40 Thousand Reasons

Chapter 171: Purge

Checking the time with the Machine Spirit, I found a gap of 13 seconds between my subjective memories and the objective timeline as recorded.

Chronal incontinence, they call it, when the present changes without anyone noticing it.

"There is a Blackstone Fortress to our right, Pef. It wasn't there before." Amberley remarked in a calm voice, although I could see her hand clench on the Null Bone Rod.

I checked with my eyes and the tesseract, to find the Black Lament had arrived during my power nap, or perhaps because of it.

Captain Chyron guarded the Mechanicus Throne, while a Blank pilot sat in the chair, right hand inserted into the control holofield and directing the mighty weapons.

Nova Cannons, lance batteries and a dozen other weapon systems battered the Tyranids back, but the main weapon was a black beam of death, leaving only dead corpses on its wake.

"Much better than a mere battlecruiser, right dad?" Janice spoke in my mind, while her face lit up in a naughty grin.

The Fortress still lacked the carrier bays, but at least the three sectors that housed the weapon batteries were already operational and keyed to the command chair.

Well, Janice would be the most qualified person to sit in that chair, in the entire galaxy. For now.

"You'll have to teach Aeneas how to do that. Can't have an Adepta Tertia do such low work, after all." I commented with a mild voice, while observing my daughter for changes. Meeting the Emperor rarely left someone unchanged, especially this Emperor.

Beside the new silver hair, she seemed much more mature and perhaps even in pain. Deep lines of rictus and beads of sweat covered her forehead, possibly from battling the Machine Spirit of the ancient weapon, or simply enduring the backlash of that Immaterium beam.

"...Yeah. Maybe later. I can't stay long here. By tomorrow we need to depart for Ophelia. Not your Eldar friends though." Janice muttered with a frown.

We? I scanned the Blackstone Fortress to find a squad of Adeptus Custodes and more Silent Sisters guarding the most vital installations, such as the Gellar generators and the main reactor, plus the black beam's focusing crystal.

And they were not Sisters that I've met before, still using the old style armor and the ugly face masks. Most likely from the Luna garrison then, known as the Somnus_Citadel.

None on the command bridge, but Janice was by now well-beyond the need of having bodyguards. She was the strongest being around, for thousands of light-years at least.

Even Chyron in his powerful Dreadnought chassis was possibly only allowed in recognition for my Chapter's ownership of the ancient fortress.

"You shouldn't be here, Captain. I left you on Illevar, to keep watch over the Starfort and the recruits." I spoke to my disobedient subordinate.

"...Unavoidable circumstances, my lord. Lady Janice had Emperor's House codes, and his Custodes to enforce them. Your son Victor has moved on the fort for now, with his Blank retinue, as per your own contingency protocols." Captain Chyron explained unfazed.

Contingency in case of a major invasion or Imperial interference. Well, this qualified to some extent. It wasn't an Inquisition purge, or some Mechanicus punishment fleet, but the wording was left vague exactly because some Imperial forces were hard to define.

Anyways, the Hive Fleet melted under the assault of the Black Lament, while my six thousand corvettes and the Legio Gryphonicus bombarded the Tyranid ground forces with Titan scale weaponry, aided a billion other troops, combat servitors, Skitarii, PDF regiments, Lamenters Auxilia and the techmarine guard, plus Knights and the Leviathans Dreadknights supported by the Deus Ex Machina demi-legion.

The Black Templars Astartes got to enjoy melee combat with Tyranids like they hoped for, because despite our combined firepower, from orbit, air and ground the Tyranids kept coming, jumping over mountains of corpses to reach our defense lines.

They didn't have flail tanks and autonomous turrets like my forces had, so the Templars suffered great loses in the melee, not that they seemed to care at all.

Then again, the Templars always had thousands of neophytes already waiting on their Crusade fleet for the chance to become full Battle-Brothers and die gloriously in battle.

And even flail tanks, no matter how awesome they seemed, even them couldn't always mince through millions of enemies, flails breaking or jamming from bone shards and too much blood.

Knights and Leviathans had to intervene with Power Weapons to rescue encircled formations or drag back damaged tanks.

By the time Janice and the rest of the fleet finished annihilating the Tyranid tendril in the void, I had lost over a hundred Lamenters and half of my Auxilia forces, while the Templars were left with less than a dozen wounded Astartes and nearly no more serfs or armored vehicles.

Our duty had been discharged, for a terrible price. Forge Gryphonne IV had been saved with the loss of most of their combat forces, and most of the surface installations. Only the deeply protected Manufactoriums and Titan Forges were left, while the planet was scoured of any sign of life, millions of burning craters and a trillion bleached skulls, still glowing from radiation.

