"Ouch, damn it father! You said it hurts a little..." Victor Primus Lancefire complained like a child, as the needles of the precious Etheric detector sank into his left forearm.
Romulus ran at his side and smelled the bleeding arm with concern on his wolfish face. Then licked the blood, as if his germs would help the wound heal faster.
"Leave it be, Romulus. I can deal with a little pain." Victor grumbled as his Blood Angel bodyguard snickered in a soft laugh. He was only human, not a bio-engineered supersoldier.
"Governor, you could forsake this weakness easily, you know? My progenoid-glands are full, should you accept a gene-seed implant..." the Blood Angel Veteran offered with a kind voice.
Victor sighed inward. Again, the same thing! If father had wanted his first born to be a Space Marine, he would be already, possibly even at Captain rank after a century of service. 'Type 5 minor disturbance, localized.' the detector provided in his mind as his hand stopped in front of the armored Astartes. Working perfectly, as expected of C'tan xeno tech.
The Tesseract crystal hidden in a pendant at his neck tingled with a subtle warning, as a corvette-sized vessel Warped inside the Illevar system, filled with...some kind of modified humans.
'Dad! Look here!' he whispered in his mind. Nothing reached back, meaning father was already away from the Pharos.
Oh well. Time to be a real Governor then.
He tapped his vox bead in his ear. "Mother, there is an incoming ship. Human but...strange." he spoke on the vox, hoping Lady Decima Lancefire would have more knowledge.
His Astartes bodyguard checked his combi-bolter, while Remus ran from the balcony and pressed the green button on the door, sealing the spire from the outside. How did the wolves know?
"We hear you, Governor! Auspex scans are clear. Invisible, perhaps?" mother answered from the Lancefire Admiralty base with a worried voice.
The Blood Angel cough lightly. "They could have a Reflex_Shield . Some Deathwatch kill-teams used that device for high secrecy missions."
Victor blinked and wrote the words on his implant. Something father would be very interested in, no doubt. "Corvette size, invisible to augurs. Imperial black ops. Recommendations?" he asked on the vox, while already preparing a couple stratagems in his mind. Using the tesseract openly was not advisable, except if...
Maybe it was another Emperor-granted mission like last time, when his sister Janice came and absconded with the Black Lament?
Or when Major Marbo stole a dozen Exterminatus torpedoes from the Lancefire armory?
Or maybe, when mother Elixa arrived on an invisible Vanus Temple shuttlecraft? Wait!
He searched through his implant for today's unique code, and sent a Manifold message to the Obsidian Mother, including a description of the ship and his suspicions.
'You were correct to disturb me, Governor. These people are not Deathwatch, but Temple agents. Which Temple though?' Lady Elixa de Mornay wondered in a strange voice.
"Just wait, and observe for now. We will run a number of auspex tests, while the Obsidian parses the description through the cogitator database." Lady Decima spoke in a sharp voice, then turned off her bead.
Victor sighed and patted the anxious wolf on his nose. "A Temple ship, arriving unannounced and invisible. What could they want here?" he mused in a low whisper.
The giant Blood Angel tapped the blood drop sigil on his armor. "They already have a ship, and wouldn't need your Dynasty resources. Perhaps hunting someone?" the Astartes answered in a thoughtful voice.
"Maybe they want Obsidian access. We do have a huge network all over Ultima Segmentum." Victor answered with a frown, then sat down at his cogitator to wait. A new STC dataslate arrived with the C'tan watch, containing some new templates, damaged or unfinished. Father wasn't shy of passing more hard work onto his heir.
Scrolling through the new templates, he could easily see which designs were original and which were father's usual failures. Ionic flare shields for aircraft or Sentinels...only the largest vehicles had Ion shields in the Imperium, yet father wanted to give all his units some type of shield. And a better variant, covering all around and even countering projectiles. Ferrus Manus, the Primarch of the Iron Hands was listed as the creator...
Sure, it was easy to shift the blame on a dead man, and Primarchs and Saints were mostly unassailable by the priesthood of Mars.
