Ch: 40 Jovian Metal Eaters

While Justinian's fleet returned to Phobos, Sigismund floated in front of Jupiter in the void of space. His helmet was in his right hand at the moment exposing his cold face. However, that didn't last long as his face was split into a bloody grin. 

He placed his dark helmet on before releasing his Burning Martian form causing the insides of his Power Armor to flood with purple flames. Since the armor was soul-bonded thanks to Justinian doing this for each of his Honor Guars, the armor was strengthened under the fire. He reached for his waist and drew out the Black Sword which began to crackle with a Matter Disruption Field-infused Psymagic Energy. 

There was also something else in the blade, much like the Emperor, Justinian infused a shard of his power into it. Now, this sword was a lethal artifact even gods would covet. 

Once he had his sword in hand, he focused on the display inside his armor that scanned the planet and the many moons. Jupiter had four major moons that could be called Moons, while the rest were irregular asteroids or similar space objects. 

The Jovians, creatures of living metal, dominated these Moons. They gained power by eating other metals and gaining their properties. Justinian didn't know much more than that as they were from the Pre-Crisis series of Comics. 

From the Golden Age of Comics which was something he had not read much on. The art style was unappealing for him, but he had least known that much. As for the Jovians they lived spread out much like ants across the many moons. 

They had no concept of a ruler instead they just simply would eat the metals of the Moons to gain strength. If they got lucky, each other which made for a rather primitive if savage culture. 

With that in mind, Sigismund flew through the void toward Calisto which was one of the more rocky compared to the other main moons. As a result, it housed the largest population of the Jovians who had limited space fairing abillities. 

The Saturnians avoided the Moons of Jupiter because the Jovians had tried to eat their ships for the metal. When he arrived at the Moon, he released an aura of fear on the entire Moon causing it to shake violently. 

It pressed on the minds of the Jovians who began to surface from the rocky underground. They rose in the millions causing the surface to be covered in their metallic bodies. When they rose, at the front of them was one of the oldest of their Kind. Among the Jovians, they called him Great One for his long life and how much rare metal he had eaten. 

When the Great One laid eyes on Sigismund, his instincts began to scream in hunger, a deep primordial hunger as he looked at the Black Sword in Sigismund's hands. Even the armor itself was calling to every Jovian to eat. 

Sigismund could tell what was going through the minds of these metal creatures and he was not pleased. 

"You dare covet what my Emperor and Master have bestowed on me? I shall give you this one chance, kneel before him, Emperor Justinian Arcadius Valoris Valdor, rightful Emperor of this Solar System and Galaxy." 

The 'Great One' as his people called him looked at the Black Sword of Sigismund once more before he made his choice. 

"EAT!" 

He rushed toward Sigismund like a mindless creature followed by a swarm of his kind. Whoever ate even a tiny shard of that sword and armor would become the most powerful, and they would not let this chance go. 

Seeing this made Sigismund grit his teeth. He extended his Psymagical strength through the void to reach Justinian. 

'My Emperor, these Jovians are insects. They have no survival instincts in the face of a superior foe. They are led by their base desires.' 

Justinian nodded while sitting on his Command Throne in The Invincible Reason. 

'Wipe them out, to the last.' 

'At once.' 

With the link cut, Sigismund bellowed a roar that shook Calisto before he flew into the mass of Jovians. As he did, billowing waves of purple Psymagic Flames burst in every direction. One reason Justinian had chosen Burning Martians as his Honor Guard was for their broken abillities. 

Fernus, Martian Manhunter's Alter Ego once beat the entire Justice League including Wally West. He was not sure if his Burning Martians were that fast, but Sigismund was not just the best swordsman among them, he was also relentless. 

Many times faster than light, Sigismund appeared in front of the Great One who was still looking up to where Sigismund 'was'. He didn't even notice when the item he so wished to devour sliced him from head to crotch. 

