"Lord Lancefire! You are needed on the Black Lament!" an urgent message stopped me from transporting to the Pharos.
"My Lord, the Archmagos demands you visit her immediately!" a second message arrived on the Mechanicus Manifold circuit.
"My dear, make some time and meet your lonely wife, can you?" a certain Inquisitor whispered in my mind directly. Velayne!
Damn it! I wanted to explore the galaxy...
Breathe, Pef! The C'tan could wait.
So I tapped my fingers three times, moving myself to the Blackstone Fortress and bringing two anxious women in my presence at the same time. "Esteemed Fabricator, you look...well-oiled?" I offered in an uncertain tone.
My wife pinched my side in reproach, so I possibly missed something. Quite possible.
"We need to schedule the Forge's production cycle for the next decade, my Lord." the Fabricator answered with a polite tone, but seemingly rather urgent. So I took out the latest STC dataslate and gave it to her, knowing it would keep her busy for an hour, at least.
Then I rose my eyes, watching the brave Sanguinary Priests lose their momentum and step back, as if I was a dangerous predator. "What is it now, Brother Helios?" I asked their Chief Priest.
"Well, we lost all the Apothecaries sent on Crusade..." he murmured with a wary glance at my Inquisitor wife.
"As I predicted, even before we departed. You have replacements, I would hope?" I asked rhetorically. I knew I had ordered 400 new Apothecaries to be trained and prepared, and even if there may be delays...
Brother Helios nodded and pointed at the conference holoscreen, where the training schedule was just listed. "We have 28 Apothecaries ready to begin duty, Chapter Master. As for the rest, 42 are still in the last stages, and..."
The graph ended abruptly on the screen. 70 Apothecaries, and the rest failures. Still a good ratio compared to regular chapters, but damn. 330 dead young boys?
Only two of the old Apothecaries remained from the initial ranks, now promoted as Lamenters Lorekeepers, since they were over 1000 years old and rather knowledgeable.
"So we doubled the numbers of Apothecaries?" I said in a lighter voice, as if I could only see the full side of the glass.
Brother Helios hesitated for a moment, then nodded. "It would seem so, my Lord."
"Anything else?" I asked curious.
"Well, there are 3000 of your special tech-marines that have returned from their Forge World training. And we still have 1255 surviving ones from the first batch. 4355 total, plus the three Forge Masters." he explained in a softer voice, this time glancing at the Fabricator tech-priest.
"Again, we doubled their numbers, right? All is good?" I asked with fake joy.
The Sanguinary Priest changed the graph once more, this time pointing at the Blank Brothers, thus my own sons and grandsons. "We took 81 casualties among the Battle-Brothers, and the last implantation cycle has produced 305 viable recruits, as well as 5 more poisoning cases. The supernumerary recruits can be sent to our allied chapters."
I hugged my wife and frowned at the numbers. Nowhere near close to a million Blank Astartes I would need to replace the corruptible ones. Possibly 2 million now, with the extra founding of new chapters by fresh Primarch gene-seed, that churned cloned Primaris Marines by the thousands every day.
."What do you say, dear wife?" I asked with a nod towards the screen. The extra numbers were too small to make a difference anywhere. Two companies of Blank Astartes were too few.
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Veleyne clenched her hand over mine. "I would say, 200 Culexus Assassins would make a difference, even at galactic scale."
Both the Chief Priest and the Magi Tech-priest locked their gazes on the screen, then turned towards me with questions on their eyes. At my side, a Culexus Assassin de-cloaked and coughed lightly. "That would be a change. The temple training would only enhance their killing potential." Vaedrax mused in a thoughtful voice.
"Like our own Alpha Legion. This has promise, my dear wife." I answered in a far-away voice, the savant implant already parsing thousands of potential applications. It could work. Or fail and burn me to ash. What training would my boys get? Would they resent me for ruining their lives?
"You are skeptical. Don't trust the Culexus Temple?" Velayne asked in a knowing voice. Ah, the wonders of an Inquisitor's mind.
