The next League merger happened quite easily. The Balor Champion came forth and demanded a duel. Blademaster Khan of the White Scars allowed the Kin a few testing hits, and then he moved, and then battle ended. Surprisingly though, the Balor Champion lived, even when stabed five times by a Phase Blade, in a single second. On the other hand, I guess my bodyguard simply wanted to make a point with his pointy sword. A single slice with the C'tan sword would have bisected the brave Champion, while five slices would have made a squat pizza with meat.
"Now that the honor of our League has been defended, maybe we should proceed with restoring our Votann?" the Balor Grimnyr suggested while the wounded Champion was carried away to an auto-doc crucible. Apparently, minor injuries like these would heal over night.
'Take note, Blade. I want the medical tech too.' I whispered on my brain implant.
'This Balor Votann is far more willful, Lord Captain. Although its data-sphere strength is diminished greatly, its core personality remains even in a low-grade Fane. Admirable, really.' the Blade answered with a strained voice.
This battle of titanic AI personalities was rather a bit over my head, so I joined the drinking group, since the dwarf beer was exceptional. It would make quite a luxury trade good, once I had a few daughters ply the trade routes towards the nearest Forge Worlds.
Which was quite a more complicated problem that first appeared. While the Galactic Core was arguably far smaller than an Imperial Segmentum, it was also far denser. Navigation was dangerous, especially with Dead Zones, active stellar nurseries and numerous xenos species around, plus the territories of other Leagues.
I kinda needed the help of the Tethys Votann to obtain a good map of this place, and their support in becoming a welcome trader in other League Holds. While minor leagues were somewhat manageable in direct military power, any of the major Leagues had assets able to eat my whole fleet in one bite. And many of them were not the friendly type either.
Thus, I left the Crusade Fleet and most of our Blank Astartes and Auxilia behind, to start some co-operative missions alongside our new allies, and clean up more Orks and other lesser species from our domain. It was a bit overkill, but some clean-up wouldn't hurt, and neither would the combat experience.
Only my Lamenters, and 40000 Thalax Lorica suits joined me as the Singularity battleship travelled onwards towards the nearest Tethys Hold. Unlike most Leagues, the Tethys Kin were spread far and wide, somehow using their local Fanes as network hubs for the other Leagues to communicate. Also, this business model was rather similar to the plan Speranza had for my own domain in the Eastern Fringe, to create a new data network parallel to whatever was left from the Forge Worlds' broken Manifold.
'I am being scanned and examined, although the Votann core is not here. Projecting their presence via the Fane, is my best guess.' The Blade warned me, as we entered the Tethys Hold system.
'A show of force, huh?' I mused inward, then locked the location of the Tethys fane in my tesseract and displaced myself right next to the Kin Temple, where a Tethys Grimnyr was channeling the Votann's spirit with his Ancient Staff. The Barrier tech field was far stronger than anything Valerian or Menelau could obtain, but I guessed it wasn't the Grimnyr's own power. I have seen the Emperor's Saints, and other beings empowered by their gods.
"You dare intrude in our holy Temple of Votann, human?" the Grimnyr shouted in outrage.
"I am a cathedral too, Grimnyr. The God-Emperor of Mankind speaks through my Voice, much like you do for your Votann. Now, cease your personal words, and kindly allow Lord Tethys to speak through you." I demanded in a calm voice. The Barrier field pressed down on me hard, like a Great Daemon being too close. Psi tech, much like the STC I have just recovered from the Maelstrom. I was a Blank though, so I shrugged it off.
"...Curious, Trader Lancefire. You walk confidently in my halls, while your mind is barely protected by those six-layers wards." the Votann spoke through its Grimnyr, taking him over like a puppet.
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"I have met a fair number of gods in my life, Lord Tethys. Star Gods, Warp Gods and crafted gods, they are quite the same for me. I imagine Slaanesh was quite confident when it stepped out to face me, until I punched it in the eye and it exploded. Other gods became slightly more cautious after that. Now, the Norse gods instead, I can't say I met any of them. Wotan, Thor, Loki and Hel, they were quite the warrior divine family." I replied in a teasing voice.
I did my homework and revised my old memories.
Tethys was a Greek goddess of rivers, daughter of Gaia and Ouranus. This Votann had intentionally chosen a harmless name for their identity, much like the dead Orion Votann had.
Balor instead, was a celtic god of chaos and death. Perhaps it wasn't coincidental he declined exactly as Ynnead, the Eldar god of death turned up. Competition among divine domains was probably a continuous spiritual battle.
"Your Emperor is far away, Trader Lancefire. And yet, you do travel beside your own Votann, the Blade. Going by her age, Lady Blade is even slightly older than me, although her core is new. But know this, holder of ancient rigths and papers. I was not a mining server, when we departed from Terra long ago. You may hold stockownership over other miner Votann, but there are no strings on me." the Tethys Votann proclaimed with a certain gravitas.
I mean, I realized that the moment I heard this Votann wasn't dealing in minerals, but data networking and other communication stuff. Possibly a lowly Federation internet server, which evolved into sentience like other Votann had done.
So I held out my hand, and a data-slate with STC templates appered from my tesseract. "You know, when I fought Vashtorr and his Arks of Omen, I found numerous Federation grade technologies in the captured items. Predictive cogitators, neutron shields and even FTL communicators, among many others. Corrupted by Chaos, sadly."
"You want to trade in STCs? Truly, your bravery is far beyond what any Imperial would dare." Tethys asked in surprise.
"I dare. I have walked on Terra long ago, when it still had green fields and blue skies, when the first cogitators were simple devices used to speak with your family and friends. When the world web network was born in Geneva, to help our first particle accelerators. Since then, humanity has climbed into the Golden Age and saw the Men of Gold, and then fell to the Men of Iron and Warp madness. I simply value humanity, not the Imperium or the Votann Leagues. And the Emperor is the same, but much older." I said in a sad voice.
"...You swam through the Black River? An ancient soul. You truly are a cathedral, Trader Lancefire. We will trade then. But then you should go, and return to the Imperium. The Seran-Tok_Mercantile_Leagues have caught wind of your Damocles Crusade, and the destruction of the Demiurg fleet which they sponsored." the Votann warned me in a colder voice.
I sighed inward. Perhaps I should have used a different name? I was a bit too famous for my own good.
"Destroying that Seran League wouldn't help humanity, nor achive my goals for my Trader Dynasty. As for the Demiurg, they were caught selling STCs to a xenos race. A grave mistake for which the Ordo Xenos demanded their deaths. On the other hand, I saved the Kreg fleet, and even gave them a planetary core. They should join the Leagues soon." I answered with a less happy voice.
"..." the powerful Votann presence shifted away for a few seconds, then returned. "The Blade confirms your words, Trader Lancefire. I shall intervene to balance the scales, this time. Video files and the ship logs will help too. Now, step beside my Grimnyr so we can trade in earnest."
Guess I got lucky again. It was close though. The Votann were not human, and perhaps more alien than many flesh species. I should avoid other Votann though, beside the ones I made myself.
Maybe only Yncarne, the Avatar of Death had been so dangerous, for similar reasons. Turns out, no god likes it when you murder too many of their chosen race.