40 Thousand Reasons

Chapter 114: Phase

Much, much later the amazing blonde finally gave up trying to exhaust my enhanced body and crashed on top of me, sweaty and content.

"And to think I thought your Rose was exaggerating... I bet you can still go on for hours, right?" Amberley murmured in my neck in a soft voice.

I let my hands wander and grope her amazing body, without using words. I got much better at bed games during the past decades, and the Angel genes surely kept me going. Which was why I wouldn't accept Astartes organs, not even the Black Carapace, worried they might make me impotent or sterile. And who would save the universe then?

"You will need a Deathwatch escort, my love. And Silent Sisters against psyker xenos or Chaos Sorcerers. And as it happens, I have 200 Executioners held captive, only needing a black coat of paint over their armors." I said instead, as she melted in my embrace.

"... Of course you do, Pef. Those that were not accounted for from the Badab War. Maybe even some Astral Claws?" the Inquisitor inquired and pinched my delicate progenoid glands. Damn their torture training!

It was very hard to keep secrets from an inquisitive Inquisitor. Especially one with a digital weapon on her finger.

"Maybe. But those Claws are really not trustworthy now, and might have been neurally and hypnotically modified by their fallen Master. I don't yet have a permanent solution to re-use their deaths for the Imperium." I muttered in displeasure.

That's why I needed access to the Pharos, and contact with a certain Necron wizard.

And many other trades of mutual benefit, of course.

"And what? You just produce 200 Executioners and expect them to become Deathwatch Marines, from their own initiative? Nobody asking questions?" Amberley asked in a curious voice.

Well, I didn't think that far ahead. "You can take a Company and my Rose the other. As for how to motivate them...it should be easy enough for an Inquisitor. Their Chapter is under a Penitent Crusade for the next century, and the Deathwatch always needs more bodies. The borders of the Imperium are quite extensive." I argued as glanced at the door, as Ludvaius leaned inside to check on me, then held his thumb up for another impossible and improbable conquest.

"And the Blood Angels are still watching over you...ever since you killed that traitor Stele. I shall need to know why." the pretty blonde demanded in a steely voice.

"It's complicated, my dear. Only part that matters is me revealing the Inquisitor's corruption and returning to them the Spear of Sanguinius. Those are the facts, the rest is highly interpretable, and thus considered the Chapter's dark secret, to be added to the long list of such secrets for every Astartes Chapter. Still nothing as dubious as the Exorcists being implanted with demonhosts, or the Death_Spectres killing their Aspirants with poisons then bringing back a percent of them as Neophytes." I commented wryly just to see Ludvaius become rather upset and Amberley rather tense.

"I see there's very few secrets you don't know, Chapter Master. Doesn't surprise me you're able to defeat any enemy with such ease." Inquisitor Veil concluded with a good enough reasoning.

"Well, on my ship I speak with the Voice of the Emperor, my dear. Everything I say and do is thus approved by the Emperor himself. Absolute and unlimited legal authority, given by my Rosette, my Warrant of Trade and my Lamenters Chapter." I explained in a softer voice, and ordered Ludvaius out before he started crying again.

As the blackstone armored door closed, Amberley sat up, already awake and combative. "You should know better than that, Lord Pef! The High Lords of Terra are the rulers of the Imperium, and all those trinkets can also be revoked." Amberley claimed in a stern voice and poked my chest in warning.

"The Imperium eterna. Of course the High Lords would want that, and keep their privileges. But it's not quite true, Agent of the Throne. The Emperor might be slightly indisposed right now, but two of his sons are back. And while Khan might be vanished somehow, Guilliman is too popular to remove. I'd expect at least six of these High Lords to rebel soon enough, exactly when Guilliman reaches Terra and proclaims himself Lord Commander and Imperial Regent. And won't that be a fun struggle for the High Lords of Terra?" I asked rhetorically, and instead of poking her back, I drew her into a deep kiss and groped her bountiful body again.

Soon enough, the enemy was laid low and conquered again, with love. Wasn't that hard, as her reserves were dwindling.

"Oh God! Please let me rest..." she asked in a pleading tone.

I could be merciful sometimes. "Return to your Fortress, my dear. I shall arrange a prisoner transport for your new Deathwatch." I whispered in her ear and went for a cold shower.

Inquisitors could be amazingly fun, but always so dangerous. I would need more of them on my side, and my charm seemed to work. Although I shall need some other method for most of them. Women were few in the higher ranks of the Imperium, no doubt exactly because the flesh was weak, and women more liable to be 'deviated' from their Masters' agenda.

It wasn't a perfect solution, but once kids began showing up, maternal instincts took over and that was something much harder to erase, compared to other reasons.

A dozen minutes later, I arrived inside the Pharos and began lining up Exterminatus torpedoes for today's punishments and a Vortex warhead for the nice blue Tau.

The Demon World of Bastonbeil burned, and with it the last remains of the Company of the Shadow traitor Chapter.

Then soon after, the planet Ahi_Tipua followed, incinerating their Chaos Titans and disgusting sacrificial temples to the Dark Gods.

The C'tan on the wall watched me in silence as I began arming the next Exterminatus-grade warhead.

"Where is that going, my Lord?" Rafen asked as the torpedo's logis-engine began humming for fire and death.

"This one, to Razlivanova. The Knight House there fell to Chaos, and I don't feel like giving them an honorable death in a duel. Nor would it be that easy as my adventure on Prelia." I explained in a wry voice, and consigned that world to Oblivion.

I did get tired after this, so I took out my bone staff to lean on it for strength. Maybe one more warhead today.

