"I have confirmed it , Sire! Primarch Corax has indeed joined the Deathwatch at Fort Prescience, as a Black Shield, alongside 3000 of his gene-sons, all of them Blanks." a black robed Custodes spoke with a certain voice, ignoring the two Primarchs standing at the side the Emperor.
"And this was soon after Lancefire saved Deliverance from a giant Ork invasion..." the brown robed man sitting at his ancient wooden desk, asked gently, as if only confirming his thoughts.
"Exactly, Sire. Though in that battle none of his Lamenters were present. Only some Auxilia units, the Lancefire Knights, and the Deus Ex Machina Legion. A month later, new Lamenters successors, using the Corax gene-seed began to appear, spreading out radially to every Forge World in vicinity." the Custodes confirmed with a grave voice, then stepped away and vanished in a dark tunnel.
"Sire! If Corax is alive, why..." the Lion asked with an eager voice, before getting interrupted by a golden glove raising in the air.
"Alive is not the right word. There are states of existence in-between life or death, as both of you know well. But unlike your particular case, frozen in a stasis field, my brave Crow had gone too deep into the Warp. I think Russ has suffered the same Fate." the Emperor spoke in a mild voice, but only Guilliman seemed to understand.
"He was always the brooding one. And the harvested gene-seed of the Raven Guard is still not viable. Only the ancient gene-storage on Mars remains, until there is no more." Roboutte Guilliman said in a hard tone, eyes glinting in the dim lights. An Aquila pendant still hanged from his neck, almost like a noose waiting to strangle him.
"So, Corax is atoning for his sins in the Deathwatch. I wonder if Lancefire imposed that penance on him, just like he did for Khan." The Lion wondered in a sarcastic voice.
The Emperor smiled, maybe a bit sad. "I believe it was exactly so. I may need to give Lancefire an official title, like Tempormortis .The one who comes for your deaths, if you fail in your purpose."
The Lion shuddered, perhaps not really comfortable with the thought. He tried to argue a counter, then gave up when Guilliman threw him a glare.
"And Sanguinius? He has not returned, even now." the Lion asked, changing the dangerous subject.
"He has gone after the second Fortress. I thought you liked my first one, even if it is covered in gold-plating now." the Emperor asked, maybe a bit ironically.
"I would have liked it more, if you didn't make it the Sororitas Mobile Sanctus. You just gave the priesthood more power. As if they didn't already have half of the Imperium under their thumb. Even your loyal lackey objected!" the Lion growled with a nod towards Guilliman.
"Roboutte can get the third, if and when we get it. They are rather well-protected, just like the one at Precipice has been. The second one will not be easy either, as the Necron Thokt_Dynasty is blocking the way for the Blood Angels. Orks as well, recently." the Emperor explained with a tiny shrug, already knowing Sanguinius would be in for a hard fight. But he had Patrocles and the tesseract to save him from dire danger. It should still work.
The Lion grunted, finding his importance ranking had sunk even more. "What about mine?" he demanded with an eager voice.
The Emperor smiled, and turned to measure the older looking Lion. His stasis pod had not been maintained properly, and it showed.
"The third Fortress is somewhere West of Fort_Excalibris . But, you would need to go through the Hrud infestations in Kuypax Reach, past more Necrons and maybe Eldar too. The Astronomican doesn't reach that far. Your Dark Angels might not be able to get there, but the Ultramarines can. Which is why I will give Roboutte his chance."
"This would only put us at parity with Lancefire! Our mighty galactic Imperium, matched by a single man. Barely an Astartes, or not even one." the Lion growled again, visibly distressed.
"A single man? Lancefire is more than he seems. Which is why he has free hands and a modicum of my trust. I am quite curious what trouble he will get into next." The Emperor said with an easy voice.
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As annoying as the strange Blank was, he was always a wonder of amazement and amusement. Especially when the Eldar were involved. And his children as well, at least a few of them.
Blank Librarians! The very thought of it almost made him lock himself in a gene-lab and try another thousand times to decode the impossible make of his gene code.
For now, the Imperium needed his crafty hand to guide it, until this Faith problem got solved, one way or another. Very likely another way, as the infant soul inside the Astronomican was growing at a fast pace, integrating the Warp domains of Khorne and a few genetic hints from the Nurgle shards. They will likely call it the Rapture, and maybe the Rupture?
Either way, the galaxy would be torn in two, despite the Eye of Terror being punched to death by an impossible man who couldn't exist.
Or maybe because of him.
Hopefully, Canis will grow fast enough by that time, and recover Russ from the Warp. It was a gamble, but it did seem to work if the reports of the death of Vashtorr were true enough.
The C'tan may have won the War in Heaven, but the War in Hell was still going on.
"Should I prepare my sons for this Excalibris Crusade, Sire?" Guilliman asked in a polite voice.
"Go and speak with Arch-Dominius Cawl. You will need stasis fields to get through the Hrud nest-warrens. Thousands of them, at a minimum. But the departure will wait, until your brother returns." the Emperor allowed with a mild voice.
"Can I also ask for a million Thallax suits?" Guilliman asked without any ulterior motive.
The Emperor measured his stalwart son, considering the consequences. If he had publicly returned as the Emperor of Mankind, it would simply take a Writ of Compliance and immense opposition. Even now, the Mechanicus only accepted Lancefire for his crazy donations of a thousand STCs and other valuable things, while knowing he was a Blank and thus quite unlikely to Fall. A second Lorica Gift would create a giant precedent, and bring about memories of another traitor Primarch who despoiled Mars.
"That will not happen again, Guilliman. Should you happen to find a thousand STCs somewhere, maybe then, but probably not. Mars was burned by a Primarch once." he explained with a wry voice.
A million Thallax had the potential to match an Astartes Legion of old, thus showing that AdMech values Lancefire on the same level as a Primarch, and possibly more. They expect him to use the Thallax Gift to butcher more xenos and discover even more STCs, so it was also an investment.
The Lion still had his Excindio relics reforged from captured Men of Iron, which will be useful for his next Crusade. The Khrave were still infiltrating and turning Imperial forces, even entire Astartes Chapters.
He still needed to decide what to do about the ancient UR-025 Man of Iron captured at Precipice by Patrocles Lancefire, in near intact condition and even a dubious semblance of sanity.
Perhaps repurpose it to help Guilliman obtain the third Fortress? Not before draining it of all the priceless data inside its cogitator. Even better, link it with a Blank co-pilot. He did have thousands of potential candidates, only needed to find one compatible with a Silicate Intelligence. The Ordo Sinister did have a spare Princeps held in stasis, now that Sabaktes was paired with Lancefire.
Why did Lancefire named this new Crusade the Halo Crusade? Was there something in the Halo Stars worthy of capturing? Of course it was! Lancefire was quite goal oriented.
Another Halo Device? Was he still planning to resurrect his dead mother? He would. He saw that in his mind. Such a strange man...
"Father...are you really planning to marry Lady Janice?" the Lion asked on a weird tangent.
"You are getting bored on Terra, my brave Lion. You will go and exterminate the Khraves xenos. Crusade level requisition is approved. Excindio use is allowed, at your discretion." the Emperor decided with a faint smile.
What he did in his private life wasn't their business!
Watching the Lion depart to prepare his Dark Angels sons for a new Crusade, Guillliman frowned for a second, then held his tongue. Maybe annoying Father about his private life wasn't a good idea.