40 Thousand Reasons

Chapter 190: Sna

"Necrons...they are quite insane, my dear Inquisitor. Even their Pharohs and Overlords that still retain some memories were driven mad by the living metal transformation. I suspect the process was similar to those Princeps that get absorbed by their Titan's Machine Spirit." I mused thoughtfully while examining my son.

It seemed Lady Ramaeus has trained him to control the psyker powers to some extent, as there were no involuntary flares of Warp activity, even in contact with a Blank like myself.

Menelau raised his eyes and scanned my face with a piercing gaze. "You have met some Necrons, father?"

"Indeed I have, son. The Hadex Anomaly didn't close by itself, after all." I offered with a wide smile.

The Solitaire chuckled to my side, and poked at my left glove. "You have quite the collection in there, Pef Lancefire. Five Primarchs, I believe?" the Harlequin asked with a snort, undoubtedly enjoying my distress at having my secrets revealed.

"Keep an eye on that Succubus, my dear. I'll go light up the Astronomican once more." I said instead, preempting the Inquisitor's obvious questions.

A second later, I re-appeared at the base of the Eternity Gate, the giant adamantium door now flanked by an Adeptus Custodes Company and an entire Grey Knight Brotherhood. Luckily, the Solitaire and his fellow Harlequins were tucked inside the tesseract now, as to not upset the defenders even more. Having the Imperial Palace breached again was enough of a stain on their honor.

"Brothers." I spoke politely and pointed towards the door.

"Lord Lancefire." A Custode replied with a flash of golden eyes. He gestured faintly with two armored fingers and the door opened a meter, just enough to let me pass, sidewise.

Beyond the dimensional portal, a thousand techpriests were busy working on the Golden Throne machinery, possibly attempting to repair the xeno device, with little success from what I could see.

Captain Semnai ran to my side, his face hopeful for good news. "My lord. The Emperor?"

"Still being treated, Brother. For now, we'll have to make do with sanctioned psykers to keep the Astronomican going." I explained in a low voice, and retrieved the glass throne and the next sacrificial psyker from my tesseract.

In a few minutes, another blind psyker was burning his soul to power up the light of the Astronomican, and restoring a semblance of order and faith to humanity.

"Much better now." I declared in a confident voice, while retrieving the next consumable batteries and having them wait on the side.

"These are all Alpha psykers?" my son Vincent asked with a surprised voice, taking stock of the new batteries provided by the Astra Telepathica and overcharged by my Shadowlight. There were eleven of them, which should suffice for ten days perhaps.

I shrugged and began walking back towards the gate. "Semnai, remain here with two companies and keep the Astronomican going. The consumables should last at least a week, but send warning if they petrify sooner."

My Captain nodded and checked his combi-bolter by reflex. Hopefully he won't need it, but you never know.

The rest of my troops filled behind me in a long line, as I headed out of the Golden Throne room. Sister Helena walked beside me, smiling like a schoolgirl.

A pair of Custodes Companions stopped me at the gate, their flesh healed and their teeth no longer visible though charred or disfigured faces. "The Emperor trusts you, Pef Lancefire. Make sure you don't betray that trust." one of them warned me in a stern voice, while looking down on me from his greater height.

I stopped and strained my neck to look into his eyes. The eyes weren't glowing, which meant the Emperor wasn't puppeting this Custodes right now.

"You give excellent counsel, Brother. When the Emperor walks again, make sure to offer your counsel to him. He will need friends and advisors, not flesh puppets. Look up in a book what the word companion means." I answered in my best wise voice, then walked past him, followed by seven companies of Lamenters, most of them sporting burns and cuts on their power armor.

Back in normal reality, I stood beside the adamantium gate and began deploying the Lamenter Companies where their armor and firepower would provide most efficient use, reinforcing weaken sections of the Imperial Palace and supporting the march of Sister Stern. She might be able to resurrect, but it was better if she didn't die at all. An escort of Blank Astartes and Silent Sisters should keep her safer, from Chaos and the Imperium alike.

