40 Thousand Reasons

"No! It's not possible. Not you!" A Chaos Sorcerer yelled towards Magnus, walking a few steps back in inescapable fear.

"Enough games, Ahriman. You are more valuable to me alive." Magnus answered in a calm and stoic voice, and the flames engulfing the Emperor's Sword died down.

"They turned you...it was all a scam, father! They'll burn your soul on that monstrous Warplight, for the glory of the Corpse Emperor. I've failed you." the man sobbed and fell to his knees.

Magnus glanced towards Terra, then back at his wayward son. "Corpse? You can read the future as well as I can, Ahriman. My father has already opened his eyes. By tomorrow, he will walk again."

"I'm going to be lonely without you, father. But I guess, you'll always light my way..." Ahriman answered in a sad voice, then crumbled to the ground, armor shattering to reveal nothing inside.

Another Rubric. Well, killing Ahriman would be quite a pain, I suspected.

With the leading Sorcerer gone and the Silent Sisters already locking hands for their counter-ritual, my task on Luna was over.

I flicked my hand and collected my regiments inside the tesseract, then scanned the place for something worth stealing.

It took a while and some luck, but I did find a gene-library with exabytes of experiment data and some old history tomes, going from the 10th to the 30th millennium. Quite valuable, the history books, since most of that era's knowledge had been lost or 'vanished'. But then, the Selenites have never been completely loyal, and hundreds of small cabals and cults still resisted Imperial Compliance to this day.

And going by some hidden altars and blood sacrifices strewn around, Ahriman and his band had help to arrive on Luna. A step later, I arrived beside Magnus.

"There are a dozen Chaos altars on the moon, Primarch Magnus. I believe you know how to locate them and the perpetrators." I spoke in a casual voice.

"Pef Lancefire. My son...I never seen anyone terrify him, like you did." Magnus answered while weighing the sword in his hand.

"Oh? Why would a big bad sorcerer be scared of a young Astartes, one with less than a century of service?" I asked in a confused voice, while tesseracting the godkiller weapon into my own hand.

A second later, I vanished from Luna and appeared at the gates of Polaris fortress-crypt belonging to the Titanicus Terranic Ordo Sinister. Then, I knocked politely on the armored door, even though I could sense nothing behind the door.

A metallic face appeared in bas-relief on the door, eyes glowing with the familiar blue lights of the Cult Mechanicus. "This installation is restricted, Astartes. You shouldn't even know of its existence." the Machine Spirit voiced in an angry tone.

"And yet, look at this sword in my hand. And also..." I answered with faint amusement while opening the Null Box on my chest and revealed the cog-shaped Rosette.

"... That device does not mean what you think it means, Pef Lancefire. Nobilitae Secundus: Terran holdings = 974 square meters, Falkland Islands, southern promontory, Agent of the Throne: Ordo Xenos-tertiary class, Lamenter Chapter Master: on probation, pending Adeptus Terra review, and unsanctioned Rogue Trader: expired Warrant of Trade - 47.51 years. However, current records indicate you have entered the Golden Throne twice, and the presence of the Emperor himself on your Chapter's space fort." the Machine Spirit explained in a rather not impressed tone.

I might have gulped a little, and drew back my hand away from the irate door. It wouldn't do to get electrocuted because my Warrant had expired. Which made little sense too, because the things did not have an expiration date, on them.

"Did you just hack the Administratum central cogitator to read on my info?" I asked instead. Call it intuition, but I doubted Astartes internal data was easily accessed by every door lock. Especially that part about my probation. Only a Primarch could demand a review, and there were rather few Primarchs around.

"...We shall never discuss this event ever again. And look, your Warrant of Trade has just gained 974 more years of unsupervised operations in the Eastern Fringe. Now, why are you bothering me?" the metal face asked with a scowl.

I blinked in surprise then shrugged. The Emperor certainly liked playing with fire. In this case, a rogue AI, in charge of his Psi-Titans' security.

"I need a pair of Psi-Titans, to deploy in defense of the Imperial Palace. The pacification sirens in particular, since killing a few trillion citizens driven mad and angry by Chaos sorcery wouldn't please the Emperor, especially on Terra."

