40 Thousand Reasons

Chapter 141: Leather

In the end, the Tyranid fleet barely managed to land a thousand assault spores, which was not enough to provide a proper Tyranid occupation army.

My corvettes bombarded the more distant landing sites, while Marauder bombers and ground attack craft sortied to launch melta bombs and other incendiary ordnance on the closer landing sites, where orbital bombardment would be much too dangerous for our ground troops.

Then we simply defended the Hive Cities walls as billions of Tyranids bioforms crawled through fields of burning lava and artillery barrages, only to enter killing grounds of land mines, spinning flails, and turret lasers.

Sadly, I couldn't take part in the last melee, being busy chasing down the void bioships and the last battleship-sized Hive Ship, which would provide me with battleship-grade bioarmor from the attack claws of the Hive Ship.

The organic compound that made those claws was incredibly durable, which kinda made sense considering it had been evolved to crush spaceships.

A millimeter thick plate of Hive-claw was more durable than a centimeter of ceramite, and much lighter. I guess I could sell it as a new organo-mineral, and use it as armor for boarding torpedoes and assault shuttles, or even drop pods and gunships.

Anywhere weight was a limiting factor, from Sentinel walkers to Guardian turrets and even Knights or Titans.

The Eldar used something similar, those wraithbones of theirs allowing durable but light and agile Titans and starfighters. Humanity did not have something like that, but we could skin our enemies and wear them on the outside, much like we did with leather armor.

I even tried my new toy, the transdimensional beamer, but Hive-claw was not living rock and the Necron device didn't know how to shape it. Not yet. I bet Trazyn could find a patch-fix for the new material.

After that, I could dedicate some time to mass-produce durable components for my armies, especially for attack drones and ground-attack craft which were always the highest casualties in every deployment.

By next month, Meridian was declared clean of Tyranids, and my Lancefire forces began embarking on their warp-less carriers and cruisers while the Lamenter Auxilia and the Lamenter Astartes and techmarines returned to our battlebarges and Drop-cruisers.

I think Gabriel Angelos was a bit envious on my military might, since we barely lost any units against an entire Tyranid Hive Fleet. I might have cheated a bit, but only to save lives.

Machines could be replaced, but trained soldiers and pilots not that much.

"Is it really alright for an Astartes Chapter to have so many Auxiliary troops? A single one of your armor regiments is 10 times stronger than my own Auxilia." the man muttered with a gruff voice.

"Probably not for the Blood Ravens, seeing as easily your Astartes fall to Chaos, Master Angelos. Best if you ask Primarch Guilliman for a solution, preferably one that includes Blank recruits and Silent Sisters watchers over your Chapter. Then again, you can try it your way, and next time I might have to exterminate your Chapter for corruption. It would be my duty, after all." I explained in a gentle voice, and smiled genially.

The Veteran Space Marine glared at me for a long minute, before glancing at the Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor at my side. "Warning received, Master Lancefire. I shall travel to Ultramar and ask the Primarch for aid in this matter."

"You've let them get away too easy, Lord Pef. Best if I purged them now, before other traitors spring up from their midst." Adrastia muttered in a low voice, watching the big marine walk away towards his shuttle.

I sighed inward, knowing that Angelos certainly heard her. "By your words Lady Adrastia, I should exterminate and purge the Inquisition as well, before other traitors spring up from their midst. Correct?"

Rose giggled faintly and smiled at me, then she vanished in a flash of blue light.

"On the other hand, blanket accusations serve nobody. But, I shall keep an eye on the Blood Ravens even so. I fear the corruption will not be easily cleansed, even if I got all the traitors." Adrastia whispered and leaned on me, as the Blood Ravens shuttle departed the landing bay.

I nodded with grim acceptance. The poor Blood Ravens carried the curse in their genes, most likely gene-seeds from Magnus the Red, going by how many psykers sprang up.

"Come, my dear. Let's celebrate this grand victory in bed, and provide the Imperium with another incorruptible child. Your first Blank son can join the Blood Ravens and serve as your inside man." I proposed with a cheerful voice.

By the next week, my fleet was already en route to Forge World Accatran, so I could finish up another trade deal for more Catachan regiments and a new fleet carrier, in exchange for STC templates and more blackstone.

We arrived just in time to fend off a gigantic Ork Waagh, composed of three Space Hulks, a dozen Terror Ships, and thousands of smaller Ork contraptions assembled from transport ships and ore carriers, as well as mobile asteroids.

