40 Thousand Reasons

The Jokaero were sometimes used by the Ordo Xenos and the Deathwatch to upgrade their own equipment, often to degrees of lethality and miniaturization believed impossible.

Trazyn had done the same, but gathering hundreds of Jokaero in his pens and having them mass-produce exotic devices with technology from a hundred xeno races, plus some human machines like that sleek Warlord Titan, which had possibly been a damaged Psi-Titan one day, and now looked like an anime dream. It was very possibly as transforming Titan as well, going by the thin rails for the head and weaponry.

"That Titan looks familiar." I said pointing at the suspended walker where some thirty Jokaero were busy adding some kind of gravity wings.

"It does, right? I was planning to have you as its pilot...but you're not a real Pariah. No matter, I have found dozens of potential pilots anyway." Trazyn disclosed with a dissatisfied voice.

Damn madman, you meant having me brain-wiped and slaved into the Titan's command throne?

"One day you will need to stop having designs on my person, Lord Trazyn. It would be a pity if your collection would just...explode." I quipped with a level voice, and then went over to the Null Wand workshop, where a couple of orange primates were painting flowers on the Warp-cancelling weapons.

One of them examined me with curious eyes, which locked on my left glove in a second. Not giving you my Thanos glove, silly Jokaero!

I had too much loot stored in those tesseracts, plus a C'tan shard. Way to risky.

"Cilla found your tesseracts, eh? I did find a gigantic garden filled with flowers and butterflies in one of my tesseracts once. And all the Orks inside painted with flower tattoos as well." Trazyn admitted with a grumble.

Pretty much what I expected. The Jokaero were whimsical, and drawn to construct things based on aesthetic more than efficiency. If a tank became ten times faster a result of the upgrade, it was incidental to the artist's desire to make it prettier.

"I don't see the Halo Devices here." I answered instead, eager to get my hands on an uncorrupted one. I had one recovered from Footfall, but going by how distorted the original user was, I was better off keeping the things locked tight.

"... I only have one left, Lord Lancefire. Currently undergoing calibration on Tyranids, like you have advised me. The other two were lost in...creative accidents." the Necron complained in a sad tone.

"So you need a new one then? It might be expensive." I offered and took out the former xenos with the blob of wires and metal teeth devouring half of the poor creature already.

Trazyn waved his staff, confining the experiment into a green forcefield and then had it vanish someplace.

"Very valuable, indeed. You had been exploring the Expanse too, after all. Fought off Chaos Reavers, billions of Orks, Space Hulks and found yourself more ships and weapons, correct?" he asked in a knowing voice.

"This one, it will cost you a Primarch, Lord Trazyn. Not yours, mine. I want Sanguinius revived, and back in command of the Blood Angels." I demanded in a stern voice, staring right into his green necrotic eyes.

Trazyn tilted his head, considering my words. "The body would be easy enough to repair. But Primarchs are slightly different from other humans. Their souls..."

"I know. I'll deal with that part." I intervened curtly.

"So, it is only a loaned artifact then. A test, to see if other dead people can be restored to life...you keep surprising me, Lord Lancefire. But I admit I am curious too." the Necron said in a strange voice, and we both appeared beside Fulgrim's stasis cell.

Not a tesseract transport, something different. Anyways, show no fear Pef!

In a flash, I took out my athame dagger and sliced through the stasis field, disarming the frozen Fulgrim and grabbing his left arm.

Then I turned and held out the bleeding hand as proof. "Here, Lord Trazyn. Primarch material for my Halo Device."

"...What was that? I'm quite certain that stasis field is impenetrable..." The Necron grumbled as he grabbed the offered hand.

I just shrugged and played it cool. "It's a big galaxy out there. And some things are more impenetrable than others."

"All right! Let's return to my workshop and trade fairly. Not even Greyfax was this obstinate. Which is why I sent her to you, I heard you collect Inquisitors in your big harem." he admitted in a dejected voice, and we arrived in the familiar room where I almost always found Trazyn work on various schemes and devices.

It took a whole day of using my best Rogue Trader skills to squeeze a deal out of Trazyn, always playing the indifference card.

But I did have a big treasury of relics and rare xenos, including the Hand of Horus, the most powerful Power Claw in the galaxy. It was a historical artifact, and Trazyn had to have it, at any cost.

In the end, I got five Jokaero and the lone Custodes, mainly because Trazyn wanted to get rid of him now. Possibly suspecting the same thing I did, after seeing me get recognition from the stasis-held man with golden eyes.

Enslaver bone mindshackles, to be fused into the skull of the target and subject to empathic directions were great, as were a crate of more Null Wands to protect my precious people.

Then a dozen more Titans including one more Emperor-class and three Warlords, fully upgraded to the best possible tech of the Machine Cult, and an ongoing deal for datamining the Mechanicus memory banks from Hive World Vigilus and producing more STC templates.

As for the Halo Device, it would take a decade at least to be configured for Primarch use, and not mutate him into a gory abomination.

"You have to visit me again, Lord Lancefire. You're a bit scary but I sense no ill-intention from you, which is extremely rare for your kind." Trazyn declared as we shook hands to seal the deal.

"Perhaps one day, my robotic friend. Now return me to Machine Forge, yesterday, a minute before I arrived here." I asked with a slim smile.

"...That's...damn it. So you knew about that. Makes sense now." Trazyn murmured as I found myself beside the new Inquisitor, while my older self was just asking Zarhulash for advice.

The C'tan had seen me appear before I left, which meant I wasn't in any danger.

