40 Thousand Reasons

Chapter 193: Left hand of darkness

The next second, the Warlord-Sinister Psi-Titan vanished, and then reappeared at the entrance into the Polaris crypt.

Five of the Alpha-level psykers had died during the battle of Saturn, and the last one wasn't much better. The poor Titan had taken quite a beating during the day-long engagement and it probably needed a week to be properly restored to full strength.

The Arioch Power Claw had lost 3 digits to a Bloodthirster Greater Daemon who refused to die and bit them off, and the shoulder cannons had been ripped off by two squid-like Greater Demons, probably belonging to Slaanesh.

Yeah, a Chaos invasion wasn't easy to defeat, and without me being there to move the Titan out of danger at critical moments... it would have been destroyed. These God machines were amazingly strong and durable, but not invincible.

The Blank Princeps knew it too, because five other Psi-Titans had been lost til now, and always to Chaos forces.

Of course, I didn't linger about, and test how the A.I. in charge of the Psi-Titans would react to its baby being returned in a battered state.

I just saluted the gathered Custodes and tesseracted away, back on board the Singularity battleship.

"Lord Lancefire, this is a xeno." Archmagos Cawl noted in an angry tone, and his famous Power Axe crackled with electricity as a counter-point to the presence of the Harlequin.

"And I am a Rogue Trader." I said in a casual voice, just as Dreadnought Chyron arrived at a brisk walk.

"I shall provide quarters and security for our 'guests'." the Lamenter Captain voiced from his walking coffin.

I just nodded and gestured towards the main hallway. Soon enough, Ephrael and Darcy were being led towards their new homes, with the Solitaire tip-toeing after them, hands tucked into his large pockets like he was on a stroll.

Hopefully he could keep the pranks at a minimum, for now.

"You heard about the Machine Forge, Dominatus Dominus?" I wondered out loud.

The techpriest nodded in a cautious manner, and held a familiar dataslate out. The one I gave to Primarch Guilliman some decades ago. "Quite a lot of 'discoveries' on this tablet, Lord Lancefire. Some of them bear the definite markings of xeno origin."

I just shrugged. "I've seen the Golden Throne, techpriest. Half of it is made from xeno tech, and your fellow techpriests have no idea how to repair it. Not to mention the Eternity Gate or the Imperial Webway."

Belisarius Cawl sighed painfully and motioned at me to follow after him. A minute later we descended at the base of the Voidclaw, the ancient weapon able to shoot singularities, as projectiles or even sustained beams.

"This is the weapon you 'recovered' from Vigilus. I see someone had made some modifications to it, miniaturization of the atomantic shielding, triple buffer capacitors, scalable yield, surge protections against static or dynamic overload and hundreds of others tiny changes. Who did this?" he asked in a rather upset voice.

I smiled a bit too wide. "A friend."

"The same friend worked on your helmet's visor, I suspect?" He asked with a piercing gaze at the helmet hanging on my belt.

"Yes. He is quite shy and orange." I explained in a mild voice.

"Yes. Jokaero smiths tend to leave subtle hints of their origin into their artifacts. The problem is, they can also deactivate the objects they've worked on with a single thought. Or make them explode." he warned me, while popping open a panel into the side of the giant spacegun. Thin red and orange lines formed a childish painting depicting a sunburst, and then the painted lines vanished deep among the cables and solid-state circuits of the ancient weapon.

"Some kind of special paint?" I asked, back in savant mode.

"Psycho-reactive paint, yes. I backtracked the tracker signal to its source. The control node was originally somewhere in the Eastern Fringe, but has now moved towards the Eye of Terror. " Belisarius Cawl explained while projecting a minimalistic galactic map and pointing at a moving dot. The trajectory lead right to Solemnace and a certain Necron Overlord with a whole company of Jokaero in his service. And there was a single possible destination for him and his own Blackstone Fortress.

"Cadia. Makes sense." I mused to myself in a thoughtful voice. Trazyn the Infinite had arranged to place a self-destruct into my Voidclaw, before heading towards the main event in the galaxy. Some kind of empathic subversion of my Jokaero smith, undetectable and subtle.

"Well, if it makes sense to you, then everything is all right, Lord Lancefire. But I assume you'd want to defuse the bomb?" he asked in a wry voice.

"If you can fake an intact signal to continue and do not alert the target. The survival of this ship is much less important than the task at Cadia." I explained with a shrug, and started to turn away.

