109-110

An hour later, I arrived back in my own villa in Blanktown and setup one small apartment for my new guest, including a bank of cogitators, and a small clade of tech-priests with knowledge of datasphere warfare and the special Runes of Engineering, a rather complex religious protocol for establishing a monitoring station, on par with a Knight suit of battlefield awareness.

Then I retrieved Elixa and her infocyte gear from her stealth shuttle.

"You will live here from now on, my dear Elixa. I want a signal intelligence operation prepared, to monitor this star system for infiltrators and other dangers. You can do that, right?" I asked gently, and patted her silky hair. It was cut kinda short, but that probably made sense if she needed to wear a sensorium helmet and other devices like that Signum transceiver antenna.

"But...oh my God-Emperor, so many cogitators! I can really work from here!" the woman exclaimed in surprise then joy.

"Yes, you will. And these nice tech-priests will look over your shoulder constantly, making sure my House and the Astartes Chapter are not endangered by your actions. My own rooms are down the hall, it says Pef on the door." I continued after a few seconds, watching her enthusiasm drop visibly at the new regulations.

"That's not so great..." Elixa murmured in a sour tone, glancing at the creepy cyborgs with suspicion.

"Dinner is in three hours, until then make yourself at home. I'm certain you can manage locating the shower and the wardrobe." I added as I walked out, only to find Ludvaius and Canis watching me with cautious eyes.

I ignored their obvious displeasure and began mentally selecting a dozen daughters from the local merchant concubines for infocyte training. The girls need not be Blanks, only smart and disciplined. Well, maybe one Blank at least, just in case.

The information they gathered would also help increase revenue from better taxation and resource management, plus they had local knowledge of industries and general trends.

Perhaps give them a special name, like the Obsidian Auguries? Yes, that will be conveniently vague and allow a certain degree of mystique and fear when they produced an identification tag plated with black obsidian.

Pretty sure everyone else would just call them spooks, but that was only natural. Technology was similar to magic in this universe, and the Necrons managed to beat Gods using only advanced science, with no Warp powers at all.

Humanity will need a long time to reach the same heights, even if they had examples of advanced xenotech or human archeotech practically littering the galaxy. There just was not enough education to make use of these artifacts, not to mention constructing new technology of the same capability or better.

"Woooof?" Canis asked in a small voice.

"Yes, my genial friend. Today we do like we always do. Sit at the cogitator and tinker with more STC patterns. But no more meat dispensers templates!" I explain and ruffled my wolf's hair with my hands.

"Woo?Woooooo!" the Fenrisian wolf complained and glanced at his paw-print food dispenser, which already had a dozen types of meat. There just wasn't anymore room for more food storage, as the room next door was now transformed into a large pantry filled with meat pellets and crunchy bones.

Ludvaius snorted at our antics and sat down on the plasteel dais, bolter aimed carelessly at the balcony door. That would be the most obvious point of entry for any intruder, although it wouldn't be just as easy as it seemed. I knew many people or not-people might want me dead, so I took precautions.

Three hours passed in a flash, simply tinkering with more automated turrets and flying drones. I did not intend to drop my troops into ambushes or hostile landing zones, losing a good part of them before they could regroup and counter-atttack.

Wouldn't it make more sense to drop a million turrets and clean up a large enough landing site?

Here I had the template of the classic Astartes Drop_Pod more importantly the Deathstorm and Support variants, those that did not carry troops but on-board turrets.

Sure, these things were massive, highly armored and of course, hugely expensive. It was actually cheaper to deploy 5 Space Marines with 5 heavy bolters than one of these monsters.

They would also run out of ammunition pretty soon and then just lay there, millions of thrones expended for little gain and immobile. Perfect for Orks to dismantle and arm themselves with perfectly good weapons of the best quality.

No, what I needed was a cheap version, armed with a twin-multilaser, and a lascannon version for hard targets like vehicles or power armor, perhaps one with a spinning flail for close defense. Naturally, these autonomous turrets could have more armor than the mere 10 mm of plasteel in the original template. It would depend on the Forge resources, but at least 10 cms of armor would be possible without making them too heavy. Perhaps even ceramite plates.

