40 Thousand Reasons

The following month is mainly spent enjoying as much time as possible with my beloved family, and taking care of the recruitment drive for new regiments.

It would take at least a year for all the Catachan recruits to gather and receive training and equipment, which was also the timeline the Speranza Spirit proposed to repair my Psi-Titan and upgrade the stockpiled vehicles with new sensors and blackstone armor.

Constructing a new park of better tanks and walkers will take longer, especially as I intended to expand the Auxilia with 300 armor regiments, 100 heavy artillery and 600 heavy infantry regiments required for the Stygius Sector campaign the next decade.

Meanwhile, the Machine Forge was tasked with upgrading most of the cruisers and battlecruisers with Nova Cannons and drop pod capability, as well as converting 40 transport ships into escort carriers, both for starfighters and bombers and torpedo corvettes.

Since protecting the larger fleet carriers from Chaos had proven very difficult, even in my presence with a tesseract, I decided to focus on smaller carriers that wouldn't create so much loss when destroyed.

Plus, this would allow me to disperse my forces more efficiently and cover a larger volume, while providing fighter escort for the capital ships.

Forge World Retribution was still focused on mass-producing lighter vehicles, such as Weasel light tanks, Sentinel walkers, Guardian and Tarantula turrets plus large numbers of expendable attack drones and hunter-killer missiles.

Of course, light units also had the largest casualties ratios, but that was the reality of war. In the past century the vehicle stockpile on Retribution had reached 500 thousands Weasels and Sentinels, plus over 5 million attack drones.

I could only hope they would be sufficient, even though these lightly armored vehicles were mainly meant to fight enemy infantry forces. Our Titans, Knights and Baneblade variants were the designated units to oppose heavy enemy units like the Tyranid bio-titans or the Ork Gargants.

With massive air support from the attack drones and the light fighters, plus orbital parity with the enemy we had a good chance of victory, even without considering the cheating I would provide with my tesseract vision, tactical deployment and long range bombardment.

The armor regiments would slowly convert to the better Ragnarok templates, once sufficient tanks were manufactured, with Hydras and Chimeras providing anti-air and mechanized infantry support.

As for our artillery regiments, the latest Manticore and Basilisk platforms would also be slowly replaced with Ragnarok-chassis self-propelled artillery guns, with longer effective range and better sensors and targeting auguries.

Using the small tactical Nova shells as artillery munitions will provide a twenty fold increase in firepower, even with the number of gun barrels remained the same.

And lastly, the advanced weaponry obtained from the T'au will need to be tested and produced, at first for my Lamenters and Silent Sisters, then dedicated units from the Sisters of Battle and the better marksmen of the Catachan Auxilia.

Sure, I would have liked an instant conversion to the brand-new weapons, as well as the cool anti-gravity vehicles and powerful gravity shields, but I was also a realist. It would take probably an entire century for large numbers of advanced weapons and vehicles to be produced in sufficient numbers.

Plus, it wasn't as my Blank sons lacked Dark Age relics or potent shields. I did scour the vaults of the Mechanicus on Mars and Jupiter for thousands of forgotten relics, including power swords, heavy bolters, disintegration guns, ancient Dreadnoughts and Baneblades and even some datastacks filled with ancient technologies.

I deliberately abstained from stealing specialized units like Titans, Dune crawlers or battle-robots, since Mars would surely notice their absence, and worse, their curious presence over distant battlefields.

In hindsight, this has proven right, since Speranza was able to manufacture even Warlord-class Titans with the right minerals and authorization.

This has allowed my Deus Ex Machina legion to transfer all their battle-ready Princeps to new Titans of potent might, and left the smaller Titans like the Warhounds and Reavers available for training or minor deployments with the new pilots.

Given the approximate production cycle of about one Warlord Titan per year, in the 85 years since the Speranza had arrived at the Machine Forge the legion had reached 100 Warlord Titans and 200 smaller walkers, plus almost 500 Knights of various classes and 900 Baneblades. They weren't my upgraded versions, so it will take some work to modify them, but they did provide a giant armored force to oppose similar powerful enemies.

Also, as expected Brother Semnai had little problem defending the Gilded Stars from T'au encroachment, holding them firmly at Prefectia and gathering allies from the Fringe for our future campaign to liberate the human worlds still occupied by the T'au.

The Iron Hands and a dozen of their successor Chapters had signaled their interest in joining the new Crusade, and a dozen Ordo Xeno Inquisitors were also gathering ships and troops, plus a number of Rogue Traders and Adepta Sororitas priories seemed quite incensed to participate, for various reasons.

