It took six more months to travel the sector and squash the last remaining Ork invasions, while also gathering my dispersed Lamenter Auxilia divisions and Aspirants, then reviewing their combat records.
More ships and troops arrived from the reconquered Tau Nem'yar_Atoll, as my Inquisitor lovers lead a thousand newly raised regiments and three Knight Houses they have recruited to cleanse the blue xenos from the Imperium.
They had managed to liberate the occupied human worlds, but dealing with small detachments of Fire Warriors from the Tau was completely different from what will be needed to halt the Tyranids.
"Perhaps, have them all entrench in bunkers and guard the Hive Cities?" I mused in a doubtful voice, while going over the rather flimsy equipment these new regiments had. Older models of lasguns and field lascannons, with barely any mortars or armored vehicles. Some of these units even lacked flak-jackets or helmets.
In the strategy room, my Generals and Captains grimaced with disappointment.
"We can pair each of these regiments with one of the Auxilia, and have them form skirmish lines or aid in the static defenses. Here, in the Vitria_System, maybe?" Captain Semnai wondered in a doubtful tone, while pointing at the second Tyranid tendril on the holomap.
The Tyranid Hive Fleet had split into three major tendrils, and Vitria was right in the middle.
I planned to use the bulk of my forces in the Satys system, to halt the bugs advance from below the galactic plane, then strike across the base of the other tendrils and cut them off with my fleet.
However, perhaps the new troops could also hold at Vitria. Not by themselves, but then the Blood Angels and all the other successor Chapters were also gathering to defend Baal. Also, Sanguinius has not been idle and had founded twenty more Chapters using his own gene-seed. They still did not have enough techmarines or Auxilia forces, but 20000 extra Astartes were quite a potent force anyway.
"Very well, Brother. You will have command over the Vitria war theater. Lady Kalistradi, is that all right with you?" I asked politely.
The Ordo Xenos Inquisitor bit her lower lip in deep thought, then nodded. "I fear we will not have enough."
I sighed inward, but such was the state of the Imperium. Too many enemies, not enough guns.
"There are more human forces incoming, Forge Worlds and Rogue Traders, beside the nine Battlefleets of the Imperial Navy. And once I win at Satys, I will come and strike the bugs from behind." I concluded in a certain voice.
My officers raised their eyes from the holotable to stare at me, probably due to my outrageous victory claim, then smiled or shook their heads in amusement. Still, not one of them doubted me.
It was already an established fact. Wherever Pef Lancefire fought, he would win. No matter the odds.
"Just make it quick, my lord. I estimate we can hold for at most 3 weeks, with only a thousand regiments and a hundred Knights." Semnai complained in a lamenting voice.
"I'll be there in two." I boasted with a grin, then vanished from the room.
Back in my quarters, I still had some fucking duty to finish. The last squad of Sisters of Battle from Sanctuary, then right back from the start. Inquisitors, Silent Sisters, Titan Princeps and various other women in need for Blank children.
In just two and a half years I managed to produce 5000 new Blanks, by judiciously impregnating my allies based on a tight schedule overseen by a couple of Order Familious Sisters and an old Inquisitor with a young body.
Lady Valeyne appeared next to me in the shower and pawed at my wet skin with grabby hands. "When do you want me, husband? First in line, or after you seduce the pure Battle Sisters?" she murmured while helping me soap.
My lance sprang into battle formation, so I leaned into a kiss. Such a dedicated wife...I might reward her twice.
Much later, I sent the exhausted Sisters back to their dorm, and leaned back with my eyes closed. Valeyne rested on my chest, and sighed happily.
In the corner, a giant wolf sighed softly and went back to sleep.
It has been a long day, but my new body could take it now. Eleven women in a single day...I sure had a blessed life, didn't I?
I woke up the next day to find Sister Fidelia and Lady Dae in my bed, licking my body with teasing tongues. Although it was time to depart for war, I made a bit of time to enjoy the two women and fill them with positive energy.
A few hours later, I was already leading the Singularity and its battleships and cruisers fleet on harassment strikes on the southern Tyranid tendril, if killing and crippling a million bioships per shot could be considered mere harassment.
The Voidclaw gravity cannon of the Glorianna battleship was certainly effective on the bugs, as even the bioships that did not explode under their own mass remained behind to be strafed by the cruisers and annihilated.
