40 Thousand Reasons

Chapter 131: Adrielle

For the final part of the Balur Crusade, Forge Megyre sent their Titan Legion and two Knight Houses to help, because the Ork World of Balur and their Warboss were building a massive army of Gargants and Stompas, the Ork equivalent of a Titan.

Now, fighting Orks is rather simple, if you know what you're doing.

First exterminate their orbital assets. Much easier than dealing with a Tyranid Hive Fleet, as even a thousand Ork warships and a hundred Roks, plus five smallish Space Hulks only served to increase my inventory of ship hulls and free metal.

Of course, if a hundred capital ships like Ork Battleships, Terror Ships and Kill Kroozers happened to be completely obliterated by a massive barrage of Nova Cannons, and then reappear intact inside my tesseract, that must have been a miracle from the Emperor.

As for the other ships and the Space Hulks, they will serve as prizes for the participants in the Crusade, each Chapter participating being granted the honor of boarding and reclaiming a dozen Kroozers for their Chapter, while Skitarii and battle-automata from Konor and Megyre got the share the dismembered Space Hulks.

The Inquisitors and their retinue joined the Mechanicus techpriests and servitors in the second wave, to make sure nothing corrupted was kept by the cargo cult and instead melted down with plasma and promethium.

On the surface, we deployed lines of turrets and Sentinels, then Guardians, Knights and Titans, with a few Leviathans to handle more delicate tasks.

Our armor formed a flanking force, and struck the Ork horde from the sides, while the corvettes and bombers provided air support.

The infantry regiments were entrenched heavily where the terrain was advantageous, like marshes, swamps, and mountains and created kill-zones for artillery and ground attack craft. Once everything was in place, all I had to do was dare the Orks to attack, and give me a good fight.

Of course, they were genetically constrained to oblige, and were butchered in detail, band after band and Boss after Boss, while their supply lines were bombed or sabotaged by special ops units.

In a single month, the world was taken with minimal casualties, and we moved the troops onwards, cleaning up 50 more planets from Ork garrisons in the next year.

Then the troops reassembled into another big fleet and proceeded to liberate Boros and restore Knight House_Boros as the rightful rulers.

Sadly, most of their population had been decimated under Ork rule, being used as slaves or food by the Orks. I could help a little, using the techpriests to rebuild the capital and import a few million new colonists, as well as station three Astra Militarum regiments here, indefinitely.

Forge Konor could use an allied Knight House, and provide them new suits, while I worked hard for a month to provide their female pilots with new heirs.

Sly Marbo acquired another Ork Boss head in his collection, which made his Catachan concubines even more content at having a 'real man'. Oh well. I was better off, I hoped.

Calixa had two more kids, and the Blank boy was named Flavius and scheduled for the Lamenters. The infocyte blonde kept the girl by her side, and promised to train her in her arts.

It worked out great.

Soon enough, everyone began returning to their homes and bases, and so did I, but deviating to Sotha on the way.

Lady Kalistradi and I parted ways as she had a job to do, but she had a Blank daughter beside her to keep her safe. She did promise to visit my House on Illevar at least once a decade if possible, and keep an eye out for more Blanks or Silent Sisters.

Instead, Lady Velayne continued her trip on my ship, eager to fulfil her mission. I didn't completely trust her, because I wasn't that naive. Inquisitors were three bladed weapons, and one of those blades was aimed inward at all times.

I did hope that raising children and having her body rebuilt by an Angel would quell her suspicions, in time.

A month later we arrived at Sotha to find it under attack again, this time by more Eldar Corsairs and a band of Chaos traitors, as an unlikely alliance as it might seem.

Even worse, the system was covered by Tyranid Silence, a clear sign of another Hive Fleet being drawn by the Pharos beacon.

On the bright side, there were two more Inquisitor ladies on the Aegida Fortress, named Adrielle_Quist and Ezu_Ghraile.

My companion smiled thinly at me and covered her eyes with her cowl. "Perhaps the Emperor is watching over you, Lord Lancefire. I'll tend to the Fortress while you romance my colleagues." Velayne whispered after my battlebarge Serenity was cleared to dock.

I just sighed inward and focused on winning the battle first. The carriers were already deploying our corvettes and starfighters, while vox transmission from the attackers were swiftly replied with plasma warheads riding back the guiding signal right onto their bridge.