"I have already done that, while you were riding that silver Titan all over the system. The recordings on Saturn were quite amazing, for a machine not used by Cult Mechanicus." the techpriest complained with a rather envious voice.

"You can ask the Emperor about the Psi-Titan. He is back on his feet now." I answered with a shrug and vanished.

My strange teleport powers were on record now, so no point avoiding using them. Same with the existence and powers of the Psi-Titans.

I have always found it stupid to hide the existence of major weapons from your own people, if you were already using them on your enemies. I mean, the enemy already knew of their existence and general type of powers.

A moment later, I arrived beside Inquisitors Rosalia and Velayne, who were also busy discussing advanced politics with their counter-parts in the Eldar delegation, Phoenix Lords, Exalts, Autarchs and Farseers.

For once, I kept my mouth shut and just observed in silence, as prisoner and captive transfers were being arranged, ships being transferred over, Spirit Stones traded over for various Imperial relics, Saint bones and relic artifacts worth as much as a planet if not more.

"I should ask for your head, Astartes. But it would be more pleasant to collect it myself." A black armored Eldar woman muttered towards me in contempt.

"You're a Phoenix Lord?" I wondered curious. These people were the equivalent of a human Primarch in the Eldar culture, with giant temples and huge numbers of followers.

" I am Jain_Zar." the alien woman answered in a dignified voice.

I shrugged at that, since the name told me nothing. "Are you stronger than an Avatar?" I asked while scratching my cheek.

A pair of green eyes blinked in confusion at my question. "Are you?" she answered in a defiant voice.

I held out my hand and balanced it in mid-air. "Probably the same level, I'd say. The Avatar of Khaine was rather friendly, so we never got to testing our strength, when we burned down Commorragh together. Who knows, maybe Yncarne will be a challenge."

Twenty pairs of eyes locked onto me and my absurd claims, while Jain Zar blinked in confusion again.

"Go away Pef. Primarch Sanguinius wanted a word with you." Rose demanded with a pained voice, like I have broken some hidden taboo or something.

Well, might as well leave before I was set on fire. Even though this space fortress was my home.

With a twist of space-time, I moved myself beside Sanguinius, who was in the middle of a staff meeting with a hundred high-ranking Generals, Admirals and other Adeptus Terra of various factions.

"Pef Lancefire! Had enough fun gallivanting around the Sol System?" the Primarch asked in a mild voice. Well, he was always that way, even while chopping off your head.

Cool guy, my Primarch.

"I was told to deal with the invaders, Lord Sanguinius. Primarch Guilliman himself, with his own words." I answered in a level voice.

Sanguinius almost sighed, and patted my head in a fatherly manner. So this is where Ludvaius got the gesture from.

"Nevermind then. Go to Cadia and deal with the invaders as well. If you need more troops or ships, we have plenty to spare right here." he explained with an inviting gesture towards the gathered staff.

My eyes swept the gathered officers and officials for someone of real use.

"You command the Indomitus Fleet Tertius, right?" I asked Fleetmaster Cassandra_VanLeskus.

"I do, Lord Lancefire. Nine battlecruisers and eighty four cruisers, all upgraded with Warpless engines. The weapon batteries are not upgraded though." she replied in a dignified tone.

I nodded in understanding. The Navy rarely got the best deal, as they were rather prone to defections, mutiny and even turning to Chaos.

"I will need some Augur Teams of the Templars_Psykologis and a pair of agents from the Synopticon. Maybe a Culexus Assassin, if there's one available in system." I continued in the same tone, watching Sanguinius hide a faint smile.

Yeah, he knew I didn't actually need intelligence and subversion operatives, nor Pariah killers to go after Chaos demons or sorcerers. But he wouldn't say that now, after he basically gave me a free hand to pick my team.

"Anything else, Lord Lancefire?" Sanguinius asked in a pleasant voice.

I pretended to think about it for a moment. "A pair of those psychic Titans. And especially the pilot of Polaris-Albedelach. We worked great together."

"We all saw your exploits, my son. Very well." Sanguinius agreed, with a nod towards a white-and--silver dressed Inquisitor with a black glove on his left hand.

And this Inquisitor was a Blank as well.

Only then I realized how stupid I must have looked, with my low level Rosette, trying to impress the gate guard. Ordo Sinistrum was part of the Inquisition. The black left hand of the Emperor. The left hand of darkness.