I wouldn't put it past the Inquisition or the Assassinorum to try and capture or kill the Demonifuge, despite her immense powers and helpful actions. Or because of it.

A few minutes later, I arrived on Luna and hastily covered my head with my helmet. The smell of burned bodies and poisonous psyker spells filled the regolith tunnels, and exploded corpses and trails of intestines were never fun to see.

Chaos marines and sorcerers did not dissipate in the Warp like demons did, and the Catachan regiments preferred to use extra munitions even on dead enemies, just to make sure. Possibly for the best, considering how resilient Space marines could be.

"Lord Lancefire! Come to see our work?" A Catachan Sergeant asked with an amused voice, while sitting on a crate and fiddling with an Exitus rifle. Well, a Forge Retribution copy of the real thing. Exitus rifles were quite rare.

I turned towards him and observed his hands still busy with cleaning up his sniper rifle. "Tell me how it went til now." I asked while spreading out a Lamenter Company to cover the nearest tunnels.

"So and so, my lord. The shield penetrator rounds work well enough on the Chaos psykers, and same for the ash grenades and the melta bombs. The Khymera and those Warp Talons are a tad harder to kill. Lost a quarter of my unit already." the man explained with a sad head shake.

A second later, a screeching Warp beast jumped from inside a wall and its head got splattered by my backhanded slap. My body had moved by itself, likely due to the extensive training I got in the infested Space Hulk back home. I checked my glove but the blackstone plate was still intact. Good enough.

With a kick, I struck the body of the dead beast and it shattered into the Warp again. "So these things are the Khymera?" I mused in a low voice.

I wouldn't want to fight the things outside my power armor, that was certain.

"Exactly, my lord. Sneaky things, and quite fast as you've just seen." the sergeant said with a careless shrug, and resumed cleaning his weapon with automatic moves.

A minute later, the same beast appeared a tunnel over, and got sliced in half by a wary Lamenter.

"And they respawn." I added in a thoughtful tone.

"That too, my lord. Unless there's a Silent Sister around. They kill them good." the Catachan provided with a grim smile.

I nodded and traced the tesseract vision, locating Magnus and his escort. The Primarch was plowing through Chaos marines and sorcerers with the Emperor's Sword in hand, while a blue shield covered his Ogryn-size fatigues and kept him safe from Warp spells and bolter rounds. As instructed, Janice and Dessima were only providing escort, and letting Magnus prove himself against the traitors.

Once in a while, a stabbed traitor split apart, and a blackish astral form jumped away. Dessima would then crush the demonic apparition, while Janice would lean and heal the recovered Space Marine, while ripping off the corrupted armor with her bare hands.

That armor would withstand tank fire, and yet my girl...what has the Emperor done to her?

"Seen enough, dad?" she asked me directly into my mind, eyes glowing with violet lights like strange lanterns.

"He seems stable enough. Leave him be and regroup with your Sisters. There should be cleansing rituals that can cover a small moon, right?" I asked with a curious tone.

Janice turned towards Dessima and conversed something, mentally. A few seconds later, Janice Warped away and reappeared inside the Somnius Citadel, and began gathering the Lunar Sisterhood for a ritual.

Sister Dessima continued trailing Magnus on his one-man Crusade, while still dispelling the corrupting demons from the recovered Emperor's Children.

Possibly something decided at a higher level then, and outside my control. My legal powers in the Imperium of Man were minimal at best, especially here in the Sol System.

The ruling hierarchies were complicated and Byzantine, with opposing factions and hidden currents shifting constantly.

I yearned to return to the Fringe, where things made sense and people had to listen to me. But first, I had to make sure the Emperor returned, and Blanks would not be pursued and persecuted again.

And for that, my help would need to be obvious and irrefutable, something I avoided for a very long time. It was time to snap my fingers, with my Thanos glove.

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