On Forge Antax, I got to meet a company of my future Lamenter techmarines at their school, and a company of future Blood Angels also training and learning the ways of advanced technology and ritual repairs, plus seeding their large harems with the next generations of possible Blank children.

The Fabricator intended to keep the resulting Blank girls as future tech-priests and Ark Mechanicus ship Captains, which made quite a lot of sense. Plus harvesting their eggs for Blank Machine Spirits, no doubt.

These days, a thousand new craters dotted a moon orbiting around the planet Antax, all results of failed cloning experiments of Blank tissue.

I heard rumours that the Cullexus Temple had figured out the process, but sadly I wasn't in any relation with their temple, nor was I too interested into being conscripted and mind-wiped as a future assassin.

What I was interested in, was modifying the pirate light cruisers into Lamenter Strike Cruisers filled with drop pods, and the drop pods filled with Tarantula turrets of my own design.

And if I had to pay for this with my hard work on heretical STC-patterns, and bits of advanced technology from the Eldar, Dark Eldar and Necrons...well, I did have plenty of that.

"You do have the strangest luck, Captain Pef. Finding so many ships and discovering caches of STC templates, even as damaged as these..." the Archmagos of Forge Antax mused in a soft voice, after taking a peek at my gifts.

He also did not mention anything about the STC on Forge World Palomar, so I didn't ask.

I just smiled and nodded. "The Dark Eldar did have a large cache of such templates, and even bits of assembly constructors. I'm sure your people on Forge Retribution already informed you." I answered in an easy going voice, while I scanned the star system for the next Ark Mechanicus, finding it hidden by a scaffold of iron asteroids, almost like a small artificial moon.

I did give Antax a Grand Cruiser hull, like they always wanted, to remake into a true Ark Mechanicus. And since the internal volume was so large, they were also attempting to install a Macharius-pattern warp-less engine on it. Of course, the battleship-sized engine would not fit, so they were actually enlarging the Grand Cruiser to make the engine fit. Ingeniuous, if very expensive.

That unholy fusion of Necron, Tau and human technology was the hope of humanity, and the extra energy from the better plasma reactor didn't hurt one bit.

"I also have to thank you for damaging that Necron battlemoon, and letting me know of where to find it and salvage what we can. So we can certainly try refitting these light cruisers to your Chapter's needs. But I also need you to test them in combat when ready, with a group of Magi specialists overseeing the deployment. Such a strategy might be effective for Cult Mechanicus as well, especially where we need to deploy a Legio Titanica and secure the landing zones in advance." the Fabricator demanded and poured more wine to weaken my will.

Sadly, the flesh is weak and the wine was too good. I shall have to oblige and test the new Steel_Rain strategy, only with fewer Astartes and more guns.

The two years I spent at Antax while overseeing the production of the new drop turrets, and testing different variants for different missions and enemies was not wasted.

I did have a thousand female Catachans in my armor regiment, all of them Sentinel pilots, and enough time and energy to impregnate them all, as well as training my body with Captain Khan and my bodyguards, and learning more Mechanicus lessons about controlling Machine Spirits with my mind, and piloting my brand-new Knight suit with advice from my step-father, Lord Whitelance.

My own Knight suit had a Volcano Lance for long-range engagements and a Knight-sized Power Glaive, kinda a sword at the end of staff, if anything big got too close. Or just for butchering infantry by the hundred with each strike.

There were of course secondary weapons, like a pod of anti-air missiles and a couple of assault chainguns, but hopefully they won't be needed. This Knight suit, which I called Reason for Peace, also had a nice Ion Shield and a Flare_Shield converted into a Knight-sized Rosarius, and an atomantic reactor adapted from a Fellblade heavy tank.

The reactors made by Forge Tigrus were indeed the smallest and the most powerful of any small reactors, and I was ready to demote a few old Fellblades into Doomhammers just to provide extra energy for my Knights.

So, when news arrived of the impending First_Siege_of_Perlia by an Ork Waagh led by Gargash Korbul I was ready for a showdown.

The PDF regiments I had brought were also armed with new Forge Antax gear, and had nearly finished training with them, everything from Chimera troop transports, Basilisks artillery guns, Armed Sentinels and Weasel-pattern recon light tanks. They will need to be forged on the field of battle, and experience was the best teacher anyway.

Torpedoes were re-stocked, Nova Shells and Nova Mines as well, and of course the drop pods filled with Tarantula sentry guns. 40 thousand drop-pods per cruiser for now, mostly because I wanted to retain enough lance batteries to engage escorts with impunity, much like the old Litany.

Those were a mix of classic twin-heavy bolters and twin-lascannons variants already in storage, and the new Salvation-pattern STCs with quad-multilasers and single lascannons, but with better armor and larger power cells.

I had hoped to use the drop pods' retro-thrusters to provide extra energy for the turrets, but that project would take a few decades to be tested and developed into a working solution.

My 'fragmented' STC template did not provide the knowledge of how to create such a mechanism, because I hadn't the faintest idea. So I let an entire Forge World work on it, and let them claim an Antax-pattern when they did succeed.