The blue eyes measured me for a long second. In AI terms, it probably reviewed my service record and all known data points about my life a few hundred times.

"Your request had been sent to the Preceptor-Intendant. Major Psi-source revolt confirmed, Titan assets engaged with traitor forces...pending... Request approved. Polaris-Albedelach will deploy at the Nepal entrance. Stand clear of the door." the Machine Spirit demanded in a rather surprised voice.

The next second, the door vanished and another dimensional portal appeared in its place, to reveal a giant Warlord Titan stepping out.

I moved myself on its head, and sat myself down comfortably. "The transport lander will arrive in 3.14 minutes. Be advised, riding on top of a Titan can be dangerous to your life and/or sanity." the Princeps spoke via his Vox casters.

"I'm good, Princeps. But there's no need to wait for a lander." I explained with a wry voice, then snapped my fingers.

The next second, we arrived right in front of the Imperial Palace, with lascannons flaring the Void Shields of the Psi-Titan in the next second.

"Ugh. I hate teleports. They make me sick to the stomach. And then, I get cranky and take it out on other people. Especially if they shoot at Albedelach." The Blank Princeps inside the cockpit commented with a caustic voice, followed by a low drumming sound that made my hairs stand up.

That might be the titanic capacitors cycling, or some psychic weapon charging. I had a wary suspicion of the latter.

"The golden armors are with us, big guy. The enemy is the other way!" I yelled while tapping the armored head with my glove. Riding a Titan was rather exciting.

"I can recognize the Adeptus Custodes too, wise guy. Hang on!" the Princeps shouted and spun the Titan around, its claws gouging deep trenches to keep itself balanced.

And then it jumped, clearing the adamantium walls and rushing right in the middle of the traitor army. Some unfortunate guys got stomped into the hard rock of the Himalayas, until the Psi-Titan reached his optimal range and sounded its psi-sirens.

It's hard to describe the effects, as there was nothing visible. But in less than a minute, incoming fire died out, while soldiers and cultists dropped their weapons and fell to their knees, weeping and sobbing.

This beast was absolutely the king of crowd control, and the invisible sounds kept propagating for dozens of kilometers, rolling down the abrupt slopes and pacifying entire feral armies.

"Another minute, to make sure they never do it again. But I believe the mission is complete." the Princeps declared in a proud voice, happy with an easy job.

I grinned widely at his silly naivety. "Capacitors already out of energy?" I asked instead.

"Don't talk crazy, Lamenter. This baby can go on for years at this rate." the Blank Princeps replied in a proud voice.

"...Years you say. I suspect we'll have a lot of fun together." I commented in a wry voice, and moved us to the next gate. Bhutan.

"They have tanks here! And that is a Baneblade!" the pilot yelled in a rather alarmed voice, as a heavy caliber shell struck the armored greaves of the Psi-Titan.

"So...you can't do it? Mission fail?" I asked in a teasing tone.

"Oh, dear God-Emperor! I can't fail a mission. They'll take him away from me...damn silly traitors. Repent!" the Princeps yelled and kicked the Baneblade away, while blaring nega-psi vibes from all its available ports.

It took us a whole day to visit all the entrances into the Imperial Palace, making a giant ruckus wherever we went and leaving sobbing and repenting guardsmen and other gangsters, criminals and cultists, to be collected by Arbiters or the Inquisition.

"Well, I almost consumed one percent of the capacitors. But the Alpha psykers are still fresh, so they can go back to stasis. I'm going to remember this day for a long time, Lamenter. It was rather fun." The Blank Princeps admitted in more friendly voice.

"Indeed, it's not every day you get to walk around in public, and terrify people with those psi-sirens. But did you think the mission is over?" I asked rhetorically.

"No! You cannot do this, Pef Lancefire. There are rites and canticles for maintenance, plus the energy reserves are getting low..." The pilot pleaded in a pitiful voice.

"But I never visited Saturn. I heard the rings are amazing." I offered as an excuse, and began our new adventure.

Only this time, it was demons. Big ones too.