Luckily, I did have Inquisitor Ramaeus to write down an adamantium-clad document called the Lorica Lancefire Gift, which completely detailed what exactly Forge Graia donated for my personal use, and then asked Primarch Khan to counter-sign it, making it perfectly legal. A million Thallax Lorica-armors bestowed to my name in perpetuity. Maybe they expected I would die soon? Hah! I was good for a million years at least.

Copies of the document would be sent to the Inquisition Conclave, the High Lords of Terra and the Mechanicus Parliament on Mars, for the purpose of covering my precious ass, once they realized what has happened.

So, I rolled my precious scroll beside my Warrant of Trade inside the Null Box, and began practicing the Ordo Reductor control and command engrams and machine litanies, which was sometimes exasperating. The pilots were human, and had a package of Astartes-like indoctrination codes implanted into their minds, so they could be simply told what to do, just like normal Astartes.

But no, the Mechanicus had to obscure everything under a metric tons of logic-canticles, machine-prayers and innumerable battle doctrines and iron-clad rules.

On the other hand, my tech-marines did have an easy time learning how to become sub-commanders for the Machine Army, finding them far easier to control than a bunch of sub-sapient Guardian turrets.

Even better, a part of the Thallax received posts on top of tanks and transports as sentries and pintle-mounted gun crew. Normal Astartes Chapters used their own Battle-Brothers for this role, which I found wasteful.

Astartes were too few already, to use them as vehicle crew.

Each of my Titans received a cohort of 100 Thallax as support, since the Skitarii were good, but far too fragile on a battlefield where Titans weapons could vaporize them even on a miss.

My capital ships also received a security cohort of 100 Thallax ,while the Blackstone Fortresses held 10000 each, for no reason at all.

Barely 60000 Thallax were allocated for these purposes, while the rest would boost the front lines or provide perimeter guards, and any other role I saw fit, even as drop pod troopers or paradrop via grav chutes.

Forge Graia was rapidly churning out more vehicles and power armor, while wounded soldiers received bionic limbs and even upgrades to their equipment and armor.

They were obviously trying to test the new STCs, and found the Death Korps of Krieg the perfect test bed, as they were happy to die anyways.

It was amazing what a Forge World could do if properly motivated and supplied with metal and organic materials, even though I noticed several Volkanite guns were stolen from my troops by invisible mechanical agents, as the Imperium had lost the Volkite technology in the chaos of the Horus Heresy, or other unfortunate invasions.

So, on the day my Crusade was scheduled to depart, I moved once more on the Forge World, with the original STC for the Volkite Disintegrator, freshly copied from the Gnostari Fane.

"I don't like when you steal from me, Fabricator. Plus, if Vokite technology was easy to replicate, you would have done so long ago, from the relics still locked inside your Vaults. Here, the original ancient template for a hand-held Volkite gun. But..." I demanded in a harsh tone.

"...Yes?" the Fabticator asked with obvious unease.

"I will need 20 Victory-class Battleships, 80 Astartes Battlebarges and 600 Nova cruisers. You saw what ships I use, just make them similar." I demanded with my Rogue Trader charisma.

The two Fabricators gulped audibly, as this was not a small order. It was something on the order a Segmentum Fleet, able to devastate entire galactic Sectors with ease.

"It is possible, but it will take a long time, Lord Lancefire. And a hand-held weapon isn't that powerful, no matter how ancient." The Fabricator Locum spoke first, and trying to negotiate up.

"I realize that. When the order is finalized, you will receive a larger gun, able to be mounted on tanks and Knights. This is only the preview." I said with a shrug, and vanished. A second later, Canis vanished as well, as he was feeling awkward being left behind.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"Woou?" the wolf asked me, as I sat in my command throne.

"Yes, I know. I forgot." I explained with a bit of guilt.

"All ships! Switch to autistic sensors. That means passive only, the new guys!" I ordered on the wide fleet comm, then began to move away from Graia and towards the Orphean_War .

First target was the homeworld of the Angels_Revenant on Libethra, who had gone dark recently.

Warp-engine destroyers from the Indomitus Fleet were already en route to obtain news, but I already knew the Astartes world had been attacked. Of course, it may be another enemy and not the Necrons, but the chances were small.

Necrons were spreading out on a wide front, and engaging everyone, from Chaos Warbands to Ork worlds and even a Tyranid splinter fleet, which has vanished a year ago.

The Imperium was next, but luckily for them I was prepared to help.

By the next week, we found the Angels Revenant battling their Necron invaders in the ruins of their Fortress Monastery, while Necron ships fired towards the ground, cracking a continent in half.

Immediately, I set up a dozen Nova Mines in the midst of the Necron Escort ships, pulverizing dozens and forcing the larger Scythe and Tomb Ships to disengage.

"Maynarkh comes" appeared on the vox channel screen, bypassing the autistic locks, but failing to produce any sound, as the vox casters were physically disconnected from the network, following the Scrap Code experience at Agripinaa a century ago.

Out of curiosity, I fired the Immaterium Beam at the largest Necron ship, but the signal still came. Oh well, they didn't have any souls to erase, the poor Necrons.

It would come to a straight fight.

'Carriers, begin deployment.' I ordered via the Sounding Board, and moved my Fortress in the lead, flanked by the Eternal Lament.

A green energy beam splashed over the Void Shields, and even pierced a few until I flared the Ion shield to block the incoming ray. As if my magic, the green beam got interrupted and vanished.

'Ion shields to max.' I ordered next, and soon the entire Crusade Fleet was protected agaisnt Gauss weaponry.

But, as our torpedo corvettes launched their first salvo of Ironhead torpedoes, a green wave flared out from the lead Tomb Ships and exploded all our torpedoes. Damn it!

The Necrons had something like a Nova blast of their own, which would make our fighter runs suicidal at best.

A minute later, we reached lance range and began firing, while the Nova cruisers fired their cannons at the weaker Scythe Harvest Ships, blowing up one and crippling another.

As the fleets moved in parallel, the wounded ship got left behind, and soon got boarded by Primarch Khan and his Primaris space marines.

I sighed inward, and added a thousand Thallax and several tech-marines to support him, while also flicking the larger Necron constructs into Libethra's sun. Knight-sized Necron constructs were immune to infantry-scale weapons and would butcher the poor White Scars otherwise.

Obviously, I deployed my main ground force to support the besieged Angel Revenants on the planet, and kept firing at the Necron Fleet with my own. After an hour of constant void combat, the Necrons had enough and turned around to flee, leaving behind a hundred escorts and five Scythe Ships, for a hundred corvettes and 3 cruisers that got a bit close.

Their two Necron Tomb Ships were not even damaged, which didn't bode well for this Crusade. We could destroy the weaker ships, but the biggest ones were nigh-invulnerable to lance batteries. Torpedoes might have worked, but they were intercepted well before we could reach the enemy.

Still a victory, but not a good one. Damn Necrons!