Already Forge Antax had climbed the ladder from third level to the second, in Mechanicus rankings, and that meant they were given leave to produce cruisers and Knights, along other more exotic and restricted Mechanicus-only robots and battle-automata.

Plus, the Defendarius Crusade called by Primarch Guilliman against the incoming Tyranids and awakening Necrons obliged the Forges to work harder to produce naval assets of any kind, from orbital defense platforms to torpedo corvettes and destroyers in large numbers, plus cruisers armed with Nova Cannons.

Well, someone was paying attention to successful fleet actions, and the less-successful ones.

And due to a much smaller number of Dark Eldar and Chaos raids in the Ultima Segmentum, the Primarch had an easier task of mobilizing troops and resources. Even the Eldar attacks had largely diminished, only some Corsair bands still being annoying dicks like always.

The Tau were not expanding anymore, probably too busy rebuilding and reeling in their ships after their two capital cities were invaded by demons, and two allies having been wiped out.

The Tau would have news of the revived Primarch if they were paying attention, mostly because the human worlds under their control were being reconquered one after the other, by large numbers of brutal Astartes, Imperial Knights and Titan Legions.

++++++++++++++

Down on Perlia, Commissar Cain cursed his luck again as his rag-tag band of PDFs and Imperial Guard troops stumbled upon the Ork Boss Korbul's camp.

Reluctantly, he called the boss out for a duel, to encourage his troops and provide example. Plus killing the boss would allow a higher chance of survival, both for him and his men.

The immense Ork was armored to the teeth, and had size and strength on his side, but Cain wouldn't let that scare him. He sneakily allowed the Ork to push on his chainsword, drawing the brute close enough he could poke his red, furious eye with his laspistol, then fire the entire power cell, the harmless beams deflecting from the inside of the skull and metal helmet over and over until the boss fell down, dead.

"For the Emperor!" Cain shouted raising his eyes towards the sky.

And the Emperor answered, raining down with fire balls and pillars of light, a sure sign of drop pods and orbital lances striking at the invaders.

"Astartes! The Angels of Death are here!" the vox sergeant yelled in triumph and pointed at the sky.

Well, it was about the damn time. Maybe he could rest in some secluded corner now.

All around his small army, drop pods landed on pillars of flame but instead of disgorging Space Marines they unfolded to reveal thousands upon thousands of Tarantula turrets, which quickly scanned the ground forces and began attacking the disorganized Orks with brutal precision.

Lascannons targeted vehicles, heavy bolters fired at Nobs and Mek boys, while multilasers massacred the normal Boys and Shootas with unlimited ammunition.

"This isn't just here, Commissar. The army lines to the west also report tens of thousands of drop pods falling from the skies and unleashing death on unprecedented scale." The vox sergeant yelled much too loud.

Well, it was good news this time, so no need to admonish the man. Plus his eardrums might be ruptured, due to the Leman Russ tank's cannon firing from close range.

"What Chapter is this? Where are their Astartes?" Sergeant Alaric Tayber asked in confusion at the lack of actual Angels of Death emerging from those drop pods.

"... They are the Lamenters, brother. Only three of them on that battlebarge, and some Rogue Trader vessels that are engaging the Ork space hulk." Enginseer Felicia Tayber explained after doing some voodoo spells on the vox receiver.

Cain nodded to himself. The Lamenters were kinda greatly diminished after the Badab War, with rumours of losses of over 90 percent of their Battle-Brothers. No wonder they resorted to supply drop pods to secure a landing zone.

If only three of them could come, they must be in really bad shape.

Then, after most of the Orks were scattered, assault dropships did begin their landings, bringing down Auxiliary regiments, and even a Catachan armored regiment.

Doomhammer heavy tanks, flanked by Chimeras, Hydras and some sort of Sentinels with mechanical arms began emerging and engaging the Ork warbands, and even a pair of real Knights from a house named Lancefire.

A flash of a Volcano Lance vaporized a Big_Mek while the other Knight opened up with a multimelta gun of gigantic size and tremendous damage, while also advancing to slash with a Power Sword into the Ork hordes.

In a single hour, the back of the Ork Waagh was broken, while the troops could only stare in awe at the amazing display, just like Cain himself was. Not even a Commissar could tell the soldiers to stop gawking, since their few tanks and vehicles were protected by a fortress of auto-targeting turrets.

"This display of Omnissiah's might makes me feel a bit excited." Felicia admitted while starring with wide eyes at the nearest Knight with the Volcano Lance.

At the same second, the Knight turned to stare at the young enginseer, as if it has heard her. It probably did, Cain realized, considering how sensitive a Knight's auspex sensors must be.

Then the Knight turned as started walking towards his position beside the Ork Boss corpse, flanked by a dozen Armed Sentinels, a pair of them also holding a Volcano Lance in their mechanical hands, like a long rifle.

"Commissar Cain, you did the Imperium proud this day. I shall see your heroic actions are rewarded as you deserve." the huge Knight proclaimed with a booming voice amplified by a powerful vox caster.

Cain nodded cautiously and cursed his luck. He only wanted a peaceful life!