Drop those in a series of concentric rings, and a single dedicated light cruiser could transport and unload the equivalent of 20 regiments of firepower in a concentrated pocket. Soon after, insert tech-priests and servitors to repair, refuel and clean up the debris, before landing mobile forces.

Sure, a cargo ship could carry even more drop pods.

The problems begin when encountering enemies. From raiders and pirates, to harassing corsairs or traitor warships, to full orbital blockade or a tyranid swarm on approach, it is much better to have a light cruiser actually deploy the drop pods.

It is much faster, has better armor and guns, but most importantly is faster.

Pretty much why all Astartes use Strike Cruisers to deploy drop pods filled with powered armored Brothers in emergencies. This also carries the risk of troop pods getting shot down, or the limited Astartes numbers surrounded and destroyed by overwhelming defenses.

And if you landed say Chimera infantry transports, they could just carry these Tarantula turrets on top of their hull, and connect their power lines to the internal generator. Mobile turret obtained!

Or just place them on wheels and drag them into new fortified lines as the front lines moved, much like General Rommel did in Africa during WW2 with his 88mm cannons.

The best thing was the ability for rapid defense of compromised positions, simply dropping these turrets in front of a Hive City or an important Manufactorum.

This ability was the most used option for Adeptus Astartes, and caused the most casualties, even if a thousand pods and a few tech-marines could do the same job and possibly not lose a single life.

Even inside spaceships, such turrets could pop up from the deck plates and massacre invaders on long hallways and intersections.

Maybe even heavy flamer turrets? Only for fixed positions, because promethium might not like being dropped from orbit.

Missile turrets were already used on many Hive World or Forge Spires, but in the field they would rapidly run out of missiles. Plus they were kinda expensive.

No need to drop them, they could be landed with the troops and not damage the fragile missiles either. But then, forts and command centers would have some anti-air protection, at least until the fighters gained air supremacy over the skies.

The door opened to reveal a completely different Elixa de Mornay, dressed in a tight dress of blue silk and a House Lancefire cape. "I look like a Lady now, right?" she asked in a timid voice.

I just smiled genially and nodded, kinda lost for words. "You are a gorgeous woman, my dear Elixa. As for a Lady title, you just need to ask. I bet a throne our children will be very smart." I complimented her in a shy voice, while Ludvaius just blinked at me, then sighed in acceptance.

You should have expected this, Brother! I wouldn't let such a treasure get away, even if it meant a new wife.

Canis lifted his head to watch the new wolf mistress with curious eyes, then uttered a single "Woof!" which probably meant "Nice bitch, boss!"

"...What? How can you just propose to me!" she exclaimed in a rather outraged voice.

I just shrugged and rose from my adamantium chair to peek closely into at her blushing face. "Common sense, Elixa. You will have access to the House Lancefire secrets, thus you need to be part of my House. You would not betray your family and children, but instead work hard to keep us safe. I'm thinking to call your infocyte clade the Obsidian Auguries. Keeping watch from the shadows, for agents and subversion from other Houses, cultists or xenos." I explained as I reached the door and offered my elbow.

She blushed even harder as I escorted her to dinner, still grumbling at her new fate. "I didn't even say yes..." Elixa concluded as we reached the dinning hall.

I smiled inward and outward. She didn't say no either.

"Everyone, this lovely Lady is Elixa, our new spymaster." I presented her to my wives, a few of my children and a few Apothecaries who usually joined me at dinner.

"She is all flustered and red, daddy! Did you bed her already?" Talia asked with an innocent 8-year-old voice.

Elixa coughed in surprise, while Decima glared at me for a second, before approaching us with a queenly pace, slow and majestic. Well, she did oversee like a thousand star-systems for me, and acted as a Rear Admiral for a thousand space ships for our Rogue Trader Dynasty.

"Quiet,Talia! Hannibal, stop giggling! Ludvaius stay by the door!" my sweet wife ordered, returning the room to silence. Then Decima poked Elixa's forehead, watching her reactions shift from social awkwardness to a combat posture, the mind implant powering up for extra speed and auto-senses.

