40 Thousand Reasons

Chapter 97: Epic

A dozen thoughts course through my mind, and Mister Primarch Khan is right there in top three.

Sure, the guy is not a brainiac, evident by his very actions. Then again, he would be rather useful in stirring things up, especially very far from my own interests in the Fringe.

The bad part though, this guy is a moron. The first thing that goes through his head is "I am the sword." and then "Off with your head". I kinda like my head where it is.

Using the MIU implant, I contact my Juggler Biologis Magos and have him prepare a sedative capable of pacifying an enraged Astartes, plus another MIU brain drilling operation team, plus something to keep the guy breathing once all those combat drugs wear off.

Then I send Fidelia to the medicae lab to provide enforcement.

Once everything is in place, Jaghatai Khan arrives in the room to receive a paralytic spray in the face. No weapons of course, because the guy is lethal enough. He even manages to punch Juggler half-way into the next room. And Juggler is very good, I have seen him scoop out the brain of that traitor marine in a millisecond.

Then, Khan falls on his face, and Fidelia places him on the operating table. There must be 10 thousands white scars on his body, and inside as well. Makes you wonder how he survived til now, but Primarchs are bullshit, everyone knows that.

Doesn't look like one now, merely a battered gladiator in leather pants. Half of those too.

I return to watching the show, just as the last hundred plasma torpedoes detonate and collapse the defensive barrier around the high spires of Commorragh.

Thousands of high level nobles are forced to enter combat beside their bodyguards, massacring demons with ease. But I want my full set, so a few more Archons and their retinues get captured in my labyrinth. All except two: Asdrubael_Vect and Aurelia_Malys.

Where could they be? Hidden in some sub-dimension maybe.

Well, anyway there is plenty of looting here, artifacts from hundreds of species, though most of them are Eldar and human. I even find an empty tesseract, which is quite funny. They could have stopped my assault easily with it, if they knew how to use it. Their loss, my gain.

I could make it my Lancefire's clan treasure, after I taught Victor how to use it intelligently. Managing the defense and safety a small kingdom would be a piece of cake with such a tool, even if assaulted by Ork Waaghs or Tyranids Hives. Also, one of those chronophagic blades, and the clan would be set for the next 40 thousands years.

This was the great advantage of a Blank Dynasty. I wouldn't need to fear my heir falling to Chaos or getting ensorcelled. Sure, stupidity or fanaticism could always strike, even the best of us, even me at times.

So far, his Astartes bodyguard had kept him safe from plots or assassins, which was also good. Soon enough, his brothers will be Astartes as well, and that will count for something.

Coven by coven and army by army, the Dark Eldar slowly get decimated by the three-pronged attack, and in some places demons and Tyranids began to meet and devour each other as well.

We don't have troops on the ground, because I'm not that stupid, and there is no need. I can loot whatever I want, from my Captain's chair.

"All batteries, focus fire on the nearest Warp rift." I demand out loud. While the Tyranids are numerous enough to devour any world, demons are infinite. Better not play it too close.

The Eldar observe the change in focus and turn their lances on the forward rift as well, which helps close it quite fast. Then again, they have an Avatar and the Tyranid Silence is suppressing the Warp to some degree.

The remaining Dark Eldar ships turn their attention on the Warp rift to their back, which makes some sense, but not enough. I do want a large armada of advanced ships, so their cruisers also begin to vanish now, leaving only the smaller ships, from which I only collect a dozen per class, just to analyze the technologies.

Of course, this leaves the ground armies without cover, and hordes of Hive_Crones and millions of Gargoyles dive on their prey unimpeded.

Even a Greater Daemon arrived at the final moment, eager to feast on the well-deserving Drukhari. This finally breaks the Dark Eldar morale, and they attempt to flee and scatter. Tyranids all around though.

"Exterminatus inbound in 60 solar seconds. All ships retreat!" I order just as the second Warp rift is finally closed, by suicidal self-detonations of a dozen Dark Eldar destroyers.

We turn tail and head for the portal, while Commorragh becomes a feast for Tyranids and demons.

"Anyone knows who that is? Just asking, for no reason at all." I say in a gentle voice.

