40 Thousand Reasons

Chapter 214: Sleeping beauty

With one hour left on the clock, I bit a finger nail to stop myself from speaking. Isha was busy restoring Justine's body, although it was only a soulless shell for now. And not a superstitious Soulless as most people saw the Blanks because of their special Warp-less nature. No, Justine's soul was not inside this body, despite it taking breath and having a heart beat.

"There you go, Pef Lancefire. Your mother has a body now. But, just as with that dead Primarch, you will need the God of the Dead to return her soul." the goddess spoke in a level voice, seeming tired by the long operation.

She did manage to clone a new body for Justine from old DNA, despite her being a Blank. Not an easy feat, going by her tired eyes.

I nodded and smiled, then moved Justine into my good tesseract, so she would be held in stasis. To gain the help of Ynnead or Yncarne would be very difficult, since deities had little to gain from me, but Yvraine was made of flesh and would need saving someday. And then, I could propose a fair trade and gain a life for a life from her patron.

"I suppose this is it, Lady Isha. I don't think gods need a spaceship to travel." I said with a wry voice, and gestured towards the ship's outer hull.

The Eldar goddess blinked in surprise at my abrupt farewell. "There are still 40 minutes left, human. Surely there is something I can do, in the remaining time?" Isha asked, possibly to discharge any future obligation towards me.

I would have liked a future favor instead, but it seemed today wasn't that perfect day.

"All right then, goddess. Let me think, what should I ask of a divine biomancer?" I hummed to myself, while scratching my cheek in deep thought.

My own body was in top shape, by the Grace of the Emperor. My crew had just received Isha's Blessing, and they were all healthy and free of illness or injury.

"Perhaps, you can try to unlock my Blank genes for my children. Too few of them receive the gift to be free of Warp influence." I decided after a minute of deliberation.

Isha stepped in front of me and searched for something in my eyes. "You truly believe your Null aura is a gift?" she wondered a bit astonished.

"Completely. If everyone becomes a Blank, then Chaos will find no purchase in any soul. No corruption, no mutation, no more treachery or rebellions, and with zero rogue psykers, no more people hosting demons or becoming Warp portals." I explained in a serious voice.

The goddess froze for a moment, and her eyes filled with tears. "You would destroy the beauty of the world, and the brightness of their souls?" she asked in deep pain.

"I've seen the Garden of Nurgle, my lady. I've also killed Slaanesh myself, with some help. It wasn't beauty that filled them." I answered in a cold, harsh voice.

A gentle hand caressed my face, and something tingled below my belt. I think she made me come with a single touch, which was something I will never tell anyone. The galaxy would be filled of hating people that blamed me for a divine handjob.

"It is done, Pef Lancefire. However, I would prefer a small fleet to escort me to the Black Library. I'm not exactly a goddess of war." Isha demanded with a fleeting smile.

I was rather high at the moment, and quite excited at the thought of unlimited Blank children. So, Isha received a dozen Eldar cruisers that materialized at the edge of the system, filled with a million Eldar crew and warriors liberated from Trazyn's labyrinth.

The most expensive handjob in the galaxy, but well-worth it in my opinion.

"Take care of Sister Ephrael. Once she takes the final step...you will see." the goddess whispered as she faded away from the medicae ward, and appeared among her astonished people.

A second later, a water bubble splashed over my face followed by a cheerful laugh. "You got played, silly human!"

"Canis, hamstring!" I shouted and chased after the stupid Harlequin with the wolf barking happily for the hunt.

Of course, we once more failed to catch him, as the trickster was able to phase through walls and teleport, as well as invert gravity or become invisible. Constant laughter and pranks involving dog food continued for half an hour, then he vanished somewhere.

An hour later, we found him playing cards with Sisters Stern and Darcy, with the two women testifying he never left their presence for a couple of hours.

"Wooo?" my wolf asked a bit confused.

"Perhaps, my friend. Very likely." I answered to his wise suspicion. If Mnemorach was here, then we chased after a different Harlequin.

"Larissa, set course for Forge Machine." I mentally ordered via the Sounding Board, as I sat down to play some cards as well. Darcy swiftly demanded her furry pillow for good luck, and I had a bottle of amasec to drown my frustration in.

A minute later, Ludvaius and Albesalom showed up for cards as well, while the Culexus Assassin Vaedrax kept scouring the ship for a second Harlequin. He never found him, even as we arrived at our destination a month later.

There was a giant surprise waiting for me at the Machine Forge. My old mentor, Magos Gyron was here, with a giant Ark Mechanicus the size of a small moon.

The Speranza was larger than many Space Hulks, and was crawling with techpriests from a hundred Forge Worlds, although not a single priest from Forge Wold Palomar where the ship was found.

The effects of a real STC database and construction forges were also evident, as the system was filled with ships, Titans, Knights and tanks of various types.

