In high orbit over the Forge World Agripinaa, my Crusade Fleet met with Khan's roaming horde, as well as dozens more Astartes Chapters with Raven gene-seed.

The two brothers stood shoulder to shoulder , while Custodes Captain Valerian stood beside me. And over me. Because he was rather tall.

"A Warmaster, again..." Khan mused in a deep voice, while Corax just grunted.

"I know. I should have said no." I answered with a careless voice, making the Custodes glare at me.

"Captain Valerian would not take no for an answer. Emperor's orders, I should think." Corax said with a sad voice.

"Eh. Maybe the little one can make an order to change reality and impart ability onto someone, but the Emperor? Not as yet." I countered with a shrug.

Khan just laughed, and measured me with keen eyes. "I was there for the final days of Commorragh. I was there when you struck at the Garden of Nurgle. I was there when you ruined a Necron Dynasty and captured most of their fleet. You don't lack ability, Warmaster. Support on the other hand..." spoke with a head shake.

"I will demand Compliance of anyone, and ensure it." The Custodes demanded while striking the floot with the butt of his Guardian Spear Gnosis . Very imposing too.

I just patted his auramite pauldron. "If only the world worked that way, Shield Captain. Let's stomp out feet and demand Compliance, like we are teenage Nobles. Surely, everyone will drop their millennia old grudges and plots, forgive their rivals and ignore religious differences."

"Do you doubt your own abilities, Pef Lancefire?" Captain Valerian asked with a piercing voice.

"My abilities? Nah. I'm probably a competent Admiral, better than most. Primarch Khan is right though. I lack the support of the Imperial elite, which means nobody will provide me with billions of troops and supplies and equipment to conquer a galaxy. I have to rely on my own friends among the Forge Worlds, and manufacture troops, supplies and equipment for myself. The exact same way I operated for the past centuries." I concluded with a lamenting tone.

"And thus, Forge Agripinaa. They consider you their Saviour, as well as Cadia and all the worlds you did save by closing the Eye of Terror. Why here though?" Khan wondered with a glance outside the armored window.

"Training, mostly. The worlds formerly inside the Eye are all rather corrupted by Chaos, but potentially filled with exotic loot. The Orks are all busy looting the stuff, and getting strong. Do you know what they'll do with a dozen STCs?" I asked a bit rhetorical.

Corax nodded cautiously. "We could have another War of the Beast. Maybe worse."

"I will stay here and coordinate the purge, while you two pincer this area with your gene-sons. Should you find any strong resistance point, notify me and I'll dispatch extra ships and troops. Feel free to recruit as many regiments you can from the Imperial worlds around. They are already at conscription levels, so they won't lack troops at least." I ordered with a level voice, then returned the Primarchs to their own ships.

"They are Primarchs, Lord Lancefire. There is no need to test their ability to recruit and deploy Militarum regiments." Captain Valerian mused in a thoughful voice.

The man was right, but I wasn't testing that. "There are 400 billion stars in this galaxy, Valerian. Even if I recruit all the Guardsmen in all the Imperium, they are not enough to conquer all. So, what can I do?" I asked a bit rhetorical, just as a Lancefire Trade ship arrived in the system, filled with rare minerals from the Galactic Core.

The ship vanished inside my tesseract before anyone could even detect it. Much easier and safer to unload the precious minerals, then fill the cargo bays with exotic Eldar weaponry and dead Wraith Titans, then send then ship back towards the Votann Thethys, always eager for more Cold Trade.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Sure, Tethys would make a great profit selling the goods to other Votann Leagues, but if a single advanced STC template reached me from every Trade ship, I was making 100 times more profit.

And where else to find exotic loot, than the former Crown Worlds of the Eldar Empire in the Eye of Terror?

"You already have a plan, Warmaster. My etheric detector scans you and says mostly harmless, but there is nothing harmless about you. Even my spear training says I can defeat you without effort, as you're not even a Firstborn Astartes. And yet..." the man commented then turned at speed to point his Gnosis spear at a grey wolf phasing through the wall of my office.

"Back already, Zath?" I asked with a glance at the C'tan wolf.

Zath measured the fierce Custodes, then grinned a bit too wide. "Wooof!"

'Come Canis, your wolf buddy is back. Leave the kids alone!' I sent mentally towards my actual wolf playing with my children in the nursery.

A golden glow signaled the Wolf Saint appearing in the room, and then the two wolves began playfighting and smacking each other, without Phase Claws.

"That's not a real wolf, Lord Lancefire!" the Shield Captain protested as his etheric detector just winked at him instead of scanning the C'tan.

"Come on! Canis has worked so hard to train Zath to look like a real wolf! Even the smell is right." I countered with an amused voice, then powered up my STC hologram to continue my other work.

Similar to the Necron Lokhust_Destroyer , I wanted a Kataphron_Battle_Servitor mounted on an Anti-grav platform, plus an Energy Shield and a heavy weapon. Las-cannons were still the cheapest and most effective weapon I should use, although variants with multi-meltas and Ion Beamers should also work for close range. Perhaps another shoulder-mounted weapon like a storm-bolter?

After about 8 hours of hard work, my stomach gnawed in hunger, so I raised my eyes to find a pair of wolves and the Shield Captain observing my half-completed project with curious, bored and amused eyes. The C'tan was amused, of course.

Primarch Khan's fleet had already departed, along with my former bodyguard: the Blademaster Khan. I had a Custodes bodyguard now, because the Emperor wanted one.

"Do you think you could make a floating Dreadnought platform? We could use something like that for my crippled Brothers locked in their Dreadnought coffins." Valerian asked for a friend.

'Blade?' I asked inward.

'I'll start right on it, Lord Captain. Even a slight favor from the Adeptus Custodes could mean a lot later.' the Blade AI deduced with her bright mind.

"I don't make them, Shield Captain. Furniture and clothes are the only things humanity makes right now. The rest is just playing with our ancestors' tech and trying to cobble up something that won't fall apart too fast. I have no idea why this servitor can float on an anti-grav platform, and nobody else does." I answered while saving my project as Hermes Battle Platform.

'When the floating Dreadnought is ready, I'll fix the energy couplings for the floating corpse-machine. Everyday I'm amazed how low humanity has fallen, and the next day I find it can get even lower.' the Blade promised with a disgusted tone, while I walked to the food replicator on the wall to fix myself a meal.

'I've located six more of my Shards and absorbed them, Pef Lancefire. Those Necron Tombs will stay burried now.' the C'tan told me directly in my mind, while the location of the dead Necron worlds appeared in my implant's data-base.

Well, he must have been quite busy. Not sure if a stronger C'tan was a good thing, but for now he will help.

'And why are you back?' I asked directly.

'I learned of your new rank, Warmaster. Genocides and soul feasts, why else?' the C'tan said with another scary grin.

I ate my green peas and finger cheese, and just nodded. Made sense.