40 Thousand Reasons

Chapter 100: Edge

After this week passes, we meet up with one of the Eldar cruisers roaming around, and simply ask politely for an escort back to Sotha, lest we roam at random and perhaps reach some sacred Eldar Exodite world, by mere accident.

A minute later, their Captain agrees to our wonderful offer and leads to way to our destination.

Not sure if he got my meaning, or the Avatar told them to. I could trust my luck and try to navigate blindly, but fate works in mysterious ways and would possibly throw me in front of a Hive Fleet or a Chaos fleet or a Hrud migration.

The Tranquility awaits us beside the portal, the mangled prow barely repaired after the battleship had been extracted from the remains of the Ork Space Hulk.

Sure, the prow is hermetically sealed now, and there's a mechanical Gellar generator right behind the armor, so Warp travel is quite safe. The noises and other Warp emanations have mostly been controlled as well, with several Gellar field generators working non-stop. The hull and machinery are functional, but sadly infested or possessed by whatever figments of imagination or living nightmares manifested during the long voyages through the Warp.

It would be safer to scrap it, and reforge the metal again, but a new battleship would take millennia to build by my small Forge, if indeed possible at all.

Retribution is building simple tanks and slightly more advanced fighters, and that won't change for at least a century. We're on the bottom tier, and will need to grow a technological society from ground up.

Most likely by stealing basic science, and advanced science too, from our Tau neighbors to the south. What humanity has forgotten already, they are discovering right now. And not being too cautious about who gets to learn and use their technology, even allowing conquered humans in their military. I already have plans to use that to my advantage, by donating them bits of Eldar and Dark Eldar equipment, even Necron or Ork machinery that appears somewhat easier to engineer and reproduce.

While a few millions of tech-priests chant and pray and anoint machines in complicated rituals, just to get a simple tank to start, the Tau are already building advanced battlesuits with energy shields, and battleships with formidable railgun batteries.

Sure, they still have lots to work on ship engines and void shields or Gellar generators, that can be arranged to happen much sooner.

My corvettes are deployed and arranged defensively as we approach the Aegida. For some reason, the Inquisition makes me nervous. And I have a Rosetta myself!

"Pef Lancefire, you have a lot to explain." my Rose speaks on the vox channel reserved for highest priority. There is no invading force around, not even a sneaky Eldar scout.

My beloved has also returned, probably not long ago. "We better talk in private." I answer curtly and raise from my Captain's seat.

"Are we blowing them up too?" my aunt asks to make sure, and her question makes the giant Khan cough in surprise, or perhaps warning.

"Nah. They are not traitors, only brainwashed zealots. I'll sort them out." I declare in a confident voice as I walk out the door.

I will sort them out, somehow. I left that word out, because confidence is essential in a commander. Even if you feel like hiding in your room.

Thus, I wave out my bodyguards and bring the pretty Inquisitor in, with a simple twist of the labyrinth. So easy.

"You have indeed changed, just like the reports said. Acting without reservation, ignoring procedure or the law. Stealing prisoners. Dealing with xenos too." my Rose declares in an accusing voice.

"Hello, my love. You look a bit tired." I answer instead, and offer a hug. She glares at me for a minute before relenting and accepting my embrace.

"You better have a solid adamantium alibi. Blackstone even." Rose mutters in my neck. So she did notice the protective armoring around my rooms. Obviously she did, her psyker powers would be restricted even more.

"What could I say? I took the fleet to Commorragh, burned the place down. An entire race exterminated. That glowing lightbulb on my bridge is Primarch Khan. He rode back with me, so to say. I don't have horses on the ship." I explain in a small but level voice.

She blinks as her hand points towards the bridge and tries to find some words to say. " A Primarch...and burning down all of Commorragh. Yes, that would be a solid alibi. Is this new ability of yours from that C'tan in the Pharos?" she asks in a wary voice.

I shake my head gently. "Something completely different. Just keep in mind, what I am learning to do, others have done for millions of years. The Eldar came with an Avatar of Khaine on board. Do you even know how potent such a being is?"

Rose nods hesitantly. "I know of them. Is that your hidden trade partner?" she asks me in worry.

"Oh no. Last I saw it, the Avatar was fighting a gigantic Keeper of Secrets in the burning ruins on High Commorragh. Both of them took my Exterminatus head on, and ignored it. That Avatar, he is my next trade. Maybe the Greater Demon too, if I can find a buyer. I supply a time and a place, and I name a price. Perhaps another ancient STC, like the warp-less drive was. Perhaps an STC device that can close the Hadex Anomaly." I whisper in her ear, and she goes deathly still.

"All those ships...appearing near Forge Worlds...it was you? Or rather, someone that can find them and just move them in an instant." Rose murmured in slight amazement.

"You know, not everyone is mortal, in this universe. The Eternals, like Primarch Vulkan for example...they simply cannot die. Others, like those traitors Primarchs might get resurrected in the Eye of Terror. Eldar Avatars return from death riding those Infinity Circuits, til the Universe loops around. Dark Eldar Archons can resurrect via blood sacrifice. Some Necrons Overlords simply enter a new timeline, and climb inside an undamaged body. I even heard of an Ork Boss getting resurrected." I continue in a more somber voice, and sit on my adamantium chair while Rose sits in my lap.

Not yet time for love, but some explanation is needed. It is even true, from a certain point of view.

"What does it have to do with our situation? Primarch Khan is alive and well, right?" she wonders in a deep frown.

"Our Emperor is an Eternal too. I suspect the Primarchs are simply slivers of his own abilities, separated into clone bodies with different attributes. They cannot really die, just like those Living Saints that the Ecclesiarchy makes. Well, their method is flawed and probably heretical, but all things involving the Warp are." I say in a softer voice. Deflect the ire towards others, always works.

"The Imperial Cult is summoning demons?" the Inquisitor growls in anger.

"Now, now. Not everything is the Warp is demons. The Astronomican beacon is in the Warp. So is that Pharos beam and there's nothing demon related with it. There is a whole sea of creatures in there, from Void Whales the size of planets, to Enslavers and whatever else. From what I know, the Emperor himself is carving out a place for humanity in the Warp, or rather said for their souls. The Mechanicus are doing the same with the Machine Spirits, using cloned human parts to bind the machine souls to the Emperor, for safety against Warp intrusions. But unlike the Emperor or the Forge, the Ecclesiarchy are not a head of the Aquila. See the problem?" I ask rhetorically.

The Emperor kinda stepped inside that Machine God poo by trying to be too smart, and fool the cargo cult on Mars with his psyker abilities, even using temporal spells to undo the damage taken by some battered Knights and Titans.

The joke was on him, as his body rots on the mechanical Golden Throne and his mind is immersed into the datasphere, hearing every single machine canticle and maintenance sermon uttered by the trillions of tech-priests in the Solar System. He now is the Machine God, but I don't think he likes it.

Technically the Inquisition has existed before the Imperial Cult, and Rose has to know this. Whatever schooling they receive...probably that information was deleted and expunged, if I think on this again.

"And to think I tried to find a Living Saint for your bed. Plan cancelled, forever." Rose declares in a disgusted voice.

"I do need more Silent Sisters. Thousands more." I demand in a needier voice, and kiss her ear gently.

"Get out of that armor, right now! I will claim a long interrogation." my beloved demands in a needy voice as well.

Excellent! All according to plan.

Too bad about that Living Saint though. A lover who could fly, like Living Saints can, would have been totally awesome. Maybe in the next life.