With fuel and supplies running low, I decided it was time to return from our hunt, just as the second year of the war came about.

In my fleet's wake there were 20 burned out Ork planets, plus 2 Chaos fleets pulverized by Macross-style torpedo volleys, and their wrecks pushed into suns.

Almost 1000 vessels captured, half of them transports of smaller size and mining barges, a few factory ships and nearly 400 warships including the Overlord battlecruiser and 5 Grand Cruisers, then 83 Ork ships including one ironclad battleship and a dozen Kroozers.

Only half of what I had hoped to achieve with my campaign, but the local pirates wouldn't simply stay put where I first located them from Sotha, and allow me to capture them, instead hiding into deeper parts of the Maelstrom.

Even worse, various Astartes forces started shadowing my fleet, Salamanders and Scorpions and even Star Phantoms and Fire Hawks.

I did keep a smoke screen of 200 smaller ships around, and kept buying fuel and torpedoes by the thousand, so this might have raised alarm bells, especially with so much traitor activity going around.

Someone must have tipped-off the pirates too, because too often we arrived to find pirate ports and holdouts deserted.

My fleet was fast, but astropath messages were faster.

Even worse, the Astral Claws had still not been completely vanquished, their Master of the Forge and many of his techmarines along with some escorts and one cruiser managed to avoid my fleet and all pursuit from all the hunting forces, which was eerie and not a good sign.

On board the capital vessels we had captured were 117 Atmospheric Incendiary torpedoes and 4 cyclonic ones, plus a dozen vortex torpedoes and even 3 biological Exterminatus virus warheads.

The captured Battle Barge at Badab had 6 more virus warheads, which the Biologis Magi from Forge Ryza were allowed to retrieve. Better not make a scandal out of that, as I had my own samples now, hidden in a pocket dimension.

Luckily, due to the presence of my Blood Angels nobody could claim my starfort and the barge, although it was certain many Navy and Astartes Captains would have wanted to.

So we returned to Badab, and began the tedious task of dealing with tithes and splitting of loot, and then recovering my occupation troops. This time Badab wasn't completely burned down, only half of it, perhaps due to my Catachans and their armored forces moving fast to capture key factories and a couple Hive cities.

The loyal Astartes were out for blood though, and assaulted Hive Dominar and the Palace of Thorns fortress-monastery with overwhelming force, leaving only burning buildings and shattered bodies. In their defense, the Astral auxiliaries and their Aspirants fought to the last, using advanced weapons like conversion beamers and plasma cannons, which caused many casualties towards Astartes Chapters such as Carcharodons or the Exorcists.

A hundred times fewer loses than without my involvement, which probably ruined some well-crafted plans among the Great Enemy or the conflict stirring Inquisitors, or both.

From Badab, we simply tractored the Ramilies starfort with the Icarus to the nearby Forge Angstrom, a low level Forge, but enough for my needs.

The Astral Claws' Battle Barge made the jump by itself, having received emergency repairs from the Ryza tech-priests and my own tentacled engineers.

Can I say I was received with warmth and friendliness? Nope.

The Fabricator of Angstrom was exiled here from Forge Ryza for a reason, and it wasn't for his polite manners. I had to deploy my corvettes and parade them around, just to get an audience.

His spire was the most advanced piece of technology I have seen, from holofields and forcefields and auspex scanner of a dozen types, and really advanced skitarii weapons and armor. And that was only what I could see as a visitor. They had no Titans and Knight forges here, but made the best power armor available. No wonder the guy was so proud and independent. Everyone else needed him.

But then, I unloaded on him a hundred STC templates, and he switched gears, just like that.

"Rogue Trader Lancefire, you leave me at a loss, for words and actions too. This wealth of knowledge is priceless, and my Forge doesn't have anything that could repay you." the Fabricator said with a concerned voice and examined my space wolf again.

I was pretty sure nobody else had a real wolf from the Space Wolves themselves.

"Correct, but also not. You are in contact with the Lamenters, even providing them with power armor, weapons and gunships. It's them I want to save, before they join the traitor side in the Badab War. I can also fix their curse, like am I doing right now for the Blood Angels." I explained in a level voice, and patted my loyal Canis.

"I will not get involved in that stupid intra-Astartes conflict!" the Fabricator boomed in displeasure, his vox casters screeching with binary code.

I just sighed and opened my null box. "You will join Fabricator, and you know it too. Perhaps not yet, but it is inevitable. But I don't need military forces, since I am withdrawing my ships back into the Fringe. I need an Astartes Chapter, and the Lamenters need a home and relief from their gene curse. Also, relief from the bad luck which plagues them since their founding." I said gently as my Rosette blared with security codes and over-rides.

