"Adeptus Astartes cruiser, Indomitable Firepower, Lamenters Chapter. Requesting permission to approach Jovian Line." her Vox Master officer sent in a curt message.
"Stop all engines and maintain distance at Saturn Line, Indomitable Firepower. You will receive further instructions shortly." the nearest space fort demanded in a hurried voice.
Even the hololith screen had trouble keeping up with the constant influx of ships that provided Terra and Mars with resources, mineral or organic. It possibly made sense, they had to delay unscheduled visitors to the busy capital of the Imperium.
"It is even worse than I thought." Patrocles mused in a soft voice.
"What, the traffic jam?" Teresa added jokingly, making the whole bridge crew smile.
"That too, Captain. But no. So much human suffering..." the tech-marine explained in a lamenting voice.
She couldn't know what was going on in the hidden hab-blocks or munitions factories pilled over any rock in the Sol System, but the Machine Spirit logged millions of vox transmissions filling the void with countless Adeptus Arbites pleas for help, more troops, medical aid. Terra was at peace, nominally...but there was a constant war between gangs and Arbites enforcers all over Terra and Venus, even on other moons and space stations.
"Your call, Patrocles. But if you see anything egregious..." she advised her brother in a low voice.
"Already on it. I don't think my inventory of 40000 frag grenades will suffice." Patrocles muttered, while already dispersing mass-death wherever he saw gang violence exceeding lethal engagement rules back home.
Organ traffickers, torture, drug labs, human sacrifice...and worse. The gangs were openly brazen, often bearing Departmento_Munitorum weaponry , possibly looted or stolen.
As hours passed while the Sol traffic control tried to decide what to do with the inconvenient cruiser that arrived at a busy time, Patrocles had spent all frangible low yield munitions, and began to re-supply from available gang armories, and basically looting them blind. He could arm an entire PDF division with the gangs' inventory, although most of the stuff was old and in disrepair.
"We may be here for months, if you don't let me contact Terra directly." a Custodes dressed only in black robes spoke from the bridge's door, this time more politely.
"I don't mind personally. But yes. This would speed up the delivery mission. Proceed, Custodes!" Captain Teresa spoke with an easy voice.
The man took a few steps inside, then stopped and retrieved a lion-shaped sigil, and spoke a couple of code words. Almost immediately, a corridor was made available til the Jovian Line, and they moved through unimpeded by bureaucracy. In orbit of Forge World Jupiter, an Adeptus Custodes strike cruiser came by and docked.
From the transfer gate, a pair of resplendent and golden-armored Custodes arrived, and met with Shield-Captain Kalluin, and after a few words they followed him to his room.
An hour later, all three of them arrived at the bridge. "Tech-Marine Patrocles Lancefire, Lamenters Chapter. You will come with me. HE wants to see you." one of the Custodes proclaimed in a unshakable voice.
Patrocles just sighed and nodded.
"Bring your cargo as well, Patrocles. Transferring all this by shuttle will take time and effort." Kalluin demanded as they entered the transport deck.
With a grim face, Patrocles could only obey and displace the Demiurg loot as well as the 42000 Blanks inside the tesseract labyrinth.
"So, I hear you fisted the old Captain for acting rowdy?" one of the Custodes asked in a joking voice, yet sounding deadly as well.
Patrocles just smiled. "I only used a finger. My father would have used the entire fist." he spoke with a plain tone.
"... I was there when your father yanked the Emperor from the Golden Throne, Patrocles. The man got balls. The size of Terra and Mars, perhaps." the Custodes spoke with a conspiratorial voice.
Kalluin's face changed colors at the blasphemy-filled banter. "...No way!"
"It gets worse, but not here, Captain. You do look much better these days. Perhaps you found a special cure with that Power Fist? I am almost tempted to try..." the other Custodes joined in the banter.
Kalluin grew more dour and red in the face. "That crazy Lancefire! You wouldn't believe what he did to me!" he growled in an ashamed tone.
Patrocles had experienced the Ork trial as well, so he just sighed. Father was a bit crazy. Also, he yanked the Emperor from his throne? And still lives?
Man had balls of solid adamantium and the Emperor's Luck. If that phrase even worked in this case.
"Don't use the thing anymore, Patrocles. HE would be distracted from his work." the first Custodian demanded as the Strike Cruiser entered Terra's orbit.
The young Lancefire nodded. It was likely the dimensional displacement might interfere with some delicate experiment. "Unless my orders demand it, Custodes. There's no major incursion I can detect though, so we'll be fine." he answered with a level voice. He did quell like 5000 minor gang revolts though. Best if they didn't know that.
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It was a bit hard to treat the Custodes as normal people, but he could manage so far. As for his father's advice to be cool but respectful with the Emperor...was that even possible?
"Stand by. We will be transported..."
A second later Patrocles found himself beside Kalluin, and in front of the Emperor himself, wearing a brown robe and a special golden gauntlet on his left hand. Obviously, the Emperor had a tesseract of his own.
"Your Majesty!" Patrocles instantly declared, and tapped the heart sigil on his chest.
"Kalluin. You had a hard time?" the Emperor asked as his Custodes simply remained speechless.
