40 Thousand Reasons

We arrived at Occludus rather easily, because we were not travelling through the Warp.

Even the gloom of the Ghoul Stars didn't bother us.

In the system there was little in the form of a naval presence, merely four Strike Cruisers and nine frigates, so I suspected the main forces of the Death_Spectres were out on patrol, or refitting their capitals ships at the nearby Forge Gulgorahd.

Possibly both of those options at once.

However, there was a transport ship unloading supplies and human resources, young women in particular.

This tingled my senses, as this could only mean a specialized breeding program took place here.

"The Nostramo Sector is interdicted to any Imperial vessels! Explain your presence here!" A Librarian demanded over vox, seeming quite upset to see Blood Angel and Lamenter ships entering their system.

"I can sense it now, Lord Lancefire. Right where their fortress-monastery is." Sanguinius spoke softly.

I looked over the entourage and selected only Mephiston and Inquisitor Ramaeus to join us. Between the four of us, we could demolish any opposition without even being in danger.

Then we moved beside the outraged Librarian, in a flash-less teleport, by the grace of my tesseract.

"There is something here that might help my father, Librarian. As for the High Lords of Terra, I'm certain they won't mind, at all." The Primarch announced in an angelic voice while flooding the command center with a golden glow.

It took the poor Death Spectre Librarian a few seconds to comprehend what he saw, while the neophytes and techmarines in the control room were floored by the psyker aura and could only kneel in submission.

"The Cadash has arrived! Our Megir would be so glad! By the Emperor!" the stunned Librarian exclaimed in awe, then measured me and the Inquisitor with more suspicion.

"Your Chapter Master? I can sense him, deep underground. You will take us to him." Sanguinius demanded while refolding his white wings and restraining his psyker aura.

"Just a moment, Primarch. Our First Captain will arrive momentarily." the man demanded while staring at me too intently.

I removed my helmet now, since the possibility of friendly fire and outraged punches had dropped by half.

"What do you see, Brother?" I asked curious. I was looking rather normal, blonde hair and blue eyes like my mother if a bit too angelic, while he was bald and albino, which didn't fill me with confidence about their gene-seed.

"You have died before, Astartes. Bathed in the Black River and came out alive, but a Blacksoul. Can you sense the tides of fate yet?" the Librarian asked with a pointed stare. So he wasn't looking at my face, but underneath.

"... Sometimes. Images of the past and future, like words and picts, in a book." I answered rather truthfully.

I did read plenty about this universe, after all. However, I think he meant my near-death to that demon poison, but I guess it just wasn't the right poison. I had no extra powers from that, unless you counted the Necron artifacts.

"You just need to die again, Lamenter. Everything would become clear then, and the skein of time would open to you as well. I would be honored to grant you death, if you chose so. All of you have passed through death, Primarch Sanguinius quite recently I presume." The strange Librarian declared to the amazement of his brethren, who all gazed at the four of us with adoration.

I looked curious at Velayne, who seemed rather embarrassed to be exposed like this. I guess she had her secrets too.

"We make quite a team then! The Black River, huh?" Sanguinius commented in a slightly amused voice, and patted Mephiston on his psychic hood, like one would congratulate a baby for his first steps.

"It wasn't fun at all, Primarch." the Blood Angel muttered with a gruff voice.

I guess the poor Mephiston died twice, going from what I knew about him. He certainly did have many powers.

"Details! It will be nice to compare notes with my father though." the Primarch mused thoughtfully, and turned towards the door just before an armored Astartes with Captain markings entered and stopped to stare.

"The Megir will see you now. And you, no stealing!" The Death Spectre Captain announced while pointing straight at me.

Damn precogs able to read timelines. I wasn't planning to steal anything, yet!

Just for that, I selected a dozen blonde beauties from the transport ship and whisked them away. This will be a long trip after all, and space was cold. Better warm my bed with something blonde and fertile.

After a long elevator trip, we arrived in the Temple of Voices, deep beneath the planet's surface, and directly underneath the Chapter's fortress-monastery of Logopol.

I had a feeling the stone statues decorating this temple were too real, and might be the former users of the Throne of Glass, or the Shariax.

The Chapter Master was albino was well, and looking rather tired for someone always sitting down.

"A Culexus Assassin? No, or at least not yet." The Megir rambled in some distorted Low Gothic, and opened his white eyes to stare at our group.

"You know me, Megir?" Sanguinius asked in a slightly different dialect.

