It hurts my pride to have failed, and the damn headache is certainly not natural.

I suspect the Necron Lord or Pharaoh has some type of mind control shackle over the C'tan, which kinda makes sense in hindsight. However the tesseract labyrinth worked, it wasn't able to unbind the C'tan, which sucked for me.

"The xenos are eliminated, Lord Pef! The world burns!" Alana proclaims naively. My headache still pulses painfully in my temples.

I shrug and reply softly. "On the surface. The C'tan allowed the world to burn...perhaps to cleanse the Orks from this world. He used us."

"What now, Captain?" Brother Ludvaius asks in a curious tone.

"Nothing else we can do here, Brother. The flames will burn for months, and the C'tan cannot be damaged by mortal weapons. We shall move onwards and scour the world of Draven of the same xenos." I answer after considering for a minute.

Necron Tomb World of Draven is also a part of the Novokh Dynasty, and also under attack by Orks, several Waaghs in fact.

In less than a day, we arrive at the nearby by Necron world to find it mostly conquered by Orks, at least the surface.

A hundred Ork Roks and a similar number of Ork ships, including a couple enormous Terror Ships, and another Ironclad battleship. Blown up fragments of Necron and Ork vessels litter the void, even some Eldar derelicts and a dozen Navy troop transports.

There has been a failed invasion here, or a number of them.

On the ground, Ork Meks are casually repurposing captured Necron weapons and anti-grav platforms into Orkish machinery powered by pedaling gretchins and steam engines, Painboyz are grafting Necron limbs on their greenskin brethren and their Ork Warboss wears proudly an armor of ancient runic necrontyr origin, and holds a 5-meter-long nucleonic lance like a pistol.

These Orks are winning, and would become hard to stop for any human force. In orbit above Draven, the same thing happens, blackstone armor is slapped on top of their ragged warships, and because blackstone is black it increases in durability even further.

Eldar brightlances and Necron Gauss cannons are being welded beside macrocannons and plasma batteries, turning their Kroozers and Battleship into formidable death machines.

The spectacle is very impressive and a bit scary. My fleets chances are minimal against such overwhelming firepower, and our torpedoes will probably not damage their larger warships, not enough.

"Wentian, Nova Cannon on the Ork battleship. Destroyers, dive for torpedo strike on my mark. Maintain passive sensors only." I command and relax in the Captain chair.

Canis nudges my left glove, and eyes the fleet arrayed on the holoscreen. I know buddy, we will steal their stuff, like we always do.

Just need a flare and smoke screen. Using xeno tech openly would likely get me flayed alive or something of that nature. But a potent Ork Waagh to deploy when needed? That would be awesome too.

"Target at maximum range, Captain. Firing!" Wentian announces on the clan's vox channel, after maneuvering into an advantageous firing position.

Much farther range than even our long range torpedoes, the Nova Cannons are the strongest classical weapon in humanity's arsenal.

Sure, there are Warp Vortex weapons, but those are not classical, nor available to normal Navy units.

As expected, not even the Nova shell is powerful enough to destroy the blackstone plated Ork Ironclad, and merely disables the void shields.

In the same instant of sensor blindness, a dozen capital Ork ships vanish in my pocket dimension, while my left gauntlet pats Canis on his wise head. He does have good ideas, my smart wolf.

The Ork Boss and his nearby Mek and Nob guards, as well as a hundred Stompas and Gargants titan-class behemoths vanish as well, while another Exterminatus torpedo detonates on the far side of the planet.

I need this Warboss to maintain the Waagh field, and this is both bad and good.

Good because their silly adaptations will keep working. Bad because the damn Ork Boss is slowly moving inside the labyrinth, his Waagh field helping him overpower the dimensional differential. Oh well, it would take him years to escape, and I don't plan to keep him for years.

Of course, right now the Ork fleet is becoming a mess, Orks fighting each other for dominance while their greenskin fellows burn alive on the surface of Draven.

The Ork Roks are useless to me, but they will help in my plans, at least several of them still filled with Ork boyz and other troops.

"Good shot, Wentian. That battleship has vanished...somewhere." I praise my uncle, yet allowing for the ironclad's miraculous reappearance over a friendly Forge World, like Retribution.

"Indeed Captain. Let's hope your luck holds and that vessel will return to us empty of xenos...just like it has happened before." my uncle replies in a teasing voice.