Sigismund began to move through the entire swarm slicing through them like tofu. In less than a second, Sigismund was at the end of the swarm of Jovians. His face was blank as if what he had just done was merely a light stroll. 

He placed his sword in its sheath causing the millions of Jovians' minds to start to catch up to them. Starting with the Great One, they began to fall apart and cut apart into chunks. 

Sigismund using his telekinesis, picked up the remains before he flew off toward Mars. Sigismund would not let these corpses go to waste as their material could be good research for his Emperor.

---

As for Justinian, his fleet began to dock at Phobos where a large Fleetdeck was being constructed. Much like the Mars of 40k, Justinian would turn Mars into the best Forge World in the Galaxy, only he would not destroy the entire environment to do it. 

He rose from his Command Throne as he could sense that Sigismund was doing good work. With his busted abilities as a Burning Martian with Kryptonian DNA and all the magical and Biomantic enhancements they were the best Elite Guards. 

"He has finished his work." 

As Justinian began to walk out to disembark, his Honor Guard began to follow behind him. Remnosh who was walking at his side turned to him.

"What was the deal with the Jovians again?"

Lauralina explained this to her. 

"Think for a second, if those creatures were so mindless that they thought they could take on Sigismund, one of us, they were not worth bringing into the fold. What if we were taking them in a ship like the Invincible Reason, The Conqueror, or Vengeful Spirit and they get peckish?

What if they start trying to eat the ship?" 

Remnosh rolled her eyes. 

"I know that I am asking why are they so stupid."

Helbrecht who was the second-best swordsman around them turned to her. 

"They are beasts controlled by their desires. Something Sigismund could see from them so he destroyed them before they could be an issue. Right, my Emperor?" 

Justinian nodded. 

"Correct. Of course, they are not extinct as there are more on the other Moons, but in much smaller numbers. I will have them rounded up to be experimental material. I want to see what would happen if we fed them magical metals and then melted them down." 

Perturabo began to chuckle bringing attention to himself. 

"Now that sounds fun." 

One after the other the rest of Justinian's Honor Guard began to laugh as they got off the ship. Justinian didn't have to wait very long before Sigismund joined their group. With him, he had plenty of metal from these Jovians. 

He placed them in a pile at Phobos before he bowed. 

"I have brought back their corpses, my Emperor." 

"Excellent work. I see you have made good use of that sword. Keep living up to the name of Sigismund, of the Black Templars." 

Remnosh suddenly got curious as Justinian made it clear he named them all after people he 'knew' in 40k. 

"So why haven't you renamed me? Who did you model me after? I know you made me and my brother look alike." 

She pointed to the back where her brother, one of the ones she didn't hate who Justinian named Corvus Corax. 

"To answer your first question, I just like your name. In actuality, Corvus Corax, who he was named after had no sisters. Only brothers, since you were siblings, I made you look alike." 

That answered some questions, but with that answered they continued walking. As she stayed still, her brother elbowed her in a brotherly fashion. He was the youngest of her siblings and the one she could safely say she liked. 

As for the rest, they were given over to Lauraline who trained them to be Inquisitors. Speaking of Inquisitors, her agents on Earth were doing a mighty fine job finding people planning to commit heresy and betrayal. 

Regardless, Justinian sent all the material of the Jovians into his lab. He would test it there and find if there was any use in the species. As for himself, he teleported himself and his Honor Guard back to his Throne Room. 

---

The following few days became hectic, as Justinian now had a free claim to Jupiter and Saturn. As he had said, he sent a diplomat to meet with Z'krymmek the King of the Saturnians. The diplomat in question was Roboute Guilliman followed by Dorn and Perturabo. 

The three Burning Martians had a very skewed contract of compliance written by the King of the Saturnians. Z'krymmek would have to give up his claim of being royalty and in exchange, he could be the Planetary Governor of Saturn. 