"Lady Greyfax. You look absolutely ravishing, for an Inquisitor thought dead for centuries!" I proclaimed in a cheerful voice, and patting the woman's power armor pauldron in a friendly gesture. Boob plates were awesome! She also had a hat, which brought me fond memories.

She turned and almost shot me in surprise, before stopping herself and examining me with suspicion. "You must be this Pef Lancefire, who rules these stars. And you teleported beside me, with no Warp signature. Some kind of unholy xenos tech?" Lady Katarinya asked in a cold voice.

"Careful there, my dear. You're the one with Necron mindshackles in your skull. I managed to buy your freedom, but to free your mind we'll need a complicated surgery." I explained with a careless tone, and offered her my elbow.

It always works, even with Inquisitors.

"... I shall need to see auspex scans of my brain first. Not that I don't trust you, Lord Lancefire...but I don't trust anyone." Katarinya muttered as she held on my arm, and we walked towards the Biologis ward elevator.

Of course, we will do scans. The techpriests will need to know what to take out, after all.

"The bionic eye...would you accept a Jokaero to look it over? Make it smaller and less intrusive, perhaps install some extra auspex functions and digital weapons into it?" I proposed as we neared the elevator.

She tilted her head in a cute gesture, considering my offer. "What kind of extra functions?" she asked with a frown.

"Genestealer detection, psyker power levels, Warp corruption, perhaps a few xeno signatures from Dark Eldar to Necron and even Tau. We have bulky sensors being built here already from STC fragments, but the Jokaero can make everything smaller." I explained as the elevator began descending at speed.

The bio-labs were 100 kilometers underground, and we had to shift into a new elevator mid-way as we passed through the kilometer-thick blackstone geoplate separating the construction sections from the research ones.

What? I like keeping things secure and separated, even though we weren't doing virus research here. That I knew of.

Velayne was keeping an eye out for renegade techpriests trying to abuse their freedoms here, but once in a while there would be attempts at radical heretek, like always. People were people, even in 40k.

Maybe more so in 40k, due to the entire culture being so distorted.

"An Omni-sense eye... It sounds useful, Lord Lancefire. Perhaps later, after I get used to all this novelty. I saw another Inquisitor around, and heard about more, visiting here quite often. Not quite what I expected from a Forge World." Lady Greyfax mused in a softer tone.

"I do things differently, my lady. But, I also have absolute power here, legally and otherwise. We're not in the Imperium, and thus I speak with the Emperor's Voice. And I can enforce that, whenever I wish or have to." I whispered as if it was a big secret.

The Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor turned to measure me again, mulling over my words.

"And so it would seem, my lord. So, have you met any of the Primarchs yet?" she asked chaging the subject.

"Primarch Khan, yes. We burned down Commorragh together. It was really fun." I answered as the bio-labs opened in front of us.

The woman blinked and tried to see if I was joking. "Fun?"

"Well, I did lose a corvette...so it wasn't all just blasting away with Exterminatus and plasma batteries. But the Primarch gave me battlecruiser to replace my loss, so it the end it was worth it." I concluded as the Magi Biologis began setting up the operating table and suspended auspex scanners.

"This way, Inquisitor Greyfax. We'll need to remove all metal objects." Fabricator Gemmina asked in a gentle voice, and set up her aides to the task.

"Aren't you the Fabricator Dominus of this Forge?" Katarinya wondered as her power armor was swiftly dismantled.

"And the best Archmagos Biologis in the Fringe, Lady Greyfax. Relax, and sit on the table. I've been dissecting humans for three millennia." the Fabricator explained in a rather unsetlling manner.

"... This doesn't feel me with more confidence, Fabricator. How many have you put back afterwards?" The Inquisitor asked while the Mechanicus sensors started flashing and peeling away her pretty red hair.

Gemmina glanced at me and then stayed silent.

"She's joking, my dear. How do you think they are making Skitarii and other servitors? Doing it in reverse, it's much easier." I said gently and took the woman's hand for comfort.

Soon enough, a holographic scan was projected above the medical table, with the Necron wires perfectly visible, even interfacing with the bionic eye.

"Damn Necron, spying through my eye! Take it out!" the Inquisitor demanded in an angry voice.

Gemmina took that as consent and sprayed her with a paralytic gas, then held a tentacle towards me. "Pass me a Null Wand, Lord Pef. She's a psyker and we don't want Warp interference, do we?"

I took out a wand and handed it over. "Keep it, Lady Gemmina. I have found more."

It was a rather sensible request after all, and I wanted Gemmina kept safe too.

"Yes...I expect you have, like always. You want a full medical check-up, for her future children?" the Fabricator asked in a casual tone, and began peeling off the rest of the thermal sleeve from the sleeping Inquisitor.

I was a bit hesitant, but after seeing that enticing body I gave in. "Sure. Plus vaccines and rejuvenant treatment. And install a Mind Impulse Unit, while the skull is open anyway."

"Of course, my lord. We'll take care of her." the Fabricator declared and pointed at the door.

So, I took out the Nexus cube and simply moved myself next to Ashuria, a hundred kilometers away in another armored bunker.

"Having fun?" I wondered as she observed some worm xenos getting dissected in the lab below.

"Pef! You always find so many nice gifts for me. These Nagi may hold the secret to a new Virus Bomb, but we'll need more of them." the Inquisitor asked while hugging my side.

"Sorry dear. Their homeplanet was struck with Exterminatus. Those twenty test-subject are all that's left from their race." I explained patiently.

There were probably a few more, maybe among the Tau, but in too small numbers to matter. What can I say, I didn't like worms that much.