40 Thousand Reasons

Chapter 48: Enslaver

As soon as the vortex missile hit the Chaos mass conveyor, its reactor exploded and split the immense troop transport in two, opening up a warp rift much too wide for such a small warhead.

Damn Warp shenanigans.

I ordered the escorts to fire on the rift, while my lance batteries scoured the unprotected hulk and its furiously screaming cargo.

Chaos Titans, Baneblades, Chaos Knights, Land Raiders, entire Chaos marines Companies, millions of traitor guardsmen, cultists and thousands of corrupted types of Mechanicus automata.

It was a shooting gallery, with row after row of carefully placed miniatures of every deck. And that ship had a thousand decks.

My lance batteries had battlecruiser strength, like all the Overlord-class battlecruisers, but it still took hours to vaporize all the contents of that ship, while my escorts struggled to close the rift and defend the Canticle from emerging demons.

Meanwhile, I had the small Gellar generators from the Stormbirds removed and placed in key locations to protect vital areas from those demons that survived the escort fire.

Nearly everyone on board had to fight or at least support someone shooting at the boarding demons, my Ogryns and the Armed Sentinel walkers providing the bulk of the melee defense, and the Catachans, the servitors and the tech-priests forming the second line of defense.

Majoris had gone to fix the main Gellar generator, with more high-ranking Mechanicus priests and a spare astropath. The poor guy did not return, and I wouldn't even ask what the Tech-priests did with his flesh and soul. Still, an improvised Gellar field sprang back over the Canticle an hour later, so it was worth it.

The crew and regiment losses grew once more, and my heart broke, because my void marine concubines had been killed defending the nursery, alongside many of the Catachan concubines who were superb warriors as well.

The Blank aura of my concubines and the few Blank babies helped them resist long enough for a Catachan battalion to arrive with flame throwers and melta guns, saving the kids and more than half of my harem.

Someone or something must have been quite irate with me, to target my kids, born or unborn.

A dozen times Canis alerted the defenders to the presence of a sneakier demon, crawling through a vent or phasing through a wall.

When Majoris returned to the bridge, I had a solution already. Not all the phase-iron had been used to create phased ammunition.

"Majoris, I have a hundred kilograms of phase-iron in the vault, could you turn that into a metal mesh and glue it to the ship's walls?"

The Magos blinked and stared into the void, considering my request. "I could, Lord Pef. But I don't have the tools or the time for such a finesse and consuming enterprise. Slicing off a centimeter for a bolter round is very different from spooling micron thin wires for a mesh. Perhaps a rough job, millimeter thin wires and repurposing the flak armor knitting device, with a thousand hours of holy litanies and data sequencing."

"Okay, this is not urgent, as there is a Gellar field over us right now. But as you saw, combat damage is unpredictable, and I want to be prepared for the next time." I answered him, then concentrated back on the damned Warp rift, with all the Canticle's batteries.

Just before the rift closed, one of the damaged destroyers turned and accelerated away without notice. "Escorts, immobilize and board the defector!" I ordered at once.

"...Stay away...countdown...for the Emperor!" a crackling voice emerged from the vox box on the bridge, then the infested destroyer started powering up its Warp engine.

"Open fire, all batteries!" I yelled and urged the Canticle to track mutineer and fire.

The outward rift opened and a thousand white tendrils emerged from it, capturing the doomed warship and withstanding our lance batteries for too long, drawing the destroyer into the Warp.

I've heard of such creatures, called Enslavers. Denizens of the Immaterium, they followed conflict and preyed on injured vessels, just like now.

Possibly another nice gift left by the Old Ones, just like the Orks and other exotic races crafted to fight the C'tan and the Necrons.

A salvo of plasma rounds from the corvettes ignited the Enslaver while my lances closed the rift, shearing the giant creature in half. Then the destroyer's reactor detonated, and the huge plasma and shrapnel fireball scorched the Enslaver to the bone, leaving only a dozen meter-long and quite thin bones floating listless. I wasn't sure how it could work, but it seemed in realspace the creature was much smaller than inside the Warp. Its bones would be very valuable though.

"Flight bridge, prepare a shuttle for me." I spoke on the dedicated vox channel, and glanced at Ludvaius.

"I can go collect those Enslaver bones for you, Captain." he uttered with a frown.

"I know you could, Astartes. But I am immune to the Warp...and you're not. Perhaps that phase-iron mesh could be inserted inside your armor or under your skin, one day." I mused in a thoughtful voice.

Majoris glanced from me to my bodyguard and back. "Let's not get ahead that far, my lords. We don't even have a simple mesh, let alone an organic compatible bio-upgrade. Though it would be quite thin and durable, even at micron size. Astartes biology is also very different and it might reject such an implant...or interfere with the Black Carapace."

Right, not something we could do hastily aboard a damaged ship anyway.

Using a disposable pilot servitor, I flew out and collected the bones with my power armor serving as space suit, finding them too heavy and resisting movement with my right hand, but easy to wave around with my blessed left hand.

Were they bending gravity somehow? My left hand was only three times stronger, not a hundred times. More weird Warp magic.

After we docked back on the Canticle, I tested the bone's effectiveness on the pilot, and found out the Enslaver bone worked quite similar to a Power Weapon, crushing the cyborg as easily as crumbling a newspaper. With that, the risk of a Warp infiltration into the exposed pilot was also eliminated.