"Explorer Gyron, I see you were quite successful in your Quest for Knowledge." I offered with my arms open.

The old cyborg hugged me tightly and patted my head with his brand new mechadendrites. "It was your plan, young Astartes. So, I hear you had quite an adventurous life while I was absent."

"Well...things happened." I quipped with a shy smile.

"Hah. Things always happen when you're involved, Revelator. Or perhaps is Herald now? Did you find more exotic templates during your travels?" the techpriest wondered while poking a holoscreen to produce a list of intact STCs found inside the Speranza's memory banks.

I scrolled over the list, rapidly noting a number of conspicuous absences, such as the Bastion forcefields and other Dark Age technologies.

Sure, Titans and Knights, as well as older models of ships or armor were great, but there wasn't anything truly radical here. The datastack I just got from Trazyn had energy shields and weapons even more advanced than the Speranza's database.

"We will need to discover a hidden database inside the Machine Spirit, with some more advanced technologies beside these relics. Ah, here it is!" I muttered and produced a copy of the original datastick, with only a hundred inventions that would be acceptable by the Mechanicus.

Gyron tilted his coghead, and delicately extracted the memory device from my hand, holding it carefully as if it might explode.

"Perhaps Herald is still a lesser title, my pupil. Emissary of Omnissiah then!" my mentor techpriest exclaimed while examining the contents, and scrolling through the blueprints on the holoscreen.

I even had a few original STC templates here, obtained with the help of Ferrus Manus and labeled accordingly.

Of course, the vast majority of the new blueprints were T'au discoveries, dumbed down and repackaged as STC documents by Trazyn and his thousands of captured techpriests.

From gravity shields to anti-gravity vehicles, Ion cannons and advanced missiles, smarter and potent static and mobile turrets and up to heavy bombers copied after the Tau Manta and better Sentinels walker and a few types of power armor.

Nothing that would jeopardize Necron technological superiority, but in great numbers even ants could devour an elephant. And humanity did have numbers on their side.

The latest phase-plasma rifles could fire a thousand times from the same gas canister, with lethal range over 3 kilometers. I was rather pleased with the new infantry weapon and had high hopes it would prove itself in the field, since the logistics of providing bolter shells for a thousand regiments were rather difficult, not that any normal soldier could even carry so many rounds.

As for Anti-warp weapons, the T'au had produced a prismatic-spray gun that vaporized demons in a cone 50 meters wide. It was eerily similar to a starfighter's vectoring thruster, and it needed a robust platform to be used in the field, like a light tank or a gunship. Perhaps mounted on a Knight as well. To this weapon, Trazyn had simply added an extra nozzle to inject promethium into the spray mix and make it even more deadly, then called it the Lancefire Flamer.

I wasn't certain if this was Necron humor or a sign of respect, but I didn't mind the publicity. Demons would fear the Lancefire name even more, and through the Warp the ripples would create even higher damage. Plus it did spray fire.

"Where do you find all these wonders? The Speranza is quite intrigued by some of these templates, especially those with obvious xeno tampering." Gyron grumbled as the Machine Spirit itself manifested on the Manifold circuit to examine the latest STC discoveries.

"Hmmm. The provenience is quite exotic, I'm afraid. Primarch Ferrus Manus helped create this solar charger, for example. Others were recovered by the Inquisition, or given to me by the Emperor, or stolen from...well. I can't actually admit to stealing, can I?" I answered with a shitty grin.

"I wanted to see a fabled Psi-Titan, Lord Lancefire. I was informed you pilot one, correct?" the Machine Spirit asked with a metal voice emanating from the bridge's vox caster.

I nodded slowly while scanning the Ark Mechanicus for a free lab with the necessary scanning tools. A second later, I displaced myself and Gyron into that lab, then sealed the lab with my Inquisitorial Rosette.

"The Emperor has personally granted me a Princeps rank in his Ordo Sinister, Chamber Occedentalis. He also gave me a Titan made by his own hands." I proclaimed in a command voice while displacing the Destroyer from my tesseract. Still missing the right claw arm, but it looked amazing anyway.

After a few seconds of astonished silence, I produced the Chamber Polaris Psi-Titan which got greatly damaged by Nurgle. In fact, beside it's left arm and cockpit most of the Polaris Albedelach was pretty much toast, although its self-cleansing runes and purity seals had maintained the chasis free of corruption. Sadly, its Alpha-level psykers did not survive the explosion, and only the left shoulder's nutri-wombs remained, filled with a pair of dead bodies.

"What caused the damage?" Gyron asked in a terrified voice.

"...Errr. My Titan's right claw got melted when I punched Slaanesh in the eye. As for Albedelach, he got hit directly by Nurgle. But don't worry, those two guys are dead now." I explained in a calm voice.

"... Bullshit!" the Machine Spirit shouted from the wall's vox caster.

I just shrugged. It was true.