"At least Lady Elixa has decent training. We shall see about other duties, after your Apothecaries and nurses finish the medical examination. Vindicare temple?" Decima continued with a frown.

"... Errr. Classified." Elixa answered with a wary glance towards me. Probably shouldn't blurt out her secrets, if I wanted her to keep mine.

"Pef's mother was of Vindicare. Good assassin too, Lady Justine. Killed Fulgrim in her last mission." Decima explained in a softer voice, and gave me a short kiss, before returning to her seat.

"Daddy is better though. He killed Lorgar and didn't even die." Talia commented wryly, and without any tact.

I sighed audibly and sat down to eat. This looked like one of those dinners

After the meal, kids were sent away for evening lessons with their non-combatant Adepta Sororitas teachers, those that myself or my sons have managed to seduce and bring them over from their Salvation Cardinal World.

Once the Sisters were part of our extended family, their loyalties shifted enough, so I wouldn't have to worry about getting doused in promethium for the slightest mistake.

Just like I hoped with Lady Elixa.

"Say Decima, which Forge Worlds should we trade with next? I'm thinking Gulgorahd and Iridial. We can afford to donate some adamantium and blackstone, in exchange for more Sentinels, and a million of Tarantula turrets." I proposed to my main wife, and ignoring her suspicious look towards Elixa.

Decima sipped some of her too sweet wine while pondering, running estimations on her own implant. "Just a thousand tons of blackstone, and a megatonne of adamantium. Maybe two megatonnes, if the next transport ship arrives on time." she concluded with a sour face.

In truth, we did donate the Mechanicus way too many resources, for too little gains. But good will and future trade options were even more important in my eyes. I wasn't running a corporation, to make profit.

"I see. Perhaps we should explore a little more, and discover more derelict ships. I will be quite busy for a month or two, but Victor can try his luck as well. He can take the Vitrix, I think." I mused to myself.

Our second battleship, the Macharius Vitrix was about ready to travel now, if not ready for a full fleet engagement for a few decades. But Victor could 'find' some Ork ships and tow them to Forge Retribution for re-processing the valuable metal.

Even if he did encounter trouble, he had his own tesseract, so only something truly dangerous could pose problems.

Decima nodded slowly, no doubt already conjecturing something about the proposed expedition.

The Explorer Fleet from Ryza was already scouting ahead in force, noting down inhabited planets and xeno species. Plenty of them too, because the Emperor's Great Crusade didn't reach this far, and many xeno species were left intact, unlike closer to Terra where there were hundreds of xeno species butchered into extinction.

Of course, only a few xenos had space travel, and even fewer had FTL travel. In fact only five such potential enemies were discovered so far, the Demiurg being the most advanced, if not warlike.

The Arachen had too many legs and organic ships, so they were classed into the burn-on-sight notice by the Cult Mechanicus, who saw them as abominations against the Machine God. Plus might give the Tyranids better weapons or propulsion for their bio-ships, which wouldn't be fun at all.

Another race called the Thexian were put on notice for capture and examination, because one of their ships was found containing no less than six other xeno species on board, hinting to some grander alliance, which would certainly be used against the Imperium or humanity in general.

The Tau were also classed as interesting to investigate and capture, with some advanced technologies, especially in weapons, approaching Imperial Navy standards.

The remaining Kroot were marked for destruction, for being cannibals able to evolve from their eaten preys abilities, just like the Tyranids, even after their homeworld of Pech was mysteriously burned into magma, just like their allies the Nicassar.

The Barghesi infested the Grendl Stars region with their beastly forms, and I even had some of them in my inventory, after being transformed by Dark Eldar Homunculi into Pain Engines of phenomenal danger, probably on par with Tyranid Tyrants.

In fact, I might organize a few bouts one day and see who would win in a ring fight. My bet was on the Tyranid, but you never knew where 40k might surprise you. I even heard of a Battle Sister called Praxedes killing a Tyrant with her mace.

"This Vitrix, is a Navy battleship? Perhaps the one lost during the Macharian Crusade?" my dear infocyte asked, after running some fast computations and data comparisons on her implant. See, she would be amazingly valuable!

