By the time I returned at Machine Forge, after a short diplomatic voyage to show the flag and uphold several Astartes Chapters with infusions of ships, manpower and advice, two years have passed and more progress had been made.
Children were born, ships repaired, even the Blackstone Fortress had been cleaned up of Chaos vestiges and sanctified by the Cult Mechanicus with their own magi-tech rituals.
I would have to start my fucking job again, not that I didn't enjoy most of this duty.
Only Lady Velayne was around this time, still keeping a watchful eye on the new Forge and preventing more outrageous Mechanicus experiments from going too far.
The techpriests sent to the Fringe weren't the most loyal and stable after all, and their various inner cults had quite dubious agenda sometimes.
There were also three new ships in the system, one being a derelict Great Cruiser missing half its prow, very likely the gift from Trazyn the Infinite, one was an Ark Mechanicus with marking of Mars, and one was a Dark Angels strike cruiser, containing only two Astartes and the serf crew.
Well, I had avoided the big wigs on Mars for far too long. They probably wanted a share of the loot too. Probably all of it, if they had their way.
"What does Mars want from us?" I asked Gemmina directly in her mind.
"Pef? They want to inspect all our facilities, make sure there is no heretek work done here. And...they want to inspect your Chapter's gene-seed and the Blank Astartes. I also suspect they want clones." she whispered back, all while escorting the Mars delegation through-out the labs.
Yeah, we're not going to do that.
Anyway, that could wait. I will first meet the Dark Angels and see what the Lion Primarch wanted from me.
"Names?" I asked as they entered my hangar bay.
"I am Brother Apharan and this is Lexicanum Merlith. Have you heard of the Battle_of_the_Caliban_System ?" he replied in a monotonous voice, with the Lexicanum Astartes recording every word beside him.
"I was busy." I answered curtly and eyed the Lexicanum guy with suspicion. Psykers were always bad news.
"Well...we managed to defeat the traitors and even captured some of them. Your name was cursed many times during interrogations. They seem to think it was your fault, for their defeat. Which is rather curious, since we are quite sure you were never at Caliban, in your entire life." Brother Apharan explained while measuring my space wolf for a steak, while Canis did the same, only medium rare.
"What can I say? Ask them more details. I have been burning traitors left, right and center for 50 years at least." I answered in a casual tone, and stepped closer to the Lexicanum, making the guy back off a few steps.
"We know, Lord Lancefire. I was on the Rock at Pythos." the man muttered while gesturing to Merlith to stand his ground.
So I got even closer, patting the Lexicanum psyker on his shoulder. "Astartes fear nothing, Brother Merlith. And yet...here you are shivering and sweating, while Warp voices howl in your head with murderous cries. Where is your courage, Dark Angel?" I wondered in a friendly voice, making the man flinch from a gentle pat on his hood.
"Anathema! You are a Blacksoul!" he growled back, stepping back once more and holding his staff to ward me away.
Rather cute, if he wasn't a fucking Astartes!
"You are an idiot, Merlith. Blanks are psykers too, only immune to Warp. Only I don't have shields or invisibility powers like the Silent Sisters, nor can I reverse Waagh fields and banish demons like the Pariah. Instead, other psykers like yourself have hunted out Blanks all over the galaxy, just to gain more secular power. Inquisitors, Navigators, Astropaths and Cardinals, even Librarians...all corrupt to their very soul by the Warp. And you dare call me Anathema? How many of your Chapter have fallen to Chaos? 40 thousand? That's 40 thousands reasons you should kiss my feet, because I will never fall. Get the fuck out of my ship, and never enter my presence again. Or I will burn your corrupt soul to ash!" I shouted and kicked him away, Sparta style.
I did wear power armor, so it worked too, sending the psyker skidding along the metal floor for 20 meters.
Canis chased the exiled Lexicanum to his dropship, carrying his staff in the mouth, like a small bone.
"I'm...sorry for my Brother, Lord Lancefire. Psykers are sometimes sensitive to Blanks...and the superstitions do not help either." the Warned of the Rock said in a peaceful tone.
