40 Thousand Reasons

Chapter 176: Rich

The one constant in 40k? It can always get worse. And it will.

Fending off the Tyranid assault should have worked, even when hamstrung by the very people we were trying to defend.

The fleet did its job, massacring Tyranids by the billion, while the ground troops fought valiantly to protect the Western Perimeter, the area found between the capital and the nearest mountains.

We had stone walls ten meters high, with Titans and Knights firing in support, then attack drones and Interceptors in the air, plus corvettes and Drop-cruisers proving low orbit fire support.

In places, the wall was ten meter thick as well, to allow tanks to provide heavy weapon fire in support of the artillery. Armed Sentinels and Tarantula turrets, even the less-impressive maned Sabre_Gun_Platforms added torrents of medium grade lascannon and autocannon towards those Tyranid organisms that managed to reach the surface of Cardinal World.

But those damned Grey Knights! It was almost like they wanted to be the cause of the Fall_of_Shadowbrink.

The poor Hive City had one exposed flank, and not enough firepower to halt the Tyranids at the gates. Millions of lesser organisms, supported by Zoanthropes and Maleceptors smashed their way inside the Hive City, and began feasting on the locals, despite feeble attempts by the Grey Knights to resist.

So I ordered ten corvettes on a sacrificial run, and crash-landed them, to form a wall of armor and firepower on the east side of Rossov. Their iridium-tungsten armored hulls were taller than the defense walls, and the broadsides of lascannons and point-defense turrets were able to fire on both sides, halting the progress of the Tyranids and creating a wall of fire to support the misguided locals.

And then, the inevitable fuck up began, as one of those ancient relics called the Maelstrom Cradle, began to activate by itself and opened a portal into the Warp, right underneath the Hive City.

The cretins did not bother with Gellar fields and soon the city was infested with both Tyranids and demons.

"Lord Pef, we detect a major Chaos incursion to the east, where the Hive City is. We do not have defenses covering that sector. The perimeter is compromised!" General Regina announced in a wary voice.

I cursed inward, while focusing on an alternate solution.

"Acknowledged, General. Stand by for extraction." I replied on the Vox channel, and instantly did that.

Three billion people vanished from the face of the planet, including everything of value that I could grab. My troops and equipment, including the modular rock walls, their tanks and Titans and everything else recoverable.

Even a pair of Grey Knight Dreadknights and all their squads, dead or alive, were stored into the tesseract as well.

And then I began retrieving animals and tools, weapons and munitions, while also stealing away all the relics and machinery from the planet, ancient and new.

In a minute, the deserted planet was fought on only by demons and Tyranids, while I deposited the last million bioships right on the ground, around the fallen capital. The space was clear and my ships returned to their carriers, while the fleet moved away, followed by the last Cobra destroyers of the defenders.

And then, I sat up from my command chair and returned the leader of the Grey Knights right on my bridge. "Name and rank, Astartes." I demanded in a cold voice.

The silver-armored Librarian looked around, to find a dozen Blank Lamenters staring at him with angry eyes, and a blonde Inquisitor playing with a ball of arcane lightning, flipping it in the air with one hand.

"I am Brother-Librarian Cadolon. This is your Blackstone Fortress, Lamenter?" he replied with his own question.

"He appears to be sentient, Lord Pef. I thought you said the Grey Knights are mindless robots." Amberley commented with a wry voice.

I smiled widely at her, then turned towards the idiot psyker, all wrapped in purity sigils and sanctity runes.

"And before that, Librarian? What name were you born with? On what world, and what year?" I asked in a gentler voice.

"...That's...irrelevant. I am now Cadolon, the hammer of the Emperor!" the psyker declared, sounding proud.

"What you mean, is that your identity has been erased. What is your chain of command, Astartes?" I continued in a soft voice, while holding a palm flat towards to floor.

My sons lowered their weapons, as ordered.

The Librarian glanced around with suspicion, finding only Blanks around him and his psyker powers ineffective should it come to blows.

"My Grand Master, and above him the Ordo Malleus of the Holy Inquisition. Above that, the Supreme Grand Master of the Chapter and finally the Emperor of Mankind himself." the man claimed, looking around for some way to escape.

"I see. So there is basically nobody to punish you for doing what you did. Or so you think, Librarian Cadolon. You will be taken to Terra to answer for your crimes, and if you're lucky you'll be burned on the Astronomican. If that's not possible, I'll request you be turned into a Pariah instead. Very useful gift that one, right?" I asked rhetorically while turning around towards the holoscreen.