However, he would need to send one or more of his heirs to be held hostage on Mars. Onto the other agreements, the Imperial Tithe would begin meaning that Z'krymmek would need to send a quota of materials from his civilization including people. 

For his agreement, he would receive technology, and if he proved himself magical enhancements to himself and those of his choosing. Of course, this would come with more agreements that would prevent betrayal, but Z'krymmek signed the magically binding agreement regardless. 

When it came to Z'krymmek's heir, he had a pair of twins, a boy and a girl. Both were taken by Dorn, but Z'krymmek was promised that as long as he paid the Tithe, he would be fine. 

As for Jupiter, since it was an uninhabited world at the moment, Justinian left it alone. He had some ideas on how he could colonize it since unlike 40k, the 21st century lacked humans. 

He would need to bring more clones, but rather than mass-produced clones, he would need a diverse selection to make a proper breeding population to seed life onto lifeless planets. 

To do this, he ordered his agents on Earth to begin collecting blood samples from the humans on Earth. He needed a wide diversity from a big selection of different ethnicities. They were sent to the cloning Facilities where they could begin creating new clones for colonization. 

They were lightly modified to live twice as long as regular humans, and are much more hardy. Their reproduction abillities were enhanced a bit so they could have more kids in less time. 

Rather than 9 months, 5 months was enough to produce offspring. He had not seen what would happen if clones had children so he wanted that tested before relying on Clones for colonization. So far, his army of Slade Clones was stable, but since they were all men they were not having kids. 

That was going to be a very interesting subject to research, but he would leave that for someone else. In the meantime, he, Albion, and Ddraig continued their training as they were very interested in advancing to the next level. 

What that was, they didn't know, but Justinian suspected it would involve the God Space. If possible, he would go to the Fairy Lands where magic reigned supreme. The only thing was that the Fae had different rules like eating things and technology not working. 

Justinian was worried if his Power Armor would work, but it should since it was magic and technology. Unless the technology would turn off leaving just the magic side of things. 

It could be dangerous, but a place of pure magic was perfect for someone like Justinian and his Draconian Friends. It was placed into the back of his mind as he had to focus on Earth. 

On Earth, something of interest was happening as Diana had gone to Justinian's Embassy in DC. Outside, the same two Space Marines Ves and Strakker who he had saved from Klarion had been permitted to have a child together. 

Since White Martians have fast gestation, their child was already born and growing healthy on Mars. The two giant White Marine Space Marines were standing in their full Power Armor with their giant Psymagic Spears. 

They stood still like statues, but they began to move when they saw Wonder Woman land in front of them. They grabbed their spears and pointed them at her. The lenses in their helmets began to glow bright red as they prepared to release their Heat Vison.

"This is The Imperial Embassy, entrance is not allowed." 

Diana didn't seem to care what Ves said. 

"I need to see Justinian, take me to him." 

Strakker gripped his spear tighter angry at the disrespect. The Martians at this point thanks to Lauraline viewed Justinian as a god. To hear her say his name so bluntly pissed them off. 

"You will address him as Emperor or not at all." 

Diana was going to keep speaking, but on Mars Justinian sitting on his crystal throne nodded. Through the vast distance, he psychically linked to Ves and Strakker. 

'Let her through, she is a friend.' 

Ves and Strakker touched their heads as they felt their Emperor's voice. They bowed to the air as they accepted his will. 

'By your will, my Emperor.' 

Ves and Strakker stopped their heat vision and they stood at attention. Ves nodded. 

"The Emperor is allowing you to see him. Follow us." 

"Thank you." 

Diana followed both Space Marines Martians inside the Embassy to take her to the teleportation gate inside. This meant she was not going to be on Earth which opened Themyscira for attack by Ddraig and Albion. While Diana was taken to meet with him, Ddraig and Albion created powerful Avatars before teleporting to Earth. 

They would get Justinian the Mother Box one way or another and this was the perfect way. 

(P-atreon.com/A_Real_Werewolf234)