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"Go back to burning Imperium's worlds, brave defender of humanity. Your fanatic Chapter is not welcomed here." I answered in an angry tone, and pointed at his dropship.
He turned and walked away, possibly trying to figure out when the negotiations went wrong.
Did I snub a big Astartes Chapter by this? I sure hope I did. Some things were not okay, and knowing and seeing were very different.
I kinda hoped they will all become Fallen, so I would have a reason to burn their zealot corpses into a sun.
Not really. They would be useful enough stirring trouble and fighting traitors in other places. I couldn't be everywhere, and they even had a Primarch now.
An hour later, I met with the Mars delegation, led by some high-ranking Magi that were supposed to make me feel impressed.
"What do you want, Mars Forge?" I asked them directly.
"It has come to our attention that you've acquired many exotic and even xeno artifacts...that shall be turned over to the Forge. And you also need to offer us access to the Lamenter gene-seed and the Blank Astartes, for detailed examination." the tallest Magos demanded from 1 meter above me.
"Of course. As soon as Mars shares all the technology it has. Unless you have brought the complete database, you have one hour to leave my system or be destroyed. 59 minutes now." I answered with a genial smile.
"You cannot do this! The Imperium..." the other Magos tried to argue in near panic.
"We are not in the Imperium here. 58 minutes." I continued with a softer voice.
"Are you really going to rebel, Lord Lancefire?" the first Magos asked with surprise.
"There is nothing to rebel from. You have no authority here, and I do. Bring out every STC template you have, and share it with my Forge. Then, we can trade. Until then, you are trespassers trying to steal from me, and we burn criminals to the stake here. 57 minutes." I continued as my bodyguard raised their weapons and began advancing, as ordered.
The two Magi exchanged a glance and walked away towards their Mechanicus dropship.
It seemed today was a terrible day for negotiations.
The Ark Mechanicus exchanged a hundred engramatic messages with Machine Forge til the time was up, then turned away and fled as my own ships formed up for an assault. Not that I would destroy a priceless ship like theirs.
They were idiots anyway, trying to force my hand like this. It wasn't like I would let them call a Punitive Expedition on my House.
The Ark Mechanicus opened a Warp window and vanished, and ended up in my tesseract beside all the other loot. Yet another ship lost in the Warp, like millions ships before it.
Even if they didn't have the best technology of Mars on that ship, it would be more advanced than Forge Retribution had.
Perhaps just enough technology to repair the Glorianna and make it great again.
A week later, during my regular visit at Retribution, an intact but empty Ark Mechanicus appeared in the system and was quickly taken over by my Fabricator Dominus and his cogispriests, eager to examine the lost relic and its amazing technology.
Nearby, a huge zero-G dockyard made from asteroids and metal scaffolds housed the Singularity Battleship and its singularity weapon, the Voidclaw being slightly repaired and configured by a few Joakero artisans, while new warpless engines and powerful plasma reactors were being assembled for the crown of my fleet.
The regular battleships were less important and could be repaired and upgraded at Triplex Phall and Metalica, as well as Forge Lucius for those captured in the Expanse campaign. It would be slower, but at least I wouldn't have to worry about Chaos or infiltrators here. Only my Dynasty had access to Retribution, and few Inquisitors even knew its location.
The big shipyards and factories of Machine Forge could not be hidden, and indeed were not meant to be hidden, with techpriests drawn from thirty Forge Worlds and a big Blackstone Fortress right in the middle.
As long as the Pharos was still operational, attacks will keep coming, and what better defense than a giant fleet, a thousand forts, a giant battlestation and the interest of thirty Forge Worlds to keep their investment safe?
Already Fabricator Gemmina wanted to open a new Forge on a different moon, due to the influx of new acolytes that needed to be trained into more techpriests. Immigrants kept coming, and will keep coming as long as there were jobs here.
Beside my Lamenter Chapter and the Lancefire Dynasty, even the Inquisition would be interested in keeping the C'tan safe for constant interrogation, without knowing the true purpose of the prison.
All except Rose, and her nebulous call to visit Terra and meet the Emperor.
I was quite curious what came of that.