40 Thousand Reasons

Chapter 121: Hope

While doing all this, the Pharos opened in my mind to show me the true state of the Segmentum, and even beyond that in the Eastern Fringe.

Hive Fleet Scarabus was approaching human worlds, after devouring a couple xenos and Ork planets. I could cut them off from those supplies of biomass with a dozen Exterminatus torpedoes, and the same for the two smaller Tyranid fleets approaching my own domain.

The bio-cruisers will need to be met in the void, and destroyed in detail before they could land.

Otherwise, Rose was busy inside a Deathwatch Fortress called Eye_of_Damocles, coordinating a large scale intelligence operation against the Tau, plus naturally assassinations of Ethereal leaders, and torturing captured prisoners. Janice was working hard beside her, using her psyker powers with lots of skill.

"Father, is this you?" she mused softly, while a hundred scalpels were dancing around in mid-air and flaying some Ethereal guy, alive.

"Yes, sweetie. So you're an Inquisitor's Acolyte now?" I asked in faint amusement.

"Have to. Damn 'Greater Good' blueberries are very resistant to normal Inquisition practices. So I help mommy sometimes. I also Navigate that Black Inquisition Battlecruiser docked outside."Janice explained while poking the damn brainwashing Tau and reading his mind while his attention was diverted by the possibly debilitating pain of losing bits of skin.

Well, that was a good career choice, at least. Very few if any people would dare question a Navigator working for the Inquisition's own Black ships.

"Any boy you like?" I continued in a teasing tone, more amused.

"Dad! I'm working here!" my daughter protested in my mind, so left her get on with her helping.

She will probably need to find a nice Navigator boy without too many mutations, by accident or by kidnapping.

So I turned to my dear Rose, who was overseeing a large command center filled with a Company of black-armored Astartes, plus hundreds of autosavants, sages and lexmechanics. Streams of data engrams and machine liturgies covered the holofields, some of them compiling a stack-archive on the human worlds in the Farsight Enclave.

A pict-capture of the Talisman_of_Arthas_Moloch while worn by Primarch Guilliman was posted on the main screen, with sigils and runes shifting constantly. Well, they would want to know how the Primarch has recovered from his Warp-poison injury.

And while the hexagrammatic talisman was well-disguised as an Imperial relic, the Inquisition had real experts too. And they were suspicious.

The vectors for a dozen small Ork Waaghs were shifting slowly on other side screens, while the top three screens were keeping watch over three Tyranids tendril fleets, all heading towards the Necron World of Sarlok.

Well, they had things covered quite well, from what I saw. No real time data, of course, but then humanity did not have another Pharos, unless that Shariax artifact on Occludus was something of the same nature.

Not that the Death_Spectres Chapter were sharing what they knew with anyone else, anyway. Keeping watch in secret, and probably intercepting any moves from those mysterious xenos in the Pale Stars. And also killing their Brothers a few times, as a graduation ceremony, for some obscure reason.

"Hey Rose. I see you noticed my gift to our beloved Primarch. Keeps the poison at bay, right?" I asked in a level tone.

"My strange lover is back! I expect you have already met with Calixa?" the Inquisitor asked in my mind, without showing any outward sign of emotion. Perhaps she was upset to learn it was me who woke up Guilliman?

"Met the cute infocyte, yes. Should I do more with her?" I wondered in a teasing voice. I would anyway, but better to have permission...

"You do what you want, horny lover. Just...remember Calixa is not yours nor mine. Grand Master Fadix holds her leash, including her kill-switch. So I heard about the Moloch Crusade. Doesn't seem so bad at it first appeared, less than 50 worlds were lost. And nothing important anyway." my Rose commented in a wry tone.

Those devoured worlds still held billions of people, but indeed, I saved the Hive Worlds and the Forges, making the losses seem irrelevant in the grand scheme.

"Hive Fleet Scarabus will hit Coronis in a few years. I'll burn their landed elements, and Vortex the Norn Queen. Nothing else I can do from Sotha. Anyway, I'm nearly ready compiling the cruiser size warp-less engines, so I'll need something to trade for another batch of old ships to appear all over with partial STC templates. We might see a strong opposition from the Navigators, this time." I said in slight worry.

The crazy Navigators were willing and able to sabotage the Dark_Glass device, almost dooming the Imperium of Man back in the days of the Horus Heresy. They would dare again, no doubt.

"The Navigator Houses already make overtures to proclaim the warp-less engines as heretic inventions, and have them all destroyed. Of course, both Primarchs disagree violently, and a couple of Paternova family heads were removed already. Master Fadix doesn't tolerate dissenters." the Inquisitor explained in a somber tone.