"Inquisitor Vail, it appears Shadowbrink has been infested with demons and Tyranids. I propose Exterminatus." I spoke in a level voice. More and more Tyranids and demons emerged from their bioships and Warp portal, battling each other in a massive concert of claws and wings and psyker spells.

She stepped beside me to observe the magnified images. "Indeed, Lord Pef. It appears our efforts to save this Imperial planet had been obstructed by this...Librarian. Having his soul fuel the Astronomican should be the appropriate penance." Amberley mused in a thoughtful tone.

Cadolon let out a grunt, while watching the same scene. "This is what I tried to prevent! But the seals overloaded during the Tyranid assault."

"Of course. I am not claiming you're a traitor, Grey Knight. I am saying my troops could have protected the Hive City just fine, and yet you refused. Not only that, but you failed to protect the Hive City, letting the Tyranids breach its walls and massacre millions of civilians, thereby activating that Cradle relic with their deaths and blood. But the good news is Primarch Sanguinius has returned, and now rules the Imperium of Man as its Regent. You'll have the chance to explain yourself to him, before he decides your fate." I answered in a casual voice.

Worlds were lost to the Imperium every day, and at least this time I had managed to recover most of the locals. Sure, there were still plenty of fanatic Militia and Preachers on the surface, all of them in fact.

They kept the enemy distracted, and even killed some of them.

"Something big is coming through, Lord Pef. One, two, three, four Greater Demons!" the Inquisitor proclaimed with a deep frown, the grainy pict-images from our landed corvettes distorting even more, once the big demons crossed into realspace.

"I doubt they'll be effective against the Tyranids, not while the Shadow in the Warp suppresses their powers." I commented in a lighter tone, like watching a sports event.

The Grey Knight Librarian was not amused at all, falling to his knees in prayer, and mumbling to himself something about the dreaded Quadrifold Abominatum.

"I almost think you want them to win, just so you can kill them yourself with your fancy lance." Amberley grumbled while sitting down to watch the match.

Zoantropes and Maleceptors bombarded the Greater Demons with psychic spells, while Tyrannofexes and Trygons advanced to battle them in melee. It was a battle of titans, and I almost felt the urge to jump into my Knight and join the fight.

Almost. One on one, with Pariah shields supporting me was one thing. I was nearly certain to defeat a single Greater Demon, with my own. But a giant melee of billions of enemies would be hard to navigate, even with all my abilities and cheats.

All I could do was watch and learn what my enemies could do, and deposit more and more Tyranids on the ground.

Despite their terrific powers as Great Demons, when faced with the Tyranid Silence and their own psychic spellcasters, the demons weren't faring that great, and sneaky plasma torpedoes demolishing their demonic supporters didn't help either.

One of the Greater Demons, a bluish bird, decided to retreat towards the Cradle but I wasn't keen on letting that happen. Forty Tyranid Zoantropes teleported right in front of it, while a pair of Trygon bio-titans fell right on top of the cowardly Greater Demon.

A howl of despair followed, and then the Greater Demon blew up under the concentrated assault. The other three Greater Demons fought on, butchering millions of Tyranids with plagues and blunt force alike.

But the thing about Tyranids? They adapt to whatever enemy they face. Stronger bio-titans appeared, with larger claws and bone swords, ignoring the green vapors of plague and disease, and chopping and slicing at the demons with impunity.

I wanted those adapted Tyranids for my own 'special army' and for extensive Biologis techpriests examinations. New vaccines could be prepared by studying what the Hive Mind did to adapt, and one day humanity would have those kinds of immunities as well.

As for those Grey Knights weapons, like a Gatling psilencer, or a Heavy psycannon? Well, surely Trazyn would be amenable to reverse-engineer them for me. And I bet he did not have a Grey Knight in his collection either.

Humanity might have lost this world, but I will make sure we came ahead for it. The Grey Knights foolishly kept their anti-chaos weapons as a tight secret, when all the Imperium could use them and withstand Chaos with some degree of success.

Even if only the Forge Worlds and the Astartes Chapters had psycannons it would be great, but the Adepta Sororitas had a million times more available troops.

Soon enough, the last Greater Demon was shredded and sent back to Warp in tiny pieces by the Tyranids, and I got to burn yet another world. Not before I collected the Tyranid bio-titans I wanted, plus my well-deserved share of metallic asteroids and everything of value I could steal.

My stores of torpedoes and Nova Shells were empty once again, and I had billions of people to resettle or convert into productive servitors for my own Forge Worlds.

And even better, this Cardinal World had nine trillion thrones in its treasure vaults, a sum so immense it would be hard to spend.

Nobody could sell me nine thousand torpedo destroyers or several battleships. Oh well. I guess I could increase the children suport program in my empire, plus purchase anything nice. I was rich!