Back inside the Tesseract Space, I held a council with my Custodes bodyguard Valerian, as well as Athena from the Centurion Legion and several Forge Master tech-marines about the upgrades I wanted to make on the Centurion suit.
"Ion Beams are great, but too focused, father. I want something like a flamethrower on the left arm. Also, we need twin-linked Las-pistols on the shoulders, as they don't have enough punch like this. Necrons are durable as hell." Athena demanded with a displeased voice at the Centurion's hologram.
"Bolt weapons would have enough punch..." Valerian added with a careless voice.
"True, but with the complication of more ammo problems. No." I answered with a glance at Stefan 'Goldhand' Lancefire. The boy had manged to lose his right hand in an accident and replaced it with an auramite-covered bionic hand, which worked great wonders for him.
"Indeed, shoulder-mounted systems are difficult to re-arm in combat, especially if the engagement lasts long or happens outside the supply chain. Volkite pistols would serve well, just not against metal robots like the Necrons. And mounting a plasma pistol near your head would guarantee the user's head blowing up with the gun when it goes. Like my hand did." the Tech-marine answered with a cheerful handwave.
He still carried 4 plasma pistols in his mecha-dendrites, but I guess those wouldn't damage him much when they did blow up farther away. All plasma weapons will blow up, sooner or later. Hence, my very little use of them in general. The Auxilia did use plasma weapons, as they were more expendable than my own family. Few Auxilia soldiers ever survived their own plasma weapon.
"Las-pistols it is then. I'll see if I have a decent twin-linked template in my STC archive. Now, flamethrowers are great indeed for area denial, but they use promethium. Same problem like the bolters, but your ammo will also blow up when the fuel tank is pierced. No." I decided after a short cost-analysis equation. Again, good for Auxilia not my dear daughters. Although the Sisters of Battle did use flamethrowers in numbers, they had the protection of the Emperor. One of the Emperors, anyway.
"Then we use a Melta weapon?" Athena asked in a hopeful voice.
I sighed inward. Damn backward technology. Meltas had good damage but short range, which was exactly where my girls shouldn't be. Why couldn't the Imperium remember a particle weapon like that Necron Particle_Caster ? The Federation did have them too. Oh well, maybe ask some Votann when I got back to trading. Perhaps a portable Neutron Laser like my Imperial Knights and heavy armor used now. But those guns were as large as the entire Centurion suit and the same for the Ion Cannons.
"A combi-weapon maybe? Ion Beam and Melta gun. Better even, an Arc Rifle" Stefan proposed with a sneaky glance at my STC tablet. I didn't have anything like that...not yet anyway.
"The Thalax Lorica suits do use Arc Rifles, that's true. But they also have support from the Cult Mechanicus for repairs and maintenance. The Centurions will be paired with the Astartes, thus...no. I'll try to discover a combi-gun in my archive. Anything else?" I concluded with a sad voice.
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"The counter-phase device?" Valerian asked with a raised eyebrow.
I nodded and raised my arm to showcase the etheric detector. "Already solved. The etheric thingie can be adjusted to jam phasing in a short range. Might also block Warp teleports like a Geller Field. Possibly the same type of interference." I explained with a shrug.
"Wow, that was fast...but then again. It is alien tech, right?" Stefan asked with a disgusted voice.
"The Emperor and me agree that any tech in human hands is now human. It's not like the metal counts as being alien, or the math is somehow different on different planets.
However, there is another thing to worry about, and that is knowing your device cannot be subverted by some outsider. I am working on that, but for now we will use the devices we have and complain less." I ordered with a warning voice.
Custode Valerian just chuckled lightly, while Stefan and his tech-marines brothers pounded their chests. "Compliance!"
Bleh, I expected more from my sons, but their Mechanicus indoctrination showed greatly. Not ideal, sadly.
I walked away and joined my wife for a meal and some husbandry in her bed. Much later, she traced a finger on my chest. "You should be dead long ago, Pef. You died in front of me, not so long ago. And yet, you're young and healthy again."
I sighed and tapped her shoulder tattoo. "You died too, my love. This is the Tree_of_Life , is it not?" I answered in a mild voice.
Her eyes glinted with worry for a second, then she rested on my chest. "Alaric had a plan, to save the Emperor by going to the Source at the center of the Warp. We both died instead."
I figured it was something like that. "Trying to enter the Deep Warp, huh? Not even the 4 idiots dared that. Dark Gods or not, they would be tasty morsels for the entities that inhabit the deep."
"There was someone there, calling themselves the Second Son. Looked like a man, but he wasn't. Made of plants inside. He saved us...for old times sakes. And warned us about the Eleventh Son." Valyene whispered as tears flowed on my chest.
"The two missing Primarchs? I think I know what became of Eleven. Goes by Malice now, with his Chaos Marines called the Sons of Malice. Haven't met any of those so far."
I said in a careless voice.
"Isn't it strange? The old Astartes Legions went to 20, but two of them are not recorded anywhere. Vanished. You think the other Primachs know?" she asked in a lamenting voice.
"Probably not. I guess I could ask a Shard of Nurgle, when I meet one next. You won't mind if I do horrible things to the thing before I kill it, right?" I asked rhetorically.
The Inquisitor laughed gently and climbed on top of me again. "You have the strangest ways to perk me up, Lancefire. Now let me ride the lance once more."
Oh well. This was the good part of marriage. Soon, Joan will grow too big to allow us the pleasures and joy of firing the lance.