40 Thousand Reasons

Chapter 182: Terra

By the next day, my fleet was heading for Terra escorted by my new allies: Rogue Traders cruisers, Adepta Sororitas cathedriums, some Adeptus Mechanicus ships, and a token force of Space Wolves.

On board the Black Lament, in an isolation chamber lined with blackstone and phase-iron lay the prize of my latest operation, Magnus the Red. He was arguably the strongest psyker in the galaxy beside the Emperor himself, and thus forty Silent Sisters kept constant watch over him, just in case.

Sadly, his Chief Librarian turned Sorcerer, namely Ahriman, had escaped yet again, most likely by displacing himself in time or space or both. Unlike his idiot Primarch, Ahriman knew his limits very well and would not stand and fight to the last breath, instead preferring to retreat and try again.

I admit I was quite annoyed with the corrupted Librarian, but things were going as planned anyway.

I already had most of the fallen Primarchs in custody, although nobody knew about the ones I kept frozen inside the tesseract labyrinth.

Fulgrim was kept by Overlord Trazyn, while Konrad_Curze was presumed dead following his assassination by the Officio Assassinorum. I had my doubts about that still being true, since things rarely stayed dead in this universe. Too many spiritual or technological methods for reversing death were available, going from cloning to soul summoning and even temporal reversal.

Alpharion and Omegon or the vice versa were still dead or missing, and nobody knew anything certain about their fate. Nobody alive and well, I mean.

But even I and my cheats had a limit, and this was it. My out of context knowledge had reached its limit, and fragments of lore I've read once were not revealing anything about the missing Primarchs.

Even so, there were powers in this universe with access to this knowledge, but all of them were beyond my reach, all except one. The big E.

Now, the Emperor was pretty much dead and getting worse on his Golden Throne by this point, and I hoped to remedy that problem somehow. A good part of my activity in the past century had been focused on acquiring the necessary parts needed to try and restore the Emperor back to life and hopefully sanity.

Janice had been sworn to secrecy on the matter of the Throne, which didn't help me at all, yet I was confident things will work out.

For I had secret weapons of my own, each of them rather powerful by themselves. And when combined, the synergy of their powers should be more than enough to restore the dead Emperor and reverse the decline of the Imperium of Man.

And if they didn't...well. I had other plans in that case, mostly involving packing my things and running away.

Two weeks later, my fleet and the escorting allies arrived at Holy Terra to encounter the largest gathering of forces and firepower available to the Imperium.

There were thousands of Navy warships and defense platforms, gigantic orbital forts and extensive minefields, plus more exotic defenses from the Mechanicus and other Adeptus Terra organizations and armed groups, including the Adeptus Custodes and Adepta Astra Telepathica, plus the Inquisition, the Grey Knights and more esoteric and hidden temples. Impressive, yet not really enough.

"How do you find the defenses of the Solar System?" Janice asked me in a proud voice, as I examined the gigantic array of defenses in the tesseract view.

"Decent enough, against someone not me." I answered truthfully and then I frowned, a bit aggravated and annoyed with the huge influx of hostile datastreams from my command chair.

I even had to fight with the Blackstone Fortress' Machine Spirit to keep it from retaliating vigorously, to constant attempts at subversion and infiltration by numerous psychic wards and datasphere firewalls.

The incipient sentience of the central cogitator had advert reactions to intrusion and security protocols, especially those that were attempting to modify its primary loyalty subroutines. For the Black Lament was foremost the Lamenters home, and only after it was an armed battlestation belonging to the Imperium of Man.

Inquisition's subversion Clavus engrams bounced off the fortress noosphere inner firewalls, while psychoactive wards and psyker tendrils originating from Titan were deflected away, but this took a big toll on the Machine Spirit. And it didn't like it one bit.

"Pef Lancefire, your unannounced visit has all the Terran security up in arms. I even hear we might not be able to stop your fleet, in case you prove hostile." a woman's voice spoke from the Vox caster, making Janice light up in joy.