"As I said, like our own Alpha Legion. Do you even imagine what hundreds of demented killers could do in my name? I can already hear them: I am Lancefire!" I grunted with a heavy sigh, aping the Alpha Legion motto: 'I am Alpharius!' they all recited in their psychotic ways.
"...They do say that a lot." Vaedrax muttered at my side, before going invisible again.
"The Emperor Protects! Perhaps we should defer the decision to Him?" Brother Helios proposed with a wary glance at the former spot where the dreaded Culexus was last seen.
"Come, Fabricator! We'll go over the last campaign and decide what we can discard or increase." I spoke towards my loyal Archmagos.
Over the next hour, we parsed the less effective machines I have used in the Stygius Crusade, discarding most close attack planes and the light armored Weasels, then renounced the Leman Russ tanks completely. The Ragnaroks had fared twice as good if not more.
"Now the Infantry...what to do?" I hummed to myself.
. "Your sniper rifles seem to have worked beyond expectations. I propose 400% increase." my Fabricator offered in a mild voice.
"Finding 4 times more snipers would be hard, but fine. They may not be Scout Marines, but a heavy bolter to the face would still kill someone." I said in a level voice. Over 7% from all Chaos Marine kills were due to my snipers. If a small investment would increase this to 25%, would be awesome.
"The Tarantula turrets...they become useless as soon as the front line moves. They will need to move with the front." she proposed with a glance at the resident Ominissian Emissary. Sure. I will give them wheels or something. Maybe legs, so they keep pace with the infantry? Small legs, but more of them...like spiders. Sigh, Tarantulas were spiders!
"Chimera transports turned into fireballs as soon as they entered combat..." the tech-priest observed with clinical post-battle analysis skills.
"They are not tanks...and the light tanks fared even worse. Perhaps a new transport vehicle, based on the Ragnarok chassis." I offered with a sad headshake. Then again, one shouldn't use mechanized infantry as tanks anyways. Something to fix in the Academy training.
"You would know better where to find such a holy template, Lord Lancefire. Perhaps the new shields can also help. They would sure help the poor Sentinels." she added in a wry tone.
"The Sentinels worked great. 400% increase per regiment as well. A full division could field 40 thousands armored walkers, and the IF shields would make them battle worthy. Nothing else except an adamantium shell would provide proper defense against tank-level weapons." I said with a shrug.
I quite loved my new Armed Sentinels, firing their Lascannons in deadly volleys. Not only they provided heavy weapon support, but they also carried their pilot in relative safety. Not quite power armor, but close enough. More was better here. The Tau did quite fine with their Fire Caste as well.
The Fabricator shrugged as well, then shook a mechadendrite at me. "You know adamantium is quite hard to shape. And too heavy for Sentinels anyways."
I know! "A single frontal plate will help though. If you remove the plasteel, it would only increase..."
"By 18 percent in mass. The mass distribution would be off, the balance actuators would overheat, the engine would..." the tech-priest argued in a more logical tone.
Okay fine. Heavy metal, I get it. I waved a hand off. "Shields then. Perhaps a small plasma engine instead of the Promethium VX. Not critical at this time."
"Agreed, my lord. The Doomhammer variants have proven to lack engagement range. We shift to the Volcano Lance template?" she asked with a curious tone.
Ah, my favorite tanks. Baneblades with twin giant melta guns. They would melt anything that got close, even Titans. But Chaos Titans had Volcano Cannons, they did not need to come close.
As for mounting Volcano Cannons directly on the Baneblade chassis, I knew how poorly the Shadowsword variants fared. Not only they lacked a turret, but they also had to stop and charge their capacitors for a minute before firing. Made them slow and vulnerable, not that the enemy would stand still and allow them to snipe.
What to do? Wait for now.
"We don't arm the new Baneblades yet. There is a new template in the works. A pulsing Volcano Cannon, like a multi-laser. And we keep the remaining Doomhammers. Tyranids do try to come close." I explained with a grin.
A long metal tentacle extended and patted my head, then descended to grip my smaller lance. "You somehow manage to make my engine hot, Lord Lancefire. And I am well-oiled now." she purred with a mechanical voice.
Oh well. I did have a strange life, in this brave new world.