Even the Eldar had lost half of their ships, because Tyranid claws and teeth cared little for holographic defense fields. Fake projections were no defense when mountain-sized mouths snacked on your wraithbone ship, after all.

"A thousand battles like this one will be needed, Farseer. Return to your people and tell them what you saw here." I spoke in her mind.

"...I will, Astartes. And I will also tell them you have a Talisman of Vaul." The Eldar woman replied with scorn. A monkey with a spacegun in her eyes, most likely.

"That Fortress is now the Lamenters' base. Such a wonderful artifact deserves to be my home, right? But who knows, maybe if the Eldar do their part, I will allow them to obtain the last one, when it appears at Cadia. Knowledge of the future is such a wonderful gift." I mused in a light voice.

The Farseer did not reply, instead ordering her fleet to run away towards a Warpgate, eager to return to her Craftworld.

I was curious what will come of this, as Eldar were rarely sane enough to carry out negotiations and trade.

Or worse, when they did try to negotiate they only caused more misfortune for themselves, or causing the very disaster they were trying to prevent.

Soon after, I transferred my headquarters on the Black Lament, bringing aboard all my space marines and Auxilia regiments. There was enough space inside for a dozen more Chapters, because the damn thing was big.

Then, I just crashed into a sleepless dream, while my fleet travelled to Ophelia_VII, where Janice had been tasked with a mission by the Emperor.

What mission? Yeah...it was not to sing praises to the Sisters of Battle.

We arrived just in time to engage another Chaos fleet, led by a Greater Demon called the Tyrant_of_Blueflame and a certain Chaos sorcerer.

The crazy psyker was busy looting a monastery when my tesseract located him, and I snatched his Black_Staff first, before trying to depower him with another psych-out grenade detonated at the back of his head.

Yet again, there was only an empty armor inside my tesseract, much like Trazyn only obtained empty armors when trying to collect an Eldar Avatar.

The Force Staff was the real thing though, so at least I had a valuable item to trade now.

As for the Tyrant, it tried to escape into a Warp Rift once the tides turned, only for Janice to appear in front of him and slap the Warp portal away with a careless gesture. "You don't look so strong, blue bird." the Blank Psyker commented with a grin, and held her own Force Staff towards the creature, twisting it in mid-air.

"Please Lord Pef! Let me eat him." my own demon pleaded in my mind.

With a light step, I appeared beside Janice and considered the next course of action. Should I give her this burden though?

Yeah, no. I have lost enough children already.

"Let me kill him for good, Janice. Otherwise, it will just reform in the Warp." I proposed with a gentle voice, and speared the creature on the unholy lance.

In a minute, the blue Greater Demon had its essence drained away, and the fire on the lance seemed even brighter.

All over the planet, the Adepta Sororitas awoke from their nightmares and began fighting back with songs and flamers, purging demons and heretics, while Penitent Engines and arco-flagellants were released upon the unbelievers, like a horde of tiny Eversors, pumped full of combat drugs and hypno-prayers.

My own troops helped where needed, protecting valuable libraries and the Convent_Sanctorum, while I dealt with the more messy part of the purging, expelling cultists, Chaos marines and cardinals alike into the sun.

By next day, only loyal servants of the Emperor remained on Ophelia, and unfortunately some more visible bishops and priests who didn't cower inside their altars.

Oh well. They could be burned publically then. The purge had arrived and with it the displeasure of the Emperor.

"Sisters, you have been deceived long enough. The Emperor has tasked me with reforming the Adepta Sororitas, and you will all obey." Janice explained to the leaders of the Sisters, while flanked by Adeptus Custodes in auramite armor and Silent Sisters with grim outlook.

"You're a witch!" a devout Sister shouted, outraged at the insolence.

I sighed inward. Another one for the pyre then. "Your agreement is not requested nor required, traitor. You will all obey or just die. It's all the same to me." Janice answered with a kind smile, while the traitor burned alive in warpfire.

"The Holy Synod is the ruler of the Orders. You cannot command us, no matter what powers you have." A cannonness from Orders Dialogous interjected in a legal argument.

"The Synod is gone, Sister. Primarch Guilliam, the Imperium's Lord Commander, has executed all those traitors three months ago, using the Emperor's Sword. Primarch Sanguinius is the new Ecclesiarch and the Regent of Terra. And I am Adepta Tertia, in charge of you, and the Silent Sisters as well. Isn't it wonderful?" Janice asked in an angelic voice, spreading golden wings of light behind her.

I vanished back on my Fortress, leaving Janice to show off her powers.

Damn it, Adam! You stole my daughter and gave her a ton of work. The Adepta Sororitas were everywhere, on every Imperial world, and even outside the Imperium.

I had hoped for an Inquisitorial Rosette, maybe a Lord Inquisitor rank...not a trillion nuns with guns.