Celestine pattern multi-lance. Celestine pattern multi-cannon? Was father still grieving for the dead Saint?
'Etheric disturbance, type 2, inverted.' the detector chimed in his mind, as a certain invisible Eldar Solitaire entered the room without been seen by the Blood Angel or his Fenrisian Wolves.
"Lord Mnemorach, care for a drink?" he offered politely as he took out a bottle of amasec from his drawer.
"Oh? And now the son begins to match his father. Did you see that Assassin ship?" the Solitaire asked as he sipped from his glass, ignoring the fuming Astartes.
"Yes, it's all the rage at the Admiralty. They keep cycling the auspex frequencies, hoping to see a glimpse on their screens." Victor explained with a light voice, and took a larger gulp of amasec, for courage.
He knew what the Solitaire was capable of, even outmatching Mother Ordella in speed and strength, and she was their strongest Omega-minus Pariah.
"I hope the Culexus are not here for me or my ward. It would be a shame if our fight demolished this fair planet." the Eldar Harlequin said in a careless voice, sounding unconcerned for his safety. Then again, he and Mother Stern had demolished an entire galactic sub-sector by themselves. A mere planet was only spare change for those two.
"I would hope you can behave, Lord Mnemorach. My father has authorized me to use drastic measures in case of clear danger." Victor muttered with a tired voice.
"And you have a new wrist watch as well. Quite a complex disguise for a...well. I should go and stay by Stern's side, lest she flares a lightning storm by accident." the Solitaire added as he sped outside, stealing the amasec bottle on the way.
Amasec bottle, lightning storm...in the end it was a fair trade. Victor glanced at his bodyguard and he rushed to seal the door again.
Victor picked the dataslate again, and almost had a heart attack.
Hidden in the last words on the dataslate, there was an encrypted field for a stellar coordinate, marked with the Black Sigil of the Obsidian. Three people could read this code, Father, Janice and himself.
Unrestricted use of tesseract, even at the risk of discovery. A Ninth_Blackstone_Fortress reserved only for the Lancefire Dynasty.
And the Culexus Temple had just sent an invisible ship, while father was away on a new Crusade. He took out another amasec bottle and drank directly, ignoring the fancy Noble status of his Governor rank.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
A Blackstone Fortress was powerful enough to snuff Great Daemons or close Warp Rifts. And a powerful Pariah could use its beam to drain a Warp God to death. Even Father had done that, once.
Maybe a single bottle would not be enough. Victor felt his shoulders buckle under the weight of his duty.
A giant palm covered his head, and patted him gently. "Don't worry, Governor Lancefire! As long as I draw breath, I will keep you safe." the Blood Angel declared in a confident voice.
Victor took another big gulp. He was a Lancefire and feared nothing. And he will soon get the means to kill anything, even Gods. There weren't many Gods left.
"They are moving towards the Admiralty Base." Victor announced after almost two weeks of tense waiting.
"We can see them now, Victor. They seem to have reverted to standard Void shields." former Captain Chyron spoke on the vox, sounding as bored as ever. Then again, the poor man had lived and endured far more than anyone here, Except perhaps Mother Stern who died a few times. It wasn't really a good comparison to make.
Now Chyron had been decommissioned as a Lamenter active cadre, and served as bodyguard and advisor to Lady Decima in her capacity as the Lancefire House Fleet Admiral. And considering that their House now had over 2000 Warp capable voidships, and hundreds of Macharius-drive non-Warp capital vessels...his mother controlled the largest Navy in the Eastern Fringe, and quite possibly the largest private war fleet in the galaxy. There were mining consortiums and trade guilds with more ships inside the Imperium, but those were merely transport barges and such.
"Just ask them to remain on their ship. We already have enough trouble with a single invisible assassin running around." Victor said in a tired voice. No wonder his father had placed the burden of the Eldar Solitaire as far as possible, and into his hands. Mnemorach even glued his two wolves together at the hip! Some kind of strange joke of Eldar make, most likely.
Romulus perked up and stared at him for a second, before crouching and licking the patch of missing hair. On the other hand, the wolves didn't shred his bed for a month, always trying to stand alert for another prankster. Perhaps it was good trade? It wasn't his skin, after all.
