In the middle of the largest fortress-cathedral of Macharia, Janice stood on a tall podium surrounded by her Adepta Sororitas.
"In the name of His infinite wisdom, and by His immortal authority, we, the High Lords of Terra, do hereby decree the Ecclesiarchy forbidden to gather, train, promote, sustain, or in any way command any force of men under arms." Janice quoted in letters of gold appearing over her head.
"So orders the Decree passive promulgated in 288.M36 and enshrined in Lex Imperialis. And this decree is more needed than ever! Only the Adepta Sororitas are allowed to be under arms, while other male forces like Frateris Militia, Crusaders and the Redemptionists , or the Black priests of the Black_Order are specifically and expressly forbidden, on the pain of death! Even PDF or Guard regiments under the leadership or support of the Cardinals or Bishops are forbidden, yet what do I find on this Holy Imperial world? Cardinal Nolis Rayne demonstrated his own supposedly divinely-granted psychic abilities, and leads millions to damnation by calling them under arms?"
"Heresy!" her Sisters chanted with zealous voices.
"And what do we do with heretics, Sisters?" Janice orated heroically, spreading wings of light that covered the entire city-sized ceiling.
"Purge them!" the women howled with rabid voices, revving their chain-swords in the air. At least they had the common sense not to fire their flamers up and get rained fire in return. I almost expected that, to be fair.
"Then rejoice my Sisters, for I bring you glorious news! My renowned father, Lord Lancefire is here today with his Angels of Death, the Adeptus Astartes, ready and willing to aid us in our Holy task. Warm up your hearts and your heavy flamers Sisters, for today we purge with our Kin!" the Adepta Tertia proclaimed as her wings caught fire, and she rose high in the air.
"For Lancefire and the Emperor!" my sons shouted in turn, Phase Blades rising above their heads and glinting with anticipation.
Lined up by the cathedral's walls, the Knights and Titans part of my Crusade raised their own weapons high, blaring loudly from their vox sirens. "Purge the heretics!"
And action! Click, click.
While marching down the Macharia's streets and burning everyone wearing a weapon would have been glorious, I did have a pretty developed tactical sense, plus the advice of a genius tactician on my implant.
Spartan had to stay hidden in our concealed command center on the Black Lament, but he could still pinpoint worthy targets or react to developing situations, especially beneficial for the Thallax suits, now painted in Lancefire livery colors, like my House Lancefire's Knights and Voidsmen. Green and blue, in urban camouflage pattern.
A million Thallax suits, 90000 Primaris Astartes and 40000 Tech-marines, boosted by 500 Astareus grav-tanks, 2000 Knight suits with Volcan Lances and 100 Warlord-class Titans, plus one Psi-Titan for morale purposes.
We smashed through the fortifications of the Frateris Militias, blasted apart armored Crusaders and bisected Chain-sword armed priests with equal ease. The only problem was the emergence of numerous psykers in the ranks of our enemies, and often among the other priests that tried to help the Sisters.
Psyker powers were also weapons though, and those bearing these powers among the male priesthood were automatically considered heretics, due for purging.
In less than a week we put the entire planet to flames, while I got to run around with my Knight suit, the Reason. Purging was especially fun when doing it to the right target.
Did I also accidentally emptied entire vaults filled with relics and treasures that belonged to the Adepto Ministorum? Who knows, the flames of righteous fury may have clouded my memory.
My wolves, Canis and Zath also had the fun of their lives, chasing after psykers and eating their souls, and often their limbs too.
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The armed priesthood and their fanatical followers fought to their last breath, even trying to use the atomic missiles and other dangerous mass-murder weapons, so I had to keep watch for that.
Astartes suits may be proof from infantry weapons, but atomics would even melt tanks!
Purity got locked in her room after she tried to sneak out again and push the big red button, which would have cleansed not only the heretics but my own troops as well. While Janice was still busy, it was time to instruct my young daughter in the judicious use of power.
The herb garden was chosen for this task, since flowers were similar in fragility and beauty to human lives.
"See this garden, little one?" I asked in a fatherly voice.
"I can see very well." the girl answered cheekily.
"There are worms, bugs, weeds and fungi among the pretty flowers. Your task is to clean up the garden, but not kill the flowers. If a single one dies? You know what it means." I continued in a grave voice.
Purity raised her pure eyes at me, already gathering pure and innocent tears for a crying show. "What happens?"she asked a bit wary.
"There are flamers nozzles and firewalls prepared in case of outbreak. The Machine Spirit will think there is a murderer among the crew, and purge the entire garden. With the murderer still inside." I explained patiently, then stepped back and locked the greenhouse doors.
'Purge the flower garden?' the machine Spirit of the Fortress asked with a horrified tone. Hah! Got you now, little spy!
'Not this time, my friend. But Purity needs to learn when not to use her strongest powers. Just like you need to learn, too.' I answered with a patient voice.
'She is the Warrant's heir, correct?' the Machine Spirit asked to make sure. For a friend, maybe.
'One of them, yes. There are 41 more, spread among the House ranks. Should I die, or be incapacitated, you will have to pick a worthy successor among them. Although to be fair, I would prefer not to die.' I concluded with a wry voice.
The Machine Spirit had received a major upgrade lately, both from the Speranza but also from the Blade Mind. Since the Infinity depended on my Fortress for security now, the Blade wanted to make sure we won't get invaded via noosphere attacks or other types of Data-daemons or Necron engrams. Not an easy task, but the Infinity did have a pair of spare computing cores to install on the Black and Eternal Lament. Very secure, she said.
The upgrade also made command-and-control as well as targeting weapons a thousand times easier, and more importantly much faster. Not to mention, I had a lingering feeling the Blade had inserted some back-ups and maybe even kernel copies of herself into the new data cores. It was what I would have done in her situation, after all.
The expensive flower garden I prepared for my pretty wives served its purpose well today. My old Machine Spirit wouldn't have cared about losing a non-vital system.
'Prepare a course for Forge World Hydraphur . And send the latest Primaris findings to my implant.' I demanded as I walked on my two feet back to my bedroom, for my fucking duty.
Might as well enjoy the latest recruits of the Sororitas, since my girl collected several more Pariah communities on her Mobilis Sanctis Fortress. The gold plating made it look garish and a bit silly, but I could see the Emperor had pulled all stops to make the new Blackstone Fortress a strong bastion, capable of taking on Tyranids fleets or a Black Crusade by itself.
Some of its systems were more advanced than my own! Which spoke volumes of the care the Emperor took of Janice. Good for her!
The Sanctis also carried a squad of Custodes and even a Grey Knights Prognosticator on board, which almost made me a bit jealous. But then, the Sororitas would need their own method of predicting where they were needed, plus a way to dispel Chaos spells.
An few hours later, the garden's doors open to reveal a pristine and pure garden, with every flower still intact.
"I did it, daddy! I invented a new psyker spell that excludes the flowers. But I'm so tired now..." Purity exclaimed in a exhausted voice, and then vanished into her own bed.
Good enough. No exactly how I planned the lesson to go, but at least she managed. Then again, perhaps manually cleaning the garden didn't even occur to my young girl. Purity has never set foot on a real planet before.