40 Thousand Reasons

Chapter 95: Present

"In groups of three! One Sister support two Astartes!" I command them as reinforcements begin teleporting in.

This seems to work nicely, except for Chaplain Delos who cannot use his powers anymore. Thousands of demons there may be, but my forces are the equivalent of several normal Astartes Companies now.

They have the best weapons, armor and shields I could find or steal, plus immunity from Warp spells or curses. In less than an hour, the temple is secured and my dear Hestia closes that Warp Portal simply by punching it.

"Well, Captain... It appears your Rogue Trader instincts were right on the spot. We have recovered 14 more special blades, and there are stairs leading into catacombs. Permission to explore?" Rafen asks in a cheerful voice, and twirls his new polearm to find the right balance.

I consider it for a few seconds, balancing risk vs benefit. Nah, better sell the location to a Forge World, and let them expend a million of skitarii battling whatever monstrosities were waiting below.

Perhaps one of those Ultima sector Forges I haven't contacted yet. Going to have to befriend them too, and soon. "Place a teleport beacon plus a demon warning asking for a portable Gellar field, and return to your posts. You had enough fun for a single day." I order them, as I begin to grab each triplet and deposit them on the Serenity.

Only Alena is not very happy, because she wasn't allowed to go. Still a Novice, and no need to risk her.

In a decade or two she will gain the expertise in weapons and handling armor in combat. Just like I was, training an hour or two every day with the master-level warriors of the Blood Angels.

"You will have your fun tonight, in bed." I promise her instead, and that seems to work as well.

"Of course I will, Lord Pef! You better show me those other bed tricks, not just boring baby making." Alena demands in a petulant voice. Someone has been chatting with my cute nurses, Helena and Catherine, I see.

I don't really mind...she does make the most enticing noises after all.

By the time my other ships arrive, 3 days later, I have stored 3000 Tyranid ships in my labyrinth and convinced Fidelia and Letitia to join me in bed. It is rather fast, but the sooner we start pumping babies together, the better. The galaxy depends on us.

A dozen planets get to meet my fiery retribution as well, including the Ork capital of Charadon, led by a self-titled Arch-Arsonist Ork Boss. He didn't quite enjoy being burned alive, but such is fate. One day you burn some people, the next day you get burned in turn.

A few more Necron dynasties that were awakening just now, on planets like Perdita and Trakonn got to be sent deep underground by the burning atmosphere, and the rest of my Exterminatus torpedoes fall on infested Tyranid worlds crawling with trillions of bugs.

Not only denying them fresh biomass but actually preventing the Tyranids from reproducing behind the lines, was important too.

My efforts during this visit possibly counted more than a dozen Navy battlefleets fighting for decades.

The same efforts were getting noticed by the higher beings of this universe, as proved by an immortal Avatar of Khaine on my doorstep.

Now, for the Dark Eldar the same method wouldn't quite work, since Commorragh was dispersed over many dimensions and sub-dimensions for each Drukhari Kabal, and their center of power, called High_Commorragh, was too well protected against deep strikes. It would take a frontal assault to pass through those wards and dimensional barriers, and I wasn't even certain the forces I brought with me would be sufficient.

Anyway, it was much more than humanity alone could provide as an assault force, being so dispersed and constantly under attack from a thousand enemies from outside and within.

All I could do was send deployment orders to my daughters and provide them with more STC dataslates for barter, plus instructions where to mine blackstone and what kind of ships would be of most use. Fleet carriers and system-corvettes, and missile destroyers, as well as Nova Cannon armed cruisers.

Battleships and battlecruisers, as well as battle barges were awesome, but took so long to build that humanity might be extinct before they finished.

However, Forge Triplex Phall did manage to complete one Victory-class battleship much earlier, by a century, and the next was only decades away, due to enormous adamantium transports donated by my clan. They were also refitting the 4 battlebarges that simply manifested in their asteroid field, of which the first one was slated for the Scythes of the Emperor, and was due in a year or two.

Forge Ryza was also working on returning to service that Ork Ironclad battleship I gifted them, plus restoring three Grand Cruisers.

My best buddies, Forge Antax already produced an Ark Mechanicus cruiser and were working on the next, and Forge Hypnoth received a nearly intact one from an unknown donor.

Forge Angstrom had enough damaged hulls to restore for a century, and most Forges in the Segmentum had received a ship or two from that Space Hulk confiscated by Trazyn.

Compared to the other sectors, Ultima did great right now, and I planned to enforce that well-being by whatever means I had.

The Inquisitor was returned to his underground cave in the Pharos when my fleet was ready to depart, and I didn't accept vox transmissions from the Aegida while my own fleet entered the Webway. I save your skins, and you simply stay back and watch me burn the Tyranids without lifting a hand to help?

