"Trade is war; war is trade. Either way, the House of Ma'Kao profits."

—Lady Sun Lee

Sun Lee sat on her light cruiser's bridge, the Nihontu while considering the news she had just received from her informants on Scintilla.

"What do you say, Void-master Shin? There is opportunity in war." the woman asked with a frown. All Rogue Traders had to be brave, and bold and most of all lucky.

Perhaps not as lucky as the fabled Pef Lancefire, the Rogue Trader in the distant Fringe with his own Astartes Chapter, but they do needed luck to survive and prosper. And House Ma'Kao had a hundred thousand people depending on her to prosper.

"There are rumours of Demon Princes, Captain. Names like Corruptis and Lil'een'dow have reached my ear, and I had to silence those fools before they spread the rumours even further. The Inquisition will surely be involved...and we don't want them to visit us again." the man argued with a shiver.

Chaos again! Why couldn't it be Orks or Eldar? At least you could sell the loot for fortunes.

Either way, standing aside was not profitable, in riches or reputation.

"We make for Forge World Telios V then. I think I figured out how Lancefire does it, aiding Forge Worlds for free ships. Do we have enough voidsmen to capture a cruiser?" Sun Lee asked a bit hopeful.

Her Master-at-Arms shook his head over the holotable. "A very small cruiser, perhaps. Best if we try for a frigate. And only if we use that toxic gas...which we promised to have destroyed." the man muttered in disgust, and scratched his bionic arm.

The gas would kill everyone on board, that was true. And lose her half of the clean-up crew, as the gas would eat through void suits and flesh with equal hunger.

Maybe not then. "If only we had teleporters." she whispered in defeat.

"I'll prepare the boarding boats and double the melta charges, Captain. We can send servitors with plaststeel shields first, and then our voidsmen and our House guards. Expected casualties are only at 48 percent for a pirate frigate and 27 percent for a destroyer." her Master-at-Arms provided after consulting the savant implant.

Sun Lee glanced at their resident techpriest, a runaway renegade, but very useful anyway. "Archmagos Omnifax, any chance for another miracle weapon?"

The guy was obviously not even a Magos, but she would use whatever name he gave without complaints.

"I do, Captain. There are a dozen directional mines being prepared in the manufactorum. Place them against a solid shield, and the hallways in front will be filled with shrapnel and bouncing balls of steel. The servitors might not survive the recoil though."

the heretek techpriest explained while holding a tentacle out and projecting a red hologram with his new weapon.

"And for this?" she asked in a tired voice.

"A dozen test subjects, and 50 thousand thrones. Surely the costs will be recovered swiftly once you conquer and sell a pirate vessel, right Captain?"

Sun Lee examined the proposed weapon with a frown. It was simple and effective though. Perhaps...

"We will need one hundred of these 'Claymore directional mines' Archmagos Omnifax. A ship has many hallways, correct?" she asked in a stern tone. Not that it mattered with the Mechanicus.

"... Then you will provide me a ton of agricultural fertilizer and 100 thousand thrones. Plus the steel. I promised not to chop away at the ship's walls, anymore." the techpriest demanded and waved two tentacles for some obscure reason.

Sun Lee nodded. "Agreed. Now start working on these weapons, and make sure they don't explode prematurely, again!"

"I'll go and select the test subjects from the lower decks, Captain. And please give the Navigator his dose, he is clawing at the armored door already." Void-master Shin muttered and walked away to gather voidsmen for the perilous descent into the lower decks.

Sun_Lee sighed, and checked the snuff box. Only three doses were left, and after that...she will need a new Navigator, as the chances of finding a Stryxis caravan were astronomical, more so when heading into a war zone.

Betting everything on their next conquest was not something she liked, but there weren't other choices. The Navigator was already a mess of tentacles and claws, and only the snuff drug kept him stable enough for another Warp jump.

"We really need a cruiser with warp-less drives..." her Master-at-Arms mused thoughtfully.

"Like that Battlecruiser with the psyker Inquisitor? Right. Perhaps we should even take the offer from that blonde assassin." Sun Lee said in a dismissive voice.

"An alliance wouldn't be so bad, Captain. And you need a husband anyway..." the man murmured softly.

