40 Thousand Reasons

Reloading torpedoes is quite difficult, even in dock. The things are very big and thus heavy. In fact, if you empty the warhead out and weld some seats, it becomes a 50-meter spaceship called a boarding torpedo.

Luckily, I had Armed Sentinels and servitors to help, and transferring 300 torpedoes didn't take very long. Just a single day.

Meanwhile, I continued repairs and had the tech-priests prepare my new power armor, by painting the horrible gold over, with my House colors: green and blue. Possibly a reminder of Terra, before it became a yellow dust ball.

When I emerged in my awesome armor, I felt much stronger and safer, especially with the Null box replacing the ceramite plate on the chest. I kept my Rosette and a few rings inside, also some spare cash and a vox bead, just in case I was left stranded somewhere.

On my hip I had a bolter pistol, with thrice-blessed, cursed and phased bolt magazines, also my trusted Power Dagger, a few grenades and my Rosarius.

Felt much better and looked great, so win-win.

"Lord Pef, you look dangerous now." Ludvaius said turning towards me and nodding approvingly.

Compared to a puppy, I probably was.

Another veteran Blood Angel had joined my friend as my close guard, his name was Rafen.

I checked him out for a second. "Guarding me will be a life long and boring job, Astartes. Plus, you may see things not meant for lesser minds. Thus, you need savant implants."

"So I've been told, Lord Lancefire. But I don't believe it will be boring." the new bodyguard answered in a cheeky tone.

I waved his claims away. "Captain Ideon is on the bridge?"

"Not yet, my lord. The cremation of Arkio has most of our Brothers occupied." he answered with a frown.

I sighed and began heading towards the bridge. Time to settle the score, and wipe out the traitors.

The leader of this Word Bearer fleet was someone called a Dark_Apostle, second-in-command to Lorgar and bitter enemy of the Blood Angels.

It was time to convert his mass into energy.

Soon enough, the fleet was under way, slower than usual, because barges are by definition very slow.

"Set all sensors to autistic mode!" I commanded towards the auspex console.

The neophyte blinked at me in confusion. Damn it.

No wonder these Astartes ships were always being boarded, and they had huge fights among delicate machinery.

I leaned into the command chair and simply turned off all sensors and auspex consoles from the override control in the chair. Not like I actually needed a big crew, with such a potent Machine Spirit for navigation and targeting.

"Torpedo room, load a Vortex torpedo in tube 6. All other tubes with plasma warheads." I demanded after checking the loadout from the Bellus, and getting confused then angry.

Whoever has heard of incendiary and atomic warheads pre-loaded as default?

I mean, it was nice to have them, in case some place needed cleansing, but first one had to control the orbitals, which meant ship combat, which meant anti-ship torpedoes. Damn idiots.

"...Errr. Where is Captain Ideon?" the voice on the vox asked instead.

I turned towards Rafen. "Go there and shoot whoever doesn't listen. There's a big pyre for idiots in the hangar, might as well clean house while the fuel burns."

To his credit, Rafen simply pounded his chest and ran off, loading his bolter, and checking his hip for sufficient ammunition.

The neophyte at the auspex console lowered his hand and stared at his black screen without asking the idiot question. Good enough.

And then, I just waited, because barges are slow.

Not doing nothing, as I did have a lot of things to check on the Bellus, from secret vault rooms to concealed armories and ritual chambers for blood infusion, to the other systems, reactor and Gellar field and weapon batteries.

They all worked, but Bellus was unhappy at the shoddy maintenance. There were a hundred spacefigters lying in disrepair, for lack of time or skilled workers. Hundreds of tanks and other vehicles with numerous problems, and the teleportarium haven't been repaired in 5000 years.

Nothing I could do right away, but there was a Forge World right here, and plenty specialist tech-priests already on the Canticle.

Then I felt a Blood Angel moving to stand by my side, and peek at the command holoscreen. Then again, most of the tactical consoles were blank now.

"Who are you?" I asked without turning.

"Astartes Solus, X.O. on the Bellus." he answered curtly.

"Alright Solus, you may stay, if I have questions not found in the Machine Spirit." I allowed generously.

I could hear his teeth grinding. "This is highly irregular Lord Lancefire. We are flying blind right now." Solus muttered, possibly upset.

"Oh, you were not blind before? I changed my mind, go oversee the torpedo room, Astartes Solus. The people there refuse to follow orders." I said in a soft voice, like talking about weather.

Astartes were smart, but so naive it was cringing.

Sanguinius reborn!

No wonder entire Chapters or Legions fell to Chaos.

"Brother Ludvaius, today you are Sanguinius reborn! These morons will believe it, I can bet a throne on it. We'll see about tomorrow, I have a puppy with holy blood back on the Canticle. Kids love him, so he must be Sanguinius." I proclaimed pointing at my bodyguard.

Solus grunted as if in pain and left the bridge, while Ludvaius began posing heroically for his Brothers.

"You heard Lord Pef! Today, you witness our Primarch, returned from death. Minus one eye and wings." he announced with his Power Maul held high.

Everyone on the bridge seemed rather skeptic. As if they weren't ready to crucify me a few hours ago.

Ludvaius glanced around and holstered his weapon on his back. "You owe me a throne, Captain. They didn't believe me." he added with a smug face.

I ignored his demand for a bribery and relaxed in the chair.

A few hours later, the fleet began to approach the torpedo limit.

"Battlestations! Heavy weapons, deploy on the larger hallways. Astartes, guard the Gellar generator, the reactor and whatever else we may need to fly. Medical crew, prepare to receive wounded. And everyone else, pray hard!" I ordered on the intercom vox.

Then I started maneuvers to avoid getting targeted by long range weapons, and fired two torpedoes at the nearest Chaos cruiser.

"Jorvis, same trick" I sent to my escort destroyers.

To their credit, in a minute the bridge received a dozen Astartes with full gear, ready to protect this vital part of the fleet, meaning myself.

And then the torpedoes started flying, and I launched the fighters and plowed straight into the midst of the Chaos fleet, contrary to all tactical sense.

There was a method to my madness, as pretty soon the Chaos battleships were hit by 50 torpedoes each and began drifting into the void, while my barge unloaded the other torpedoes and the batteries on the destroyers who just flew about without evading or dodging.

The Bellus rammed and simply crushed 3 Chaos destroyers without slowing down, and we arrived over Shenlong with half our void shields intact.

In my wake, the Canticle followed and unleashed its own torpedoes and lances, blowing up the wounded ships then turned at speed and departed to regroup with the destroyers below.

My corvettes stayed with me, providing close support against torpedoes and bombers.

"Vox transmission from Shenlong, Captain! They need help to regain the shipyards and the orbital forts. Their remaining fleet is also forming up behind us." the vox officer announced while writing down the text of the transmission in full.

I nodded but did nothing. Launching an assault under fire would create more casualties, and might even prompt the traitors to suicide, just to kill a few Astartes in a blaze of glory.

"Jorvis, once again, on secondaries." I sent to my uncle while waiting for the torpedoes to reload.

Didn't need to use the vortex warhead with such overwhelming advantage, and a Warp rift might provide the traitors with unexpected help, from someone or something interested in this system.

An hour later, we struck again, this time with Bellus escorted by the Mechanicus fleet, while the Canticle and the destroyers attacked from behind.

It was a massacre, and nothing in the siege fleet survived.

For once, the battle went as planned, with a battleship on my side.

One day I will have one of my own, I promise.