Oh well, I knew there would be reinforcements coming to this party, I had just forgotten that warp-less engines had spread among the Imperium forces as well, and possibly even the warp-less transceivers, even if those were new.
Battlefleet Demeter was formed around a fleet carrier with about 200 system-corvettes and thousands of Fury starfighters, an Emperor-class battleship and a dozen cruisers, which wasn't bad at all.
The Dark Angels had brought The_Rock which served as fleet carrier for a dozen escort frigates and two battle barges, while the Grey Knights had a silver-painted cruiser of advanced design, looking like an Astartes Strike Cruiser on steroids.
The history had changed, and quite radically. Commanding the Rock was not just Grand Master Azrael, but his Primarch, Lion El'Jonson and a black-haired Inquisitor I remembered very well, Lady Ivixia.
"Oi! The hummies have a bigger Rok! Let's loot it!" the idiot Warboss yelled on the vox channel, having possibly forgot I was listening in.
A plasma warhead on his bridge ended his glorious conquest dreams, then splintered his Waagh into a dozen warbands, each taking off in different directions, leaving their boarding troops stranded, as well as the landed Orks from the asteroid Roks in the jungles.
I was hoping to get more use from the Orks, but they did sufficient damage anyway. Barely 200 Chaos escorts remained intact, while the void was filled with wrecks and derelicts from the Ork and Chaos fleets.
I directed some corvettes and the Heavy cruisers to assist the Imperial Navy in cleaning up the easier targets, still maintaining full auspex quiet and restricting all vox comms to my command chair.
The Imperial Navy had no such qualms, proudly declaring their undying allegiance to the Emperor and death to the traitors, which rapidly devolved into boarding actions against their fleet.
I was almost ready to turn around and leave in disgust, but Abaddon might squeeze another win then. Not on my watch!
"Incoming vox messages from all new ships, Captain. Multiple teleport actions detected!" the techmarine manning the auspex console announced in a single breath.
Surely others could deduce the causal correlation between those two events, right?
"Woo wooo?" Canis asked to make sure.
"Yes Canis. They are idiots and give the enemy a way inside their ships." I explained politely and patted Canis on his wise head.
Rafen snorted beside me, as more plasma warheads arrived inside the Chaos and Ork ships, pretty much as soon as a new warhead could be rolled on the teleport pads.
Then a full salvo from a squadron of 50 Lancefire corvettes got through the defense flak and obliterated an entire Chaos battleship, giving my fleet an edge and allowing a Lamenter battle barge to focus fire the next capital ship, draining its void shields even faster. We lost 10 corvettes to retaliation before they could run away, but it was a good exchange anyway. We had 2000 corvettes and the enemy had 4 battleships left.
I saved the crew anyway, because I cared about my people. Plus we only had to buy 10 new corvettes and the fleet wouldn't even know anything was wrong.
Soon enough, the Rock and the Dark Angel barges focused fire on another Chaos battleship, which diverted their commander's attention enough to sneak a pair of starfighters in and fire two Vortex missiles, the battleship's prow and engines getting trapped in small Warp rifts.
I kept watch on the Grey Knights, as they were the most dangerous thing in the system right now, for good or bad.
Probably the only Space Marines implanted with the Emperor's own gene-seed, and none of them had ever turned traitor.
But I doubted it was the genetics, instead suspecting Malcador's own brand of mental indoctrination that created such psyker beasts, plus the total disregard for the Codex Astartes.
Probably demonhost implants as well, if their successor Chapter the Exorcists were any clue.
After thirty or so warheads striking the Vox casters as soon they they began transmitting, Primarch El'Johnson realized the connection and ordered his fleet to shut the hell up.
It was a start, but with augury and auspex sensors still at maximum the teleporting boarders would keep coming. Not as easily, as the auspex sensor were placed on the hull, but the Chaos guys had smart people too.
But as the concentration of firepower proved too much, and the fourth Chaos battleship buckled and broke apart, Abaddon decided it was time to run away.
I was expecting this, because Abaddon's battleship just sped away without even informing his allies of the new plan, leaving them to die to cover his retreat.
Shouldn't have turned your vulnerable back at my corvettes just below. Not that the other sides were not covered, I had enough corvettes, after all. A hundred torpedoes struck the battleship's engines and blew them to bits, leaving the Chaos vessel drifting and burning like a candle.
And then Abaddon tried to copy Horus, dropping the void shields of the Relentless Ire, his Desolator Class Battleship and inviting boarders to battle him in a honorable duel.
Got ya now idiot!
A plasma warhead blew up his bridge, right after the traitor himself was trapped in my labyrinth, with all his precious artifacts. A dozen of his chaotic lieutenants joined Abaddon the Despoiler in my Chaos deck, arranged to stand one on top each other's shoulders like a circus troupe, with the frozen Abaddon holding them all like a champion.
"More vox messages from the Imperial ships, Captain!" the vox officer announced as expected.
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"The battle is not over. They can congratulate me when we win, which is not yet." I muttered and directed a hundred corvettes to enter low orbit and bombard the invaders, while the rest of my ships were allowed to hunt in packs and demolish the remaining opposition.