"Get out! I make my own luck!" Sun Lee yelled and smashed the holotable for emphasis. Not too hard though, as the bloody thing was really expensive.

Sure, a seat at the High Table on Terra for Rogue Traders was attractive, but it wasn't worth losing her freedom. Plus...that Catachan Major scared her. Just looking at him made her want to smack his face, with a hammer most likely. Those dead eyes, and grim smile. Like burning into your soul, and seeing every secret.

Soon enough, the Nihontu was prepared and jumped into the Warp, while the Navigator stopped screaming for a time. Three weeks at most.

The three Cobra destroyers flanked the cruiser, although the third one will need a refit at the Forge World and possibly a new fusion generatorium, as this one was leaking badly and irradiating the crew.

It never got the chance, as the nexus point was blockaded by a gigantic fort made black matter, surrounded by a thousand ships of every kind.

"Emergency turn, dive and engage plasma engines to full!" she ordered as the third Cobra split in two and blew up in a cataclysmic explosion, that luckily caught 20 boarding shuttles and a dozen Chaos starfighters in the radius.

The gunners started firing, plasma cannons and lance batteries striking a couple of bombers and clearing a path for the Forge World.

They were still trapped, but surely the Fabricator will allow repairs in exchange for aid.

"Captain, the Navigator is...purging quarters now!" her Void-master yelled and pointed at the holoscreen, where the pict-camera in the Navigator quarters caught the last moment before the creature bloomed into a flesh tree made of skulls and fangs.

A thin spray of phase-iron dust hit the creature and made it retreat, while the explosive bolts blew out the armor panels and ejected the demon into space.

"Focus fire on the skull tree." Sun Lee commanded, trying to ignore the strangeness of the order.

A dozen cruiser-sized weapons hit the creature until it burst into purple fire and vanished.

"We're going to need a new Navigator..." She murmured in dismay. It didn't matter if the whole bridge crew heard it, did it?

"And a new Navigator deck..." the vox officer added smartly.

Perhaps washing that deck a dozen times will teach the moron some respect. When combat was over, of course.

"Sensors, any pursuit?" she asked anxiously.

"No, Captain. These guys seem content to simply pillage whatever ships jump in. And the big thing is a Blackstone Fortress, Captain." the auspex girl said in a polite tone.

There was a good officer in the making there. One day, the girl might become a Captain, if they lived that long.

They were almost half-way to the Forge, when a new fleet jumped right beside them, bypassing the blockade.

Sun Lee checked the identifying sigils three times. Bloody Pef Lancefire!

"Captain Sun Lee, be so kind and turn off all active auspex and vox comms. It would be a shame if such a pretty lady gets butchered by teleporting traitors." a voice spoke in her head, seeming amused for some reason.

She gritted her teeth and did as ordered. The man phrased it mildly, but there was real danger too.

"Archmagos Omnifax, could the traitors ride back our auspex signals and teleport right here?" she asked the resident techpriest.

The cyborg froze for a minute, possibly thinking very hard. "It sounds possible, if they have powerful cogitators or pyskers..."

"And would a Chaos fleet with a thousand ships have all that?" Sun Lee asked ironically.

"I'll start working on restricting all active emissions, Captain. Visibility will decrease significantly..." the techpriest explained and began chanting at his Mechanicus console, then spraying oil and scented incense.

"Helm, turn us around. We'll cover Lord Lancefire while he battles..." she began saying when the sky exploded into thousands of gigantic explosions centered on that Black Fortress.

A minute later, when the armored windows lost the black tint, barely a hundred burning wrecks remained, while Lancefire corvettes sped ahead to push the wrecks into the sun.

"Nova Cannons are great, eh? And you need a new Navigator, Lady Sun Lee..." the smug voice of Pef Lancefire sounded from the vox caster.

She slumped in her command chair, trying to make sense of what she saw.

Sure, those Chaos guys were kinda clumped up around the jump nexus, and the Fortress was a target nobody could miss, but even so...it would take unbelievable luck to hit every shot. A thousand enemies, gone just like that!

"He's so cool! I wonder if we can visit his ship." the auspex girl murmured in a mesmerized voice.

Sun Lee sighed and closed her eyes in defeat. Some people had all the luck.