Ludvaius chuckles and pats Rafen shoulder. "That's Heartslayer, a Keeper of Secrets."

And? I think there's something more to it...and as that Avatar plunges straight through the hordes of Tyranids and demons, I think I have tiny clue.

"Well, the Avatar will get a bit burned, but he should be fine I guess." I murmur to myself and Canis.

My wolf nods wisely at me, so he agrees. Avatars are tough, something as minor as an Exterminatus shouldn't bother him much. Only fire after all.

I think I should delay the explosion a little and record more. I mean, who else has recordings of three factions of the Eldar race, battling each other in the middle of their ancient capital?

And the Tyranids all around, make it even more interesting. The Serenity holds position right at the edge of this dimension, with the Icarus above us and 999 corvettes like a rainbow and honor guard.

I'm not sure why I stopped. Logically it made sense to just bomb the place and run away, but it's good that I did. On the other side of that transparent portal, the two remaining Archons have circled around to strike from behind, as the Eldar cruisers find out right now.

Unseen weapons and dark beams strike those peaceful Eldar cruisers, and they all scatter in panic, losing half their numbers into temporal mine fields, and doing little damage, as a thick shadow covers those Archons and their reserve armies.

Well, I am kinda caught in the middle now.

What to do?

I try to extract the Eldar cruiser from beyond that barrier, but the real distance must be light-years not a few kilometers.

"Corvettes, 10 percent expenditure, through the portal!" I command on a hunch.

Beams will not cross over, or else we would be taking fire already. But torpedoes were physical objects.

I lean in my chair and target the raised platform with two Dark Eldar with the barge's Machine Spirit, and launch my own warhead among the 2000 torpedoes volleys from my corvettes.

He might be a potent psyker, but this Vortex warhead has a Blank logis-engine, and thus the Archon doesn't sense the danger, not until is too late. That shield of his is no protection against a Vortex warhead that can break a battleship in two.

The Warp rift splits the reserve army into a few smaller groups, and the rain of plasma torpedoes incendiate and immolate their decorated armors, and then ignites their souls, as their corrupted flesh gets evaporated. Demons pour through the rift, and engage those armies in melee, with little effect except holding them still as more plasma torpedoes rain from above.

Those two titanic beings are still fighting behind us, surrounded by monstrous Aberrations and demented Medusae, while a throng of massive Tyranid Pyrovore bombards the dregs of the Dark Eldar with acid bombs that dissolve flesh and metal.

Mountain shattering blows rain on each other, but the Avatar is made of burning metal, and simply reforms, while the Greater Daemon is made of nightmares and make-believe. There are plenty of nightmares around to empower the creature, and I am wary of my crew getting corrupted.

Time to burn it all. "All ships advance at speed and bombard that warp rift." I order as I mentally load another Incendiary and detonate it near the ceiling of the cave.

With a last look at the demolished Commorragh, I collected a hundred more Razorfiend_Cruisers and loaded them with the largest Tyranid organisms still alive, a dozen Broodlords and a Tyrant among them.

Might need them for some ambush, or just in case. I already had several Narvhals and those were the most useful and problematic bioships too, being the gravity tunneling little bastards.

Didn't find any STC here, so perhaps that Panacea was already saved by my comical STC containers, littering the Ultima sectors on thousands of transport ships and cargo haulers.

Hopefully, that caused a million psykers headaches as well.

The last Archon was still running, already a dozen kilometers away, when the Serenity crossed over, but she wasn't faster than a tesseract. Lady Malys joined my collection, frozen in a desperate rictus. Or perhaps it was excitement. Hard to say with the sadistic Dark Eldar.

She did have a lot of great loot though, including some kind of super powerful pistol called a blaster. It shot darklight, so it might pierce through battleship-grade armor. Like I said, good stuff.

Might need to disguise the shape into a more Imperial weapon, using molded resin or plasteel, but just in case anther traitor Primarch showed up, I wanted a surprise.

I named it Chekhov's gun, for old times sake.

A recon drone entered the burning dimension to send a short transmission, confirming those two monsters were still fighting each other among the ruins of Commorragh.

Oh well, I could sell tickets to that epic fight. Right?

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