I guess Primarchs were bullshit like that, learning new languages in mere minutes.

"You're early, Primarch. Then again...you've slept long enough. Came to take the Shariax to Terra then?" the Death Specter asked in a heaving breath.

Sanguinius turned towards me, as if asking for advice.

"We'll need to test it here first. You can step down Megir, and let Sanguinius have a look." I proposed with a shrug, while searching the planet for anything useful.

The poor guys kinda lacked heavy weapons and armor though, the armories nearly empty and the medicae bay filled with crippled marines and chapter serfs.

I'll have to supply them some stuff, instead of looting. Luckily I was quite rich now.

The Chapter Master creaked as he walked slowly next to me, and examined my face too deeply.

"Yes, Lamenter. We are quite poor, but we still do our duty however we can."

"I understand, Brother. Secrecy is great and all, until you fail your primary duty. Defending humanity, from outside and within. I'll offer you some ships and equipment, if you promise to raise a hundred Auxilia regiments on Memlock, and use human resources properly. Where are your thousands of techmarines? Where are the mighty Astartes fleets? Your Dreadknights and Baneblades? Thousands of strike fighters and Sentinel walkers, millions of Tarantula sentry turrets? Has your brain been petrified too?" I asked in a slightly disappointed voice, while his gifted ships appeared in orbit above Occludus.

Only the usual 10 torpedo destroyers, plus an early light cruiser with drop-pods, fully loaded and missing only crew. I could afford spreading the captured destroyers around, in exchange for propping up a failing Chapter with less Astartes than mine.

The armory received 20 Land Raiders and 200 Hydras and Sentinels, pretty much doubling his armor forces. Same for air power, with 500 servitor attack drones and 100 Aquila Interceptors.

The man slumped and looked down, probably not used to being castigated by anyone. His Primarch Corvus Corax was a poor example of critical thinking too, roaming the Eye of Terror and killing demons one by one. For ten thousand years.

Sanguinius started glowing on the glass throne, possibly scanning the entire sector with his psyker powers. Maybe even reading timelines, if my guess was correct.

"We are needed here, Lord Lancefire. There is a fleet of Black Templars nearby, purging the xenos in the Ghoul Stars. With our help, there will be fewer losses and the fight will be over in months instead of a decade." the Primarch demanded as his glowing eyes opened to stare at me.

I sighed inward at his bleeding heart, now also painted on my shoulder, like all Lamenters had.

"All right. Mephiston, you take the chair and keep watch. Inquisitor Ramaeus, you wait here and investigate." I ordered with a flat voice, then grabbed my Primarch and returned to my ship.

"Take the helm, my lord. You know where we're going, after all." I muttered and pointed at the Captain's Chair.

Sanguinius snorted and sat down, fingers blurring on the holoscreen while setting up our course to intercept the Crusade.

With another flicker, the Deathwatch of Lady Velayne appeared around her, then a dozen of my techpriests and a pair of Silent Sisters with a particular set of orders. Just making sure no foul play could happen, until we returned.

And if those techpriests were rather adept at technology espionage and biological experiments, only a coincidence.

A week later, I had finished impregnating those blonde women donated so generously by the Death Specters, and was enjoying my favorite pastime with Amberley and Lucille, when we dropped from void-speed to normal engines, and my labyrinth vision filled with crystal ships battling the Black Templars while a few planets and moons were being assaulted by a thousand Astartes and 10 million serfs some of them even piloting Sentinels and light tanks. Weasels in particular.

Made me very proud to see my work used to exterminate Cythor Fiends, their distorted bodies resembling a preying mantis. Heavy flamers worked great on them, but then there were few creatures able to withstand heavy flamers.

Heavy bolters also worked, because they were made to kill xenos by design.

"Ladies, you're both with child now, so I don't recommend you land. I promise I'll save some test subjects for your labs." I muttered in between suckling on Amberley's twin peaks.

Lucille suckled my spear harder, probably not that pleased with my cavalier attitude.

Amberley just hugged my head to her chest. "We do have to send reports back to our Conclave, my dear. We'll wait till the heavy fighting is over though, and wear the helmets. The smell of burned corpses is not good for the baby." the Inquisitor explained while enjoying my ministrations.

"Switch places?" I proposed in a smirk, and drew Lucille up to be suckled and pampered.

The blonde Inquisitor smiled coyly and began licking my chevallier's symbol, her eyes promising a long session of torture and interrogation.

Like I said, very dangerous, but so worth it!