The Imperial Navy was already present with the Indomitus Third Fleet under Lady Cassandra, and a hundred Cadian infantry regiments from the Astra Militarum were sent by a certain Primarch to bolster the occupation forces of the Prefectia Crusade.

Yes, Primarch El'Johnson of the Dark Angels was the one to command those guardsmen into my army. Seemed quite strange, until Lady Valeyne explained how the Cadians would remain there permanently and deny my House the opportunity to extend my influence over a new galactic sector.

"Damn it. Why do I have to endure such pressure from the Lion? I don't have any beef with him, if he would just leave me alone." I grumbled as I lay down on my pillow, and my new wife rested on my shoulder.

"Perhaps your military feats are eclipsing him. Perhaps you argued with him in public. Perhaps you kicked out his envoys from your domain? Or maybe you took away the gifts you sent from the Rock? Even embarrassed him in front of the Emperor...does any of these seem possible? " Valeyne wondered a bit rhetorically.

I did do all of that, although I had good reasons for it.

"It's still petty. It's not my fault his own sons have placed him in a stasis pod then forgot about him for ten thousand years" I muttered in disgruntlement.

"See! You do not treat other Primarchs like this. The Lion has every reason to be prideful, as a demigod made from the Emperor's own flesh. His strategic genius is renowned all over the galaxy. His sons fought for humanity on a thousand worlds. He even liberated Armageddon!" the Inquisitor claimed a bit too fervent.

"Yes. But he also burned down human worlds, and was about to exterminate the Space Wolves, because their own Primarch is missing." I argued back in a harsher voice.

Valeyne sighed and patted my chest gently. "Mistakes were made. But this cycle has to stop. The next time you meet, you better solve this, Pef Lancefire." she warned me in a calming voice.

Damn it!

If the Lion was such a genius, how come half of his sons turned against him and became the Fallen?

Hopefully Ferrus Manus will not be a dick too, after I manage to resurrect him. I had too many enemies already.

With that thought, I fell asleep and dreamed of alien beasts and a green-dressed goddess drinking vials of poison. Probably my inflated imagination.

Luckily, I woke up with a more pleasant feeling, as Elixa de Mornay was taking care of my morning wood with her pretty red lips.

"Morning, Elixa!" I quipped and gently trailed my fingers through her red hair. In the room's corner, Ludvaius held his thumb up for encouragement. I winked at my bodyguard and allowed Elixa her prize.

With a pop, she rose and started riding me while pawing over my chest and abdomen with grabby hands. "There are a pair of bouncy sisters outside, Lord Pef. I had to enter through the vent to gain the first place." she disclosed in a prideful tone, while I was mesmerized by her own bouncing assets.

Finally, Serena had granted me those two sisters! And they even came equipped with extensive child rearing capabilities, providing sufficient nutrition for four hungry children at once!

Of course, I would need to test the equipment myself, for many hours. But I didn't mind that at all. It might be my duty, but I was allowed to enjoy it, right?

"And how are the Obsidian Auguries performing?" I asked in doublespeak.

"Oh, our lord and master is eager to meet the new recruits in our shady organization? Well, two of your Emperor's Daggers have passed away while undercover with a genestealer cult. But there are still ten of them that are arduous to rekindle your connection.

As for the other operatives, we have reached almost a million total membership. We are spread out over a thousand planets here in the Fringe, and have covert bases set up all over the Segmentum, on most Hive Worlds and some Civilized Worlds, as well as Cold Trade dens and smuggler heavens. By the way, we will need a trillion thrones to repay all the operating expenses. Spying is not cheap." Elixa explained vocally while the accounting details flowed over the Manifold into my Mind Impulse Unit implant.

It was a lot of money, but a century of large scale surveillance was indeed not easy. From safe houses to fake identities and advanced cogitators for hacking and data processing, to covert strike teams and stealth shuttles for insertion, the Obsidian Auguries have grown tremendously in scope, and also in costs.

The Lancefire Dynasty has supported them over the years with black books accounts and transportation on the Rogue Trader ships, but nobody expected the organization to grow so large my absence.

Still, I wasn't a poor Trader anymore, and also had the looted thrones from Shadowbrink and Vigilus and many other places I have visited. It wasn't like locked vaults and hidden treasury chambers were beyond my tesseract's reach.

"Don't worry, my dear. You did well, but we will need to expand the Auguries at least ten times over the next century. The Tyranid Hive Mind is now present in the Warp, and we will need to prepare for extra numbers of genestealers popping up everywhere. Astartes Ludvaius here will help you train and design better procedures for your operatives. And perhaps a few Ordo Xenos Inquisitors will help too, once they arrive." I replied in a wise manner, then returned my attention to her bouncing peaks and began climbing again.