Well, the internal conflicts in the Imperium have begun then, and they'll only get worse. However, that was why I gave both Primarchs Null Rods. Even Paternova-level Navigators won't be able to scry them now. Nor would Chaos Sorcerers and Psyker Inquisitors, nor even Eldar Farseers or Avatars. They'll have to tread carefully, not knowing where or when a Primarch might appear and ruin someone's day, or remove a few heads.

I changed focus on the Trazyn the Infinite, finding him fiddling with Jokaero weapons and artifacts, and even a dozen of live Jokaero orangutans kept in a green-field cage.

"New toys, Lord Trazyn?" I asked in faint amusement.

"Ah! The puppy stranger! Your Null-bone staff is ready, but I still need a bloodflaw genome if you want it to work for a psyker. As for those Titans...I changed my mind. Not giving them back! You can take the captured Knights, and that's it!" the crazy Necron Overlord proclaimed in an irate voice.

I sighed inward. Even Necrons kept the amazing Titans from my grasp...for now.

But 34 Knights would be useful too. I even had pilots for them, Justine's and Lord Whitelance's children. Only a couple were Blanks, but I'll use what I had. As for Titans I had another plan.

"Show me the cruiser engine and reactor first. We'll discuss the Titans later, Lord Trazyn." I demanded more sternly, and grabbed the dataslate in midair.josei

A quick check showed me exactly what I wanted. And then there were the other human technologies recovered and upgraded by Trazyn. There was even an upgraded Lance battery in there, with better fire rate and range, and an even longer range Nova Cannon. A host of other schematics, from Hellguns to Vortex missiles and Stasis_Bombs and grenades, neutron and graviton guns, conversion beamers and Volkite weapons of a dozen sizes.

And then, there were some kind of walking turrets, slightly taller than a modern dreadnought, and a bit rounded. Like my Armed Sentinels, but way more advanced.

Checking the schematic rapidly, I discovered they were in fact also dreadnoughts, meant to preserve wounded Astartes and keep them fighting. This Deredeo_Pattern_Dreadnought would make an excellent platform for mobile Tarantula turrets. Of course, nothing as complicated as the original design, but I was getting good at simplifying machines.

Another walker template was a Leviathan_Dreadnought armed with a gigantic Cyclonic_Melta_Lance and a Grav_Flux_Bombard. These were very large machines, the size of the largest Imperial Knights and even more powerful. I shall see to it that Blank Astartes got to pilot these Leviathans, and stand strong in the face of Greater Demons or Ork Bosses of same size. Plus the arms could be made to end in Power Fists, and thus able to hold gigantic melee weapons like Reason had his Power Glaive.

Then tanks and troop transports in a hundred configurations, and lastly a simple, rugged and better lasgun for the infantry. Pretty much a Hotshot gun, but firing fast and without overheating. I wasn't able to create something this simple and potent even after decades of constant attempts, and yet this Necron took only a few years to overhaul hundreds of Mechanicus designs and make them all better. Damn cheater!

"I trust my efforts are appreciated, stranger. I had to coerce a billion of my slaves to work on the pathetic weapons of humanity and repair what flaws they could. Luckily I had a thousand tech-priests to extract memories from. They seem a bit...drained now, but I can give them back if you wish." Trazyn explained in a proud tone.

He didn't even work personally for this? Well, slave and serf labour was the norm in the galaxy, from the Imperium to the Orks and the myriad of slavers and Enslavers.

"It's decent work, I admit. Here, a database of Tau technology now. Perhaps we can obtain even smaller ship engines and better forcefields." I replied while keeping calm and depositing the valuable data-stack on his work coffin. Then I retrieved a lock of hair from Amberley's son Aeneas and sent it over as well. "Gene samples for the bloodline flaw in the staff. Perhaps those Jokaeros can craft more Null Rods?"

Trazyn waved a hand at the air, and produced a small wand as proof. "Their Null Wands are even better than those contraptions of the Mechanicus. Wider range, and no disruptions from Warp Storms. They even upgraded my own Empathic staff!"

I sighed in defeat. Of course, the orange orangutans were idiot-savants, and also made the fabled digital weapons prized anywhere in the galaxy, by everyone. I took out another dataslate with my own STC templates, most importantly those which didn't work yet, and sent it over as well. "Another batch of less advanced machines, most of them created at Forge World Retribution, to be used to develop the Fringe. They need to remain at micron-level of quality, because there are no better Forges out there."

That wasn't entirely true, but better appear weaker and harmless.

"Savages! How can they even entangle quant...nevermind. These are simple designs indeed! Electric trains! Only these personal shields have a small value. Flawed and inefficient, but at least some of those silly tech-priests tried. There might be a small hope for humans, after all." the Necron tech-wizard uttered in slight disgust.

And those conversion shields were my best work!