So I went to have a chat with the resident psyker on my ship, the Navigator. He kept me waiting a minute, then emerged dressed in red and black robes, ornated with glowing runes, and wearing a necklace with the Imperial Aquila on it, only the eagle's eyes were glowing gold.

I've seen other Navigators, but this guy seemed very rich. Maybe richer than me. I didn't have holy relics to wear around.

"Lord Hulburn, excellent job with the Warp emergence. We caught the traitors with their pants down" I began, praising his skill from the start.

The man muttered something and avoided looking at me. "Not my doing, Captain. The Warp currents shifted a second before we emerged. Like an invisible hand pushed the fleet into the right place and time."

So it had been a turn of fate, like I suspected. "Anyways, good job frying the pests that assailed your quarters. Now, what can you tell me about this Enslaver bone?" I asked, holding the bone for inspection.

"Leave it in mid-air, Captain and step aside. Your aura is distorting my readings." he demanded.

I did as asked, and the bone remained floating parallel to the deck. The Navigator opened his third eye and gazed at the bone, taking care not to look at me.

"A young Empyrean, not yet a million years old. Stupid too, by the looks of it. Hunting alone, without a pack. The bone can be used for weapons or maybe a mind shield, if you find a tech-priest with the right knowledge, or maybe a bonesinger Eldar. There is one in the system already, aboard that cruiser shadowing us." Lord Hulburn explained in patient voice.

This guy must be really skilled, to discern so many things with only a minute-long reading. Then again, battlecruisers were rare and expensive. Made sense Ryza hired a good Navigator for the Canticle.

"I see. And what happened on that destroyer, can you tell me?" I wondered with a smaller voice.

"The Empyrean was hunting and found a silly Navigator without proper mental defenses. The rest is rather tedious, gruesome and terrible to divulge. But you have handled the crisis well, Captain. I wish you good fortune when you engage the siege fleet at Shenlong." the Navigator muttered in a slightly less upset voice, and entered his shielded quarters again.

"Wait...is it safe to carry around?" I muttered in a dejected voice.

"Go away Captain. Your luck makes me sick to the stomach." came a shout from inside the shielded rooms.

Alright then. Probably safe on my person, but would need a specialist to convert it into a proper artifact.

And the damned Eldar were keeping an eye on Forge Shenlong, waiting for something to happen. Something other than my unexpected arrival. Someone else would be coming.

Knowing my luck, it could be a Navy fleet, another Inquisitor or an entire Space Marine Chapter.

So I grabbed the floating bone then I returned to the shuttle hangar and collected all the bones under my left arm, and deposited them in my adamantium armored vault, for another day.

Then a feeling alerted me. Almost like...

"Come out Ludvaius." I said gently, and my bodyguard emerged from a hidden corner.

"Good. You're learning, Lord Pef." he exclaimed with a slight snort. It wasn't just that. I knew he would be near.

Either my brain jumped a few scales and reached Inquisitor levels, or the blood connected us more than it seemed.

"I felt you, my friend. We are close to that empathic amplifier here." I mused to myself, and headed towards the torpedo room to check the damage and repair progress.

"You too?" he answered in surprise.

"Is it the same with other Blood Angels?" I asked curious.

"A little bit, yes. Nothing this tangible, not even with the Chapter Master or the Librarians." he admitted with a frown.

"But the feeling is stronger when there are more you present?" I asked just before reaching the torpedo room door, and got my identity checked again.

"Right! Just like that...the entire second Company would feel similar. How did you know?" he asked in surprise.

I just shook my head. I didn't know, but I suspected. Well, now I knew, after Ludvaius confirmed his own experience. The Blood Angels were coming to Shenlong.

It made sense, as Forge Worlds did depend on rapid Astartes deployments for defense. Same thing happened with Antax, Estaban and Ryza.

Inside the torpedo room, there were no more wounded or corpses, as the Mechanicus made use of organic tissues for every machinery. Servitors and Machine Spirits, the victims would keep serving the Omnissiah, even in death.

Probably for the best, considering what the afterlife was, around here.

The Eldar used a similiar approach, with their Infinity Circuits, becase having your soul enter the Warp would mean eternal torture or worse.

"Captain! We will be fully loaded and prepared to fire in an hour! Excuse the mess and the blood spatter." A jovial enginseer exclaimed as he spotted me inspecting the damaged walls and conveyor belts.

I nodded and patted his shoulder. "You're in charge here. But, no more bicycle rumors." I whispered in fake secrecy.

The man grinned and wiped his greasy hands on a dirty towel. "I heard you killed a traitor Primarch, Captain?" he asked a bit too loud and patted my own armored shoulder.

I shrugged. "His demon wings didn't help. I just shot Lorgar a few times and he exploded. The flesh is weak."

The tech-priests around began chanting praises to Omnissiah and showerd me with santified oil.

"Hah! You hear that, crew! The flesh is weak...hahaha. Now back to work and stop gawking at the Captain! We have more traitors to kill!" the man yelled then pointed at his stuppefied engineers and gun crew.

They all rushed back to work, so this guy will work well enough as Torpedo Master.

Ludvaius chuckled and escorted me outside. "I admit, I was skeptical when you became my charge, Lord Pef. But I feel you'll be doing fine. Not that many Primarchs might survive once you grow up a bit."

I grit my teeth. "I'm not a puppy! Canis is the puppy." I muttered in defeat and accepted another head pat.