The first surprise inside the Zone Mortalis was the lack of Warp emanations, which affected even our few Blank Librarians who couldn't draw on the Warp to power up spells at all.

The next surprise was the giant graveyard of ships, space stations and even entire worlds, caught in the middle of their normal routine and just snuffed out, leaving only plant life to continue. But no other life, not even insects, not to mention mammals.

This gave me an idea for later, using the Zone Mortalis as a galactic band of agriworlds and Blank-only stations, safe from incursion from mostly anything except damned Necrons. But for now, it wouldn't make much sense to start colonizing and lose my precious Blanks to Necron genocides.

I could still collect the free ships and stations, and loot anything worthwhile from planets in our patrol route, which wasn't a small amount, given the militarization of the Imperium. I was already rich, but the first month of my Crusade doubled my networth easily.

Sure, most of the Imperial equipment I found was low tier stuff like lasguns, autoguns and autocannons, with the occasional Las-cannon or missile system in important places. Then again, I did find a dozen dead Astartes Chapters and took all their stuff for my own sons, including their tanks, power armor and relics. Waste not, right?

Then, as the Crusade Fleet approached the Webway's tunneling path, the Necrons arrived as well. And not the regular, brain-dead Necrons I was used to.

These were coordinated, smart and fairly rational robots, which simply hated anything alive, and wished to make them unalive.

The first engagement with a squadron of Scythe Cruisers had me lose one cruiser of my own and a hundred corvettes in less than a minute, for a meager kill count of five Necron ships. It was basically a disaster.

So I held council with a pair of metal wolves, as to better prepare for this worthy enemy.

"The Necrons are formidable warriors, Pef Lancefire. We made them this way, to win our war with the Old Ones." Zath said in a proud voice.

"And then they broke and enslaved us as well, Captain. A ratio of one to five is not bad at all, even with those small escorts as ablative shields. Necron capital ships are far too powerful to engage in harassing attacks, and you haven't fought a battleship yet." Lash added with a wolfish grin of too many sharp teeth.

I mean, I knew all this, but I kinda hoped the upgrades to my ships would make a difference. They didn't.

The technological disparity was too big, and I didn't have proper Golden Age warships anyway. Only scraps of my ancestors' tech, which was good in comparison to the degraded tech of the Imperium, but still weak against functional Necron fleets.

"So, the plan would be to use our Blackstone Forts to bear the brunt of their firepower. And strike the C'tan Shards with Immaterium beams?" I mused in a low voice.

Zath raised a claw and chewed on it for a minute. "It may not work like that either, Pef Lancefire. Yes, to the fort bulwark plan, but this dead soul zone will likely suppress the fort beams below the critical threshold needed to kill a Shard. You're going to need boarding actions and strike at the Tesseract Vaults."

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Funnily enough, Space Marines were designed for boarding actions, so I did have a second plan available now. But not a sure-way to deal with more C'tan Shards. This sucked. Unless...

"You two could counter another Shard easily. Not even kill them, except if you hate that guy very badly. Freeing the captured Shards would be enough, and even better if they would turn sides and help." I proposed with a smile of my own. I did have teeth as well.

The two wolves glanced at each other for a long minute. "You would free our race, Lord Lancefire?" Lash asked in a hesitant voice, as his eyes turned on me.

"Hmmm. Technically, you two would free your own brothers from the Necron yoke, not me. At least those you consider worthy. I wouldn't know who to trust among multiple C'tan Shards. I'm certain you guys had plenty of factions and internal conflicts, like any sapient race." I answered after thinking a little.

Zath sighed softly and lowered his giant head on his paws. "My people are not as nice as you think, Pef Lancefire. Many of them would need to be killed, and others take a lot of convincing. And I mean, brutal assault and battery in your favorite Imperial diplomacy style."

"Violence is always an answer, true enough. I do have my own method, if yours fails. It won't be pretty." I added with a thoughtful voice, mentally poking the lance daemon.

'Eat! Grow!' Drach answered eagerly in my mind. If this was a game, I would be happy to have a growth weapon, and feed it all my enemies. But this was still a Great Daemon, not a toy. Holding it was already a struggle, and one slip could see the daemon released or worse. Or much worse, as things liked to happen in 40k.

"I'm going to help, if the Shards of the Potentate are returned to us. I don't care about other C'tan much." Lash answered in a more casual voice.

Zath let out a pained wail, and hid his face beneath his paws. "I will try, but I fear the worst anyway. Hopefully, the Shards we encounter will be weak from their captivity, and easily convinced."

Hope again, huh? We were so fucked!

Drawing some blackstone from my tesseract, I covered my fists with stone gloves and smashed them together. "If I have to, I will join in person as well. With a blackstone golem frame. And to think I am always making fun of the poor Orks..."

"That would be fun to see, I admit. Humans are mostly harmless as a race, but you are quite the exception, Pef Lancefire." Lash said with a toothy grin, and a glance behind me.

I turned, to find my Inquisitor wife observing my war council with a deep frown, but only partially material, like a hologram of sorts. Ever since she visited Zarhulash on Sotha, Lady Valyene had gained a few strange abilities, and an uncanny connection with her own Nexus cube. "Yes, my dear wife?" I asked my partially disembodied wife.

"Even in this phase form, entering the Zone Mortalis is quite the strain on my soul, Holy Emissary. I never thought I would envy a Blank." she said in a cold voice.

"Still, it is progress. Another method to traverse the dead zone, right?" I asked rhetorically.

"By using Necron technology. This method borders on heresy and heretek, so it will never be approved as a large scale program. It is grievous heretek for the monodominant conclaves. Which leaves only a few radical Inquisitors ever able to use it. And those come with their own sets of problems." Valyene spoke in a disgusted voice.

I shrugged without care. "The Imperial Webway itself is copied from alien tech. Not to mention the Golden Throne and numerous psi-tech devices. I'm all for human tech when it is possible, but if the Emperor himself handwaves the problem away, who are we to argue?" I countered with an easy voice.

"You argue quite well, Pef Lancefire. Not that a heresy pyre would bother you anymore, but do think of your extended family. I fear the Imperial Faith has grown beyond the Emperor's intention, and its followers will not even listen if He speaks against it. Tread lightly, when in the open." my wife advised me with a dour voice, and faded back in her dimensional safe space.

I sighed in soul pain, matching my C'tan wolf for once. "Killing Gods is difficult enough, but how do you kill a religion?" I mused in a sad tone.

Lash scratched his head with his hind leg, while Zath just sighed, powerless. Even Gods were confused about this problem.