"Mom! Tell them to cease the mental attacks on the Black Lament. Or Terra might need to rebuild its defenses." Janice explained with a wary look towards me and my scowl.

A minute of silence followed. "There is a large psyker signature on board the Blackstone Fortress, my dear. Some big brains here even compare it to a Primarch." my Rose replied in a cautious voice.

"Oh that...It's only Magnus. Dad has him in chains...and blind." Janice answered in a careless voice.

A long sigh was heard in response. "I'll go find Sanguinius then."

Janice smiled at me with a childish grin, even showing off a pair of dimples. "Mom is a High Lord of Terra now. For the Inquisition."

I blinked once to show I've heard her, and continued examining the myriad treasures of Terra. Unexpectedly, there were a dozen areas covered with dimensional shielding, on Terra, Mars and Titan plus a couple of strange objects of alien origin orbiting the Sun.

Terra itself was beyond overpopulated, a humongous dirty ecumenopolis numbering over a quadrillion people and thousands of Chaos cults, genestealers, Eldar cabals and various other potential enemies, from hundreds Navis Nobilitae quarters filled with mutants and deformed psykers to Mechanicus bases, labs and forges of immense size.

The Imperial Fists' station, the Phalanx kept station at Jupiter, and a dozen other Astartes Chapters were keeping their fleets in a defensive posture in that orbit.

Luckily, I knew both Rose and Sanguinius well enough to locate them among the maze of overlapped buildings, tunnels, hallways and bunkers which filled the surface of Holy Terra.

"Lord Sanguinius, my Pef has arrived with Magnus in tow. And I suspect it's not everything he has brought us." I heard Rose explain to a busy Primarch who kept signing papers like a robot. Ruling the Imperium was tiring on the wrist for sure, even for a Primarch.

Beside him, Roboute glanced at his brother for confirmation. "Is it possible?"

The Angel glanced upwards and sighed. "Your Pef, Lady Rosalia? I would think he's my Pef first."

The Inquisitor nodded politely. "Of course, Lord Regent. Anyway, he won't wait too long at the perimeter's limit. Nor can our defenses stop him, if he keeps advancing."

Sanguinius signed one last scroll and glanced up again. "Park the fleet at Jupiter, Lord Lancefire. It's not like you actually need ships." he spoke looking straight towards me.

Yeah, he would know I was able to see him, even from my distant location at the edge of the system. And he was also right. I didn't need really ships, once inside a star system. I could move myself onto any planet I wanted, or move everyone elsewhere.

Or at least those who weren't covered in dimensional shields.

So I took a step and arrived in front of the Regent and the Lord Commander and waved politely at a couple of Adeptus Custodes and Blood Angels who kept guard over the leaders of the Imperium.

"Hey guys! I brought gifts." I explained with a genial grin.

Rose walked towards me and examined me for a long minute. "You've grown stronger." she decided after the exam was over.

Indeed, I felt nearly nothing from her psyker probe, although in the past she could always touch my mind a little.

"This place is a mess." I answered instead, my eyes encompassing the entire room.

"Try to behave yourself, Pef. I heard you visited Fenris?" Sanguinius asked while raising from his gilded chair and walking next to me. I was much too small for this universe, as the Primarch towered five heads over me.

I offered my hand for shake, just as a tall techpriest with a big Power Axe entered the golden room like he belonged.

"Yes, Fenris. Between four Primarchs, some Greater Demons and the Grey Knights, there wasn't much to salvage from the system. I think one moon survived intact." I commented while watching the techpriest approach at a relaxed pace.

A minute later, the tall cyborg arrived beside us and towered over me as well.

"I am Archmagos Belisarius Cowl. And you must be Pef Lancefire. I heard much about you." the techpriest declared in a mechanical voice.

Roboute Guilliman walked in front of me as well, staring down on me like I was being judged. "And I, remember your voice now. The one who healed and woke me from stasis. I thought you'd be taller." the Ultramarines' Primarch muttered in a gentle voice.

"I'm still growing!" I proclaimed in an embarrassed voice.

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