Ungrateful bastards!

And thus, I released three hundred Eldar cruisers inside the Webway, and waited for their Avatar to coerce these Corsairs and Craftworld Eldars to join the pacifying expedition into Commorragh.

Of course, some of them were too far gone of the Path of the Outcast, and those crews were replaced with new ones.

"What will happen to those outcast Corsairs, Astartes?" The Avatar asked with a mental touch. Worried? Most likely.

"Well, I will not place them into pits to fight Tyranids for my pleasure, like your sick brothers do. Maybe, when Ynnead gets born he might wish to trade me something for them." I answered in a level tone.

That seemed to shock the Avatar to his core, leaving his speechless. I was used to silent companions though, so I didn't mind.

"Your courage know no limit?" the godling wondered in surprise.

"Astartes have no fear, because we are what they fear." I answer in a jovial tone.

The Avatar isn't too pleased, I know. Then again...he can't be certain of my powers, and can't read me or my future. He only knows I can seemingly and effortlessly bombard his people from thousands of years away, or capture entire fleets with a snap of my fingers. Not that I need to, it's just a cultural thing we humans have.

Our combined fleet gets under way, with the Avatar in the lead. Our trajectory is once again different, avoiding those turbulent conflicts or hidden Maiden Worlds in the Webway, and thus it takes a whole day to arrive at more distant quarter of Commorragh called the Old_City. It seems there are many slaves here that the Avatar wants to be recovered by my cheater ability.

I kinda agree as I discover tens of millions of humans and millions of Eldar kept in captivity and forced to work in gruesome factories, places filled with anguished spirits and tortured souls.

With an audible growl, I begin collecting the poor slaves, wherever possible. Some are interred into torture coffins after their skin has been peeled off, others have been maimed or deformed beyond anyone's ability to heal or restore their sanity.

Of course, millions of advanced weapons and other artifacts get lost and vanish, while the Eldar cruisers and starfighter battle the meager defenses.

I did come to loot and plunder, and beside Dark Eldar stuff there are countless Mechanicus or Eldar items, even Necron and Tau machines.

In less than an hour we complete the easy task and push forward, while I stay behind the main fleet to gift an Exterminatus torpedo onto this fear factory dimension. Denial of assets and the Emperor's Mercy, in a single packet.

Pays to be efficient, as these weapons are quite rare indeed. Of course, I don't look back at the explosion when the Serenity crosses into the next portal. That's how people get turned to pillars of salt, after all.

From here, we follow the Avatar into a kilometer wide portal that leads into Low_Commorragh, where the poor and destitute Dark Eldar live. They are all murderous criminals and cutthroats, scavengers and mutated beasts of Homunculi experiments.

Nothing much to salvage except a million slaves in poor condition, and we move onward, while our batteries set fires to everything in sight.

For thousands of kilometers, the ragged buildings and inhabitants burn, and we don't even need Exterminatus here.

A firestorm forms in our wake, and nothing will survive once the oxygen all burns.

That's a peril if you live in a cave, no matter how large.

We enter another port city called Blackblood, which has now become the main center for raiding and slave trading, possibly due to losing a few to an accidental explosion.

This takes all my concentration, capturing thousands of ships, some of which bear Dark Mechanicus and other Chaos markings. Most of them are Dark Eldar though, decorated with thorns and spikes and filled with torture chambers of insane designs.

Their weapons are amazingly potent, as are the engines and the navigation controls. It will take a big trade with Trazyn to obtain manuals for some of this, if it's even possible.

The Mechanicus Forges would gleefully dissect everything, including Dukhari or Mandrakes prisoners, for any usable data, and I will generously grant them this gift.

It's only fair we return the favor, right?

I collect as much as can while the Icarus deploys the corvettes and fighters for our defense, and the Eldar fleet blasts everything into light.

A couple of Haemonculi_Covens arrive from some other dimension, and begin releasing Knight and even Titan-scale monstrosities like the Talos_Pain_Engine, but those things are armed with few effective weapons. Scalpels, flails and venom are not the way to go against a battlefleet, as they soon discover.

I only vanish a few of them for trades, and allow the fleet to exterminate the abominations with furious judgement. Volcano lances and plasma cannons,missiles and lascannons strike in huge volleys, and even a torpedo or two at the largest targets.

More and more Kabals and Covens arrive so I decide to block a few webways with a dozen Tyranids bioships. Scalpels vs maws that can eat starships? Enjoy the pain then.

A few hours later, the Dark Eldar begin to retreat, and we continue behind the Avatar's fleet, with another Exterminatus incinerating Port Blackblood and all its horrors.

Enjoy my present!

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