I have seen much worse failures, and many of my of 'victories' like Sotha and Shadowbrink had been only grand funeral pyres, thus Boros wasn't a victory on that scale.
It was bad, and billions of lives had been lost, but I already figured it would go that way.
I meant Imperial loses, but when fighting Chaos I never escaped unharmed, so again, this universe sucked. Laur did what he could, but he wasn't me, so I couldn't expect him to do better than me. This was on me to fix.
Instead, I grabbed Roboute and Inquisitor Valyene and went to visit the System Governor.
"Boros Gate is a tempting target for anyone that can travel the Warp, or others that want to harm the Imperium. You agree, Primarch?" I asked in a mild rhetorical voice, while hundreds of my Thalax suits took positions around the Great Hall of the Governor's Spire. Matching the numbers of the Governor's Enforcers, if not their abilities.
The fat guy tried to find a corner to hide, his weasel eyes shifting to the sides. "Commander, you won a great victory, and I'll raise a monumental statue..." the Governor began to plead, while Roboute just sighed and sat at a table to write on a parchment.
More people arrived in the hall, tech-priests from the Iron Korps, Death Korps officers and some local Adeptus Arbites guys with imposing armor and shotguns. Not quite a jury, more as witnesses to the Imperial Law in action.
In a minute, the Primarch rose with the signed scroll in hand, and passed it over to my wife.
"We, Primarch Roboute Guilliman, the Lord Commander of the Imperium of Man find the accused, former Governor Lord Vought of the Boros System, guilty of dereliction of duty, misuse of the Imperial taxes and lack of preparation against Imperial enemies, without or within. Henceforth, his House is terminated, and all assets confiscated and remitted to Noble Primaris Pef Lancefire. Adeptus Arbites, take the prisoner in for interrogation." Roboute proclaimed with a deadly voice.
I nodded and my Thalax cyborgs fired once, each picking a target among the Enforcers. Clean house, then start over.
"I am not happy with the performance of the Arbites in this system. Such a massive internal revolt going unnoticed?" I asked the Arbites Proctor.
"... We did send numerous warnings to the Governor's Spire, Commander Lancefire. All ignored." the Arbites declared with a level tone.
"No, that is not an answer, Arbite. Your organization is an Adept of Terra, even holding a seat among the High Lords. Technically, you are equal in rank with an Inquisitor or an Astartes Chapter Master. Even worse, you represent the Imperial Law. You don't send timid letters, Arbites." I countered with a pointed finger.
The Arbites' Proctor fell to a knee, awaiting my sentence.
'Pauline, you want this place?' I asked my oldest bridge officer in her mind.
'Dad? You want me to rule over a star system by myself? No!' my daughter answered with a stern rebuke.
Fine then. 'Mother, what say you?' I asked my mother instead.
'I would have to kill thousands to impose my will on this place. Do I get some support?' Justine asked with a tired voice.
Yes, I could provide quite a lot of support. As it happened, this system was a station for the White Consuls Space Marines, an Ultramarines successor. They also had custody over the old Kronos star fort moved here to protect the Boros Gate, which lacked repairs and troops for now.
"Primarch, the White Consuls seem to be quite lacking armed presence in the system. Their Proconsul may remain as a link to his old chapter, while a successor chapter is created to provide security for the Boros Gate. I will provide Blank recruits for your gene-seed." I spoke in a softer voice.
Roboute frowned for a minute, likely considering other implications I was not aware of. "Proconsul, your opinion?" he asked the White Consul Captain.
"Sire, I would obey any order you give...but please don't strip me off my Chapter." The Proconsul pleaded like a scared child.
Well then. Even better. "You are to vacate the Kronos Fort and not return to Boros unless specifically summoned, White Consul. Your Primarch and I will get working on creating a new Space Marines Chapter to guard this place. You may leave." I concluded with a careless voice.
Roboute nodded and just waved away his gene-son. "I will need to modify the Astartes Praeses and rewrite the Angelica Mortis. You give me quite the headache, Lancefire."
the good Primarch complained with a sad voice.
