40 Thousand Reasons

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

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

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

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

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

Nobody spoke, so it must be alright.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Just like Naya turned traitor, so could anyone else.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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