40 Thousand Reasons

Chapter 108: Flail

All those flesh mutations that Astartes had to endure? Wings, claws, fangs and snake eyes?

It was a dozen times worse with the Ogryns, because the poor things were already mutated and weak to the Warp.

Just like the Dark Eldar obtained creatures like the Wrack and the Grotesque from their genetic manipulations, so did my own experiments with Ogryn flesh. All I could do was take their lives with my chronoblade, and attempt to store their souls in a Prism-like Soul-Trap.

I failed to do that either, because I'm not a Dark Eldar Archon like Valossian_Sythrac, the former owner of this artifact.

Well, in time I would learn all their secrets, unless I died somehow. Even then, there would be methods to revive myself, from discarding the failed timeline to blood sacrifice or cloning my body and restoring a backup mind from storage.

If Fabius Bile could clone Horus or Ferrus Manus and even the other Fulgrim, then I could do it too. I just had to learn as much or more than the poor traitor without limbs.

Perhaps I could even use that same knowledge as a start, by downloading his memories?

Something to think about, and decide later. I still had time til the Ruinous Powers would manage to gather enough forces for another Black Crusade, and I could hamper their efforts even more, by burning Demon Worlds or Fallen Knight Planets or Hell Forges.

My xeno artifacts vanished in my dimensional pocket, as Magos Eleven entered the Ogryn Ward to examine the specimens.

A burst of data engrams flashed as his auto-senses measured the room and the dead Ogryn corpses. "Another failure, another day." he might have said, if the techno-lingua translation was correct. Probably not.

I held out my hand and a Drukhari Hexrifle appeared. This weapon fired some kind of vitrification virus called the Glass_Plague, turning anyone into glass, and giving them a True Death. In my other hand I had a canister containing the counter-virus, which would certainly be needed when these mad scientists experimented with the xeno virus. "I want this weapon examined and duplicated into a Mechanicus format, then tested on Orks. You will join Juggler and his team at their Fungal Research Outpost in the Oblivion system. Make sure to duplicate the counter-agent first, before you play with the doomsday weapon."

I had a young Sister named Ordela_Grendoth assigned to that remote and classified star system to protect the Biologis researchers against demons and Warp intrusions. Her powers as a Pariah were already the greatest among all my followers, such that even the Catachan concubines living in more distant villas of Blanktown were disturbed by her presence. Ordela could continue her studies and training under Juggler's guidance, and probably become a version of Pariah tech-priest, just like my dear Juggler wanted to try.

"It will be done, Revelator. A weapon that might extinguish the Ork threat would be truly valuable, and would spare humanity trillions of lives. Plus, it should secure this Lancefire domain against Ork Waaghs and help clear out infested planets of their fungal spores. So, the Ogryn project is ended?" the Biologis Magos asked in another data burst. I think I got everything right.

"We will return to it, but once I manage to produce Blank Ogryns. Have your Fabricator secure a thousand young females for that task. Prettiest and smartest Ogryn girls, and I shall close my eyes and do my duty, in bed." I uttered in a slight shudder.

It would be much worse than my trials with Catachans and even the pampered noble daughters, which were in some ways more difficult to deal with than an angry Ogryn. Pampered little minxes, with barbed words and constant plots for social ascendance.

Luckily, I only had about 100 of these cute darlings, so I only had to spend three weeks per year in their company, till they were sent back home with their bellies filled with another heir.

My wife Serena had dominion over the noble concubines, somehow keeping them from each other throats, at least until each House had a few Blanks to continue the leadership without fear of Chaos corruption.

In time the allied houses will all become part of my Dynasty, by blood. That would take a century or so, and perhaps some accidents happening to the more reluctant elders.

Anyway, it was time to return down on the surface, check up on Victor and his progress on tesseract temporal experiments, and then deal with the new problem: the pretty infocyte Elixa.

Perhaps she could continue her job, setting up a SIGINT center in the main Hive City and absorb all available data. From census and tax reports, to cult activity and detecting other infiltrators, an infocyte would be worth as much as a battlecruiser.