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"Yes, it is the consequence of such a grand victory, Primarch. I'm certain the bishops and priests of the Adeptus Ministorum will sing you long hymns of praise for it, all over the Imperium Sanctus" I countered with mild sarcasm.
"You have the equipment for the new Chapter, I expect?" he wondered with a glance at Lady Valyene.
I had plenty of ground equipment, and much more in damaged ships. About 96 cruisers and 10000 corvettes, most of them mangled and burned by Nova Cannons and multiple torpedo hits. "Yes, I even have 4000 Centurions available as Auxilia units. What do you think, a skull and a pair of swords as a sigil?" I mused and produced a paper with a childish pirate symbol on it.
"Too Orkish. Plus, they would be your blood relatives. The White Lancers, a red lance and white heart to represent purity." Roboute decided and drew the new sigil in a minute.
I glanced at Lady Valyene, who shrugged cutely. "I can't imagine what you two will do with more time to plan. Look what you've done in 5 minutes!" she noted with an amused voice.
I looked around at the splattered Enforcer corpses, while Valerian coughed discretely behind me. Right, time to end the meeting while more people were still alive. Justine was a great assassin, she will continue to do good work in this place.
"Excellent. You take over the interrogation of that traitor Governor, Inquisitor. Roboute and I will visit the Kronos fort and see about repairing it to Lancefire standards." I decided with a nod towards the Primarch.
'Captain, there are numerous data-vaults still under lock here. I suspect we found an STC Constructor too. Space-based tech, mostly.' the Blade AI warned me as it began to infiltrate the local noosphere network.
'Good, but stay low until the White Consuls leave. No need to raise the value of this Starfort before it is fully transferred.' I said with a gentle tone.
Good deeds were their own reward, but a stash of ancient technologies from the Golden Age was even better. For now, I had to prepare barracks and provisions for 2 billion Death Korps of Krieg Guardsmen, and 3 million Iron Korps Sentinels, then add armor plates and all the things a new Phalanx may need.
It took another month to set up everything right, not only the White Lancers but also the Boros system itself, which had been badly managed and quite battered by the last invasion.
My alien wolf also helped when not under suspicion, mostly spitting out new Phase Blades and etheric detectors for the White Lancers and the Governor's Guardians, also recruited among Blanks of my bloodline.
Then I chose another capable Tech-Marine as a Fabricator-Major and a Blank Tech-priest from the Iron Korps as his Fabricator-Locum, and began building a new Forge World in the Boros system, called Aurum, with the metal from a metal moon I obtained at Krieg, and new Forge-servitors conscripted and lobotomized from the local cultists and criminals. I had already repaired the cruisers in a week of speed-time, but only 200 corvettes were still operational from those lost in the Crusade. The new Forge World will have a lot of work to do.
Stefan looked great with the new red robes of Mars on top of his battleplate, while his auramite golden hand gave him an aura of mystical power among other tech-priests.
Not only the hand, but his advanced Cerebral_Techno-Mitre I had procured from Forge Graia at great cost...I mean I just stole it from a vault.
"Is this really it, father? You're leaving me with plenty of work. And why a Golden Korps?" Fabricator-Major Stefan Lancefire glared at me as I passed him the priceless data-slate with auramite forging tech on it. Worth about 10 Imperial Sectors, give or take a hundred stars.
I just tapped the twin-headed eagle on my chest. "The Forge and the Emperor, Stefan Goldhand. The Emperor has his Custodes and Grey Knights, you will have the Golden Korps, clad in auramite armor as well. Don't think Chaos is defeated forever. Prepare for the next time, it will be much worse."
A new Legion of Thalax Lorica suits, clad in auramite armor and techsorcist sigils would work wonders against daemons, which given the dozens of Warp Gates in the system, would be possibly quite necessary. But with the new STC Constructor I discovered on Kronos, Forge World Aurum would be able to produce not only millions of Thalax suits, but also weapons and equipment for a large army.
It was time to head back home, and see what the Fringes looked like after my long absence.