There were almost 5000 enemy ships present, most of them Sky_Raiders and Void_Dragons, insane Aeldari that had abandoned their Craftworlds for a life of fun and raiding. Mostly raiding on the Imperium, naturally.

I didn't ask who those Chaos guys were, possibly Tzeentch worshipers going by the bird heads and wings of their warships. The traitors and their 30 Chaos cruisers melted just fine inside the sun. Nothing important was lost, most likely.

The Deathwatch and the Scythes of the Emperor also had two battlebarges and a dozen cruisers stationed here, busy defending the fort lines, by shooting torpedoes and Nova shells on intercept trajectories, forcing the fragile Eldar to engage only in hit-and-run attacks.

My own barrage of Nova Cannon and torpedoes forced them to clump up, just enough that a hundred Nova mines lit up the void in a blinding conflagration, leaving 30 Corsair battleships listing, their solar sails burned to crisp, and most of the lighter voidships vanished.

In a minute, I had my techmarines, Silent Sisters and Blood Angels teleported on the lead ship, with my own fleet surrounding the Eldar derelicts, ready to annihilate them.

"Hey guys? You may want to board the other battleships and take prisoners. We have captured their leader, an Eldar named Saarania." I demanded towards my nominal allies, who seemed reluctant to leave the safety of the fort belt.

Pretty sure they were not expecting my arrival and the rather brutal victory over the Eldar, even if my Chapter had almost parity of the numbers with the Eldar voidships, with 32 capital vessels and 2000 corvettes from the Lancefire Dynasty, plus 4000 Fury starfighters. Used to be 5000 starfighters, but a Crusade is rather costly and losses are inevitable. I did recover the fighter pilots though, so it wasn't all bad.

"Right! We will begin boarding immediately. Thanks again for your help! Be advised, there are two Inquisitors here that are anxious to meet you, Chapter Master Lancefire." a Deathwatch Watch Captain answered after a minute of tense silence.

Probably being given orders, right at that moment.

"One at the time, Captain. Send the youngest one first." I quipped and closed the pict-transmission.

Then I looked around the bridge to find my officers snickering to themselves, even my own children! "This is serious guys. Inquisitors are dangerous, especially in packs." I told them in fake worry.

Rafen flipped a silver throne, and held it up to show me the Emperor's skull grinning at me. "The Emperor smiles on you, Captain. Ludvaius can watch over you, while I take a stroll on those xenos warships to look for anything shiny."

I nodded and had him appear on another Eldar battleship, beside Sister Tanau_Aleya. Two of them together should be enough to subdue a battleship, but I added a dozen techpriests and a thousand combat servitors, just in case.

Canis was the first to greet Lady Adrielle at the docking tube, smelling her with suspicion before turning to nod at me.

"A space wolf! And a rather large one." the Inquisitor remarked after petting Canis fearlessly. That was a good start.

"Well met, Inquisitor. Any reason why you wanted to meet me?" I wondered while checking her out. Another brunette, wide hips, inferno pistol on that...

"That C'tan asked for you, by name, when the Eldar appeared. He seemed rather convinced only you could save him." the woman said in a rather annoyed voice.

I raised an eyebrow. That did seem rather strange, but then who knew what a C'tan might say or do.

Then I shrugged as there was nothing I could do. "And here I am, saving the day. Perhaps the xenos is precognitive."

Adrielle moved closer and poked my nose gently. "I may not be a psyker, but I'm quite certain Blanks cannot be predicted. And as proof, you massacred the Eldar Corsairs without giving them any chance to flee."

I nodded and captured her hand in mine. "The C'tan are not psykers, my dear. They just see very far, and can compute trajectories and arrival dates to the second. Like a ship's Machine Spirit could, if it had sensor range over a thousand-light years."

The brunette Inquisitor glanced at her hand in surprise, before staring me in the eyes. "And you're not a real Untouchable. I have met a Silent Sister once, and could barely stand her presence from meters away."

I politely kissed her hand, then placed it on my elbow. "I am not a real Astartes either. Only natural organs, and they all work fine."

"Woof!" Canis confirmed with a joyful tone.

"All natural, you say? Perhaps you can tell me all about it, at dinner. I am rather starved." the woman asked and walked beside me like a princess.

Oh well, I did buy lots of expensive food and drinks, in case my Rose was here. But as she was not, I'll make due with another Inquisitor.