40 Thousand Reasons

A week into our journey towards the Eye of Terror, an alert message arrived from an Inquisition Fortress at the edge of the Warp Rift, called Nemesis_Tessera.

Velayne urged me to shift course at once, because there were thousands of Chaos artifacts kept there. Allowing them to be captured would likely create a second front, and potentially release dozens of Greater Demons into the galaxy.

I held a hand up for silence and linked with the fort's Machine Spirit, computing the new course and the estimated time of arrival.

This was the advantage of traveling on Warpless engines, the ability to stop or change course at need. Sure, with Warp engines you sometimes could traverse the entire galaxy in days, but it wasn't reliable. You could also arrive years, decades, even centuries later or not at all.

Nevertheless, it would be a good opportunity to conduct a training exercise with the Navy fleet, and iron out problems before we engaged a larger force at Cadia.

"If we change course, we can reach Nemesis in nine hours. I guess they're in luck." I answered after a minute of rechecking all the variables.

"Thank you, Lord Pef." the Inquisitor whispered barely audibly.

But I did hear it, possibly something the Emperor has done to make sure I listen well from now on.

I kinda postponed a deep medical exam from my techpriests, maybe a bit wary at what they might find. I felt fine anyway!

A minute later, my orders went out to the fleet, and the exact vectors were transmitted for the new course. The Navy fleet was sent a billion kilometers ahead and up, to act as bait for my own ships.

Then I returned to my room and slept like a baby for eight hours, in preparation for battle.

My mind was my best weapon anyway, so it made sense to recharge it to full.

Then, the next morning I gathered the pilots and princeps of the Knights, Dreadknights and Titans and went over the future battlefield map, while the Auxilia were getting buttoned up in their tanks, Sentinels and fighters.

"Alright guys. Depending on what we find, I'll deploy our armored troops to flank and envelop the attackers, while the fleet covers us from orbit. The Inquisitor has alerted me to an imminent threat on the surface, and possibly below, some relics and artifacts that must not be taken by the Chaos forces. And if the Inquisition is worried, we should be too." I explained in a grim voice.

Sister Letitia locked eyes with me. "You're landing as well, Lord Pef?" she asked into my mind.

"Most likely, yes. I do have a Psi-Titan now, as you have heard." I answered with a smile.

"What about my Sisters? The ones without giant walkers." she continued in the same manner.

"They should stand ready, as they will be deployed as bridge guards on the ships and maybe overwatch for the Astartes. I don't have enough sniper rifles for all of them." I said with a shrug.

The woman frowned, but stood silent. My wife Dae just nodded and dragged Zeta after her, and was soon followed by the Princeps of the other Titan of the Deus Ex Machina.

"Is that aura spell ready?" Albesalom asked once everyone had departed for their giant robot walkers.

"Hard to test it inside the fortress, my friend. Anyways, you will take point and neutralize the strongest enemies, as you do have the experience. I'll focus on winning the orbit, before I make landfall with my Titan." I explained with a level voice.

The Ordo Sinister perceptor measured me for a minute. "You know how absurd that sounds, right?" he asked in disbelief.

I just shrugged and teleported away, sitting down in my command chair to wait. It won't be long now.

The tesseract vision showed me the Indomitus fleet veering off and fleeing from a Chaos warfleet ten times its size, while firing rapidly with all available batteries.

Well, as fast as macrocannons could be said to fire rapidly, since they pushed each giant shell manually, into the loading breech. Hundreds of serfs sweating and cursing while dragging the shell out from the armory, then all along the gundeck to their gun, then load it in a dangerous and painful manner by hand...it took an hour for every new salvo.

Still, the Navy did its job, drawing the Chaos attention onto them.

My own fleet had a similar number of cruisers and battlecruisers with the Indomitus Navy, plus a couple of battleships and carriers, but we entered the battlefield from below, and engaged the traitors from their blind spot.

Torpedoes and lance batteries, plasma cannons and lascannons struck the enemy right as Nova Shells detonated in their midst, crumbling their Void shields and crippling the escort destroyers and frigates, while a couple of Nova mines vaporized their fighter and bomber squadrons.

By the next minute, I was already deploying Titans and tanks on the surface of Nemesis Tessera, with fighter cover right above our front lines.

The traitors numbered in the millions, and had tanks of their own, hundreds of Leman Russ and Chimeras even a few Baneblades. Perhaps twenty armor regiments, supported by Chaos marines, psykers and various demon engines, Chaos knights and even a Chaos Titan. Whoever planned their assault did not plan for my intervention though.

By the time my corvettes launched and engaged the remaining Chaos warships, most of the ground fight was over. "Finona, clean up the system if you will. I'll be down on the planet." I spoke with a grin, and my daughter smirked at me. "Give them hell, dad."

A couple of seconds later, I stomped the charred ground of Nemesis with my awesome Titan, while holding Miss Stern in my lap.

"Let's try it now, my dear." I whispered in her hair, and gently squeezed her leather uniform.

A burst of golden light covered the battlefield, engulfing our troops, and the allied Stormtroopers of the local Inquisition in a protective glow.

"It works!" the Demonifuge shouted in surprise.

I just smiled and urged the Destroyer to go fast. We blurred and left an afterimage behind, while I just hanged on tight and slashed and kicked and spit with my new mechanical friend.

Nine seconds later, the Machine Spirit ran out of targets.

"Leave something for me too, next time." the Princeps of Albedelach muttered on the Manifold, while swimming in slow motion towards us.

"Draw back, Stern! We're still in hyperspeed." I shouted at the entranced psyker in my lap.

Like magic, the universe resumed its slow course, and tank turrets and boulders fell down all around us.

"Uh...this thing can really amplify my powers. I didn't realize we would be moving that fast." the miracle Sister whispered in awe, and leaned into my embrace.

I scanned the battlefield to find injured troops and stormtroopers wonder at their newly regrown limbs or eyes, even picking up blown up legs to show them to their comrades as proof.

Perhaps the Emperor had given me a bit more than I first thought. I had a goddess in my arms, not a mere psyker.

Cheers of joy and victory emerged from the healed guardsmen, all praising the Emperor and his new Saint.

I snapped my fingers and begun recalling the troops back to hangars and barracks, and just in time.

I had just seated myself back into the command chair, watching Finona complete the space battle and incinerate the last remaining battleships before they retreated.

"Captain, there's a Lord Inquisitor called Torquemada_Coteaz on the Vox. He wants a meeting." my vox officer said in a curious voice.

No, no way. I did not like his name at all. "Tell him we're in a hurry towards Cadia. Emperor's orders."

Was this a bad joke? An Inquisitor named Torquemada? I really did not want to meet him.

"I think he's curious about that aura your Titan projected over the battlefield." Lady Velayne advised me with a smile.

"Yeah. But I'm busy." I answered while sipping my blessed recaf and reviewing the mad dash from the implant's memory storage.

It was quite incredible to watch it frame by frame, seconds turning into hours of savage butchery and battlefield massacre.

Sure, an entire army could do the same, especially if Titans were involved. But a single machine, in several seconds?

What the hell?