But not yet. First, I used the tesseract and retrieved a dozen Necron artifacts to be identified by the captive C'tan.josei

"Mighty Zarhulash, I expect you know what these are?" I asked in a friendly voice.

"Pef Lancefire, still at this useless and foolish game? Removing unimportant pieces from the game? The Immaterium's emanations will just corrupt other human worlds. And those Tyranids swarms entering the galaxy...they hunger. They will come again, here and to your Weapon on the Golden Pedestal. You cannot win!" the C'tan argued, and most likely correctly.

There wasn't a real solution to the Chaos or the Tyranids. I could already sense bigger Hive tendrils pushing back on the Pharos perception with their combined Silence.

"I have never lost a battle, Mighty C'tan. The hard things we do now, the impossible a bit later. You should learn to trust me already. Now, these captured Necron items? Name and use and approximate value, for a Necron Dynasty." I demanded in a gentle tone, like talking to a baby. Sure, the C'tan might be a god, and strong and wise, but he wasn't whole.

"...Perhaps. Perhaps you can indeed find a way like you always do, Pef Lancefire. I shall aid you with this, and we will be even." Zarhulash announced in a definitive tone.

I just smiled kindly at his pathetic attempts for negotiation. Then I began noting down the uses and value of these rare items, of which only one was actually good, and two more of medium value. I might have picked up the vacuum cleaner just because it was glowing with green lights.

The Phase_Shifter was enabling an ability that I saw the Crimson God C'tan use, letting Titan-grade weapons pass through him without doing damage or sinking himself into the ground.

The other two were called a Cloak_of_the_Ctan, which was certainly needed to use the powers of an enslaved C'tan, while the other was a Nebuloscope, basically a multi-dimensional tracker which would serve me well one day.

Trazyn was certain to posses these last two, but a Phase Shifter was rare even among Necron Lords.

"Lord Trazyn, congratulation's on the Warp Rift test." I began with a teasing voice, and letting him know I saw his new Blackstone Fortress close a small Warp Rift near his homeworld.

"Ah, the wandering stranger has returned. I have deduced you must be a human. Or perhaps an Astartes." the Necron Overlord warned me, after no doubt he tried to observe where the tesseracts have been present and blocked certain timelines.

"I'm not too sure myself, my robotic friend. So what progress did you make on those projects we have together?" I asked, this time really curious.

"The cruiser sized reactor with a Mechanicus STC template is ready. Wasn't even hard, if I may be so honest. The warp-less engine miniaturization...well. It's a bit harder without some more advanced materials and production capabilities, I only have one version smaller by 20 percent, and already needs angstrom scale engineering. Only those human Grand Cruisers and the larger Battlecruisers will be able to use them. As for the Eldar weapons...they work backwards to any scientific principle!" Trazyn complained and seemed exasperated.

I feel your pain, my friend. Technology should not grow when you sing at it. Damn Eldar Bonesingers!

"It was only a suggestion, Lord Trazyn. Perhaps psycho-plastics and soul-fused crystals are more magitech than real science. But you do have plenty Mechanicus ships and weapons in your tesseracts. After you copy all of them, you might attempt to reverse-engineer those for my mentally handicapped tech-priests friends of lesser education to mass-produce. Mostly gravity and direct energy weapons that would work on Tyranids. My recent long-range scans point to a dozen large tendrils followed by a gravity bending mass of hungry mouths and sharp claws." I explained in a gentler tone, drawing his ire towards the invading bugs.

"...That sounds exciting, to be honest. It will be the greatest struggle in the recent history of the galaxy! And this Guilliman Primarch is certainly trying to defeat the Tyranids with those rather flimsy ships and weapons. Hmmm. I could help a little, even if it's cheating. After all, the humans do have somewhat better weapons, they just forgot about them." Trazyn the Infinite allowed after long minute, no doubt checking on my own observations.

And so, I sent him the Phase Shifter, in advance. I was so trustful, right?

"Very well, Necron Lord. A trade was made. I hope you don't need instructions on how to use a Phase Shifter. The Crimson God already has this ability, so it's useless to me now." I explained in a faint tease.

"...Errr. I thought the Canoptek link was encrypted with my best...anyway, yes! This would be very useful to keep my person safe, especially if anyone figures out who actually killed a certain Pharaon, hehe!" Trazyn exclaimed in a joyful tone.

I sighed inward, as it seemed the insane Necron had indeed trapped the C'tan controls, and did not expect me to survive.

"You broke your word, Lord Trazyn. You owe me two free trades for that. One is a another Null Bone staff, using your own resources. The other...those Venatoria Titans and their pilots, with Enslaver-based mind control implants. They shall be sent to Forge Retribution, along with the dataslates for their manufacture STCs." I demanded in a harsh tone, almost ready to transport a Vortex torpedo on his location.

Since Trazyn couldn't find the Reality Cage in the Eye of Terror, he did what any Necron always did. And attacked Forge World Venatoria to steal it.

The Mechanicus tried to chase him back to his homeworld, only to get trapped into a labyrinth, like all the others who tried.

It would be a pity to kill him, but I was getting tired of his bullshit.

Say whatever about Trazyn, he did have top-notch survival instincts. "You are correct, stranger. I went over the bounds of our agreement. Perhaps I wanted to test you? I am not certain why I did that."

I grumbled inward then sent over a lock of Amberley's hair, and closed the mental link. We would need a dual Blank/Psyker child to make the weapon work properly, but I was already hard at work on that issue.

Then I checked on the Tau, only to find a large Demiurg ship in their homeworld's orbit.

Well then. I have found a target for that Vortex torpedo after all. Stay away from Tau, next time.