After meeting with Spartan and discussing for hours, Primarch Corax took his new Primaris Marines and a dozen PDF regiments from Gryphonne, and departed towards Rapture , where the last remaining Knights of House Aramos still fought from their fortified Auric_Keep , another wonder of technology from the Dark ages that the Tyranids still couldn't take.
Also endowed with a whole library of STCs and enough supplies of gene-seed and weaponry to arm 50 infantry-type Astartes Chapters, the good Primarch should do well. Sadly, he would lack Blanks for the next Chapters, so he was given enough war-clones instead. Next time we meet, I should have enough to bring him up to strength.
My fleet departed for Forge Graia, where more of my successor Chapters would join the Halo Crusade, including the Mourners that have just visited Terra to get ratified. The Grieving Chapter would pass by Forge Phaeton then join up as well, hopefully gaining more ships from a trade or two.
The entire Imperium was gearing up for war and Forge Worlds were churning war material and ships as much as they could, but the Imperial loses were also magnificent. Entire fleets were eaten by Tyranids, or defected to Chaos or both.
New Primaris Chapters were being founded every week, and they lost some to Chaos in the same year or sooner. And while these Chaos traitors would not be very experienced, they would have modern new gear and Primaris strength, which made them quite dangerous anyways.
That also meant that numerous Firstborn Veteran Marines were being recalled to undergo the Rubicon Primaris, as to shore up the lack of experience in new Chapters.
It was a bit of a shuffle, and that helped the Alpha Legion infiltrate and corrupt even more planets or Astartes Chapters.
There was even a band of Traitors called the Punishers we had to stop for a few hours to exterminate, although Nova Mines and teleports were rather easy.
I didn't understand why it was such a big deal.
Once we reached Forge Graia, I got a king's welcome, to my surprise. I didn't even do that much lately!
Titans paraded on orbital space walkways, Skitarii gathered in ranks and fired 9 shots towards the sky in my honor, the whole red carpet.
"Lord Lancefire, more wine? Maybe some phased arrayed ice-cream cake?" their Fabricator Locum offered in a servile voice, while the Fabricator General rubbed his tentacles in anticipation.
I sighed inward. "I did bring gifts. My travels had been rather fortunate, in obtaining STC templates and even some archeotech samples." I spoke gently, and sipped more wine.
"We know you did, Lord Lancefire. I also remember meeting you a few centuries ago, when you were a simple Rogue Trader peddling his wares for a few missiles. There are 33 Astartes Chapters gathered at my Forge now, and more incoming, I presume." The Fabricator General said in a polite voice.
"I hope for 42 Chapters to arrive, while we prepare your Forge for macro-industry. Taking on the Necron Maynarkh_Dynasty will be difficult even so." I explained in a more level voice.
While I was still the same Rogue Trader, I was something more as well now.
"Do you need your Fortress to begin, my Lord?" the Fabricator Locum asked politely, while setting down another bottle of priceless wine.
"Oh, I already began formatting the star system. Bring the system map online, it works best if you advise me on your preferred deployment. Iron asteroids, all around, spaced in orbital rings, or gathered in lumps at gravitational nodes?"
I asked curious.
"Oh! That changes things a bit, but we can work with it, surely. Radioactive minerals here, separated by a kilometer of void to reduce criticality. Precious metals near this moon, for better surveillance while we mine. Iron and nickel asteroids, three concentric belts and a larger lump near the space docks..." the Fabricator replied with accurate locations on the holomap. Much easier indeed.
In a few hours, I had the metals organized, then we started with a Space Hulk and more damaged ships, ice and methane comets and then minefields, rock asteroids barriers and other smart stuff the Mechanicus dreamed about, but had less ability to do in a short time.
My head started to hurt before the day was over, a sure sign I overused my ability.
"Tomorrow we continue. I don't want to get laid in bed for a week, like the last time I abused myself..." I muttered in a tired voice.
"Of course! There's no rush, Lord Lancefire!" The Fabricator General allowed graciously, and splattered me with holy oil. I was not a defective machine, damn it!
I moved to my room and left the Terminator plate beside the bed as I crashed.
I think I slept for 12 hours, until Canis licked my face, feeling bored. "Wooo. Arrrhh!" he explained with a wise voice.
Right. I did have more things to do, other than trading favors.
Shower, skip through the labyrinth inside my plate, and ready! "Brother Joghaten, any news?" I asked as I sipped some black tea.
"The Mourners arrived while you slept. Otherwise...normal stuff." he said with a sly voice.
I scanned the system by habit, and noticed a certain Primarch had joined the Mourners, alongside a whole bunch of Imperial scribes, lexmechanics and an entire Indomitus Fleet, that included some 50 White Scars Chapters and successors.
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"And all this, in a single day. It is almost like I was expected." I noticed with a wry voice.