It took an entire day to hunt down and melt down the surviving Orks and traitors hulls, before my fleet regrouped back in orbit over Pythos.
The Imperial Navy Admiral was dead, because he invited Chaos Terminators on board his Emperor-class battleship, the Revenge. And the Dark Angels and the Grey Knights had to battle hard to recover the ship.
It didn't matter anyway. Another well-connected officer will be promoted in his place, and nothing of importance was lost. Too bad about the Navy crew who saw the Grey Knights, as they will be killed to keep the secret.
"Everyone leave the bridge. All ships cover your windows as for Warp. No point getting executed for seeing funny Imperials." I ordered and pointed to Canis as well. The Space Wolf threw me a pitiful glance and ran out.
Rose waited until the bridge door closed, and then leaned over to kiss my cheek. "A magnificent victory, my love. But you know, that Primarch I sense on the Rock will take the glory."
Didn't bother me one bit. "I lost ten ships...it kinda hurts." I muttered instead.
Velayne kissed my other cheek, and then sat in the vox officer seat. "Your Lady Ivixia seems eager to meet you, dear Pef." the Ordo Xenos Inquisitor explained while overriding the security controls and establishing a pict-link with the Rock.
"This is Inquisitor Ramaeus. Identify yourself." the woman demanded in a stern voice.
"This is Primarch El'Johnson. Explain why you blew up the last battleship." the man demanded in powerful voice.
I tapped into the Vox channel as well. "Well met Primarch. I am Pef Lancefire, Chapter Master of the Lamenters Chapter and a Rogue Trader too. Any reason why any Astartes or Rogue Trader should not blow up Chaos warships?" I asked in a teasing voice.
The Primarch glared at me for a few seconds. "... There were precious relics on board. Plus some traitors I wanted to be captured."
I ignored his feeble excuse and smiled genially. "Of course, Lord El'Johnson. I do have some important prisoners and their artifacts. I'm certain we can trade and both obtain what we want. Lady Ivixia, always a pleasure to meet an Ordo Malleus Inquisitor that has not been corrupted, yet." I declared with a wry smirk, which didn't please Ivixia too much, as she gritted her teeth with a red face.
With a mental flick I closed the connection and began sending landers to recover my troops and Tarantula turrets. My job had been finished rather satisfactory, although eights Knights and three Titans were damaged, plus a third of the Tarantula turrets and Guardians had been destroyed. I intended to make the Imperium pay for my loses anyway.
"Incoming transmission from the silver cruiser. Wanna chat with the Grey Knights?" Velayne asked in a professional tone.
"They are merely mindless automatons, no point in talking with them." I answered with a level voice, while ordering my fleet to interpose aggressively and protect our lander craft.
"Twenty more attempts at vox transmissions." Velayne muttered as my ships formed a barrier of armor and lance batteries around the stream of landers.
"Just ignore them, and they'll go away. Or perhaps shoot first, so I can blow them up in self-defense." I said in a careless voice.
It wouldn't come to that with a Primarch watching, but better make sure.
"...And you wouldn't even blink doing that, would you?" Rose asked curious.
"Why would I blink, my dear? I have family on Pythos that I intend to protect and recover. Those demonhost space marines mean nothing to me. Mindless zombies all of them." I grumbled as I leaned into my command chair.
A new communique arrived from the Rock, and that I allowed through. "Lord Lancefire...the Grey Knights demand that no locals be allowed on your landers. Vital to the security of the Imperium." Inquisitor Dannica announced holding out her Rosette to confirm the order.
A pity then. Nearly 50 million people...well. If they were going to burn them anyway, I could pillage the place.
I nodded at the holoscreen and closed my eyes. There were thousands of small settlements dotting the higher mountains, which became suddenly empty as their population was transferred into my tesseract labyrinth.
Nearly 40 million people that never boarded a lander, as ordered. Couldn't do anything for those poor souls in Hive City Atika, which would be closely monitored to prevent escapees, but I could steal a thousand tons of munitions and weapons from their sealed armories. The Imperium would pay for my losses double.
"My duty here is over then." I announced with a calm voice, and turned off the Vox channel. The Tyranids would not wait after all, and were already massing for great meal on the jungle world.
Without replying to more transmissions, I loaded the Titans and Knights back in the landing bays and urged my fleet away, clearing an escape path with our Nova Cannons and concentrated lance battery fire. The Imperial Navy didn't stick around either, following my bigger fleet to safety.
Just before we departed the gravity well of the sun, the jungle world Pythos was engulfed in the familiar flames of an Incendiary Exterminatus torpedo, only an hour after the Tyranids began landing their spore pods.
A bit too soon in my opinion, but good enough. The lead Tyranid spore pods did contain the Broodlords and Tyrants, and losing them would weaken the Tyranid splinter Fleet greatly. This would also leave the bioships stranded here, hibernating to conserve energy while maintaining a thick Shadow in the Warp around the ruined Pythos.
The Demon Cache under Atika would be sealed by molted lava and covered in Warp disrupting Silence, while the Chaos forces lost their best leader and much of the Black Legion fleet, probably more than half.
Meanwhile my own collection grew, and I had things to trade now, valuable things.