The Fabricator glanced inside my chest box and waved a few tentacles in annoyance. "Another Inquisitor in disguise? No wonder you get away with everything, Lord Lancefire! Okay, I will place an astropath call to the Lamenters. Nothing else?"

With a wide grin, I tapped the next dataslate. "Here is a warp-less drive template, just like Forge Ryza has. Same stuff that powers the Icarus fleet carrier. Also the strongest ship reactor in the Imperium. I need someone to work on this, miniaturize it for battlecruiser size. Someone with access to rare minerals from the Maelstrom Zone, and advanced knowledge of plasma technology. It will need angstrom-scale quality control, but this is the name of your Forge World, correct?"

The old tech-priest scanned the dataslate a dozen times, mechadendrites trembling in excitement. "It is possible after all. A Macharius-pattern space drive, found by the Saint himself?"

"A dozen Forge Worlds already have the ancient drive template, Fabricator. From my knowledge, an entire Crusade fleet was trapped in a Space Hulk, and then released somehow, with many ships having these templates hidden in the engine rooms. Also had those Macharius-pattern heavy tanks and the Armed Sentinels. Out in the Fringe, I have found a Macharius Vitrix battleship that Forge Retribution now works to restore." I explained with a patient smile.

Everything I said was true, from a certain point of view.

"Even so...this isn't a minor favor or even a great Favor. Do you need exclusive rights for the smaller drive, if we manage to miniaturize it? Your Trader Dynasty will become the richest in the Galaxy. Heavy cruisers and battlecruisers are a hundred times more numerous than battleships or fleet carriers. Everyone will have to buy it from you." the Magos suggested as an alternative payment.

"That could work. Let's say a contract for a 50 years exclusive production rights, you produce and sell them in my House's name. Firstly for the Inquisition Black ships, and then new Navy battlecruisers or Astartes Barges. But after that, the pressure for more warp-less drives will become too great, and we will have to release it to all Mechanicus Forges. I bet you don't want a Mars enforcement fleet coming here." I mused out loud.

The Fabricator was a very smart man. "Inquisition first, huh? That would block most demands right from the start. I don't know what kind of alloys will be needed to produce the same energy in a smaller volume. What about that Starfort?"

"It will be the base for my Fringe Astartes Chapter, like I told you. With a warp-less drive it will even be mobile...if very slow." I answered with a pleasant smile.

The Magos sighed audibly and opened a trade screen on his cogitator.

"See anything here that might interest you, Lord Lancefire?" he offered in a smaller voice.

I checked the screen with knowing eyes. "A hundred anti-grav gunships and a thousand Armored Sentinels. Perhaps a hundred Omega-pattern Macharius tanks, when you have time to build them."

"Please, Lord Pef. My Forge may be small but we're not poor. May I suggest 200 Fury Interceptors for your carrier and a dozen Baneblade tanks?" he offered in a pained voice.

I shook my head. "At most 100 Furies, Magos. They are too big and expensive to maintain. No fuel and ammo for regular Baneblades, not in the Eastern Fringe. Gift them to some Guard regiments on Armageddon, they sure need extra power." I proposed instead, knowing that firepower will make a huge difference and save millions of Guardsmen.

"What are those auspex-blocking plates on your Blood Angels armor?" he asked instead, pointing at a screen with my angelic bodyguards getting spied on by many tech-priests and servo-skulls.

"... That is what is called blackstone in the Fringe. Ten times more durable than ceramite, and even blocks most Warp phenomena like Sorcerer spells and curses. Forge Triplex Phall mines it by the megatonne from a mining planet called Mandragora. Ryza also uses it for Astartes armor now, probably after they saw how fast my Blood Angels captured that starfort and the traitor's barge" I said while tapping my own blackstone armor plates. Made sense to protect myself too, even if I was Blank.

"Very useful then...and any Astartes without this 'blackstone' armor will find themselves at disadvantage. Is that how you are suppressing the curse of your bodyguards?" he asked in a more interested tone.

"Partially. The rest is their Chapter secret and I won't go into it." I replied curtly, before faking a surprise thought. "Hmmm. I just had an idea. A thousand specialist tech-priests to train the Lamenters new techmarines, so they can maintain their equipment in the Fringe. Pretty much only Orks and Tyranids around, and scarce supplies. They would need to be self-sufficient."

"You're getting close to my final line with this. What if the Lamenters do not come?' he wondered curiously.

I smiled sweetly. "You did mention the curse, right? They will come, Fabricator. They will come running." My voice sounded convinced, although I had mere hope. The Lamenters were prone to Warp accidents, and might come very slowly.

"Woof!" Canis exclaimed in agreement.

I was getting more convinced every day that my wolf understood words just fine.