"I feel much better now, Sire. And so do you, I see." Kalluin answered and bowed his head.
The Emperor stepped forwards and touched the man on his head, glowing a bit brighter for a second. "Lancefire tried his best to help you, I see. Chronal transfer. Human lifeforce?" the Emperor asked curious.
"We generally use Orks, your Majesty. The lifespan transfer is less limited. And they are plentiful." Patrocles explained in an almost calm voice. He did try to stay cool, but it was hard.
The golden eyes shifted on Patrocles for a second. "Very well. Less...morally problematic that way. Then again, your father has the strangest morals I saw in the past 30000 years. Almost like a Perpetual, yet clearly not. Is he well?"
"...Father is quite fine, your Majesty. Just finished the Demiurg Crusade, and then massacred a Black Crusade started by a ... daemon called Vashtorr. Some claims he was a Demi God. He could withstand three Immaterium Beams to the face for hours, with barely any effect other than some artifacts exploding on him." Patrocles said in a tired voice. Was he getting sleepy for no reason?
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"I can't even be surprised anymore. I expect you can confirm this, Kalluin?" the Emperor asked as the young tech-marine fainted and fell at his feet. Better if Patrocles wasn't awake for this part. Blanks were too rare to kill, just to keep some secret. Exactly like the Sisters of Silence.
"Yes, Sire. The thing shouted and wailed every time some artifact blew up, like a Spite Iron Goad and a Talisman of Forge. I could hear his screams from the Lamenters Spacefort, some 80 AU away." Kalluin said with a wary glance at the sleeping tech-marine.
"And then he died? Just like that?" the Emperor asked curious as he leaned down and removed an Aquila pendant from the sleeping man.
Another tesseract! Weren't they ultra rare? And so much loot inside! Albeit trash loot from Terran gangs it seemed. A lot of Blank kids, some artifacts...Even a hundred Chaos traitors! Alpha Legion as well.
"I wasn't close, Sire. But I believe it so. After the final push, there was a wide Blankness falling over the entire Illevar system. Worse than the Tyranid Silence in the Warp. Worse than any Pariah I've known." the Custodes answered with a faint shudder.
"So, you have any complaints? I hear you were mistreated by the Lancefires?" the Emperor asked with an easy voice.
Kalluin frowned, but shook his head. "I am not petty, Sire. The boy had orders. I chose to test that."
"Hmmm. The high road. Now let's see what the miracle Blank has sent me." The Emperor mused thoughtfully as he retrieved the dataslates and scrolled through at speed.
"Nothing powerful, but...valuable and easy to produce. You saw these Demiurg?" he asked a minute later. Laser and Ion Tech, old but reliable weapons from the Federation days, with their complete STCs too. Quite an amazing find! Too bad there weren't other, heavier weapons on this slate. The Federation had pretty much the pinnacle of human technology, including much stronger things.
"Yes, Sire. Your Agent Vail had many in custody. Human, if shorter and muscular. Some looked like clones, others were deformed. Quite advanced, I believe." the Custodes said as more and more devices pilled around the Emperor.
Almost certainly, these Demiurg were a lost Federation colony. It would be nice to dig some more advanced stuff from their ships.
"I remember them. They left Terra long ago. This second slate, you read anything on it?" The Emperor asked in a harsher voice.
Kalluin froze, and shook his head. The cruel master was back too. "It was marked for your eyes only, Sire!"
He nodded, seeing the Custodes was truthful. Gene-seed apoptosis! Lancefire sure had a way to find an egregious use of his knowledge.
The Astronomican didn't work that way, but Lancefire was a Blank and had no idea as to its operational ability. Then again, it would cost nothing to try. And now, he also had 100 Chaos traitors to test this proposal in secret.
"Good. Forget you saw it then. So, you think those Blackstone Fortresses are powerful?" the Emperor asked in a mild voice.
There were more ancient Fortresses appearing into the galaxy once more, and Lancefire had already grabbed three! He had seen more of them...two quite close in Segmentum Pacificus.
"Extremely so, Sire. Far beyond any ship we have." the Custodes answered with a clear voice.
"I located a couple more. Get to Mars and have Fabricator Cawl prepare an Expedition. We better get them before the Eldar do, or worse, the Orks." he ordered as he tapped Kalluin's head and transferred the locations into his mind, then moved him into the labyrinth and right before Mount Olympus on Mars.
Now, who to send to lead the Fortress Expedition? A Primarch? Not the Lion though. Could they even handle it alone? This was War in Heaven tech.
His eyes glanced down at the young Tech-Marine. The boy could help. "Sanguinius, there's one of your sons here. Patrocles Lancefire." he spoke to his own son.
"Very well, Sire. I'll be right over." the Angel Primarch said with a strangely glad voice.
Meanwhile, the young Blanks had to be hidden away, the Demiurg tech sent to the Imperial labs...and young Patrocles upgraded to withstand C'tan tech better, just like his father.
A gift for a gift. That cunning Rogue Trader always got ahead.
Too bad Adepta Janice wasn't here. She was literally perfect. Maybe he could marry again. But then Pef Lancefire would be his father-in-law. What a strange universe!