En route to the next battle, I kept working on the STCs in my library, sometimes finding something to improve, but most often not.

The wolves seemed content to lay about in half-sleep states, only Zath seeming quite amused at my frustration.

"Is there something on my face?" I asked out loud and froze the hologram of the Macharius FTL engine.

"It doesn't matter where on the curve you drop the ball, it will reach the destination at the same time. It is why is called a tautocrone curve." the C'tan answered with a toothy smile.

'The C'tan is right, Captain. If the ball drops higher, it gathers more speed and reaches the end at the same time with the ball dropped lower. It is the same principle used in Warp Drives, except there the ball falls though billions of layers of Immaterium.' The Blade spoke in my mind, calming me to know at least someone understood something about the damned engines. Calling it bullshit felt better, though.

I wasn't stupid, but the math just didn't work. "If it was so, the mass of the ship shouldn't matter either. Even a corvette could use the Macharius Drive." I countered with a sad voice.

"And it could, if your quality control was good enough. The same works for the duplication method used in the Ymga_Monolith . You can cut an object into small bits and get one extra when you reassemble it. Just like you did, with Vulkan." Zath added with a wolfish snort, then closed his eyes to fake sleep again.

'Blade? Is that possible...like on industrial scale?' I asked with no ulterior reason. Duplicating my ships and other treasures might be handy, one day.

The AI's hologram glowed for a second. 'There are some clues in the old files of a Banach-Tarski's theorem, and later experiments in the Federation that burned out a sun. I think they concluded the energy for such a feat was too large, even if draining a blue giant star. Obviously, it can be done...by Necrons.'

The Federation might have failed, but the C'tan didn't point me to that Eastern Fringe monolith for no reason. I even had a clue where the Necrons got the energy to duplicate stuff, by draining a C'tan, most likely.

I turned to find seven wolves peeking at me with half-closed eyes. "Got it. We'll go release your captured brothers from the Ymga Monolith. When I return to the Fringe."

I said with a thin smile. Was I so easy to be used? Was it my bleeding heart, urging me to stop the suffering of sentient people?

Lash opened one eye fully to stare at me. "The path of understanding is paved with suffering, Pef Lancefire. Your Emperor understood that in the end, and so will you."

While not as mystical and occluded like the Eldar, the C'tan still masked their intentions behind veils of difficult concepts. Or perhaps it was the divine aspect which made it harder to communicate with lesser beings. The C'tan weren't called Star Gods for no reason. Their Phase Blades, the etheric detectors and other such artifacts were not just tech, but divine artifacts imbued with their essence.

Anyway, nothing I could do about quality control, since only a few Forge Worlds could even make cruiser-size engines. Forge World Voss was the latest of them, since my recent visit and upgrade to their facilities and defenses. But stopping for a week at every Forge World in my path wasn't feasible, although I should make the stop at Krieg to recruit more Krieg regiments. Holding the ground would be needed, even if expensive in lives. Or clones in Krieg's case.

"Fleet wide, continue towards Cadia. The Singularity will catch up after we stop at Krieg." I sent directly to all Crusade fleet.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

We did have Primarch Guilliman with us, so I wasn't worried about logistics now. The man was quite renowned for his abilities.

'Be safe, father!' Laur sent me a heart-warming message.

'Lash, you follow the Crusade and keep one eye open. On the Eldar, I mean.' I asked of the most trust-worthy Shard here. Since his main body was locked tight inside the Pharos, Lash didn't have the privilege of flying off whenever he felt like. Lash just nodded and vanished without a word.

'Increasing motive power. ETA to Krieg, 2.2 hours.' Zath warned me as he phased inside the engine to make it go faster. Like 1000 times faster. Damn bullshit and balls falling at same speed. The C'tan cheated!

I kinda understood now why the Webway curved like it did, not because of gravity wells like I first guessed. There was a simple but deep principle at work, sometimes called the principle of least action. The fastest path to another place was never a straight line, and especially not if you shifted mediums, like from the void of space to the Warp and multiple dimensions in-between.

One thing about this changing universe that never changes. There is only war.

The world of Krieg was under attack as we approached, so possibly Zath had a good reason to speed our travel. The usual suspects as well, Orks drawn to a 'propa fight' with a planet where everything was geared for war, and soldiers were endless as they jumped from cloning crucibles directly into the Munitorum depots to get equipped and march to war.

'Eat only the vegetables, and leave the metal for me.' I asked the wolves as they grinned with hungry eyes.

Those six Space Hulks filled with Orks and squigs and grots and other Ork critters they carried around as an ecosystem might not sate the C'tan, but it would make them a bit healthier and certainly stronger. They were kinda starved, the poor Shards, after their prolonged imprisonment inside the Tesseract Vaults.

Also, my Crusade Fleet and army were not with me, so I kinda depended on my allies to fix the problem and allow Krieg to release their troops to my service.

I did have 3 million Thalax suits in my tesseract though, and they also needed some live fire practice as to not get rusty. Not proper Space Marines, but basically the same power armor and weapons like the old Astartes Legions. And same numbers as 20 of those Legions. Perhaps I was too cautious. My back-up forces matched the Great Crusade in numbers.

Lady Valyene sat beside me with her large belly ready to pop soon. "Commander Lancefire, you have the strangest luck I have ever seen." she noted with mocking sarcasm, unimpressed by the giant Ork Armada and their thousands of rusty warships.

I just glanced behind her, where Alaric and Semnai were looking ready to pop too, eager for battle. "You guys want to join my Thalax Legions and board the Ork ships?" I asked with a kind voice.

"Can we, Inquisitor?" Semnai asked in a not-quite-begging tone.

The Inquisitor turned to look at me, then at Custode Valerian guarding my back. "I guess I'll be safe enough here, Deathwatch marines. Go play with the greenskins for a change." she allowed with a gentle head shake.

The Custodes remained silent, like he always did unless spoken to. I'm sure he could give great advice, but I wasn't using conventional methods for inserting or withdrawing troops anyway. How I yearned for a teleporter in my youth, to make boarding pirate ships less costly. Now I could displace millions of troops inside thousands of ships with my will alone. And I did.