On my shelf of potential tools to use against Necrons, there stood an unlikely product, called the Centurion warsuit, as large and powerful as a Terminator tactical dreadnought armor, but lacking the Black Carapace ports and thus the need for real Space Marines for their use. For example, other Blanks unable to become Astartes, including Blanks of another bloodline, Sisters of Silence and my own daughters.
It helped that I also had a proper STC Constructor on board the Black Lament, dedicated to power armor and similar designs. And since the Blade AI was willing to try new things, the Daughters of Lancefire Sister Order was created for the Sisters of Battle joining my Crusade. Going through a temporal compression of one week gave me sufficient numbers to implement the first 40000 strong Centurion Legion, equipped with Ion shield and weapons, and small Arc reactors normally used by proper dreadnoughts.
Then it came the bionic mind implants and the training, thus another week of testing doctrines and procedure, resulting in a ranged-army able to support my Astartes and armored units, with tiny Blank Machine Spirits grown from the user's own eggs, for better compatibility.
Once the daughter legion was deemed ready for combat, the fleet launched the next attempt at ousting the Necrons from the route of the Imperial Webway.
"Engaging Necron scarabs now!" Athena spoke as her Centurion Legion boarded the first Necron cruiser in range. I added more Eagle drones to keep numbers fair, since the Necron construct insects were rather numerous. The Blade had a field day now, using the remote-controlled drones with amazing coordination to shoot off the small mechanical critters that dropped from ceilings or chewed through hallway walls to reach my troops.
As expected, the firepower of the Centurions was more than enough to clear the hallways easily, but ambush was still a problem for the not-so-mobile Centurion suits.
'We need some shoulder-mounted weapons to sweep the sides, maybe a pair of Hotshot Las-pistols?' I mused inward as I took notes of actual combat progress.
The Blade's hologram nodded next to my Command throne, and started working on my request the same second.
More time passed, and Necron Warriors and larger constructs awoke from the stasis cells to engage the boarders, posing a different problem now. A Canoptek_Wraith can phase-shift and also use a Transdimensional Beamer, making even blackstone plate armor and most shields useless. A Void Shield would repel the things off, but Ion Shields were not enough.
'Go Zath. You deal with the sneaky phasing Wraiths.' I demanded as a stop-gap measure.
The other C'tan wolf at my side frowned. 'We could try something with the etheric detectors. Jamming the phase-shift for a second and give the Centurions enough time to fire. Not something I can install as a simple software upgrade though. The devices will need to be reworked.'
'Still good, Lash. Maybe teach me how to apply this upgrade myself?' I asked with a greedy tone. Delaying the phasing of Wraiths and similar Necron robots would be useful in many more battles.
As my left hand rested on Lash's wolf head, a surge of knowledge and information rushed into me, or more likely my mind. It wasn't something I could put into words or numbers unlike the STC templates or other human tech. Much like the Sounding Board of the Pharos, this whole thing worked by empathic amplitude oscillations, not electricity.
And yet, I did have the implant perk of my CYOA and that meshed with anything, by design. At a guess, I could even interface with Eldar Soul Stones or Ork crappy bionics, not that I ever wanted to. I might need to, at least for my children. A Blank Soul Stone to store the mind of my dead children...Ynnead would approve, certainly.
In a few hours, or a single second of realtime, I began to modify my own etheric detector with the new data, and just in time to catch my sneaky Inquisitor wife phase-shift around the Tech-marines control station. "Lady Valyene, be so kind and leave the spying stuff for when we're not in battle." I asked my wife in a stern tone, at which she glared at me then her son Menelau and vanished. A second too late.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
The Blade's hologram pointed a finger at my forearm, and I just nodded. Smart beings didn't need much data to infer the rest. An AI was much smarter than a human, though.
"You were supposed to be distracted by battle and not even see my mother download the battle progress from that console." Menelau explained with a casual shrug.
I probably would have been, except my new upgrade to slow down phase-shifts around me. I guess poor Valyene was bored in her own cube space.
'It is her holy duty to monitor the Mortalis Crusade though, and she can't really be here in person.' The Blade reacted in a kinder tone.
I knew that...fine! I'll try not be annoying next time.
Anyway, back to the boarding action. Zath did a number on the poor Wraiths, eating them whole for snacks. I guess the metal's mass has no meaning when you can convert the energy of an entire star into matter and back at will. The C'tan won't ever get fat, no matter how many things he eats.
The Centurions worked great against normal Necron soldiers, but things got worse again when the first Centurion company breached the ship's bridge. A Necron Lord with a pair of Deathmark snipers as bodyguards were too deadly for my poor girls. A team of Astral Pirates scouts took over the scene, their 5 Terminator squad launching engram-scrambling grenades and then blasting the elite Necrons to bits while they were re-booting.
Kinda like flash-bangs for robots, but I guess those grenades would also work on lower-tech machines like the Mechanicus or other races used.
'They would work on every robot type, right?' I asked Lash while replaying the bridge scene on the main screen, and much slower. Primaris Marines worked too fast for regular people to see what happened. The Deathmark robots even managed to duck for cover in 0.1 seconds of actual engagement time, no wonder they were used to hunting high-value targets like Primarchs or Eldar Farseers and harlequins.
'Yes, Captain Lancefire. Even on that adorable little AI you keep under your seat.' the C'tan confirmed with a hungry grin at the Blade's hologram.
And since her mainframe data-core was indeed stored under the Command Throne of the Singularity, a single grenade of that type would likely cripple my ship too, much too easy. I sighed inward, counting my blessings. Technological disparity was indeed too great. I will struggle on, but I wasn't happy at all. I wanted my Federation tech and all the nice stuff made by old humanity, not this blasted magi-tech of the Imperium with their lobotomized brains and servitors used as door locks and elevator buttons.
My son Laur walked beside me and placed a gloved-hand on my shoulder. "The suits are good, and firepower is decent, but the users are too slow for close combat. The Centurions must remain as second-line troops, or we lose our sisters too fast." he declared in a convinced voice.
As the actual Chapter Master of the Lamenters Chapters, his words were solid gold. I could over-rule him, but I also felt he was right.
"Still, we could have 1000 Centurions for each Astartes Chapter as support units. Double the firepower without stepping on too many toes. The Codex Astartes does not prevent females from helping." I said with a kinder voice, while storing my new Necron ship as loot. Zath was right too, boarding actions were much better than dangerous fleet engagements. Didn't lose a single ship today, which made me really happy.
"And we need something to delay the phasing of those Canoptek robots. I don't want to lose my Battle Brothers to that trick." Captain Laur added with a lamenting voice.
"A solution is being formulated." I answered with a knowing tone. Already working on it, in fact.