Can't say I was really surprised when a silver-haired beauty, with rosy cheeks and newly grown deep-blue eyes joined me in bed, eager to repay me for the miracle.

Lady Kalistradi was now grumbling beside me, for giving the other Inquisitor the idea of sharing my bed.

"Just wait your turn, pretty lady. There's plenty of Pef to share!" I answered in a genial voice, and drew the woman into a deep kiss, while fondling her with grabby hands.

"... Fine! It's not like the two of us will be enough anyway." the black haired model allowed in a softer voice, struggling to regain her breath.

Indeed, I had Sister Letitia on the menu tonight as well, the glorious siege and the glowing finale having determined the elder Silent Sister to join my family and produce a hundred children to defend humanity.

Well, nothing like seeing the immensity of the task ahead, I guess. Letitia only had to gaze at the roiling ocean crashing towards her, to realize we needed many more of us to stop them.

And this Tyranid Hive Fleet was still among the smaller ones, even if divided into a hundred tendrils to reach for food in more places.

Damn bugs were sustaining themselves by foraging, which was both clever and a weakness.

Soon the last remains of Hive fleet Kraken would destroy the Necron World of Sarlok, and Trazyn will owe me another favor, for eliminating yet another rival.

But Necrons had a million Tomb Worlds or more, each of them a match for an Imperium's Forge World. The Necrons possibly had enough numbers to match the Tyranids in their stasis vaults, and plenty of advanced weapons. Plus those enslaved C'tans, each of them a match for a Segmentum Battlefleet if unleashed.

And defending Hive Worlds one by one was slightly futile in the long term, except for the immediate gains of requisitioning millions of women for my colonies, plus setting up less corrupt governments indebted to me and my House, cleaning up the underhives and upgrading the defenses to modern standards.

For wherever my fleet went, I had absolute judicial power as Commander of a Crusade, plus Inquisitors and Astartes to enforce my edicts.

It seemed amazingly stupid to me for a Hive World to have more than 100 billion people, yet muster less than a million as soldiers.

On my orders, the new Governor had to raise a billion soldiers over the next 100 years, and the local techpriests covens were also tasked with raising a billion new acolytes, enginseers and techpriests, to support the militarization. The PDF troops were given under the jurisdiction of the Adeptus Arbites during peace time, increasing their ability to patrol every corner and enforce Imperial Law by a million times.

Then I ordered the construction of a dozen underground Hives with a fortress on top, about 10 kilometers from the main Hive City, such that overlapping fields of fire could protect each of them from invaders.

It would be the work of generations, but already Avalos was twice as productive as before, and that will keep growing as more and more people got technical training as techpriests. They also had blueprints for system-corvettes and a Planetary Reality Cage to be constructed once they had sufficient numbers and materials.

A week later, we arrived at Hive World Castobel, to find only 4 Hive Cities still resisting the immense hordes surrounding the battered walls, while a fleet of starved Tyranid bioships were blockading the planet from astropath messages or Warp-engine ships.

It wasn't even hard to destroy the lethargic xenos, first clearing the orbit with Nova Cannons and heavy lances, then scouring the Tyranid hordes on the surface with our corvettes and bombers.

I wasn't about to sacrifice millions of guardsmen to liberate the devoured Hive Cities, so those infested cities were just melted into boiling slag, to be mined for metal once they stopped glowing.

Reorganizing the Hive World into a productive place took longer than cleaning up the starved Tyranid armies, even if a thousand corrupt officials, priests and nobles had to be burned publicly to restore morale.

However, Castobel had been heavily militarized already, and had many factories and manufactorums producing weapons and munitions to keep the Tyranids away, and all they needed were a few billion servitors and techpriests to increase production, both on the ground and from their future shipyards.

From here, we scoured the Jericho Reach for an entire year, often finding only devoured husks of planets, cultist worlds and a couple of verdant worlds being devoured just then, like Phonos.

Well, it is why the fleet carried so many Exterminatus torpedoes, to purge the xenos and heretic with holy fire.