"Perhaps I should rename it, if the origins are so easily deduced. Vigil for the Vanquished, how does it sound?" I asked Decima, and glanced at Henna as well. She used to be ship crew as well, so her opinion would matter.

Henna smiled kindly and nodded. "It does have the special resonance of a Lancefire vessel. We might soon run out of religious ceremonies, if you keep adding more and more ships to our Trader fleet."

Decima just shrugged unimpressed. "So that's why you want two new Forges in our trade routes. To mask the provenience of those extra lances. One hundred new batteries from each Forge, am I right?" my Rear Admiral inquired in a calm voice, eyes thinned into slits as her own implant ran at full power.

I was right, this was going to be one of those dinners. Time to run away then. No point arguing with my Master of Logistics, she was always right.

"Serena dear, grace my rooms with your noble presence. Lady Elixa, back to work and consider my offer." I demanded as I rose and ran away in a dignified walk. Not even looking back at the explosion.

Ludvaius smirked at me and patted my head, then gave me into the care of Brother Rafen. "Having a smart wife is such a blessing, right Captain?" the Veteran Astartes quipped at my back, and I nearly stumbled.

Damn Astartes! It wasn't that funny being laid low with a few clever words.

Then again, social games were never my forte, as many of my friends and contemporaries have remarked too often.

Luckily, I had Canis still on my side. But my brave wolf was sleeping and pawing at the air, so I let him hunt in peace.

As I came out of the shower, I found my wife Serena already waiting for me in bed, and smiling wryly. "My Lord, you need some relief from all this stress?" the pretty noble woman asked me in a cultured voice, and licked her lips suggestively.

You bet your round perky ass, I sure did!

Unlike concubines, wives were much better at marital arts, that being their job description.

Maybe one day, sweet Alena will also be ready for this job, and take over the Blank side of my operations, just like Serena dealt with nobles and Henna with the children. All of them. Over three thousand kids now, and soon that number will double with all the new Blank concubines mass-producing kids for the greater good.

My 300 Blank sons already in the Astartes training all had at least 300 kids of their own, but much fewer Blanks. At most 20 such blessed children and only Victor would have a chance to match me in time, if he kept working hard with the new generation of Blank women.

The Blank daughters couldn't possibly hope to match a man's ability to produce children, being limited to one per year in the best case, and more reasonably one every three years, as to not abuse their bodies too much.

And because cloning Blanks often produced monsters that had to be cleansed with orbital strikes, we couldn't even use their extra fertile eggs except for Blank Machine Spirits.

Best not to think too deeply about that. No sacrifice is too great and even entire planets were considered expendable. I know, because I've burned quite a few planets myself.

So, much later I woke up to find Elixa entering my room led by the hand by Decima. "Husband, I have reached an agreement with your new wife." she explained in a slightly warmer voice.

Canis woke up and yawned wide enough to devour a wife or maybe two in one gulp. "Woooo?"

"Yes Canis, we're family now." Elixa murmured shyly.

The space wolf nodded wisely and went to pour himself water.

"Any conditions I should care about?" I wondered as Decima sat down in her armchair to watch the new show, while Rafen glanced at the balcony window.

"Not for several decades, Lord Pef. But my services were not actually lent for an unlimited duration, by my employer. Even Primarchs only have so much power in the current Imperium." the Vanus Temple infocyte explained demurely as she undressed her medical gown.

I sighed inward in agreement, and I drew the bedding cover aside.

My new wife examined my muscles with amazed eyes, and gulped for some reason. What? I had demi-god genes now, and it showed.

"Close your eyes and think of Holy Terra." I quipped as Elixa climbed cautiously on top of me.

She snorted but did close her eyes. "Let's hope I didn't make the greatest mistake of my life...oh God!" Sweet Elixa exclaimed as was impaled on the holy spear of Sanguinius.

"Just like that, dear. Think harder!" I commented amused.

We thought long and hard about Terra, both of us, with Decima giving us new ideas to meditate on, every few minutes.

I think Decima was recording this deep meditation for posterity as well, just in case I got too many Sisters of Battle to follow me, and might need to project my life's exploits on a pict screen the size of a mountain.

Poor Sisters were always dreaming of martyring themselves, so why not on a holy spear?