The Requiem, my escort frigate took station under the Canticle, to protect the weakest side from ambush, while myself and 40 Astartes of the Blood Angel Chapter embarked in my Stormbird shuttle and docked with the Scythe Battle-Barge called The Heart of Sotha, which was also parked at Aegida to hasten the repair of the ancient battlestation.

I did leave the rest of my Astartes Company on the Canticle, because this was a war zone. Peaceful at the moment, but I knew better. Chaos, Necron and Tyranid ships have visited here before, and the burned husk of the planet was the tragic result.

Hornidal, the mouthy Chaplain awaited me among his own Astartes Company.

"You seem to have grown in importance, Rogue Trader. From a mere light cruiser to a full Overlord-class. And a Company of Blood Angels in support, for some strange reason." he began, dressed in a full regalia of purity seals and scintillating golden scythes decorating his power armor.

But now I had my own power armor, and a Rosarius on top. Plus a toothy engine of destruction at my side, called Canis.

"You wonder how his flesh tastes like, puppy? Perhaps we will find out, one sunny day." I whispered fakely and petted my huge wolf. Canis snorted at me softly.

"Enough posturing, Lord Lancefire. Captain Thrasius did explain the dangers of digging towards the buried Pharos, and thus the excavation has stopped. Especially since the interior appears to be accessible via the teleportarium." the psyker Astartes proclaimed while posturing with a glow of his own.

I nodded and removed my helmet, since this would be rather important. "The defense of Sotha is still important to humanity, Lord Hornidal. We will aid by assembling a new ring of fortified asteroids for this purpose, and even loan you a few thousand tech-priests and the use of my on-board forge to produce lascannons and flak batteries."

The Chaplain seemed surprised and then sighed in acknowledgment. "Should we expect yet another wave of enemies here?"

The Blood Angels snorted as if amused, so I smiled as well. "We should always expect enemies, Astartes. Reinforcements as well, because we are not alone. Until then, begin gathering sickly serfs from your lower decks for their final task, in this life. The Cult Mechanicus priests will convert them into useful servitors and Machine Spirits for the forts, to protect Sotha."

Lord Hornidal nodded and wave his hand forward. "These two Sergeants, Astartes Certes and Edios will be provided as your bodyguard, since Captain Thrasius has been tasked with a new mission at the behest of Ultramar."

"Good enough for the moment, Chaplain. But I will need 2 Companies for boarding operations by next year. Make it happen." I demanded while walking past him towards the bridge.

I was curious if the Heart of Sotha will allow me to command it. The two Scythe Veterans followed me while surrounded by my other, slightly more loyal Blood Angels.

None of them could be truly trusted though. For history did show too many cases of elite soldiers defecting or going mad, and all Astartes had a rather deterministic chance to fall to Chaos.

The Inquisition didn't help, as they tended to simply exterminate those who knew or even fought Chaos forces, preempting any chance for humanity to become vaccinated by exposure.

I wasn't an expert, and perhaps natural resistance did not evolve.

Either way, I had a solution with my Blank gene plan, among my clan first, then the Blood Angels, my private empire and lastly the entire humanity. Someday.

However, in the Imperium there would be enormous direct and indirect opposition for my plans, due to the organizations like the Ordo_Hydra or the Cabal or many other secret societies invested in keeping their power base or destroying humanity.

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I had decided to stake my bets with the Cult Mechanicus, although even they had a whole share of problems. But the tech-priests could actually manufacture ships and weapons and robots and forts, and all those would buy me time.

"Move!" I demanded from a Scythe occupying my chair.

The man turned in surprise, only to find himself yanked by a few Blood Angel and set aside. "Your chair has been liberated, Lord Lancefire." Captain Raxiatel proclaimed in a sneer.

I just sat down and flipped the null box lid, opening it for a centimeter. Not enough to blind the room with Clavis engrams, but the Heart of Sotha would recognize the codes even so.

'Throne Agent authentication detected: Ordo Xenos, Pef Lancefire. Purge the xeno!' the sentient construct boomed in my mind, and I closed the null box before it started proclaiming all the allegiance protocols, which would take hours.

