40 Thousand Reasons

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fucking vampire thirsty for blood!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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