Eventually the Crusade Fleet was ready to go, although still only half of the mighty fleet that departed towards Stygius a decade ago. Half of the battleships and 200 cruisers were still under repair.
Only 15 battleships and 300 cruisers, as well as 4 Astartes Battlebarges and a Fleet carrier. Some other ships would also join in support, like 21 Escort Carriers and a Machine Forge Ark Mechanicus with a million servitor pilots on their drone-fighters.
However, I did send several Lancefire Trade Fleets of cargo and transport vessels escorted by our Warp-engine frigates and destroyers ahead to my chosen waypoints, mainly Forge Worlds like Graia and others on the way.
I planned to skirt the south border of the Imperium and collect some of my successor Chapters en route, while training the troops on easy Ork worlds on the way.
Sister Dessima would be happy to be put to combat use, not just to warm my bed.
Sister Stern was also eager to electrify more of humanity's enemies, as were her Sisters of Battle. The girls had received new equipment, including some nicer Armed Sentinels for the Blank Sisters, but also Ion Beamers for their vehicles and Volkite pistols for the infantry. The Silent Sisters had reached 1000 Silent Leviathans, now modified with actual sound absorbers from the Invictor Warsuit, to be able to walk silently indeed.
Inquisitor Valeyne had to join me for observation purposes, and to smooth the way should we encounter more reluctant imperials.
She had a close bodyguard of real Deathwatch Astartes including Brother Semnai, as well as the remaining 3000 Black Shields converted from the captured Astral Claws as an experimental Inquisitorial regiment. There was no point keeping the Astral Claws as backup, since I had many more Blank Primaris marines that did not need mind-shackles to be loyal.
Knight House Lancefire provided 1000 Knight suits, upgraded by Speranza to our best tech available, and piloted by Blank pilots of course. We had more Knights, but those were fresh and not that experienced yet, plus I wanted a reserve force back home. It seemed Speranza had a soft spot for Knights, seeing them worthy of his time and efforts. They also had a decent escort of Blank Sacristans in Armed Sentinels, mostly to keep infantry away.
The Mechanicus Ark also carried a demi-legion of the Deus Ex Machina Titan Legion, if only 100 Warlord units that received the latest upgrades including Weave shields and Tiamat-class armor.
We had to test the latest upgrades in combat, before knowing which things worked or not. Gemma had ordered a million Skitarii to escort the Titans, along with a coterie of tech-priests of all types.
The Auxilia troops were equipped with newer Ragnarok armor and Armed Sentinels received from Forge Goth and Mezoa, although without Phase blades. The special Sentinels were instead bestowed upon the new Blank Division,
along with Falchion tanks, and will test the Burst Lances in war. Perhaps it was safer to give Phase Blades only to Blanks. Speranza wasn't stupid.
My Primaris Marines would test the new Invictus Warsuits, as well as the Void Bikes for aerial ground-support, piloted by Tech-marines. Only one company would still have the Terminator plates, if needed to insert for boarding operations or other specialist role. From my own estimations, the Warsuit would have an order of magnitude better firepower and defense than a Terminator, especially because of the Volkanite disintegrator and the Tiamat-hide armor.
Somehow, my Terminators had become light-armored Scouts for the rest of the Chapter.
The real Leviathan Dreadnoughts had been relegated to their old purpose of interring wounded Brothers in walking coffins, a sad but always present reminder that in 40k anyone could lose.
The Dreadnoughts also didn't count for the 1000 limit of Battle-Brothers in the Codex Astartes, so perhaps it would work well anyways. Chyron was very glad to return to active combat, after being replaced by Strategos at Illevar.
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Spartan was put in charge of the Auxilia, and many of his clone clade of soldier cloneskeins were appointed officers or sergeants for the newer regiments. As the clones were bred exclusively for war, I had high hopes of doing great, especially as the Blank officers in the Auxilia had been re-tasked with leading the Blank Division and its units.
A similar role was given to the Admiral clone, who I called M for ease of my tongue. Greek names were hard. Why couldn't he pick a normal name like Nelson?
Although ship Captains always remained Blanks, as well as most of the Bridge officers, numerous crew roles were taken by his naval clade clones, who were modified to withstand prolonged ship travel far better than regular human and even Voidsmen, mostly by dialing their Warp presence to the minimum possible and still keep them alive. For now, lobotomized servitors were still the bulk of the lower deck crew, but M wanted to replace them with a new clade, far more resistant to radiation and other toxic byproducts. Speranza had opposed this clade for some reason though, so it was locked for now.
As the Eternal Lament powered its engines and moved beside the Black Lament, the Crusade was ready to depart. Obviously, I called it the Halo Crusade, for no ulterior reason.
First stop, a small Ork domain located directly south of us. Speranza had indicated it as a good place to expand, and so we did. Plus it would mean collecting more life sacrifices for the chronophage swords, more Xeno Auxilia to blunt an enemy charge, maybe more ship hulls. And plenty of real practice for the troops.
Nobody was actually surprised when our troops deployed in good order and massacred the Orks with little problem, not even the new Auxilia troops. Compared to mostly savage Orks deprived of their Waaagh field, even the regular Auxilia did great, each scoring at least 100 kills, while the snipers had broken all records with their Bolt sniper rifles. There was even one guy with 2100 kills!
The test was mostly to calibrate weapons and give the officers more experience. But if I could loot millions of metal asteroids and dozens of ships, plus millions of Ork weapons for free, surely it was the grace of the Emperor.
A week later, we were replenishing at Forge World Metalica when an astropath call was received from the Knight World of Rakkor IX, which was sworn to the Knights of House Raven . Something about a Nephilim King , not that astropath telegrams made much sense anyways. You had to guess at the meaning.
M and Spartan cornered me in my room, where I was receiving the loving ministrations of my Inquisitor wife.
"You heard about the Tyranid Fleet, Lancefire... How's she still breathing like that?"
M asked with an awed glance at my little lance getting inhaled by a hungry Inquisitor.
"Practice makes perfect, M. You go on and organize the fleet, I'll be there as soon as I finish." I explained politely, while Brother Joghaten simply rolled his eyes at me.
Spartan simply smirked and gave me a thumbs up. His thumb was bigger than my lance!
Little did they know, I was actually practicing my Null powers, by drawing power from my psyker wife, slowly and pleasantly, of course. I did need to become a stronger Pariah, and Valeyne needed to train her mental resistance as well. I just found a clever way to train, that's all!
You could even say I was calibrating my weapon.