"Take a small sip only, Governor. If they are Culexus, you will need all your wits for your trade." the Blood Angel spoke as Victor grabbed the amasec bottle without knowing.
"I just wished father was home, instead of fighting whatever xenos he found at Moebius " he answered in a low growl, then opened the door to find Mother Stern and her side-kick already waiting.
"Victor, morose and depressed as ever!" the Solitaire exclaimed in a joyous voice.
"Yes, yes. Now let's meet these guys and see what they want." Victor answered with a pained sigh. Then he opened the mind-link to the tesseract and moved the three of them inside the Temple ship, just as it docked.
Surprise was a precious resource, best employed to your own advantage.
'Etheric signal, type 5. Hidden.' the wrist watch pinged into his mind, pointing at an empty alcove at the side of the door. An Imperial agent, cloaked somehow. Victor checked the tesseract vision, finding a giant man wearing a cowl, right where his eyes saw nothing.
"You saw this man before?" he asked the Solitaire, as the Harlequin became still and cautious suddenly.
"Not him, but the same kind. Inside the Golden Throne. They wore golden armor there." Mnemorach spoke softly, while tugging at his ward to stand back.
The invisible man ignored the Solitaire and moved suddenly just beside Victor, already holding his left wrist and examining the detector. "I will need a watch like this too." he spoke in clear High Gothic, and his eyes flashed golden for a short moment.
''Etheric signal, type 5, inverted' his watch chimed softly as another invisible person appeared in the corridor.
Victor nodded at the new invisible shape. "A Custodes without armor and a Culexus Temple Pariah. I sure hope you have the right accreditation to be here."
"I serve as the Emperor's eyes, now that I am too old and frail for bodyguard duty." the Custodes said in a softer tone, almost ashamed. Then he produced a lion shaped sigil, emitting the Emperor's House codes. Victor sighed and shook his head, forcing himself to withstand the engrams long enough to close the Manifold circuit and lock his MIU implant.
"Old and frail, he says." Mnemorach laughed and took Stern's hand, as they both vanished in a flare of light.
"Let's have a drink and speak. You have traveled a long way to reach Illevar. " Victor proposed with a glance at the still invisible Culexus.
"They can't be all like their father, can they?" a feminine voice asked in a curious tone, making the Custodes nod slightly. "Not all of them. I heard the Adepta Tertia is special though. And now this boy. Victor Lancefire, I presume?"
Victor had already sat down and had an amasec bottle in hand. Three glasses fell onto the marble table, clicking with crystalline sounds. "I believe you have come for a trade. Selling or buying?" Victor asked calmly as he poured the drinks.
The Eyes_of_the_Emperor agent chuckled lightly, and took a small sip. "Have you forgotten your duty to the Emperor, young Lancefire?"
"Have you come to rescind our Warrant?" Victor asked with a small smirk. Their Warrant of Trade was signed by the Emperor himself. Father also had friends in the highest places, not only enemies.
"Good. As I said, I am not the one to induce violence, nor could I win such a contest here. And Lady Stern had killed a Culexus agent before. We can realize when we are outmatched." the giant man spoke with a glance at his comrade.
The woman took off her strange helmet, revealing a pretty face with short blond hair. The suit hugged her body closely, revealing an enticing shape... "Good amasec. Expensive." she murmured in her glass, almost like she was enjoying the appreciative looks of their visitor.
Victor remained silent, as he observed the strange Custodes calling himself an Eye of the Emperor. His body was covered in scars and injuries, and several bionic augments replaced lost parts.
"You have millions of Blanks here." the Custodes spoke after a minute of heavy silence.
Victor nodded, as their presence was hard to mask for those with enough power. "Very few of them are able to become Space Marines. Those than can, they already do." he preempted the demand. Father's Primarch, Lord Sanguinius had demanded the same. Too few were born, and many died during implantation anyways.
"I suspected this was the case. Which is why I brought her. The Culexus temple has the technology to fix this problem. We hope." the man said in a soft voice.