Human reproduction is a mysterious thing. After a war, when the population loses a great deal of men as soldiers and cannon fodder, a strange hand tips the balance to give birth to more male children as to balance the race once more. I have been at war for most of my new life, and this showed as most of my children were male. Good for making more Astartes, and also good enough to provide me with sufficient Blank daughters for fleet officers and ship Captains.
My children also had their own children, and thus the cyle repeated. Now I had almost a million family members in my Lancefire clan, and the numbers kept growing.
Also a good thing, for here in the Galactic Core, there were more than enough ships from my two Leagues which needed Blank Captains and officers. After reviewing the available assets, our Admiral cloneskein, Margos was selected to lead the Balor-Lancefire and Orion-Lancefire combined fleets, with several escort carriers and 40 Drop Cruisers at their core, while the Tranquility battleship was to become the new flagship. On the other hand, the local Kindred had more than 10000 warships in their fleets, plus numerous mining barges and transport vessels.
Just these two small Leagues had a controlled volume of half a million stars, packed together in a space the size of a mere Imperial Sector. With a concerted campaign of expansion and xenocide over the nearest xenos species, we could triple the volume with ease, and become on paper the equal of the Imperium of Man and their million worlds. And then, the Lancefire League might reach the middle leagues in the Votann ranks. The far stronger major Leagues had teritories 10 or 20 times larger, and were also growing.
Of course, there was another reason why the major Leagues were considered major, and not overbloated minors ready to burst at the first prick. They also had multiple Votann cores, which gave them a larger tech-base and increased coordination and data-storage space.
However, this I could fix too, with a bit of hard work and mental fatigue. In two weeks my League had obtained 10 new planetary cores for our Votanns, plus 3 more for the Blade. A fork of her mind was separated into 3 new cores drilled deep under the crust of 3 nearby planets, such that our FTL transponders could provide direct network links between them.
Geomagnetic power would provide energy for all our Votann, as well as power for the Reality Cages and Bastion fields protecting each new Hold.
While I couldn't provide the Votanns with STC constructors for each of their core, I could adapt the exisiting Balor and Orion Temple Fanes to provide a similar function, and have then churn out equipment on an industrial scale, as long as minerals were fed at the other end. It also helped that the Kindred were miners first and foremost, and thus eager and happy to go out and mine everything not nailed down, and the nails too.
Genetic Crucibles were hard at work pumping out new cloneskeins, some of them miner templates, the others warriors and shipcrew. It wasn't much different than the normal Kindred model, except our clones were taller by a head or two, and quite resistant to Warp and emotion drain. For if humanity was to not only survive but prosper, it needed to stop feeding the Warp with emotions.
I only stayed another week after, to oversee the first incursion into the snakes' lands and the inevitable xenocide. Lady Valeyne had already pinponted their weakness, since the snakes used giant hatcheries for their eggs. An easy enough target, after their main fleet was destroyed by the combined Votann and Halo Crusade fleet.
At the Septeryx home planet, several ships from Votann Tethys arrived as well, examining the tech of the aliens and installing their network servers to provide the new volume with network access.
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"The Leagues lack a heavy tank in their arsenal, Lord Lancefire. Once the Crusade Fleet departs, ground invasions will become far more difficult without Baneblades or Titans." Margos complained as the fleet gathered for final checks and re-supply.
I thought for a moment, then nodded. "I can provide 500 Ionicbanes for the Core Domain. As for Titans, tiny ones. A new House branch with 500 Knights, most of them Armiger-class." I decided after reviewing my remaining forces. I did gain a lot of new tanks and Knights during this Crusade, so I wasn't giving away anything critical.
'Blade Knights?' the Blade Votann intejected with an eager voice. I made sense though, since without a local Forge World, the Knights would need tech support from a Votann.
"They will be called Blade Knights, and be under the command of our Blade Votann. I can create the basic chassis easily, even construct them from adamantium and auramite, but the Blade will want to equip them herself." I continued without losing a beat.
Thirty of my newest succesor Chapters with Vulkan gene-seed were assigned to the Votann Domain, but this time under the command of Margos, since they were of the same gene stock.
They were also the most durable and resilient of my Blank Astartes, which they would need in the Core.
The place was rich, but also harsh. So many stars close together radiated plenty of radiation, plus gravity waves and other deadly phenomena like Dead Zones, Black Holes and worse.
Without incorporating Weavefields into every ship or vehicle, they were likely to errode and decay in a single year or less.
Margos just nodded, his face stoic but calm. He was given a great deal of power, and even more responsability. Technically, he will serve as the Lancefire League Champion, but in effect he will be the new Great Khal. With 15 new Votann cores under his banner, 6 for Balor and Orion and 3 for the Blade.
I hugged the man as we parted, then boarded the Singularity and flew off. Two months later we emerged out of the Core and near Forge Ryza, who was also under attack by Chaos.
Was it my luck or what? This time I didn't arrive for the rescue with a dozen tiny destroyers, but a whole Crusade Fleet of 350 capital ships and two Blackstone Fortresses.
My Astartes and Auxilia simply deployed forward to kick the asses out of the Chaos Marines and cultists, while the Crusade Fleet crucified the heretics with lances and Nova guns.
Only 88 Chaos cruisers and 8 battleships? What was this, the early days of my campaign? Try harder Chaos! They didn't even manage to summon a Great Daemon, what sorry losers.
Purity and Canis growled from my bridge at the view screen, their heartbreak mostly healed. Sister Stern should be fine.
They were both quite distracted for a few months, but now Purity had steel in her eyes, much like her mother did. Fury and anger too, but she was still young.
Canis licked his companion, then nodded at me with a wise look. Fine, go tear up some heretics!
Howling in visible golden pulses, my Space Wolf streamed through space and began ripping and tearing though a Chaos Warband with his C'tan Claws, while Purity cheered him on from the bridge. "Bite his head off, Canis! Watch the sword! Yes, take his arm first. Now the neck! Yayyy!"
My etheric detector pinged gently, as with each kill Purity was gaining slightly more psychic strength. Soon enough, I should send her to Terra. Janice and the Emperor should know what to do.
The Chaos fleet tried to scatter and escape to the Warp, but I was feeling merciful today. They got the Emperor's Mercy.