"I did say it was normal. For you, I mean." my bodyguard said cheekily. Then again, I wasn't too surprised.
"And there are 200 Death Korps Regiments, all hoping to die for the Emperor." I continued as I detailed my scans and investigated the contents of the new fleet.
"Would you deny them their divine redemption?" Joghaten asked with a knowing voice.
"..." I thought about it for a long minute. Spartan should know how to best used the manic suiciders.
Still, when facing Necrons, morale would be a factor, especially as loses mounted into billions. There wasn't much a normal human could do, to withstand Gauss beams and all those advanced weapons.
The Kriegers would not break, which meant holding certain spots could be done with certainty, at least until orbital bombardment could level the field. Level the Krieg unit as well, but they wouldn't mind.
"I'll need a dozen high-ranking Krieg officers detached to my command. And 20 infantry-only regiments, equipped with extra krak grenades and melta bombs.We'll call it the Suicide Korps." I spoke on my vox bead, letting my Inquisitor wife know I was awake and aware of the situation.
"It will be done, Lord Lancefire. I'll set the Forge on the task." the Inquisitor replied with a calm voice, as she already realized what I meant.
"Frugal, some may call it. Only 10 percent?" Joghaten asked as we walked towards the bridge.
"Judicious use of resources. They want to die, so I will give them the right place. Plus, there is no point wasting expensive tanks and artillery when we fire down from orbit." I commented in a cold voice. True as well, if a bit callous.
Maybe I could do something about their vitae-wombs, upgrade their clone soldiers with my cloneskeins? It would surely impress the Emperor, I was certain.
An hour later, I walked through the labyrinth to meet the sword Primarch, now wearing an exceptional suit of armor, possibly better than his old one.
"Primarch Khan! I hear you are chopping down all the Imperium's enemies. Good job!" I offered politely, although his entourage didn't seem very impressed.
"Not all of them, for certain. You're doing half my job for me, even using my gene-seed to create more Astartes. Imagine my surprise." the warrior Primarch quipped in a light voice, and patted my shoulder in a friendly manner. He didn't seem upset, so all was good. Stage two then.
"Come, we will need to plan some stuff, away from...others." I said in a level voice, then vanished with the Primarch and into my tesseract.
Three Vulkan clones waited beside a certain stasis coffin holding a dead Primarch, while the live one stared for a long minute. "Do you know who killed my brother?" Khan asked in a cold, deadly voice.
"Multiple forces are involved. The Fulgurite creed from the Cult Mechanicus. Also called the Brotherhood of Petrified Lightning. The Alpha Legion on the order of Alpharius himself. Some Word Bearers. A bunch of Inquisitors and other human agents, including other Perpetuals. And many xenos of various species, leading a conspiracy called the Cabal." I explained in a low voice, not that there was anyone else here.
"And these three, you cloned them? Just like the new Fulgrim?" Khan asked in a milder voice.
"Same technology, yes. Although Anzion took the lead and cloned the other two. I'm not exactly a genius genetor, but I'm learning." I said modestly.
Khan advanced and measured the clones, looking for defects. "They feel so muted. Not quite Blanks but...dim. Faded." he realized after a few minutes.
"We were designed like this, as to protect us from the Warp. We also carry Null Wands, but those are not perfect either." Anzion spoke with a gentle voice.
"And you carry his memories. Do you remember who did it? Who killed Vulkan?" Khan asked with a vengeful voice.
"Those memories were edited. Some other things too, when we were first born on Luna. Selenites are probably involved as well." Spartan spoke next, and proving once more a bit smarter than me.
Oh well. They weren't called Primarchs for smashing things.
"Spartan and M are specialized in ground and void combat. And Strategos back home does logistics. My own idea, but it seemed to work so far." I added in self praise. I did have a spark of genius sometimes.
"You should have started with diplomacy, Lancefire. Shore up your weak point first, not boost your stronger ones. Although genetics will be useful. I hear about new gene-mods coming from Terra lately." Khan said in a more relaxed voice, even taking his hand from the sword pommel.
"Hey! I do diplomacy all the time. I trade with Forge Worlds, then manage my domain, pick up new girls..." I claimed in half-outrage.
The four giants chuckled at my antics. "You're lucky to be alive, but then luck seems to be your main power. The Inquisitors managed diplomacy for you." M said with a smirk, and it was quite true as well.
I didn't really like state visits and honeyed words. War was always an option.
"Nevermind all that. I need brain power now. Let's murder these Necrons, before they murder too many humans. Agreed?" I asked rhetorically.
"Go in accel time, Lancefire. And bring in some cartographic cogitators." Spartan demanded with an eager voice.
Sure, let's plan this Crusade right, for once. I never needed to, but Necrons could be dangerous. They also had tesseracts and C'tan shards sometimes.