Then we headed north, passing by Sternac to aid with a band of Nurgulite Chaos Marines lead by some guy naming himself Mephidast, which was much too easy after his blighted cruiser appeared deep inside the sun.

We kept going, liberating planet Obliterax from another Tyranid tendril named Hive Fleet Jormungandr.

More ships joined the Crusade when we reached Hive World Sephrax, including five Heavy Drop-Cruisers hastily prepared for me by friendly Forge Worlds.

Well, I wouldn't say no to a couple of Navy Battleships anyway, plus a dozen battlecruisers equipped with warp-less engines.

It was how things worked in the Imperium, Crusades gathering momentum with every glorious victory, or the survivors fleeing in shame and terror after getting mauled by superior forces.

From there we headed towards Gedron II, and then Sarposia, and reached Forge World Megyre just in time.

This world had been on my gift list, and they were sort of prepared, even massing thousands of system-corvettes and dozens of Ark Mechanicus cruisers, and they had orbital defenses on gigantic scale, including forts with Nova Cannons, minefields and Vortex torpedoes to shoot at the largest Hive Ships.

The arrival of my Crusade only hastened the victory, and introduced me to a new Inquisitor Lady named Zaretta_Ngiri, whose name sounded Spanish but was most likely Japanese in some distant past.

Or possibly both, who knows? She had Asian eyes and rich blonde hair, which kinda made me drool a little.

Sadly, there was little time for meet and greet and something else, or Lady Ngiri simply didn't like me. Sounds impossible, I know...but who can tell what's in a woman's mind?

It might have been the two other Inquisitors beside me, holding babies in their arms. But they looked so cute, so it can't be that. Probably it was though.

I made a note to appear single and lonely the next time I meet her, and perhaps not flirt with the psyker lady in her retinues. Probably it was in bad taste.

Still gave Zaretta a dozen expensive gifts, because I was rich enough and powerful religious relics were useless in my inventory. And maybe the advice to get herself a squad of Deathwatch marines from Aegida will come in handy one day. You never knew when you might need some troubleshooters on your side.

"So you're not always successful, Lord Pef." Lady Velayne murmured while glancing at the departing Lady Ngiri, with something of a wry voice.

I sighed inward and declined to answer. Sometimes you had to lose a battle to win the war, and I was dealing with too many unknowns.

"It will be as the Emperor wills it, my lady. Miracles can happen." I answered in a gentle voice and kissed the baby girl. Little Veria was a Blank like Velayne wanted, and when she'll grow up she will be her mother's shield.

The boy cooking in the oven was a Blank as well, and he'll be the shield for all humanity.

Whatever the Angel did to Velayne, it surely worked great if all of our children will be born Blank.

Lady Adria's boy was completely normal, if a tad too big. That boy will likely be a giant, and thus we named him Hercules. He had my blond hair and his mother's eyes, which will certainly be useful when I sent him to seduce the daughters of dozen Rogue Trader Dynasties.

And while we waited at Forge Megyre for repairs and a dozen Catachan regiments to be equipped to my standards, a certain infocyte named Calixa arrived on Andrea's battlecruiser, with news and feats worthy of a whole adventure novel.

Most of those involved trying to create an alliance with a Rogue Trader house based on the rich mining world of Newseam, and then the brutal murder of said Rogue Trader, the planetary Governor, the mining bosses known as the Oremasters, most of the miners themselves and almost half the planet. Sounds bad, but it involves a genestealer cult known as the Rusted Claw, and a crashed voidship infested with genestealers. Luckily, for the good guys I mean, Sly Marbo was there, to even the odds.

So, my dear Andrea has 'inherited' her own Warrant of Trade, by marriage and inheritance or vice-versa. Plus the ownership of a mining world rich in adamantium and other precious metals.

Sure, those nobles signing over the transfer may have been slightly broken and coerced, but then such is life in the 40k universe. Sometimes an anvil named Sly Marbo drops on you, and crushes your dreams.

As it happens, I had a Forge World right here always in need for minerals, and able to provide servitors and techpriests, in exchange for a sizeable portion of those minerals. I could bet a throne on that.