'That is enough, for now. Show me inventory and munitions.' I asked while closing my eyes and relaxing.

As expected, the Battle Barge was provisioned quite well, especially as it just arrived from Ultramar. Full load of torpedoes, plasma batteries, a dozen lances, two Gellar fields, and three powerful void shields, much like all the barges.

Some battleships had 4 void shields, but then barges were not exactly built for fleet engagements, but for planetary assault.

I marked the location of the Exterminatus and Vortex warheads, because I was prepared to suffer more headaches in exchange for obliterating a few more Chaos worlds.

Attack was the best defense, and long range Exterminatus would warm the hearts of even the coldest traitors.

Then I began exploring the vaults, marking valuable relics and weapons kept in stasis for some obscure reason. Surely my voidsmen could use forcefields and plasma pistols just as well as an Astartes.

An hour later, I realized I had become just like Trazyn, visiting people and stealing their stuff. His attempt at stealing the Staff_of_the_Destroyer came to mind, just as I locked onto a glowing scythe held in stasis in a hidden vault.

I mean, these poor guys probably didn't even know they had a real relic on board, quite certainly a Force Weapon able to behead Greater Demons or something.

I must have lost track of time, delving deep into the hidden mysteries of the Battle Barge, because a gauntlet shook my shoulder making Canis growl menacingly.

"What now?" I asked a bit annoyed.

"Lord Pef. Must you always take the command seat everywhere you go?" a rather annoyed Captain Thrasius asked me.

"If the alternative is to allow some cannibal Ogryn to sit in that chair...then yes. I thought you left for Ultramar already." I answered while slowly clearing my head.

This barge was also in need of repairs, especially the teleportarium and the Gellar generatoriums, for which the Scythes lacked the expertise to repair. They were Warp-based technology, not just guns and plasma reactors, after all.

"I took my time to instruct these Brother Sergeants what to expect from you, Lord Pef. Your methods are slightly unorthodox...." he explained with a faint smile.

Okay, that made sense. I glanced at the two new bodyguards. "Astartes Certes and Edios. You lack brain implants and anti-psyker defenses. Report to the Canticle and ask for Biologis tech-priest Juggler to fix you. I have no need for those weaknesses, in people expected to defend me against plots and psykers."

While saying this, I turned off the barge's active sensors, and created a warning siren if they were enabled again.

Then I dragged myself up, using the durable armrests of the command chair, meant to be used by space marines.

"Where to now, Lord Pef?" Captain Raxiatel asked while I looked around the bridge.

"Torpedo room." I said and immediately pointed at Scythe neophyte blinking surprised at his dead auspex station. "You! Contact the torpedo master and let him know I will inspect his stores. And don't enable those teleport beacons for enemy boarders, if you can."

The newly implanted Astartes blinked in confusion and glanced at the former chair occupant.

I didn't care right now, but I was almost certain they wouldn't listen. Not yet.

We didn't manage to reach the torpedo room before loud sirens started blaring from all the speakers and vox boxes inside the barge. "Battlestations! The bridge has manually enabled boarding actions against the ship. All personal defend vital stations."

The alert didn't stop, and kept going at same deafening volume while I inspected the torpedo stores, taking care to touch and memorize the Exterminatus and Vortex torpedoes, while the Scythes ran around in confusion.

While I didn't have the Scythes codes for activation, I knew my Rosette would be accepted, since even the Barge's Machine Spirit did.

By the time someone with more experience found the problem and turned off the sirens, my shuttle was already exiting the hangar, with me grinning like a school boy. "You think they learned the lesson?" I asked my new bedroom guard.

The Blood Angel Captain tapped his forehead to power up his own savant implant. Logic didn't come easy for men like him.

"Oh, you meant the auspex sensor returns? Nope. I'm certain they think it was just a prank, like you're famous for, my Lord." he concluded in a certain voice.

Oh well. They shouldn't be surprised if a few torpedoes vanish mysteriously then. I tried to give them a fair chance.