Well, Rogue Traders are not brainwashed zealots, and they can add two plus two. Pretty much the only free thinkers remaining in the Imperium, or outside it.

"If that's the Emperor's Will, uncle…then we will gladly accept such a gift." I comment piously.

My bodyguards all snort in disbelief, except Chaplain Delos who prays loudly for another miracle. Don't worry, Brother. I'm just getting started.

Alana kisses my cheek for good luck, and whispers a promise in my ear. If that promise will end with a dozen more Blank kids, then we're all set.

I urge the Serenity for the Vanquished onward, which works better now with the upgraded Trazyn-class reactor. Even if we cannot install the gigantic warp-less drive on the barge yet, the reactor is slightly more manageable.

By chopping off some support beams and reducing the length of the inner walkways, the battleship-grade reactor can and has been installed on battle barges. Well, on this barge for now, the Serenity.

It is still a plasma reactor after all, if somehow three times stronger and more efficient. For fuel is used hydrogen with jets of oxygen to increase temperature and burn rate, which also makes refueling easier, and at need simply scooping out cometary ice.

One day every vehicle of humanity will have a miniaturized version of the Macharius-pattern plasma reactor, and shields and weapons of higher strength and reliability.

It just takes enormous effort and long time to start meaningful changes in the Imperium.

Even now, after decades of spreading new and better templates, the Astra Militarum still doesn't have new vehicles or ground support aircraft.

Elite regiments here and there do receive a few of my earliest templates, durable tracks and night vision sensors for example, but that's only a drop in the ocean.

The Imperium of Man is very resistant to change, and various organizations work hard to maintain their grip and control over the military powers, especially the Administratum. Of course, the Astartes and the Forges here in the Ultima sector have fewer qualms about adapting to better designs and more powerful weapons, like I have found out when my troops invaded Badab and fought against serfs and aspirants vehicles armed with triple-barrel multilasers and hunter-killer missiles.

For another week we skirmish with the remaining Orks, giving my captains valuable experience in naval warfare, while I keep absconding human origin ships and a couple of Ork Roks filled with a billion green mushrooms.

The Forge ships and the mining barges will remain here to exploit the orbital graveyard, and the first mining barge leaves with hull fragments of Necron origin towards Forge Ryza.

I leave a couple of destroyers to defend the miners and most importantly the Forge ship as I take my fleet on a trip to Sotha.

I have need of the Pharos again, and perhaps arrange a deal with my Rose and the Scythes of the Emperor.

A month of ship travel brings us to the edge of the Sotha system, when our warp drives start to fail.

"Captain...the Tyranids are here!" my Navigator announces in a distorted voice, as if he's in enormous pain.

Of course the Tyranids have returned. Sotha still shines in the Warp, drawing Hive splinters that intersect the lighthouse's psychic beam.

"Captain Lancefire! Request assistance...Hive Ship attacking the Aegida..." a crackled voice comes from the vox box.

"Wentian, you heard the brave Astartes. Begin Nova Cannon bombardment!" I urge my uncle while I close my eyes to encompass the Hive splinter with the tesseract.

There are over 10 thousand bioships, and a pair of Hive ships among them, one of which appears to have been struck with a vortex torpedo, and is battling demonic invaders.

The other one is indeed attacking the Aegida Fortress, ignoring the Scythes' Barges and the cruisers unloading all their lances and batteries on it.

What could be so yummy inside the Fortress? Oh no...silly Inquisitors. You didn't keep the psyker Eldar still here, did you?

Of course, they did. Common sense is in short supply in the galaxy, and every wrong decision brings about more unfortunate accidents.

"Evacuate the Eldar on a fast ship. Draw the Hive Ship away!" I demand on the vox channel with the Inquisitorial Fortress.

Only silence answers, which isn't great. They must have orders to keep the Eldar at any cost. I search for my Rose...and she's not here. Only a group of 20 Silent Sisters, guarding the Eldar prisoners with stern faces and executioner blades.

The other Inquisitor is here, but down inside the Pharos, doing whatever arcane examinations on the imprisoned C'tan.

It's a mess, and one that I have to fix.

Canis licks my face for moral support, and glances at the Holofield screen with intelligent eyes.

Yeah, buddy! We will need to cheat again.