And lastly, it was time to finish the deal with the pretty blonde infocyte, setting her on a long quest of my own. Well, after thoroughly pumping Calixa full of endorphins and gene-seed, naturally.

She stretched on my bed like a cat, and licked a finger teasingly, which made me almost keep her in my retinue, just for fun. But her talents would be wasted like that.

"Dear Calixa, focus on your mission!" I chided her sharply with a mind transmission, which broke her reverie.

"Of course, my lord. Another mission beside birthing you a child, you mean?" the blonde minx asked while patting her belly. It wasn't visible, but my Navigator confirmed a Blank fetus was growing inside.

"We will meet again, and you'll have many more children, my dear. I will keep the Blanks, and you will train the rest of our children. As for your mission, you will have to travel and compile a list of allies for our House. Rogue Traders and rich Governor Houses, on Imperial worlds that have shipyards and weapons factories. This data-stack contains a thousand STC patterns, which would be tremendously valuable to any of our allies. As for your escort, you will have this space wolf puppy called Trajan, Silent Sister Hestia and five Deathwatch Astartes from Rose's retinue, and battalion of Catachans for...aggressive negotiations. For more diplomatic matters, you will have Sister Helena and a couple of Order Famulous Sisters to conduct genetic testing." I explained in a gentler voice, while Canis licked his puppy with a sad face.

Sorry buddy, we all make sacrifices. I will have to temporarily detach one of my cute nurses and her too friendly family advisers, and Hestia was rather a formidable warrior in her own right. Just in case some Chaos cult tried to impede my plans.

I even detached Sly Marbo to aid Calixa in her difficult mission, along with three thousands Catachans, a thousand of them women. Couldn't let the big bad monster rest over the next decade, when he could pump babies during travel, and then strangle or vanish impolite reluctant allies who didn't know yet who their boss was. And that pocket tesseract would be very useful for his task. Perfect place to store dead bodies too.

Calixa skimmed the data-stack with wide eyes, no doubt realizing exactly how valuable the information inside was. "So, I'm to wait here until your daughter Andrea arrives with a Mars battlecruiser, and then proceed to Kar_Duniash to install Macharius-pattern warp-less drives on the ship. After that, I have free rein on my travels, though not too far from the Ultima Segmentum." she mused while reading the mission's parameters.

"It's why it is called an independent command, Calixa. Andrea also has 50 billion thrones in her vault, and some other gifts. Our Lancefire house is not poor, as you well know. The Vigil for the Vanquished was gifted to us by a Primarch, right?" I reminded her in a wry tone.

"... And if I misbehave, those Astartes have orders to hunt me down. I see." the infocyte deduced with perfect logic.

"You will not misbehave, my dear. We have the same goals, and the same enemies. We just use different means, and Grand Master Fadix and I will be colleagues on Terra, soon enough. As secondary goals, you will locate cultists and corrupt officials, and keep watch for Inquisitors that are themselves corrupt or helping cultists. Those you will report to Captain Andrea, and she will decide their fate. You will not act yourself, is that clear?" I demanded while twisting her nipples in warning.

"I understand, my lord. Your daughter is a Blank herself and thus not suspect of corruption." Calixa muttered in a weird voice, as if enjoying the pain. Very possible, considering what they must have put her through to become a member of the Vanus Temple.

"Exactly. And the very reason Blanks were hunted out from Terra, including the Silent Sisters. Can't have people immune to Chaos, right?" I asked in a rhetoric question.

The blonde infocyte nodded while meditating on my words. "It does seem stupid in hindsight. So that's why..."

Soon after, my Battleship and the carriers departed for home, while Calixa and her new small army awaited for Andrea to arrive.

A week later I received a hero's welcome on Illevar, while our troops and crew on the Crusade fleet were regarded as invincible heroes against the xenos terror.

Our losses were indeed minuscule, and mostly only machines and equipment.

And so I continued my long task, staying on Illevar this time, to oversee the progress of the Lamenters, and returning the lost Brothers to our Chapter. Veteran Semnai still wasn't too happy with me, but there was nothing he could do but lament to himself and keep his duty, training the new generation.

Chyron took over most of the tactical training, because millennia of practical experience counted a lot.

After two years of hard work and constant exploration and expansion, we had to halt, because the volume was becoming too large and difficult to patrol. Five hundred habitable worlds and ten times as many star systems used as naval bases and mining outposts will suffice, until we had a large enough population.

A couple of arid Ork-infested worlds were kept as training ground for our regiments, as well as live testing area for the new weapons and machines being produced by Forge Retribution.

Meanwhile, Elixa kept expanding the Obsidian Auguries like I had hoped, and taught the future techmarines the tricks of an infocyte. Their implantation with gene-seeds was not as easy as with the Blank recruits of the Lamenters, but we did have high quality stock from the Red Scorpions and Primarch Khan himself, plus gene-seeds extracted from Mantis Warriors, Executioners and Blood Angels. Plenty of Aspirants still died, even with all my efforts to prepare them.