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For now, I avoided spending precious Nova shells and mines, because the Tyranid numbers were far too large for classic munitions to matter.
At the edge of the Satys system, the Black Lament with 6000 corvettes and 90000 starfighters for escort formed the anvil, while Albesalom, Vaedrax and other Blank Sisters rotated constantly to fire the Immaterium beam at the incoming Tyranid swarm.
Fields of asteroid forts and mines formed a defense perimeter around the Blackstone Fortress, while the lighter ships struggled to reduce the myriad of flyers and spores advancing ahead of the Hive Fleet.
Even so, the Black Lament had to retreat everyday under the constant xeno assault, falling back to a secondary fort line, then a tertiary and so on.
A week later, my roving fleet managed to arrive behind the Hive fleet, once a trillion bioships were killed in constant guerilla strikes. At the same time, the leading elements of the Hive Fleet had managed to push back the defense fleet and begin landing their feeders onto the verdant worlds of the Satys system, only to encounter the bulk of the Lamenters, plus the Lancefire Knights, the Auxilia regiments, the Adepta Sororitas, Titans and Tarantula turrets, plus 2200 techmarines in control of 220000 Guardian walkers.
It was a giant shooting gallery now, and I began using the Nova Cannons to break up the larger concentrations of remaining bioships.
The local PDF and militia units were hidden in armored bunkers and manning the walls of the human cities, and thus they were barely damaged by the invasion.
Instead, my troops used field fortifications of steel cages filled with rock and plates of blackstone, taking the high ground where possible and covering them with Bastion forcefields and theater Void shields against orbital attack.
Thousands of strike drones covered our army from the air, unleashing volleys of missiles or dropping incendiary bombs, while our Aquila fighters contested the sky against scores of Gargoyles and other Tyranid flyers.
Having thousands of Hydra-class anti-air vehicles helped as well, barrages of multi-lasers and autocannons supporting the troops against air attacks, or delivering unforgiving fire upon light Tyranid units that entered close range.
The most impactful were still the Armed Sentinels, which provided close support to our infantry, both with long range lasguns or heavy bolters, or up close with flamers and chainswords.
Despite all these, three Hive Cities were overrun by a new type of Tyranid biotitan called Mawloc, which dug deep under the ground to emerge right inside the human cities, and then allowed millions of smaller warforms to climb through the resulting tunnels.
The surprise evolution was nasty, since there weren't many possible defenses against such a threat. Sure, I couldn and did intervene with the tesseract and rescued most of the endangered locals, then expelled in the invaders into the sun...but any other commander would have a difficult job holding the line. Necron tesseracts were the ultimate cheat, and the Tyranids had yet to adapt to this trick.
With a wary soul, I gathered my troops and sped towards Vitria, using the travel time to repair and rearm our vehicles and munitions.
Although the defense of Satys was successful, we have consumed half of the total ammunition reserves and lost a few percents of our forces, even a couple of Knights and Baneblades.
As soon as the Tyranids reached melee range, the battlefield became a slaughter field, since fighting off five-meter tall bugs with scythe claws wasn't that easy, not even for Astartes.
However, I did manage to capture a thousand Tyranid biotitans for myself, and by the time we reached Vitria I had them mindshackled to my Necron control rod.
The Aspirants were given the task of painting each of them in the yellow colors of the Lamenters, then inscribe them with Auxilia markings, such that our troops would be able to distinguish the xeno auxiliaries from the feral Tyranids.
A dozen Ordo Xenos Inquisitors gathered to observe the bravery of the Lamenter Aspirants, and debate how heretic my actions were.
Meanwhile, I just rode a captured Zooantrope, using it as a levitating mount and direct the Aspirants to paint a less visible spot. "Here, behind the ear too!" I demanded like a building inspector.
"... I don't think that's an ear, my lord." Aspirant Giordi muttered while climbing over spikes and thorns to reach the unpainted spot.
I shrugged and floated towards the next biotitan. "Make the bleeding heart larger! And more red!" I ordered on a whim.
My Aspirant rolled his eyes and obeyed without comment. What? The bleeding heart was the heraldry of the Lamenters, right there in the Codex.
A loud bolter shot filled the room, and then my flying Tyranid crashed to the floor, brains leaking from a fist-sized hole.
I turned towards Sister Bella and her smoking gun.
"Noooo! You killed Kenny!" I wailed in fake despair.