"Rogue Trader, you are such an aggravating problem! I thought my emotions were muted 4000 years ago." the Fabricator of Lucius blared at me with his oversized megaphone.
"Don't get mad, Fabricator. I love Baneblades like any other man. I even have 2000 of them in my army. But the Stormblade doesn't have a turret, and the Heavy Bolter secondary weapons need ammo, which I don't have." I explained in a patient voice.
Wordlessly, the Fabricator loaded new picts on his holoscreen, showing my Auxilia tanks in combat with the Tyranids. Doomhammers and Ionbanes blew up thousands of small bioforms with each shot, or felled down a larger bio-titan in two or three shots. Pretty decent, I thought.
"A Stormblade's Plasma Blastgun would have killed that Hive Tyrant in one shot. It's not efficient." the robed tech-priest complained in a sad voice.
"...Mount a single Plasma gun on a rotating turret instead of a fixed casemate, then give it another pair of Lascannons and a multi-melta on the glacis. Also, it needs an Ion Shield at least." I said with a careless voice, while mentally assembling exactly such a model on my implant and then uploading it on his holoscreen.
"My Forge will produce 2000 of these Flamebanes for your Dynasty, Rogue Trader. Also, 100 Nova Cruisers and 4 new Godbane Lance Battleships. But are you sure you want 2 million Armed Sentinels? They are rather fragile machines..." the Fabricator offered with a dubious voice.
"Humans are far more fragile, Fabricator. Sentinels are not power armor or Lorica suits, but any regular human walking inside a Sentinel is a dozen times more combat effective than a Lasgun infantryman. Not suitable for the Imperial Guard, but my Auxilia units are not bound by the Lords of Terra's decree. And neither would be your own Auxilia regiments. " I proposed with a sneaky voice.
The Fabricator's mechdendrites clasped each other, as if he was wringing his hands. "The machines would be easy to repair and re-sactify post combat, after the fleshbits have been washed off. Perhaps a bit wasteful on pilots, but then Terra itself is exporting willing new pilots by the billions. Cleaning up the underhives, most likely." he deduced after a minute of contemplation. It was a bit strange to see a large machine giant acting so human. But he was still human, after all.
"Indeed. Think of billions of steel walkers, marching in step to overwhelm Orks and other species with sheer firepower. They won't be God-walkers, but at some point numbers have their own quality." I whispered with a teasing voice.
"...Force multipliers. You are well-versed in the Tactica doctrines, Rogue Trader. But then, you are also an Astates Chapter Master, so you have to be. I will consider your walker regiment, Pef Lancefire. Not with this kind of complicated cable arms and energy weapons like the Lamenter Auxilia Sentinels, but hydraulic arms and autocannons would suffice for my Forge, while our Luciun alloy will still provide immunity from small arms fire." the Fabricator decided while examining picts of my Sentinels in combat with more Tyranid bioforms.
I nodded slowly. Ease of manufacture would be important when making billions of war engines. I did tend to go a bit overboard with quality equipment for my troops, but they weren't strictly necessary.
"Well then. Please deliver the stuff to Forge Machine when is ready, as I do have to head towards the Maelstrom now. Orders from Terra." I asked in a polite voice, then set down my tea cup and patted Canis on his head.
"May the light of the Omnissiah quide your way, Pef Lancefire." The Fabricator answered with a small nod, and then I vanished into my tesseract and emerged in my rooms.
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"Wooo. Ruuuf!" Canis advised me as another wolf materialized in my room.
Zath measured me with his almost life-like eyes, and nodded. 'Do you need more weapons, Lord Captain? I can create more Phase Blades or etheric detectors.' the C'tan offered without prompt.
Hmmm. Divine gifts? There would be hell to pay, future Pef.
'You know yourself best, Zath. If your energy is full, you can produce more detectors and do a sweep of the fleet for genestealers or other infiltrators. Our destination is the Hell's_Teeth Demon World in the Maelstrom, so my troops could use extra detection abilities.' I advised the C'tan wolf with a gentle voice.
'I will not accompany you inside the Maelstrom, nor the Galactic Core, Pef Lancefire. I can sense my own demise in that place.' the C'tan said in a strange tone, almost sad.
Ah, now the gifts made more sense.
"Stick to Orks and Tyranids for your meals, Zath. I rather not have to hunt you down, and ruin our friendship." I spoke out loud, making Canis perk up and walk towards the C'tan.
The two wolves growled something inaudible at each other. Saying goodbye, perhaps?
'Your gift awaits in the 9th storage bay where you had the blackstone, Lord Captain. When you finish your Ascension, we will meet again.' the C'tan spoke in my mind, stronger than other times.
His shape shifted to a humanoid giant of stone and gold, and then vanished.
I sat on my adamantium chair while Canis nosed my face with his wet nose. Yeah, the C'tan got spooked and left, which didn't bode well for my chances.
The Emperor might have sent me to my death this time.
"Wauugh!" my wolf encouraged me , then bit my glove and tugged on it.
Right. I did have my own powers now. Anyways, my regular Auxilia would be of no use inside the damned Maelstrom, nor would any regular crew of voidborns and tech-priests, so only Blanks could join.
As it happened, I did have 84 misplaced Universe-class mass conveyors filled with Terran immigrants, and thus a way to send the non-essential people back to the Fringe, without reducing the fleet's firepower. While making my way towards the Maelstrom, we stopped at 84 Ork or Feral Worlds to seed small new colonies and exterminate the dangerous flora or fauna, and at each stop I would reformat one Universe conveyer into a Fleet carrier with warp-less engines and troop capacity.
Only 100 million colonists and 1 million Auxilia for each new colony, but with tech-priests and a base of infrastructure and a Sentinel guard, the colonies should grow and become Feudal Worlds in time. Maybe even more, who knows? I could only spare a single corvette to act as Governor seat for the Captain and their crew, while the immigrants spread all over the planet to make a living. I kinda understood what the Emperor wanted, dispersing the population of Terra to new worlds. For one, they would be able to live under the clear sky instead of living in dark tunnels and poisoned fumes of the underhives.
On the other hand, Terra was kinda doomed anyways. A Hive World with half a trillion people would struggle under a long siege, but algae farms and recycled proteins would allow it to survive, somewhat. Make that problem 40000 times larger, and things would go bad fast. A single month of food imports disruption would condem quadrillions to famine or canibalism. Make that a year, and Terra would be a Cemetery World.
If I could see it, surely the Emperor could see it too.
Plus, a million new colonies would possibly push the Imperium of Man into a new age of Galactic domination and security. Even if the entire Imperium of today fell, the new worlds would rise into a new Imperium in time.
Bad things will come, I was now certain. This was 40k after all, and good things never lasted. For in the dark future I lived in, there was only war.