Company after company, the techmarine candidates were either sent to friendly Forge Worlds to be trained, or trained at home by the tech-priests of our own.

And as it happened, those candidates sailed on 'discovered' ships, cruisers and destroyers captured during the Badab War, but their hangars and troop decks filled with blackstone and other valuable ore. The ships will return upgraded and filled with more Catachan regiments, to serve as colonists for my new kingdom in the Fringe.

On Forge Retribution, my half-brothers and sisters were learning how to pilot their Knights, under Lord Whitelance's supervision.

Everything seemed to work fine, and I was getting worried it was something too good for this hell.

And only a month after, a huge Ork Waagh arrived at my doorstep, with crazy Orks throwing asteroids at my defenses and capital, while to the side, a gathering of ten Chaos Chapters waited for the way to be cleared.

It would have worked no doubt, despite my efforts to provide as many orbital forts and defense ships as humanly possible.

There were other gods, and they hated me.

"You should gather your family and retreat, evacuating as many civilians as possible." Dreadnought Chyron advised me in a calm voice.

"Things look so bad, huh?" I mused out loud, while scratching Canis on his head.

The space wolf snorted in dismissal and went to look for another imported she-wolf to subdue. He wasn't that interested in my games it seemed.

Sadly, those bitches were all one-time partners for Canis, as they rarely survived being mounted by a van-sized wolf. Even if they did, and carried a few puppies to term, they were rather...let's say, too broken for further use.

Right, the big Ork Waagh.

I almost forgot...and they're gone. A minute later, the Chaos ships also vanished, but only to reappear into the sun, with plasma warheads detonating inside their engine rooms, to keep them from escaping.

The void was almost clear, and I was not even paying much attention as the last Chaos battleship started melting deep inside the sun, when the Starfort shuddered and trembled like something huge hit us.

"Gellar generatoriums overloading! Breach on wing 8!" the console lexmachanic announced in almost panic.

"Containment protocol! And let's go and receive the visitors! I proclaimed while priming Reason for combat.

In a minute, I climbed inside the cockpit and urged the Knight at full speed, rushing towards the breach. In the tesseract I could faintly see the invader, some kind of big demon slashing about our garden and the precious hydroponics. Damn it!

Those had costed me a billion thrones to import from all over, since combat drugs and rare medication were hard to find and had to be produced by Astartes Apothecaries. Who knew?

Brother Semnai ran even faster than my Knight and managed to slash off a wing from this demon, with the Chronoglaive I gave him, before getting slapped aside, his Terminator armor tumbling like a 2-ton leaf.

Semnai vanished in my labyrinth before he could dent my deck, and probably get a concussion. Or give the deck a concussion, for that matter.

"I am M'kar, the..." the big demon began shouting as his head vanished under a blast from my Volcano Lance.

The demon didn't die, instead starting to regrow it's lost head and wing, when the Silent Sisters arrived in force and began chopping at his body with ease, while my Power Glaive held the demon's own sword locked.

I kinda wished to give the thing a True_Death, but I didn't have a Force Weapon, nor the psyker powers to use one. And the only other such weapon, usable by a Blank, was the True Name of a demon.

Well luckily for me, I did know of this M'kar. And the Silent Sisters were quite a force-multiplier too.

"You are Maloq Kartho ! Merely a Word Bearer traitor, unable to keep your oath. I sentence you to die a True Death, your soul erased forever!" I boomed from my cockpit, just as Sister Letitia jumped and slashed the arm holding the black demon sword.

With my Power Glaive free, I could cut and slash the corrupted marine transformed into a winged demon into tiny bits, and portion each cut to my Silent Sisters, to be exorcised.

A flint dagger was all that remained from the banished demon, which I collected for myself. This must be one of those rare Athame, an Interex relic able to cut through space itself.

It will take me some time to learn its use, but from what I knew, they could turn an enemy to your side.

Then I remembered to bring back Brother Semnai, and proceed at directing the tech-priests and servitors to seal the fort's breach and burn the poor plants. It wasn't like we would use frozen and corrupted plants for anything.

We will need even more Blackstone armor and Gellar fields. Damn demons!

"Is M'kar truly dead, Master Lancefire?" the Veteran Brother asked as the last vestiges of the demon's body were burning under the Pariah boots of my Sisters.

"Probably so. Using a human vessel makes it very easy to kill the stupid demons. Shout their name, and cut them down. And having Silent Sisters around helps too." I explained patiently while driving Reason back to its hangar.

"...It seems too easy." The man muttered in distrust.

"Knowledge is a great power, Brother. Guard it well." I said wryly as the cockpit opened and I patted Reason on its armored head.

A minute later, Enginseer Felicia arrived running at full tilt, passing me without a word and going over the scrathes of the Knight with cooing sounds like calming a baby.

Incense and oil as well as prayers and machine canticles covered the poor Knight suit, and its mechanical head stared at me in a pleading gaze. 'Make her leave!'

Sorry, dead brother. Just endure, like we all did. Plus you did fight a Daemon Prince, so holy oils and techno-lingua prayers should help. Or at least, do no harm.