Accatran was a rather small Forge, barely a tier four despite having a Titan Legion and a dozen orbital shipyards.

Maybe my luck struck again, or they were situated much too close to a giant Ork domain. Probably both.

We managed to break up a Space Hulk before it could Warp away, and captured nine Terror Ships more or less intact.

My labyrinth collection grew with a billion more Orks, mostly the bigger or better armed, while my Lamenters got to train with full armor and weapons clearing out the Space Hulk, and some even complained it was too easy.

Well, it was much easier than the training we did at Illevar with swords and shields, instead of Terminator power armors and Rapiers and Guardian turrets in support.

Forge Accatran brought millions of skitarii and combat servitors to speed things up, or it would take decades to clean up an entire Space Hulk made of thousands of wrecks and derelicts merged together.

It was worth it anyway, as we looted a wealth of relic weapons, even more Astartes armor and a stasis pod filled with a dozen Heresy era Dreadnoughts, a couple of battlebarges heavily damaged, a hundred cruisers of different classes and even two battleships, an Emperor-class and another Retribution.

I immediately and generously donated the Emperor-class to Forge Accatran, as the thing was too big and too expensive to repair. The Retribution battleship will be tractored to Forge Metalica for repair, as would a dozen more intact cruisers I set aside to become my new Heavy Drop-cruiser squadron.

Other nearby Forges on my gift list would receive some spoils, in exchange for millions of tech-acolytes and ship-mechanics, and billions of tech-servitors to work on new cruiser-size shipyards, here and at Machine Forge.

It took almost an entire year to set up the spread of wealth in metal and technology, including a chain of warp-less transmitters to Meridian and Forge Metalica.

By then, Forge Accatran jumped an entire tier in Mechanicus ranks, reaching tier 3 and access to extra technologies, including the production of Chimeras, Hydras and Macharius heavy tanks.

In a few decades Accatran will have a battleship-sized Ark Mechanicus though, and probably climb one more rank.

They just needed to import a lot of human resources and acolytes, and now they had the wealth for it.

My time here was not wasted anyway. I also received thirty more Catachan regiments in trades with nearby Forges, as well as a hundred million immigrants and thousands of new tech-priests.

A couple of raids into the Ork domains cleared up a dozen planets as agriworlds and mining settlements, while also providing live training for the new mechanized regiments and my Lamenter Astartes and Lancefire Knights.

Meanwhile, Rose disappeared somewhere and returned with a dozen leather-wearing women, hailing from a Death_Cult called the Emperor's Blades. My implant marked them as dangerous and began highlighting power swords and daggers, vials of poison and neural gloves, and dozens of other unknown items which were certainly not massage sponges or acupuncture needles.

I examined the sexy assassins with a frown, being quite certain it would mean death to touch those appetizing women.

"Blades, this is your new Master, Pef Lancefire. You will serve him onto death, carry his children and kill his enemies. Now take off the leathers and let your Master examine you." The Inquisitor commanded in a cold voice, as if these women were lower than trash.

The women obeyed without comment, exposing themselves to my eyes and cautious fingers.

"Really, dear Rose? A Death Cult coven is your gift for me?" I murmured while tracing my finger over faint scars and surgical sutures.

Whoever worked on these women had been a fleshcrafter, not quite a Magos Biologis but close enough. I could bet a throne there were a dozen of adrenal and cyborg implants under the soft skin.

Rose just smiled thinly and nodded. "They work better in pairs, and are best deployed on Hive Worlds or at least industrial worlds, where their talents will allow them to blend in easily among the brutish cultists and gangers."

"And they can't speak?" I wondered while opening a woman's mouth to examine her teeth. As expected the teeth had been worked, containing poison capsules, both for attack or suicide.

"We can speak, Master." a red-haired woman replied shyly.

"And you agree to this?" I asked a bit curious.

"We have been told of your deeds, Lord Lancefire. You protect the Imperium and draw the ire of its enemies. We are to make sure those enemies die." the death cultist replied in a cold tone.

I glanced at Rafen with a raised eyebrow. "Your advice, Sergeant?"

The Veteran Blood Angel measured the women and their arsenal with a cautious look. "Induct them into your Obsidian Auguries, Captain. Lady Elixa would know best where to deploy them effectively. Otherwise, it would only take two days for your spear to convince them to become loyal."

I sighed inward, and went to take a shower. These will be two long days.