And if she agreed to train a company of agents to a similar skill, her value would grow to a whole fleet of cruisers.

Soon enough, I emerged from the teleport room at the top of the Governor's spire, and shook hands with the Blood Angel guarding my son. "How is he?" I asked in a paternal worry.

"Well enough, I say. Those 50 Blank women you have brought him are all with child, as you know already. Perhaps bring him more? He keeps staring at the cogitator screen, not unlike his weird father." the Veteran Astartes joked and patted my pauldron.

I did have Victor look over my STC templates for a second opinion, especially on the simplest machines, to find other uses or gain inspiration for a new weapon.

So I entered his personal quarters, to find it slightly eaten by his two wolves, pillows and bedding shredded by playful animals, while Victor was lost in reverie in front of the cogitator holoscreen.

"Romulus and Remus, bad dogs! Get out in the garden now." I grumbled at pointed at the balcony door, leading to a suspended garden with lawns and trees. Nobles did have nice perks, even in 40k.

Both wolves mewled, caught in the crime and acting like sheepish children. Then Romulus ran to press the green button for the door while Remus rushed outside howling for freedom.

The howl woke Victor up, and he turned to see me and his Astartes watch him in amusement.

"What! I never wanted a wolf, let alone two of them! Look what they did to my place..." my boy complained like a kid. He was obviously my kid, so I didn't comment. Plus Victor was right, wolves were not made for indoors.

"Wait on the balcony, Astartes. Play with the wolves if you want." I told the bodyguard while I sat on the plasteel block beside my son's armchair.

A minute later, Victor brought up the newest invention of his, an alteration of one of the many vehicles I had remembered and roughly drawn out for his perusal.

"This mine-clearing tank from Old Terra, we could use the concept for melee battles, instead of chainswords. Also, for important gates defenses, only the drums spinning to butcher armored attackers with Power Flails. Vehicles wouldn't have this kind of energy, except those powered by atomantic reactors, but for fixed positions with their own power generators it should work. Maybe even for defending starship corridors, right?" Victor proposed and brought up a few concept designs, based on Weasels, Chimeras and Macharius tank chassis.

I nodded at his great idea, and then tried to expand on it. Except in confined spaces like a gate barbican or a tight mountain pass, drum flails would naturally be avoided and attacked from the sides.

But any vehicle had an engine, and that engine could spin a drive shaft horizontally for traction or vertically for lift, like old helicopters did.

I linked my implant to the cogitator and rapidly brought out an old helicopter. "A ground vehicle with a spinning horizontal flail, would create a deadly area around it, in 360 degrees, preventing flankers from attacking from the side and rear. Might also be useful in jungles and other clearing duties. Try it on the Sentinels waist and Weasels' turret ring first, and see if striking height can be adjusted. I don't want dedicated machines, I want an upgrade to those we already have. Perhaps for emplaced Tarantula sentry guns as well."

Victor shook his sleepy head and loaded a lascannon Sentinel template and began to work. "Anything of note for the temporal chambers in the tesseract?" I asked softly.

"I can grow algae, if I provide light sources and air, plus basins of water and nutrients. Only tried at twice speed of normal timeflow, and it's already getting out of control. Couldn't even germinate plant seeds." Victor muttered while most of his focus was on the waist ring of the Sentinel, trying to create an outer ring rotating independently. Nothing high tech, but still a lot of hard work.

I copied his initial design, to offer to my Forge as a broken STC pattern found by one of my ships while exploring the outer Fringe.

We didn't find STCs there, only alien species and more Orks and Tyranids splinters. Soon enough Erwynn's_World would come under attack from such a splinter, and I planned to interfere. There was an Astartes Chapter based there, which would be a shame to let perish. The Dragon_Lords were here beyond the Imperium border on the same mission as my Lamenters, trying to defend humanity from the deadliest xenos prowling at the edge of the galaxy.

Just for that, I would save them and support them. There were billions of stars in the Fringe, and not enough ships and troops to patrol it. Not yet.