When I entered the command bridge of the Black Lament escorted by two giant wolves, my crew simply shook their heads, and ignored me.
What were they going to say, when their Chapter Master acted strangely again? 'Boss, you're being weird!' Things didn't work that way in the Lamenters. Maybe Captain Semnai would have said something, but now the man was safely away with my Inquisitor wife, on the other side of the Astronomican.
Inquisitor Vail rose her eyes to stare at me and my wolves, and just shook her head. "We're coming upon System Octiss in a few minutes, Lord Lancefire. I have some information about this place, it was perhaps a base of the Alpha Legion, long ago." she spoke instead, avoiding to look at either wolf.
"Curious. I know it was a Necron base even longer ago." I said with a thin smile, while feeling ahead with the tesseract senses.
The Inquisitor pursed her lips, and she produced a glowing white ball in her palm. Good, we will have our lightning storm if things went bad.
Just like my Pharos vision had shown, the place was full of Demiurg mining drones, as well as a decent fleet, almost matching my own in numbers.
"Captain Teresa, maintain widest auspex range with the planar line, deep below." I ordered to my new Ship Mistress, as I now preferred to focus on the wider view, without controlling the ship myself.
Not that my recent action model would allow this, being headfirst into battle and leading the Lamenters in the field. It sounded a bit silly, even Black Templar silly, but it worked. Charging headlong into melee might sound suicidal, but not when wearing blackstone armor plates and wielding Phase blades. The C'tan blades were weightless and could slice through any armor or shield, as the Necrons on Moebius discovered to their surprise.
"As you order, Lord Lancefire! Descending to maximum auspex depth." my daughter Teresa answered from her command throne, taking the Black Lament and the rest of the fleet beneath the orbital plane of the system.
In several minutes, the augur screen lit up with the Demiurg fleet, but barely sensing the numerous but small mining drones.
"These would be the Demiurg?" the Ordo Xenos Inquisitor spoke softly, while leaning on her Bone Staff to get a psychic read for herself.
"The ships look strange, but they are human, Lady Vail. And likely more advanced than our Adeptus Mechanicus." I added in a clear voice, making our tech-priests perk up with tingling senses. Grabbing some advanced tech was their holy mission, after all.
"Human, you say?" Lady Vail muttered in a low tone, almost doubtful.
"Well, not like us, I expect. But their language and runes originate from Terra. North Europae district, if my lore is correct." I answered while producing a different, but certainly human design dataslate running a runic script.
The Inquisitor took a short glance at my dataslate, then nodded. "Probably Skandic. I would guess they departed before the Great Crusade."
Huh? My lovely blonde lover was quite a cultivated woman. Or, she knew more than she told me. Quite possible as well.
Zarhulash had only mentioned a Necron Pylon preventing Warp travel to this system, and nothing about some Alpha Legion base. Then again, he was well asleep during the Horus Heresy times.
"We will reach optimum deployment position in a minute, Lord Lancefire. These ships do not appear to have noticed us." Teresa announced with her implant linked into the command throne.
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However, auspex readings did not show us the inside of the Demiurg ships.
"Oh, they are aware now, Captain! The crew are rushing towards their combat stations." Inquisitor Vail exclaimed with a strident voice.
'Should I engage?' Lash asked on the Manifold. Hmmm. Not yet.
I tapped my vox bead and began to speak, using the Demiurg dataslate to convert my words into the local language. "Demiurg friends, this is an Imperial Fleet. We have come to trade." I offered politely, while also stealing a few million mining drones. I could make use of these drones in my Fringe domain, away from Imperial eyes.
"...Trade?" Lady Vail mouthed silently. She still had a lot to learn about this universe, no matter how much schooling they had her do in the Schola Progenium.
"We await for your proposal, Imperial Fleet." the Demiurg replied after a few minutes of hurried scrambling.
"Thunderhawk 912, set course for the Demiurg fleet." I ordered as I glanced at the wolf-shaped C'tan. 'You can have your fun once they dock.' I explained with an inner sigh.
The negotiations will be short. Having a pet C'tan wasn't all nice toys and roses. The thing needed to eat, and their species ate souls.
"Woof!" Canis demanded from the other side. Okay fine, you both can have fun with the abhumans.
"Boarding parties, prepare for transport! Auxilia units, perimeter guard. Tech-loving personnel, new tech!" I announced on a fleet wide channel as the Thunderhawk transport docked with a Demiurg ship.
By accident, my finger twitched and made a dozen Bastion_Class_Commerce_Vessel vanish inside the tesseract, just in case the negotiations turned sour. Okay, it wasn't an accident at all.
And action!
A thousand Lamenter Space Marines, 4000 Tech-marines with 120 thousand Guardian walkers, 40000 tech-priests, 400 thousand Armed Sentinels, 4 million Auxilia troops and 40 million combat servitors appeared at once on every Demiurg ship. While their vox boxes and servitor skulls kept blaring "We come in peace, lay down your weapons!" in Demiurg words, they also kept shooting at any dwarf holding a weapon.
It was a bit sad, but these Demiurg had been proven to trade STC data to the Tau aliens, thus declaring themselves an enemy to the Imperium in general and the Mechanicus in particular.There could be no good ending for them, not with so many witnesses, including thousands of tech-priests and an Ordo Xenos Inquisitor.
"Shall we, my lady?" I asked gently as Sergeant Ludvaius stepped at my side, combi-bolter in hand.
The Inquisitor glanced down at her perky ass, worried it may become flat from too much sitting. "I will need some prisoners anyways." she accepted with a grin.
A second later, we tesseracted in the middle of the biggest fight I could find, a giant hall filled with thousands of Demiurg warriors wearing power armor, that somehow managed to push our forces back.
'On me, Lash!' I demanded as my shields began to glow fiercely.
Thousands of lightning arcs burst from Lady Vail's hands, felling hundreds of Demiurg fighters at once, while others found their armors short-circuiting from the excessive electricity.
"By the Primarch's burning beard!" I heard Ludvaius curse as his own Reflector shield began to over-heat from too many bolter rounds.
I ran forward, Phase blade slicing away at anything bearing arms. This was fun as well!
Slice, skip, slice, dodge! My moves flowed into another, blade in my hand light as a feather. A minute later, Lash arrived from a side corridor and minced a few hundreds Demiurg in a couple of seconds, moving at hyperspeed.
Then silence.
A thud sounded far too loud, as metal hit the deck with the mass of a ton of steel. I turned, and saw Ludvaius gasping for air, missing half of his lower side. The shield must have failed seconds ago, maybe more. I was just lost in combat trance, too busy pretending to be a swordsman.
A gentle breeze flew from Amberly's hand, sealing the leaking wounds as his Null Wand was a dozen meters away, still stuck inside my brother's leg.
"Ludvaius..." I murmured in shock.
"Don't be sad, Brother. We will never die of old age." my blood brother whispered among coughs of blood, then closed his eyes, looking quite at peace.
A flutter of wings, and his soul departed towards the Emperor. I just pointed a finger at the C'tan, warning him to stay away.
'I am not insane, Pef Lancefire. This food is not mine.' the C'tan said on the Manifold circuit, then ran off towards the next fight.
"Ludvaius was a good man. And I felt...wings?" Amberly mused with a strange voice. I just nodded, then gripped my Phase blade tighter. A few more kills, for the road.