty much perfect, angel genes and all." I answered in a cheerful tone, and gestured at my nearly Catachan-shaped body. Getting close to 2 meters tall, strong muscles, youthful appearance, angelic face, what was not to like?

To the side, Canis lifted his eyes to measure me, and then glanced at his own van-sized body of pure raw strength and glossy fur. He was quite amazing as well, too bad I didn't have a Fenrisian Wolf female for him.

"Also immune to Warp... I want kids like that too." my new Inquisitor lover murmured while pawing all over me, then deciding to climb for another ride.

I agreed, naturally. Her kids would be great as she had perfect genes. Someone on Terra must have been selecting the prettiest women to become Inquisitors, for some strange reason. And dear Avira was on top of the list even so, long black hair curling gently over her shoulders, and G-sized breasts meant to feed a dozen children.

"Your wish is my command, Lady Inquisitor. At least a dozen children, I suppose?" I quipped while groping those great prizes.

"Oh! At least that...yes." the black-haired beauty whispered in a slight daze.

Much later, I was having dinner and pushing Canis away from my food when Lady Velayne sat beside me and watched me in silence.

"I think the mystery is solved, Lord Lancefire. I will absolve you of the silly suspicion of corrupting Inquisitors. However I have one condition!" the woman demanded raising her tone a little.

I turned to measure the bionic Inquisitor in surprise. Don't tell me...?

"... Really?" I asked quite confused.

"... Not like that, damn idiot! But, my retinue could use a couple of Blanks, to cover my activities from Farseers and other psykers in that Cabal. Perhaps a Null Rod for myself, if you have it." Velayne asked in a more pleading voice.

Well, Blanks were quite rare indeed. Especially after a host of psyker groups started hunting them down, from Navigators to Inquisitors and a dozen influential groups in-between, including Chaos and genestealer cults, Eldars and even Necrons who made anti-psyker weapons from Blanks.

I pretended to think about it, before sipping my wine to wash off my meal. "It might be possible, Lady Velayne. But the same rules apply. You want Blanks, you give birth to them. It's the only way I will allow it, and make sure you'll take care of my children."

The woman scowled in disgust, as if having sex with me would be a chore. "That's not...I'm way over the biological limit anyway. I was over the limit a thousand years ago!" she explained in a low growl.

Oh, that explained why she was trusted to check on me, being this old and shrivelled inside.

So, I just nodded wisely and caressed her scared face. "Then you need a miracle, my dear. Luckily, you came to the right person. We shall see to it, after the Tyranids are defeated."

Ludvaius chuckled and held his thumb up, while Canis grumbled something like, 'Old bitch!'

An hour later, the first bio-ships of the Tyranids began entering the system, and thus my tesseract's range and I kinda forgot about this promise.

Too busy coordinating the fleet and setting up ambushes and surprise detonations.

As always, blowing up the Tyranids in the void was much better than letting them reach a planet, but sadly my fleet was much too small to intercept 10 million bioships.

Over the week, non-stop raids and harassment have forced the Tyranids to disperse somewhat, as to avoid being splashed by Nova shells and lose thousands of destroyer-sized organisms with every detonation.

So I began to cheat, and fire Nova shells at the larger organisms, while small bioships were stolen and then released back inside the explosion's radius.

This worked great, and the Tyranids were powerless to adapt. Only a million bio-ships from Hive Fleet Dagon reached the orbital forts, and less than a tenth managed to drop transport spores on the planet.

It was still a trillion-sized mass of teeth and claws and bio-plasma guns, and many other biological and psyker organisms, but Avalos was a dead world, polluted and radiated by millennia of careless exploitation.

That made orbital bombardment feasible and quite advantageous, striking the desant spores on the ground with lances and plasma cannons, while thousands of torpedoes created a barrage of death and blood mist in orbit.

And since the polar defense lasers did not have to content with atmospheric dispersion, a single shot could core a dozen bio-ships at once, while the battlebarges were constantly teleporting plasma warheads directly inside the Tyranid vessels, instead of Space Marines.

Cato Sicarius wasn't too pleased with my innovative use of teleports, so I told him to land and defend the Hive City's walls. It would come to a melee fight eventually, and the guy was a superb swordsman.

Captain Khan and most of the Blood Angels and Deathwatch Astartes received the same task, supported by Silent Sisters and Lamenter techmarines.

There was even a Company of Dark Angels, all fitted with multi-meltas and Storm Shields, waiting beside the Knights of House Lancefire. It would be the safest place on the battlefield but perhaps the worst too.

And then the horizon grew dark with Tyranid hordes, and artillery shells began landing among the first waves, our drones and ground-attack crafts with servitor brains took off to launch incendiary bombs and missiles over the rolling terrain of horrors,

while the skies filled with bombers and fighters vying for air supremacy with Tyranid flyers.

Our corvettes were ordered into low orbit over the Hive City, providing an extra screen against spores and flyers, as well as precise lascannon fire of lower energy output.

There wasn't much I could do right now, except hope my strategy was solid, and that the wall of firepower will be enough.

There were 30 Baneblades and 60 Doomhammers forming the bulwark against the terror, and 60 Macharius-Omega armed with Plasma cannons, backed up by 5000 Sentinels and 3000 Armed Sentinels, 6000 Guardian turrets and thousands of Chimeras and Hydras and Manticores, all unleashing hell towards the invading xenos.

And they just melted and broke, especially when the Knights added their colossal firepower and the wall turrets entered effective range.

I smiled and focused on winning the orbitals, as the ground troops could take care of themselves.

This was how humanity should fight everywhere, and while the Tyranids were the object of the lesson, the recipients were those Astartes and officers taking part in the fight, and seeing what we could do when we were not sabotaging ourselves.

And when the fighting reached the walls, I handed over a chronoglaive to Lady Velayne and sent her and her Deathwatch guards right beside Cato Sicarius and Captain Khan, and gave the Inquisitor the miracle she needed.

"The Emperor protects, dear Velayne. Pray hard and strike the xenos, and you will see!" I whispered in her mind while Ludvaius and Rafen prayed hard near my Sounding Board.

I will need the Angel to make this work, because healing was not among my abilities.

Did I cheat? Lie and steal? Of course I did. Nothing our dear Emperor wouldn't do.

In a golden glow, the Sanguinor appeared beside Ludvaius and stared at the three of us with dead, stone eyes.

The space twisted, bringing the Shadowlight out and touching his free hand, making the Warp construct increase in power a dozen times. He became more solid, larger and grew armor plates over the golden body, and the dead eyes flickered almost alive.

Almost. Not yet Primarh, but soon. Death will not bar my way.

"Go and help humanity, Angel. And do heal Inquistor Velayne. Can't have the mother of my children be a dried husk with half cyborg organs." I sent towards his mind.

The Angel smiled sadly and poked the Ancient artifact almost curious. Then he teleported away, slashing hundreds of Tyranids on his path and illuminating the Hive City walls with his golden aura.

Wounds began to stop bleeding and even restore themselves, drained Imperial guardsmen and terrified PDF soldiers were invigorated and motivated, and his Force Sword could slash with beams a dozen kilometers long, evaporating half of the enemy force in only a minute.

Among the golden glow covering the entire Hive City, the Silent Sisters were now visible as dark spheres, and a dozen more people in the city were not glowing, instead looking normal, dirty and poor like most Hive dwellers but not glowing. Well, that was an easy way to detect Blanks, so thank you Angel!

Those Blanks vanished in my labyrinth before the superstitious locals could grab them and have them lynched or something.

I guess we could repeat this miracle on the next Hive World, probably Castobel if it was still standing