40 Thousand Reasons

After the meal, kids were sent away for evening lessons with their non-combatant Adepta Sororitas teachers, those that myself or my sons have managed to seduce and bring them over from their Salvation Cardinal World.

Once the Sisters were part of our extended family, their loyalties shifted enough, so I wouldn't have to worry about getting doused in promethium for the slightest mistake.

Just like I hoped with Lady Elixa.

"Say Decima, which Forge Worlds should we trade with next? I'm thinking Gulgorahd and Iridial. We can afford to donate some adamantium and blackstone, in exchange for more Sentinels, and a million of Tarantula turrets." I proposed to my main wife, and ignoring her suspicious look towards Elixa.

Decima sipped some of her too sweet wine while pondering, running estimations on her own implant. "Just a thousand tons of blackstone, and a megatonne of adamantium. Maybe two megatonnes, if the next transport ship arrives on time." she concluded with a sour face.

In truth, we did donate the Mechanicus way too many resources, for too little gains. But good will and future trade options were even more important in my eyes. I wasn't running a corporation, to make profit.

"I see. Perhaps we should explore a little more, and discover more derelict ships. I will be quite busy for a month or two, but Victor can try his luck as well. He can take the Vitrix, I think." I mused to myself.

Our second battleship, the Macharius Vitrix was about ready to travel now, if not ready for a full fleet engagement for a few decades. But Victor could 'find' some Ork ships and tow them to Forge Retribution for re-processing the valuable metal.

Even if he did encounter trouble, he had his own tesseract, so only something truly dangerous could pose problems.

Decima nodded slowly, no doubt already conjecturing something about the proposed expedition.

The Explorer Fleet from Ryza was already scouting ahead in force, noting down inhabited planets and xeno species. Plenty of them too, because the Emperor's Great Crusade didn't reach this far, and many xeno species were left intact, unlike closer to Terra where there were hundreds of xeno species butchered into extinction.

Of course, only a few xenos had space travel, and even fewer had FTL travel. In fact only five such potential enemies were discovered so far, the Demiurg being the most advanced, if not warlike.

The Arachen had too many legs and organic ships, so they were classed into the burn-on-sight notice by the Cult Mechanicus, who saw them as abominations against the Machine God. Plus might give the Tyranids better weapons or propulsion for their bio-ships, which wouldn't be fun at all.

Another race called the Thexian were put on notice for capture and examination, because one of their ships was found containing no less than six other xeno species on board, hinting to some grander alliance, which would certainly be used against the Imperium or humanity in general.

The Tau were also classed as interesting to investigate and capture, with some advanced technologies, especially in weapons, approaching Imperial Navy standards.

The remaining Kroot were marked for destruction, for being cannibals able to evolve from their eaten preys abilities, just like the Tyranids, even after their homeworld of Pech was mysteriously burned into magma, just like their allies the Nicassar.

The Barghesi infested the Grendl Stars region with their beastly forms, and I even had some of them in my inventory, after being transformed by Dark Eldar Homunculi into Pain Engines of phenomenal danger, probably on par with Tyranid Tyrants.

In fact, I might organize a few bouts one day and see who would win in a ring fight. My bet was on the Tyranid, but you never knew where 40k might surprise you. I even heard of a Battle Sister called Praxedes killing a Tyrant with her mace.

"This Vitrix, is a Navy battleship? Perhaps the one lost during the Macharian Crusade?" my dear infocyte asked, after running some fast computations and data comparisons on her implant. See, she would be amazingly valuable!

"Perhaps I should rename it, if the origins are so easily deduced. Vigil for the Vanquished, how does it sound?" I asked Decima, and glanced at Henna as well. She used to be ship crew as well, so her opinion would matter.

Henna smiled kindly and nodded. "It does have the special resonance of a Lancefire vessel. We might soon run out of religious ceremonies, if you keep adding more and more ships to our Trader fleet."

Decima just shrugged unimpressed. "So that's why you want two new Forges in our trade routes. To mask the provenience of those extra lances. One hundred new batteries from each Forge, am I right?" my Rear Admiral inquired in a calm voice, eyes thinned into slits as her own implant ran at full power.

I was right, this was going to be one of those dinners. Time to run away then. No point arguing with my Master of Logistics, she was always right.

"Serena dear, grace my rooms with your noble presence. Lady Elixa, back to work and consider my offer." I demanded as I rose and ran away in a dignified walk. Not even looking back at the explosion.

Ludvaius smirked at me and patted my head, then gave me into the care of Brother Rafen. "Having a smart wife is such a blessing, right Captain?" the Veteran Astartes quipped at my back, and I nearly stumbled.

Damn Astartes! It wasn't that funny being laid low with a few clever words.

Then again, social games were never my forte, as many of my friends and contemporaries have remarked too often.

Luckily, I had Canis still on my side. But my brave wolf was sleeping and pawing at the air, so I let him hunt in peace.

As I came out of the shower, I found my wife Serena already waiting for me in bed, and smiling wryly. "My Lord, you need some relief from all this stress?" the pretty noble woman asked me in a cultured voice, and licked her lips suggestively.

You bet your round perky ass, I sure did!

Unlike concubines, wives were much better at marital arts, that being their job description.

Maybe one day, sweet Alena will also be ready for this job, and take over the Blank side of my operations, just like Serena dealt with nobles and Henna with the children. All of them. Over three thousand kids now, and soon that number will double with all the new Blank concubines mass-producing kids for the greater good.

My 300 Blank sons already in the Astartes training all had at least 300 kids of their own, but much fewer Blanks. At most 20 such blessed children and only Victor would have a chance to match me in time, if he kept working hard with the new generation of Blank women.

The Blank daughters couldn't possibly hope to match a man's ability to produce children, being limited to one per year in the best case, and more reasonably one every three years, as to not abuse their bodies too much.

And because cloning Blanks often produced monsters that had to be cleansed with orbital strikes, we couldn't even use their extra fertile eggs except for Blank Machine Spirits.

Best not to think too deeply about that. No sacrifice is too great and even entire planets were considered expendable. I know, because I've burned quite a few planets myself.

So, much later I woke up to find Elixa entering my room led by the hand by Decima. "Husband, I have reached an agreement with your new wife." she explained in a slightly warmer voice.

Canis woke up and yawned wide enough to devour a wife or maybe two in one gulp. "Woooo?"

"Yes Canis, we're family now." Elixa murmured shyly.

The space wolf nodded wisely and went to pour himself water.

"Any conditions I should care about?" I wondered as Decima sat down in her armchair to watch the new show, while Rafen glanced at the balcony window.

"Not for several decades, Lord Pef. But my services were not actually lent for an unlimited duration, by my employer. Even Primarchs only have so much power in the current Imperium." the Vanus Temple infocyte explained demurely as she undressed her medical gown.

I sighed inward in agreement, and I drew the bedding cover aside.

My new wife examined my muscles with amazed eyes, and gulped for some reason. What? I had demi-god genes now, and it showed.

"Close your eyes and think of Holy Terra." I quipped as Elixa climbed cautiously on top of me.

She snorted but did close her eyes. "Let's hope I didn't make the greatest mistake of my life...oh God!" Sweet Elixa exclaimed as was impaled on the holy spear of Sanguinius.

"Just like that, dear. Think harder!" I commented amused.

We thought long and hard about Terra, both of us, with Decima giving us new ideas to meditate on, every few minutes.

I think Decima was recording this deep meditation for posterity as well, just in case I got too many Sisters of Battle to follow me, and might need to project my life's exploits on a pict screen the size of a mountain.

Poor Sisters were always dreaming of martyring themselves, so why not on a holy spear?